Healthy Birthday School Treat

I have blogged about this idea before! I have always tried to come up with a fun and simple treat that most kids would like but at the same time it is HEALTHY!!! 

Last year I made these cute butterflies filled with fruit! If you want to see the post just click on the picture! The only thing is it takes a little time to make and it takes A LOT of fruit!!! Fruit can add up in cost so I was trying to find a better option to these fruit butterflies!

I found these cute little cups. They are only about $2.95 for 50 cups!

I bought some different types of fruit that most kids would like.

If you chose mandarin oranges, try to get cups with %100 juice. When the fruit cups say "in light syrup" it means they are storing the fruit in sugar water..... or even worse, some are stored in water with artificial sweetener! Just make sure you read the ingredients list.

 I cut the fruit up in bite size pieces!

 As you add fruit to the cups you can see that you don't need much to fill it up!

 I added two marshmallows to the top for a sweet touch but you can leave this out if you don't want the added sugar!

 I made up 40 of these for my daughters 5th birthday and all of the kids (and adults) LOVED them!!!

 For my son's 8th birthday I wanted to add something to the cups to make it "cooler" to give to his second grade class. I found some Skylanders stickers so we added one sticker to each fruit cup lid. Simple as that! 

Now, my son had Skylanders fruit cups to give to his class for his birthday treat!

My kids love these so much that we ended up making extra and putting them in the fridge. When they get hungry, I let them go in the fridge and pull one out for a snack!

Happy 2014- Deck & Fence Project

It has been so long since the last time I posted! I hope your holiday season was filled with blessings and you made some great resolutions to achieve this new year! I was thinking about what should be my first post of 2014. As I was coming up with my New Years Resolutions I was thinking over what all that happened in 2013 for our family. The most significant event was selling our first home and buying a new one. 2013 was filled with MANY home improvements to BOTH homes!!! One of the biggest projects my husband took on was to build a deck and fence onto our new home! The transformation is so awesome! I don't know about you but I love before and after photos! So my first post is just going to be a fun look back into 2013 and the transformation that took place on our new home!

When we bought this home we had no fence for our dog. He had to be tied up if he wanted to be outside. It was a very hard transition for him since we never had to leash him for 8 years!!

 We also had no back steps or patio. There used to be stairs and a patio but the cement was slanted towards the house. So we made a deal with the previous owners for them to bust out the cement and haul it away.

First step to the project was to fill in the back with dirt to level the ground!

 This picture is taken from inside the house. The wood on the ground is how we tried to mark where our deck would go.

 There was MANY trees removed by chainsaw and EVEN by HAND!!! lol 

Then, starting to work on the fence, MANY holes were dug buy auger and by HAND! Thank God our friend Mike was available to help Jason with this job! 

   

 Here is the fence starting to go up on the opposite side of the deck. You can see the huge pile of tree branches on the ground. We actually were contacted TWO times by the city over the piles on the side of our house. They were trying to fine us!

 Once the fence was up, we just moved the pile behind the fence to get the city off our butts! LOL

Here, in this picture, you can see two stumps of the trees which were removed! 

 Here is the start of the fence on the side where the deck will be added.

 There is progress but there are still a lot of bushes to be removed.

 The fence stops here! YES, the rest will all be the DECK!!!

Now that most of the bushes have been removed,

 another auger is rented to drill all of the holes for the deck. Thanks to Jason's brother Mike for helping out with this job!!! You need a lot of strength when working these crazy machines!!!

 With 22 holes dug, we now needed to fill them all with cement. Jason, his dad, and two of his brothers did a great job working in the HEAT!!!

 Finally.... the framing is starting to go up!

 The kids can't resist playing on the deck.... They even helped hammer in nails!

   

 We had boards laid on top of the deck just so our dog could go outside to go potty but also cause we loved playing out there!

 The cedar boards are going up!

 Now some of the railing is up!

 Here is a picture of the kids hanging out on the deck while Jason and his dad work!

 One whole side is almost DONE!!!

 Here is the view from the sidewalk!

 The is gate is now in so we could finally move our fire pit away from the opening which was blocking the dog from getting out!

AND our swing is in place!!!

 The fire pit and chairs are in place!

 Here is the beginning of the stairs before the cement was poured!

   

 I LOVE this picture!!! It marks our FIRST time eating dinner out on our new deck!!!

 Jason worked his BUTT off to get all of the railing done just in time for our little princess to have her fifth birthday party at our home! This was the first time a lot of people were seeing our new place!

What a beautiful October day for a party!

 The only part of the railing that needed to be finished was the gate to the backyard!

The starting of the upper part of the deck!

   

 My man created such a great design. Don't ask me how he got those heavy boards up and screwed in all by himself!!!!

 In spring, we will put up curtains for looks and for a little privacy since the deck is seen from the street.

 Everything is all finished, just in time for winter!!!

 Hope you enjoyed a look at this wonderful transformation. I have to brag on my husband one more time! While he was building the deck I had many people ask who was building it. One guy even asked if Jason does this for a living and if he wanted any work because he was looking for someone to build a deck on his home! 

You did a great job on this Jason we will definitely enjoy this when the weather gets warmer! 

Christmas Book Tradition

I happen to see this GREAT idea online! This person bought 24 books and wrapped them up to open one everyday till christmas.

I decided to get some of our favorite christmas books that we already have in our home collection because buying all new costs too much and it's always fun to reread old books! 

I bought 6 new books that I know my kids will LOVE and also added new batteries to our Charlie Brown Christmas book.

 As I was collecting some of our books at home, I noticed we had a lot of little board books so I paired them for fun with another book! You wouldn't want your book to take less than a minute to read!

 I even had my little girl help me wrap some of the books from our collection.

The kids were excited when I told them the idea....How much more excited will they be when they hear some of the books are new to our family!!

 Reading is one of the most important things you can do with your children. How much fun is this going to be, counting down the days till Christmas with special books!?! Unwrap one every night before bed as part of your nighttime routine! 

Also, pictured here is my Christmas tree skirt idea which a lot of you have seen.

I wanted to show you this years handprints I made in the form of Holly, 2013!

Click on the picture below to go to the post about my Christmas Tree Skirt Keepsake!