Happy Birthday Austin!

Today Austin turned 6! Wow! He was 14 months old when we first met him and the time has just flown by! I am so very glad that God brought him to our family!

I took cupcakes and balloons to his school to celebrate his big day with all of his school friends. They sang him a special birthday song, and then they all enjoyed the banana applesauce cupcakes.

We always let the kids pick where they go for their birthday night dinner. It's just the 5 of us celebrating together, which makes for a very special birthday for the special birthday kid. Of course, Austin chose McDonald's, so we met Daddy there after work with balloons and cupcakes and spent a couple of hours eating and playing.

Happy Birthday, my big boy Austin! You are so special to us! We love you!

Fashion Shoot

Gretchen decided to get in some shooting practice this morning. I think she is very fashion forward in her ballerina footie jammies with her purple hat! And she's already learned quite the stance for shooting. I'm pretty sure she got the dishwasher good this morning with her nerf darts!

Puddle Jumping

It has been a rainy day today, but that makes it perfect for puddle jumping! Gretchen had a ball today playing in the rain!

New Purses

Yesterday my quilt group got together for a sew day, and the project I chose to work on was another one of my purses. They are fun to make, but take a little time. And I love how the finished product looks!

Here is the one I made at the sew day.
I am in love with the pink and brown combo, especially with polka dots!
I learned my lesson with my first purse, and now I double up the pellon
on the handles of the purses I make.

And here is the one I did today.
The denim is from an old pair of Gretchen's jeans, and the
butteflies are little bitty pockets on the front.

The inside of the purse. The pink and white is home dec fabric that
I got out of the remnant bin and paid maybe $4 for it, and I
still have some leftover. The inside pockets are made from the jeans legs.

This will definitely be one very sturdy purse!
The sewing was a little difficult because of all the layers
of denim, heavy fabric and Pellon.

Mmmmm - Mocha Cupcakes!

A friend of mine posted on her facebook this morning that she was making cupcakes - chocolate, vanilla and coffee. That last one triggered a craving in me, so I searched out a from-scratch mocha cupcake recipe with a cream cheese coffee frosting. And here they are:

Mixed and ready to bake!
Baked and cooling!
Frosted and ready to eat!

They turned out nummy!

The kids also got out the vintage Hi Ho Cherry Oh game to play this morning, and really enjoyed it. Such an easy game for little ones, and no electronics!

Safeway Savings today

I did it again - I coupon shopped with my kids in tow, something I keep saying I will never do again! Makes for some crazy times, and requires a lot of patience on my part and theirs, but the sale I wanted to take advantage of ended today, and I was left with no choice. But for their good behavior, Daniel & Gretchen got a treat of Jelly Belly candies! And I got to get some good deals on things.

I spent $27.49 on these 23 items, plus got a coupon for $1.50 off 6 Lean Cuisine Meals on my next shopping trip.

2 Doritos $3.99 on BOGO = 1.99/ea
1 Snyders Nibbler Pretzels $1.88 - $1.00 = .88
8 Progresso Soups $1.00 each - $1.00/4 x 2 = .75 each
3 Stauffer Meals on sale for $2.00 ea - $1.00/3 coupon = 1.67 ea
3 Lean Cuisine Meals on sale for $1.88 ea - $1.00/3 coupon = 1.55 ea
2 Freschetta Pizza on sale for $5.00 ea - $1.00/2 coupon = 4.50 ea
2 Pillsbury Sugar Cookie pkgs 5.98 - 50% off store sale = 2.98 - $1.00/2 = .99 ea
2 Dreyers Smoothie Drinks - free because I bought 5 Lean Cuisine/Stauffer meals
Minus $5.00 because I bought the minimum of $15.00 of frozen foods

My total savings was $43.02 - woo hoo!