Minnie Mouse 2nd Birthday Party

My little baby turned 2! I can't believe how quickly these 2 years have flown by. It could be because I don't sleep much (thank you Lily!) or it could be how much fun these 2 kids are!

For Lily's 2nd birthday I wanted to do a Minnie Mouse party. Looking around online for Minnie stuff, I found tons of generic Minnie stuff or Minnie with hot pink and zebra print. Neither was the look I was going for. I decided to check out Pinterest and I got tons of great ideas!

I asked on Facebook if anyone could create me some printable stuff, my friend offered! She did a great job. I made tons of stuff for the decorations, I made Minnie and Mickey ears, I spent days on Etsy shopping for sweet treats for the party. Check out the end of this post for all the shopping details! Over the next week, I'll share all my DIYs.

Hope y'all have a great weekend, we are off to buy a new car! Have a great Easter everyone!!

This post is FULL of pictures!

{sweet table}

{cupcakes}

{minnie cookies}

{candy and suckers}

{drinks}

For food we did a Hot Diggity Dog hot dog bar. We had tons of toppings {chili, cheese, ketchup, mustard, spicy mustard, dill relish and onions}.

{napkin rings}

{favors}

For the favors a friend mentioned that Walgreens had Minnie and Mickey cups for $.99 but I wasn't able to find enough, so I ordered from Birthday Express. I found Minnie and Mickey bubbles and activity pads also at Walgreens and then bought small pack of crayons at a local party store. Total cost $2.68 for each one.

{minnie and mickey ears}

I asked my momma to make Lily a dress because I did not think I'd have time to make it plus who is better to ask than the person who taught me to sew! She did a great job and it was super cute and everyone loved it! However she wouldn't pose for me to take a picture (she is 2 after all!)

Of course a picture of Ethan just for fun!

Details:

Cupcakes// YesMaamSweets

Cookies// Sweet Cookie Crush

Suckers// Vintage Confections

Headbands// The Blue Bird Shop

Treat Bags//twine//straws// Bake Me a Party

Dress Pattern// Craftiness is Not Optional

Fabric// Rainy Days & Fun Days

Vacation from blogging

Hi all!

I took a break from blogging because life got in the way.

{we moved} to our base house in January

{i started} college

{i started} to plan Lily's 2nd birthday party

I have no time to sleep let alone blog, so it was first to go :/.

But I'm going to do better and keep up with blogging! Up next is Lily's birthday post!

Asha Guwahati

Morning everyone!

I mentioned last week about something that would make you tear up (or at least it makes me). I have been following Kristin's journey in India for a while now. She is a nurse who is working at a new clef care center in Guwahati, India. After being there for a few weeks and seeing all the street kids she started to feed the kids a healthy meal once to twice a week. She started with 20 meals and is now up to 50 meals! She decided to take her mission to help even further and once a month she has a street kid day where she bathes, trims hair and cloth 20-30 kids. How awesome is that!

{all pictures taken off of Kristin's various blog posts}

I don't know about you but I look at those pictures and I want to hug every single one of those kids. It breaks my heart to think of kids who are the same age as my kids sleeping on piles of trash or kicking a ball around dead animals or feces.

So I wanted to help. I emailed Kristin and asked her if I could make and mail her blankets to give to each kid. Every kid needs something to love on and call their own. This might seem silly but I know my kids love their blanket and I still have one of my favorite blankets from when I was a kid. She thought it was a good idea and said that on street kid day would be the best time to pass them out!!

So my plan is to make 50 (or more) blankets to have ready to mail in January. I'm going to make a mixture of blankets for boys and girls, small and large. I'm going to use lots of my scrap fabrics that I have been collecting since college. As well as some new fabrics.

If you want to help make blankets email me, lindseygilani@hotmail.com or if you want to donate financially to help her buy more food and supplies (it takes just .25 cents to feed 4 kids, yes you read that right 4 kids!!) you can send her a donation through her paypal account, ashaguwahati@gmail.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read!!

sorry its been so long and extreme couponing

Life has been hectic. We have just celebrated Thanksgiving and prepping for Christmas. Sohel has been sick and you know how much energy it takes to take care of 3 kids??!? ;0). Hopefully he is on the mend.

Anyway onto what I wanted to say today...

Have any of you watched Extreme Couponing?!? I can't help but be sucked in. I think its amazing how they can get their bill down sooooo low!

Some dumpster dive for coupons!!!

After watching this show, I wanted in! I wanted to save 99% on my grocery bill. I mean who wouldn't!! So I researched, I googled, I joined and I printed. I even nerd out and have a zip up coupon binder. I make spread sheets, I compare my needs to the sale flyer at the Commissary. I hit up Target, Walmart and CVS for all our needs. I bought every single Christmas present with a coupon! I have yet to save 99% but I haven't done to bad with savings. I even scored 5 FREE first aid kits!!

