The Perfect Mother's Day Gift- A Coffee Sleeve

I know this post is a little late, but maybe it will help someone for another holiday, or special time. I was searching on the web for a gift for my mother for mother’s day, when I came across this site.

It is actually a site I have been to previously, but just had forgotten about. This is a gift site, and is a wonderful one at that, it has so many great selections, it is hard to keep it down to one choice!

My mother is a coffee fanatic. She has at least 3 to 4 different flavors of coffee on hand at the house at all times. She is the kind of coffee drinker that can have it at 8:00 at night and still fall asleep!

I found the perfect gift for her, a monogrammed coffee sleeve! She will get the biggest kick out of the monogrammed coffee sleeve I chose for her!

Now, as I was searching this site, I found something great for myself, which I have wanted for quite some time now. Monogrammed towel wraps. I absolutely hate it when I get out of the shower, and wrap that towel around me, and it won’t stay on! I think I am going to put he monogrammed towel wraps on my Christmas wish list.

Then, I found a great little gift for any occasion, die cut stickers. You can have just about anything you like put on them, like Happy Birthday, your return address, even a birth announcement! Kids will get such a kick out of the die cut stickers too!

So, go ahead and check them out, you won’t be sorry!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, to all the mothers out there! I know it is just another day to some people, but when my child brings me something she hand made, that just lights up my whole day!

Families have to start with a mother, or else the rest of us wouldn't be here! Mothers tend to be the glue to the family. Now I am not saying that fathers don't have that impact on their families, because they are important also. Especially the single fathers out there, and the stay at home dads.

I would actually like to think of this day as a Parent's day instead of just mother's day, or even father's day... Just my thought.

Happy Mother's Day again! Enjoy your children today!

Activities For Children

I was web surfing again, looking for some activities for the kids to do, when I came across the Crayola site. I wandered around for a little while, then I happened upon this activity, called the "African Trading Beads"

African Trading Beads used to be traded for goods way back when...they weren't necessarily from Africa, because I know native americans had a barter system similar to this as well.

Anyways, kids can make these beads out of paper, and then string them together to make necklaces and bracelets!

All they have to do is cut out long skinny triangles out of paper, use a toothpick to wrap them around tightly, then glue the end. Once the glue dries, take the toothpick out and string together with string or thread.

Here is the link to the activity: African Trading Beads

I wouldn't suggest this activity for children under 3, since there can be small parts that can be swallowed.

Time For The Sippy Cup

It is time for me to start introducing the sippy cup to my 19 month old daughter. Actually it was probably time quite a while ago, but my husband keeps sabotaging my efforts.

Aren't husband's great like that?! So, I read in my Parents magazine the other day that a good way to start the introduction is to water down the bottle... Meaning save the good stuff for the sippy cup.

I tried this the other day, and she will drink from the sippy cup, she just doesn't like to. Then I came home from work the other day to find my husband once again sabotaged my efforts and gave her a bottle full of milk. Now she is screaming everytime she sees me coming with the sippy cup.

I need to sit down and have a serious talk with my husband about this. We are thinking about having another child, and I certainly don't want 2 on a bottle at the same time!

Ice Cream Cake Recipe

My oldest daughter's birthday was the other day, and I was searching the web, looking for a good ice cream cake recipe. I found one, on allrecipes.com and it was a hit at the birthday party!

Here is the recipe:

Easy Ice Cream Cake

16 ice cream sandwiches
1 (16 ounce) containere frozen non dairy whipped topping
1 (12 ounce) jar chocolate fudge topping, room temperature
1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy bar, grated

Place 8 of the ice cream sandwiches side by side in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spread half of the hot fudge topping evenly on top of the sandwiches. Spread half of the whipped topping. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches and toppings. Sprinkle with grated chocolate bar.

Cover and freeze for at least 1 hour before serving. Keep unused portion covered and frozen.


I had made a couple of changes to the recipe, here they are:

My pan is slightly bigger than the 9 x 13 so I needed more sandwiches...I also mixed the whipped topping with 1/2 gallon of french vanilla ice cream, then spread half this mixture according to the directions.

I also used butterfinger bars, and milky way bars cut up and sprinkled on top of both layers...On the top layer I squirted chocolate syrup and caramel syrup all over the layer, then sprinkled the candy bars on top of that.

Mmmmm, everyone loved this, including me!

10 Ways To Save On Your Grocery Bill

I posted this on my other blog, The Hodge Podge Blog, but I think it is more appropriate here. When I was surfing the web the other day, I found this ebook. It gives you 10 ways to save on your grocery bill.

We all need to save money every where we can these days. This economy is sucking everything we have out of us. We need to learn how to be frugal, and save where we can.

Just a disclaimer, you do not have give away or resell rights to this ebook. If you wish to purchase resell rights, you may do so through the link in the ebook.

Enjoy! Here is the link for you:
10 Ways To Cut Down On Your Grocery Bill

Raising A Money Smart Teen

If you are reading this, most likely you are a parent of a teen, or pre teen. All of us as parents hope that we can instill our hard learned lessons into our children, without them having to experience them. We all want our children to learn from our mistakes. Chances are though that they won't learn from our mistakes, and they will make their own. It is just the nature of the beast, unfortunately!

This doesn't mean that we can't try! I found a wonderful little article that can help us show our children about smart money management. I am giving it away to my readers here.

Just a little disclaimer, you can't sell or give this article away. You have no rights to this article, other than reading it.

Here is the link!

Raising Money Smart Teens