Chunky Monkey Cucpakes

I told you about my winning cupcake creation yesterday so now it's time to show you the cupcake creation. We made our way to the Sugar Shack today to check out the Chunky Monkey cupcakes and well of course get some to try! The kids were excited, as was I when we walked in and saw them on display! It's actually a pretty neat feeling to see something you came up with being sold in a local bakery. I've sort of become a "little local celebrity." I won't make you wait any longer for the unveiling of the Chunky Monkey cupcake so here it is!

Banana cupcake with chocolate chips mixed in with banana frosting and topped with loads of mini chocolate chips and pecans! Doesn't it look scrumptious?

Here's our box filled with Chunky Monkey Cupcakes!

The first bite was taken and it was absolutely delicious!

This isn't the best picture, but here's the Chunky
Monkey Cupcakes on display at the Sugar Shack!

They really turned out nice and a big thanks to the Sugar Shack for choosing my creation and to LMLM for the contest! I highly recommend if you're around here to head to the Sugar Shack to try them, as well as some of their other items! Delicious treats!

How Sweet It Is... To Be A Winner!

Good afternoon dear blog readers. I'm so excited that I just couldn't wait until later to blog about it. Remember the cupcake creations I told you about last week? Well after 102 entries (I had 27), I was chosen today as the winner of the limited edition create your own flavor cupcake thanks to Lansing Mom's Like Me and the Sugar Shack! Isn't that exciting? I see cupcakes in my near future!!! The winner was supposed to be announced yesterday and I checked all day and there was no posting (this was due to the LMLM site manager having computer problems). Finally late this morning I saw the posting and my name next to it! Before I get to the winning flavor, I wanted to share the rest of my cupcake creations with you. We left off with #12 which was "Cotton Candy" so now we'll start with #13!

13. Blue Raspberry- I pictured a bright blue cupcake with blue frosting for this one. Flavored like a blue raspberry slushie or sno-cone. Then sprinkled with some sugared crystals on top and garnished with a raspberry!
14. Champagne & Strawberries Cupcake- Strawberry cupcake topped with a champagne flavored frosting and garnished with a fresh strawberry!
15. Apple Pie A La Mode Cupcake- A spiced cake cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting topped with a dollop of apple pie filling then drizzled with caramel.
16. Blueberry Pancake Cupcake-Buttermilk pancake flavored cupcake with blueberries mixed in and topped with a maple syrup frosting.
17. Chocolate Covered Pretzel- A white cupcake with chocolate covered pretzel pieces mixed in. Topped with a chocolate frosting and garnished with a chocolate covered pretzel on top.
18. Bubblegum- A bubblegum flavored cupcake with a pink bubblegum flavored frosting.
19. Hot Cocoa- A chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow cream frosting, topped with a big marshmallow.
20. Gingerbread Delight- A gingerbread cupcake with a buttercream frosting.
21. Neapolitan- A delicious chocolate cupcake with a vanilla & strawberry swirled buttercream frosting!
22. Cherry Cheesecake Cupcake- A cherry cupcake with a cheesecake filling, topped with a cream cheese frosting and garnished with a cherry!
23. Black & White- Chocolate Milano cupcake with a white chocolate frosting, sprinkled with chocolate shavings!
24- Coconut Cream- A coconut flavored cupcake with a creamy filling, topped with a french vanilla frosting and sprinkled with coconut.
25. Rumaretto- A butter rum cupcake with and amaretto frosting!
26. Turtle Dove- Butter Pecan cupcake topped with a chocolate frosting and drizzled with caramel.
27. White Chocolate Raspberry Mocha- A raspberry cupcake with a mocha cream filling topped with a white chocolate frosting!

So after all those entries the winning one was my #5 entry- Chunky Monkey- A banana cupcake with chocolate pieces and topped with banana frosting and sprinkled with chocolate shavings. Can't wait to try it! It will be available starting tomorrow for a limited time at the Sugar Shack. So anyone around here go check it out! I will have to post a picture of what the Chunky Monkey Cupcake looks like when I get some!

