Fruit Corn

I had a buddy at work tell me that his wife had given him a new treat. He told me that it was really good. After he told me the recipe, I laughed at him and could not believe it was any good. I went home and told my wife about it. She said try it.

Off to the store we went to get the key ingredients for this new recipe. It was a very hard recipe: Fruit Loops and popcorn. Yes, you heard me right.

I took a bag of popcorn and cooked it in the microwave. Then I added what I thought was the right amount of Fruit Loops. Not enough color, so I added more. 

At this point it was time to try it. OK, I will admit that it was really good and was very colorful.

The recipe for this is very difficult, so I would get your kids to do it:

1. 1 bag of microwave popcorn. I would recommend popping it for best results.
2. Open the box of Fruit Loops and take about that much and mix them in a bowl.
3. Mix well and enjoy!

Traversing the Shopping

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As some of you may know, I have crossed over into the blogging world. This cross over has come with very little expense to my pride or even my man-card. The latest venture took my wife and I on a shopping experience that in Utah, I have yet to match. We were invited to the pre-opening of the Outlets at Traverse Mountain in Lehi, Utah. How can I say no to a trip that included manly stores like the Nike Factory Outlet, Vans Outlet, Columbia Sportswear Outlet? Yes, I am going to go knowing that this the kind of shopping I can handle.

We arrived at the new outlets thinking that this was just an event just for bloggers. Pulling up to the outlets, we learned that there most be thousands of bloggers here as the parking lot was stuffed. Wow that is some cool turn out this blogger group is able to get. Turns out everyone in the area was invited for the pre-opening, but only bloggers were getting the special treatment! After I throw my mom and my wife out of the car so we would not be late, I ventured into the parking lot of insanity. I hadn't prepared for the ensuing journey into mall parking. If I knew how it was going to be at an event like this I would have brought food and a change of clothes. Better yet I could have been one of those people that camps at Black Friday events. I probably should have camped for a parking spot.

I got lucky and found a spot in about 30 seconds. But what fun does that sound like? I went into the mall to see that I wasn't as special as I thought. My wife and mom were barely ahead of me as we went into the mall and I was able to follow them to the right place to meet the other bloggers that had come to visit this very nice place. As we went in, I saw the best thing to fill my stomach - hot chocolate, and all kinds of treats. Someone knew that I was in need of a recharge from work. Yum! We then met up with the group that manages the outlets and the group that put this together for us. I was looking forward to the great deals that we had heard about. But then I got another surprise. There was gift cards and other goodies! Even better.

We were set loose on the mall. Wow, the stores that I saw meant that there would be a return trip. Yes, it is shopping, but it's stuff that I could handle going and seeing. We went into our first store the Gap Outlet. Not bad for the little one, we will have to come back. Maybe some shirts for me. Sorry, but I am a Levis guy. So no pants from here. Next, we turned the corner, running into one of the stores we had been looking for. Lane Bryant for my wife. I know that she likes the clothes from there, so why not? Can't be that bad. Besides, it is an outlet store. Just about everything was 50% off  - so go for it, honey. We found some incredible deals, so I gave free reign in the store. Yes, you heard me! She took full advantage of the opportunity.

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One of the awesome gift cards we got was to Gymboree Outlet. Kids clothes with an almost three year old? No problem! We always need clothes for the little one. As we walked in, we found out immediately what the first buy was going to be: elf slippers. Not my size, but I think Zoey would love to wear them. Now what to have her wear with it? Yep, an elf pajama set. What a score.

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We moved on to many other stores that we saw. At the Columbia Sportswear Outlet, I got excited for the next gift card, I knew that this was my gift card. As we went in it was like heaven. But there was only one issue I found, I had all of my winter clothes. I would have a hard time convincing my wife that I needed another jacket. Knowing that this going to be my store I resolved myself to comeback in the future to pick up some new summer clothes. After all I was low on shorts that didn't turn into the work around the house shorts.

We unfortunately needed to get moving as we had left my daughter with my dad by himself.. This the dad who never change one of his own kids diapers... So off we went to drive home, dreaming of the next trip to this very nice, inexpensive shopping mecca. Some of these stores will become the new "I need" stores.

My Stache

There are some some days my wife surprises me. Then, the rest of the time is just a regular day. This was one of those days. I had been having a really had time at work as I was at a new store that had major problems. Little did I know that my wife had set a surprise for me.

I got home that day from work and the first thing my daughter said is, "look it's dad's!". What was she talking about? Obviously, she had tried to get into something that was mine and she got stopped by my wife. So I just went, "oh ok". When I didn't respond the right away, my daughter says, "look it's daddy's stache!". Now I was like, "what is she talking about?" I turn around to look at what she was pointing at and I saw my stache...

If you want to know how my wife made it go to her blog here.

Free Ice Cream

How could anyone say no to free ice cream?

My wife told me that there was a new blog event for the Connective Circle coming up that would be held at Sub Zero Ice Cream. I am so there! This time, I did remember to ask what else is going on at the event. Not too bad, I think I could handle it. So when Thursday comes around, we are rushing to get there in time as our babysitter was a little late. We decided to go to McDonald's drive thru so we could hurry up and get food. Hurry was not in the cards of the workers that day. After 10 minutes of waiting, we were on our way again. I may or may not sped a little to get there on time. We got in line to check-in and then waited our turn.

