Happy 6th Birthday, Caura!

Caura turned 6 years old today! Yesterday she was extra extra good. She didn't want to take any chances that I would take her presents back or not have a party because she misbehaved. She went to bed too excited to sleep but also very eager to go to sleep so she could wake up and get presents.

She requested a side pony-tail today. She requested to go to Friendly's for dinner. She requested a vanilla cake with chocolate icing with jimmies on top, but to leave some slices without jimmies for people who don't like jimmies. Yeah, it's pretty much going to be the most beautiful cake in the world.

Here is a little bit about my 6 year old princess (okay, it's not a little bit)

CAURA

1. She likes cherry mixed fruit cups, but doesn’t really care for the cherries.
2. She likes to eat apple slices with a cinnamon and sugar mixture.
3. She likes to buy lunch once a week.
4. Her favorite princess is Rapunzel, but there is a 5 way tie for her second favorite princess (Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella, and Jasmine).
5. She started to enjoy watching Good Luck Charlie this year.
6. She likes boys, although she knows she’s not allowed to have a boyfriend, or kiss one. She said she can just “look at them.”
7. This year she has really started to like songs that you would hear on the radio, not just nursery rhymes.
8. She wants everyone to like her. She will continue to play with a child who is mean to her because she wants them to be nice to her.
9. She likes to try my shoes on.
10. She likes to put on dress up clothes and give us a fashion show.
11. She has perfected her fashion show walk.
12. She can read.
13. She can tell time.
14. She likes to be Aubree’s teacher.
15. She likes to wear her hair up now, especially in a “pony-tail braid.”
16. Bianca, Mina, and Katie D are her “BFF’s”.
17. She is still cuddly.
18. She loves her chickens.
19. She can catch two chickens before most adults can even get near enough to catch one.
20. She likes to wear high-heels.
21. If you buy her new clothes, she gets excited and wants to try them on.
22. She likes reading stories from the Children’s Bible.
23. She can swim in the deep end without swimmies.
24. She can jump off the diving board, although she likes to do this with swimmies or a noodle.
25. She went on the big roller coaster at Dutch Wonderland and loved it.
26. She can’t wear clothes in the toddler section anymore.
27. She likes to wear shoes that light up.
28. She is still missing her three front teeth.
29. She has been willing to try more food this year. She recently learned that she likes tacos.
30. She likes to hang upside-down on the swings.
31. She likes to wear dresses.
32. When she’s excited about something, she comes in full force to hug you.
33. She grew a lot this year.
34. She can paint her own nails.
35. She knows how to use Google.
36. She calls the American Flag “the Grand Old Flag.”
37. She wants everyone to be married and have kids.
38. She can pour her own drink.
39. She can make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
40. She likes to pick up Saige.
41. She’s usually the first one awake in the family, but she will go downstairs and entertain herself until the next person wakes up.
42. She likes to play games and songs on my IPOD.
43. She likes to smell the scented pages in the Yankee Candle catalogs.
44. She doesn’t like to run errands.
45. She really really wants to go back to Disney World.
46. She gets very excited when she finds she has something in common with another person.
47. She doesn’t pick up on Danny’s sarcasm.
48. She is happy if you buy her something from the Target dollar spot.
49. She’s a chatterbox. The only time she’s not talking is when she’s not allowed to (for instance during a school lesson) or when she’s asleep.
50. She wants to know everything about everything.
51. She likes to read signs while riding in a car (“Mommy, what’s an Outlet?” “What does yield mean?”)
52. Her favorite show is “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
53. When we are at a store, and there are a lot of people there, she says “They’re busy, they’re going to make a lot of money today.”
54. She wants to be a flower girl again.
55. She likes to show everyone the shoes she wears.
56. She thinks it’s cool that she’s old enough to go to Jr. Church.
57. She is a backseat driver.
58. She thinks every cookie or dessert I make is the “best I’ve ever made.”
59. When I make something she likes for dinner, she tells me she won’t complain about dinner tonight.
60. She tries to scare me, and is very unsuccessful.
61. She wears her Rapunzel hair every day.
62. You can now tell what she’s drawing without her having to explain it.
63. She says that Saige is so cute she wants to put her on a sandwich and eat her up.
64. She calls the Poconos “Pinochios.”
65. She is scared of Vultures, Turkey Buzzards, and any other birds that she thinks will come and eat our chickens.
66. She likes to name all the groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks in our yard.
67. She doesn’t like sports, but she wants to know what team to root for.
68. She wants everyone to have a birthday party, no matter their age.
69. If we go to an adult family member’s birthday “party” she wants to know what the birthday theme is.
70. When pumpkin picking, she wanted the biggest pumpkin she can carry.
71. She loves crafts.
72. Her favorite restaurant is Friendly’s.
73. She loves to visit family in Virginia.
74. She is not scared of the waves at the beach.
75. After a few requests, she got to go camping in the backyard with Daddy and Aubree.
76. She loves to dance, and is in her 5th year of “Dance Class” this year she started Dance 1A which has ballet, tap, and jazz.
77. She likes to take pictures and pose for pictures.
78. She loves princesses but she has gone beyond Disney princesses. She wants to know who the first princess was, if there are any princesses now, and any princesses in between.
79. She likes to remind me that one day she’s going to be 8, 12, 20…
80. She doesn’t like to be “caught” taking a nap.
81. She can’t decide if she wants to be a grocery payer lady or a teacher when she grows up.
82. She’s very into geography. She wants to know what the biggest state is, biggest country, and where Belle is from.
83. She has a lot of energy.
84. She likes when Uncle Ben comes in to sing songs to her and the other kids at Church.
85. She likes to run on the ramp at church.
86. She wants to watch You Tube videos, especially “He’s still working on me.”
87. She thinks her spelling tests are easy.
88. She eats her snack first at lunch.
89. She brings home her trash from lunch.
90. She thinks Mommy’s in charge of Daddy.
91. When she wants you to see something, you have to “close your eyes.”
92. She becomes “starving” as soon as you tell her to brush her teeth.
93. She likes bacon and eggs, but usually not the bacon.
94. She wants pancakes for breakfast, everyday.
95. She will call you out if you keep a light on without being in the room. She’ll tell you that you are wasting power.
96. She doesn’t want me to call her “Baby” she wants me to call her “Sweetie.”
97. She appreciates a countdown when leaving somewhere fun (5 more minutes!)
98. She likes to use the phrase “All right” as in “Yep, it’s raining all right.”
99. She loves going to musicals and plays.
100. She is positive and optimistic and a joy to raise.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Nothing Like a Fruit Fly Up Your Nose

