Category Archives: budget

Moooooooove Over Pride…We’re Eatin’ for Free

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Last Friday, much to Derek’s dismay, we dressed in our cow costumes and headed to Chick-Fil-A for our free meal. Two years ago we dressed as Star Wars characters so we decided to be “Rock Stars” this year.

Derek was completely mortified as we walked into the building. I reassured him this was only temporary, we’d get a free meal, the kids would enjoy it, and he wouldn’t have to dress like a cow for another 364 days.

Well, as we entered the restaurant, the store manager came over and took our picture. She very excitedly informed us that our picture would be on the stores’ Facebook page. I kept staring and smiling at her, completely ignoring the look of horror that suddenly came across Derek’s face.

When the manager walked away I looked at Derek and said, “It’s for the children.”

“And more importantly, the $25 meal we are about to receive for free.”

So I present to you…..

Moo Hendrix, The Stubborn and fiercely independent 6 year old who refused a name, The Black Eyed Cow, Sheryl Cow, and MooDonna

Picture of Family Dress for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a

My chicken sandwich and waffle fries were delish!

Already contemplating our theme for next year….Derek is desperately hoping he’ll be out of town on business.

Dress Like a Cow = Free Meal

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Friday (tomorrow!) July 8th is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A

If you and your loved ones dress like a cow your meals are FREE!

(Chick-fil A has a downloadable cow costume on their website.)

Partial costume = free entree          Full costume = free meal

Two years ago we dressed up in a Star Wars theme and ate for free. You do not need to have a theme to your costumes  but it added an element of fun. Here are our construction paper and reversed t-shirt ensembles from two years ago:Fortunately I translate baby faces and can tell you what she was thinking

Dammit lady – I don’t even eat solid foods yet and you have dressed me like this. Why must you do this? I will be beyond embarrassed. What if my friends see me? This family is a mess. I cannot wait till I go to college.

Hurry! Get a costume and have an “udderly” good time!

Pitching a Tent

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Our house is where bed linens go to die.

It is beyond ridiculous. Enter my closet and you will find an abundance of old comforters, worn sheets, mismatched pillowcases, and scratchy throws. We could probably open a homeless shelter in our backyard if we so desired. We don’t.

Actually we have more sheets than all the other linens combined. We have inherited sheets from our parents, been given sheets as a gift, and received my sisters’ old college sheets.

I choose to ignore any subtle hint they are sending about the state of the bedding in my house.

The sheets leave our house at a very slow rate. If they ever escape it was via the Goodwill box so we have a large stack of sheets in my closet. Stack might be a nice term to describe the linen mess. It is actually a huge pile of sheets thrown every which way. I believe being able to see your closet floor is highly over rated. Technically, I think the experts call it protecting your carpet. After all, I do have children pooping in my closet.

After reading about Fort Fridays on All About Boys I was inspired to make good use of the old sheets and create a massive tent for the kids. The size of the previous tents constructed have been restricted to the size of the sheet, often leading to yelling and complaining, “He pulled the tent down!”  Factor in space taken up for chairs to hold the tent up and the actual sitting space is quite limited.

So….I started with 1 king top sheet, 1 queen top sheet, and 3 pillow cases.

I sewed them together on my machine in a haphazard fashion refusing to pin anything. It took, ten minutes at the most.

The result was a massive section of material roughly 10 feet x 25 feet. I could be exaggerrating here. I am just taking a guess. Put a queen sheet and a king sheet together and you will have the exact measurements.

The pillow cases spaced out created nice entry points into the tent.

When I peeked into the tent I saw this – Alex reading to Caroline while she sat quietly and listened. I am now putting him in charge of nap time.

The boys have requested I add another sheet onto the tent. I will certainly comply if it means more time pretending and less time asking to play the computer.

Any tents in your house this summer?

Photobucket Weekend Bloggy Reading

OohMoon – Free Kid Art!

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Katie Moon is an amazing graphic artist who has taken on an interesting project this year.

In her words, “Every day for the next year I will create a new illustration (with children in mind). For one day, each illustration will be free for you to download and use and print as you please. This is simply a little gift from me to you. After 24 hours, the illustration will still be available, but for a small purchase price.”

Katie began this project on December 1st so there is plenty of time for you to check out her site OohMoon and return daily for new art!

*I can’t even wash my kitchen counters everyday and she’s creating beautiful artwork  that both kids and parents will enjoy*

Here are some of my favorites….

Bugs

Rockets

Fairy Tales

Hope Series

Aren’t Katie’s illustrations beautiful?

I adore colorful, modern graphic art and this certainly fits the bill. (No, it’s not lost on me that there is a huge pelican directly above the last sentence).

