Capture the Little Things @ Home

A while back, our church held a "Missions Sampler". The ladies who participated each represented a missionary and their country. It was very interesting to see each of the different countries and the food representing that country. I chose to represent the country of Italy. It wasn't too difficult for me to come up with ideas since my husband's family is Italian. My in-laws had returned from a trip to Italy shortly before this time, so I was grateful to have some of their souvenirs to display on the table. Aside from the food, I also included some information about our missionary to Italy and some facts about the city in which they serve. I made some Iced Italian Cookies. As you can see, this little guy enjoyed them quite a bit!  Another one of the dishes I made was Antipasto Pasta Salad - it was so delicious!! I could not find the "perfect" recipe, so I combined several and came up with my own. I must say, it turned out amazing! ...

I tried another new recipe this past week. Knowing that my kids haven't learned to appreciate seafood yet, I decided to add chicken to a shrimp scampi recipe I found. I also altered a few more things about the original recipe, making my own. My husband loved it and so did my boys!

If you've missed all the fun details that went into planning the Detective Birthday Party, you can find parts one and two here: The Invite The Reveal Since the party involved a sleepover, we didn't want to pack the party full of "things to do" and pretty well just went with the flow. The boys were all very excited about the party and sleepover, as the sleepover was a first for all of them. Too excited to sleep in, they awoke bright and early at 6:00 the next morning to play the new board game! I'm sorry, I did not get a picture... I was asleep. They spent all morning playing together and the actual party (food and gifts) was held at noon. Before the boys could come to the official party, each child had to be fingerprinted and given his disguise. I was able to find goofy disguise glasses and little magnifying glasses at our local Dollar Tree. Then, I quickly threw together a little sheet for the finger printing at the "Finger Print Station"....

Last week, I shared with you the first stages of our Detective birthday party, The Invite . Remember, my son had no idea that we were inviting a couple friends over for his party. He knew there would be a party at some point and that it would most likely have a detective theme, usually meaning just a cake decorated in that theme. Little did he know what else was planned... We were planning on picking up his friends after our Wednesday night church service, so we thought it best to not reveal our plans until just before we left. My husband came home from work without my son's knowledge and then made a detective-style phone call to our house phone to inform the little agent where to find a secret message (the reveal message). Knowing he would call, I handed the phone to my son when it rang - he was a little perplexed, but immediately assumed the role of a detective. He found the message without incident and sat in shock as he read it and comprehended its meaning. It r...

My son loves to read and has learned to read very well. The first "big" book he read was The Swiss Family Robinson from the Classic Starts series. He loved it!! He soon began begging for more books and we were able to find several more books in the Classic Starts series, along with other classic books as well. One of those books was Sherlock Holmes. I believe it is the only one that he is now reading through for the second time - he loves it!! Sherlock Holmes sparked a new phase in my little guy's creative imagination - detective and spy work! It came as no surprise when his birthday rolled around that he wanted a detective themed birthday party. So, with a little effort, that's what we did! It was his first "real" birthday party - we invited friends over! Normally, birthdays have just been a party with family. But considering we will probably be living out on the east coast for his next birthday,  we thought we should give him a nice party this year...

Last week, I got a check in the mail for $10.17 because I had purchased an item online! By going through a site called Ebates , I am able to get coupons and cash back by shopping online! While most sites offer 4% cash back, I've seen as much as 16% cash back at certain sites! Now, that's the way to shop! It is so very worth it!! There are many online stores that have coupons and cash back rebates via Ebates ... JoAnn, Barnes & Noble, JCPenny, Kohl's, Adorama, Groupon... the list is quite extensive! They even have cash back on gift cards!! image via There is no secret "catch" to it and this isn't a scam of some sorts. It's very legitimate and I've been doing it for over a year now. You won't get rich off of it, because it's not a money-making venture - remember you're shopping. Think of it like coupons or rebates because you actually get cash back. Really, you have to check out Ebates , set up a free account, and start s...

Normally, when shopping on eBay, my biggest concern is that I might be getting ripped off by the seller. I've heard stories of others who have purchased something and paid for it, but when it arrives, it's faulty in some way or another. I never really considered the fact that I could be getting ripped off by the buyer.  The buyer scamming me? Really?! Yes, it happens. Admittedly, I don't do much on eBay, so maybe it's a bigger problem than I'm aware of. I never even thought of a buyer trying to rip me off... until it nearly happened to me! Our Story I was trying to sell my iPod Touch on eBay with the option of an action price or a "buy it now" price. Within a few hours of posting, we received an email saying it had been purchased.  A few hours later the buyer contacted us and told us he was buying the iPod to send to his nephew in Nigeria for his birthday. Although he himself was from California, he was currently on business in Spain, so he wo...