Dare to Share #13

The week has flown by once again.   While the schedule is much slower, we were still pretty busy.   We had three appointments on the schedule and lots of recital activities.  On Tuesday, we went to the recital banquet.   This year Kara earned her 8 year trophy.  She has danced for 9 of her almost 11 years, but the trophy is for the number of recitals she has been in.  Her older sister used to be in dance as well, so this year is our 11th recital in a row!

Then last night after rehearsal, we witnessed a gorgeous double rainbow right over our house.  Kara had a blast dancing under the rainbow.   Now we just have the recital, and then we can really spend time planning our Woodland Forest party that will be 1 month from yesterday.  

Now that I have shared an update on what we have been doing,  I would love for you to share what you have been doing.

Do you have any posts you would love to share?  A  new recipe you tried?  A craft you made?  You can share pretty much anything.

There is no limit to the number of posts you can share.

The only thing that I ask is you become a follower of my blog and post your button somewhere on your blog.


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Its now time to link up  and HAVE FUN!!

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I Hope You Dance!

Today was our recital rehearsal.  When we got home, we saw a gorgeous double rainbow over our house.  It was the perfect time to take some photos of Kara in her costume with the rainbow in the background.

She has a belt that she wears with her costume, but she already took it off for the night. 

I love this photo!  She can run again without pain!!!!!

You can faintly see the double rainbow in this picture.

Rainbows make little girls act very silly!

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Firecracker Pops

Tonight my girls and I made firecracker pops from rice krispie treats, candy melts and lots of sprinkles.

To keep the stick from slipping, we dipped it in the chocolate before inserting into the treat.

Here my daughter is covering the treat with the candy melts.

We laid them on wax paper and decorated with various sugars, sprinkles, and sparkle gels

I recently found these StarMallows which I thought would be perfect for the spark on top of the firecracker. I suppose you cold cover them in yellow coating or sugar to look more like a spark, but we used them as is. I added them to the top of the pop with a toothpick.

I realized that I didnt have a really cool way to display the pops, so Kara decorated some styrofoam cups.

These easy treats will be a lot of fun for your 4th of July parties.  My girls had a great time decorating them.  

I am sharing my firecracker pops on these wonderful linky parties HERE.  

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Family Day

Today we had a family day.    My dad has a birthday a few days before Fathers Day, and my husband's birthday is today.    He celebrated with extended family over the weekend, but since today is the actual day we had a family lunch. I had some really great coupons, and had free meals to Fridays. Olgas, and Bob Evans. I also had a free appetizer coupon to Chilis.  Since we had not been to Chilis in awhile, we decided to go there.  I had my cell phone on me, but forgot to take any pictures during our meal.. OOOPS! He didnt want anything fancy, and  is not a fan of sugary cupcakes.. GASP!  That explains this random picture of the giant cranes who walk around my neighborhood that I took his evening instead of a family picture.

 I also took this random picture of our hamster Sonic in hamster jail.  While at the pet store, Kara bought this mini travel cage for him for 75% off.  She brought him down, so he could watch T.V.  She was also thrilled that she was able to hold a hedgehog at the pet store.  Even though Sonic looks like he is trying to escape, he really did seem to like it.

 Tomorrow we have two doctors appointments and a recital banquet.  This will be Kara's 8th recital.  It would have been my oldest daughter's 11th if she had stuck with it. She decided to stop dancing lessons a couple of years ago.  I think I this means I will need to come up with some recital ideas this week.

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The Fruit Lovers Muffin

 

Our bananas are starting to turn brown, so you know what that means... its time for another banana bread recipe.
                                        

My family loves my banana bread.  I have featured it several times on the blog.  Here is my blueberry banana bread that I made last summer after blueberry picking.   I have also made banana chocolate chip muffins, banana strawberry muffins.

