Oh a Camping We Will Go....

Wow. August has flown by. Time flies by. Believe me, after you have children nothing about life is slow. Camping was great. We camped on Beverly Beach, which is just a quick walk down to the beach. We camped with three other groups, which we had never done before, so it was nice to hang out with family/friends.

The weather could have been a little warmer. The high was about 64. But other than that, it was fab. We made a "smore"gasborg station and had the usual, plus chocolate graham crackers, gigantic marshmallows and Reese's. We played the game of Redneck Life, which is like the game of Life, only funnier ;).

After camping my kiddos got a 24hr stomach bug AGAIN. Where is all this sickness coming from in August??? Not cool.

This week has been busy, taking care of my sickies, school shopping, blackberry picking, and now I'm getting ready for our annual end of summer BBQ. It's tomorrow night, and our theme is Blue Moon BBQ and Bunko! This will be my first time playing Bunko so it should be fun :) I'm keeping food simply this time, we're having hamburgers, corn on the cob, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon...you know, all the good basic stuff that screams summer, reuniting for one last meal! I'm also baking some apple and blackberry pies.

I'm sure there will be a post on our party! I hope everyone has a great end of summer and a fabulous Labor Day weekend!

Love my little girl

They have to have their am coffee ;)

The only way to camp...coffee and pancakes, complete with a propane heater for the chef!

Anika and her way cool grandma

Sexy.Camping sexy.

We built a fire on the beach and feasted on homemade chili, cornbread, and zucchini and banana bread!

Ken working hard on his sand castle

The "it" spot for the kids...a fallen tree. What a view.

bottoms up boys!

Wayne and I

The biggest smore you'll ever see ;)

DIY Bean Bag Toss Board & Instagram Love

Happy Wednesday everyone...the weekend is getting closer! Have any big plans? We will be heading to the beach to do a little end of the summer camp out! So guess what I will be working on today and tomorrow? Yup.. packing :).

So last week I shared a little bit about my daughter's 9th birthday party. You can check it out here. I also showed you my little polka dot banner I made...with my daughter's hello kitty sewing machine...if you haven't read that yet take a peak here. I also mentioned a little game I made, Bean Bag Toss...and I thought I'd show you a little bit more on our little project today....

It started out with an idea. Then my husband found an old scrap piece of plywood we just happened to have lying around, and I got to work.

I traced circles onto the board where I wanted the holes to be, and then using our skill saw we cut the holes out. I then put my birthday girl to work painting. I think she did a pretty darn good job, don't you?

After she finished painting both sides, the next day I painted the last minute touches.... and viola! Bean bag toss board that we can keep and use over and over. I was going to make a stand for it, but found that it worked just fine propped up. I was also going to make bean bags, but I ran out of time...so I used my daughters ingenious idea and stole some beanie babies out of their room for the afternoon. :)

 

And there you have it! Not the greatest picture of it, but you get the idea! The best part is that Anika helped make it, and we will get alot of use out of it when friends come over!

I am also loving me some Instagram lately, and here's a couple pics I've posted.

You can find me on there and stock me as well if you'd like... my user name is melissakaylene.

me and my two long lost uncles

my little Noah

brothers



summertime



this ones perfect...its dark so you can't see my exhausted face after taking care of sick kiddos!

Til next time,

Goals for Goals

     Ahh goals. I'm sure we are all familiar with them. Those things you form into lists and compile every January 1st. I know I've had my fair share of them. But as I'm sure you've heard before, a goal really isn't a goal unless it is attainable. How do you make it attainable? By making the necessary baby steps towards reaching it. You need to set a time frame and keep yourself in check occasionally to make sure you are still along the right path. You also need to be flexible, and understand that things for whatever reason could change the time frame for you goal - or even your goal itself! One thing I know for certain.... once you reach a goal you've worked so hard towards you have a brief moment of that sweet smell of success. Then, if you are a goal oriented person, you will probably quickly set a further goal. :)

I'm sitting here contemplating some of my goals that were not forgotten, but also not been managed well. A goal without a plan is only a dream, right? And I have tons of those too ;)

Right now I have made a top 5 - not in any order (well, with the exception of the financial ones). If you have to many at one time, it tends to get overwhelming....and the 5 I have vary in length. I'm gonna go ahead a share them:

1. Take the necessary steps towards finishing my ADN so I can take the N-CLEX for my RN.

2. Pay off our credit card. Period.

3. Start Saving more so we can ideally have 6 months of income in savings.

4. Start saving for my dream Italy Trip. I want to take this trip for my 30th birthday so I'd better get a move on it. I know its three years away, but I need to pay our credit card off first, and I do not plan on taking the trip of my lifetime on a super tiny budget. :)

5. Be the best mom I can be. - I know this sounds small compared to the rest of my list, but its really the

biggest one on here <3 . We all get in the hustle and bustle and tend to over look the little things.

So there you have it. Once you have your goals, do like I said and then take one a time and break it down piece by piece to see what you have to do to get there. :)

I plan on giving a mini update here and there to help keep myself accountable. ;)
What are your goals???

