Acorn Treats

Here is a super cute and easy fall snack that the kids and I made this morning.

A few simple ingredients

 Step 1:  Melt some of the chocolate chips (or you could use chocolate wafers).  Place melted chocolate in sandwich bag and cut off the end.  Put a dot of chocolate on each cookie and top with a Hershey Kiss.  Allow to get hard (only takes a few minutes)
Step 2:  Place a dot of melted chocolate on the opposite side of the cookie and top with a chocolate chip.

Amount of "acorns" 1 bag of cookies makes

It took us only about 20 minutes to make these yummy snacks. 
Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Cars 2 Couponing

I am not an extreme couponer, although I wish I were.  I think it's amazing how people can get these deals.  But after today, I have learned that I do not have the time or patience to prepare for a shopping trip.  So bear with me as I outline the awesome deal I got on the Cars 2 5-disc combo pack at Target:

Transaction #1:
There is a $10 mail in rebate if you buy $20 worth of Kimberly Clark products and Cars 2.
Pullups - $9.49
Scott paper towels - 12.79 (after using a $1 manufacturers coupon)
Kleenex tissues - 6.03
Total: $28.31
In one of the coupons inserts in last Sunday's paper, there was a coupon for Target that if you purchased $25 in Kimberly Clark products you would receive a $5 gift card.
There is also a $10 mail in rebate from Johnson & Johnson if you purchase $10 in Band-Aid products and Cars 2.
4 boxes of band-aids - 9.31 (after using a $1 manufacturers coupon)
Total price of transaction #1:  37.62

Transaction #2:
Cars 2 5-disc combo pack - Target sale price $29.99
I took in the ad for Best Buy, which has the same combo pack on sale this week for $24.99.  Target does price match.  So that took the price down to $24.99.  Then I had a $5 off coupon printed from Disney, taking the price to $19.99.  Used the $5 gift card I just received and then I had another $10 gift card for Target, making the final cost that I paid $4.99 plus tax.


So I paid $37.62 + 6.19 = 43.81 and will be getting $20 back in rebates.

I can understand how people get a thrill out of getting great deals, but still very time consuming.  It takes a lot of planning to figure out how to make it all work correctly.

All the stuff I got for $23.81

Helping Others

About 2 weeks ago, we had the opportunity to help out the farm across the street.  Some of his fields got wind damaged from Hurricane Irene.  The combine was unable to harvest all the corn in these fields.  So a group from the neighborhood went over to pick the corn.  The combine had gone through and smashed all the stalks to the ground, so our job was to pick up the corn on the ground and toss it into the wagons.  Brie had a dentist appointment that day, so her and I didn't arrive until later, but Steve and Brady were there for 3 hours helping.  The kids had a blast!  What a great way for us to show our kids the importance of helping others!
Here are just a few shots that I took:

My kids (Brie & Brady)

Brady with his good friend, Rolan

            

Brie and her friend, Cohen

Rolan, Cohen, Brady & Brie

Of course Brady was right beside the tractor the whole time!

Baby Shower

Here is a diaper cake I put together for my sister's baby shower.  I cannot completely take credit for this creation.  My best friend's sister in law helped me with the roses on the top.  To check out more of her items, on facebook search Green Mom Boutique.  She does some really awesome work!  So after she helped me with the roses, I put together the rest of the "cake".  It was so much fun to make and I really didn't want to give it away.

I have decided that I am going to make these for all my baby gifts now. 

Fall Decorating

I hosted a baby shower for my sister last weekend and it inspired me to decorate my house for fall.  Last year I found an idea to make a candy corn wreath and tucked it away in my fall decorating bin (along with a bag of candy corn that I guess I purchased after Halloween).  When I pulled the bin out to decorate, I found it and decided to give it a try.

Supplies needed:
-16 inch styrofoam wreath (can be found at Michaels or ACMoore)
-black duct tape
-a hot glue gun
-wide black ribbon
-candy corn (I used one bag for my wreath)
-spray polyurethane
Step 1:  Cover the wreath with the duct tape

 Step 2:  Lay one row of the candy corn around the wreath to see how it will fit.  Then glue them down.  Always start your circle at the same point because there will be some holes.  This way you can put your ribbon there to cover those holes.  Repeat until wreath is covered with corn.  I did find that the corn easily fell off, so I would recommend using lots of glue.

Step 3:  Spray corn with polyurethane.
Step 4:  Wrap ribbon around the top of the wreath.  You can tie it into a bow, but mine didn't look nice so I just wrapped the ribbon around a couple times and then tied a knot.  I did staple the ribbon onto the back of the wreath to secure it.

The finished product!  Note:  Do not hang on your front door as the candy will melt!  And also, be sure to tell your children not to eat any of the candy corn that may fall off.  I am not sure that I will be able to save it to use again next year, but I am definitely going to enjoy it for now!