Costume Super Center Elf Costume Review

I know a lot of people think that costumes are only for Halloween but in reality, costumes can be used ANY time of year! In the Spring we might look for Easter Costumes and towards the end of the year, we are usually in the market for some type of Christmas Costume!  Whatever the occasion may be, you must check out Costume Super Center!!!  They have something for everyone no matter what the holiday is!!!

Costume Super Center has a great selection of elf costumes and our little guy couldn't have looked sweeter in his!! It was a full costume that featured a one piece body suit and an adorable hat with elf ears and jingle bells! He is going to wear this to all of our Christmas parties this year and as you can see, it's perfect for pictures too!! If you find yourself in the market for a Christmas Elf Costume or any other costume, be sure to check out Costume Super Center!  The costumes are not just affordable but they are totally cool too!

 

Girls Vs. Boys

We have been very blessed with 4 happy, healthy children. 3 boys. 1 girl. I have long heard the debate of who is easier to raise, girls or boys. It is always funny to hear people's reasonings behind why they choose the way they do! 

Our boys are rough. They wrestle, they fight, they break stuff. Oddly enough, that stuff doesn't bother me. I go by the "Boys will be boys" motto and just shrug it off. I can handle a few bumps and bruises from kids running into furniture. But girls. Boy are they a different story.

I love my daughter. She is definitely a Daddy's girl. But is it just me or are girls really really tough to understand?! At only 7 years old, she has meltdowns like I have never seen before. At least 5 times a day her entire world comes crashing down over some little thing that someone else did or said. I have never seen the drama in my boys that I get out of her. Hands on the hips, swinging her ponytail back and forth. Screaming and stomping her feet. And the worst is when she looks you right in the eye and says "You are the worst parents in the world!" Of course she always comes back and says she is sorry but wow! The mood swings are unreal!!!

Am I the only Dad in the world who has a daughter like this?! Who do you say is easier to raise?! Boys or girls?

Crazy Crazy Crazy

Life has been incredibly crazy lately. I had to take a break from a lot of the extra stuff I like to do in order to get stuff back together. School is kicking my butt. The kids being back in school is kicking my butt. All of the kids extra activities are really kicking my butt. It just seems like things have been non-stop crazy! We thought when the kids went back to school that things would settle down and get back to normal but instead things have just been crazier than ever. My wife is trying really hard to find a job on a shift that I will be home so our kids won't have to go to a daycare and I have to admit...the thought of that kind of scares me. I have been really making an effort to clean and cook more so I will be prepared. This week I made blueberry muffins, cupcakes AND peanut butter cookies! I even made a chicken dish one night for supper. Everything even turned out except the peanut butter cookies...they were a little on the crunchy side. Ha....I was really excited when I checked my email though because not only am I having a new blog design coming VERY soon, but I also had a couple review and giveaway opportunities in my inbox so I will work on getting those up very very soon! Maybe something to help you all out with your Holiday shopping!

Thanks for hanging around and waiting on me to get it together! I can't wait for you all to see my new blog makeover!

I'm Back!!! It's a Friday Social Parade/Friday Follow!

Did you all miss me?! Things just got crazy busy here for me the past few weeks and I had to take a little break but I am back and ready to get blogging again!  So here's to Friday and starting fresh and new!!!

A Dad's Pick...Week1...The Sodastream Soda Maker!

I thought it would be fun to share products that I love with all of you so this week I want to share the Sodastream Soda Maker with you! If you hang aroud the Blogosphere long enough, you are bound and determined to come across Sodastream somewhere and it's no wonder because it's a really cool product!  As if Soda isn't great enough already, but to be able to make your own is just over the top exciting, especially to our kids!

We have the Silver Fountain Jet. You can purchase it at the Website for right around $100 which is really reasonable considering how much soda you can make!

My favorite thing about the Sodastream Soda Maker is how simple it is to use!  The CO2 Cartridge installs very easily and then you just fill the bottle with water, twist it into the machine, push the button on the top 3 times, add the flavor and you are done! In less than a couple minutes, you have a liter of soda!!! 

We used our Soda Maker at our kids birthday party and it was a huge hit! All of the kids wanted to take a turn pushing the button to make the soda. The cola and lemon lime are among our favorites but we plan on ordering some new flavors and trying them too like Pete's choice (think Dr. Pepper) and Cream Soda. I would love to try the energy drink that is comparable to Red Bull too, as that is definitely my energy drink of choice!! Sodastream offers a 12 pack sampler that would probably be a good idea to try because then we could try out a dozen different flavors and find the one's we like the best.

If soda isn't your thing, you can make some really good sparkling water too! We love the lemon flavor.

In addition to the great taste and easy use, Sodastream soda maker is really economical because it reduces the waste of those plastic 2 liter bottles from the store (Because Sodastream uses reuseable 1 liter bottles).

Definitely a cool product for any family. This is a seriously cool Dad Pick!

*Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion, not a paid post. My family received a Sodastream machine and flavors free of charge from Sodastream*

Friday Again?

Can't believe it's Friday again already. Unfortunately, this weekend is just a normal weekend of work for me. No baseball tournaments, no fun outings with the kids. Just work. Blah. I hope you all have a great weekend though!! 

Finally, a trophy!

I shared with you a couple weeks ago about the pain of watching your child’s heart break from disappointment but this time, I want to share the JOY of watching your child’s heart swell with pride when they win!!

Over the weekend we had our 2nd baseball tournament of the Summer. We only had to drive around 25 minutes this time but we had a total of 6 games scheduled over a 2 day period. The first day was by far the worst. We had to be in the batting cages by 8 a.m. and then on the field for our first game by 9:30 a.m. It was incredibly HOT!!! We won our first game and then we had a 3 hour wait until our next game. We had 3 games right in a row and our boys were whipped! I don’t know how they did it but they managed to win all 4 games on Saturday to make it back for the Semi-Finals and the Championship game on Sunday!

Saturday night we didn’t feel like going home so we drove about 20 miles North of where the tournament was and stayed at my in-laws. The kids love staying with Grandma and Grandpa and we had some of the best pizza ever!!!

Our first game on Sunday was at 1:00 and we won it with no problems so it was on to the Championship game! Watching those boys was amazing! I can’t believe how far they have come since their first practice but they were cranking the ball harder than I have ever seen them. Most of them had several doubles and triples and a couple of them (My son included!) got homeruns!!  Papaw pays $20 for homeruns in the Championship Game!!!

We left there undefeated Champions! We went 6-0. Talk about a good feeling! Andrew smiled from ear to ear the entire day.

 As tired as we were, the kids still had energy from somewhere so we went back to my in-law’s and took the kids out for some fun. We ended our night with bowling , pizza and a Chuck E Cheese arcade. The kids had mega tickets to cash in at the end of the night and the greatest thing was when our 5 year old beat our 7 and 8 year olds in bowling!! We ended up staying another night at my in-law’s too so when Monday rolled around, we were definitely ready to get back home and back to a normal routine!

Now I REALLY can’t wait until our next tournament! I love baseball. It reminds me of when I was a kid. I want Andrew to play because he loves it and because he is good at it and it makes him feel good. I hope I can always be an encouragement to him to continue playing. There was nothing better than seeing him, smiling ear to ear when he looked up at me and said "Look Dad! Finally a trophy!!"