This week Meijer  had several types of fruit on sale.  I bought blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and cherries.  I also bought a few peaches earlier in the week at Kroger. (though those are gone now)   I wondered how a banana muffin would tasted with several types of fruit.I used the basic banana bread recipe that I use as the base for all my other recipes.    In addition to the banana,  I added 3 handfuls of blueberries and several large strawberries.   I debated on adding some of the cherries or raspberries, but thought it might  have too much fruit if I added those too.

 I decided that three types of fruit was enough to try  for this batch.   Every muffin had a lot of fruit as I spooned them into the cupcake pan.

Fresh out of  the oven.  They turned out the perfect shade of brown.

These will be perfect for Sunday breakfast, but I had to try one while it was warm.
The muffin I tried was exploding with fruit inside.  I added a little bit of light butter, and thought it was delicious!   You will definitely get your fruit servings in for the day with these muffins.

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Girls Day Out

We started the day with a trip to Staples.  There were several printers I was interested in that were on sale. Every time  I found out that I thought about buying, it was out of stock.  I guess that happens on the last day of the sale.  A second salesman came up to use while we were in the printer row to see how things were going after we had just found out that my 2nd or 3rd choice was out of stock.   I told him that almost all of the printers in my price range were sold out.  He asked the other salesman if I had seen the Epson Stylus yet.  I had not.  It turns out to be the same one he has at home, and in my price range.  I liked the size, and the fact that it  is wireless.  This is a step up! We had been using a low end HP that you have to plug into your computer  It was $30 of, and the very last one.   My daughter was  thankful we finally found one, since starting to lose patience with how long it was taking. She is one of those just grab it and go type of shoppers. (total opposite of me.. hee hee)    So far, I really like it. An added bonus was the $5 off $25 coupon I received at checkout that I will use to buy more ink.  

The next stop, the hair salon.  She wouldn't let me take a before picture of her, but here is one of me.  My side bangs had totally grown out, and were starting to annoy me.

I am loving how cute it turned out.   I have side bangs again, and she blew out my hair. I only have it done when I have my haircut. I don't have the time or patience to do it at home.   Since my hair has natural wave, she curled it with the brush instead of attempting to blow it straight.  It is a little wind blown because I didnt take this picture until a couple hours later.

We decided not to go to the mall today, since it is was getting late. Neither one of use were in the clothes shopping mood.   We will probably go in a month or so.   Instead we had dinner at Red Robin.  I ordered the California Chicken Burger. YUM!  I can never eat the entire thing, and brought home half to eat tomorrow for lunch.

 She did allow me to take a picture of her at dinner with her cute new haircut.  I am looking forward to the next girls day out.  

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Dare to Share #12

This week flew by.  Online school ended on Wednesday.  Yesterday and today it was time to catch up on errands, by shopping for Father's Day gifts and groceries.  I am also on the hunt for a reasonably priced printer because I think mine bit the dust this week.  I HAVE to have a printer for all the coupons that I print.
I plan on treating my daughter to an afternoon at the mall after receiving her final grades yesterday.  She totally deserves it!

Now are you ready to party?  

I don't have a lot of rules for Dare to Share.  Post anything thing you would like to share.  There are no limits, post as many as you would like.

The only thing that I ask is that you become a follower and post my button somewhere on your blog.



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Now link up and have FUN!

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Save Some Money and Save a Life

I was recently contacted by Campus Book Rentals, who shared with me about their company and their involvement in Operation Smile.  I was pretty impressed with BOTH organizations, so I happily agreed to write a post for them.

I know school has just ended for most of our children  Before we know it though, it will back to school and college.

Instead of buying expensive college textbooks from the campus bookstores, there is another option... renting your textbooks.    There are many reasons why  you should rent from Campus Book Rentals , instead of buying books each semester.

• renting will save 40-90% off bookstore prices 
• there are no shipping costs
• you can still highlight and take notes in the rental  books 
• very flexible rental periods for courses of all lengths
• 30 day risk free return policy 
• live customer support 

Campus Book Rentals  was started by a college student, who wanted to find a better way to get his textbooks.  Since the company started, they  have rented out over 1 million books to over 55 campuses.  

