Curious George Birthday Plans

As I have said before I am a huge planner.  I plan everything way in advance, not really sure why but I'm especially bad when it comes to birthdays and holidays.  I started thinking about my sons first birthday theme when I was still pregnant with him, crazy I know.  I'm sure I drive my husband crazy, actually I know I do, haha.  After thinking alot about it I decided, against my husbands wishes, to go with Curious George.  It is one of the first books I bought for him before he was born and I think he's so cute.  My husband would rather me do a football theme which i'm not at all against down the road, but there are very few birthdays your child has that they don't have input on the theme.  I know when Grant gets older he will have his own ideas on what kind of birthday he wants so I wanted to take full advantage of him not knowing any better, and I'm sure some day I will end up having a football themed birthday.

Here are some websites I have gotten ideas from:

*BirthdayPartyIdeas.com- go to there kid party ideas tab and they have ideas for every theme you can think of
*Kara's Party Ideas
*Grey Grey Designs- no curious george party on this site but an adorable Hungry Caterpillar birthday for a little boy named Grant.  Seeing this one almost made me want to change my theme, haha.
*P is for Party

I'm so excited to start making decorations and if I don't get started way in advance I know there is no way I'll get them all done.  Here are my plans so far...

1.  2 banners, 1 with a picture from each month of his first year, the other being a flag banner that says happy birthday Grant (made with my favorite toy, my cricut).

2.  Homemade cake with Curious George's face along with cupcakes with blue and red icing.

3.  Goodie bags made from curious george fabric.

4.  Appliqued birthday shirt

5.  Monkey themed party food- monkey munch being one of them

6.  Parent thank you gifts- mini loaves of banana bread

7.  Kid thank you gifts but not sure what they are yet.

8.  Main colors of blue, red, and yellow

9.  Homemade table cloth of curious george fabric for main table

10.  3 Balloon bunches of red, blue, and yellow in each corner of the dinning room

I'm so excited, makes me want to go out and look for little goodies for the party but I will try to restrain myself for the time being.
If anyone out there has done a Curious George Party send me the link, I'd love to see them.

Moving On

This weekend I crossed one thing off my to-do list- cleaning out my closet.  I've had trash bags and tubs full of my pre-pregnancy clothes just waiting for the day I would fit back into them.  Niave me thought I would fit back into them after the 6 week mark, oh how wrong I was.  While some of my clothes technically do fit, I no longer like the form fitting ones I used to.  As any mother knows, pregnancy changes your body in more ways than anyone could ever imagine and I wouldn't change a thing because I have my sweet little boy, but those clothes starred at me daily and I was tired of it.  I bagged them up into 2 large trash bags, threw them in the back of the suburban, and gladly gave them to my cousin.  Looking in my closet now, I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  I no longer feel an overwhelming need to fit back into those clothes or have the body I did a year ago.  I wouldn't give back one stretch mark my little guy gave me because he was worth every one of them.  Now it's time to move on and be happy with how I am now.

Another One

Yes, I bought another Bit of Whimsy pattern.  They are so addicting and bonus, this pattern is on sale for $6.00.  So I didn't have a choice, I had to buy it and I'm so excited to start on her.  This time I don't have anyone in mind to give her to but I'm sure I'll think of someone, haha.

This is the Jean Doll, isn't she cute!

Cloth Diapering

I am a pretty frugal person so when I got pregnant I tried to think of ways to save money.  One of those ways I found was cloth diapering.  One thing I found to be very aggravating was everyone telling me I was crazy for wanting to use them and how disgusting it would be to change and wash poopy cloth diapers.  Well I'm here to say, It's really not that bad.  If anyone out there is on the fence about it get a few and try it because it's not bad at all.  The only thing I have found is my son pees alot at night and it doesn't matter what I do he soaks through the cloth ones every time. So to save me from having to change his clothes, sheets, and blankets at 3 in the morning I use disposables during the night.

I searched many different sites online and looked at the different brands such as fuzzibunz but the price of $15+ per diaper was way too much for me.  There was no way I could afford to buy enough diapers to get me through a day or two at that price.  I was very fortunate to have my mom buy some all in one diapers for me as a baby shower gift but I also received the old school prefolds with rubber pants like my mom used when I was a baby.  Originally I didn't want to use the prefolds because I thought they wouldn't work as well and I didn't like the idea of using safety pins.  I think many moms may feel the same about this, so I bought some Snappis and I love them.  I actually find it easier sometimes to use the prefolds, rubber pants, and the Snappi than the all in ones.

