February 2015 Sharing Time - Week 4

Welcome to February's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap of the week:

At the beginning of the week a shared a HUGE list of St. Patrick's Day Fun Ideas!.
You can visit that post to add YOUR OWN St. Patrick's Day posts to the list!



The winner was chosen for the Lightscoop Deluxe Giveaway, but the people at Lightscoop have extended the coupon code for you until February 27th! You can get 15% off of any purchase on their site with the code RAISING15!


I posted about Kitchen Closet Organization earlier this week as well.


I also shared our Valentine's Day.


...and a fun unboxing video of Nerd Block Jr. for girls :)


Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

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If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

<a href="http://http://www.RaisingMemories.com/" target="_blank"&_blank"><img src="http://oi43.tinypic.com/10gbrwy.jpg"/></a>

An InLinkz Link-up

Below is a link to a Link Party Dedicated just to St. Patrick's Day Ideas!
(Can't wait to see your green, rainbow, shamrock, & leprechaun related ideas!)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Nerd Block Junior for Girls (Unboxing)

Are you aware of the youtube trend of unboxing?  People post videos of themselves opening things? Well, when Nerd Block Junior sent us a couple of their monthly subscription boxes for kids, we thought it would be the perfect thing to make an unboxing video of ;)

This subscription box is for kids aged 6-11 (there's a girl version and a boy version).  You can buy a subscription for 3, 6, or 12 months (cost ranges from $11.19 to $12.59) or you can buy individual boxes for $13.99 each plus shipping.

I looked up some of the items in the January box and they are worth more than the cost of the box, so the box is "worth it" in that way. When I peeked at the box contents before giving them to the girls, I wasn't sure how I felt about it- I questioned whether I would want to order a box of random toys and trinkets (after all, don't we have enough of those things?)  But after watching the girls open the boxes and hearing their reactions, I can definitely see the appeal for kids (if not for their parents ;).

Here's a video of the girls opening January's box:



This is what was in the box:

Our Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day, both of my girls chose some free printable Valentines to make for their classes. Katrina made these bookmark valentines (with my help) which we found here. She also made handmade Valentines from construction paper with little drawings and notes for each classmate and teacher (I so wish I had taken a picture of them because they were so cute!)

Talia decided that she wanted to make bracelets for each of her classmates (Katrina & I ended up helping her out as we got closer to the day and the bracelet count wasn't high enough ;) We found these free printable valentines for her to use.

In the morning while we were getting ready for school I remembered that I had saved some Valentines that were leftover from another year, so I snuck away and put together a couple of little Valentines to put in the girls' lunches from me with a bit of candy :)

While the girls were at school, I made Rice Krispie Hershey Kisses.  I used a funnel (greased with butter) to shape them, wrapped them in tin foil, and made little tags from waxed paper with "I (heart) Talia" and "I (heart) Katrina" written on them.  That was their after school treat. :)

That's how we celebrated our Valentine's Day this year :)  I'm so happy to have these two little Valentines in my life! :)  (Ken & I are waiting until later to celebrate our Valentine's Day this year- we are both getting over sicknesses right now and he is busy finishing up his thesis.  Hopefully soon he can get it handed in officially and we can breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate! :)

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day this year?

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How to Organize Kitchen Cupboards & Leftovers

I have been on a continual journey to figure out how to best organize my kitchen ever since we moved into our little town house. It is a small kitchen so I have had to get creative about how to store things and be careful about not storing things that we don't use very often. (Things we don't use very frequently tend to end up either donated or down in the basement- and that is a problem for another blog post!)

Today I'm sharing how I organize our container cupboard. It has taken a lot of thought and reorganization to find a system that works, but I'm happy to say I have found a great way to organize it (and I even know where to put (& find) each lid!)  You can see in the photo below that all of my lids aren't together, but they are all in a place that makes sense to me!

- Some lids stack with their containers
- Some lids fit on their side, beside their containers
- Some lids fit in a lid rack on the cupboard door
- Some lids fit best on their container
(in the case of the pitchers & the glass containers on the bottom shelf)

I'm pretty happy with the collection of bowls and other containers that I have gathered over the last decade, but the one problem I have been trying to solve is finding storage containers that I can use for leftovers.  I have tried a few different types and they have all fallen short for different reasons. Through trial and error, I have determined the following wishlist for food storage containers:

February 2015 Sharing Time - Week 3 plus A Special St. Patrick's Day Link Party!

Welcome to February's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap of the week:

I shared photos from a little 1st Birthday & Cake Smash photoshoot
that I did with my sisters' girls:



There is a Giveaway this week, for a copy of 52 Weeks to Fortify Your Family!

I also shared a recipe for a great Valentine's Breakfast/Brunch of Lunch! This is a simple but delicious Strawberry Crepe Recipe!



This week there are two parties- the first is our regular February Link Party & the button below that is just for St. Patrick's Day Ideas!

Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)

Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!

 ---------------------------------------

If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!

<a href="http://http://www.RaisingMemories.com/" target="_blank"&_blank"><img src="http://oi43.tinypic.com/10gbrwy.jpg"/></a>

An InLinkz Link-up

Below is a link to a Link Party Dedicated just to St. Patrick's Day Ideas!
(Can't wait to see your green, rainbow, shamrock, & leprechaun related ideas!)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Cake Smash with Two Babies

Last week, my sister came to visit from the U.S. It was so good to spend time with her and her three girls! Her youngest daughter turns one year old this month (and so does my other sister's daughter), so we decided to take advantage of everyone being together and do a little cake smash photoshoot. I'm so glad we made this happen- it was so fun and I love the photos that we got from it!

We started out with a few individual shots of the girls.  This is Tori with her little stuffed bunny:

Poor little Alexis was sick and kind of miserable when we started, but you would never know it from this photo! I'm so happy we managed to capture it!

Here's another of cute little Tori before we put the fluffy rug down: