The ladies won!

Last Saturday I had a Hasbro Game Night party through House Party.  I love having parties through House Party because I get great party packs full of fun things to give my friends and it gives me a great excuse to have a get-together!

My good friend and fellow blogger Outnumbered Mom was able to come with her family.  My mom also stopped by and we had five adults and seven kids playing games.

Hasbro has a fun and useful website to help set up Game Nights. I easily printed off tournament play pages for Twister and Connect Four. They also have certificates, invitations and other family-oriented items to help families plan a great party.  I will be using this site in the future for sure, as having fun printables can really  make a difference in a party without costing a lot of money.

Three of my girls helping me set up!

For the adults, we played the new Trivial Pursuit that is due to come out in  August.  I have not played  Trivial Pursuit since I was a kid. This new version is  great as it allows you to bet for or against the opposite team, depending on if you think they will get the answer right or wrong.  The ladies won this game (yeah me, coming up with the winning answer!) but I must confess it was two against three!

We also tried out the game Taboo that Hasbro sent me and got a lot of laughs with it.  While we played the children actually left us alone (more or less). I had set out a table full of games for them and they had a great time with little arguing (miracle).  The Harry Potter Clue seemed to be quite popular with the eight to ten year old crowd!

We came away from our party with a great attitude and a resolve to host more game nights. They are easy, fun and most of all CHEAP, as we all seem to have  a lot of games!

Since a few of my guests couldn’t make it, I still have five coupons from Hasbro that I would like to give away. This coupon is for $5 off one of five different games:  Taboo, Pictionary, Scattagories, CatchPhrase and The Game Of Things.  It expires at the end of August.  If you would like a coupon and live in the US, just be one of the first five people to leave a comment and then send me your snail mail address to FourAgainstTwo@gmail.com and I’ll mail it out to you!

Thanks again House Party and Hasbro!
(  I received a party pack from House Party that included:  20 coupons, Trisket and Wheat Thins crackers, Dark chocolate M&Ms (yum) and the games:  Trivia Pursuit, Taboo and CatchPhrase.  I was not asked to blog about my party, but since I love my House Parties I want to!)

All of my girls wanted to create some veggie art and here are the master pieces!

Meg created The  Princess and the Frog out of raisins, green peppers and spinach.

Mita used lentils to make a “Peace and Love” mosaic.

Enu made  unicorn out of carrots.

Elle (with mama help) made a dog out of a banana!

Here are some places to check out some fun playing with your food projects you and your kiddos might like:

Google Images

Photo Basement

With any luck, some of the fruits and veggies will end  up in your childrens’ bellies and they may not be so afraid of the healthy stuff!

It was great fun and Enu and Elle won $20 Buttonwood Market gift certificates for winning their age groups.  I made them both buy me a jug of milk with their winnings, since I made the initial investment in fruits and veggies!  They have had fun spending their winnings (pop corn, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, chocolate cake mixes!).

If you are local I encourage you to check out Buttonwood market. You may find Ethiopian coffee on sale right now!  Elle bought some for her daddy…shhhh, he doesn’t know yet!

(I received no compensation for my mentioning of Buttonwood Market. I just really like this place!)

The other day Hubby and I were trying to have a conversation in the living room when two of my girls came running in playing Star Wars sword fighting (light sabers? My girls just discovered Star Wars btw.) and one of them fell and said, “Pause, I fell down.” First of all I think only girls would actually “pause” as little boys seem to think when the opponent falls it means they can finish them off!

What really caught our attention though was the “pause“. Who says pause?  Apparently my children do. Not to long after that I was watching them on the trampoline (safety net and no jumping when more than one child is on, no flaming please!) and one of them said, “Rewind“. Now this was an alarming trend.

Whatever happened to Uncle, Time Out, or Stop. They must have gone away with the Atari I had in the 1980′s. I can clearly remember my first experience with a Beta machine. One of my friends had one and we watched ET at her house during an overnight-er. I was amazed that you could watch a movie at home with no commercials. They had a machine that you could watch anytime you wanted to. As a country girl raised with two channels (three on a clear day) this was amazing.  I cannot remember what age I was when we got a remote control but I believe it had to be around 1989 when we got our first VCR.

