Wordless Wednesday

First day of 5th grade.

Waffle Cookie Fail

So, remember, here, when I talked about wanting to make chocolate chip cookies in the waffle iron because it would be fun and look neat?

Welll...

It didn't go over so well. I thought I should try it to make sure it worked out BEFORE the party instead of waiting until the day before or the day of to try, and fail.

Here's what happened...

A big pile of cookie fail. The cookies were too soft to remove from the iron so they just crumbled. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, it could have been a number of things.

1. I used a prepackaged cookie mix (one where you only add like 2 ingredients)
2. Maybe my waffle iron was too hot (maybe if the heat was lower I could have left them on longer and they would have been firmer/crispier)
3. Maybe I tried to remove them too soon (but I was worried they would burn - again, to #2)

If anyone has any suggestions for making successful waffle iron cookies they would be greatly appreciated!

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Days

Birthday Ideas

*Disclaimer: This post may be boring to some as it is mostly for my Florida family and friends that won't be attending the party...but you can virtual attend too if you'd like!

Isaiah turns 1 in next month! Ahhh!! How has it been a year already!!

We are going with a balloon themed party because he *loves* balloons and balls too. He even says ba for ball or balloon, not mom or dad, nope, it's BA any time he sees one.

We are having the party at a park because we are inviting more people than we have seats for at our house. Here are some party ideas so far...

Decorations:
I want to have a balloon banner like this one...

Or maybe this (easier but not as grand) one...

I also wanted to make this balloon wreath but since we are going to the park and I won't have a door to hang it on I'm not so sure anymore.

I also thought this would be neat, to have the balloons hanging from the pavilion rafters.

As for food I'm thinking:

Watermelon because it's one of his favorite foods right now.

So is string cheese... 

Chocolate chip cookies made in the waffle iron - they're more fun this way!

Raspberries with chocolate chips in them - so easy and looks pretty!

And last but not least Strawberries cheesecakes!

We will also have a main meal type food, we are currently debating between pizza or chicken. Pizza is easier but the chicken is oh so yummy!

Down The Aisle

Linking up with Mommy Of A Monster to share one of my favorite wedding photos in her Down The Aisle blog hop.

I love this photo because it's unique to where we live, Amish Country Pennsylvania! We're standing in a covered bridge as an Amish man drives through on his horse drawn carriage.

Couponing

Seems like a great idea right? I mean how hard could it be, clip some coupons, save some money! Right?!?

WRONG!!

First let me start off by saying I have never been one for coupons mostly because most of them seem too ridiculous to be worth saving and remembering I have them. I mean, save 30 cents on "something I really didn't need to begin with" when you buy 3. Yep, that's right, I have to buy 3 "somethings I really didn't need to begin with" just to save 30 whole cents! No thank you. Not worth it.

Second, we live in the middle of nowhere! I don't even know where to find coupons to clip! We don't get the paper and we don't have paper boxes available around here.

Third, on the rare occasion I do stumble upon a valuable "worth it" coupon I always forget I even have it! Then I'm all like, "Ugh, why do I even bother!" lol

To be fair, I must say I have received a few "worth it" coupons in the mail (and actually remembered I had them and used them). I also found a website that lets me pick from a whole list of coupons and only print the ones I'll actually use for things I already buy!

But, even with it being super easy to access coupons these days it still takes TONS of time! I had no idea! I mean to get the best deal you really need to scour local grocery store sales papers to figure out what's on sale, how cheap is it, what else does each store have to offer (again, that I actually need). Then your all, should I use this coupon at this store or should I use this coupon at that store...until your head spins right off.

Also, I do not, DO NOT like grocery shopping so I am not about to go to 15 different stores to get the absolute lowest price on every single item I need just to save what will, inevitably, amount to less than a dollar.

With all that said about coupons I do have a little coupon success story. There was this one time at band camp...wait, wrong story! HA HA Just kidding! Anyways, there was this one time when I utilized that really cool coupon website I mentioned earlier AND I had received some really "worth it" coupons in the mail and it just so happened to be at the same time we were going to do our BIG shopping trip and when it came time to pay I actually remembered I had all the coupons in my purse and we ended up saving almost $30 dollars that trip!! Now, I realize that was probably way more exciting for me than it is for you and I'm sorry, I was just SO EXCITED and still am if you couldn't tell! LOL

To conclude this, way too long, post about coupons, I don't plan on putting tons of time into collecting coupons, reading through sale papers and having my head spin off again but if we are planning a trip to the store I will check the coupon website. And if I see a really good deal on something we usually use while I'm shopping in a particular store I'll grab a few extras. That's my take on couponing, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Best Buddies

Everyone Loves A Carnival!

A few weeks ago we went to a carnival a local fire company hosted. It was lots of fun. See for your self!

Alex, Tim and Phil went on the Bumper Cars!

 Then Phil convinced Alex to ride the Zipper!

Phil kept trying to flip the cage while Alex tried to counter his movement so it wouldn't flip. Alex lost, it flipped, several times!

 Next up was the FUN Slide! Where Tim almost fell from the top trying to get situated in his burlap bag thing.

 They also convinced Alex to ride the Himalaya! I'm starting to think you could convince him to do just about anything! Everyone's all smiles so far...oh wait, the ride isn't moving yet.

 More around and around...and around and around.

 Alex is starting to look a little scared!

 Um...yeah. No words. lol

 I think Alex has hit his "fun" limit for the day week month.

 Isaiah was content with his soft pretzel.

 These loonies decided to go on it again.

 Look out, he's gonna BLOW!

Just kidding, he didn't. But this does look kind of painful for him.

Fishing Creek

As I've stated in previous blogs that we pretty much live in the middle of nowhere so we tend to come up with our own (maybe not so normal) things to do to entertain ourselves. This is one of those things.

Play in Fishing Creek!

There's a road that runs along a creek, "runs along" is sort of an understatement as the road and creek actually intertwine with each other. Meaning there are sections of the road where you have to drive through the creek to get to the other side of the road!

Observe...

The creek runs this way --- and the road runs this way |. Hopefully you can make sense of that looking at the picture. lol

Alex, Tim and Isaiah playing in the road section of the creek. As you've probably guessed there usually isn't much "traffic". 

Alex and Isaiah enjoying the warm sun and cool water.

Tim skipping rocks. He always tries to teach me but I can never seem to do it.

He tries to find little rocks to chew on. eww.

We went for a walk and Tim didn't have shoes on so Alex offered him a piggy back ride and when Isaiah saw Daddy carrying someone else he thought Daddy needed to be carrying him too. Even though I was already carrying him. lol

Laying in the road. Doesn't everyone do that?