I’m thinking of the Veggie Monster for above our kitchen table.

Go check out Katie’s work NOW!

Piano Week

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Andrew & Alex started piano lessons last week. In an attempt to add to their excitement, we had PIANO WEEK at our house.

What might you ask is Piano Week?

Well, it’s just a week of activities I thought up or found which dealt with music. This was an attempt to give a little structure to our summer days. The focus being on little.

Here’s PIANO WEEK:

Visited: a piano store and received a tour by a very enthusiastic employee

Created: Alex created a power point about John Williams while Andrew made a poster. I originally thought they would choose Beethoven or Mozart but once we stumbled upon John Williams there was no turning back. One morning we spent over an hour watching him conduct on You Tube.

Read Books: 1. Beethoven – A Value Tales book 2. Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney  3. Ludwig van Beethoven by Eric Summerer  4. Keyboards by Wendy Lynch

Made: Thumb pianos – directions found here

Listened: to a Mixed Classical CD from Target in the car all week

Food: We ate SHARP cheese, ate BACHli (I’ll be honest – Derek and I are the only ones who ate the broccoli), talked about fish SCALES while we ate fish sticks, and planned to make cinnamon FLATbread but never got around to it.

We also made dessert PIANOS compliments of Alex. We used ice cream bars but white Kit Kats bars would make prefect piano keys.

Movies: We watched the movie Beethoven with Charles Grodin and Bonnie Hunt. Yes I know it has nothing to do with music but the kids loved it.

We capped off the week with a trip to eat ice cream at Braum’s (BRAHM). I wanted to finish up the week at a piano bar but Derek thought otherwise.

We had some LOWS and HIGHs during piano week but overall it was enjoyable. The boys have enthusiastically practiced piano everyday since their first lesson and can’t wait to find out what this week’s activities will focus on.

What fun things are you doing this summer?


Photobucket Todays Creative Blog

Little Bity Organizing

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Caroline doesn’t have a dresser in her room so I needed a place to put her socks, hair bows, tights, and diaper covers. Leaving everything in a pile on the closet floor worked well for several months but was a tad embarrassing when people would come over.

Since I had great success in the past with a clear shoe organizer, I decided to try one again.

In our old house I used a clear shoe organizer for toys and general house supplies (tape, scissors, pens, batteries – loved always being able to find these things).

Do you have any simple but effective organizing tips?

Lego Mini Figure Party Boards

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For Andrew’s Lego party we created large wooden character boards.

During the party we took pictures of each guest behind the boards. When Andrew sent a thank you card in the mail, each guest also received a photo of himself as a Lego mini figure.

Below you can see Andrew is “Jay” from the Lego Ninjago sets.

On the back side of the boards are different characters I painted for our Halloween party. Since we already had the boards cut, it was a simple tracing and painting process to complete this set.

Below – “Penguin” from Batman Lego sets

Steps to Create Lego Party Boards:

1) cut board into desired size

2) use a tracer to copy image directly onto board

3) cut out head section

4) paint

5) cut large blocks for legs so the structure will stand up.

“Batman and Robin” mini figures

Below: The large board slides into the ground blocks in order for the structure to stand.

In case you missed it, we also played Lego Bingo – go here for a copy.

One more Lego party post coming soon!

Todays Creative Blog

The DIY Show Off Katie's Nesting Spot The Shabby Nest

Junk Drawer

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I opened our junk drawer for the last time today.

Well, at least until it gets cluttered again but let’s focus on the now.

Here’s the before:

I cut up cereal boxes, granola boxes, and used an old thank you card box to organize the drawer contents. I could have gone to a store and bought fancy containers but I wanted to complete this project immediately. The pens are now housed in a Rice Krispie box.

The After:

So, do you have a junk drawer? Go ahead and clean it out. I guarantee it will put a smile on your face

Lego Bingo

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For Andrew’s 6th birthday party we had wonderful plans…

Early May is typically hot in Texas so we planned on taking the kids to the park to use water balloons and play.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Except…that it turned out to be forty degrees outside and raining.

Therefore, the night before the party, Derek and I scrambled for new inside activities.

One of the activities we decided on was Lego Bingo. Derek created the board template and  I inserted the Lego mini figures.

The game was actually a huge hit with the kids. The winner of each game received 2 silly bands while everyone else received one.

The Game includes: 9 different bingo boards & 42 call cards (Cuts these cards apart and use to call out mini figures)

If you would like a copy of the Lego bingo here it is – Lego-Bingo.

If you decide to print, please consider becoming a follower of Big D & Me.

I’ll share more of the party soon – check back for more Lego party ideas!

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