Birthday Board

This was something that was bought, but I thought it was so cute and could easily be remade. It is a board that was painted and has vinyl lettering, and then ribbons. It came with mini pop-sickle stick type things to wright the name of the person and the day of their birthday, but you could use whatever. I was wondering if they had anything at a craft store like a square metal bead type thing that you could even put a picture of the person in. If you don't want to do vinyl, you could use paint and stencils, or even some stickers and mod podge over it. Anyway, I just thought it was super cute!

Glass Gem Vase

This was a project my Mom did and it is so easy and cheap. You can do it with different colors to match any room or theme. You just need a glass vase and glass gems (like you might put in the bottom of a fish tank). I have seen them at Wal-mart, the dollar store, and Michael's, so I think they are pretty easy and cheap to find. Then you just hot glue them on. You can start around the base and just go up, or try and create cool patterns. Put some flowers in and you are good to go!

I am linked with THESE parties.

THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, April 16-18, here is what is going on:

Make a FREE Earth Day Bag at Lakeshore Learning Centers (April 17, 11 am - 3 pm)

Celebrate Earth Day at Garden of the Gods

FREE, April 17, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

"Some of the activities to enjoy include Native American Dancer Performances, live birds of prey from Pueblo's Greenway Nature Center, children's craft activities, nature walks and free admission to Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site"

click HERE and HERE to read more

FREE day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Sunday, April 18

2001 Colorado Boulevard
Denver, CO 80205

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwich

I LOVE French Dip Sandwiches, and this is the best recipe I've tried. You have to try this, you won't be disappointed!

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
approx 3 1/2 lbs beef chuck roast
16-oz. beef broth (1 1/2 cans)
1 10.5-oz. can condensed French onion soup
6-oz red wine
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
4-6 French rolls
sliced provolone cheese, optional

Trim excess fat off of beef roast and season meat all over with salt and pepper.
Pour beef broth, condensed French onion soup, red wine and garlic powder into slow cooker and place beef roast into liquid. The liquid completely covered my roast.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Since this is cooking in liquid, you don’t have to worry about the meat drying out in the same way you might if you were roasting the meat in the oven. I just took the meat out once it was done (I did mine for the full 8 hours) and put it on a plate and pulled it apart with two forks, cutting off any fat I saw.
Lightly toast the bread and evenly distribute cheese between rolls. Divide beef onto rolls and spoon the beef juice into ramekins or other small bowls and eat everything while it is hot. Serve each sandwich with its own dip. If you want a little spice add some slices jalapenos.

I found this recipe at Baking Bites, which is a totally awesome recipe blog!

Homemade Fairy Wings

Make your own fairy wings; here is what you need:

2 wire hangers

Pair of tights (whatever color)

Ribbon

Elastic (to make the arm bands)

Duct Tape

I looked online and found an excellent tutorial HERE that I thought I'd put up because no pictures were taken of these being made. The only differences are that she used the extra part of the tights to make the arm bands, and my Mom (who made these) used elastic. My Mom also wrapped thick ribbon around the middle part of the wings to hold in the elastic and cover up the hangers as well. She decorated them with fabric glitter glue.

Creative Moms

My Mom told me about this website, called color pages for moms, and it is pretty cool. Just hear me out before you judge too much. Coloring is said to reduce stress and enhance creativity. Did you know there is actually a thing called "Coloring Therapy." I read this on a stress reducer website: "Stress relief through color therapy is one of the most effective yet inexpensive ways to shake off all the stress in your body." Not only does it reduce stress, help your creativity, but it is a great way to spend time with your children!

You can use your kids coloring books, or click HERE to go to the website and see some 'mom coloring pages'

Bison Park

Bison Park

Located:

1390 Clear Sky Way

Castle Rock, CO 80109

*Next to Clear Sky Elementary

Amenities:

Bike Path (Paved), Climbing Wall / Structure, Parking, Paved Trail, Covered Picnic Pavilion (General Use), Picnic Pavilion (Reservable), Picnic Tables, Play Fields, Playground, Tot Lot Playground, Sand Play Area, Portable Restroom, Soft-Surface Trail, Swings, Synthetic Turf Field, Tennis Court (with basketball hoops inside Tennis Court), and Trail Access

Tot Lot Playground and Sand Play Area

Playground Area (Picnic areas in background)

Baby Swings, Tennis Court, Basketball

Tot Lot

Climbing Structure

Picnic Area

Sand Area

Paved Walkway (the kids love to bring their bikes and go around on this bumpy path, it circles the playground)

Kid Swings, Picnic Tables, Fields in Background

Fields, (Clear Sky Elementary in background)

Playground (the only scary part if you have little ones is that part up at the top of the slide is open)

*information on parks obtained from the Castle Rock Official Website

Douglas County Library Story times

Castle Pines

7437 Village Square Drive #110, Castle Rock, CO 80108

Highlands Ranch

9292 Ridgeline Blvd., Highlands Ranch, CO 80129

Lone Tree

8827 Lone Tree Pkwy., Lone Tree, CO 80124

Parker Library

10851 S Crossroads Dr, Parker, CO 80134

Philip S. Miller Library

100 S. Wilcox, Castle Rock, CO 80104

Roxborough Library

8357 N. Rampart Range Rd. Suite 200, Littleton, CO 80125

Ladies Only Sample Tour

I spent to afternoon in Historic Downtown Littleton with my mom and just found out about this, hurry because tickets (the bracelets) are going fast!

