September Acres

It's been a while since I have participated in Life as Mom's Frugal Friday so I am linking up today. Since we just threw a birthday party for LM I thought I would pass on some of my money saving ideas. Hopefully they will be useful to someone some day. My first money saving tip is to have a party at home . You will save a TON of money if you don't have to plunk down money on renting space. The kids don't care how big your house or yard is. They care about cake. Which leads me to money saving tip number 2. Make the cake . Bakery cakes are outrageous. Good but outrageous. If you aren't much of a baker you can still make a pretty darn good boxed cake with store bought frosting. If the birthday child is old enough, have them help with the baking. Boxed mixes are often on sale for less that $1 per box and there are always coupons available. Stock up when they are on sale. Premade frosting comes in tons of flavors and there's always a brand on sale. Most mixes show fu...

After much prodding from my cousin & a friend of my sister's I decided to check out Facebook. It was fun at first, getting friend requests and asking others to 'friend me'. Seeing faces from the past that I had long ago forgotten. Finding out that my high school friends are alive and well. Seeing what their spouses and kids look like. Then the novelty wore off. Rather quickly for me. Frankly, I don't care that 'it's raining cats and dogs today' or 'I have piles of laundry to do'. I don't get 'farmville' or want to see your horoscope. I know some people love this. No offense to them. It's just not my thing. I had a friend once ask me if I was on Facebook. I said yes and she asked why I hadn't asked to be her 'friend'. My response? 'Why? I see you everyday!' That was the end of that. She has not asked me to be her friend either. I hear all kinds of things on the news about how people lose their jobs over Facebook...

LM had her birthday party this past Saturday. Five girls and Five boys. They decorated cupcakes, played a few games and played outside. And ate. Alot . We got these cute 'sweets' bags @ Michaels ($1 each)so they could take home all their goodies. The plan was to put the cupcake boxes in the bags but they didn't fit. More room for candy, I guess. The girls got the pink trimmed bags and the boys got blue. I made these water bottle labels from typing paper. I printed ' LM's cupcake shoppe' on them, cut them 8" X 2", stamped them with a cupcake stamp and put them on the bottles with glue dots. You can buy labels but I figure they would end up in the trash and I'd rather spend the money on other things. The first little boy that took a bottle of water promptly walked over to the trash can and ripped off his label! I told him he had no idea how long it took to make those labels. :) The birthday cupcakes. The picks are a cupcake punch I ...

I was reading this weekend that Pantone has named 'honeysuckle' the 2011 color of the year. Let's just call it pink and say yahoo! I love pink. Most shades really but honeysuckle is especially yummy. So I've been thinking what I can use this color for in my house. More specifically, what can I paint? If I ever (when I ever) get my office cleaned up I might be able to use honeysuckle in there. Maybe an accent wall or a couple of shelves? It's my scrapbook room too so the hubby shouldn't protest too much. I am not sure if I could get away with it in any other room. Guess I should get to cleaning....

I have been watching The Talk since it started and love that hour each day. It's like hanging out with your friends and chatting for an hour. Lots of mom talk. All the hosts are moms - some have toddlers & preschoolers (Julie & Sara), some have school aged kids (Holly & Leah) and some have grown kids (Sharon) so there are lots of stories and tons of advice. It's very relevant to moms out there. The other day they were talking about having kids. More precisely, having more kids. They all went around the table and chatted about that - Leah loudly and proudly announced 'one and done for us'. You all know that we have one child. When Leah said that I thought, 'I wish I could say as proudly and happily as she just did'. I struggle with the fact that like it or not (I don't) it's one and done for us too. There are many factors that went into that decision. Some of them include: fertility issues, age (mine), the fact that my husband is one...

Well, it's time for LM's birthday again (she'll be 9). And the party planning. This year she wanted to do something with cupcakes. We ordered the baking bash party supplies from Birthday express this year. As it turns out she doesn't really want to bake during the party, just decorate. Cupcakes. She is going through a cupcake phase now. I'll bake ahead and let the kids decorate their hearts out. She invited 5 boys so I'll see how the decorating goes over with them. So I am in the process of getting decorating supplies for the cupcakes. I am sure they'll be happy with lots of sprinkles and colored icing but I want to add a few more things just for fun. And I want to do a candy bar. I have wanted to do one for a long time but have never had the occasion. I think this is it. The parents will surely ban their kids from ever coming over once I get them all hyped up on sugar. But won't the candy bar look neat?? I plan on taking lots of pictures and sharing ...

Yes, I am still here. Just busy doing lots of things. School started on Monday so we're back into our routine. And of course, the drama that is attached to all that is school. PTA drama mostly. Well, kind of. In a nutshell, the PTA president has been getting lots of questions from parents regarding our school's PE program. It's pretty lame to say the least but the big issue is the fact that the kids are not taking PE outside but inside in the cafe-gym-atorium ( multi-use room that is the cafeteria, gym and auditorium). Remember, we live in Arizona where people come from all over the country to enjoy our winter weather. Normal winter weather here is sunny in the 60's and 70's. Very nice. Great weather for outside play. So the parents want the kids outside. The principal has allegedly spoken to the PE teacher twice and nothing has changed and she claims she cannot make her take the kids out as long as they are being taught the skills relevant to their grade level. So ...