 

{Old Fashioned Homemade Apple Pie}

 Wow. I can't believe how August is flying by. I havn't meant to be MIA around here, but my family somehow contracted a stomach bug smack dab in the middle of 102 degree days! I am slowly recovering, but its not much fun to be sick in the middle of summer.

 So last week one of my friends and I got together and made some delicious homemade apple pie. We even made the crust. I googled (I Heart Google) apple pie recipes, and chose one from SimplyRecipes.com. We had a blast. We ended up quadrupling the recipe so we could each take two pies home. I'm thinking next time we might need to double THAT.

 Summer is wrapping up soon, and I am getting excited for fall. I love the hustle and bustle of it all. School, soccer, pumpkin patches, hay rides, halloween...I love gorgeous fall days with the crisp air, and a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks in my hands! :) Makes me smile just thinking about it! Not that I don't love summer, but fall just might be my absolute favorite.



Jessica peeling and coring the apples



Our crust coming together.



Our apple pie filling. It was SO tasty!

Crust all mixed up



They were so tasty!

Check out the full recipe Here and make some yourself! By the way, we only altered the recipe a tiny bit. We didn't have any brandy on hand (though we joked maybe we should have!) So we didn't add any into the crust. Other than that, the recipe worked out really well!

I promise I'll be back soon ;)



Backyard Birthday Bash

The birthday party was a hit. The weather turned out beautiful. A little on the hot side, but a great evening for a BBQ. I followed along with Anika's polkadot theme and my dear friend Carolyn bought her a cake to match. She ended up having 7 friends over, 5 of which stayed the night, and of course all of the family. There was plenty for them to do while the grown-ups BBQ kabobs.... a 'beauty' station where they painted their faces and gave each other manicures, then proceeded to the photo back drop to pose for mommy paparazzi. Then there was bean bag toss, which I created from an old sheet of plywood, a skill saw and some paint. We also played balloon tennis, and squirt guns.

We then all feasted on an array of food, then sang happy birthday to the birthday girl and ate cake while she opened presents. The adults began to leave, then the girls party began. The tent was set up outdoors and sleeping bags brought out, along with Cheetos and juice boxes for midnight snacks. ;) We had an extra treat because coincidentally there was a meteor shower all night, and the girls loved looking for 'shooting stars'.

The next morning (after not much sleep) The girls feasted on bacon and eggs before going home. 

It was a fun, exhausting weekend, and summer isn't winding down here yet! Camping at the beach the weekend of the 24th, and then at the end of the month we are hosting our last big BBQ of the year...and it just so happens to be on a Blue Moon. If you don't know what that is, its when a full moon occurs twice within one month. My friend will also be bringing her game of Bunko to teach us all. So our BBQ theme is Blue Moon BBQ and Bunko ;). Should be fun, and you'll know I'll have something creative to post for that!

my beautiful 9 year old

Photo Shoot!

daddy with his princess Emma

My fruit Kabobs - complete with cantaloupe polkadots on top :)

my handsome little man enjoying all of the girls, and cake!! ;)

Princess Polk-a-dot Birthday Banner

Remember my little project I mentioned a few days ago? Well I am finally showing you ;). So my daughter is turning 9 this weekend and we are having a backyard BBQ then girls sleepover/campout for her. She told me she wanted a polk-a-dot theme this year, so I went to JoAnn fabrics for some inspiration...and found this. The pictures really don't do it justice because it has little silver glitter sparkles all over the fabric. It was perfect! So I bought a couple yards of it, along with about 6 yards of pink fabric that was on sale. All in all with the sales they had going on, I bought a lot of fabric for $22. Really, with a little time and effort, you can't beat re-useable decorations for that price....my daughters just might be seeing a lot of polk-a-dots for a while! ;)

So I set out cutting 8"x8" squares of the fabric, then cut a strip the entire length of the pink fabric 2" wide. It was a nice hot day outside so I pulled up a seat on our back deck next to our 'craft' table and got to work.

I folded the squares in half and ironed them. Then I cut them in half so I had triangles. I then took half of the triangles and did the same thing, so I ended up with some larger triangles, and some smaller ones.

 Now here's the funny part... ( I know I didn't tell you this was going to be funny, did I?)

So, I have an old sewing machine that was given to me by my Mom, but it is missing a piece and I need to take it in. So I was super upset that I couldn't finish my project....until I remembered that I bought my daughter a cheap-o Hello Kitty sewing machine last Christmas, and it had just been sitting there in her closet! So yes, it was a total pain, but I managed to sew the banner with a battery operated machine for little girls!

 So I sewed the hems of the pink fabic strip, but didn't bother with the triangles. I'm not a perfectionist and am pretty sure a little ADD, because I just can't do a project that takes me longer than a day....it turned out fine though for what we are using it for!

I've also made a couple tablecloths for her party, and am also working on a Bean Bag toss board.... I will be sure to post pics of those soon, and of course pictures from her slumber party!

P.S. My dear friend has since loaned me her sewing machine just in case ;)