Not The Weekend We Had Planned

Well here it is Sunday night again and the weekend is about over. We had high hopes at the beginning of the week to get half the new deck accomplished, but that didn't happen. We're having a guy who was building a deck in the neighborhood dig the holes and because it rained Thursday afternoon he wasn't able to dig the holes. Then late Friday it got really dark and looked like rain so he didn't do it then. (It ended up not raining so it could of gotten done, ugh.) Then he was to come Saturday morning and guess what? Yep more rain so no holes dug. Part of the deck got delivered Friday so we had the materials to start, but because of the stupid weather and no holes it was a no go. Today was nice, but the guy couldn't come today so we were kind of stuck. Greg did get all the pieces cut today though that needed to be so that part of the prep work is done when we are able to get it started. It's supposed to be nice tomorrow and the guy is coming in the morning to dig the holes so then hopefully we'll be able to get going on this project! The other half of the deck won't be in until the end of the week so while we can't work on it all this week, we'd like to get what we can done. Wish us luck that the weather cooperates!

In other weekend news we did make progress in other areas. Day two of the garage sale wasn't all that great, but I did get rid of some things so I guess that's good. I pretty much got everything all cleaned up from the sale so we have most of the garage back and can get one car in. There's decking stuff now on the other half so looks like Greg's car will be out for awhile. Yesterday we also got Emmaline's new mattress ordered so come this next Friday she'll be sleeping in a big girl bed! A couple thank you's to my friend Brenda for helping me Friday morning with the garage sale, and to Greg's mom for helping watch the kids today, and getting them some more fall clothes, and for all the meals out this weekend!

A couple congratulations to friends having babies this week! First to our friends Nico and Susan on the birth of their little girl on Monday. We can't wait to meet little Carolina! Elizabeth is going to make a great big sister. Then congrats to my friend Ann (who also blogs) and her husband Jason on the birth of their little girl on Saturday. They too had a little girl, and I look forward to meeting little Evelyn Grace too! Best wishes to them all, and I hope you're able to get some sleep over the next few months. Speaking of babies, my little baby girl is going to be turning three in a week! How is that possible? I guess that means it's birthday week for my little princess!

Garage Sale Take Two Is A Bust

Before I get into my garage sale news, I need to update you on my cupcake creations. I was busy all day yesterday so I didn't get a chance to enter many new creations, but I did submit one. The latest creation is cotton candy. A pink cupcake flavored like cotton candy with a fluffy pink frosting! We had gone to Ukai with Greg's mom, aunts, uncles, and cousin last night and the fish in the entry was named Cotton Candy so it got me to thinking that would be a good cupcake flavor! I've got a few more ideas in my mind so I'll let you know when I submit more!

Now to my garage sale today! Today and tomorrow is take two on the garage sale. My friends Ellen and Elizabeth (the two I make jam with) were doing their sale today and tomorrow so I decided to give mine another shot since everything was already set up from the previous sale. I opted for Thursday and Friday because from experience a couple weeks ago and in past years, Saturday hasn't been good. I've had success with Thursdays and it's usually a big sale day around here. Well, that was not the case today. The garage sale was pretty much a bust and it was a very SLOW day. It mostly went in spurts and it was kind of a wasted day. The sale was from 9-4pm, and I ended up closing a little early about 3:30pm because it started to rain. I made a whopping $45. Yeah, pretty pathetic. The only good part was that Angie said she wanted me to bag up some more stuff ($100 worth) so that kept me a little busy when it was so slow. I had found some new items to put out since the last sale and asked her if she'd be interested in blankets, baby toys, more clothes (some with tags) and she said yes. So while the actual sale was pretty much a bust today, bagging up stuff for Angie made it a little worth while. Thanks to Greg's mom for keeping the kids all day so I could do my sale. I'm hoping tomorrow is busier since Friday is usually the best day for garage sales. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that the weather cooperates and the rain tonight gets it out of its system before morning! Wish me luck tomorrow because then I am officially done with garage sales this summer!

Before I leave for the night, I have to share these super cute photos of my Little Miss Emmaline. They're not the greatest in color since I took them with my phone, but the subject of the picture is just too cute to not share! After dinner last night, the kids went to Greg's mom's for the night and Greg and I went to Kohl's in search of the new bedding for Emme's big girl bed. Of course we had to look at other things while in the store, and Greg came across these cute ballerina p.j.'s on clearance for Emme. I don't think I've told you, but Em is taking ballet class in a couple weeks and it's all she talks about. We gave them to her tonight and she was in heaven! She absolutely loved them and started doing ballet poses. I'm pretty sure these p.j.'s were meant for her!

How cute is this?

