I began to think that I should take more videos of my kids.  I often (or always) forget.  So, I found some questions that I could ask my kids on each of their birthdays and see how much the answers change each year.  I found some cool questions here.  Here is a video of my girl answering her questions!

http://youtu.be/4b3us-8rwa0

Here are the questions and her answers:
What is your name? Ella
When were you born? June 8
How old are you? Three
Who is your mommy? Dana
What does your mommy do? does she play with you? Yeah
Who is your daddy? Brian
What does your daddy do? play with me all day
What is your favorite color? Purple not pink
What do you want to be when you grow up? A cat
What is your favorite food? Mac n cheese no I don’t like mac n cheese I like macaroni and cheese
What food do you not like? Mushrooms on pizza
What is your favorite animal? cows
Where do you want to live when you grow up? Home Depot is 22
What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? Work Out
What does daddy say? Can you please go to bed
What does mommy say? Can you please go to bed right now
What is your favorite song? she sang Jesus Loves Me
What is your favorite movie? Tangled even Linlegh likes Tangled
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate
Where is your favorite place to eat? outside
Who is your favorite person? Anna is but she makes a lot of mess
Who is your best friend? Linleigh and Sarah
What is your favorite book? Spider book
Who are your sister? Anna
Where did Anna come from? The old house
What is your favorite thing to do? Clean up the blocks (she’s so off on this one)

Lastly, here’s a sneak peak of us and Ella at her 3rd birthday party!  It was such a great party, post coming soon!

 

So I have to consider myself an expert in wall cleaning… mostly because I have 3 crazy boys and babysit 2 more boys full time (this equals a lot of fingerprints!!!!), but also because I have moved A LOT.

We are just getting ready to move again this week (to Florida this time Yahooo!) and this will be our 11th move in the almost ten years we have been married.  Crazy right!  I should tell you that the first 6 moves happened before we had kids .

Anyway, I have gotten pretty good at doing my move out check list and have discovered the best overall way to clean walls.  It will keep even your white walls looking perfect (even when you have 5 crazy boys running around your house like I do!).

1.  So the first step to cleaning your walls is to dust them.  Sounds silly I know, but if you start cleaning your walls when there is dust on them already you end up smearing the dust across the wall and giving yourself a bigger mess to clean.

2.  After you dust, go over all the spots that stand out with a magic eraser.  Those things are golden!  I practically buy target out of the generic version every time I move. Ha!  They clean pretty much anything (crayon, marker, scuffs, you name it).  Soak your magic eraser in water, squeeze it out, and just start scrubbing.  The magic eraser can often leave a water dripping marks down the wall, but don’t worry about this just yet.

3.  Now  get a box of wet Swiffer’s Sweepers and wipe down the whole wall.  The Swiffers really work awesome and make your walls smell nice and fresh!  You can always just fill up a bucket with a multipurpose cleaner and use a wash rag to wipe down the wall too.  I use the Swiffers because it is so fast and easy… makes an obnoxious job up a cinch!  This will clean up any water marks left from the magic erasers.

4.  Last step is to use some bounce dryer sheets to dust the base boards.  I just started using the dryer sheets and I can tell you it makes all the difference!  The dryer sheets don’t just clean your baseboards, but they prevent dust and hair from getting stuck to them in the future.  Win!  Then you rarely even have to clean your baseboards.  (The dryer sheets also work great on the bottom of your stair railings and prevent build up there as well).

There you go… some moving advice from a moving professional!  Ha!

Pinterest struck again!  My friend was debating what dessert to make for a Memorial Day cookout, so I saw this on Pinterest and I told her to give it a try!  I just love trifles!

Okay, so you want to see the easiness of it?!

All you need is:

• 10 oz angel food cake, cut into 1-inch cubes*
• 2 pints strawberries, sliced
• 2 pints blueberries

For the cream filling:

• 6 tbsp fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1 package sugar-free white chocolate instant pudding mix
• 12 oz fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed

All you do is:

Whisk the condensed milk and water in a bowl. Whisk in the pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set; fold in the whipped topping.

Arrange half of the cake in the bottom of a 14-cup trifle dish.

Sprinkle evenly with a layer of blueberries.

Spread half of the cream mixture over the blueberries and gently spread.

Top with a layer of strawberries.

Layer the remaining cake cubes on top of the strawberries, then add more blueberries and top with the remaining cream mixture.

Finish with the remaining strawberries and blueberries, arranging them in a pretty pattern.

Cover and refrigerate at least one 1 hour.

