More Mehndi, Henna designs - fun with the family -

Henna, Mehndi Designs
Last night I just wanted to chill. While at the Indian store this week my daughter picked up a couple cones of henna, so we decided to have some fun with it last night. While this wasn't our first time, it has been a pretty long while since we last had this done, so we were both pretty excited.

With the help of my dear friend Khadija over at Creative Mind. and all her wonderful henna designs I had no problem getting inspired. So I got to work trying to recreate a beautiful design myself. While I always use a picture as inspiration because I'm just not good at coming up with designs myself, I can never duplicate it exactly. I always start doing my own thing, and I guess thats what makes it so much fun. It's like taking a pen to paper and you just keep going. Our hands were the canvas, and I had an entire cone to use up :)

The smaller hand and foot are my little princess, and the Japanese writing was my oldest sons. He tried to do the top of my hand, but said it was too hard, lol. It is hard holding a henna cone. You really need to get used to it. I am such a beginner, but hopefully both of us can work on it, and get better. I really need someone to help do my right hand, he he. (Big B that would be you), not to mention he is an amazing artist. That would be so fun, and maybe one day I'll let the princess do it too.

Do you want to check out our previous Henna designs? Go HERE to see!!

Was that fun or what? Have you ever tried doing henna, or mehndi?

Before I go just wanted to remind you all that there is only 4 more days until I pick a winner.

Have you entered yet? Have you even checked it out? You do not want to miss this!

Amaze me August #45 ~ Summer with the KIDS~

Welcome to the 45th edition of

Did you know that next month it's August, and around here, that's pretty special. It marks my blogs ONE YEAR anniversary, and it will obviously be the ONE YEAR mark for my weekly party. I simply can't believe it's already been a year. The time has flown by. I've made so many friends, and have enjoyed blogging so very much. I'm still trying to decide how I will be celebrating, I will let you all know when I've figured it out, lol. 


How's your summer been going so far? Mine has been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. I wanted to share a few things we've been up to, and some pics of what my life is like, living with these kiddos of mine, MAINLY 2 crazy boys. My princess is an angel, lol. The boys, well. the pictures will speak for themselves. Needless to say there is NEVER a dull moment around here. 

My two oldest have been studying TAE KWON DO for three years now, and will be testing for BLACK BELT in January. TODAY however was the first day for DINO D and I. Never did I think that at 32 I would start studying martial arts, but I am so excited. My kids were awesome, they never once laughed at me, even though I was dying within the first 5 minutes. Seriously, how did I pick today for my first day, they were like doing boot camp over there. I could barely do 10 situps lol, and we had to do 30. We lost a race, so my whole team had to do 20 pushups, I was so struggling. By the end of the class, I think I had lost 5 pounds, just from sweating so hard. I am so happy though, I just know that this will get my booty in shape like crazy, and I can't wait to start getting strong. GO MOM!!! 

Very typical of my boys. This is what they look like half the time, and without the photo booth. Doesn't matter what I tell them, they always seem to have this look on their face, like HUGH, what did you say mom? WHAT planet do I live on????

Yeah, not really that funny, I promise. I almost think he did it on purpose, thinking he would get out of doing dishes again, but he learned the hard way, NEVER to fill the dispenser with dish soap, DUH!! It's not like this was his first time loading the dishwasher, still can't figure it out. He thought it was pretty funny though!!

Just a couple days after the dishwasher overflowing, the kids managed to clog up the toilet. After someone did number 2 in there. Once again BIG B, was sent to clean it up, since it was probably he who did it to begin with. Am I just blessed with boys who clog up toilets with their enormous poop, or do any of you have this problem too. Gosh, again, he was laughing, for about 10 seconds, at which point he promised NEVER EVER EVER to clog up the toilet again, lol. 

Menace number 2.

My little DINO D, is cute as can be, but if there is trouble, he will find it. 

Unless he is sleeping, of course, which is sooooo cute when he does. This is at a swim meet, where he just passed out. Those competitions are long, and it is hot, so he usually clonks out. 

This is usually the kind of stuff he is up to though. Thinking he is a big boy, he tried serving himself some mango lassi. He looks so sad, but knows that he can't be in so much trouble if I've brought out the camera, lol. 

Trying to figure out what went wrong. He was so looking forward to having some of that, lol. 

He got stripped down, and told to go eat his breakfast. He was so shy that I made him stay in his undies, but gosh he looked so cute trying to hide from me. 

