Big G & Dream Works Team Up! (GIVEAWAY CLOSED)

Have you seen the Dream Works DVD Samplers on select boxes of Big G cereals on your recent shopping trip? If not, be sure to check it out as they are only available for a limited time on select cereals.  If so, have you wondered what exactly is on the DVD’s?  These samplers are filled with fun content from characters we have all grown to love from some of our favorite Dream Works films such as “How to Train Your Dragon”, “Shrek”, “Kung Fu Panda”, and “Madagascar” along with a trailer from Dream Works upcoming film, “The Croods” which will be in theaters March 22!  It is a win/win for you: breakfast and entertainment!


I was given the opportunity to receive a gift pack* which included all 4 of the DVD samplers, a movie tin filled with delicious movie snacks (popcorn, Raisinets, Twizzlers, Swedish Fish!) and 2 books from the movie, “The Croods”.  My girls were so excited to sit down and watch these DVDs as soon as the box arrived.  We have been long time fans of all of these characters and to able to re-visit them in new, short episodes was so much fun! The books are great and have my girls super excited to see “The Croods” over spring break.

I have the opportunity to share one of these gift packs with one of my readers!  How awesome is that?  Just leave a comment below telling me your name and what your favorite Dream Works movie is or your favorite Big G cereal!   I love Reese’s Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch!  Fortunately, my girls do, too, so we always have at least one of them in the house.  My favorite movie?  Shrek!  I’ll close the giveaway on Friday, February 22 and post the winner on Saturday. Please share this giveaway with your friends!

*Disclosure:  The information, products and General Mills gift packs were provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark, however, the opinions expressed are strictly my own! 

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED!  I have contacted the winner.  Thank you for visiting!***

That was a mistake!

Over the past couple of years we have made pinecone bird feeders for our feathered friends.  We were a little late getting to it this winter but we do have a regular bird feeder that is stocked all year round so it wasn’t a big deal. 

Since the girlies like to help make these feeders we took a few minutes this afternoon and spread lots of peanut butter into the pinecones and then rolled it in some bird seed.  We tied on some pretty pieces of yarn and I put them in the tree outside of my office window. I snapped a photo and came in. 

No sooner than I had shut the front door my girls yelled that we already had a visitor in the tree!  Awesome!  That was so fast.  I came into the office and lo and behold there is a squirrel attempting to reach our newly hung feeders.  The sneaky little rodent made off with one of the feeders in less than 2 minutes!  I caught him on the roof before he bolted away.

My oldest said “That’s okay.  I wanted the squirrel to have mine.  I wanted to be kind.”  Bless her little heart.  In the moments like this, where she chooses to be positive and thoughtful, I feel like I may just be doing an okay job as a mommy after all. 

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Project Life Weeks 5 & 6

I really, really have the hardest time photographing the weeks through the page protectors. This week I tried my point and shoot rather than the DSLR and ended up with worse shots.  I really struggle to get good light in this house.

Week 5:

I didn’t get a clean image when I stamped the date but I just left it.  It doesn’t bother me too much.  A photo of some of my girls dress up clothes and some of our crazy weather.  The ice on the pool cover started to melt in an pretty cool way so I took a photo of it (bottom left).  I used some Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers on the last card to spell out “Favorite Songs” and listed a few songs my girls are loving right now.

Aubrey celebrated 100 days of school this week and we had to make a shirt with 100 things.  She brought home the 100th Day sticker so I just added it.  I found a drawing the girls made from one of Aubrey’s school projects so I reduced it and printed it out.  The bottom right is my grandma’s writing on the back of a quilt she made.  My family had saved me some of her things after she passed away so this is extra special to me. 

Week 6:

Last week I shampooed our living room carpet, it was a mess!  It looks so much better and the photo is before I moved the furniture back in.  The Daisy girls made Valentines cards for the elderly and Josh Groban’s album “All That Echoes” was finally released.  I love it so much I dedicate a few pockets to music this week.  I found the photo of Josh Groban on his website and added my journaling right to the photo.  I cut the heart music note on the Cameo and then found a music quote I liked, typed it and left a spot for me to write in a word.  P.S. – The CD is AMAZING!

The Fraizer History Museum in Louisville has a temporary exhibit, “Spirits of the Passage: The Story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade”, so we went to check it out.  It was a great exhibit.  The museum usually has some kind of interactive element in front and this time it was a long blackboard where you completed the phrase “Freedom is…”.  Aubrey wrote helpful, Lolo just wrote her name. 