When we got to the check-in table, I thought I was so cool because I had my own blog. Yes - I was an official blogger. When I told them that I was there with my wife and that I had a blog I was told, "Oh you most be one of the 'plus ones'". Did I look like a plus one? OK, in this case, I probably did. I informed them that I was registered as well. I was cool. I even got a bag full of cool stuff all to myself. We found a seat with Summer from Thanksgiving Point (one of the sponsors for the event). I noticed that I was one of about 3 guys at this event. Not too bad!

The other two guys were from one the sponsors. As soon as they gave away the gift that they had, they escaped out the door. I still didn't think that this was too bad as I was getting free ice cream and it was yummy. Then, they started to give away more gifts and my number was called. Yes, I won! As I started to go up, I learned that the stares that I got were the stares of "how did he win?". I hurried and ran back into my corner. I won a Connective Circle t-shirt and a bag of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears from Utah Truffles. My wife called dibs as soon as she saw them.

I got to meet a lot of great people at this event, like Shannon from Lucky Red Hen
and Jonie from Just Between Friends.

 

I can't wait for the next time.

Tanks For You

 

My wife and I were talking one day about what we should do for our daughter's Halloween costume. The ideas started to fly. The year before, we found a duck costume at Costco for cheap. So, of course we went as hunters. Knowing that we had to up the stakes for this year, a scuba diver popped up. Since I love to scuba dive i joked about how we could take her on a dive with us.We both started to laugh. Yeah, we should use it when we go on a cruise and go diving. We were joking and trying to figure out how it could be made. What could we be that would go with it? We had a tradition going that we are the bad guys so, yep you guessed it - sharks.

We had the ideas now how would we build a scuba diver costume? My scuba gear would be way too big. Besides, the tank alone weighed more then she did and was taller than she was. Do they make kid wetsuits? How does a almost two year old walk in fins? Wow, this was going to be complicated. So, I kinda put it off thinking we were done with this idea. Little did I know that the wheels of crafting had started.

I went to work the next day not really knowing that this idea still had wings. When I get home, I learned the power of Pinterest. My wife had ideas on how to make the costume and has a list of everything that we needed. Ok, I guess she is going to be a scuba diver!

So it begins. The costume had to be painted first. If you know my dad, you know that painting is fun enough in his garage (not). But then I accidentally got spray paint on the floor. Crap how do you fix that? The light bulb went off move wood over it. Then I could at least have a chance to blame someone else.

After painting all of the pieces it was time to put it together. I learned that a glue gun can be your friend and enemy at the same time. Glue hurts when it finds your skin. After a lot of fun and challenges we finally were able to get it finished. If you want to see the tutorial visit my wife's site Artsy-Fartsy Mama

CardyBoard

What to do with a leftover set of boxes taking up room in the house? Recycle, throw away? No too easy, you know this is a craft house. I had the idea for a house for a while, but it would be too small for my daughter. The box sat waiting like so many precraft items.

Then the box hit me. No not literally. In the mail came a box that could be used as the roof. So I got out the handy knife blade, tape and a high tech floor plan.

Here is the finished product.:

Revenge of the Mouse

I decided that I would be funny and forward an email to my wife. That email was our itinerary to Disneyland in California in about two weeks. I had figured out that the only way that I was going to get a vacation from work was to spend money. I looked over at my wife after I knew she had gotten the message and waited for a reaction. Really?? I guess my surprises are coming too often or I talked about it too much. Anyways, back to the real story.

 Right after we get back from the Gardner Village adventure I asked her what she is doing. She tells me that she is putting together a Pinterest post on her blog, with the theme being about Disneyland. This brought the memories of out last trip in February. My wife went all out hunting down ideas for outfits that would appease the Disney gods. She had finally settled on a character. How many are there that it makes it that hard? After that came the decision should it be a shirt, dress, or both? I got to help in this choice and we went with a long shirt. Now little did I know that Snow white has like ten colors in her outfit. Of course they all have to match.

Being the good husband that I am, I volunteered to go to the store with her and our 2 year old. Not just any store, but Joann's the fabric store. I never knew there could be so many choices of fabric and colors for little projects. Remembering that I had bought her a sewing machine, I started to think about making furniture because they have the fabric for that. Then we could make our own drapes, followed by everything. I was even trying to figure out if you could made socks. Luckily I had seen a "How It Was Made" and put that one out of my mind. After I had run out of aisles to escape to by running my daughter around in the cart, we finally went to the cut table. I have never been in a store where you stand in line twice. What the crap?!

Now that we finally paid and got out of the store, my wife starts to doubt her skills as a sew master. This curse comes from a comment that someone said about it being above her skill level. So this of course lead to a trip to the mother-in-laws for more sewing lessons. (We won't go into the sewing lessons as I am not sure what happens at those.) Needless to say I just go back to the two crafty women in the same room, same project arena.

My wife finally sent me a picture of the shirt finished and on my daughter. It looked great.

 

For this trip, there were thoughts on what to make for the visit. I found out that a week and a half is not enough time to dive into all of the Pinterest and other blogs to get new ideas. So, for the next time, I will have to try to make the "last minute" a reality.

I would say I wish you all were here at Disneyland with us, but that would mean more people waiting in line in front of us for the rides. And if you happen to be in front of us, you'll know because Zoey is sure to say hi and introduce herself..