Halloween 2014

We had a pretty easy-going Halloween this year, as I just was not in the mood for much.  I was being a bit of a humbug, and the boys couldn't decide on what they wanted to be.  We purchased a Bilbo Baggins Hobbit costume last year on clearance for Preston to wear this year, only it was STILL too big for him.  And Callen kept saying he wanted to be "a Wolf again, no.. Mario, no... a wolf," etc.

A few hours before our little town's Trick Or Treat Around the Square began, the boys finally decided.  Preston would be Clark Kent - not Superman, mind you.  And Callen would be Fireman Small (one of our favorite books!).  Easy enough!  We had all the stuff to put Preston's costume together, and Callen wore an old costume from when Preston was 3 years old, haha.  And they ended up looking great!

Clark Kent

Fireman Small

Posers.

In front of the firetruck!

Even Daddy got in on the dressing up while working on the yard!

We spent the rest of the evening watching Garfield, Charlie Brown, etc.  Didn't get a single trick or treater at our door this year, even though we were prepared!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

While it's still pretty warm around here, we're doing the best we can to take advantage of the fall!  My mom and I took the boys to Country Critters Farm in Alvarado today.  We had a lot of fun petting animals, doing a maze, picking out pumpkins from the patch, bounce house, hay/tractor ride and such!

Rough Week, But Not Entirely Bad

This has been a strange one, y'all.  Started off with me sleeping on my arm funny and then being in excruciating pain for two days.  Like, can't move my arm without gasping in pain and sobbing.  I cried while trying to wash my hair in the shower.  Never had that issue before.  After some prodding from friends, I went to the AMAZING Dr. Taylor at Crossroads Natural Health in Grand Prairie, and within 12-hours of her magic touch, my arm was 98% better.  I could move without crying... yay!

Preston's skin allergies had a nasty flare up.  We have been having problems with it a lot lately.  We went to the Asthma/Allergy doctor a while back and he was put on two rounds of antibiotics because the doc thought it was infection, possibly staph.  It got a little better... but it would flare up here and there.  Well, on Wednesday night it was so bad Preston could NOT stop scratching at it and crying, and he certainly couldn't sleep.  Michael and I tried everything we could think of to soothe him, but no luck... he finally passed out from exhaustion.  We broke down, and thanks to my parents, purchased some super expensive cream the doc has suggested (and we had used in the past) and we tried it yesterday.  His legs are less itchy, yes, but ... right before dinner, he started throwing up and continued well into the middle of the night.  I mean, really?  I don't know if it's related to his skin allergies, or something completely different.  I am just praying that when he wakes up this morning, we can be done with all of it.

In the middle of all this going on, I found a huge brown tarantula in the bathroom.  Hear that?  IN THE BATHROOM.  Now, I've come to be somewhat at peace with them burrowing their holes into our yard (Michael is NOT at peace with that), but when I find them IN my house, NOPE.  No, no, nuh-uh.

Callen is "rawring" at the approaching storm.

The highlights of the week have been getting to spend some good, quality one-on-one time with my friends Regina and Nadia.  Also, sitting and having a real, uninterrupted conversation with my husband on some serious things we needed to discuss.  Obviously, nothing bad or it wouldn't be a highlight, would it?  And, I dunno... the week wasn't entire wretched besides the overwhelming number of 'gahhhhh' that happened.  Here's hoping now that it's Friday, we can catch a nice break and enjoy the weekend!

Merry Christmas 2013!

I pray that you and yours have a very merry and blessed Christmas!

While the true story here is that Callen was just being grumpy (about taking a picture with Santa), I like to imagine that he's just a bit miffed to find he had showed up to this gala and someone else was wearing the same outfit as him.  How embarrassing!

Don't be fooled, it's not snow.  It's ICE.  We had a crazy string of several days in a row where the entirety of Dallas-Fort Worth was iced in!

Our new house is a bit on the drafty side.  No worries, though... layers and Daddy snuggles will keep them warm!

