Valentine's for kids!

I really tried not to go overboard on the Valentine' stuff and to wait until 3 weeks before. I seriously think I was seeing Valentine's Posts before Christmas!  Poor January gets no love!

So here we are just a week to go and I still have plenty of time for all the school valentines, treats and parties!

I'm sure many of you have seen a lot of these already, thanks to Pinterest!

But I am sharing my favorites!

These are by far my favorite! If I can find a good deal on full size Rolo's! If not, these would be a cute teacher Valentine!

And I love these with Rolo's also!

"O Fish ally"CUTE!!

NO idea where this came from, but it is SO clever!

These are DARLING and not TOO much candy!

Martha!

Family Fun

Also Family Fun

We are doing a couple different ones from these this year. I will share them once I get them ready!

I have totally been slacking on Valentines Day this year! I still have pictures to take, not that I did anything new this year! Birthday Party Overload!

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Peanut Butter Day!!

Is January 24th, just a few days away. Luckily pb isn't too hard to incorporate into our day. I'm sure we will have PBnJ's for lunch and maybe I will make some PB cookies!

Or maybe some PB fudge!

But other than that I am not planning too much!
If I have to stop at the grocery store I might let the kids make a small container of the DIY peanut butter, they would probably like that!
Are y'all planning anything for National Peanut Butter Day?

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Organizing Friday!

I am not really organizing anything today but I am making plans on how to fill our new Built Ins!! They aren't quite done yet but they will sure give us a TON of storage!

There are shelves for the under cabinets and it will have doors, so I think we can move the board games and stuff to one of these, the kids will like that they can reach them a little better that way!

And I will probably keep our blankets and extra throw pillows in there too! 

The other side of the room just has 2 club chairs, but I think I am going to try to get hubby to build a mantle, not a fireplace, just a mantle since the other mantle has a different TV on it and it is lower and I can't really put much on the mantle or it blocks the TV,

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January 23rd is National PIE Day!

YUM! Not only are pies tasty but they are so charming and simple, considering most aren't too many ingredients. They are cute and always make me feel giggly. I think anything with a pie on it is special!

The American Pie Council had this on their site, I thought it was cute!

"Why is National Pie Day celebrated on Jan. 23 or 1/23? 

Because celebrating the wholesome goodness of pie is as easy as 1-2-3."   

And here is some suggestions they have for celebrating

Other ways to celebration National Pie Day:

• Share the ultimate "comfort food" by giving the gift of pie to a local "hometown hero". Stop by your local police or fire department and let these local heros know that you appreciate all they do for your community.
• If pie making is not in your schedule, stop by your favorite pie shop or grocery store and bring home a gift of love and joy for the whole family. The coldest of January days will be warmed by a special pie dessert.
• Indulge your co-workers with a gift of pie.
• Reach out to new neighbors that you might not have met yet - it says you're thoughtful. Stay awhile to get to know each other and fill them in about the neighborhood.
• Say thank you with a pie. Has someone done a special favor for you? Acknowledge the favor with the gift of pie.
• Spend time with you children and make a pie together. You'll make great memories and your children will be so proud to serve the pie for dessert.

All of those sound like great ideas! Here are some things we are thinking of doing.

I made a hair clippy for my little miss a couple years ago.

 Smoosh will for sure be wearing it that day!

seriously one of my faves! 

And pie is so easy! You could do a breakfast pie, lunch pie, dinner pie and snack and dessert pies if you reallllly wanted to celebrate the entire day!

For breakfast, I think we will do a variation of these

But instead of little pockets I think I will use the mini pie maker! These look amazing!

You could also do mini quiche, those count as pie right?!

I will probably try some version of chicken pot pie but in the mini pie maker, cause it is SO easy to use and the kids will eat anything that comes out of it! But these look really good too!

I will probably do Shepard's pie for dinner but if not these will be a good snack! 

And dessert options!

Cupcakes

Pie

Shoofly Pie

Or mini 

And really isn't a PIZZA a pie?! So maybe I won't do ALL of these and I'll take the easy route for one of them!

And don't forget pie pops!

cute counting project!

And this is SUPER cute, kinda overkill for JUST pie day but it is adorable!

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National Popcorn Day

is January 19th!

Fun and simple and inexpensive!  There are so many versions of popcorn you can make~

Kettle

Ourbestbites.com

Chocolate

Colored

Caramel

Popcorn Balls

and the list goes on of course!

I think we will string some popcorn up for the birds!

If you need a dessert or treat for that day, check out these adorable cupcakes!

Or these seriously cute popcorn cake pops! (These might have to make an appearance at a Baseball party coming up!)

cakecentral.com

What are y'all doing for National Popcorn Day?

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Meal Plan Monday

The next 2 weeks I am NOT sticking with our regular dinner schedule.

 We have too much stuff in our freezer!