 

 

Also, try another great trifle recipe, it’s totally worth buying the dish for:

Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie Trifle

Father’s Day is so fun!  I make it a point to do something fun and creative for father’s Day.  This year I asked each of the kids a few questions about their Dad and wrote them down for them.  Some of the answers were pretty cute!

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in my template for the questionnaire, email Jamie@encahntedmommy.com and I can forward it to you.

 

Tomorrow my baby turns 3, even though she claims she is already 3 since she had her party last weekend.

I wanted to do something fun with her today since tomorrow we are traveling out of town for a graduation.  I knew she would have fun at Frying Pan Park (located in Herndon, VA) and it would be a great spot for pictures.  It is also a great free spot (unless you pay for a wagon ride or carousel ride which is still very reasonably priced).

We were able to see lots of fun animals!

I also didn’t miss any photo opportunities on this beautiful farm!

If you are ever in or around the NoVa area, I highly recommend it here!  It is such a great family place and you actually feel like you’re in the country in the middle of a city!

 

 

I have been working on this baby shower ever since a certain favorite mommy found out she was finally having a girl!  Like me, she has three boys and her and I have always joked and dreamed of having that little girl in pink and ruffles one day!  For her, the dream is coming true and I was all about having a fun frilly shower to celebrate!

I am moving in 2 weeks and didn’t have  a lot of stuff left unpacked, but needed some easy and elegant decorations to make the house look great for the shower.  I hung tulle up around the entry way stair case and put cute little flowers in it.  It turned out really nice.  I also have a fabulous friend who does flower arranging who put together a few gorgeous pieces to place around the room.

 

 

We bought a short sale.  Enough said right?!  I mean some people luck out and find a short sale that is in great condition.  We weren’t all that lucky.  We had an HOA violation sheet with about 25 no no’s on it.  One of the items was our shutters.  We have blue siding and we had to work with that (who wants to spend all the extra dough on siding).  The shutters before were a heinous burgundy color.

I decided to change the color to black.  Here’s the after.

Much better, huh?1?!  I love simplicity, that’s why I chose black.  I had no idea where to start, so I went to Home Depot and the guy there was really helpful with what kind of paint to use.

It was an exterior semi-gloss enamel, paint and primer in one. {So what if husband threw this paint can away, and I went dumpster diving to get it}.  It cost about $40.  Not bad for an exterior transformation.  So, we got 18 shutters and a front door painted for $40.

All you do is take the shutters down (some people say to leave them up and spray paint them while they are up, I beg to differ).  Here’s husband taking them down, they aren’t that hard to remove.

Paint away!!!!!

I actually painted over the pegs that hold the shutters in, but you can buy them for pretty cheap too.  Then you just paint, paint and paint.  We wiped ours down really well before painting over an dust layer.  I’m SO happy we did this.  It did take a good while, but it was totally worth it!!!  Oh yeah, I also got a few cans of spray paint  and painted the backs since we have the old school shutters.  I love it now!

Awesome science activity… all you need is a bar of Ivory soap.  Yep, that’s it!  Turn some Ivory soap into a fun fluffy soap cloud!  The kids will love this… trust me!  I did this today with 4 little boys and they were mesmerized!

Step 1:  Get your Ivory soap

Step 2:  Put it in the microwave on a paper towel or wax paper and microwave for a couple minutes.  Let the kids watch as it slowly fluffs in to a large poofy cloud!

 

Step 3:  Let the kids play!  This is a great sensory activity!  Have the children describe what it feels like and smells like!  Warning:  I wouldn’t let them crumble it up until you have it in a bowl.  It might look soft and squishy, but it is actually very crumbly and flaky when you brake it apart.

Don’t worry this is not wasteful, you can still use the soap when you are done!  You can throw the whole fluffy cloud in the bath tub with them or mold your own smaller soaps from the foam and use those!  I personally like letting my kids use the cloud to soap up the slip’n slide in the backyard!  It makes for some seriously slippery fun!

 

 

 

A little clean up advice:  Vacuum or wipe up flakes with a dry paper towel or cloth.  Do not try to wipe with anything wet or you will have a much bigger, soapier mess to clean up.

Looking for more sensory activities?  Check out these links for more ideas.

Handprint Butterflies

Spaghetti Sensory

Turkeys 

Pinecone Turkey

Reindeer

Painting with Ice 

Cotten ball Bunny

 

I’m not writing this post to put out there my gifts, in fact I personally hate it when people do that.   I’m reviewing my gifts for you because I think they are two things that are great for moms or women in general.