Anyway, again... Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!!

House Update, We're Moving!

Thursday, 9/19 Let it Begin: I can only hope and pray that this second contract on our house is the final contract we'll need.  The family came by yesterday to look at the house again.  They made an offer, we countered, they accepted and the contract was signed today.  So... we're back in this!  Now, off to find the house of our dreams...

x

Monday, 9/23 Update: We found a house we really like Midlothian and put in an offer yesterday.  So, waiting to hear how the inspection panned out for our own house and to hear if the sellers of the other house accept our offer or not.  Eep!

x

Friday, 9/27 Update:  It's been an emotional couple of days, y'all.  The inspection came back on our house and the buyers only asked for a few simple repairs.  No problem!  Their option period ended yesterday, so it appears we are full steam ahead on the selling of our house!  And we were proceeding just fine with the Midlo house, the sellers countered, we re-countered and they accepted.  Woo hoo, everything was falling into place beautifully.  But then, all of a sudden, we found out that Midlothian was being kicked off the USDA land list as of October 1st.  That didn't give us enough time to get everything submitted and close and all that.  So, we can't use the 0-down-payment financing that was our plan.  Y'know, the whole reason we were looking outside the "metroplex" in the first place, so we didn't have to come up with a down payment from out of nowhere (we are simply breaking even on the selling of our house, not earning anything in that transaction). But, after much prayer and conversation with a number of people (and each other), we have decided to continue pursuing that house with regular financing, and we'll come up with a down payment somehow.  It's scary, but we feel confident that this is right, so we're pressing on.  We have sent in our option fee, our earnest money and we have an inspector scheduled for Sunday afternoon.  Please continue to pray for us in this quest... I know that God can and will provide, but my logical side is terrified at all the 'what ifs' that go into selling and buying a house.

x

Monday, 9/30 Update: Ok, so the roller coaster ride continues!  Late Friday night we received an email from our lender saying that our prayers are working because the USDA decided to postpone their changes, meaning we can still get Midlothian with the USDA financing.  Crazy!  Thank you, Jesus!!!  Michael and I did a little jumping for joy, I must say!  So, Sunday we had the Midlo house inspected, and it looks good.  A few things are simply due to the house being built in the 1940's and the rules being different then, but nothing major surfaced.  Woot.  We drove around the town with the boys and checked things out.  We played at the park right by our 'new' house.  It was great.  I believe we are gonna like it a lot!  So, we will recap with our peeps today and see what the next step is... we gotta get both houses appraised still.  Looks like our biggest concern at this point is closing at the same time so that we don't end up homeless for a while.  Yikes!  We are scheduling or working on the little things that our buyers asked for, and hopefully those will be finished out this week.  Moving right along!

x

Thursday, 10/04 Update: And then... the government shut itself down.  Seriously, between last update and this, nothing has happened.  NOTHING.  As in, NOT moving right along.  The government can't get itself together and it's just decided to quit, apparently.  Meaning we can't submit our USDA loan... so it's not processing or getting approved.  We were already worried about not closing in time and being homeless for a while, and now... well, it's pretty much guaranteed that we won't be able to move into Midlo any time soon.  We are trying to negotiated a lease-back, and hoping the buyer of our house will cooperate and let us stay here till we CAN move, but we can't even give an estimate as to when that would be.  There have still been no appraisals on either house, not sure what's up with that.  Oh, this roller coaster ride is NOT the fun kind.  I gave up the house situation to the Lord a long time ago now, so ... :::throws hands up::: whatever will be will be, right?  God's got this.  I'm just along for the (nauseating) ride.  Massive prayers appreciated.  I know this government shut down is affecting a lot of people in a wide variety of ways, so prayers for our entire messed up country.

