Feeding the Reindeer

Santa is almost here.  While he delivers presents and chows down on the treats you and the kids baked, his reindeer are outside starving.  Hello. Ok, well they're hungry, so here's a recipe to fuel em- Mix 1 cup of oatmeal with 1 tablespoon colored sugar crystals or substitute the crystals with colored glitter for the bling effect.  You can even add birdseed to the mix but not with the glitter recipe.  Take the kiddies out and sprinkle on the lawn the night before santa makes his annual round so he can find your casa.  Make the dust with the kids, bag it, and hand it out to the neighbor kids or you could buy reindeer dust on Etsy.

solar christmas

So we set up our freshly cut tree, I turned Pandora on with the "Holidays with the Temptations" and the girls started decorating.  While the fake vs real tree debate lives on, there are options like replanting your tree or just recycling the bugger so it can be mulched.  Save some energy and try keeping the lights on for shorter periods. And check out these solar powered Christmas lights.  LED lights are always better too and easier to find.  Now go make some ornaments with the kids!

ornaments with a purpose

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "Consume less. Share more." Ahhh...music to my ear wax. Can you say re-purpose and reuse? Clearly, we can't save every recyclable thing for a future project because that's hording (see A&E's Horders) but how about, for instance, creating a CD Christmas Ornament with the kids. Or instead of buying new holiday ornaments and decorations, how about asking family members to gift you decorative items they aren't using anymore. My mom-in-law passed on some hand made 70's retro ornaments from my hubby's great grandmother and a few he had created in grade school. The girls think their fun, I didn't spend a dime, and we didn't contribute to the landfill.

Get Creative

We purchased a doll house for my three old yesterday for Christmas. Well, we purchased two of them but one is going back. Janae wanted a Dora Doll House but that one is orange, plastic and kind of gaudy. The one we love is a pink and purple (her fav colors) and hand crafted wood with non-toxic paint Melissa and Doug house. Oh and did I mention the wood one is $40 cheaper on Amazon? So we are furnishing it with the Dora furniture and figures and will probably slap a big ole Dora sticker on the front of it. Toys R Us sells Wooderland, an eco-friendly line featuring non-toxic paints and rubber woods. Little more expensive but very cool.

Stop the madness

Enough already with kids bringing home 10 pounds of Halloween candy. This year go green on October 31. How about serving up non-candy items like feathers, polished rocks, and bubble bottles instead of 10 mini processed artificially flavored snicker bars? Better for the environment, our little ones tummies and easier on your wallet. Or if you are stuck on tradition, how about ONE mini candy bar or ONE organic lollipop instead of a handful of madness? Visit Green Halloween for more tips and treats. Boo.

Birthday on the cheap

Is it possible to throw a birthday party for 30 people under $100? I think it is and we shall see come September. Our little one turned one today and we had her party this past Sunday and it was about $250. We are thinking, a pot luck for the next party will bring costs down as the total number coming will not change since it's all family attending. We were going to do pizza for this last party but we are pizza snobs so the cheapest kind we like is about $24 a pie. We had Italian food ($180) catered and we had the left overs for dinner. I also ran a few inexpensive kid games as I had about 10 sweet faces to entertain. We did pin the tail on the bunny (cost of cotton balls), an inside Easter egg hunt ($10 with plastic eggs and candy) and a cotton ball spoon race down the hallway. Winners received a small chocolate bunny (.44cents ea.) and everyone took home a goodie bag with items I bought from the Target $1 area. Even in this area, I got cheaper, as I only bought $1 items that came in at least sets of 3-5. For Laney's 2nd birthday I made a duncan hines Dora cake ($3 cake mix) with a gifted Dora cake tin pan. My sister who is a cake decorating snob, flipped out and bought icing to make it look pretty. This time, I let her make the whole thing. She made an impressive pretty princesses cake (see photo) and I hope she didnt spend more than $20 on decorating it.