Christmas in the Kitchen

It's starting to look more like Christmas around here. (I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving dinner so I don't have to worry about cooking at my house.) I can start to begin making candy treats for family/friends. It's never to early since my days ahead are jam packed full of other holiday activities, works and school. Any chance I can get to get a jump on my homemade gifts saves me a lot of stress.

Treat bags of muddy buddy mix. They are great anytime of the year, but we made them for Christmas this time.



Pretzel Hugs ready to be a gift for someone.



In the candy dish, more holiday favorites.



And if the sugar treats don't keep up my energy, a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks will! Yum!



What homemade treats do you make around the holidays?

A Tree is Up

Our new white Christmas tree is up and we are starting to decorate. It's still pretty bare, but I love how it's looking already. I'm using all new colors this year and Madison is enjoying all the lights.





It's still a work in progress but I just had to post something Christmas today. It's not even Thanksgiving officially yet but we are already in full Christmas mode. Is anyone else got their tree up?

Under the Bathroom Sink

I just wanted to share with everyone how I organize in my bathroom to keep clutter at bay. Under my bathroom sink I have four rubbermaid storage containers that keep stuff like our health and beauty supplies tucked away. I don't have a medicine cabinet and I don't like them on the counter. Less is more and keeps my bathroom counter looking clean. I label everything too so everyone else knows what's inside.

Here is what I do to create more storage and organization under the bathroom sink.











There you have it! It works for me. Simple and keeps little toddler hands from getting into unsafe items. I would love to see how others organize under there sinks.

Rolling Your Towels

This week I'm organizing my bathrooms even though I'm suppose to wait till the end of the month to do this. I'm following Clutterbug's calendar for daily cleaning and organizing tips. (Scroll down below to see my post on her calendar.) We are suppose to be organizing our kitchen's this week, but I decided my bathroom needed more work then the kitchen. Her calendar is a great source of motivation to get these things done.

She suggest to roll your towels. It not only fits more but looks nicer when you store them. Just like a spa wouldn't you say?



I've got my towels rolled in a small shelf I put in my bathroom. It fit's nicely in a space next to our laundry hamper. I now have a basket for handtowels, wash cloths on the top shelf. The larger bath size towels fit snug in the spaces below.



It's a start! With so many kids needing a clean towel all the time, here is a perfect solution. I have always kept my clean towels in the bathroom instead of a linen closet. That way I don't have to go far searching for an additional towel. Now they are nice and neat! How do you store your towels?

Birthday Party at the Movies

We just celebrated my Son's 9th birthday party at our local movie theater. It's the perfect party for any kid. Especially when Dreamworks puts out another great 3D movie like Megamind. All the kids loved the film and said they would want to go back the next day to see it. I'm so glad it came out to the theaters just in time for Jared's birthday party.



Can't you just smell the popcorn from here? As an added bonus, each child and adult got a small popcorn, small coke for being apart of the party. Wow!

The party room! Plenty of space for kids and adults. I set out food on the first table, the middle was where I set up the cake, and the last table I put the presents on.



He requested a Halo cake like the video game. Well I had to get creative there because they don't make halo cakes around here. At least they don't have a kit or pan to make it from. I decided to order the Batman cake at the bakery and had them leave off the batman toy. I bought some new small Halo toys and added it to the top like they were fighting each other. I printed out a Halo picture, laminated it and stuck it in the cake so everyone knew the toys were halo. Us old folks can't always tell what the kids are into these days. :)

He got the X-box game he's been wanting for awhile. He was so happy!

Kids so cool, they had to wear their shades!

Madison played in the arcade during the movie. A one year-old of course can't sit still long enough for a movie such as this, but I managed to find other things for her to do.

After the party, Jared gave me a big thank you hug for such a fun day! The other Mom's said they might have their kids parties at the movie theater next. I think I've started something now. Ha! If you haven't thrown a birthday party at a movie theater before, look into it for your kids. They will love you for it.

Finding Space for Craft Supplies

I thought I'd show you how I find the space for all my craft supplies. It's not easy, but I've made the room in my little girls closet. I do hang her clothes in there but the rest of the space I found was wasted. I choose to make good use of it and put my craft supplies in rubbermaid so I could easily see everything.

On the side I have a gift wrap organizer that hangs next to her clothes. It's the best thing because it allows you to see what gift bags, birthday paper and cards you already have. It has stopped me from having to buy more of these items for each birthday party that rolls around.

I have boxes for craft paper, tutu materials and seasonal items like Halloween ready to go.
I didn't have a shelf over the clothes like most closets do so I added a piece of plywood for a quick shelf. I know it's not the best looking shelf, but it's all this single Mom could do at the time. It's perfect for small boxes that keep my gift wrapping supplies. These items are a must to make any present easy to decorate.

So that's it for my craft closet for now. I really need to organize it better, but I thought I would go ahead and show the world what I'm working with now. One day I hope to have a whole room dedicated to my crafts and storage.

Cleaning is Love

Getting the kids to help you clean is love in my book. Nothing makes me more happy then when they help me around here. I have some favorite tools that get the job done.



This week we our cleaning our dirty floors. Madison is always spilling her juice/milk and snacks on my floors. (yuck!) I hate nothing more then a sticky floor. As often as I can I try to give my floors a good wipe. If I can get the kids to help me thats an added bonus.

This is what I use to clean my wooden floors. It's an excellent that shines and cleans at the same time. I love a two for one deal. If you have wood floors, give this stuff a try.




Mommys Little Helper. So easy a toddler can do it. Ha!



This is what I use on my tile kitchen floors. My best friend...the wet jet. You know it's a fun mop to use. My Daughter will see me pushing the button for a little more cleaner to come out of the mop head and she will want to take over. It's all about making cleaning fun is how you get the kids to help.





Lastly, my little cone dust buster by dirt devil get those hard to reach places. My Son helps me get the dust on the stairs with this.





Get the kids to help and feel the love! :)

Pumpkin Project

If your kid ever comes home with a note from his third grade teacher and it says you have to create a pumpkin to look like your favorite character from a book....well let me show you what you might have to do.



This is how ours turned out. My Son loves those, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books that are so popular right now. He choose this for us {{rather me}} to do. How do you really bring a stick person to life? I had to think awhile, but I ended up just doing this.



I even gave this poor pumpkin some arms, legs and a backpack to match the cover of the book.



Here is my Son with the finish product. We were invited to his classroom to see the other students pumpkins they created. If I don't say so myself, I think ours was the best. ha!

Dinner Menu Planning

I'm a Mom that is busy, busy, busy! When the kids get home from school, I have to hurry cook dinner for them and then I'm off to my night job. I started planning our dinner menus when I needed to get more organized. This way I knew what to shop for that week and everyone knew what was going to be for dinner that night.

Here is my fridge where I keep it posted.



It's just a wipe off calendar.




I also have my kids school lunch calendar on our fridge as well. They are always asking what they are having at school that day. Then it's a question to either buy lunch or pack a lunch.



So that's my set up for basic dinner planning in my house. I wish dinner cooked itself, but it doesn't. Ha! This is as close as I can get to that for now. :)