Cupcake Creations

There's this great contest on Lansing Mom's Like Me that I've decided to enter. It sounded fun and it got my creative juices flowing. There's a local bakery called the Sugar Shack here in Lansing and they feature gourmet cupcakes. I've never visited the store, but there's lots of rave about how good the cupcakes are and how unique some of their creations are. Their cupcake flavors are a little out of the ordinary and while they may not sound good, visitors of the Sugar Shack swear they're delicious! Some of their unique cupcake flavors include- French Toast, Dark Chocolate and Bacon, Elvis (peanut butter, banana, chocolate), Cosmopolitan, and Tiramisu. They've even had orange creamsicle, red pepper and chocolate, malted milk ball, salted caramel and grasshopper flavors. Very different than your normal chocolate or vanilla cupcake indeed.

To enter the contest all you have to do is come up with a brand new flavor of cupcake that they haven't had before and submit your flavor. There's not limit on the number of entries, but each entry has to be different from all other entries. In the end if I did happen to win, I get a $25 gift certificate to Sugar Shack and my cupcake featured in their store for a week! Sounds fun right? The contest goes until Sunday so there's lots of time entries. I started entering this morning and I've already come up with 11 different cupcake flavors! I was kind of surprised I had that many entries already. It's been fun brainstorming ideas! Here's my list so far:

1. Pink Cadillac- Strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting that has Oreo pieces in it. (I came up with this from a milkshake I had at the Route 66 Diner in Albuquerque.)
2. Pina Colada- Pineapple cupcake with a butter rum frosting sprinkled with coconut.
3. Root Beer Float- Root beer flavored cupcake with a creamy vanilla frosting.
4. Zucchini Cupcake with Ginger Frosting- Similar to a spiced carrot cake, but with zucchini instead, topped with a cream cheese frosting that is spiced with ground cinnamon and ground ginger.
5. Chunky Monkey- Banana cupcake with chocolate pieces topped with banana frosting and sprinkled with chocolate shavings
6. Strawberry Lemonade- Strawberry flavored cupcake with lemon frosting and garnished with a fresh strawberry.
7. Rocky Road- A chocolate cupcake with a gooey marshmallow center topped with a chocolate marshmallow frosting and sprinkled with almonds and mini marshmallows.
8. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake- Yellow cupcake with a chocolate chip cookie dough center topped with chocolate frosting.
9. PBJ- Peanut butter cupcake with a strawberry jelly frosting topped with peanut butter chips.
10. Caramel Popcorn- Corn cake like cupcake with a caramel frosting garnished with caramel popcorn pieces.
11. Sweet Potato- The cupcake would be similar to a carrot cake, but with sweet potatoes instead and topped with a marshmallow creme frosting that is slightly browned (like sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving time with marshmallows on top! Yum!)

So are you hungry yet? This of course is making me want to make my homemade cupcake recipe. I love cupcakes so this would be fun to win. What do you think of my selection so far? Remember they're supposed to be out of the ordinary so these are no straight up chocolate and vanilla! I'll have to see what else I come up with over the next couple days and let you know!

Successful Shopping & A Tooth

Time for my weekend wrap up and then some. I've been bad at blogging this week, but by golly we've had a busy week! It's been filled with playdates and fun! Thursday we headed to the MSU 4-H Children's Gardens to meet up with my friend Marie and her son Connor. It was our first trip to the gardens and as usual, it was beautiful! Most of the flowers were in full bloom and it was a beautiful day to explore the gardens. We hit the gardens at the right time because the train started running shortly before we were ready to leave. The kids were in their glory and loved watching it. It was hot out, but we managed to find some shady spots from time to time so we survived the heat. After the gardens we took the kids to McD's for lunch. Evan and Em thought it was fun to have lunch with Connor, but they missed Kyra since she wasn't there. All in all though it was a great morning!

Friday we had another playdate, this time with a couple of Evan's friends from preschool. We've been talking about it all summer now and finally a few of us were able to get together. We headed to the park and spent about an hour there playing. Evan was excited to see his friends Karin and Henry and have some play time with them. Em was loving the slide and swings, as well as playing with her brother and his friends. It was a great morning, and while it was hot once again, we managed to survive the heat before it got too hot later in the day!