I go to the gym, so what if it’s partly to get a break from the girls/life.  I have been eyeing  heart rate monitors for some time.  I wanted one.  I was talking to husband about it for months.  I sent him pics of posters at the gym that had different models on it.  I thought they looked cool on people and the instructors actually interacted with the women that wore them.  I was talking to one girl at the gym and she said hers was $200 something.  Ha, I knew I wouldn’t get one that nice for sure.  So…. I told my husband that I didn’t care about the GPS, I just wanted a good reviewed watch that could tell me my heart rate along with the calories that I burned during the workout!  This is the one I got:

It sells for $81.73 on Amazon (way better than the $200 something price).  It has 4/5 stars with 125 reviews.  My husband is big on reviews and usually buys something less expensive with better reviews.  I’m completely happy with it.  I for sure thought I would feel the band around my chest, but I don’t at all when it is placed under the elastic of my sports bra.  I did notice that it calculated A LOT LESS calories than the machines actually calculate for me.  Boooooo.  It was surprisingly about half the amount.  Dagger.  At least now, I know the exact amount and can plug it into my daily calculations.

So, I’d say if you’re in the market for a heart rate monitor and don’t care much about the GPS (I could care less about that because I hate hate hate running) or MP3 player, this is a great one.  I really think it’s worth the money and it helps you motivate yourself during workouts.

On to gift Number 2.

Maybe I’m the only one that notices women at the sink at the gym.  I secretly watch them putting on make-up (possibly because I’m not that good at it) or what kind of round brush they use.  Yes, call me a weirdo.  A few months back I noticed this lady scrubbing her face this this brush-like thing.  It was almost like my electric toothbrush, but for her face.  Of course, I wanted one and then began to notice them all over commercials.  I was telling my husband about it, with no hints, just that I thought they were cool.  I was actually talking about it at a wedding I was in not too long ago and one of the girls was talking about the brand she had.  I definitely didn’t remember, but I think it was expensive.  So, from the girls he got me this one:

It is $21.97 on Amazon and I LOVE it!  My face feels so smooth every night.  I would definitely recommend this to everyone.  This one had 4/5 stars with 620 reviews.  There were several people saying that they had a more expensive one before and this one did just as great of a job.  It comes with a little tube of wash to get you started.  If you have the $22, seriously order it right now.  You won’t be disappointed.

I guess my gifts weren’t the sappy or some piece of jewelry (that I would probably NEVER wear), but they are something that I use almost every single day.

Thanks Brian for making me a Mama.  Love you!

I have been seeing all these work out challenges on pinterest lately and decided to try one out.  After all, my little brother is getting married this summer and why wouldn’t I want to shrink a size for the wedding!?!?!

So I decided to go with the science tested 2 week cardio and strength program from Prevention.com published last November.  It basically has you trade off walking 30 minutes one day and interval walking the next (Changing up the speed you walk to higher, lower, and moderate intensity throughout your walk) with 5 different strength exercises each day.  I figured, it would be a hard two weeks, but I can commit to anything for a two week period!  So I promised myself to follow it through and record my results.

It worked!  I lost 1 .5 inches from my waist and 1 inch from my hips along with 10 pounds of weight loss in 2 weeks!

I was down a size and the smaller size fit loosely!  I hope to continue this program for another few weeks.

The success in this program comes from doing slower repetitions in your strength exercises.  Each exercise is done while counting 6 to 8 slow seconds.  The slower reps make your muscles work harder and therefor increases your strength twice as fast.  As your strength increases your muscles help you burn calories faster.

I loved that this program did not take a long time out of my day and that it wasn’t overly strenuous.  You also dont need a lot of equipement to do it… in fact, all you need are some hand weights.  You only walk or interval walk for 30 minutes and it takes about 15 minutes to do the strength activities.  You also rest one day a week.

So here is the run down:

Day 1:  Walk for 30 minutes, Strength plan A (mostly core work)

Day 2:  Interval walk for 30 minutes, Strength plan B (mostly a lot of different squats with arms)

Repeat through day 6 and rest on day 7.

Start over for the 2nd week, only try to work harder by doing more reps, or pushing yourself harder on your interval walks.

So what do you eat?  I didn’t do anything special for my diet during the two weeks.  I just tried to make healthy choices and focus on choosing more fruits and veggies during the day.  I admit that I even had chips and guacamole a couple times.

I did push myself hard during the workouts.  The regular 30 minute walk was a 30 minute jog for me and the interval walk was a more of a sprint, walk, sprint walk interval.  I was really busy playing outside with the boys one day and didn’t find time to officially do  my strength workout so I just  did the squat workouts (strength plan B) without hand weights while I was outside watching the boys slip’n slide.

Anyway, check out the site here to see the detailed instructions of the strength plans.