The difference a year can make 2011-2012

Apple Orchard & Pumpkin Patch 2012

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Apple Orchard & Pumpkin Patch. It was beautiful weather and made for a wonderful day spent outdoors as a family.

Fall 2012- Azilee's 4th visit, Ezra's 2nd, and Cailyn's 1st

Loving siblings....

....growing more and more each day.

Laughs were shared....

......as they played.

Taste Testing Apples

Ezra tried Apple Cider for the first time

Waiting in line for doughnuts....well worth the wait

Beautiful Princess

Trying a Apple Cider doughnut for the first time

Memories were made

Rockin' Green Laundry Detergent GIVEAWAY & Review (CLOSED)

  

Rocking Green Laundry Detergent is a Eco-friendly cloth diaper safe detergent that is made in the US. It is Dye free, has No fillers, No enzymes or optical brighteners, 100% Phosphate free, Vegan, and they use natural fragrance oils if you choose a scented option.

They offer 3 formulas depending on the condition of your water (Hard Rock, Classic Rock, and Soft Rock) along with Funk Rock which is an ammonia bouncer to great rid of the stinkies and keep them at bay, as well other products. They come in a variety of scents with Smashing Watermelon being our family favorite.

The kids and I have Eczema and so far we have had no issues with this soap so its great for our sensitive skin. I love that the detergent smells so yummy when I put it into the wash with the dirty items yet my clothes come out just smelling clean and not scented.
We have been using the detergent for a year now and once I got the amount we needed for our HE figured out we have had no stink, build up or ammonia issues. We recently tried the funk rock thanks to a sample sent to us from Rockin Green and haven't had any issues with that product either.

Rockin Green is sponsoring a great giveaway of a full size product in the winners choice of scent/formula. You can find the information to enter below in the rafflecopter widget.

Make sure you become a fan of theirs on Facebook where they announce coupons and their Holiday Specials.

Thank you so much to Rockin' Green Detergent for providing samples of the detergent & funk rock as well as sponsoring this wonderful giveaway!

This is a sponsored post and giveaway. All opinions are 100% mine and honest.

*GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make your own Bath Paints

This week we made our own Bath Paints. Azilee was able to do this experiment by herself for the most part and both kids really enjoyed painting the tub with the results.

Supplies needed:
1 cup of clear/white bath wash or bubble bath
4 tbsp of corn starch
a few drops of food coloring



First we poured 1/4 cup of the bath wash into each plastic bowl then add 1 tbsp corn starch and a drop or two of food coloring into each container. Mix together with a paint brush or spoon.
*Edit- We ended up having to add a bit more bath wash to each container to get a thinner consistency. You want it thick enough to pain with but not so thick that it all clumps on the brush at once. It might be best to mix the bubble bath/bath wash & the corn starch all together first and then separate and add food coloring.

We went through all of our paint in one bath but if you planned on only using one color at a time you would want to store these in air tight containers.

Overall this was a very quick and easy hands on experiment for the kids. We had a great time!

A pinterest Pizza Adventure

A friend recommended I make homemade pizza crust from a recipe on "The Happy Housewife's" blog. After her recommendation a few months ago I pinned it to my Edible Treats & recipes board to try at a later date. This past week Azilee has been begging for Pizza and love to make her own so I whipped out the bead maker, a few ingredients and gave it a try.

 Once I dumped the dough out of the bread machine I added a little more flour to the top and used a can of pam as a rolling pin. Apparently our rolling pin went missing during the last move or at some other point and I didnt realize it. Made me a little unhappy to realize that because it was brand new :(

I added some dough to Azilee's pan and she asked me to hand toss it. I gave it my best shot and then let her "decorate" it with ham, pineapple, mushrooms & onions. We had the same topping on ours along with green bell peppers except I kept the ham & pineapple on a separate side of the pizza than the veggie toppings.

The crust itself was tasty but I had no idea how much crust it was going to make. I could have easily made 2 or 3 pizzas out of the dough even though we were using a large pizza pan. I had to let it cook longer than expected to keep it from being doughy but it turned out great. I love thick crust but next time I will be making one pizza and freezing the other crust for later use.

Another Pinterest success!

Rainbow Craft #1

 We are learning about Weather this week and I came across this quick idea for a cute and easy Rainbow craft. This entire project took less than 5 minutes to prep and finish so its a great idea for those little ones with shorter attention spans.

I started by cutting out a cloud shape for each child along with strips of construction paper that coordinated with ROYGIV and I added a large pile of cotton balls.

Azilee is working on gluing down the colors of her rainbow and the pieces of her cloud

Finished project!

Kids Bathroom Tour

We recently redecorated the kids bathroom with lots of bright colors and ideas from Pinterest. Overall we love the way it turned out and hope the kids enjoy it for a long time.

We added this above the toilet organizer to add storage. The Pink, Orange, and Green containers hold hair bows & headbands while the small containers on the top shelf hold earrings, rings, and other small trinkets.

I saw this idea used for a front entry way with each childs picture and a hook to hand their coat/back pack. We decided to alter it a bit for the bathroom with pictures of the kids in the bath at similar ages and added the decal above.

We also added this decal "Be your own kind of Beautiful" above their bathroom mirror.

A look into the bathroom from the door

You can follow on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/raisingbushs