My princess. Swimming ruled our lives all summer. We had practice everyday, at 8am, until 10:30am. Competition every Thursday night, from 4pm till 11pm. It was a lot, and finally it is over, YAY!!

BIG B, used to swim year round, and wanted to take a break for a couple years, but now they are both asking to start again. So soon we will start training year round again, along with Tae Kwon Do, Kumon,  Music, Theatre, and school, we will be running around like CRAZY!!!

My princess recently had to have a small surgery on her toe. 

Have any of you ever had a planters wart before. I have, my oldest has, and now princess had one too. I tried all the ways I knew to get rid of it, so she wouldn't have to go get this procedure done. It kind of sucks, I know, because I had the same thing done to remove mine last year. I just couldn't get rid of it, and when I saw that it getting bigger and start spreading, I took her in. 

She was sooooo brave. Cried for about 10 seconds, when she was getting her shots to numb her toe. Especially the last shot, hurt so bad, but the rest, was a piece of cake. 

Sorry, but just had to show you what it looked like after, lol. Literally the doc, burned the whole wart out, it was gross, but she feels so much better now. Amazingly this completely heals over within a couple weeks. So people, take care of your feet, and ALWAYS wear flip flops, trust me, you don't want to get a planters wart, they suck!!!

That's about all for now. So now that you know what I've been up too, show me what you've been up to. I can't wait to see it all. Link up and tell your friends. 

I can't wait to see what you've been up to this week. Show me what you got, and please don't forget to link up to my new party. 

Party Planning Tuesdays

You can link up ALL your party planning ideas. 

All party related decorations, themes. 

All your most incredible party food recipes.

All money saving party throwing tips, and tricks.

And of course, all those fabulous party CAKES!!!

This party is ALL ABOUT PARTIES, so help spread the word will ya. It's new, and I need your help to make it awesome :)

Florida Vacation part THREE ~ Universal Save money and time TIPS

Universal Islands of Adventure

To read how I saved HUNDREDS of dollars at Universal, and how to get on rides super fast, without a fast pass, read the bottom of the post for all my suggestions, and tips.

As you all know we went down to Florida a couple weeks ago. We got to spend seven days in a wonderful resort. You can read all about the resort, and PART ONE of our vacation HERE. We spent a lot of time at the pool, and relaxed a bunch. On one of the days we went swimming with the MANATEES, which you can read all about HERE, that was an awesome experience. We were all burnt out from going to Seaworld last year. We had season passes, so every time we went to Florida, that's all we did, lol. 

This time the kids were begging to go to Universal, but ohhhh the ticket prices, OUCH. We kind of had 6 people, so I really wasn't looking forward to that. BUT the kids won, and we gave in, the last day we were there, we decided to go. Instead of leaving on Saturday, we went to Islands of Adventure, and got a room at another hotel, for one more night. We were all tired, and exhausted the next day, which was perfect for me, they were mostly quite on the way home, but I was tired too, which wasn't so good, lol. Anyway we made it home and everyone was happy. I'm glad we went!!!

This is the kids and acting all goofy, while waiting in line to go on the Pteranadon Ride. It was the one ride my older one couldn't go on, so it was kind of funny. It was also the LONGEST time we spent in line for a single ride, erghhh. The weather was cloudy, and it started to sprinkle just as we got on the ride. For a 10 second ride, (it seemed even shorter, lol) Dino loved it, but I will never wait for it again. 

We went on all the rides, several times actually. Go to the bottom of the post, and I will tell you how we did it, FOR free, no special passes needed. I am so glad we were able to enjoy all the rides, considering we were only there for one day. We choose Islands of Adventure, simply because the kids wanted to go on more roller coaster type rides. Which I had a blast on as well, YAY...

