September Acres

Just like every other month, October was a blur.  With my 31 Days of Home Organization series I really blogged about nothing else. But, believe me, there was a lot going on.  In no particular order: We celebrated my husband's birthday. We decorated for Halloween. We carved pumpkins. We went to our town's pumpkin festival (sadly, it was very disappointing but it was the first year so hopefully next year will be better.  And maybe it won't be 90 degrees out.) LM trick or treated with her friend's family while my husband & I were at a trade show. We made snickerdoodles (yum!) We went to Disneyland for fall break. I have decided that we go there too much since I have been to Sephora twice this year, both times at Downtown Disney.  And my husband & I have the Mouse Wait app on our phones. LM went on a weekend girl scout camp trip.  We watched 4 debates. (Don't forget to vote today!) I went to the dentist and got my hair cut - things I feel...

LM celebrated her 10th birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I am not quite sure where 10 years has gone.  She wanted a 'Smurfs' party and a bouncy house (they are all the rage here, are they like that where you live?).    I ordered her invitations from EK Web Designs on Etsy.  We chose design #3 and had them customized.  I was sent a proof and then a PDF file which I had printed at the Walm*rt photo center. So easy and they turned out adorable! Party City was showing these blue hanging pom poms with their Smurf items and I loved them.  They are actually still up! Here's a view of the party table which I kept inside and had a snack/drink table set up outside by the bouncy house. The Smurf cake was a hit and quite tasty.  LM asked for Red Velvet which you can now buy a box mix for  & that's what she asked for instead of me making it from scratch.  Works for me.  I think we got the Duncan Hines mix and it turned out fabulo...

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...

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 ...

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 ...