My FAVE Apron Lately

Monday~Chicken and rice with veggies

Tuesday~Taco's

Wednesday~mini pizza's

Thursday~Chili and Cornbread

Friday~Stew

Saturday~Leftovers

Sunday~Take Out

Monday~Chicken Stir Fry

Tuesday~Chicken Tortilla Soup

Wednesday~Spaghetti and Meatballs

Thursday~Potato Soup and Salad

Friday~Meatball Subs

Saturday~Turkey Burgers

Sunday~Mini Pizzas

Not planning on trying any new recipes this time either, unless something comes along on Pinterest that I HAVE to try and have everything for. I don't really want to go back to the grocery store. Lots of Birthday Party planning to be done so I am making easy stuff! Kind of feel like I am cheating.

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Organizing Friday

I still haven't quite finished all those magazines from last week! But pretty close, just waiting for a binder to go on  sale! So I had a little time and thought I would tidy up our "office" cupboard. Got rid of some cords to who knows what, went through all the pens and stuff. It wasn't horrible before but it's so much better now!

Before

After

Feeling much better about that, too bad the other side of the kitchen is a HUGE mess! The biggins are having separate birthday parties this year so I feel like I have 2x the amount of party stuff all over, and I feel really behind!

Goodness it is SO messy, but I hope to be able to get things put together a little more and stuff out of the way a little this weekend!

I feel like I am one thing away from a hoarders episode!

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Strawberry Ice Cream Day

January 15th is National Strawberry Ice Cream Day!

I don't know who decides these but some are kind of funny..

Anyway, to celebrate Strawberry Ice Cream Day

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There is a recipe for FRESH strawberry ice cream HERE. If you have fresh ones. We sure don't.

I'm not even sure I will MAKE ice cream, it's not National MAKE Strawberry Ice Cream Day after all :)

But we don't usually have ice cream here, so I'd have to go get some anyway, unless I just freeze some strawberry Greek yogurt and call it good! But I am feeling a little on the busy side. 

If you have some free time and love Strawberry Ice Cream there are lots of cute creations out there!

Strawberry Frappachino Ice Cream sandwiches 

Not all are real ice cream!

I think it's likely I will take the super easy road (and less tempting) and pick up a few of these mini cartons that have a cute little spoon in the lid

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Thank You Day

January 11th is National Thank You Day!

If you have some thank you cards that need addressed why not finish them today!
I think we will be making some Thank you cards!

Here are some clever or cute ones!

I think I want to try and make a few (so we have some on hand) I am LOVING how cute these are!

Those just might be my inspiration!

And I think we probably need to make some kind of cookie! It's been a couple weeks since we made cookies and I know just the people we could say thank you to!
These are SOO cute!

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Organizing Friday FAIL!

So those magazine clippings from the other day, I was so sure I could get it finished today. But nope, not even close!

Before

After

Way less. Better but not done. 

I was all ready to head out for my errands this morning and my car was not participating, 4 low tires..then the grocery store took even longer than usual.

Hoping I can get a little further on it during nap time today!

I still need to separate all the holiday ideas ( there are at least 2 folders full) and pick up a binder for all of this stuff. As well as go through the other 26 magazines! Maybe I will have it done by next Friday!

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Clean Off Your Desk Day!

is January 8th, for those of you who's desk is at work maybe the 9th?

Anyway, we don't have a REAL desk, well besides this one I use to decorate for Back to School

But I don't think that is what they had in mind. We do have a table in our bedroom that hubby sometimes uses for work when he is working at home, but right now it has clothes on it because I am avoiding doing laundry!

So I will for sure be getting that cleaned up, and maybe I will work on our "office" cupboard I shared HERE.

I can imagine after vacations and holidays everyone's desk is a little messy or at least needing some weeding of papers, I know our area does!  And right now is one of the best times to find some cute organizing things out at the stores since so many of us resolve to get/stay organized for the new year.

Everyone likes their area a little different. To motivate me (and hopefully you) I have some cute DIY or inexpensive office pretties for when I finish!

File desks are usually pretty plain and ugly in my opinion, but look at these with a just a little textured paper

And this is adorable!!

And I LOVE this idea because I like eveything to coordinate, could use the same family of papers for the above and these!

And you could add a few magnets to the back of the small ones if you have a magnetic area!

And if you do, you could make these magnets or add them to push pins, charming little things aren't they?!

I'd have to find some mini ones!

So maybe my organizing Friday this week will have to be our "office"!

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Magazine Pages

Anyone else have a stack or container full like this?

Wish I could say this was all of them, but no, it's only about half! 

I am working on getting them organized, an ongoing project, see the folders in there?

I have been keeping this container in our pantry, and I need the room. So it's about time to actually GO THROUGH all of these, half are probably recipe ideas and the other half are party things and cute house ideas.  I need a folder for them so I can keep them better organized and more compact. So it doesn't take an hour to find that ONE little thing I know is in there!

It's bedroom cleaning day here and I got the little one to help me clean the biggins bedrooms for them as a nice treat today (and so there is nothing on the floor to distract them at nap time)  Hoping I can get this taken care of before the weekend! Starting a little early on my organizing Friday project!

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