x

Monday, 10/07 Update: So, after hearing nothing for nearly a week, some stuff is finally moving forward.  The government is still shut down so we have just given up hope on the USDA and are just going ahead with an FHA loan.  It sucks for a lot of reasons, because the whole point of finding a home outside the Metroplex was to get use 0% down through USDA.  NOW, we have to come up with a down payment, have PMI and all sorts of other things that are going to cost us more in the long run.  And it sucks, because, frankly, we just don't have any more money to use towards all this.  But, God will provide, and we have fallen in love with that Midlothian house and area and truly want to move there.  So, anyway, we'll find a way... we truly believe that God has ordained this and it will work.  Both houses were appraised today, and Michael has been answering questions from various sources (realtors, lenders, etc) all day long and hopefully we have everything together that needs to be together to get this ball rolling.  The buyers of our house are going to let us stay here several days after closing so that we HOPEFULLY won't be homeless between closings.   We just have to see how quickly we can get closed on Midlo now that we are finally working on the right loan.  I am very sorely disappointed that the USDA thing didn't work out, especially after the roller coaster ride we had with it last week of not being an option, then yes being an option, and now we have a big fat no again.  But... again, God's plan, not ours.  He knows better than me, that's for sure.  Carry on.

x

Thursday, 10/10 Update:  Wow... the story continues.  We received word yesterday that the appraisal on our home came in under our selling price.  Lame sauce.  The appraiser was here for all of 7 minutes, no way he really LOOKED at the place.  So, to my understanding, we have to come up with the difference between the appraisal price and the selling price, which means... we have to come up with more money that doesn't exist.  Yay, magic tricks!  No... we are just relying on the Lord to give us opportunities to come up with AT LEAST $2000 in the next 10 days!  Not magic tricks... MIRACLES.   Our realtor and lender are working really hard to negotiate things and crunch numbers so that we can make all of this work, but wow... the things being thrown at us lately, mind boggling.  I am still confident that this is right, and we should move forward.  I choose to believe that it's just the devil doing his nasty work because what we are doing is right.  But he will not win, we will prevail with God's help.  Lord, Jesus, MOVE THAT MOUNTAIN!!!

x

Thursday, 10/17 Update: Fast forward a whole week and I've been a packing maniac.  Today we finally made some headway and got some news on the status of our transactions.  The buyer of our current home is signing papers tomorrow, we shall sign and close on the Midlo house on Monday morning.  It LOOKS like we won't have to come to the table with anything for selling our house, praise God.  We certainly aren't coming out ahead with it, but at least we aren't having to pour more money into it just to get it sold.  Praise God if that does truly work out.  They are supposed to give us final numbers tomorrow as to what our down payment will come out to be and all that.  So we are in prayer that the number they give us will be within reason and we can make this happen.  Ok, HE is totally making this happen, but you know what I mean.  So, numbers tomorrow so we can prepare for all that.  Then the owners of the Midlo house won't be out until next Thursday.  So, we'll get some of Thursday and Friday until 11:59pm to be out of Grand Prairie.  Crazy!!!  I feel like we're pretty much ready to be out of here, though I there are some areas I haven't packed up yet... but now, I have a whole week to do it.  I've been a frantic mess for the past few days thinking come Monday we'd be shoving our stuff in a truck, lol.  So, there's good and bad to that.  But, yes... still pressing on and praying hard!

x

Monday, 10/21 Update: We officially signed next to every 'x' and have closed on both properties.  Woo hoo!!!  While we are official, we can't move into our new place until Thursday, when the sellers get out, and we have to be out of our current house by 11:59pm on Friday so the new buyers can take over.  CRAZY!  We are mostly packed but still have some work to do over the next few days.  But, but the end of the week, we shall officially be residents of Midlothian, TX!

Homeschool Recap, Weeks 5 and 6...

These past two weeks we have focused on Mexico and Central America for our geography studies.  We learned about climate and physical features of the land, a little about the people, and have started reading about Cameron Townsend, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, who started his work in Guatemala.  We started playing a fun Geography Game, and I have already started seeing an improvement in knowing where certain countries are located. Preston continued work on his multiplication tables.  I didn't really do anything structured with Callen other then coloring, and having him tag-along with the rest of our studies.  He knows how to spell his name, still working on the hard 'c' sound when he says it, though.  Also, he is doing great at memorizing scriptures he learns at Sunday School. So proud!

