Popcorn Cupcakes

My daughter's birthday is this weekend and for the past few weeks I have been contemplating what I would make for her birthday.  I have tried to get crafty with her cakes in the past and they have been cute but I just wanted something different.  Last Friday, I went to visit a friend who had just had a baby.  She and I were talking about Calleigh's birthday and she asked if I wanted to borrow her book, Hello, Cupcake.  I had looked through the book before when I was visiting and since she offered, of course I was going to take it!  Plus, I just bought a new mini muffin pan that I was DYING to try out!  If you have never seen that book, you should find it and flip through it.  Some of the cupcakes in there are amazing. 

After bringing the book home, I started flipping through it and was immediately overwhelmed.  I truly felt like there was no way that I could make my cupcakes look like that!  After looking through the entire book, I found a recipe that I thought might be easier.  Popcorn Cupcakes.  They weren't the "typical" birthday cupcakes but my daughter would love them since she loves popcorn :-)

When I started making the cupcakes, I decided that I was going to do everything from scratch.  I made banana cupcakes (which were delicious by the way) and thought they would be best with vanilla frosting.  I found a vanilla frosting recipe to try and was on my way.  Well, the frosting was a no-go.  It was so thin and way too sweet so it got tossed!  Next up, cream cheese frosting.  I must admit, the cream cheese frosting was so much easier and SOOOO much better!  Now on to assembling the popcorn...

This was really time consuming...  Not really the assembling, but getting things ready.  I had to cut marshmallows and frost the cupcakes before I could make the "popcorn."  After everything was assembled, I put them in cute popcorn containers that I purchased from Target.  Well, the cupcakes ended up turning out GREAT!  My daughter LOVED them and they were oh so yummy!!  Needless to say, I am super ready to try the next cupcake from Hello, Cupcake!

My favorite tees are....

My absolute favorite tees are from Old Navy of course!

I have such a hard time shopping for myself simply because I have a "curvy body."  Luckily I have one store where I can go and always find something that fits.  That's Old Navy!  I can always find something that fits right and that looks good when I shop at Old Navy.  That's why I love being being on the Old Navy Style Council with Crowdtap.  If you follow my blog, you know that I received a new jacket from Crowdtap and Old Navy back in October.  This time I was chosen to go shopping with one of my friends and pick out new tanks and tees.

I decided to take my friend Stacey since she is pregnant and quickly outgrowing all of her clothes.  Stacey and I finally got a few hours without the kids so we took off to go shopping.  After arriving at Old Navy, we immediately found a salesperson to make sure that we were looking at the right shirts.  I picked out the Women's Perfect Rib-Knit Henley and Stacey liked the Women's Perfect Crew-Neck Tees.  After deciding on the shirts, we headed to the tank table.  We ended up picking the Women's Perfect Fit Rib-knit tanks that we can wear separately as well as under our new shirts.

We both LOVE our new shirts and we have worn them already!  Stacey loves the fact that the tank is long enough to cover her growing belly.  We both truly love the fit of our new shirts.  They are form fitting and flattering!  If I ever needed convincing about Old Navy's clothes, this trip did it!   There were so many options as far as style of shirts and color of shirts that it made it so difficult to choose.  Stacey and I found ourselves going back and forth to the different tables of shirts because we were having such a hard time choosing.  I could easily have spent $50 + in Old Navy on shirts that day!! 


I received coupons for free Old Navy tanks and/or tees from Crowdtap.  All opinions are my own and no other compensation has been received.

Who wants to dance...of course I mean Potty Dance!!!

Thanks to Houseparty, I was able to have a little get together with some of my friends yesterday to learn how to do the Potty Dance.  I must admit, at first I had NO clue what I was supposed to be doing and neither did Calleigh (my daughter who is potty training).  None of my friends have started potty training yet so I knew that they had no clue.  On Friday morning, I was busy getting everything together and by 11am it was starting to look like a party.  Everyone arrived around noon (as did the pizza and drinks) and the party began.  First, we watched a video of the potty dance on YouTube, just so that we would know what we were supposed to be doing.  Then our tummies took over so we had to take a break and eat something.  After some pizza, cookies, m&m's and drinks, we got back to dancing!  My friend Stacey and I (along with our daughters), finally figured out the Potty Dance and our girls LOVED it.  They kept asking us to play it again so they could keep dancing!!  My son (who is a little old for the Potty Dance) had fun with the guitars.  Then we had the kids color some pages printed from the Houseparty website while us ladies discussed potty training.  I made up a list of topics and we just took our time talking about things that we had heard, seen or read about that seemed to be important in potty training.  We discussed timing (the age and readiness), techniques, problems that arise, and anything else that we could think of.  The ladies loved the party packs which included coupons, their own dvds, dance mats, rewards charts, stickers and more!!  Overall, I think the dance was the biggest hit!  The girls still talk about it and I know I am not the only mom that can't get the song out of my head!!!  I must say, Pull-ups had a great idea when they came up with the potty dance.  It truly caught these little girls' attention!!  Thanks Houseparty and Pull-ups for giving me the opportunity to share this experience with my daughter and some of our friends!!!