I'm going to share my go-to websites if you are interested in couponing.

1. A FullCup - I love this site and the forum, plus they have a app for the iphone. People are on there everyday posting updates to good deals at every store you can imagine.

2. STL Mommy - She has updates through out the day with new deals, online and in store. She also has an iphone app!

3. Super Coupon Lady - She offers a great basic tutorial on couponing and setting up your new coupon system.

4. Krazy Koupon Lady {image above} - Her site is nicely laid out and lots of great "lessons".

5. The Coupon Clippers - This is where you can buy more coupons, say you find a good local sale on toothbrushes and you want to stock up. You can buy more off Coupon Clippers. I've also heard Ebay is a great place to buy. You should only have to pay shipping and maybe even a minimal fee for clipping but not for the coupon it self! Its illegal to SELL coupons.

6. If you can or have friends who are into couponing, try to get together and exchange coupons. I have a few friends who are new to it like me and we get together to clip together while our kids play.

7. Before you throw out those expired coupons email me! I am gathering coupons to mail overseas to a friend stationed in Okinawa Japan. They can use coupons 6 months past the expiration date!

I hope this helps anyone who is into couponing and isn't sure where to start. If you have any questions please e-mail me and I will try to help!

I'll be back this week to tell you about a organization I am working with to help slum kids in India. You will want to bring your tissues!!

{welcome home} glow-in-the dark banner DIY

Happy Tuesday y'all! I wrote yesterday that the man of our house came home after 4 months away at a school in FL. It was a tough 4 months. I've done a deployment back in 2004 but we were newly dating with no kids and it was a breeze compared to this separtion. I also lived alone with Ethan for 6 months but Sohel came home almost every Saturday. That was also hard but honestly nothing compares to home alone with 2 kids...except maybe 3 or more kids...

I wanted to make a Welcome Home banner to make him feel that we missed him :) I had this idea that I wanted my banner to glow and I saw Rachel on Smile and Wave made the cutest Welcome Home banner for her husband and I almost squealed when I saw it, it was exactly what I wanted!!

Here is my DIY so you can make your own glow-in-the dark Welcome Home banner for someone special in your life!

Supplies:

Large white flat sheet {I used a twin}

Glow sticks

Packing tape

Scissors {ended up not needing theses}

Friend

How to:

Step {1} Lay out flat white sheet. You could use another color if you wanted, I chose white because it was cheapest. I also picked a twin because it was cheap.

Step {2} Decide what you want to write, we wrote "Welcome Home Dad!" Lay out the glow stick to spell what you want your banner to say. Be careful to not lean on the glow stick since if they snap they will start to glow and may loose there glowing ability before you want them to :0/.

Step {3} Now start taping! I used regular tape at first but then realized it may not hold when taped to the wall. {plus I ran out after 2 letters ;)}. I switched to packing tape and it held great. The tricky part is making the curved letters, just accept that they aren't going to look like a "normal" shaped "a" or "c". I bought glow bracelets so I used the connectors to make my "o".

Step {4} Ask a nice friend to come over and help you hang the banner. I used tape to tape it to the front of my house. We have vinyl siding so it stayed up easy by just using packing tape.

So here is my attempt at a photo of the sign after it had been up for a few days. Like my spider webs?!? I was unable to get a picture of it glowing. I don't have a fancy DSLR camera with a nifty lens so all of mine turned out like a ball of light. But check out Rachel's blog she has a great shot of hers glowing!

I would suggest making this RIGHT before you expect them to come home. I snapped a lot of the glow sticks before I even got it hung outside. So when I went to snap the banner before S arrived it was already out of glow juice so it was spotty looking. Plus snapping them BEFORE taping them is ideal. Its hard to snap the whole stick after its taped down.

Overall it was cute and Sohel was surprised and loved it! We just took it down this weekend ;)

{Sohel is home!!}

I know I am very late in posting this. I've been busy welcoming Sohel home and then spent last week being lazy.

He snuck in right after this kids woke up from their naps and Ethan screamed and ran and hugged him. Lily was more reserved, she didn't know what to make of him being here and not on the computer. She warmed up after about 10 mins and hasn't stopped hanging out with him or looking for him ever since.

We had a great weekend! The kids still LOVE having him here and ask every morning where he is.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you my welcome home sign.

LAST FRIDAY!!

Just wanted to stop by super fast and scream that it is my LAST NIGHT ALONE!!! I'll be back next week with all the mushy pictures that I know you are on the edge of your seat waiting for.

Today I spent the day doing a little new shirt shopping, I had a quick appointment for an dress I'm altering and then I worked on my welcome home banner. My buddy Kerestin came over to help me hang the banner up on my house and let me tell you its AWESOME!! My idea came together great and I can't wait to show you!!

This is the face of an impatient women

Well I've got to get the kids in their jammies and off to bed.