You can see an example of of their great rental prices here.  A Statistics book with a list price of $174, can be rented from Campus Book Rentals for only $27.31 for the entire semester!  That is a 84% savings! You also  do not have to worry about storing a book that you will most likely never use again.

With every rental of a book from Campus Book Rentals, a donation is made to Operation Smile.  Operation Smile is a fantastic organization that helps out children worldwide with life saving surgery on their cleft lips and palates.  They have been in operation since 1982, and many dedicated volunteers give their time to change thousands of childrens' lives. So why not save some money, and also save a life.

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I'm Back!!!

I know that I haven't really gone anywhere, but these last few weeks have just been too busy to spend much time on my blog.

There are times as a mom, when you really do need to put the needs of your children first..


                                                               

Yesterday was the last day of the 2nd semester for oldest daughter. This year she did a mixture of public school and online school.  I am so grateful she was able to do this program.  She is one of those kids that doesn't thrive in the regular school enviroment, so having this option was a Godsend.   She had to have all of her assignments done by midnight last night.   She was cutting it close, with the last one submitted around 11 p.m.    This morning, we got her final grades.  She earned 1 A and 3 Bs!!! I am so excited and proud of her, and it makes all the time I spent homeschooling worth it.

Kara had her  final check up with the Orthopedist on Monday.   Unfortunately Monday is one of the busiest days in the office, and we had to wait over an hour to be called back, and then another 20 minutes in the room.  We did, however, get great news.  She is looking great, and released from his care.  She no longer needs physical therapy.  He said she might still be a little sore for the next few weeks, but should be 100% by her birthday.  She said she feels pretty good now, and did dance class this week without her boot. (good thing too, her recital is in 9 days!!)

I feel the garage sale last weekend  was a success.  We only opened on Thursday and Friday.  I did not have any big items to put out  this year.  I made $100 just  putting out smaller  items that were already in storage boxes.   I could have potentially made a lot more had I had more  time to really get ready, but this year that was not to be.  I spent just a few hours preparing, so I am very happy with the results.   My mom is visiting this summer, and will help me start preparing much earlier for next year.




Today  is our first real day of  summer vacation for everyone.  We can now do FUN things and blog about them again.   What are we going to do first?!  We have a party to plan, a recital to dance in, Father's Day, 4th of July, and so much more..  Kyle will be creating more recipes with Cooking with Kyle,  Kara has more crafts to make.  I too have so many ideas and projects. It's time again to Party On!!

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Dare to Share #10 Features

We have had a busy weekend with the last few days on Kristina's online classes.  Only 3 more days.  She just has to take 2 finals, do one project and write two final papers. One of the papers is a research paper on Gandhi,  and the other is how she would write chapter 4 of Fahrenheit 451. After she was completely done with the book, we decided to watch the movie.  Let's just say, that the movie was um.. interesting.  Not at all like the book.

Since we are now done for the day, it's time for the features from Dare to Share #10



I loved these watermelon pops from Phaedra's Adventures.  How cute are the "chocolate" watermelon seeds inside the pops.  My kids really want me to try these at our house.



Need a last minute homemade Father's Day idea.  I really like these photo coasters from Meremade.   It's a great idea to use your favorite photos and turn them in a gift for your dad or grandpa.




How about a yummy homemade chocolate graham cracker recipe from Heather's French Press.  These would be so good with almost any sweet treat.  She likes to eat them with peanut butter which sound very good to me right now.



Kara the craft diva's pick of the week is Sewing Miles of Smiles and the Jake doll she made for her granddaughter.  For some unknown reason, my kids love Adventure Time.  Me, not so much.  LOL!  As soon as she saw this doll she said she had to have one.

Thank you to everyone who posted on Dare to Share.   I love all the great recipes and projects, I really wish I could chose them all.

