Fisher-Price House Party!

I love being part of House Party, y'all, and this morning I hosted the best House Party yet!  I was excited to be accepted for the Fisher-Price new toys campaign, but I had no idea what I would be receiving until a 57-pound box landed on my door step a few weeks ago!  

Can we open it? Now? Can we? Huh? Please?

FIFTY-SEVEN POUNDS of toys, and actually... more than that, because a second box followed a few days later with even more things for the goody bags!  Crazy!

A few days after that giant box arrived, we couldn't take it anymore and just had to open it and at least peek at what was inside!

Just a peek, boys.

Um, ok, maybe more than a peek!

Wowzers.  We didn't take anything out of it's packaging, but boy did we drool over these fun toys!  

And finally, last night, we pulled the box out again and started unloading the stuff.  The first thing we put together was the Fisher-Price Little People Disney Princess Songs Palace.  Wow, say that three times fast, eh?  Let me tell you something, it's cute, but my gosh, it was a booger to put together!  We tried about seven different screw drivers to find one that was thin enough to get down these little tubes yet big enough to catch the cross of the screws.  I finally got everything put together only to discover that it required 3 AAA batteries, and all we were sent was AA.  So, my sweet husband had to run to the store for us so we'd be ready for our morning party!  Thank you, husband!  Anyway, the castle came with Cinderella and Snow White Little People, but we also received two 2-packs: Cinderella (in a wedding dress) with Prince Charming and Ariel with Aurora.  I didn't figure my boys would care much for this one, but Callen proved me wrong.  He enjoyed playing with the princesses... he liked shoving them out of the castle windows.  Not even kidding.  He's 2, he knows how to play with girl stuff.  Ha!

My husband then stepped in and put together the Fisher-Price Wheelies Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park.  He did it super fast, super easy.  Figures.

Next I put together all of the Fisher-Price Servin' Surprises sets... the Barbeque Set, the Birthday Set, the Tea Party set, the Highchair set, the Ice Cream Party set, and then finally the entire Kitchen & Table, which went together quite easily with the two of us working together. 

When the boys woke up the next morning and came into the living room, it looked like Christmas morning had come early.  Nope, sorry kiddos, it's just the first day of Fall!

Santa came early! 

Finally, guests began to arrive and the party could start.  The kids dove right in... slightly unsure of what to play with first! Parents stood around amazed at all the fun stuff I got sent... FOR FREE!  Lol.  Yep, House Party is awesome!!!

The girls especially enjoyed the Palace.

Feeding the baby... monkey.  I have boys, we don't have dolls.

Servin' up pizza and birthday cake!

The older boys playing with the roller coaster!

Who wants ice cream?!

Having fun!!

Chaos, kids and toys everywhere!

Everything is just so much fun!

Even the littlest one is enjoying himself.

The Loops 'n' Swoops was a hit!

The Kitchen & Table was a hit too!

Of course, it wasn't long till sheer chaos ensued, but the kids had an absolute blast. It was really difficult to tell which toy was the winner out of the bunch, because they honestly ALL played with it ALL.  Thankfully there was very little issues with sharing, and they all got to play with everything in turn or together, and they just all seemed to love each thing.  The kids ranged from one-year to 6-years-old.  And, yes, even the 5 and 6-year-olds had fun with this stuff, of course!  I enjoyed showing my friends how the Servin' Surprise Kitchen & Table switched from, well, kitchen to table and back, and also how all the other Servin' Surprise accessories worked separately or with the table.  Many of the parents were VERY interested in these toys for their kids, so I'd say they were a big hit with EVERYONE!  In addition to the play time, each guests left with a great goody bag filled with a Fisher-Price Little People coloring book, CD, DVD, coupons, playing tip cards, a Wheelies Car and more!

Yay, fun stuff to take home!

Thank you, Fisher-Price and House Party, for this great time had by all!!!

For the record, my favorite items were the Ice Cream Party set and the Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park.  But, seriously, it was all a lot of fun to play with!

[I was not compensated by Fisher-Price or House Party to give a review of these items. I  was provided with the toys listed above in exchange for hosting a party to show them off, nothing more.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own.  This post does contain Amazon affiliate links.  By clicking these links and purchasing an item, I would receive a small compensation.]

Homeschool Recap, September 21st (Week 9)...

In my life this week...

Last week was our break week.  We went to see a production of Winnie The Pooh at Artie's Playhouse (The Artisan, in Hurst).  The boys enjoyed it, as did I.  We ran lots of errands as well, and had a bunch of meetings to attend... AWANA start-up meeting, Cub Scout meeting, our last regular Wednesday night church class and on Sunday I attended one of my Usborne recruits' kick off party.  So, even though it was a "break," we certainly kept busy.  As for this week... same story, meetings, errands, etc., but we mixed in school again, hehe.  We had our AWANA registration night, and quickly signed up over 50 kids!  Exciting.  I am the Puggles Director... that's kids that are 2 and 3 years old... I already have 6 in my class, and probably more after Sunday's registration as well.  Wow!

Enjoying the weather at the park.

