Easy Banana Bread {recipe}

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TasteTheMiracle #CollectiveBias

Good morning! Christmas is this week! Eek! :) One our most favorite Christmas traditions is baking. Baking together as a family is so fun (& a little messy!). ;) We usually bake up goodies on Christmas Eve & take them around to all our friends that evening. My kiddos requested that we make something different this year. I guess they were getting tired of the same old treats. ha! ;) When I was younger my mom loved banana nut bread. We would have it quite often. I’ve never made it though! So I was so excited to find this Easy Banana Bread recipe. This recipe was so easy to put together, & you are not going to believe what the secret ingredient is ~ KRAFT MIRACLE WHIP Dressing. It makes this bread super moist & yummy! I know you are going to want to make some, too. So keep reading to get the yummy recipe. :)

A FROZEN Afternoon {kid activity} #FROZENfun #collectivebias

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. #FROZENFun #collectivebias #shop

Hello! I’m sure you’ve heard, but if not I’ll tell you! ha! ;) FROZEN the movie came out this week on DVD! Eek! My kiddos love this movie! We all saw it over Christmas break as a family. They have been counting down the days until the FROZEN DVD came out so we could watch it over & over again! So they were super excited this week when I surprised them with a special trip to Walmart to pick up the movie & a few Walmart toys to go along with it. We ended up having a fun FROZEN filled afternoon with lots of fun FROZEN inspired activities! So keep reading to see what we did, & you’ll see who our favorite characters are, too! ;)

Easy {& Cheap!} Dinner Date Night Idea #Dinner4Two

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. #Dinner4Two #shop #cbias

OK…I have a question for you! ;) When was the last time you went on a date? Hmmmm….still thinking!?!? ;) Don’t worry I am in the same boat most of the time! I know many of you are as busy as me! It’s hard to find time to squeeze a little alone time with the hubby especially when you are trying to juggle all of the kid’s schedules, other commitments & make ends meet on a tight budget. It can be really, really tough! Buuuut having some alone time with your hubby (without breaking the bank) is soooo important! Recently my husband & I had an awesome & delicious skillet dinner ALONE, & the whole date cost under $10! Yay! Keep reading to see how. :)

Snickers Cookie Bites {recipe} #GameDayBites

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. #GameDayBites

I love this time of year ~ lots of fun activities, game day tailgating, yummy desserts & lots of family fun! Today I’d love to share a yummy recipe we made with Snickers Unwrapped Bites that are perfect to make to celebrate a football game or even to cheer you up if your team lost! These Snickers Cookie Bites are so yummy! So keep reading for the recipe, and I have a link to an amazing coupon that you can use to buy some Snickers or Milky Way Unwrapped Bites. Yay! :)

spring cleaning & organizing in the kid’s bathroom #EasterSmiles

Aren’t you just loving this spring weather?
If you are like me, spring puts you in the mood to work!
I love getting outside, working in the yard
& also working inside the house
doing a little spring cleaning & organizing!

On the schedule this week:
the kid’s bathroom

 

girl’s night out {shopping for Charlie Perfume} #Cbias

If you are looking for {wow me} wednesday go here.
The Par-tay is still going on! :)

Last night we had our own little party around our house.
My girls & I had a much needed Girl’s Night Out!!  Yay!!
We did a little shopping, of course! 
We were on the look out for some Charlie Perfume!

Do YOU remember having Charlie Perfume back in the day?  I sure do!

I’ve blogged about my Grandmother before. 
You can check out that post here.
She was an amazing lady! 
After having 5 boys of her own,
she was beyond thrilled
to have so many granddaughters.
I was lucky enough to be
her oldest granddaughter…the first. 
So she spoiled me rotten! 
Annnnd I loved every minute of it!

Here are some photos from our Girl’s Night Out shopping trip!
You can see our whole shopping trip over on Google +.

tutorial {jazz up your science project} #gluenglitter

Most of you know that I have 5 kiddos.
Sometimes I’m the the strict
do-your-chores kinda of mom,
but other times I can be pretty fun. 
(I think so, anyways.) :)
My oldest son, Zach, has a thing
about creepy, crawly animals (ewwww!).
In my attempt to try & be fun mom
I let him get a leopard gecko
with his Christmas money!  Yikes!
(Lizards seriously creep me out…so this was a big deal for me!)
So far, so good. (It hasn’t escaped yet.  Whew!)
Annnnd another added benefit, he is using his
leopard gecko for a 4H animal science project.  Yay!



Annnnd in another attempt to be a fun mom….
I let him use my vinyl cutter to
jazz up his science project display.
Pretty fancy, huh???

Before we started on this project my hubby
& I headed to Wal-mart to pick up some supplies.
We were on the hunt for an Elmer’s Tri-Fold Board & other supplies.
You can check out my shopping trip in my google+ story.
Annnnd yes, a trip to Wal-mart does count as a date. ;)

   

For this project you’ll need:
Elmer’s Tri-Fold Board
Elmer’s X-TREME School Glue Stick
colored cardstock
paper cutter
leopard gecko pictures & information
vinyl lettering

(We used A Truer Blue
& Courier New fonts for this project.)

Zach jazzed up his vinyl by adding spots
to his leopard gecko & to the word leopard
using a permanent marker on the yellow vinyl. 
It looked really cool.

   

The next step was applying the vinyl lettering to the Elmer’s Tri-Fold Board.
The vinyl stuck really easy to the cardboard.  It was really goes on nice & smooth.
(For more detailed instructions on how to apply vinyl lettering click here.)

 

Then we used the Elmer’s X-TREME School Glue Stick
to glue on the leopard gecko pictures & facts.
We used the ruler on our paper cutter to line up everything just right.

   

Here is Zach’s finished leopard gecko science project. 
Pretty jazzy, don’t you think? ;)

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias  All opinions are my own. 

tutorial {baby boy gift basket} #GluenGlitter

I was recently ask to come up with a gift using
Elmer’s Memory Keeping items.
(These items can all be found in the scrapbooking section at Walmart.)
Since so many of my friends are having new babies right now
I thought of the perfect gift idea for a new mom…
a scrapbooking basket full of fun scrapbooking supplies
to help document all the first that come with having a new baby!

Supplies Needed:
Elmer’s CraftBond Adhesives Squares- Repositionable
Elmer’s CraftBond All Purpose Glue Sticks
Elmer’s CraftBond Dual Tip Glue Pen
Elmer’s CraftBond Foam Mounting Tape
Elmer’s Glitter Pens
photo albums
large photo storage box
tissue paper
paper shred
wooden dowels
blue twine
scrapbook paper
scrapbook stickers
borders, ribbons & other scrapbook supplies

     

Remember all of the Elmer’s Memory Keeping items I used in my gift basket can be found in the scrapbook section at Walmart.  (You can see my entire shopping trip here on Google +.)

Here’s how I made my gift basket:

I love this photo box I found at Walmart.  It’s bigger than a normal photo box.
I loved that it came with dividers.  So the new mom could leave the dividers in
& use it to store her new scrapbooking supplies or take them out & use it to store photos.
To make the basket I just folded the dividers flat & just set them in the box.
I set the lid up straight & then stuffed the bottom with some craft paper.
Then I added some white shredded paper on top.

     

FYI:  My blue photo album was a little plain, so before I added it to my basket
I “babied” it up with some cute photo stickers I bought at Walmart. :)

     

Now that everything was ready it was time to start adding to the basket. 
In college I actually worked in a gift shop, so I was having a few basket making flashbacks! :) 
My tips for making a nice gift basket arrangement is to have all the tall things in the back. 
Put your tallest thing in the middle then work your way forward. 
Put the middle height items in the middle.  Then place your shortest things in the front. 
You want to be able to see everything in your basket when you look at it from the front. 
You can use small pieces of clear tape to hold everything in place. 
Fill in any “holes” with pieces of matching tissue paper.

     

For the final touch on my basket I added a cute “It’s a boy” pennant.
Super easy to make….just cut some triangles from scrapbook paper.
For the letters I used my Silhouette to cut the vinyl using the Oh {Photo} Shoot font.
Then I hot glued the top edge of the pennants to some blue twine.

     

I tied the ends onto two wooden dowels & just stuck the dowels in both sides of the basket.
I used some more of my scrapbook stickers on the pennant, too.  Worked perfect.  So cute!

(This would make an adorable centerpiece at a baby shower, too!)

     

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias  All Opinions are my own. #gluenglitter