Crazy Busy

Hey my dear friends,

I wanted to let you know that I have been working as a sub at my children's school so haven't been around, lately and when I get home, man it is crazy busy. Between homework, dinner, Cub Scouts, Brownies, shopping, house stuff, etc my life has been hectic.

Hopefully in the next few days I can play catch up and with the holidays coming, hope to get whatever work they give me.

Talk to you all soon and I apologize for being absent.

Maria

Sometimes I Sleep With Phil Dunphy

I love Phil. There I said it. He is so funny. I love Modern Family and as a Fox Entertainment Insider  was so excited when I received this pillow case that is like Phil's Ads around town.

We Are Coffee Lovers & We Really Enjoyed Our Breakfast!

Yesterday I got to try out Caza Trail with my girl Clary! We had planned it for a week and I was so excited to get together with her and try a NEW coffee!

Caza Trail & Grove Square now offer single serve cups (compatible with Keurig® K-Cup® brewers)* in delicious flavors of coffees, teas, cappuccinos, cocoas & ciders.

We tried the Donut Shop Blend! Which was delicious! Honestly we both were very impressed. We always look at the light/dark counter on the box and this one was perfect.

Caza Trail makes single serve coffee and tea that are compatible with your Keurig K-Cup Brewer.  I don't have one but my beastie does so it is pretty much like I  have one.

We plan on trying the Pumpkin Spice blend next! We LOVE pumpkin coffees!

Caza Trail, offers a variety of coffee, tea, cider and more.

The smell was amazing and Clary's biggest question was now that I love it where can I get it?! I see that Amazon has a huge selection of their products.

I had three cups with my breakfast! It was so delicious!

Halloween Zombie Costume & Make Up

This year Goddess wants to be a Zombie for Halloween. Every year we have purchased costumes but this year I decided we would try to make one.  We used a lot of supplies we had on hand and a lot of Red. (Join the Ruby Tuesday meme here)

Here are our supplies

 
We started with glue on her arm and added a tissue.  Then I used a hair clip to lightly make an incision in the tissue paper which will be our deep cut.

Next I added red Vampire Blood from Party City to the tissue.

Looks good so far!

After that I used facial makeup to blend the paper into the skin and wah la....well..it isn't great but for a first attempt it is pretty damn good. Goddess walked around saying she needed stitches.

Next was the dress. This is an adorable dress that was handed down to us from friends. It was perfect

I dripped some Vampire blood down the front and took a paint brush which I dipped in the paint and splattered it on the dress front and back.

I also added some brown paint and water to a spray water bottle and lightly misted it for that just crawled through the dirt and I live outside look.

Currently we are fraying the bottom and the sleeves to make it look older. It am pleased with the look! Now we just have to wait for Halloween to really get the whole effect.

Any other ideas for the costume?

Dead Bolt's Red and White Made Our Night

Teach and I don't get out much. Since the kids were born (10+ years ago) we went out three times and one of them was a catastrophe. We ended up not talking while out getting pissy about it and didn't talk for two months. UGH..marriage but we do love spending time together and well, sometimes that includes a bottle of wine and a movie after the kids go to bed.

Dead Bolt sent us red and white wine from their collection to try out. I do love their Wine Skins!

We had ordered pizza so I opened the red. I am not a wine enthusiast but thought, red sauce/red wine. Maybe I'm crazy but as I said, what do I know.

The red wine was a beautiful red! In fact, out of the two, Teach really liked the red wine.

I preferred the white blend. Sweeter wine rather than drier is my favorite. The white was a full flavored, juicy blend of Chardonnay with Chenin Blanc. It is a light, fruity wine.

Fall Reader GIVEAWAY: Free Cage-Free Eggs

We are big egg eaters in this house and if I could I would eat them everyday for breakfast. I love them fried, boiled, scrambled, poached, baked! They are the perfect food so I was excited to check out Nellie's Nest Cage Free Eggs.

Here is what I can tell you:

The egg trays are made for less damaged eggs. No more bumping against each other. Each egg has an individual area to call its own.

I love the idea that these chickens roam in farms without cages. Many of my friends raise chickens and this they say is very important if I am going to purchase eggs from a store.

Find out why these eggs are the better choice here or read my words. These eggs are better because the chickens are raised on a diet of wholesome natural grain. They spend their days in well ventilated barns instead of cooped up in a cage not being able to walk. AND...Nellie's is the first farm in the country to be certified and meet all standards of the Humane Farm Animal Care Program.

The eggs although brown did not stop Handsome from eating them. This was a very good thing. In his eyes eggs are white and how dare I trick him. He was happy to help me in my review.