We were able to surprise the boys with a visit from Grandma Jill last weekend... they had no idea she was coming until they saw her come out of the airport.  They were thrilled.  She was with us from Friday evening to Tuesday morning, so that was pretty awesome.  Otherwise, the rest of this past week has been all about packing and attending to things to get our house sold and buy the Midlo house.  We are supposed to close on Monday!!!

Sunday night planning session.

Love Preston's detailed coloring on this one!

String art. I did the puppy w/Callen, Preston did the star.

Seeing how turtles stay cool and warm in shade and sun.

Geography vocabulary illustrations.

Preston reading a favorite book to cousin Trey.

Grandma Jill's surprise visit!

Enjoying their time with her!

Playing Geography Game!

Letter writing assignment.

We will most likely be taking the next several weeks off for the move, so we won't be moving on to Canada just yet!

Homeschool Recap, Weeks 3 and 4...

Week 3 and 4 are all about the United States of America, so it made a great review from last year's studies.  We talked about forests, trees, the states, and a variety of other topics all centered in the USA.  I didn't take many photo of school-related activities, at least not terribly exciting ones... we were on the go quite a bit and rushed through a lot of school.  I'll share what I have from the past few weeks, though...

Playing a massive game of memory w/all the cards at once!

We walked with Team Elise for JDRF, they met Bugs.

Around the World Sticker Book fun.

Illustrating a "butte."

A little abstract art.

Starting to pack up the house!

Getting some reading done.

Spelling Team Work.

No colors can touch each other. We win!

And then the Legos got packed away for a while!

Homeschool Recap, December 14th (Week 19)...

In my life this week...

It's been a crazy couple of days.  Monday was my birthday, and it snowed just a tiny bit.  But that was a really nice birthday gift for me!  Callen and I have been sick... just a cold or something, coughing, lots of yucky drainage, etc.  Well, it seemed we were getting better.  Michael and I dropped the boys off to spend the night with Grandma on Thursday, so that we could have a date night.  We used Christmas money my Grandma Evelyn gave us to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Fort Worth.  That was a neat experience!  We also found a revived Bennigan's and had dinner... oh, how many times we ate at Bennigan's back when we were dating, haha!  Meanwhile, Callen threw up a bunch of times while at my parents' house... not sure what the real cause of that was, but... oops, sorry, Mom & Dad!  Eep.  Friday morning I turned Michael's TCCC grades in for him, dropped a present off for a friend who just had a baby (a month early!), stopped by Auto Zone to see why my check-engine light came on (no big deal, whew!) and then finally made it Chickfila in Southlake to set up for their last Women's Expo.

Half way through the event, I heard the news of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.  I couldn't stop shaking and my eyes kept filling will tears... 20 sweet children killed along with 6 adults at the school.  Plus the shooter's mother and himself.  Unbelievable.  I know that we can never understand such things... there is no "answer" for something like this.  It's completely unfathomable and utterly heart breaking.  Last night, as I watched classic Christmas tv shows and movies with my little ones, all I could think of was how there were so many families who weren't doing the same thing that evening.  It's hard to celebrate a holiday after losing a loved one... but to lose a child so near to Christmas.  Wow.  Their precious ones were taken from them in what is supposed to be a season of cheer and goodwill.  I can't do anything but pray for peace and comfort and that despite what they're going through right now... that the family and friends who have gone through this tragedy will turn TO God and not AWAY from Him with their grief.  And as people scream and argue about gun control, better school security, etc....A friend of mine, Layne Rogers, posted this as his status yesterday and I just love it, and I pray we all remember it forever: "We do not eliminate darkness by destroying everything that casts a shadow, we push back the darkness by increasing the light."

Anyway, a quick recap of what we did earlier this week...