I received a party pack from Houseparty containing items regarding potty training from Target and Pull-ups.  As always, all opinions are my own and no other compensation has been received.

Am I getting it back???

I think I might be!  I am talking about couponing.  Before we moved in December, I had at least 1 transaction a week where I spent less than I saved (by pretty decent amounts).  Since the move, I have not been able to get my grocery trips and coupons to work out right.  It was really starting to get on my nerves and I was starting to wonder if it was the area or if I was loosing my skill.  Anyway, my trip to Publix this evening made me reconsider my though process.  I purchased...

• 10 boxes of Morningstar Farms meatless entrees
• 2 boxes of Kellogg's Crunchy Nut cereal
• 1 jar of Barilla pasta sauce
• 1 bottle of Lysol multi-purpose

I spent a total of $15 and saved $43!!!  I am super excited that I may actually be getting back into the groove!  We will see what happens next week :-)

Anyone want biscuits???

We absolutely love biscuits...I mean, who doesn't!?!?  The only problem is that I refuse to buy canned biscuits simply because I can make them for cheaper myself...but, who really has time in the morning to make homemade biscuits.  I know I don't!  So, when I saw this recipe from Mommy Octopus, I knew I had to try it.  So, yesterday I spent a few minutes making Freezer Biscuits.  That was the best idea!!  We baked some of them this morning and they were so tasty!  This is definitely going to be a staple at our house!  Thanks Mommy Octopus for such a great and easy recipe!

Finally found some help for my daughter's hair!

So, for those of you who don't know, my children are biracial.  My daughter has the most beautiful curly hair that I have ever seen.  However, it's so difficult to manage, especially for someone who knows nothing about hair!  My hair has always been pretty easy to manage since it's fairly straight and fairly "normal."  Well, I was using just regular baby shampoo on her hair for the longest time until I noticed that she had this dry, frizzy patch in the back of her hair.  I used detangler, I wet it, I washed it...nothing seemed to be helping.  It was getting to the point that I felt as though I was damaging her hair because I almost had to tear it to comb it.  I finally started researching hair products and I found Mixed Chicks.  Initially I didn't want to purchase the products because they were so expensive and I was used to buying my hair products on sale for super cheap.  I ended up giving in and purchasing the 4 pack (shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner and detangler).  I have to say, it was the best purchase that I have made in a long time!  My daughter's hair was immediately easier to manage.  It's to the point now that after washing and conditioning her hair, I can comb her hair with little to no tangles.  I am no longer hearing her cry when I am doing her hair.  Mixed Chicks has been such a life-saver!  I just recently had to purchase more products from Mixed Chicks because we had some of our bags stolen and our Mixed Chicks was in one of the bags.  Before I purchased more products, I decided to try over the counter stuff to see if I could get by without spending as much money.  Well, after numerous different conditioners and more money than I anticipated, I purchased more Mixed Chicks....nothing compares!  Mixed Chicks will have my business for a long time!!

All opinions are my own and no compensation has been received.

Children's Advil

So, my 2 year old daughter wakes up on last Wednesday screaming her head off.  I mean, the scream that makes a mom think that she is dying!  I go running into her room and she has her head looking up at the ceiling and she is sitting on her knees in her bed.  She starts screaming, "Mom, I can't move my head, I can't move my head!"  Turns out that she has a "kink" in her neck (or as my family calls it a "crick").  I don't know if I should say luckily but my son had one when he was around the same age so we had an idea of what to do.  We moved her to the sofa so that she could get comfortable and we put the heating pad on her neck (which we later found out was a bad idea).  Thanks to Smiley360, we had Children's Advil on hand to give to her and boy did we use it!  We had to give her Advil almost every 6 hours on the dot so that she could feel the least bit normal.  She ended up fighting with the pain and difficulty moving for 3 days before she got back to normal.  I was so thankful that we had the Advil though because otherwise we would have had to go to the store scrambling for something to give her.

 Children’s Advil® is the #1 Selling Children’s Fever Brand.** Nothing reduces a fever faster* or keeps it down longer than Children’s Advil®^†. You can feel confident knowing that Children’s Advil® is both safe and effective when used as directed. 

It is important to remember:

• Always read and keep the cartons for complete warnings and information on Infants’ Advil® and Children’s Advil® products
• Only use the dosing device that comes packaged with the medicine
• Use as directed

You can find your own coupon for Children's Advil by signing up here on the Children's Advil website. 

I received a sample of Children's Advil from Smiley360 in exchange for my review of the product and to share my opinion with others.  All opinions are my own and no other compensation has been received.