This takes place on Thursday, May 6th from 4 pm - 8 pm, at Historic Downtown Littleton. Here is a little bit of info on it:

"Stroll the Original Shopping Districts & "sample" all there is to offer. Fabulous freebies await you in dozens of stores. Bring your mother, daughter or girlfriends & have a fabulous girls' night out!

Bracelets will be available for sale beginning April 5.There are limited numbers for sale and the districts sell out quickly.

Purchase a bracelet packet from your favorite merchant for only $12.50. Everyone with a bracelet and map will receive free samples, tasty treats and beverages from participating merchants. In addition, those who purchase a bracelet will also receive a coupon book for additional savings at all participating merchants."

*for more information, check out www.ladiesonlysampletour.com

Chocolate Banana Bread

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place oven rack to middle position. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. Fold in the chocolate chips. Scrape batter into prepared pan and sprinkle the top of the bread with coarse brown sugar (optional, but I always do!). Bake until bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*My kids LOVE this, they call it chocolate bread and ask for it all the time

Yo-Yo Hair Barrettes

Black one with rolled rose and black tulle in center (has pearl and rhinestones in center of yo-yos)

Green one with feathers and white fabric in center (metal embellishments in center of yo-yos)

Red one with feathers (button and metal embellishment in center of yo-yos)

Brown one with feather and white netting, rolled rose in center with rhinestone, pearl, and metal gem embellishments in centers

the backs

She put them all together with a hot glue gun. Good luck, I'd love to see pictures if anyone makes them!

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THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, April 9 - 11, here is what is going on:

The Denver Auto Show is going on now and the last day to go is Sunday, April 11, click HERE for more info.

The Front Range Showcase, April 9; 2 pm - 7 pm, and April 10, 10 am - 4 pm at the Douglas County Events Center (500 Fairgrounds Drive in Castle Rock.) Admission is FREE, here is some stuff that will be going on there:

continuous activities for the kids

demonstrations and exhibits
free food samples
live entertainment
food and beverage booths

Touch-a-Truck for Kids returns again this year. This popular and fun exhibit, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday, April 10th, will feature a variety of vehicles to explore. Past exhibits have included a dump truck, race car, bumble bee hummer, ice cream truck, police and fire and other fun commercial and government vehicles. Free samples by participating truck sponsors are a popular part of the exhibit.

Click HERE to read more info.

Make a FREE personalized door hanger at Lakeshore Learning Centers (April 10, 11 am - 3 pm)

Make a FREE mini baseball game at Lowe's build and grow, Saturday, April 10, 10 am - 11 am

Click HERE to register

Wontons

This recipe is from my Mom, and my family loves them, especially my four year old.

Wonton wrappers (found in produce section)

hamburger

green onions, chopped

minced garlic

soy sauce

Mix the raw hamburger and chopped onion and garlic together. Add soy sauce (as much as desired). Place approximately 1 tsp. of meat mixture in the center of a wonton wrapper.

Moisten two sides of the wrapper with water and fold in half to form a triangle. Seal the side by pressing with your fingers.

Deep fry in oil, turning once. Serve with soy sauce.

*UPDATE: My friend made these with ground pork and chopped green peppers and said that it turned out really good.

Silhouette Portraits

Here are my three silhouette portraits:

Now I hear you can make these pretty easy with photoshop, but for those of us who DON'T have photoshop (me), here is the I did it, and it really was SO easy!

Total Cost: About $4

Supplies:

Frames

mod podge

the silhouette print outs

white cardstock (or whatever color you prefer)

black paint (if you do it my way)

First, obviously, you need to take the silhouette pictures. I would take like 10 or so because it is hard to tell if you have exactly the right angle. Also, it is easiest to take them against a white wall or such for when you are cutting them out. Here are what my pictures looked like:

Now, you have a couple options next, depending on what size you want your portraits to be. (I wanted mine to fit in 5x7 frames). For my pictures, I messed around with the exposure, contract, saturation, all that stuff, until I felt the outline was really defined and they would be easy to cut out; however, it is not really necessary, you could totally just a) either print out the picture in whatever size you like and actually cut the photos, or b) print them out on computer paper.

Which is what I did. I cropped them into 4x4 inch squares, and printed them on computer paper and cut them out. I totally planned on tracing them onto nice black paper, but the cutting took a little time. I wanted to get all the fly aways in my baby's hair (which you would totally want to do, get loose hair ends, eyelashes, collars, anything cool for the silhouette) and it was a little tedious, that I decided once was enough, so here is what they looked like when I printed them out:

And after I cut them out:

After you cut them out, make SURE they fit into the frame you want, I guess really before you cut them out would be ideal. Sometimes you think they fit, but they need a little more room. I was originally planning on putting them in 4x4 inch square frames (hence why I cropped them to that size) but they looked so much better in the 5x7 frames with more white background.

Then I actually just painted the computer picture printouts with black paint and let dry. They will curl a little bit, but it's okay. If you want them on something sturdier, you can trace them, but you can't even tell they are on computer paper once they are done, so I wouldn't bother unless you really want to.

Then I bought some nice white cardstock paper at Michael's for $.69, (one sheet did all three of my 5x7, just FYI). I put a very smooth layer of mod podge on the white paper where the silhouette would be, then very carefully put the picture on, making sure to smooth it out and make sure it is all glued on. Then let it dry for a couple minutes and carefully mod podge all over. It will look like this until it dries:

When they are completely dry, (which really doesn't take long) frame them. I really liked the thick black frame with it. But really you could do anything.

I really wanted to find three really different antique looking frames to put them in, like below, but I also wanted to keep my budget, and I found my frames at the dollar store.

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