Fast forward (see, I’m picking up on it!) twenty-five years later, my children really don’t get the whole “life without ultimate control” thing at all. If we are listening to the radio they want me to fast-forward or re-play a song that just finished. They just don’t get Live.

My future grandchildren will  have everything voice activated no doubt and the remote controls will all be in museums!  They will probably have the power to Pause by  just thinking it.  I wonder what words they will use?

So now along with the LOL, ROFL, b4n, and aytmtb I must warn you that your children may start sounding a bit remote control like mine do. Oh well, we can always say, Rad and Face to confuse them a bit!

( Translations:  Laughing out loud, rolling on the floor laughing, bye for now, and you are telling me this because.)

Photo Credit

While your cooking the turkey (or watching mom cook the turkey) the kids can be coloring up a storm and get in t the mood for the upcoming Holiday Season.

*This picture was colored by the famous Mita who made her first snowman just last year and cannot ever recall watching Frosty the Snow Man (did we really miss it last year?  Was I that busy?)

At my party I had 14 sets of photo book coupons and coupons for 12 free Christmas cards to give out.  I felt like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve!  Photo books are some of my favorite things to make as I failed with the scrap-booking thing and love pictures of my children.

Add some wine, great tasting cookies and we had a nice time.  My wire-less Internet proved to not be able to handle ten different users at once unfortunately, but everyone got to see how to make a photo book extremely quick and easy for those of us creatively deficient or lacking time.  For the scrappers out there, Shutterfly has some great ways to create your masterpieces with many options, fonts, lay outs and themes.

Thank you Shutterfly for helping my friends and family have a great time.   I cannot wait to see every-ones finished books and cards.  If you want to have your own House Party, you can click here and see what opportunities await you.

Books I've made through Shutterfly.

FireMom and Outnumbered mom enjoying themselves.

(Disclosure:  Shutterfly gave me and 14 of my guests coupon codes for 8×8 hard cover photo books and 12 holiday cards, as well as a Shutterfly bag and pen. I also received a 7×8 soft cover book, and balloons to have at my party.  All of this was in exchange of sharing my Shutterfly products with friends and family. I was not asked to blog about it…but I had such a good time I wanted to!)

Photo Credits:  Mandy W. 2009

When he said “flu culture” this is what my head pictured:

Photo Credit

Not pleasant, but no big deal.  Just a swab in the nose and I’m done!

I was in for a surprise when the nurse gloved and masked up and came at me with this:

Photo Credit

To be honest, she did warn me at first that it would hurt, make me cry and choke and cough.  It was quick and she had good technique but it HURT!  Basically a a guide-wire was rammed down my nose into my throat!

The moral of my story is don’t mock the swine flu and PRAY that your kids don’t have to be tested for the flu because that would take a lot of screaming children when they see this thing coming at them!

My Loot....Do you like the retro carpet?

As I child I can remember the Avon Lady coming up the driveway.  She was a sweet lady, my best friend’s grandmother and she is still selling to this day.  As a kid  I loved the free samples especially and felt grown up playing with them.

Now I am proud to say that I am an Avon lady.  Who would have thought it? Not me. I hate selling things (Girl Scout cookies are the exception).  I have had so much fun lately getting my new Avon books, that I thought I would try it myself.  The products are great and the prices are in my comfort zone.

I am also aware that most of you know that I did not even wear make-up until  I was 25 or 26.  I know that gives me less than 10 years experience with the beauty care industry… but I learn fast and Avon is much more than just make-up.  Cute little hand lotions to give to your kids teachers, easy gift ideas that everyone loves and of course the exhilaration of opening up a new package of something without breaking the bank!

To save money, time and trees I’m hoping to do a lot of my business online, but nothing can replace the classic Avon books so I will be using those as well. I’m thinking of offering an incentive to return old books to me for recycling, so my eco-self feels better.  What do you think?