The weather was mild this week so we spent some time playing outside.  I used a brush from Ali Edwards for the <3 Today and just stamped it off the edge of the photo before I printed it.  I used Cathy Zielski’s Tiny Templates for the 3x4 cards this week.  I love these little templates so much!  I can add a little bit of journaling and have extra photos.  By the way, you can find both Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielski’s stuff at Designer Digitals (the quarterly sale is still going on until tomorrow 2/15). 

I love this project more and more every week.  I cannot wait to have our entire year documented! 

Paris!

While we were at Disneyland Paris we took the train into Paris for the day.  It is nearly an hour train ride into the city but the trains are efficient and there is a station right at the Disneyland entrance so it doesn’t get more convenient than that. 

Our first stop was the Memorial de la Shoah (the French do not use the word Holocaust which is Greek, they use Shoah which is a Hebrew word).  It is interesting to see how each country has dealt with this tragic part of their history and then decided to share the information.  We have been to museums in Poland, the Netherlands, Berlin and now Paris and each one has shared how events leading up to, during and after World War II has affected their country and it’s citizens. 

This wall had names of people who helped the Jewish during WWII.  It was a very long monument.  Below is the crypt and the only place inside where we were allowed to take a photo. 

The memorial was well put together with a lot of information and artifacts on display.  My girls are very well behaved while we visit museums but they do get bored so we don’t always get to spend as much time as we would like to thoroughly read over displays but we did get a chance to see everything.  I would highly recommend a visit to the memorial if you get the chance.  Admission is free and it is fairly easy to get to.

We also visited the Musee Marmottan Monet.  We had wanted to visit the Orsay but we didn’t plan well and purchase admission tickets ahead of time.  So we visited this smaller, less crowded, more focused museum and enjoyed it.  Of course we couldn’t take photos here, either, but I wanted to mention it since it was a nice museum.

After a late lunch we made our way towards the Eiffel Tower, where we did plan ahead and had a reserved time to take the elevator up to the second level.  We took some photos from across the river looking at the Eiffel Tower and these may be my most favorite photos from our entire trip!  I did not pose them, just asked them to stand there so I could take their photos!  I love these so much!

While you are sitting near the Eiffel Tower it looks tall, of course, but it feels soooo much taller once you go up.  The first we visited Paris we didn’t go up because one of the elevators were under repair and we didn’t want to wait in line or climb up the stairs carrying  2 and 3 year old kids. 

Once in the elevator the ride is quick!  I liked the “man” sitting on the outside.

And here is a view looking up from the observation deck.

I could take photos of the Eiffel Tower all day long and as we walked away I kept looking back over my shoulder so I could get just one more look. 

I love Paris!  The coffee is delicious, the macaron’s are ah.maze.ing!  The city is gorgeous!  I hope to go back someday and spend more time there.

Project Life Weeks 3 & 4

I’ve been staying current with my Project Life so far and I do love this project!  Due to some less than perfect weather days I haven’t had many chances to photograph my weekly spreads because the lighting has been off.  I gave it a go last Friday and it looks ok.

I mostly used the Seafoam Core Kit cards but added a little bit of Echo Park digital patterned paper that I sized to a 3x4 card to use as a filler.  It is bright and cheery, unlike the dreary start to our week.

My hubby and I had our first date night in over 5 years!  Crazy, huh?  We dropped the girls off with my mom and spent a night in Nashville!  We met up with one of JG’s old military friends and we went to dinner and did a little bit of bar hopping.  We ended the night at Margaritaville.  I love live music and Josh Helms was fantastic!

Week 4 included Aub’s first bad weather day!  She was excited to get a long weekend.

I used another card for Technique Tuesday here (everyday) and the Seafoam kit for the rest.  I found my cats in their usually spot on my bed and was treated to an impromptu puppet show.

I went to Starbucks and picked up their free song of the week offering so I attached it to a blank grid card with a piece of washi tape.  I found some old stamps and used them for the “No School” title.  I went to wake Aub up and found Lolo in bed with her sissy!  They love each other so much and have been having “sleep overs” in each other’s bedrooms on the weekends.  Aub was also invited to her first birthday party and she had a blast!

I love this project so much!  It is forcing me to pick up my big girl camera more often.  I do use my iPhone a lot.  I decided not to fret if I don’t get a photo every day.  It just fill it in with something else.  It is not a big deal to me at all.

Thanks for stopping by today!