Birthday Party at the Cupcake Shoppe

We attended a birthday party at the cupcake shoppe I blogged about a few weeks ago. First they decorated little boxes, and then some mini cupcakes. They got to squeeze the frosting on and then they had about 12 different sprinkles to choose from. Very cute but the room was so narrow it was hard to help my little princesses. Afterwards we went down the street to a bakery we have been meaning to try. My husband insisted on getting me an eclair and it was heavenly!!

Precious Girls Club

Princess A keeps asking me to read the book, A Little Bit of Faith, over and over. She then informs me in a very serious voice "I believe in angels. Do you believe in angels Mommy?" I always answer "Yes." After reading the book a few times we got on the new Precious Girls Club website. Princess A loves it. We limit what sites she can visit on the net and feel good about letting her explore this site. I like that not only is she having fun but she is being exposed to positive values such as being loving, caring, kindness, helpfulness and responsibility. I also like that the characters dress modernly but also modestly.



Here is a picture of the homepage.

The Charm box. The Lakeview.

I have 5 trial membership codes to giveaway. Just email me(nor_lou at hotmail.com) if you would like a trial membership.

Dressing up as a wedding girl

Princess A is wearing a dress my Aunt made for me when I was little. Princess A loves to wear it with a veil she make from her blanket so she can be a 'wedding girl.' I keep telling her they are called brides but she continues to call them 'wedding girls.'

Win a $50 Gift Certificate from Tiny Prints

Show your holiday spirit and share your favorite new card design for 2008 from Tiny Prints!

A leader in holiday photo cards, Tiny Prints is so excited about their upcoming 2008 holiday card line that they are offering a sneak peek to showcase the new designs. To help celebrate the launch, they’re looking for contestants to review any of their very newest 2008 Christmas cards, holiday photo cards, holiday invitations, and business holiday cards for those who work in or own companies.
Here are four of my favorites:

I just adore the beautiful flowers.

The tree, star and ornament are so sweet.

My girls love blowing dandelions and I have a great picture of them doing that which would be perfect on this card.

I adore the medley of animals, so cute!

In return for your help, Tiny Prints is giving away a $50 gift certificate to be used on their site. Please note that some designs are so new that they cannot yet be customized, but will be available in early October along with hundreds of more designs!

To enter:

• Simply go to Tiny Prints , browse your favorite 2008 holiday card designs currently being previewed and save your favorite 2008 design in your account by clicking the “save in favorites” button.
• Then come back here and mention in comments which specific holiday card you liked and what you liked about. Please include the link to the actual card you’re referring to.
  
• The contest will run till September 30th and a random winner will be selected from all those who have properly followed the requirements.
  
• Please leave your email in the comment and use the same email when creating an account on Tiny Prints so participation can be verified.
  

Help Tiny Prints determine which cards will be the most popular this upcoming holiday season!

Huggies Contest

Have you seen the commercial where the father goes to change his son's diaper and the baby pees all over? When my brother was a baby I remember once my Aunt was changing him on my parent's bed and he started to pee. It went so high it hit the the ceiling fan, which was on, and sprayed all over. My Aunt started to scream and didn't know what to do. My Mom came running in and at first she was just in shock and then she just started to laugh. What else could you do it was all over?

For fun here is a video "Inside the Diaper", which is very funny and an extended version of the commercial on television.

Do you have a funny story (that happen to you or someone you know) about a child's pee being out of control or when you were in desperate need of a diaper with excellent leakage protection? Well post the story in the comments and you could win some prizes.

Prizes:

There will be two randomly chosen winners, which will each win two kinds of coupons:

• Coupon 1: Any one [1] Jumbo Pack of Huggies Diapers...FOR FREE
• Coupon 2: Any one [1] Huggies wipes (64ct or larger), Bath & Body Product, Cleanteam Product, or Changing Pad...FOR FREE

The winners will be awarded FIVE coupons: three Huggies diaper coupons (Coupon 1) and two Huggies wipes coupons (Coupon 2).

Rules:

• This contest is only open to contestants in the 50 United States of America (coupons are only valid in U.S.A.)
• Your email must be readily available on your blog or included it in your comments or I will choose a new winner.
• For an extra entry, blog about this contest and place the link in a separate comment.
• Contest will end October 3, 2008 at midnight PT.