They are about the size of my normal eggs. The taste the same as my normal egg but I felt so much better knowing that my son and I are eating a better egg because of the diet of all-natural vegetarian grain with NO by-products, hormones or antibiotics.

AMEN!

Handsome ate his two eggs and asked if he could have them for dinner too. Sounds easy enough to me!

Hex Bug Lovers Will Love This Game! There's A Bug In The Kitchen

Holiday wish lists are being made now in my house and I am sure my kids are not the only ones dreaming of Christmas morning already!

The 411 by Maria:

We love our Hex Bugs in fact we have over 15 of them and they can usually be seen walking across the table or in their Hex Bug Habitrail. Now, we have a new way to use them and we love it!

 
There is some assembly required. The game is easy to put together. You simply punch out some circles or winning game pieces to be exact and insert to pegs into holes (that would be the silverware) roll the dice and go.

The game does come with a bug which we used to first time and have played enough to use each of our 15 bugs already.

The goal is to get the bugs to come to your side of the kitchen.

To play:


Roll the die
Depending on what you land a spoon, fork, knife or question mark you turn that utensil. If it is a question mark, turn whatever will bring the bug to your side of the kitchen.
Every time you get a bug in your section you take a game piece
The person with the most game pieces wins!

We loved it! The bug is jumping, you are flipping utensils and hoping that the path leads to your area. You can play with as few as two people and up to four. If you are doing two you simply use these little rectangles to block the other two areas.

Kids as young as 4 can play this game even though the age says 6.

We Love Monster High! #monsterhigh

If you have little girls between the ages of 5 and 10 you know what Monster High Dolls are. Girls and moms love them. They are beautiful, colorful and different from Barbie. They are Monsters and I love taking pictures of them!

9/11 Ceremony With My Goddess

My Little Brownie was a flag holder at last months 9/11 ceremony!

Look at that sweet little face and all that ruby red

She is saying "Mommy!"

It was a beautiful day and while the parents and adults are all somber the kids mostly seemed bored.

Our men and women come out every year to stand with us under our flag pole.

My Little Boo!

AND again...MOMMY!

Our At Home Croods Party Was A Da Da Daaaaaa Success! #TheCroodsDVD @FHEInsiders

This past weekend courtesy of 20th Century Fox and FHEInsiders we hosted The Croods and 9 of our best friends.

The Croods is a movie my daughter and I really wanted to see when it was in the theaters but never got there. Out of the 11 kids there only two had seen it already so needless to say, there were some very excited children.

A friend of mine offered up her house since her husband was away and her floor plan allows for a great party atmosphere for our indoor party and I gladly took her up on it.

We shopped for our lunch, snacks, drinks and dessert with the day revolving around our gang of little ones.  Worked together to set up the arrangements and were ready for a prehistoric good time.

When the kids arrived bean bags had already been set up with the "swag bags" from 20th Century Home Entertainment and FHEInsiders. As excited as the kids were, they waited until they were all there to dive in with no one peeking and wanting to be surprised. We love that!

It was almost impossible to get some of these kids to sit down and eat!

Our kids ranged from 4-10 and there wasn't one that wasn't excited about their swag.  When I say they were taken care of, they were really taken care of!!!

One of the kids patiently waiting to see what is inside the bags!

 When they were finally given the OK to grab a bag, there was a ton of screaming. So cute to watch the excitement.

 I loved watching them show each other what was in their bag even though they all had exactly the same thing!

 The blanket was a huge hit and I hear these two little ones have yet to sleep without their new Croods blanket and their little Belt!

Look at those smiles on the littlest guests! CUTE!

 Here is Goddess and her bestie. They have been in the same class since they are 3 years old! Hopefully next year they get the same teacher again!

Even one of our four legged friends was excited by all the giggling and laughing going on in the room! Fozzie had to come investigate.

The moms and I were so excited to see all the kids actually quietly watching the movie. Laughing and staying in front of the TV for almost 80% of the time.

 The movie was really cute. Wonderfully animated which I am a huge fan of and really funny. This is great slapstick humor which makes it good for the whole family. If you haven't seen this movie yet. See it!

After the movie, I asked them to get together for a photo opp. They took so long to get together I had to snap away. Here are two of my favorites!

 Little Joey and his sister never made it to our party due to the whole family coming down with the stomach virus which has been making its way through our school. Yesterday he finally returned to school and I was able to give him his swag bag at the bus stop! Look at that face.  He sat in the car going through his bag saying, Da da Daaaaaa...CUTE!

We had the best time and the parents were so grateful to have something fun to do with the kids on Football Sunday!

Thanks to 20th Century Fox and Fox Home Entertainment Insiders for this wonderful opportunity. The kids and parents had a great time!