The new Harry Potter place was awesome. I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but I've seen a couple movies, so I kind of knew what everything was, but it was just so impressive. Everything looked so realistic, and I have to say my absolute favorite ride was the Harry Potter one. It was AMAZING, you totally felt like you were in the movie, flying up in the air, it literally was the coolest ride I've ever been on. I highly recommend it to everyone. I didn't have any butterbeer, lol. It just didn't sound to yummy to me, but people were crazy waiting in line for it everywhere. Also the line for the stores to get wands, was out of this world long. I bet they were waiting for well over an hour, just to buy something, WOW. 
We obviously spent a lot of time at Jurassic Park, where Dino D, was in heaven. When I say A LOT OF TIME, I mean it. Maybe several hours, between waiting in line, and getting stuck in line because of thunder, then spending a bunch of time in bathrooms trying to change out of wet clothes, dealing with the cheapest ponchos, and buying new sandals for the girly, because she got SOAKED, we really spent a lot of time there. Since we had nothing better to do, we also shopped at the store there too. Dino got some new dinosaurs, SHOCKER, and the kids all got a gun. my husband was thrilled he could sneak those guns past me, before I had a say. I hate guns, and don't like the kids pretending like they are killing each other, but even I had fun playing with these, darn. 
So that was our day, and the end of our vacation. Before I say goodbye, would you like to know some of the things I did to save some money while at Universal? I'll also give you a quick tip on getting on those rides faster, and not having to wait so long, ok. 
HOW TO SAVE MONEY AT UNIVERSAL
1. Bring snacks. You are allowed to bring snacks, drinks, even sandwiches, or something similar.I brought beef jerky, nuts, bagels with cream cheese, string cheese, lunch meat rolled, baked cookies, baked brownies, grapes, and TONS of water.
2. Make sure to bring sunblock, hats, comfy shoes, an extra pair of sandals, a charged camera, and a RAIN PONCHO. We got ours from walmart the night before for 99cents each. Yes they were really cheap, and looked it too, but they served their purpose, and with summers in Florida, you need to be prepared. This easily saved me $60. Not having to buy them there.
3. Have a budget as far as spending goes. If you give yourself $100, don't go over it, NO MATTER what. It is way to easy to start buying, and not stop. My kids know they don't get stuff from every shop, or even from every place we go. I take tons of pictures, and that is how we remember our time there, not by an expensive something from a shop, that will probably be forgotten about soon. HOW TO GET ON RIDES FAST AT UNIVERSAL
1. My number one saving grace on all the rides was having a little one, so we could all go to the child swap area, and wait in a cool room, with a TV and hang out until everyone was off the ride, then we could swap. The way you are supposed to do it is, your party is supposed to wait in line then, when they get off they swap with you. The kids loved it, because they always got to go on the ride twice, once alone, then with me again. This was a real time saver, especially when wanting to ride again a second time.
2. However, you technically still had to wait in line one time, which meant hours and hours of waiting. SO if you've ever been there, you may have noticed a SINGLE rider line. We took this every time, and only waited at the most 15 minutes, even on the longest lines, it was AWESOME. So going in this line, we ended up riding alone, but who cares. I'd rather ride alone, than to wait 2 hours in line, you know what I mean. 
So utilizing the two above shortcuts, we were able to go on all the ride, multiple times, and we didn't spend an extra dime. Just for the record, to get FAST PASSES on the day we went, it would have cost us $80.00 per person, YES, PER PERSON. So we only saved $400.00, and to be honest, I'd say in many cases we got on the rides even faster than those with fast passes. So there you go, my little advice. If you ever go, and don't mind going on the ride alone, then by all means do what we did, and take the single rider route ALL THE WAY, and if you happen to have a little one with you, double score!!

Florida Vacation part TWO ~ manatees ~

Swimming with the manatees

While we were there, I booked us in so we could swim with the manatees. It was quite the experience. these beautiful creatures are so peaceful, and are found in Crystal River Florida, as the spring waters stay at a warmth of 74 degress pretty much all year. So they love it there, especially in the winter months.

I booked our tour with Native Vacations, and was very pleased with the tour. We spent a good 3 hours in the water, with the manatees. Here we are all suited up before we headed out. Everyone looked so darn cute in their wetsuits, he he.

We took a short boat ride to the actual streams where the manatees are often found. We learned how to spot them, but we didn't have much luck on our own. Thank goodness captain Tracy was a real pro, she found them, she knew just what to do, she taught us how to snorkel, and it was totally awesome.

After my entire family had their encounters, and I was still holding on to Dino D, and didn't even catch a glimpse of one, I finally got fed up and told him to stay on the boat, lol. I finally got to see the manatees, touch them, swim with them, and I was the only one who got any pics too, AWESOME!!! I even took Dino D out there at the end so he could see one too. We had a great time, and by noon, the kids had completely PASSED out on the way back to the resort. Which was almost a 2 hour drive, so it was a long day, but totally worth it. 

That's part two of our vacation. We really didn't do much else. We hung out at the resort a lot, the pools, and decided very last minute to give in, and take the kids to Universal. So come back to see some pics from there too, maybe even a video again, he he. 

I am so grateful to be able to go on vacations, and will be planning one more towards the end of July, this time to the beach in South Carolina. Oh I can't wait!!

