Hoow am I? Well, a CCR Fan of Course!

July 26, 2011 by 8 Comments

NightOwlCrafting
1. Have you ever attended a professional sports game? 

Not that I can think of… but I would love to attend a basketball game with B!
2. Have you ever been to a concert and if so which one was your 
ultimate favorite performance?
I have been to a CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival) Concert…
it was epic!



I could listen to them all day!
They played Suzy Q and Magic Carpet Ride umong many, many others… it was unforgettable, and I love that I can enjoy the same music I grew up listening to even when my own music taste has changed. I love CCR and their southern sound…

3. Have you ever been to Disneyland or Disney World?
No, we chose to forgo Disney World to spend an entire week in Daytona instead of just one day at an amusement park. Now that I have Little Ones… I wouldn’t mind letting them decide to go to Disney World or Daytona like my mom allowed us to. 

4. What is your favorite theme park?
My favorite theme park? 
I’ve only been to Six Flags, Astro World and Watertown USA…
But I would love to go to Hersheypark  or Dollywood!

I would probably decide to go to Dollywood first.
That would be a pretty awesome vacation for our family… and it would be great to travel.

5. Do you have a favorite vacation spot?

Ummm? Anywhere but here I suppose.
B has only traveled to Louisiana with us, but I would love to take our little ones on trips when we get two incomes and he gets a better job. I would love to vacation in Ireland though :D
Now, if you will excuse me… I must now spend a few moments rocking out to CCR :D
Filed Under: about me, Hoo Are You, link-up, Linky-Party

It’s a TWO-RIFFIC Dinosaur Party!

July 21, 2011 by 4 Comments
On Saturday, we invited out family and friends over to celebrate Little Boy’s 2nd Birthday.
I’m not big on fancy elaborate birthday parties as
 I can’t justify spending oodles of money for one day.
I have that mind-set when it comes to many things.
 I like to do fun things, but by golly-gee I don’t want to
spend more than I should for something I can do myself.
 Last October, my Nuderma visited and we went to
Ross Dress for Less. They always have this big selection of items, that aren’t clothes.
B happened to come across the Big Top Cupcake at the back of the store, and he knew that
for a while Little Girl and I had been talking about how cool it would be to have one.
He decided to buy it… and I was like.
 ”For what?” He told me “You can use it for Birthday Parties.”
Since, I have made two cakes from it before this one.
Have we got our money’s worth?
Probably not… but I have come up with a use for it, rather than buying store bought cakes.
I’ve made a Ni-Hao Kai-lan birthday cake, and a Chocolate Drizzle Cake.
This go-round, I decided to try out a Semi-Homemade Dinosaur Birthday Cake!
I used two box of white cake mix, Homemade Buttercream Frosting, 
a can of black royal icing from Wilton which I bought for only 25 cents last November.
It came with the tips and was kind of like an aerosol-squeeze type can.
I bought three toy dinosaurs from Dollar Tree,
 and washed them in the sink allowing them to dry.
I then crumbled up graham crackers to make it look like sand.
I originally wanted to  make a dinosaur scene, but time isn’t my friend and it left me behind.
I used a few squeezes of black royal icing to glue the dinosaurs to the serving plate.

Now, for party hats… This is what I came up with…
with a little help from
Wants and Wishes concept
and Cre8tive Compass Magazine’s template.
I simply traced the template to cardstock, cut them out,
 cut out a length of spikes for each in a matching color and folded it to make a “lip.”
Then I used a glue stick to glue the “lip” to one side, and made the cone to form a hat.
Then I bent the spikes to make it look dinosaur-y. 
I did it all so fast, and at the last minute, I didn’t have enough time to take photos.
I then cut out egg shapes, and used a silver sharpie to write “2″ on each one.
 Then I used a glue stick to apply it to the hats.

 Now, back to the food!
I had enough left-over cake mix batter to make six large cupcakes.
I didn’t want to use plain buttercream on these as well, though it would have been cute to 
pour crumbles graham crackers over them. I wanted chocolate… but wanted to do something with marshmallow as well. So I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow frosting…
and it was fantastic! This is how it looks when it sets.
To cut costs, I didn’t buy cupcake liners. I simply used some from Halloween Clearance.
 They only costed 17 cents! But really… who cares? Not me!
I also decided upon making Rice-Krispie Treats and Gooey Peanut Butter Chews.
The Gooey Peanut Butter Chews weren’t so gooey since I didn’t use a lot of corn syrup.
They were a big hit, though!
Next, I wanted to have a fresh fruit option.
I made a watermelon bowl for 4th of July, and knew than that the spiky design would 
fit perfect with our Dinosaur theme! This one is just watermelon.
 The other half had pineapple and watermelon. 
For the Goodie Bags, I wanted to have something that didn’t offer JUST candy.
I decided to make DIY Goodie Bags this time around and used what I had on hand.
Here is the basket with the bags. The basket was only 60 cents at Big Lots on clearance!
Here is an individual bag…
24 ct. Crayola Crayons- Price-matched at Wal-Mart using a Kroger Ad- $0.25 each.
1 tumbler from Dollar Tree- $0.17 (6/$1)
Dinosaur Printout with party details- on hand- $0.00
Craft foam sheet and stickers- on hand- $0.00
2 pretzel rods- a few cents since I had them on hand for the party anyway.
DIY Candy Necklace from Halloween Clearance- $0.04 (8/.37 cents)
Green Balloon- on hand- $0.00
Blue and Green Paint Chips- $0.00 from Wal-Mart Paint Dept.
Treat bags- Dollar Tree- $1 for 25. So, $0.04
Total for 6 Goodie Bags- $3.24
or
$0.54 each!
Here is Little Boy with his Great Grandma and his Uncle.
He was tired, and wanted to fuss so he had to get up on the couch… 
B’s Uncle’s Girlfriend and her Grandson.
TS, he is about 18 months old, and is as tough as a kindergartner!   
Cake time!
Just as tired as he can be… haha! 
Please forgive the little spot on the back of the cake that seems to be missing.
It was in his tummy already!
Little Stinker ;D

