Baseball & Dancing

May and June were seriously crazy months for us. It seemed like there were at least 2 to 3 things per day that we had to be at. June was almost the worst; we were running at least 4 nights a week...The boys both had baseball: Nicholas on Farm League and Sean on t-ball. Thankfully, another Mom has boys that are the same age as Nicholas & Sean and we made sure that Nicholas & Nicholas and Sean & Zac were on the same teams so we could carpool as needed for games and practices. It worked out great!

Nicholas was blessed to have the same coach he's had since he began baseball three years ago. We love Coach Chris, he's great with the boys and really has taught them alot. This year Nicholas's team was composed of mostly All Saints boys, with the exception of Chris's son and two other boys. Games were tons of fun to watch! The boys were tagging outs, hitting balls, and making some serious good plays. Plus, the bonus for me was that alot of the boys on Nicholas's team had younger siblings in Sean's class or Elli's age and so Sean & Elli always had friends to play with...and I always had my friends to visit with!

Sean had a couple of kids from his school on his team (which included one of his best friend's Zac) and so he was super excited. He had a fun year despite a not so great coach. Let's just say that it's a good thing we went to the park pretty much every Sunday during baseball season so Ray could practice with the boys. Sean still had a hard time with the T however, he was used to Ray pitching to him. He had a couple of good plays and had fun. He learned the basics and the main thing was that he had fun Plus, he looked so cute in his uniform!

And then because I wasn't busy enough running the boys to games and practice and 4-H, I thought we needed to add some more activites; thus the addition of dance for Elizabeth as a birthday gift. LOL! She was pretty hesitant at first however, after the first class she picked it up and had a blast. I did learn that in order to keep her focused during class, that she needed to have a rest time before class. Her best class was when Uncle Bret surprised her and came to one of her classes. Oh boy, did she dance her little heart out for Uncle Bret! Then after class she came running out, ran straight to Bret, climbed up on his lap, and started to tell him all about her sticker (the girls always got stickers after class). It was the cutest thing ever!

So here's some pics of our baseball players and little ballerina.

June Freebies

So not the greatest of months for freebies howeve, it was still worth the hunt! Thanks to my two favorite guides: The Krazy Coupon Lady & Raining Hot Coupons. Without these two sites my stash wouldn't be near as fun. I have also found "freebie hunting" to be useful with donations. For instance, the boys attended a vacation bible school at the church down the street from us. This year, the classes were collecting items for a small town in Alaska that needed personal items, small toys, and light-weight food items. Thus, I donated the two Kotex boxes and some Roman noodles that we had on hand. Super easy, something that somebody will surely need, and it didn't cost me a thing (other than tax obviously). I did the same thing for Nicholas's First Communion gift to our local food bank that was in need of food items and personal items.

Father's Day card $2.99 (cardstore.com) (not pictured)
Cutter's Citronella candle $0.97 ($0.03 moneymaker)
Bell's Fruit Pectin $0.98 ($0.02 moneymaker)
8x10 picture $2.99 (not pictured)
Crystal Light $1.90 ($0.10 moneymaker)
2 Kotex panty liners $0.94 each ($0.16 moneymaker)
Suave Shampoo & Conditioner $1.00 each
Colgate toothpaste $2.50 ($0.25 moneymaker)
Dove Deoderant trial-size $1.19
Mary Kay Nourishine Lip Gloss $14.00

So for the month of June I was able to find $31.40 in products and $0.56 in moneymakers. Not a big month however, it's always fun to see what things you can get.

The Harry Potter Party

I know, I know....I'm really far behind...considering Nicholas's birthday was in April...I'm pretty pathetic. So, onto his Harry Potter Party.....Nicholas choose his own theme and then we spent a lot of time on Pintrest collecting gift bag items, invitation ideas, cupcake ideas, well you get the picture. I had a blast creating his invitations (if I could add an image I soooo totally would because they totally rocked!); each envelope was addressed to the child with the adress being "The Cupboard Under the Stairs". I have to say, I was pretty stoked on these invites; they are by far one of my favorites that I've ever made for the kids.

Then, it was time to pick out the cupcakes

Yep, Wizard Hat cupcakes! And I have to say, these were not the most cooperating cupcakes to make. The sugar cones wrapped in melted chocolate....kind of a pain. Oh well, it was totally worth it when I showed them to Nicholas and he was so excited.

Then came the goody bags. We ordered Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and mixed them with Jelly Belly Beans. I confirmed with Tonia (who visited Hogsmede in Orlando Universal Studios in October) that the "containers" for the Bertie Botts was true to form. They were time consuming yet, the end result was sooooo cool!

And you can't have a Harry Potter party without Chocolate Frogs..and we threw in some Acid Pops too...

And you can't have a Harry Potter Party without a witch!

And what's a trip to Hogsmeade without Butter Beer?



This was a fun party...the boys ran and played, did a little "potion making" with their "wands", and just had a great time being boys.