Here is my store link:   YourAvon.com/amcclelland

I will also have a link on my Facebook homepage and you can always call or email me direct!

I promise not to bug you  I just want you to know that I am here!  I also vow never to wear panty hose rolled up to my knees.  I’ m not dissing this look, however, I am aiming to be a sophisticated Avon lady.

Thanks!

Check out the Dollar General and you can get kites, bubbles and more for around $0.30.  K-Mart often has bathing suits for under $5 so I can stock up for next year.  Disney.com has really nice beach towels for super cheap.  Of course school supplies are just screaming to be picked up and stored away for the cold winter months.  Towards the end of September you may find great buys on backpacks, water bottles and more high-end school items.  These can make great Christmas or Birthday  gifts!  The big wheeled back packs aren’t often great for school but make good overnight suitcases.

Land’s End has a lot of free shipping offers right now and their swimsuits are on sale as well.  Soon they will have all those cool back packs and lunches boxes on clearance! I bought all of my girls backpacks from there in colors that will stay “cool” for a few years.  I have not bought Meg a backpack since the First Grade (she’s in 4th this year, Yikes!)  and it is still going strong.   Mita and Enu also have Land’s End back packs that are in their second year of use.  I learned early to not buy characters or really trendy backpacks and lunch boxes and it has saved me a lot of money.  This  year I will be eyeing deals for Elle’s Kindergarden back pack (sob sob).

I don’t do the while “school shopping” thing.  It is still warm when school starts and the kids grow overnight, as you well know!  Jeans, long sleeves T’s and shoes will hit great prices once the Holiday items come out (October!).  TheChildrensPlace.comhas a flat shipping rate of $5 and monster sales for shirts especially.  They have great quality clothes and are pretty affordable.  Beware of the bright T shirts with Hibicus flowers on them though, they bleed horribly which is unusual for them.  Hopefully it is an odd occurance!

To save money and to be green, I have re-usable sandwhich bags and buy snacks in bulk.  Those 100 calerie packs have some much packaging.  A re-usable 4 oz. Rubbermaid or Tupperware container hold is a great way to save on pakaging and is usually about 1 serving size or 100 calories.  I like to find my sandwhich bags on Etsy.com.  Don’t baulk at the prices…you will get your money back. I am using the same bags I bought last year and believe me they are used a lot!

Before buying anything on-line I do a google search for coupon codes.  This normally works pretty well and cuts down prices and often shipping costs.

This is what I do in September to save money.  Now give me your secrets!

Photo Credit

I want to shout out a BIG thank you to firemom for coming over and letting me and my kiddos try out her Guitar Hero DS games! While I have to turn the volume down on some of the songs, the kids loved playing!  My birthday wish (I’m 34 next week!) is for a Def Leppard Guitar Hero, then I would know all of the songs and be so very cool!

I recently bought a purse that screams, “Hey, Look at me!” Why did I do this? I liked it. It made me happy. I was looking forward to summer and wanted a summer color. It was 30% off. SOLD!

As I walked in the door Hubby took one look at me and said, “What’s up with the lily-pad purse?” I realized that it does look like a lot a lily pads sewn together. I like lily pads. I like frogs. I love this purse!

I have gotten more complements on this purse in the month I have had it than anything I have ever had in my life. My wedding dress was not as complimented on as much as my lily-pad purse! I even had one person tell me it was so ugly it was cute. I took it as a complement.

The down side to a gorgeous and wild purse is that everyone looks at you. I have actually left it in the car as to not attract attention to myself (a no makeup run to the store). At a conference last week I walked in a room with hundreds of women and got so many smiles and “nice bag” comments I blushed.

This green, lily-pad purse could very well be my fifteen minutes of fame. While Oprah won’t be calling, at least I’m not on the pages of the Inquirer!

Are you a flashy dressy? Any advice for this newbie?

P.S. Check out my friend’s review here and find out how to win a new refrigerator!

Photo Credit MandyW 2009