Friday night we headed out right after Greg got home from work and ran some errands. We were on a mission to accomplish two things- one find a mattress for Emmaline and two, decide on our new deck. We had already shopped around some for a mattress and decided to go to one more place where we got our mattress a few years ago. It was a good thing we stopped because we found a mattress $100 cheaper than everywhere else we looked. We made a decision and picked out a mattress so now all we have to do is go back and buy it and set up delivery when we're ready for it. Shopping mission number one- success! Then we headed to Menards and redesigned our deck plans on the computer and after debating about size and a few things we got all the deck pieces ordered. We decided to go with a hardwood instead of the composite so what we ordered is special order and won't be in until the end of July. We decided to split up the order so we can get started on the posts and joists, etc. so all of that will be delivered on Friday. Then when the hardwood comes in the following week we'll just go and pick that up. I'm so excited that this is finally a go and with that said, shopping mission number two- success!

Saturday, Greg wanted to go see Inception and once the kids heard daddy talking about going to the movie they wanted to see a movie. So Greg went with his mom, aunt, and uncle to see Inception and I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 again. They had already seen it, but I hadn't so of course they didn't mind seeing it again. I wanted to see Despicable Me which they had already seen too, but there wasn't a time that coincided with Greg's movie so we ended up with Toy Story 3. It was a cute movie and the kids loved seeing it again so thanks to Greg's mom for treating them to the movies again. I pretty much can guarantee it will be a purchase on DVD when it comes out. Our movie ended a little before Greg's so we walked around the mall for a bit and then when they were all done with their movie we went to Champp's for dinner. I wanted to go out to Kohl's after dinner by myself to do some peaceful shopping (without kids getting into everything), but I forgot Greg wanted to finish up working on the Arizona wedding pictures. (Yes, Matt & Kai they're about done and will be posted on a site tomorrow. I know it seems like it's been awhile, but honestly this is pretty fast compared to most photographers!) So Greg's mom said she'd take the kids for awhile so we could each do our thing. Thanks so much! I was able to find some buys for Em's birthday so once again a successful shopping trip! On my way home I stopped to pick up the kids and Evan had a little surprise for me. He opened his mouth and said, "look mom, I've got a loose tooth!" He was so excited, and I was a little in awe. My little guy has his first loose tooth already! I knew the time would be coming, but I thought it would probably be next year after he turned six. The timing though is a little crazy because the day before my friend Jess posted on Facebook that her daughter Grace lost her first tooth and was asking what the going rate for a tooth is. I commented to her to let me know when she found out because I'll need to know down the road. Little did I know that down the road would be sooner than later. Evan's tooth is pretty loose so I'm guessing it will be out by the end of the month. I'm a little surprised that last night was the first he noticed it since it's so loose. I'll let you know when it's time for the tooth fairy to arrive!

Today we decided to head to the outlet mall. I've been searching online and in stores for a comforter for Em's new bed and wanted to check out the Pottery Barn Outlet. So we headed to Birch Run this afternoon. It's been a few years since I've been to Birch Run and it has changed some since the last time I was there. First we hit the Children's Place and we had two little one's who were very into shopping and trying on clothes. After they picked out, tried on, and filled a bag full of clothes we checked out and headed on to the next store. They both got some very cute outfits for the fall, thanks to Ya Ya. We hit a few stores and then our last stop was Pottery Barn. Unfortunately we didn't find anything in terms of bedding, and I have to say I was a little disappointed in the store this time around. There selection of stuff was scarce and it seemed like they didn't carry near the amount of stuff as in the past. After the outlet mall I managed to talk Greg in going home a different way through Brighton and Howell so we could stop at Tomato Brothers for dinner. A little out of the way, but we didn't have anything else to do so why not. We ended up making a stop at Home Goods and unfortunately there too I was a little disappointed. It didn't seem like they had near the amount of stuff they usually do and nothing at all really in bedding for Em. It was an uneventful stop, but I guess the good part was I saved money! I think I'm going to have to hit up the one by IKEA soon to get my Home Goods fix! We headed to dinner at Tomato Brothers after that so it wasn't a total waste going that way home. Dinner was delicious and if you've never been to Tomato Brother's in Howell, I highly recommend it! Yummy! A great weekend for the Kohuth family and now it's time to start another week. It's going to be a busy one so I'm sure there will be lots to tell!