For another chance to win enter at M80 Meta Blog: Parents but hurry their contest ends September 24, 2008

Painting with Q-tips

I have two open boxes of baby Q-tips and I had no idea what to do with them. I noticed on the regular Q-tip package a suggestion of painting with them so that is what we did. The girls had so much fun painting since I added some glitter to each of the colors. Don't you love their smocks. They were mine when I was their age. The red one is a real smock and the Winnie the pooh one, Princess G is wearing, was a dress but since it has some old stains I use it as a smock.

The Circus

I remember my Grandparents taking us to the circus when we were little. My sister and I had so much fun. I remember the metal globe thing with the motorcyclists inside driving very, very fast and the man with lions. I was sure they were going to bite him! I just loved the elephants and the trapeze artists too. We also had a little too much cotton candy and I remember feeling a little queasy. I can't wait to take my girls to the circus. My Grandparents took us to a Ringling Bros and Barnum Baily three ring circus. Sometimes it was hard to pick which ring to watch when they had something in each ring. I wish the circus was coming near us but maybe it it coming to a town near you. If want to attend the circus I have a code to share with my readers- The 20% discount code for Ringling Bros. Circus. Code: MCC

The code is valid for the circus shows in the following cities:

Grand Rapids, MI - Sept. 18-21, 2008

Denver, CO - Oct. 2-13, 2008

Boston, MA – Oct. 8-13, 2008

Cleveland, OH - Oct. 24 - Nov. 2

Chicago, IL - Nov. 6 - 30, 2008

St. Louis, MO - Nov. 6-9, 2008

Auburn Hills, MI - Nov. 12 - 16, 2008

Highland Heights, KY - Feb 27 - Mar. 1, 2009

Cincinnati, OH - Mar. 4 - 8, 2008

They also have a great program where a parent can sign-up their baby (12 months or younger) for a free ticket voucher that can be exchanged for a free ticket to any Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey performance, anytime, anywhere. No expiration date!

Last bit of Summer

After school on Friday it was warm enough to play in the sprinklers.

All summer long they have been playing game that the sprinkler sprays lemonade and they have to catch it to sell at their lemonade stand.

Today they changed it by dumping the water on their heads.
They squealed and then did it again.


When they were done with the sprinkler it was time for Popsicles!!!

Ballerinas love the Nutcracker

I stopped by the library and picked up the Barbie Nutcracker DVD. The girls were so excited they got dressed up as 'real' ballerinas and wanted to watch the movie. We told them yesterday that we are going to the Nutcracker this year. We went last year and Princess A was so mesmerized that she would not leave her seat at intermission (she was afraid she might miss something)! Princess G was less than 2 1/2 years old when we went but she lasted almost to the end. She wanted to leave when there was 20 minutes left, but after 5 minutes of running around in the hallway she came in to watch the ending. We are all excited and can't wait for November so we can go to the show!!

Blackberry Picnic

We have an easement in our backyard beyond the fence that connects to an undeveloped area. I rarely go back there but a few weeks ago I noticed some blackberry bushes starting to peek over the fence. I put on long pants and sleeves, battled with the thorns and picked a large cup full of blackberries. The Princesses were so excited they wanted a Blackberry Picnic!! They did a special blackberry dance while I rinsed the berries and laid down the blanket. They ate all of two berries, they gave one each to Daddy and Mommy. Later I did have to hose their hands and face off since they got even messier!

Chair Balancing

Here is my silly girl!! She put the chairs on her head all by herself and yelled "Mommy come take my picture real quick." Then she wanted an action shot of her tossing them off with her head. My so silly, silly, silly girl!!

Liberty Mutual Responsibility Project

Have you seen those commercial where some helps a stranger, and someone who sees that helps a stranger and so on and so on? I really like that they were doing something small but they had a big impact on that person and those who witnessed it. It reminds me of a saying "Commit random acts of kindness." I want my girls to grow up being responsible and kind. I have seen the commercial plenty of times but I never knew that because of such a positive response Liberty Mutual set up a site, The Responsibility Project. Mom Central sent me a link and a brief description of the The Responsibility Project. I clicked on it and found that on the site they have many short films and cartoons about responsibility that you can watch with your children. Princess A really liked the bunny cartoon: Hot Seat. She laughed at the silly bunnies but we also talked about that it is not nice to trick someone even if someone else did the same thing to you. Just because everyone else is doing it, or at least aware of it that you should do it too. I will be watching all of the films with my daughter. I want to do them one at a time so each one sinks in.

Flowers

In the Spring I let the girls get a bunch of seed packets. Not very much lasted until the end of summer but we did get some beautiful orange flowers which the girls wanted to model. After we went inside we placed them in vases to put in their rooms.