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Dare to Share #11

We did it! We survived the last week. Here Kara is off to the bus stop for the last time this school year, carrying the gifts for her teachers and bus driver. She was also wearing make up she snuck on at the last minute.. Eek!  She wanted to look nice for her last day. It was subtle enough, and I was tired enough that I let it be.    (it was only a little mascara and colored lip gloss)     

Kyle's reaction to the last day surprised me.  He has been counting down for weeks. He was super excited to be done when I dropped him off this morning.  On the way home, he said he just realized school was OVER.  He realized that he would not see his friends all summer, and was going to miss seeing them.  What?!  I wasn't expecting that out of him.  I told him we could call his friends and make sure they got together. He was in a down mood for the rest of the day.  We will see what the first real day off will bring.  

Now on to last day of school PARTY!  ( a day late since I was just too tired last night to post it)

I don't have a lot of rules

Post anything that you would like to share..  like a favorite recipe, or a craft you made.  Got a practical tip, we would love to see that too.  

You can link as many posts as you would like.


The only thing I do ask if that you follow me and post your button somewhere on your blog.


<center><a href="http://pamspartyplanning.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src=" http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/Kristisma3/button2.png " style="border: none;"/></a></center> I will be sharing features on the blog, Pinterest and Facebook Now link up and have FUN!!

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The End is Near..

the end of my crazy, insane, hectic week that is..

Today was the first day of the sub sale.  I did not have as much stuff out as I would like, but considering how busy I have been the last few weeks, I am lucky I had anything at all.  We were almost non stop with people until about 2 p.m.   We were so busy, I forgot to take any pictures.      I did score an excellent deal at my neighbors sale around the corner.  Their sale was MASSIVE!  They were so many cars, you could barely drive down the street.  I scored these wonderful extra large flower pots for only $5 each.  I am always looking for nice large containers, but I don't always want to pay the high price.  I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet, but I am sure I will think of something.

I had to leave my friend in charge of the sale a few times to pick up kids.  My high school student only had one exam today.   This morning, I had to get all 3 kids in 3 different places in 30 minutes time.  I was exhausted by 8 a.m, but they all got where they needed to be on time.  LOL!  I was thankful that I don't have to do that every day since my high school student normally did not have to be at school that early.  She was finished with her exam by 9:20 a.m. She is now done with 3 of her classes and has just a few more to finish up online.    I got another call a little after 2.  Kara had field day at her school  today.  She had been given the okay from the physical therapist to participate in some of the events, but she would have to sit out when they were running or kicking events.  After a few hours it got to be too much for her, so her teacher allowed her to come home early.  We then had our LAST physical therapy appointment at 4.  YEA!  She has really improved in therapy,  and now  only has one small bruise on her foot.   We have one more visit to the Orthopedist on Monday, but it looks like she will be released after a 6 week recovery.

Since I have barely had a second to spare these last few weeks, we are just putting the teacher gifts together tonight. Tomorrow morning they have a half day, and then they are out  for the summer.   Better late, than never right?!

We made a thank you for being so sweet bag for her bus driver.  When Kara was on crutches, she really looked after Kara every single day on the bus. She saved the front seat for her and would drop her off in front of our house instead of way down the street.    She really likes this bus driver, and I hope we have her again next year.

For her teachers we made a fun little goody bag full of colorful and useful things.  They will be getting a tote bag, clip board, note pads, blank cards, fun fruit erasers and flower pens.

Kyles para and special ed teacher will be getting Panera gift cards if I can ever get him to write his thank you note.   Kyle is in regular classes for most of the day, but would have a much harder time getting to through the day without their help.  I felt they really should have a meal on us, after all they have been through with Kyle.  I did get the nicest phone call the other day.  I was told he had done a wonderful job on a group presentation. He was full participating and seemed happy to do so.  His teacher said it was a goosebump moment, and he is very proud of how for Kyle has come this year.

Since it is still a school night, I guess we better get to bed soon. I am so exhausted, I think I might fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow!!!

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