Florida Vacation part ONE

Here are some pictures from our Florida vacation last week. Todays post is pictures from around the resort. We stayed in a beautiful 2 bedroom suite at the LIKI TIKI VILLAGE, in Orlando.
The resort, had an awesome water park style pool area, where we spent many, many hours, catching the kids as they flew down the slides. I think by the end of our trip, I must have done the equivalent to 10,000  military bench presses, catching Dino D, then lifting him up so he could go down again 10 seconds later. We all had tons of fun at the pool. My kids have been trained since little that they must wear hats, and thanks to the shirt bathing suits, and sunblock, nobody got burned, despite spending HOURS, and DAYS in the water, in the middle of 95 degree hot days.

You will notice another girly with us, that is my cousin, and we travel with my aunt and cousins often. My aunt could't come with us, but her daughter did. Last time her brother came, and we love having family travel with us, especially since we always stay large rooms. We have plenty of space, and it's always funner with more people there.

There were many activities at the resort. We played tennis, badminton, shuffleboard, rode bikes, and rode these lovely paddle boats. Note to self, DON'T ever do that again. Gosh, lugging around 3 kids and myself, for an hour, just about killed me, and can those life vests be any more uncomfortable. It was fun though watching the kids shriek every time they saw a ripple in the water. There were 2 baby gators somewhere in the water. I tried, but could not find them, he he. 

Last but not least, by far my most favorite part of staying at resorts, or large suites at hotels, is having a kitchen. I HATE eating out more than once a week, possibly twice. To be honest if it wasn't for the cost, I probably wouldn't actually mind THAT much, but when you travel with 6 hungry peeps, you need to get creative. Trust me we all ate REALLY good. I was terrible about taking pics of my dishes, but I can tell you I gained 4 pounds while there, so yeah, we ate well, haha. 

Also I had a lesson in cooking in a small kitchen. I barely had 18 inches of counter space, and no pantry, so I was stocking all our food on top of plates, in between pots and pans, in the stove, anywhere I could find room. It made me keep my working area clean, that's for sure. 

The pictures below are of the kitchen, breakfast one day, which consisted of eggs, bacon, toast, crepe pancakes, fish chutney, oj, and tea. 

I also made cookies, but to my surprise there was no cookie tray, so I changed plans and made it a small cookie brownie cake type thing, and YUMMY, it was good. 

Come back tomorrow to see more pics from our vacation. 

We went swimming with the manatees and I can't wait to show you!!

WIWW ~ Makeup, Jewlery, and a SMILE

What I Wore Wednesday

Yesterday I spent the day with my girly girl. When we were in Florida, the boys got all kinds of stuff from Universal, and other places, while she didn't really get anything. So I promised to take her shopping when we got back home, and she could get anything she wanted. It would be a girls day out. 

We got dressed, took some pictures, dropped of the boys with grandma, and we went to the mall. My oldest was the photographer here, and clearly my daughter and I both have issues with posing for the camera. We tried, but yikes, my bubble butt kept getting in the way, I had to delete a whole bunch of pics, lol. My daughter refused to strike a pose, but finally did a couple, after the sun started melting us, and I told her the only way we would stop is if she did, he he. Dino D on the other hand, well I couldn't keep him our of the pics, and he had no problem strutting his stuff, haha. 

First things first though, we had to grab a bite to eat. So she was set on Steak and Shake, of course so she could have a shake. It was all about my girly so, we went, and I am crazy about their chili, so we both kind of pigged out, he he. We took some silly pictures, and then we headed to the mall.

We watched Jim Carry's new movie, Mr. Poppers Penguins, and it was HILARIOUS. I totally recommend you go watch it, you will love it. We shopped, laughed, and finally ended up with some new shoes, and 4 more barbies. After all that, she still only wanted more barbies. What can you say, she is totally a girl, he he. 

Here's a couple more pictures of me, strutting some LUXE, and I finally got some pictures of my new beautiful necklace that CHARM BRACELET DIVA made for me, well not for me, but when I saw it I knew it was mine. I loved it so much. I have a bigger picture of it below, it's just gorgeous. 

I also had to buy some new makeup last a couple weeks ago, and while I hardly ever wear any, I decided to doll up just a little yesterday. This is the first time I ever bought a pink lipstick, what do you think, do you like it? I'm so used to my reds, or mauves, this was totally different, but I wanted to try something new. So that is WHAT I WORE WEDNESDAY, only it was really Tuesday!