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "N" for Net (insects)!  We read a lot of fun bug-themed books:



Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Lamb of God. Preston's memory verse is John 1:29 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being a lamb. We also made a lamb out of the boys' hand prints and cotton balls.  They did not... um.. come out as I had hoped... Preston has a bit of trouble writing that day (due to his bad attitude about it, mostly).

Not exactly what I had hoped for.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 40-42 in Primary Language Lessons. We finished our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Preston wrote a short book review on it. We have been reading a ton of Christmas books as well to go along with our Advent/Christmas countdown. 

Writing the Farmer Boy review.

History: 
This week Preston learned about Johnny Appleseed, moving to Ohio and the state of Ohio.  We recreated a New England Primer, and Preston stumbled over the use of the letter "f" in place of an "s."


Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.  He is zipping right through this stuff.

Science:  This week's theme was animals, so we read from the First Encyclopedia of Science on different kinds of animals.  We also played the Memory Match game included in MFW, helping to categorize different types of animals.  Oh, and we checked on and threw out our milk/bacteria experiment from last week... nasty!

Music/Art: Skipped music and art this week.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "LaGente" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. Unfortunately, I just realized that the box set of La Clase Divertida was incomplete and did not, in fact, include the second DVD with the last half of the lessons.  It had two audio CDs in it instead.  Oops!  So, we're on pause with that type of Spanish lessons for the moment till we figure out what to do about it.  We can order the Lesson 1 DVD set (of two discs) for $40, but dang... that's a lot of money right now.  So, considering my options and will hopefully have something figured out before we start up again after New Years.

We will take a break from MFW lessons, and do "Christmas School" next week, which will be fun things like crafts and simple lessons using the holiday theme.  And then we'll have a two week break off of school!

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!]

Homeschool Recap, December 7th (Week 18)...

In my life this week...

We celebrated Preston's 7th birthday this week, and had his party on Tuesday evening.  So much fun!  We also had a cub scout meeting on Monday and AWANA on Wednesday.  Friday evening we had an open-house type event for my Usborne business... trying to do some last minute Christmas sales.  Then some of the Power FM crew came over and hung out.  We had a blast, the kids really enjoyed having them over and getting to perform and do "tricks" for them all evening, oh man.  I miss those people!!! Callen and I have been under the weather... coughing our heads off.  =(

Michael put up our outdoor Christmas decor on Friday and Saturday and we also went out to Canton and got our Christmas tree!  We walked around, prepared to chop down our own tree but were really disappointed in the selection this year.  Couldn't find a good one that was the size we wanted, so we had to get one that they had all ready to go... a blue spruce.  It's pretty!  We haven't decorated it yet, but did some indoor decoration as well today.  Woo hoo!  And on Monday (my birthday!), there's a slight chance of snow... we'll see!!!

Got our Christmas cards mailed!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "M" for Mouse!  We read a lot of fun mouse-themed books: Mouse's First Day of School, As Quiet as a Mouse, Whose Mouse Are You?, Mousekin's Thanksgiving, Cat & Mouse and Louie & Dan are Friends.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Lamb of God. Preston's memory verse is John 1:29 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being a lamb. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure, doing our Chapter 18 review.  Not sure if he wasn't focused enough, but both tests we did this week didn't go so well.  Continued with lesson 37-39 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We have been reading a ton of Christmas books as well to go along with our Advent/Christmas countdown.  Preston read his little brother a night-night story the other night, and it was so sweet!

Getting along!  Yay!  Haha.

History: 
This week Preston learned about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin.  We read from our Story of the U.S. and a biography of Eli Whitney.  We studied about the state of Tennessee and read Daniel's Duck and Casey Jones.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.  He is zipping right through this stuff.

Science:  This week's theme was living things... what makes them different.  We read four pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on living things and cells.  We created a cell model out of Jell-o and fruit chewies.  And we have an experiment going about growing bacteria.  Do NOT drink the milk we have stored in our cabinet... eww!!!