Is it fruit fly season? If so or if not, they have invaded my home. They are such annoying bugs. They have no fear of humans, they fly up your nose, and they are too small to swat and kill. It also seems that if you have one, you have seven thousand of them.

We are told growing up that fruit flies appear when you have over ripe fruit in your house. This is not entirely true. Apparently fruit flies lay their eggs on fruit (or really any food) and when you buy a bunch of bananas at the store, you may be buying fruit with fruit fly eggs on it. They are too small to see, so it's not really the fault of the store. (Or is it? Once in a while, Shop Rite sells their bananas in bags. I bought a bunch of bagged bananas a couple of weeks ago and I believe the fruit flies came from these bunches of bananas. Could they have possibly known and bagged the bananas up in an attempt to keep the fruit flies from getting on the other produce? Conspiracy theory anyone?).

In trying to get rid of the fruit flies, I have been extra careful with not leaving food out, and although I have been extra careful, my children have not. I have also been doing the dishes more so nothing's in the sink, and I have even thrown away what seemed like perfectly good bananas because they were covered in fruit flies. I am not willing to spray bug killer products with the skull and crossbones on the bottle all over my kitchen, so I looked for another method of getting rid of the flies.

Good old google led me to this contraption:

(sorry for the fuzzy picture, and for the not entirely clear vase)

1. Put a piece of fruit at the bottom of a vase or large glass (bananas seem to be their favorite).

2. Make a paper funnel and place it in the vase. Make sure the hole at the bottom of the funnel is not too big (think dime or nickel size), and give a few inches between the banana and the bottom of the funnel.

3. To make sure there are no gaps between the paper and the inside edges of the vase (so the little buggers can't escape) I folded the funnel over the top of the vase and taped it down.

4. Place it on the countertop in the area where you saw the most fruit flies. The flies will travel down the funnel to get to the banana. When they are done with their snack, they will fly up to get out but will be trapped. Most likely, they will not figure out that they have to go back out the way they came in.

The first time I did this, it worked very well. Overnight it seemed I had caught all the fruit flies. The problem was disposing of them. They were still alive, so when I took the funnel out, they just flew away. So sorry world, I did not rid you of fruit flies, I just rid my house of them.

The next day I saw a few lingering flies, so I set up the contraption again, this time with an apple core. I caught a bunch, but slowly this time. Then, today, I've deduced that the first batch of flies' babies must have hatched because I had a ton again. I set up the contraption again with a banana this time and within a few hours, I have caught a swarm.

