Wordless Wednesday -- Baking with the Girls!!! Linky

This is how the baking went yesterday:

We finally got all of the ingredients out, measured, mixed and had the batter/dough in the pans and the pans put in the oven! 

Olivia was a good little "helper" she sat on the counter in her papasan chair and watched what was going on!!

Emily and Natalie had a great time with the measuring, mixin, and pouring...but the best part of baking (if you ask them) is liking the spatula and bowl!!!

MMM...yummy!!

Banana-Zucchini bread!!!

If you have a WW on your blog, please linkup!!

Pay it Forward ~ Sorta!

OK, so this is something that I got from Latina On A Mission, and it sounds like FUN!
I am going to give something HOMEMADE to the first 5 people who respond to this post. There is a catch though - you have to so the same thing on your blog (facebook, myspace, whatever). So when you respond, please include a link to your post! I am not sure yet what it will be that you will get - but it is going to be fun! A little bit of a clue as to what I can do...I am learning to knit, paper craft, love photography, I can sew, and a few other things. It might take me a while to get the creative juices flowing and get five things made up, but hey, it'll be worth the wait!
So if you want to have a little fun and join in making some smiles - comment below!

Girls Trip to Montana

Our "girl trip" to Montana was wonderful!
The girls rode well in the truck - thanks in LARGE part to a new, dual screened DVD player that attaches to the head rest. Some people thought that I was crazy for getting two screens, but Natalie is still rear-facing so she cant see the other one. I try not to play favorites!!!



We were all happy when we finally got to Livingston and were able to get out of the truck for a while! Visiting was great, Emily was friendly and talked, played, and even sat with Grandpa Larry and Grandma Lynette - this is a HUGE difference from the last time that we were there ;-)
Natalie was a little loveable girl - she started walking about the second day that we were there, and has only gotten better at it!
Livingston was nice - we went to the park, Farmer's Market, and more.


We were able to go to Billings and see Brent (my brother), Savannah (his wife) and Parker (their little guy) and then to go visit my Grandpa Larry and go out to dinner for his birthday!



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The second week that we were in Montana, we went to Helena to stay with Papa, Oma, and Sierra. Aunt Jody cam over from Butte and stayed a couple of says as well - that made it really nice so that we could all visit together and the girls wouldn't have to be in the truck any more than there were already (driving to Butte and back.)

Again, Emily was much more loving and was much nicer to Papa than she was last time we were there. He earned some brownie points for sure when he told us that we could eat whatever raspberries we picked...who knew that my kids were such berry eaters! Seriously!
Emily had a couple of owies and Papa doctored her up real good! There were times that Papa would find himself with a lap full of little girls!

Papa took me fishing one day that we were there. It was a beautiful boat ride. I can't believe what is happening to the trees though. Beetles are killing them - BAD. I thought it was kind of pretty to have a few red specks here and there last time we went to Montana, but this time there was nothing pretty about it, it is spreading fast.
Oma and Sierra were glad to have us there so there were more kids to play with! We went swimming, jumpped on the trampoline, played outside, and more - it was great!
Oma tought me how to knit, so now I am on a scarf-making mission (might be your Christmas gift!)

It was wonderful to visit people that I hadn't seen in what feels like a very long time. I was glad that everyone seemed to be doing well.

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It doesn't really matter how lovely a vacation may be, it is always nice to return home. Nothing beats walking into your own house and sleeping on your own bed...
That may not be entirely true - Zack was not able to come with us to Montana this time because of work, so seeing him was the best part of coming home. Two weeks is a long time to be away from your hubby, and it was a long time for the girls to be away from their daddy!

SmartyCard

SOME INFORMATION ABOUT SMARTYCARD

SmartyCard is a great interactive, educational activity for kids. It is geared toward children and tween in grades 3 through 6 (ages 7-12.) Learning is fun with SmartyCard, it keeps kids engaged!

You can log on and try SmartyCard absolutely free, but the access is limited and the points that would be rewarded upon successful completion of an activity are not valid.

The way that it works is you buy the points and then your child earns them through successfully completing learning activities, available in reading, writing, math, social studies, cultural studies, technology and science. You can add points to a Free account for as little as $10 (that is 5,000 points!!!) or there are subscription options.

What is the purpose of points? Yeah, I wondered that too! Your child can trade the points that they earn in for rewards/prizes. Some of the rewards are subscriptions and virtual currencies for virtual worlds to tangible rewards including CDs, toys, video games, books, craft and science kits, DVDs that will come in the mail.



OUR EXPERIENCE
To try this program we were provided with 5000 points.

We logged on today and were going through some of the third grade lessons. The thing that really impressed me was that in the middle of the lesson Emily and I were doing together, it stopped asking questions and just cheered her on to keep going - I thought that was pretty cool. The questions were challenging - age/grade appropriate.

It was fun!

Really, we learned while we were playing. I can definately see how this program could keep a child or tween engaged for at least half an hour.

I do encourage you to try it, it is FREE to try...you never know, this may be your child's new favorite way of learning new things and building their confidence in their schoolwork!




I am an affiliate for SmartyCard.

Family Fun - CAUTION*** ADDICTING

For my birthday my hubby got me a Nintendo Wii, it is awesome. I love it, there are not enough good things to say about it. Well we have only a limited number of games - sports package that came with it (bowling, baseball, boxing, tennis, and golf) and of course we have Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09!! Well my husbands cousin let us borrow her Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore 2 and microphone...we are so going to buy it! It is great!
Earlier I was dancing and singing a song by the Spice Girls...don't act like you never liked them (I wont tell anyone). After I was done, and the judges laid into me pretty hard, it was Emily's turn. She is sooo stinking cute! She was swaying and singing - PRICELESS! Then a few minutes later I was in the kitchen and I hear my husband serenading Emily with "Hey Their Delilah"
Like I said, amazing family fun, worth every penny - but incredibly ADDICTING!!!

Qualifying is harder than I had imagined!

Many of you know that I started sellin Pampered Chef a few weeks ago. I never knew that I was into Pampered Chef until I went to a show. There have some pretty cool stuff. So I decided to have a party and see if I could get enough sales to get what I wanted at a pretty cheap price. I was able to get one item half priced, $40 in free product, and 20% discount on the rest! I was stoked!! But when I was making my "wish list" I ran into an all too common problem...I wanted a lot of stuff! So what better way to get to know the products and earn enough money to get what I wanted (and a few other things too) than to become a consultant myself? Right, that's what I did. Anyways, maybe it's because of the economy...but I am having a heck of a time getting people to have a cooking show or catalog party, and I need to have 3 more by August 27 to "qualify." So I am kinda bummed, but I will survive!
On a more positive note, I held my first show as a consultant last night, and I think it went fairly well. I was pretty confident and I had a good time, and I think that the host and guests did as well. ;)