Gift-time! 
We let everyone know that a gift was not necessary, since the kids have plenty.
Well, I guess we couldn’t stop them!
Handy Manny Truck front loader from B’s Uncle, Girlfriend, and Grandson.
We let all the kids open gifts since we only had 2 little ones this time.
Last year there were 7 but this year we went a little smaller.
See  the banner hanging up in the background?
We made that as well. It had Little Boys name, so I won’t do a close-up, but you get the idea :D
How cute is this little man?!
I loved his little cars outfit as well, haha!
He had the cup, the bag, the newsboy cap, outfit, and black and red Jordans to match! 
Little Girl even got a present from my mom.
She was so proud!
PS- there was a Coupon book included… getting an early start, eh? 
I knew the perfect gift from us! I won a Bebeloosh giveaway last year,
 and got three reusable sandwich bags. This is the Dino bag, and it had an 
Ecomom Race car inside that I won as well.
Little Girl got an Owl Sandwich bags from us… 
And to save money, my step-brother came off his Hot wheels collection
 he started adding to his own when his wife? was pregnant with their first child. 
They’ve since had 2 girls, and he is a big boy now… so no use for the cars!
My mom asked if I minded if she used them for her gift.
Why would I?
I’m not too proud for anything that is free, used, re-purposed… or re-gifted!
I’m also not too proud to re-gift if it isn’t something I will use. 
So 7 brand-new still in the package hot wheels from my mom.
And since my mom and Step-dad don’t have many photos together…
(we take the pictures, not have pictures taken of us… haha!) 
Oh! And my family isn’t too proud to ask for a doggie-bag to take home.
They got the fixins for Brontosaurus Burgers, and Dino Dogs!
Filed Under: Birthday, craft link-ups, Decor, DIY, family, link-up, Linky-Party, Party, Recipes

Wee Bit Wednesday! On Time! Woohoo!

July 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

{one} what is your dream job?
My dream job is to become a high school History teacher!
I have a deep love of History and Government/Economics and would love to teach students that
history doesn’t have to be boring by any means.

{two} how many best friends do you have?
I have one true best friend.
My Nuderma…

She had been my best friend since I was a little girl. 
I’m so lucky to have her!
My other best friend is Patty. I haven’t been able to “catch up” with her for a while.
However, a best friend is someone you can go
 long periods of time without talking and picking
up right where you left off. 

{three} what’s the longest road trip you’ve ever taken?
In 1996 we drove from Louisiana to Kansas, through to Iowa, then through Georgia on to Florida. Then 14 1/2 hours straight to Louisiana. In total we visited 28 states! 

{four} if you had to do one single thing every day for the next year, what would it be?
Spend at least 30 minutes in complete silence, not doing anything. I think some people would call it meditation.

{five} what’s one story your family always tells about you?
My family always tells me about when we used to go stay at the lake.
Every summer we were at the lake in a cabin with 3 families.
Roberts’, Lee’s and Hunt’s.
Those… were the best times.
From a fish biting my mom bottom to getting burnt from swimming all day. 
So. Many. Memories!

{six} how did your parents pick your name?
My mom had a friend named Brooke and my Aunt’s name is Anna…
hence…
Brooke Anna!

{seven} what’s the one thing that scares you more than anything?
Dying.
I won’t lie.
I’m terrified of leaving my babies behind, and even though I know I will be able to
look down upon them, I sometimes spend so much time thinking about the scenerio that
I get myself all upset over it… and need to just cry it out.
So much of my family has died.
My cousin, at 17 and Uncle at 20 my other Uncle in his 40′s and my Dad just a while before 43.
It seems so many in our family were taken far too early, and knowing the pain
I feel even still because of the loss of loved ones… 
makes my heart ache thinking one day my own babies 
might feel like I do.

{eight} are you a good cook?
I think I’m a good homestyle cook. I can’t cook anything gourmet for the life of 
myself. I would love to learn how to make gourmet meals someday!

{nine} where do you see yourself in 20 years?
Teaching, living on a ranch/farm of some kind… possibly having hay fields.
Spending time with my children while they are finishing up college or starting careers.

2006

I see myself with Bryan… of course… and many more years past 20.
May 2010

{ten} what’s your best childhood memory?

Painting rocks at Nuderma’s.
She would buy old nail polish from yard sales and would bring it home
 for us to paint old rocks we found while taking love walks with her.
I also loved to go swimming at the lake, and staying the night with my mom and dad’s best friends
daughters. Ashley and Rachel.

Filed Under: about me, link-up, Linky-Party, wee bit of me

Who in the World? Are YOU?

April 20, 2011 by 1 Comment
Wednesday, again?!? 
Welcome to “Who in the World? Wednesday” Blog hop. Your host are Chronicles of a crazy mom, The Coupon Cutie and Mommy Does. Please be kind and rewi….no, no, follow us ;) Don’t forget to grab our button and share us, too, the more the merrier! 
Chronicles of a crazy mom

If you or your company would like to sponsor a Review and/or Giveaway here on Mommy Does… please e-mail me anytime at mommydoesblog(at)yahoo(dot)com, subject line: Sponsorship.

Filed Under: Linky-Party, Who in the World
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