Mid-Week Update

Wow, this week is going fast. Here it is Wednesday and the week has been busy busy busy, and it's not slowing down for the rest of the week! We'll start with Monday night and go from there. Why my husband picks the weirdest times to start projects I don't know, but Monday night was no different. We've been talking for months now about getting rid of our existing deck and putting in a patio. We had someone come out and give us an estimate and figured after we got back from vacation we'd probably get going on it. Then we started looking around at deck stuff at Menards, Home Depot, and Lowe's and started changing our minds. We got to thinking that maybe we'd do a deck again, but this time a lower deck that's only two feet off the ground. Back and forth, back and forth we went and finally on Sunday we decided we're going with a deck instead of the patio. Which brings me to Monday night after dinner at about 7pm my husband decides to start tearing down the old deck. I thought he was only going to do a little bit and a little while later I looked out and saw this!

Just an F.Y.I., we have no new deck purchased at this point and we don't know exactly what we want to do. The old deck was a kit we got about three years ago and now it's kind of falling apart, boards are warping, and it needs to be stained again. It looked decent when we first put it up, but over the last year it's really gotten kind of bad and we've had enough of it. I apologize neighbors for the eye sore. Greg got quite far Monday, night, but when starting at 7pm he didn't get finished. Tuesday evening after work he came home and went right to work removing more pieces. He got it all down except for a small part so we can let Molly in and out. He had to move the stairs and shift some pieces a little so there was something by the slider door.

We had been trying to figure out how to get rid of all this lumber since we can't burn it. A great idea popped into Greg's head and he went with it. He contacted the MMBA (Michigan Mountain Biking Association) to see if they'd be interested in it for the bike trails. I guess the guys are often building stuff from scratch for the trails for areas that go over a little water, etc. and Greg thought they might be able to use the wood. A guy came by last night and looked at it and said sure enough they could. He didn't have a way to haul it, but was going to get a hold of someone and get back with Greg. Another guy from the MMBA contacted Greg today and he's coming by tomorrow to haul away the decking. It will go to good use on the trails. Since the deck is in sections it will be nice for parts on the trails and the guys won't have to build piece by piece. Plus now we don't have to pay someone to haul away the old deck. Looks like we all win!

Tuesday brought about an unexpected surprise in a way. Remember the nice lady (Angie is her name) that came to buy all my girl clothes and car seat at the sale? Well, we were out for a walk and passed by her house and she was just getting home. She got out of the car with a little boy, and we started talking. Come to find out, she and her husband are renting the house down the street from us and her brother (Nick) lives with her and rents too. Nick is going through a divorce and has two kids, Ethan (5) and Avery (11 months). The kids live with him a couple days a week and yesterday happened to be Ethan's birthday. Evan and Ethan hit it off right away and began playing the minute he got out of the car. We were talking and next thing we know she's inviting us in for birthday cake and the kids were in the house playing. We chatted it up for awhile and the kids had a blast. It was hard to tear them apart, but we eventually had to leave. So it looks like we've made some new friends and Evan (Em too) has made a new friend in the neighborhood who is just about his age. They played wonderfully together and before we left made plans to play today.

So sure enough this morning the doorbell is ringing and Ethan is at the front door with his dad and sister. He was ready to play, but Evan had just gotten out of the shower and hadn't eaten breakfast yet so we weren't quite ready. They came back in about a half hour and we all played outside. It was hot out this morning! The kids played with just about every toy in the garage and then Nick was kind enough to go get popsicles from his house for the kids. We hung out in the backyard and visited while the kids ate their popsicles quickly before they melted! Evan was in his glory having a boy his age in the neighborhood to play with. They left a little before lunch time and had made plans again to play tonight. They came back around 7pm and we chatted with Nick while Evan showed Ethan around the house. He had to show Ethan his bedroom and the basement. Avery played with some of Em's toys and was such a happy little camper. She's really adorable and such a good baby. Then we headed back to Ethan's house for a little bit before calling it a night. It looks like we're going to have many more playdates with Ethan when he's at his dad's house. Evan is already talking about the next time they play.

That's a little wrap up of the past couple days. Tomorrow we're headed to the MSU Children's Gardens to meet my friend Marie. We haven't been to the gardens yet this summer so we're really looking forward to it!

Garage Sale Day 2 = Big Purchase For Emmaline

It's Sunday night already, how did that happen. I guess when most of my weekend was taken up by the garage sale, there wasn't much left of it to enjoy! The garage sale was to be 8:30am-4:30pm on Saturday. My alarm went off Saturday morning and I could not for anything get out of bed. I was so tired and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. I laid there for awhile, thinking Saturday's are usually slow for garage sales and nobody usually shows up right away like they were on the first day. So I decided to stay in bed even longer. Finally I got up about 8am, hopped in the shower and got ready. I got outside and started pulling things out of the garage about 8:35am. Sure enough, like I had thought, nobody was showing up. It was dead until about 9am when the first person showed up, and of course that person didn't buy a thing. After that it was still dead so I decided to go down to the basement and brought up some bags of toys that I hadn't gotten out because I had run out of room. I set those toys out on the tables, priced them and then a few people started showing up. Right away two of those toys sold & $7 was in my pocket! Yeah for going down to the basement and bringing the toys up!

