Great Savings with Groupon

If you haven't heard of Groupon already, you're in for a treat. I discovered this site via facebook months ago and am in LOVE with it! Groupon is a site that has a new deal every day, and when I say deal, I mean it. The first one I ever bought we got as a Christmas gift for Dan's dad. He is a golfer and would spend every day on the course if given the chance. Several months before Christmas Groupon had a deal for half off of green fees and cart rental for 2 at a nearby golf course. Even though Christmas was still a ways off, I purchased it. What rocks about this is that it can then stay in my account and wait until I print it off. I don't have to find a place to keep it and hope that I remember where it is come time to use it. The other really great thing is that most often the deal doesn't expire for months. You may only have 1 day to purchase the deal, but you have several months to use it.
For my birthday last year a friend bought me a massage at 40% off. AMAZING! Massages are something I love, but won't purchase for myself. It took me a good 2-3 months to finally use my gift, and even then I still had another 5 until it was going to expire.
If you're into deals, out Groupon. Sign up for your area and be prepared to save big!

Mother's Day Giveaways!

Over at Natalie's Sentiments she's having a week of giveaways. I'm a little late in getting this up, so you better hurry!

Giveaways include a gift certificate for some amazing hand crafted jewelry from LuxAdornments on etsy, a Gourmet Gift Basket.com, 2 months worth of diapers from Huggies, a gift certificate for Dali Decals, and a gift certificate from Magpie Lovely.

All giveaways end on the 21st at midnight, so hurry!

Loveable Labels Giveaway

One of the blogs that I follow "Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife" is hosting a giveaway for return  address labels from Loveable Labels! I hate having to write my return address on envelopes and generally don't even put our name because it takes extra time. Lazy. I know. So when I saw this giveaway I had to enter (she always has great giveaways) and thought all my readers might like the opportunity to enter as well. You can find the giveaway here. All the labels you get to choose from are super cute!

today

Today I enrolled my baby boy in preschool. How can it be that he is old enough to go off to school without me by his side?

We weren't planning on sending him to preschool. He was going to stay home with me for another year. I was going to do daycare again to make money. He was going to be socialized here in the comfort of our home under my supervision. *sigh* He's growing up too fast.
Okay, so it's only 2 mornings a week, but still. It's gonna be hard. Collin, however, is very excited. After all, he gets to eat snack at school every day.
This is going to be really good for him, and me. 2 mornings a week I'll only have 2 children which means it will be way easier to run to the grocery store. Like I said, we weren't planning on sending him next year, but an opportunity for a "free" 2 day program opened up and we decided to grab it.
Now that he's going to school I won't be doing daycare because I have to be able to take him to school and pick him up. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have my days open for playdates and crafting during nap time, I just have to figure out another way to make money now. So you should go buy things from my etsy store. Or check out my blog and donate, or advertise.  :)

my new favorite cookbook!

I got this cookbook from a friend, and have fallen in love with it! I always enjoy getting new cookbooks and trying new recipes, but generally I only end up making a couple of recipes out of the book. I have had this cookbook for just a couple of weeks and have already made several things. And the added bonus? The entire family has enjoyed the things I've made!

 Last week I made the "No-Fry Doughnuts"
Yum! They took a little bit of time because you use yiest and have to let it rise, but it was well worth it.

Can you see the yummy glaze dripping off? Delicious!

We've also made the "Spicey Honey Pretzels", "Herbed Tortillas" "Herbed Tuna Sandwiches" (a nice change for a Friday night during lent), and "Ham and Apricot Crepes" which I changed up a bit because we're not a fan of apricots.
Tomorrow night we are going to attempt "Salmon-Stuffed Potatoes". I can't wait!

proud

On Tuesday the boys colored pictures to say thank you to a lady Dan teaches with. She gave us her son's old soccer goal that he no longer uses. The boys love it and have already had fun playing with it. When coloring we told Collin he should write his name on his picture so that Trish knew who it was from. First he practiced on a blank piece of paper. No examples to copy. I must say he did a pretty darn good job! I knew that he already knew all his letters and knew how to spell his name, but we haven't really worked much on writing. I have a feeling he's going to be my child who learns things rather quickly in school. You know, that kid we all hated who never had to study but still got A's. Indeed, I. Am. Proud.

baseball books

With baseball season underway, we've been reading lots of baseball books at our house. My boys love sports of any kind. Collin even likes to watch Nascar, which I'm not really sure I can call a sport, but that's not the point. Books about baseball. Dan brought a couple books home from school to share with the boys, and they LOVE them.

The books, Dino Baseball and Bats at the Ballgame, are written by different authors, but in a similar style. The boys love to listen to the stories and wait in anticipation to find out who is going to win the baseball game. My favorite part is that the books rhyme so at times Collin can help me finish a sentance. It also helps that he wants to read them over and over again so he practically has them memorized!

I just love how much the boys enjoy reading books, and having stories read to them. Ronan's attention span isn't quite as long, but I think Collin would sit and let me read books to him all day. And I would, if it weren't for having to cook, clean, and keep the Dylinator from attacking!

10 months

I took a few photos of Dylan yesterday. He's becoming quite handsom.

 In this photo he was smiling at Daddy for turningon his favorite song, "Magic" by B.O.B.

Healthy Heros!

Yesterday, we took the 2 older boys to see Elmo's Healthy Heros at the Intrust Bank Arena. We had so. much. fun. I was a little worried that Ronan wouldn't like it because we met Elmo over spring break and he was terrified. Our seats yesterday, however, were all the way at the top so there was no fear of the red furry monster trying to hug him.

We got our tickets to the show for free for allowing a friend to do a fire safety talk. Way worth it to inform our family of potential fire hazards in our home, even without the tickets.

Daddy and his boys

Mommy and the boys

 Super Grover! He lost his superness :(

 The dancing Irish sheep were Dan's favorite

Super Grover found his superness! All he needed to do was sleep, eat healthy, and take a bath!