Valentine's decorations

After Christmas, I left this small artificial tree up and decorated it with winter theme things. 

Now that it's February, I switched it out to hearts for Valentines Day. 

Linking up with A Tray of Bliss - Five Star Frugal Link up

Nothing is new. I made the felt and sequin hearts years ago and my mom crocheted the hearts several years ago. 

The postcards belonged to my grandparents in law.m

Braeden likes the decorations, he called the little cherubs "babies"

He liked stacking the foam and plastic hearts in the candy dish. 

He will really be excited when he figures out that real candy comes with the actual holiday. 

Gavin is 6! We celebrated like sharks

Our oldest grandson just had a birthday and is 6 years old! He is such a sweetheart and I am very proud of him and also sad that he is just growing up so fast.

We like to celebrate around here so we had a family party for him this weekend. He likes sharks and we saw shark hat instructions in a free issue of Ranger Rick Jr that was sent to our house.

I got the foam sheets at Hobby Lobby and I made 12 shark hats for the birthday boy and guests. 

The food was simple. I made buns with dough made in my bread machine, My husband smoked and sliced a pork loin. We also had hard cooked eggs, fresh fruit and veggies and chips. 

My daughter made the cupcakes and my son got the decorations and balloons. 

The party was very little work but it was fun and I think the birthday boy was very happy.

It was cold rainy evening and my husband had a great idea to move our vehicles out of the garage so the children could ride bikes and toys there. 

1. Make a Shark Hat - National Wildlife Federation

   www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick-Jr/Shark-Hat-Craft.aspx
   

   Make a shark hat craft from the September 2014 issue of Ranger Rick jr magazine

   
   

   I have to give a thumbs up on Ranger Rick Jr as a great magazine for young children.  All the grands have enjoyed looking at the amazing animal photos. My husband has enjoyed looking at with the grands. He told me we should get a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr, so I did. 

Monday's list for this week

It's a pretty long list but I got quite a bit of it done yesterday and a few more things done this morning. 

Today's thrifty shopping

Linking up with Mimi's Five star frugal link up


I stopped at CVS this morning. I used ECBs from my last purchase, an email coupon from CVS and manufacturer coupons on everything,

I got 3 mascaras and 3 dental floss and spent $4.34 cash and got back $13 in ECBs for my next purchase.

I also stopped at my favorite thrift store.  I spent $5 for this mini doughnut pan and a handful of teaspoons. 

The doughnut pan is small. I will try baking some mini ones but if it is too much trouble, then I am sure the grands would be very happy to use it to make play dough doughnuts. 

I don't mind if the spoons don't match, I have a big assortment of silverware. When all our family is here, we might have 15 or so people here for meals.  We usually use disposable plates but everyone prefers real silverware.

I got these old magazines from the thrift store free pile.

The Burda sewing magazine has a big section of uncut patterns in the center, I am wondering what they are.  The date is 1989 so they may be very out of style, who knows.  

Have you found any good deals? 

The past week in a few pictures

Here is the to do list I started Monday. I've tried other formats and fancier planners but a sheet of notebook paper for the week just works best for me.  

Yes, I finally got all of that ironing done last week, it was 10 shirts for my husband, 5 blouses for me and 2 pair of jeans with hems that curled up. 

I made one trip to CVS on Sunday on the way to church. I got an email from them this morning with a $5/15 coupon so I will be going back. 

My daughter personalized these tiny onesies for a teacher at her school that just had a baby. They had a shower planned but the teacher gave birth 3 weeks early. 

We had some delicious pecan pie- made with my mom's recipe. It was so good, I could eat it every day.   

I made the crusts with a recipe that makes 4 crusts, I rolled out the other 3 crusts into pie pans and put them in the freezer stacked with a sheet of wax paper between them. They all fit into a 2 gallon Ziploc bag. So when I do get ready to bake another pie, the crust part is ready and waiting. 

Is there sickness going around your family? I am fine but all 3 grandsons are on the mend after being sick with different illnesses and several people we know are very sick with the flu.

Have a good rest of the week everyone!