Here's a picture of the Snappi's in case someone doesn't know what they are:

To give you an idea of how much money we save we used disposables during our christmas trip to ohio for 2 weeks.  During those 2 weeks we probably went through at least 3+ bags of disposables.  That's roughly 150 diapers.  We buy target brand which is about $7 for 42 diapers so that's 4 bags for a total of about $30.  If we were using them all the time it would be about $60 a month give or take depending.

When we use cloth at home and only use the disposables for night time and going out places, we probably go through about 3 diapers a night and if we are out maybe 1-2 (during the week we don't usually go anywhere so this is mainly just on the weekend).  That's about a bag of diapers every 2-3 weeks.  We save about 50% or more on disposable diapers.  Knowing those numbers is enough for me to deal with the occasional blow out and cleaning the  poops in cloth diapers.  Its worth it!

Freezer Chicken

I'm sure everyone else has heard of this before but just in case there is someone else out there like me who hadn't heard of it, I thought I'd share. 

I never think to marinade my food until I'm getting ready to cook it, which really doesn't work because you don't get the same flavor.  When I started scouring the internet for freezer recipes I came across this idea and loved it.  It is perfect for me the non planner (wierd because with everything else in my life I plan way ahead of time).  When you buy your chicken breast and get it home take out whatever you want to marinade it in and some freezer bags.  Separate the chicken into portion sizes that fit your family.  My son is too small to eat regular food so for my husband and myself I portion my chicken breasts into 2-3 breasts per bag.  When your chicken is in the bag take your marinade and pour it into the bag, use a generous portion and move it all around your meat so it's covered.  Label your bag as to what marinade you used, the date, how many chicken breasts are inside, and drop it in the freezer.

The day you want to cook it, take it out of the freezer and it will thaw all day in the marinade so you don't have to think about it.  My husband and I recently did this with plain old BBQ sauce and grilled the chicken and oh my it was so good and juicy.

The easy marinades we like and almost always have on hand:
BBQ Sauce- whatever brand and flavor you like.  If I have time I like to put my BBQ sauce in a sauce pan and add minced onion, brown sugar, and honey.  Let it heat through and oh my goodness its so good.

Italian Dressing

My all time favorite is a Mountain Dew marinade made of 2c mountain dew, 1c soy sauc, 1/2c olive oil, 1/4tsp garlic powder.   I will say this sounds gross and looks just as bad but you will love it.  The chicken comes out super juicy and flavorful.  It is a must try.

Spanish Hamburgers (Sloppy Joes but better!)-Freezer Friendly

I won't take credit for creating this recipe.  My mom gave it to me and where she got it I have no idea.  She has been making this for us instead of store bought Manwich for years and we love it and bonus this recipe freezes really well.  It tastes just as good thawed and reheated in the microwave as it does the day you bake it, perfect for all us busy moms out there.

Spanish Hamburgers

2lbs lean ground beef
2tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4c instant minced onion
2T sugar
1/4c mustard
1 1/2c Ketchup

thoroughly mix all ingredients in small baking dish (I use 8x11inch pyrex dish).  Bake on 350 for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir occasionally to separate hamburger.  Serve on hamburger buns.

Since I never think ahead far enough to put mine in the oven for an hour and a half, so I baked mine at 400 for a little less than an hour and completely forgot to stir it until there were only 5 minutes left and mine still turned out tasty.

Valentine Pouch Finished

I finished Grant's Valentine pouch and I'm actually really excited with how it turned out.  I did all of it by hand (probably would have finished it faster had I used my machine), this way I could stay in the living room while Grant slept in his swing.

Here is the front:

Here is the back:

I've seen many other crafters use buttons but I didn't have any I liked so I chose velcro (no point in spending money when you don't have to).  I hot glued the velcro tabs on the straps and the front flap.  This pouch was so simple to make and even doing it all by hand it would have only taken me a couple of hours had I not been interrupted multiple times.  If by chance there is someone out there reading this wanting to make one similar or just needing measurements so you can create your own unique pouch let me know.

I can't wait until next year when I can put little treats in this pouch and start a new Valentine's Day tradition.