Cell membrane, nucleus and organelles! Yum!

Music/Art: Started learning a new patriotic song called "There are Many Flags."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, and our first artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. We read a couple more biography books on him (Neo Leo, Leonardo and The Mona Lisa Caper), and looked at a bunch of his art online. Preston and Callen also colored printed out sheets of the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.  I thought Preston did a really good job coloring in the Last Supper, especially since he doesn't really like to color all that much.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. Reviewed body parts via La Clase Divertida, Lesson 7.  We reviewed words having to do with "La Ropa" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. 


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!]

Homeschool Recap, November 30th (Week 17)...

In my life this week...

Ok, so really, I'm posting this on Monday evening... the week and weekend totally got away!  I had a two-day Usborne booth in Keller, so yeah... pure chaos at my house pretty much.  Michael did a fantastic job of taking care of the boys while I was away... they got haircuts, even!  And Preston lost a tooth!  Anyway, I thought I better make sure I get a recap posted, even though it features absolutely NO pictures.  Booooo!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "L" for Leaf!  We read a lot of fun Fall books: Lucky Leaf, Leaves, Fletcher & The Falling Leaves, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and Why Do Leaves Change Color?

Bible:   This week's focus continued with Jesus as "Immanuel."  We continued learning O Come, O Come Emmanuel, the Christmas song.  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 34-36 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
This weeks main focus was life during the time of the Wilderness Road and Daniel Boone.  We read a few stories from our books about moving from New England further into Tennessee and Kentucky.  And our state study continued with Kentucky.  We read through Kentucky Facts & Symbols and the storybooks A Regular Rolling Noah and Counting On the Woods.

Math: Preston started his Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.

Science:  This week's them was weather.  We read two pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on different kinds of weather.  And we talked about wind with our Science with Air book.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful."  We also started on a World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, and our first artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. We read a couple of biography books on him (Leonardo Da Vinci and Da Vinci), and looked at a bunch of his art online.  Next week we'll be trying to recreate some of his art!

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. Started up La Clase Divertida, Lesson 7 about el cuerpo.  We reviewed words having to do with "El Cuerpo" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. 


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!]

Crock-Pot® Seasoning Mixes Review

I received some samples of Crock-Pot® Seasoning Mixes from Smiley 360.  Always eager to try new things in my slow cooker, I was pretty pumped to give these mixes a go.  The first one I used was BBQ Pulled Pork.  Now, I make pulled pork quite a bit in my slow cooker, and while I like it, honestly, my husband isn't a fan of the way I make it.  But, I'm happy to say that he, the kids and my brother-in-law (who is a picky eater!) all really liked it this time around.  Yay!  It was simple to make following the recipe on the back, and yeah... came out delicious!!!

Over the course of the next few weeks, I also made the Savory Pot Roast and the Hearty Beef Stew, and they were both wonderful.  I've always had a hard time making Beef Stew come out just right, but I nailed it with the help of this seasoning mix and the recipe on the back.  Woo hoo!  I felt like such an awesome wife/mom/cook on the nights I made these, because they were so good (and EASY!).  I will certainly be picking these up again in the future!!!

[I was sent samples of the above mentioned product from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers Review

We received a package of BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers from Smiley360 along with a fun pumpkin decorating kit.  And, well, you know how I feel about pumpkins!  The kids and I had a blast coloring and glittering the little pumpkins, making them all kinds of lovely and fun!

 

 

We used the BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers, and they were a huge hit at my house.  These markers come in so many different colors, you can't really go wrong!  And they write on nearly any surface you can think of... which certainly can't be said for a lot of other so-called permanent markers.  Besides the pumpkin decorating, I have used these markers to decorate cards, make notes, color in fun little school activities and more!  Definitely diggin' them.  These are perfect for any artist in your family, or simply to have on hand for anytime you need a permanent marker in a color other than black!

[I was sent samples of the above mentioned product from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]