Gingerbread House Decorating Contest 2021

 Well nothing like going a whole year in between posts. Ha! But this is something that we've been doing for many many years now and I'm not going to quit posting about it now. 

We usually do these near the beginning of the month but this year we just didn't have time so we literally decorated these 2 days ago. And as usual I will give no clues as to who's is who's. 

Normally we name our houses but we didn't even have time to do that so in no particular order here are the houses. 

House #1

 

 

House #2

 

 House #3

 

House #4

House #5

Now we just need you to cast your votes. :-) And don't worry you won't hurt anyone's feelings. We do this for fun. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kim

 

I’m Puzzled!

Recently I had the idea of getting one of our small tables out so we could put puzzles together. It was one of those desperate Momma moments. The kids were bored and following me around the house. I knew I had to do something quick. That’s when I spied a puzzle in their room. I then ran swiftly into my room and grabbed the table under the bed and set it up.

“Puzzle! Go get a puzzle, any puzzle. Sit down and do a puzzle.” I said ever so softly and gently. *cough*

You know what? I found that I had missed doing puzzles myself. From that point on any time one of us had a few minutes, we’d sit down, put in a few pieces and walk away. It was a great boredom buster for all of us. For me it was more of a mental break.

Here is the puzzle we did a few weeks ago. My middle man picked this one out. I must not have gotten a finished picture. But let’s just say there was A LOT of blue in this puzzle making it quite difficult, but fun.

 

And then little man picked this one out and did 95% of it himself. Not bad for a 7 year old. Oh and it’s 3-D too, which added a little twist on it. This one had a lot of GREEN in it.

Here is the most recently finished puzzle. It’s the one I got at a garage sale for 50 cents. The fact that it was a Gooseberry Patch puzzle just made it all the more enjoyable to do. I admit that I wanted to do most of this myself and told the kids to back off let mommy do it. I did however let my hubby help because it was fun to sit and chat while we worked on it.

Well there you have it, one of my favorite boredom busters. Do you do puzzles? When was the last one you put together? If it’s been awhile I encourage you to find one at a garage sale and do it. It’s very therapeutic.

Have a lovely day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

 

Homesteader’s Having Fun- Our Maiden Voyage!

Yesterday we finally got to take our boat out for the first time as a family. We’ve had a “little” bit of stress lately so it was nice to leave it behind for even just a few hours.

It was such a fun day. Our besties joined us in their boat and we went to the sandbar to play around.

Here are some pics of our trip.

Heading out.

Chillin’ out and eating some lunch.

I think I’m looking for our missing crew member here. LOL! Not sure what everyone else is doing. HA!

Me and my bestest!

  The kids and I. And no we didn’t make the kids wear their life jackets the whole time. We forgot to tell them that they could take them off. LOL!

 

Playful pup Stormie.

Tired pup.

  

Our Besties!

My hubby took video of a hermit crab underwater. It’s really neat. I found myself wanting to hold my breath while I was watching it, cause I’m weird like that.

OXOX,

Kim

Blog Post Challenge

My dear friend Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates has posed a challenge on her blog. It will probably be a nice kick in the butt for me as I too have been getting a bit lazy when it comes to blogging. That and I convince myself that you’ve heard it all before, and maybe you have if you’ve been with me as long as Lisa has. *smile*

But no matter. I’m going to give it a shot (minus the fact that I didn’t post yesterday). You’ve been warned. Who knows what I’ll pull out of this ol’ noggin’ o’ mine. I just wanted to use a lot of ‘ ‘ ‘ in that sentence. Yup.

Like I said, you’ve been warned.

If you feel up to the challenge click on the picture to get all the details and let her know that you’re participating.

XOXO,

Kim

Winter Things You Can and Can’t Do in Florida!

I always get a chuckle when Christmas time comes around and people have those cute Christmas countdown printables with ideas on them, because there are a few of them you can’t do if you live in Florida. Here’s some that come to mind.

1. Build a snowman. (Sandman?)

2. Make snow ice cream. (I don’t think I’d do it anyway)

3. Go ice skating on a pond. (More like jet skiing)

4. Go sledding. (Sounds like fun. BYOS-Bring Your Own Snow?)

5. Go on a sleigh ride. (Horse and buggy maybe)

Those are all great things and I get a little envious sometimes so I decided to come up with a little list of things you can do in Florida at Christmas time.

1. Make sand angels in the sand. (Helps if you live near the beach. But don’t let that stop you. Borrow your neighbor’s kids sand box.)

2. Go to Disney and watch the Christmas parade at least once in your life.

3. Sit around the fire pit outside and sing Christmas carols and not freeze to death. The key here is not freezing to death. I hope you picked up on that.

4. Make a scarf for someone up North.

5. Give your Winter clothes to a local charity because all you need is one jacket.

I hope this was helpful in planning your Winter festivities because I’m all about being helpful and stuff.

HUGS!

Kim

 

Homemade Play Dough Recipe

Who doesn't love to play with playdough? This is a quick and easy recipe to make your own. The colors are only limited to your knowledge of color combinations! The best part is is that you probably have all the things already on hand!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. Flour
3/4 C salt
1 1/2 C. water
1 TBS veggie oil
1/2 TBS. cream of tartar
Food coloring of choice or mix for more fun colors. A few drops goes a long way.

Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, until dough comes away from edges of pan and becomes difficult to stir.In other words, it starts looking like playdough!
Remove from heat. Let cool until it can be handled.
Place on wax paper and knead 5-6 times.(This is very therapeutic!)
Store in airtight container.
Have fun!