Hopefully soon I will be rid of them for good!!!

Boycott Hunger

Hey Friends, tomorrow I am participating in "Boycott Hunger," and hope you will consider doing it, too. The main point is that you skip at least one meal tomorrow, and donate the money you would have spent on your meal to a charity that's purpose is to fight hunger. Read more about it here!

Love Songs

On my way home from Dutch Wonderland last night, I turned my IPOD onto my "favs" playlist, on shuffle. Two songs came on, and it made me wonder what my Aunt (who was my front seat passenger) thought about them. I'm sure she had never heard them before, and I tried to listen to them from her perspective. Perhaps she understood right away that they were Christian songs being sung to God, but they could have just as easily come accross as "way too obsessed about your boyfriend or girlfriend love song."

The first one was TobyMac's "Made To Love" with the following lyrics:

I was made to love you
I was made to find you
I was made just for you
Made to adore you
I was made to love
and be loved by you
You were here before me
you were waiting on me
and you said you'd keep me
never will you leave me
I was made to love
and be loved by you

AND

anything I would give up for you
Everything I'd give it all away



The other song was FFH's "Your Love is Life To Me" with the following lyrics

Your love is life to me
my truest moments my deepest need
without it one moment I don't know where I'd be
your love is life to me
bread for my body
light for my eyes
all that I need you daily provides
deep in my being
more than my blood
my very existence
depends on your love


If these were regular pop songs about a girlfriend or boyfriend, people would get a bad feeling about them, as if the person was too obsessed, or stalkerish, or maybe just putting too much of the whole meaning of their life in being in love with another human being.

Instead, these are love songs to God. Because we can be obsessed with Him. We can stalk Him. We can make the whole meaning of our life about loving Him. A human being cannot be this "everything" to us.

On another note, tomorrow is my 11th wedding anniversary. I have to say, I've got "one of the good ones." Danny's a fantastic husband, and could probably teach a class on "how to be a good husband." However, my "very existence" does not depend on Danny's Love, but I do (insert our cheesy, sappy wedding song) "tip my hat to the keep of the stars" for joining our two hearts.

Saige Is Too Cool

My 15 month old Saige is too cool to be a baby.

She's too cool for the baby swing.

She's too cool to go slow on the tire swing.

She's too cool to play on outdoor equipment that is safe for babies.

She's too cool to sit in her high chair.

She's too cool to be the baby in the family, she is gladly passing that title along to cousin Gianna.

She's too cool to grow up slow. Expect your invitation to her High School graduation party in about a day or two.

Foam Soap = Money Saver

Foam Soap = Money Saver? I know what you are thinking. "The soap in the foam pump bottle is more expensive at the store than the regular pump soap, and you go through it in half the time." True. Another quick fact about these foam soaps is that most of the liquid in the bottle is water (and cleans your hands just as well). So how is this a money saver?

1. Keep the bottle and rinse it out.
2. Buy (or make!) liquid hand soap to refill the bottle. (Try to stay clear of the soaps with moisturizer in them).
3. Pour about an inch of soap into the foam bottle.
4. Fill the rest with water and mix (with a knife or by tilting side to side).
5. Wash hands.

If I buy the 7.5 oz softsoap for a $1, I can probably get about 5 foam pumps out of it, making each refill $0.20.

I recently made my own hand soap as part of the Real Crunchy Summer that I am participating in. I still had some store bought soap to get rid of, and tried the foam soap with that, but I am excited to try my homemade soap with it. It will make each bottle around $0.04 if I use the homemade soap. (To read about how I made my hand soap, click here)

Summer: Week 2 Highlights

Our week started with a BBQ at Joann and Jason's house where we got to spend some much needed time with many of our Church family and friends. Joann showed me that you can peel a watermelon (with a knife).

On Tuesday, Caura, Aubree, and I went to the $1 10am movie at United Artist Theater in Sewell. We saw Yogi Bear.

Barrington had their 4th of July parade and fireworks on Tuesday night. We watched the parade, then stood out front of my Mom's neighbors house to see the fireworks.

Poppy drove his '31 Model A pick-up in the parade, and Mom, (cousin) Jessica, Me, Danny, My girls, and Luci watched and collected candy.

On Wednesday, we visited Nanny, Grandpop, Julie, and Ava who were vacationing in Ocean City. It was Saige's first time on the beach, and she was a fan.

On Friday, we went to Adventure Aquarium with new friends.

Saturday was a scorcher and Caura and Aubree spent at least 6 hours in the pool! We were so proud of Caura because she can confidently swim in the deep end.

We had a great week!