About 9:30am this car pulls up and out pops a pregnant lady and her husband. She walked in the garage and looked at the girls clothes for a minute and then says to me, "I live down the street about four houses, and I'm due in September with a girl how do your sizes correlate with that? I told her Em was born in August so pretty much they were right on, just a month apart. She then says to me, "How much for ALL your girls clothes?" I was a little awe struck and didn't know what to say. I told her I didn't really know I'd probably have to think it over. She said she had seen my ad on Craigslist and knew many of the clothes were Children's Place, Old Navy, and some Baby Gap and liked what she saw. She said eventually she's going to need it all so how about I bag her up $100 worth of clothes. I'm thinking, O.K. holy cow! Then she's talking to her husband and saying to him, "you know $100 doesn't go far when you go to Kohl's and by clothes for just you or me, do you think we need more?" He kept telling her whatever you think. She's talking to me and says, "This is my first I don't know anything about babies you're the expert, what do I need? Do I need those car seats too (I had two convertible car seats in the sale) because I have the carry car seat." I let her know that eventually she would need them. Anyway, she was in a bit of a hurry because she had to get to the hospital to do some testing for gestational diabetes. She said she'd be back in about 3 1/2 hours or so to pick up the clothes, could I get them bagged up. I told her sure and confirmed that she wanted $100 worth. She then said, oh give me $150 worth. I'm thinking, is this lady serious? She left and I started bagging in hopes that she'd return. Sure enough she came back and walks up and hands me $150. Then she's looking at the car seats and asks some questions and says she'll take those too. We walk to her car with all her stuff and she gets $100 from her husband for the car seats and hands to me. I had $50 each on them and had marked them down to $45 before she came back. She told me to just take $100. Well, o.k.! One customer = $250= AWESOME! I've never had an offer like that. I was totally blessed to have her stop by. I had weeded out most of the good items for her so basically almost all my girl clothes are gone. How nice to get rid of all that!

That was a great sale alone, but I also had a pretty good turnout for a Saturday. It was slow a lot, but did get busy in spurts and during those times I was selling items so that's good. I got rid of all my big items except my stroller and one booster seat for the kitchen table. What a great feeling to get rid of so much stuff. I started with a ridiculous amount of stuff though, and while I got rid of tons I still have tons left so I'm going to give it another go in a couple weeks when a few others in the neighborhood are having one. I figured I might as well since there will be traffic in the neighborhood.

Between the two days the sale was a great success, as was my friends Jenn and Christine's sale! It definitely paid off to have the sales at the same time and advertise the sales! I've never had a sale in July and this was by far my best sale ever. I'm thinking it's July sales from now on! With that said, that brings me to the big purchase for Emmaline. We've now definitely made up our mind that we're going to make this big purchase after weeks of debating. Little Miss Emmaline will be getting a "big girl bed" for her birthday!!! She's still in her crib, yes I know she's almost three. Really though she's content with it, but after being on vacation we started thinking that she probably is ready to be done with the crib. It's so nice though because I know she's safe in there and can't (at least doesn't try yet) get out of bed and into stuff in her room. She still takes her naps since she can't get out of her bed and she goes to bed at night. This I'm afraid is probably all going to change very soon when the big girl bed comes. However, she can't stay in her crib forever. Her crib converts to a toddler bed and then to a full size bed. So the debate really was do we change it to a toddler bed and spend about $80 on a rail to make it the toddler bed or do we just put that money towards a full size mattress. Since the sale was a success, the decision was made and we're just going right to the full size mattress and making the big purchase. We've been talking about it with Em and she wants a bed like brothers so I think she'll be happy with it.