Yummy Yogurt and a Giveaway

I was sent a travel cooler, Brain Quest and a free coupon for Yoplait Kids yogurt to try. The Princesses just loved the yogurt. We tried the Mixed Berry with Diego on the bottles. Both of the Princesses loved the taste, and they can't wait to try the Strawberry Dora, Strawberry Banana Blue's Clues and the Banana Backyardigains. They both liked them so much they asked me to clean the containers so their stuffed animals could have some too! Now we have four in the play food tub and two in the bath tubs, apparently the Princesses' bath toys (Aurora, Cinderella and Ariel) like to drink yogurt also. I am a yoplait yogurt fan, I only eat Yoplait Think & Creamy, so I already like their yogurts. What I didn't know was that the children's yogurt has 25 percent less sugar and no artificial sweeteners or flavors. From the Yoplait Kids website:

Yoplait kids has 26 grams of sugar per 8 oz compared to 35 grams of sugar per 8 oz in the average leading kids yogurt.

Yoplait kids provides an omega-3 fatty acid that helps support healthy brain growth

Yoplait kids also has a $1.50 off coupon on the website if you can't wait to try their yogurt.

The girls have also been having fun with Brain Quest. The ages listed are 2-3 years old but Princess A is enjoying them also. We have been taking them in the car, the girls like to ask each other the questions or make up their own to ask.

Now for the part you have been waiting for the giveaway!! I have the same package I recieved to give to one lucky reader of mine. The prize includes a travel cooler, a fun Brain Quest game and a free coupon for Yoplait Kids yogurt. I have to restrict the entrants to those with U.S. addresses only, sorry. Now for the details. Please go to Yoplait.com and in your comments list a flavor they offer one of their other yogurts in or tell me a flavor you think they should offer.

If you would like an extra entry please blog about the contest and place the link in a separate comment.

The contest will run until September 8, 5 P.M. PT

Please leave your email address in your comment if you do not have it readily available on your blog.

Good Luck!

Updated: I used RANDOM.org and the winner was commentor #1

kamewh

I sent you an email with the details.

My Princesses with Princess Jasmine and Aladdin

Last week I found the cutest store for Princesses in the downtown area. Once a month they have a different Princess come to read a story and take pictures.
They also have snacks out for a little tea party.
Princess G picked out this gem and wanted her picture taken since I wouldn't buy it for her or her sister.

Then both of my Princesses wanted a picture holding gems. Princess A also went around the store listing what she wanted for Christmas. When I told her Santa does not have very much room in his sack so she won't be able to get everything on her list. She told me "That's O.k. Mommy you can put it on the list you and Daddy are getting me for Christmas!"

First Day of Scool

Thursday was Princess A's first day of Kindergarten. Here she is with her new teacher whom she really likes. Princess A could not not stop talking about her school day: they heard a story about a monster who didn't follow the rules, heard another story that "did not have pictures" about kisses in your hand, had vanilla wafer cookies for snack, and played in the park (playground)! After school we all went out to lunch for Japanese food and Aunt Cathy came over for dinner to celebrate!

Taking Down the Crib

I just took down the crib, both Princess A and Princess G used it. I am a little sad. We have been using this crib for 5 1/2 years. We set it up the first time almost 6 years ago (my husband and father-in-law spent over and hour and barely got anything done, I went into help and it was done 15 minutes later.) I really love this crib. My favorite part is the curved back which was perfect for displaying the quilt, which is never used by a baby!! Why do they even sell those? You aren't suppose to use a quilt until they over 1 year old. I digress.


We are now just waiting for the new bed to arrive!! Hopefully the big girl bed saga is over and this one will not be broken!!

Another Zoo visit

I am so glad we got a zoo membership. When my in laws came to visit I figured out that for less than 5 extra dollars we could get a zoo membership. With every visit we can bring up to three visitors. We have already gone three times this summer. This time we brought a family that has four wonderful kids. The youngest are the same ages as Princesses A and G. Princess A got to put on a lab coat and pretend to be a veterinarian.
Princesses A and G always have to feed the goats when we visit. I always bring lots of quarters.

The zoo has a new carousel, we always take a spin right before we leave.
Right after I took this picture Princess G started to cry, she was afraid she was going to fall, and wanted to hold my hand.
Our zoo is not the biggest but I like that it also has an aquarium. My girls love watching the sea animals and it is nice having everything in one location. Here they are watching the sharks.