Places We're Going & People We're Seeing...
We are looking forward to this weekend because I'm hosting a Fisher-Price Joy of Leaning Playdate through House Party. They sent us a TON of brand new Fisher-Price toys to try out.  I couldn't believe how much they sent... I'll be posting about the party later.  But we're looking forward to seeing lots of friends on Saturday.  Then, Preston and Michael are going on their first camp out with the Pack!  I am praying it goes smoothly!  Dear Lord, PLEASE let it go smoothly for both of them!  Lol.  Also, tonight, Michael and I are getting a date night, as we're going to see the new movie called Unconditional.  I finished the novel last night and am excited about seeing the movie, since I know the guy who wrote and directed it.  Soooo neat!  Go see it this weekend if you can and let's give him a fantastic opening!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "E" for egg!  We worked on our Tot Notebook and read lots of egg-themed books: Tillie Lays An Egg, Egg! A Dozen Eggs, What will they Be?, The Egg, Duck & Goose, Eggday and The Egg Tree.

This craft was NOT toddler-friendly.  Oops.

Callen enjoyed finding the egg in each picture!

Bible:  We used Mama Jenn's printable up on our Morning Board to help us continue to memorize Matthew 7:24 this week.  We are learning about Jesus as our rock, and Preston had the verse completely memorized by Thursday (it's kind of long, but he's got it perfectly!).  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that described Jesus as our rock and shelter, and we listened to a bunch of songs with that theme as well.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Preston aced both spelling tests he had this week.  Continued with lessons 13-15 in Primary Language Lessons. We did some conversational questions and went over the difference between to, too and two.

History:  Last week, during our break, we started the book The Sign of the Beaver.  We finished that earlier this week and Preston really enjoyed the story.  We also started a new read-aloud, Sarah Whitcher's Story.  This week's main lesson was about George Washington, prior to the Revolutionary War.  We read about early life in our history reader, made a tri-corn hat like Washington wore, and we read several books from our collection and the library about Washington, Adams and Revere: George Washington: A Picture Book Biography, Big George, George Washington's Breakfast, Paul Revere's Ride, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? and Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?  Also, on his own, Preston looked through the book called Go Go America, we are getting ready to start learning more about the individual states soon!

Tri-corn hats like Colonel Washington!

Math: Preston got an 89 on his Chapter 3 Math Mammoth test, and we started up on Chapter 4.  We're going over addition or subtraction that goes over 9 into a new 10.  We had a bit of meltdown on Thursday because he refused to use "the trick" I was teaching him, instead insisting on using his fingers.  He was just being so stubborn.  I finally gave up and had him go over it with his dad later that day.  It's crazy because the days before he had done so well, pretty much on his own.  I left him with the sheet and he completed it, no problem.

When he was doing well!

Science:  This week's science focus was on seasons, how timely with FALL officially starting tomorrow (yeeahhhh!)  We read from First Encyclopedia of Science about the seasons and read The Reasons for Seasons, Sky Tree and Month By Month A Year Goes Round.  We went outside a couple of days, and he drew our tree and some leaves.  We also used some of those leaves later in his art work.  It was nice the weather was cool in the mornings and we could really enjoy our outside time.

Drawing/Chalking our tree

Tracing/Drawing a Leaf

Callen trying to reach a leaf.

Music/Art: We continued in the My Very First Art Book, using some of the leaves we had collected to create prints on our paper.  We slathered pain on the leaf, then pressed it down and pulled it back up, like a stamp.  Preston made a pretty image.  We listened to the rest of the Story of Tchaikovsky CD, telling us about his life interspersed with examples of his music.  And we started learning Yankee Doodle (not to be confused with Yankee Doodle Dandy, geez) from our Celebrate America CD.


Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "El Viaje" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we went through our fourth lesson of La Clase Divertida! continuing to go over the vowels, days of the week and going over some new alphabet letters, now we have A-Ñ.  There is a catchy song for the days of the week and Callen was singing it the other day to himself when he was playing, so cute!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Unconditional Is Coming...

I first head about the movie, Unconditional, a few weeks ago when I received an offer from BuzzPlant to do a review... I read a brief synopsis of the film and thought it sounded like a really interesting story.  Then, a few days later I received a Facebook Invite to the "Unconditional Opening Weekend Event," from a friend of mine by the name of Brent McCorkle.  When I opened the invite, I realized... this was Brent's movie!  As in, he wrote it and directed it!  How exciting!

I just received the books, Unconditional: A Novel (which is based on the motion picture screenplay) and Firebird: He Lives for the Sunshine (as seen in the motion picture) from BuzzPlant.  I am excited to dig right into these and then see the movie this weekend!  I'll be doing a review of all three in the very near future!

I hope you make plans to go see it as well... with a date, with your family, a church group, whatever!  And do me a favor, help spread the word about it!

Check out the trailer...

Pumpkin Comfort Food...

This evening it was under 70 degrees. Mid-September in Texas, that isn't always the case. It may not last, but I'm taking advantage of it. I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Dump Cake and some Pumpkin Mocha Latte. I'm in heaven (ok, I'd be further into heaven it was 60degrees, lol)!

This + 70degrees, windows open = LOVE!

Pumpkin Dump Cake
- 1 15oz can Pumpkin Purée
- 1 10oz can Evaporated Milk
- 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 3 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1 Cup Coarsely Crushed Graham Crackers
- 1/2 Cup Butterscotch Chips
- 1 Box White or Yello Cake Mix
- 1 Cup Melted Butter

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Prepare 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, stir together: pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, eggs and spice.
Pour into pan. Pour cake mix on top, then graham cracker crumbles and butterscotch chips.
Evenly pour melted butter on top of everything. Bake for 50 minutes.
Center will be set and edges browned. Can easily burn on top, so be aware.

Pumpkin Mocha Latte
- 1 package of Starbucks VIA Pumpkin Spice mix
- 1 Tbsp Cocoa Mix
- 8oz warm milk

Happy soon-to-be Fall, y'all!