Raeleigh's Gingerbread House

Thanksgiving Craft Party!

We kicked off the Thanksgiving holiday with a childrens craft party at our house.  The kids made turkey headbands, thankful family trees, decorated turkey cupcakes, and created pine cone turkeys. Decorations were courtesy of Amanda’s Parties To Go;  with the free downloadable file it was super easy to put this shindig together! 

 

Pine Cone Turkey Supplies: Pine Cones, Feathers, Googly Eyes, Orange Card Stock, Scissors and Glue Dots.

 

Turkey Cupcake Supplies: Cupcakes, Chocolate Icing, Candy Corns and Candy Eyes.

 

Finger Painted Thankful Tree Supplies: 8"x10" Canvas (1 per Family), Paint Colors: Sage, Maroon, Orange, Brown, Red,

Paper Plates (for paint pallet), Vinyl "Thankful" Letters and finish off the canvas with a coat of  Modge Podge.

 

Coloring Sheets can be downloaded here.

 

Turkey Head Band were also part of Amanda's Parties To Go Package.

 

It was a beautiful day for an outdoor BBQ and in between crafts the kids had fun playing in the park.

 

 

Thank you for partying with us!

Jenny Devine & Family

 

 

Thanksgiving Fun at FBS

This week Rae’s teacher sent home a note requesting parent volunteers; because I have a full time job I was only able to donate an hr or so of my time.  I arrived at 9:50am, my normal 20mins late, the kids were working in small groups at different stations.  I tagged along with Rae’s group and this is how it went...

The kids made Indian headbands...

 
They learned how to make fresh corn tortillas...

 

They talked about spearfishing...

 

They got their faces painted...

 

They had story time and participated in a Native American dance ceremony!

 

 

5 Little Indians! 

 

I missed out on the Thanksgiving Feast that followed…. this hard working mama had to get back to work!

 

Lots of Love,

Jenny Devine & Family

Just do it!/Use it!

I’ve always said whether it’s a diet plan, exercise equipment or some type of workout program (P90X), it all works; you just have to do it/use it!  Problem #1 – I never use it!  Problem #2 – I eat too much.

I’ve purchased my share of “as seen on TV” fitness products… at 3am those dang infomercials make me believe in magic!  So when it comes down to it, I’ve owned: Thigh Master, Leg Magic, Red Exerciser (commonly known as the Spinning Chair of BullSh*t), Winsor Pilates, P90X – including the pull up bar... and for the record they shouldn’t let people 40lbs over weight purchase this item, I mean I can’t even almost use the damn thing…. not even with chair support!.

So all this brings me to my most recent fitness purchase (a NOT as seen on tv product)… the FITBIT Ultra Wireless Activity Plus SleepTracker! It’s all in the name… this thing is pretty freakin' cool!  It tracks daily steps, stairs climbed, distance, calories burned, activity level and how long and how well you sleep. It wirelessly uploads data to fitbit.com and you can see online graphs, compete with friends, log food and weight. I believe there’s even an iPhone app. I’m only on day 3 of my FITBIT life, I realize I’m in the early stages so far I love it and plan to live happily ever after with her!  She’s a pinkish plum color – clearly it’s a girl!  I showed my husband the sleep report online, he said, “who makes that”, I showed him the box and asked if he wanted one – his response, “No, but I might want to buy stock in that company”.

$79.99 at Best Buy

If you purchse in store, this is the package you're looking for!

 

A Couple Online Reports

So with my FITBIT clipped to my brazier (it’s small and discreet) - I delcare, This time I’m just gonna do it/use it!  Every day- morning, noon and night!!!

 

My weight loss journey begins!

This is gonna hurt.....

-Jen

 

Thanksgiving PTO Fundraiser

I’m a card carrying member of the “mamarazzi” club...I don’t dare miss a photo op of these two. I usually have a camera in my purse – you never know when the money shot will strike! So when the kids’ school decided to host a $5 holiday photo fundraiser, I was sold!  More pictures of my kids? – Why yes, I need more!  So here’s what 10 bucks can buy you now a days…

 

Thanksgiving 2012 at FBS.

 

          MJ (2)                              Raeleigh (5)

 

2012 School Picture Day

        Raeleigh Hayes, 5                                             MJ, 2            

           Pre-K                                                 Pre-School III

Mrs. Rodriguez's Class                            Ms. Michelle's Class 

Happy Halloweenie!

My kids had two tons of fun celebrating in October.  A couple weeks ago daddy was at a BBQ cook-off so Saturday morning breakfast was left in my hands… someone should be concerned. I’m not known for cooking… anything… EVER!! Then I remembered something I pinned (on pinterest) and guess what people, it was easy squeezy! 

Breakfast is served!

We called them mummy sticks!  Served with a little mustard on the side, they were delish! Not really sure it qualifies as breakfast but we ate them in the morning… I win!

Later on that day, after I took the kids to the Jazz Festival...

 

And before I escaped to the Executive Surf Club with the girls…

We made bones!

 These little suckers are tasty!  Pretzel sticks with mini marshmallows on each end dipped in white chocolate!  I’ll drink to that!

Now, with two solid Halloween pinterest success stories under my belt I was ready to try more, and with that our mini Halloween party was created!  We painted pumpkins, carved pumpkins, decorated cupcakes, made ghost cookies, made footprint ghost and even had a mini photo shoot!  I never thought I’d say this, but I wish I would have taken more photos…. A little bummed about that.

 

 

Thank you Grandma, Grandpa, Tanya, Taylor, Fando, Lola, Lilly, and Hilly for celebrating with us!

And then the big day was here, “Happy Halloweenie” was the saying of the day!  The kids’ school hosted a Noah’s Ark theme Carnival so we started the fun at FBS.  Raeleigh reminded us all week to take “cans of beans” for free tickets, you could buy tickets there but she really wanted to donate cans of beans to our local food bank. So with two cans of beans, a can of fruit cocktail and a can of asparagus we were ready for a good time!  

With tickets in hand - here we go!

 

So many games... so much fun!

 

 

Raeleigh had a blast seeing her friends in their Halloween Costumes - these girls are too cute!

After the carnival we made our usual Halloween rounds.  This year we stopped by Laura and John’s house first, then we visited Aunt Santa, next we went to Grandma Shortys, then Grandma and Grandpapa’s and like we do every year, we finished off the night with Ms. Karen, Uncle Brent and Uncle Todd. 

 

I let the kids eat cupcakes, cookies and chocolates (pizza and McDonalds too) - Daddy wasn't to happy about that..."awww, come on dad, it's Happy Halloweenie"! Daddy knows best - Halloween is fun but sugar bugs are not!  He bushed their teeth as soon as we got home... at 9pm.  Eeeeeekkkk!

Lots of Love,

Jenny Devine & Family