What can $.90, plus tax, buy 3 boys?

An hour of fun!

Thank you, Michaels clearance rack!

Sports Car Cake

Lucas turned 2 a few weeks ago.  When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said, "Car!"   His favorite color is yellow. 

 

I decided to look up ideas on the internet and found a great post on how to make a Lightning McQueen Cake.  I took the principles and scaled it down to spending less than an hour carving and decorating the cake:-)  I also used the recipes (chocolate birthday cake and butter cake) found there and found the cakes were great to carve.  They were very dense, but still moist.  We learned that small pieces go a long way.  It was a very heavy cake, but had a good flavor.    

Here is the cake cut for serving.  I would highly recommend anyone giving this a try for your own racer’s birthday or special event!

Google Voice

I heard about Google Voice from a news report a few weeks before we were moving.  We had decided to drop our landline phone and try to use a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) instead.  This would potentially save us some money.  We were looking into using the magic jack for $20 a year.  After hearing about Google Voice, which is a free service, I signed up to be invited to be a part of it.  (Currently it is being used by invite only, but I was invited within a 3 weeks of requesting an invitation.)

Google voice also enables you to make a call from the Google voice website and it rings the phone of your choice.  Since I have US Cellular as my provider, I receive free incoming calls.  Therefore, I can make outgoing calls through Google voice and my cell phone is actually receiving them for FREE!  Yay!  I have not found any problems so far with using Google voice.  I would highly recommend this service. 

Here’s a review of Google voice:

Cool Universal Grocery List

I found a universal grocery list on Google docs that you can edit to what you buy at the store(s).  It’s easy to edit and print out…and best of all…free!   We are trying it out over the next few weeks and will report back as to the helpfulness of such a list.  I’d like to hear how you create your grocery list.  Let me know what works for you!

Cheap Batman Birthday Ideas

 

Cake:  Bake 2 9 x 13 rectangle cakes and cool completely.  Stack them on top of one another with icing in the middle.  Cut the corners of the cakes off to form an oval.  Roll  out yellow marshmallow fondant to be 17 x 21 at least and cover cake. Cut around edges with pizza cutter.  Take a batch of black marshmallow fondant and mold freehand into bat shape or roll out and then cut out a bat figure.  

Goodie bags:  I made these capes as a take-home gift in place of goodie bags.  The kids painted the emblem on at the party.  I made the capes out of felt that I got on clearance towards the end of winter.  No need to finish edges.  I purchased velcro squares and sewed them on the neck straps.  Very easy.  

 

I made a template out of a cereal box to paint the emblem on at the party.  I found a logo I liked online and printed it out and used it to trace onto the cardboard.   I then cut into the cardboard only in the yellow part of the logo and cut the logo out so that I had a rectangular piece of  cardboard with an oval cut out and a cardboard bat that fit inside it. I just taped the cardboard down onto the felt where I wanted the batman design. The kids painted the capes with paintbrushes dipped in yellow fabric paint. When the kids were finished, I just removed the cardboard. Let dry before using :)

Food and Drink: Lemonade is yellow (perfect!)  I made sugar cookies and used marshmallow fondant to cut out yellow circles and black bats to form the batman emblem. 

 

Invitations:  I used evite which is free and you can even design your own invitation.  I chose a dark background and then added batman images I found online. 

Marshmallow Fondant

I decided to make a couple of cakes for my Mom's 50th birthday and tried out marshmallow fondant for the first time.   It was very easy to make, after the mishap with the first batch (as described later). 

I think that the cakes turned out fairly well.  I was wanting a black and white cake, but ruined the black fondant by adding too much powdered sugar, then all of the black  gel.  It ended up being a pile of gray goo.  I changed plans and bought some gold ribbon on clearance.  I used gold ribbon on the devil's food round cake and pure white fondant on the rectangular white cake with blackberry filling.  It was a lot of fun playing with the fondant, although I like the taste of butter cream icing  much better. 

How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I found a wonderful post on The Simple Dollar about making your own liquid laundry detergent and thought that I would give it a try.  The cost per load for a front-loading washing machine is only about 1 cent and a little over 2 cents for a top-loading machine.  It turned out wonderfully, but it didn't start off so well.  I started the water boiling on the stove while I helped Joshua shred the soap.  I looked up and out of the corner of my eye I saw flames!  I had caught my hot pads on fire by turning on the wrong burner.  Keith was sick and was soaking in the tub trying to feel better when I yelled out, "I'm on fire!"  I have no idea why I said that, but it came out.  I quickly poured some water on the hot pads, turned off the burner and all was safe.  Joshua told me, "Wow, that's the first fire we had."  I took this as an opportunity to "teach" the kids what to do in case of a fire. :) Ahh, teachable moments...

Update:  I have used this detergent for a little over 2 months and it cleans wonderfully.  The clothes look, smell, and feel clean.  I think I may still be able to use this batch for at least another month (for a family of 5).

Small House Movement?

We live in a 3 bedroom, one bathroom home with 1350 square feet and no garage.  We have 5 people in our family and 4 of us are there almost all of the time, since we home school.

I recently read a blog post on The Simple Dollar about The Small House Movement.  It was what I needed.  I get antsy sometimes and want to try to buy a larger home or build an addition onto our existing home, but I forget the long term benefits of our smaller, more modest home.  We are able to pay off this home much quickly and save thousands of dollars in interest and taxes than in a larger, more expensive home.  We have been able to pay off nearly half of the value of our home, and may be able to pay it off within 7 years!  Yay! 

We are also being green by staying in a smaller home which uses less electricity and gas.  I like that!  I don't know if I agree with Trent that it is easier to clean.  I think it is easier to get cluttered with things, so I have to constantly be evaluating the benefit of having something inside our home.  It does force us to live with less things, which is also a money-saver!  Hooray for our little home!