So today we went out mattress shopping. I think we know what we want. Nothing too fancy as far as fancy mattresses are concerned, but no a cheap piece of junk mattress that isn't going to last very long. We've got a few weeks before her birthday so there's time to look around a little and decide. Besides I need to really get up in Em's room over the next few weeks and get it organized and rearrange stuff so it's ready when we do get the crib switched over and the new mattress in. I'm definitely going to be busy over the next couple weeks! For now though I'm ready for bed. The garage sale really wore me out this weekend. I don't know how it is that sitting in a garage all day wears you out, but with the sun added into that apparently it does because Friday and Saturday I was whipped. My friend Jenn said the same thing! Good night readers!

Garage Sale Success

Today was a busy day, but in a very good way! It was day one of the garage sale, and I'd say with throwing this sale together at the last minute it was a huge success! I of course had a TON of kids clothes. It's a little ridiculous the amounts of clothes my kids have. The garage was bursting at the seams with kids clothes. Not only are they very cute clothes, most are in like new condition. It's a shame they grow out of some things so fast! I also had some bigger items that I was hoping to get rid of- stroller, car seats, Leap Frog learning table, bath seat, booster seats, dinosaur drop and roll, a push around buggy car, and that Pooh Bear outdoor playset I bought at a Mom2Mom Sale last year (the kids are actually getting a little big for it and don't use it all that much). I couldn't believe how fast most of the big items went. I got rid of everything, but the stroller, car seats, and one booster seat. Not bad for the first day!

The clothes went pretty good too! Em's clothes (which of course I think are all so adorable) sold a little more than the boys clothes. Some customers were buying arm loads of girls clothes which was awesome! I get a little sentimental when people are buying the kids stuff because it brings back lots of memories. However, what am I to do with the stuff? We're done having kids so it's just sitting around. Someone else might as well get some use out of it. I ran out of room on the tables Thursday night when I was setting up so I couldn't even put all the clothes out. So it was a good thing they were selling so I could replenish the tables! Here's a couple pictures of the garage all set up and ready for customers to come take it away!

Stuff...

LOTS of stuff...

...and even more stuff!

My mom came to help me with the sale and the kids today. She brought the kids outside for awhile, but it was so hot and I didn't want them to get sunburned so after a bit I told them they could go in and watch some cartoons. A short while later I came in to make them some lunch and this is what I found.


They were having a little cartoon party apparently. Em had her two babies in the stroller watching cartoons. If you look carefully you'll see that they're even buckled in! Safety first, right? Even Molly was watching the t.v. It was all just too cute! Definitely a Kodak moment, or what would you call it these days since nobody uses film? LOL.

Overall, I'd have to say today was a pretty good day for the sale, and it was more of a success than I thought it would be. Although I have a lot of stuff left, I really can't complain because I did get rid of A LOT of things! My friends Jenn and Christine down the street who were also having a sale said they did really good today too. I'm glad we all did the sales at the same time. Tomorrow is day two of the garage sale. I'm not expecting it to be as good as today for two reasons. For one, I don't have as many big items left to sell. For two, from past experience Saturday's have always been a little slower than Friday's so I'm guessing it won't be as busy. However, I'd love to be wrong this time and am hoping for a decent turnout! Wish me luck! We want to make a big purchase for Little Miss Emmaline later this month (which I'll fill you in on later) so I'm hoping to make enough money for that! I'll let you know how the rest of the sale turns out in my next post! Until then, it looks to be a beautiful weekend ahead so I hope you all enjoy it! Happy weekend readers!

4th Of July Weekend Festivities

Happy July everyone! I know I say this at the beginning of every month about the previous month, but geez where the heck did June go? Holy smokes, I think I blinked and June was over with. Summer is just whipping by and before we know it we'll be talking about Labor Day weekend like I'm about to talk about 4th of July weekend. It's time to play catch up from almost a week ago when you heard from me last. On Thursday I finally took the kids to the library. It's been a little overdue as they have kept asking and we just hadn't found the time. We went Thursday morning and met my friend Jess and her kids there. The kids had a great time playing and picking out books. We also happened to see a lot of other families from the neighborhood. I guess it was the day to go. We discovered the "Make A Splash: Read" program while we were there. This is a program for kids preschool to 7th grade. Kids can take a sheet that has 15 items on it and they have to complete 7 of them each week. Then you can go back to the library, turn it in, and they get a little prize. Great reading incentive for the summer. I think we'll be hitting the library every week!

Friday we headed to my sister's house for the weekend. Since Greg and Evan couldn't go camping for real this past weekend (everything was booked) they decided to "camp" in my sister's backyard. Evan was really excited about this. He and Greg pitched the tent when we got there and got everything ready. Then we headed over to my dad's to watch the fireworks on the lake. My niece Kaite invited her boyfriend John over so we all got to meet him. Evan had no problem making friends with John right away and poor Kaite and John had Evan and Em hanging around them all night. Grandpa had bought Evan a bean bag toss game so of course Evan wanted John to play. What a kid! It was also nice to visit with my sister's Godparents Greg & Linda, and my dad's cousin Jan who also came over to watch the fireworks. It's been a few years since we've seen Greg & Linda and the last time we saw Jan was probably our wedding. All us "kids" took the boat out for a ride before it got dark, and then when it got close to firework time my Dad took all of us out on the lake to watch the fireworks. It's been years since I've seen the lake fireworks there and even longer since I've actually gone out on the lake to watch them from the boat. We all had a nice evening and it was neat to see all the boats on the lake at night. The fireworks weren't quite as good as they've been in the past. This was the first year they did them from barges since there's no longer vacant land to do them from. We figured probably so much money was spent on the barges that there was less to spend on the fireworks. It was still fun nonetheless and the kids had a great time which is what counts!

Saturday afternoon we headed to my Uncle Karl & Aunt Mary's cottage that is just south of Three Rivers, MI. It's been years since I've been there and Greg and the kids had never been there so we made plans earlier in the week to meet up with them and my cousins over the weekend. This is the Sharkey clan that we visited at Easter time. My kids have no problem hanging with their cousins that they've either never met before or hardly see. First in Arizona they quickly clung to Kevin, Matt, KaiAnn, and Ryan. Now this past weekend they quickly clung to all the Sharkey cousins. I'd name them, but there's A LOT! Evan was going non-stop at the lake all day. He kept my cousin Rich busy too wanting to go out on the pontoon boat (several times) and the paddle boat. He had a blast once the super soaker got out too, and he was running around getting everyone wet. Em & Ev both got daddy to take them for a paddle boat ride too. The Sharkey's were getting dinner going when we got there and made us some wonderfully delicious shish-ka-bobs with chicken, steak, and smoked sausage. Thanks to my cousin Dave for doing all the grilling. It was delish and I had never had smoked sausage on the grill and it was very tasty. They had marinated it, and I was surprised Greg even liked it. I'm gonna have to make some. The kids also got to roast marshmallows in the fire pit and make s'mores. We all had a wonderful afternoon at the cottage and thanks to the Sharkey's for all the food, beer, and hospitality! Here's a couple pictures from our day at the cottage. I'll share more on Facebook. Here's Evan with the super soaker ready to go on the pontoon!

Greg taking the kids out on the paddle boat.

After we got back to my sisters, we had promised the kids a bonfire there so Evan helped Aunt Jen get stuff set up. He was so excited about the bonfire at Aunt Jen's. Em had fallen asleep on the way home from the cottage so she didn't get to enjoy the bonfire. It was the perfect night out to sit around the bonfire, drink a beer, and we made hot dogs and s'mores. A great ending to a perfect day! Then Evan and Greg camped out again Saturday night which once again Evan loved!

Sunday we hung out on the lake at my dad's and boy was it a hot one! It felt really good to be out on the boat since there was a nice breeze! We got to get in a couple boat rides before we headed home later in the day, and the kids even got to feed the swans out on the lake on one of the boat rides. They had fun doing that. Here they are throwing the bread out.


There was supposed to be a boat parade on the lake on Sunday which was one of the reasons we headed that way for the weekend. Whoever wants to enter can and you decorate your boat and well, do a parade on the lake. The theme this year was different holidays so you could pick your favorite holiday and decorate the boat. However, the parade got canceled because there wasn't enough participants so Evan was really bummed. We still had a fun day on the water though. I can't believe how much my kids love being on the boat! It's fun to see them so excited about it and enjoy it so much. Now if I could just win the lottery, we could buy a cottage somewhere!

We came home on Sunday so I could get going on setting up for my garage sale on Monday. I was planning to have a sale next weekend, but then a few people from the neighborhood mentioned they were doing sales this weekend so I figured I might as well too and hopefully we'll get a lot of traffic. I got a lot of work done on it on Monday, but then I took a two hour nap in the middle of the day so had I not done that I could of gotten more done. I'm working at it every day this week so hopefully I'll be ready in time. So that's our 4th of July weekend. I hope all of you had an enjoyable extended weekend, and now it's time to keep surviving this heat!