Roo Reviews: Andreas Clips and More

What Roo said:

I loved everything! I especially loved the hair bow because it was like a zebra and that's my favourite animal.

The suspenders were kinda loose, mommy tightened them but she didn't tighten them enough for me probably because she didn't want them to hurt me.

The tie was really cool, It felt soft and silky and looked great on me even though I am not a boy! Girls can wear boy stuff too!

The hairband was pretty, it even had a jewel and I love jewels. When I wear it I think it sparkles so other people can see it! If I wiggle my head a little bit people will see the sparkle and ask me where I got it.
I've been wearing it since forever and my ears aren't hurting. Sometimes my hairbands make me hurt this one doesn't. I think I want to buy more of this stuff for my friends and we can have a fashion party.

What Mom said: 

Everyone knows that having a girl means all things pretty.
Pretty clothes and shoes, Pretty hair-dos etc

But when you see someone with great accessories, you think "wow, she looks really put together!"
That should be no different for little girls! Why should us ladies have all the fun?

We buy cute shiny baubles and too tiny purses for holding their lip gloss but what about hair accessories or even a pair of suspenders? Everyone who's been paying attention knows that my daughter and co-blogger, Roo, is pretty non traditional, though very very into fashion. So when she saw a pair of suspenders in her package from Andrea's Clips & More she actually squealed! They looked fab with the outfit she had chosen to wear. The other items received we loved as much, a beautiful hairband that Roo hasn't stopped wearing and hair clips. We also got an adorable hat with a bear on it. Sadly that one did not fit my big headed girl so on our day trip tomorrow we'll be bringing that along for my niece! She'll love it!

One thing I noticed was that the bows seemed to be really durable, extra reinforced, there's virtually no way the bow will come away from the clip. The clips were super easy to use meaning they'd be great even for the younger wiggly toddlers who don't want to sit long enough to get their hair done.

Great product, good prices and after checking out her website I was really impressed to see that she offer a lot more that just the things we're testing out. For the new mom, she has a bunch of amazing items to save you from losing some of your important gear. Toy clips, sippy cup clips and even a special leash for Sophie the Giraffe!

GREAT NEWS FOR EVERYONE!
Andrea has offered all of my readers a discount!
Save 10% off your order by using this code
CLIP10
when you visit www.andreasclips.com

Best of all Andreas Clips & More have provided us with a couple goodies to giveaway! If you have kids in your life and want to win here's how:

Don't forget to leave your name and email address. You can't win if you're anonymous.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mommy, Daughter Date Night

I was stumped. Out of ideas for tonight's date night with Miss Roo. We live in a small town and I was certain we were tapped out of things to do together.

When taking a quick scan of my Facebook feed a local cafe had posted they were having live entertainment early evening. The singer, a local girl, was just 13 so I thought it would be just perfect fit our date!

We arrived and picked our spots. Right up front in two cushy chairs. Then I went up and ordered it goodies. Two kiddie hit chocolates and a giant Nutella cookie to split. Total cost was under $5.00

I expected a cute tween singing radio crap with an average voice. What we got was a beautiful young woman, with a rich voice starting what I'm certain is the beginning of a brilliant music career.

This is Jessica Lockwood with the cafe owners after her performance.

Jessica sang radio songs yes, but she added her own flair to them in a way that made them richer. 

You can see her sing Ed Sheeran's song The A Team here

A really unexpected thing happened afterward. Something So incredible and beautiful. Roo came straight home and asked Aussie to borrow his guitar. She wanted to learn how to play guitar. She saw this beautiful girl sing and play her guitar and was inspired to follow suit. Adorable!

Roo trying to play her brothers guitar.

 Have you ever been inspired by someone to try something new?

April Fools!

My sister absolutely hates Mayonnaise and/or Miracle Whip.

Her hatred runs long and deep.

So wouldn't THAT be the best April Fools prank ever??

Here's the photo that says it all:

Disgusting, right? Even those of us who like sandwich spreads wouldn't even dream of eating a jar of it straight from a spoon.

Well here's the prank, and trust me it's so very easy!!! 

*One empty jar of your brand of creamy sandwich spread. 

*Wash it out well then dry it.

*Make a boxed vanilla pudding (oh, you're getting it now aren't you? You're a smart cookie!)

*Fill empty jar with pudding and voila, easiest prank ever!

You're welcome!!!

What's the best prank you've ever pulled?

Sock Hop Party Theme Part Two

If you missed it, I spoke about this themed party in this post. Though I wanted to share more of the photos from Miss Roo's 5th birthday. It all started with the invitations:

A few retro candies to embellish the tablescape:

 The Sock Hop Themed Tablescape:

 I hit up a thrift shop for some old records to make a 3 tiered cupcake stand. It was a huge hit with parents!
Kids however, were much more interested in the milkshake cupcakes.

A collage of random party decor:

 The birthday girl wanted a poodle skirt. After many failed attempts at cutting a poodle out of felt we settled on a music note. Perfect since our playlist of 50's hits was a huge part of the theme.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this theme! 

Wordless Wednesday

DIY Burger Party Invitations

With Miss Roo's 5th birthday fast approaching it's really time to get cracking on invitations so we discussed a theme and she said "burgers". That left me scratching my head. Seriously??!! What soon to be 5 year old picks that for a theme? What's wrong with Princesses, ponies, Hello Kitty and the likes. Yeah, right, I forgot my girl is anything but typical. We are talking about a girl who wanted reptiles and other disgusting critters for her THIRD birthday.

So how do I make a burger invitation? Her idea was simple.Make a burger and send it to her friends. Does she not understand how the postal service works? That's clearly insane! Or is it? Sometimes with little kids you just have to simplify their thoughts and that's exactly what I did! Why not send her friends a burger in the mail and while we're at it lets make sure it's loaded with the works! All the fixin's, No holding back for her friends!!!

Here is a photo collage of the steps involved. Super easy, though a tad time consuming since Miss Roo insisted on doing a lot of it on her own.

I am a complete control freak when it comes to even planning and if I want it done exactly right I have to do it myself so these were "fun" for me. I had to let go of the reins and let Roo take the lead a bit on this project. Have a look:

So, what do you think? 

Do you make your kids party invitations or do you prefer to buy them? We'd love to hear your thoughts?

Snow Day Whoopie Pies

There's nothing better than a simple recipe that kids can help with. When we had a snow day this week I decided to try making Whoopie Pies with Miss Roo. She has so much confidence in the kitchen and the mess is so worthwhile when I see the pride she has seeing people love what she has made!

Have you ever had a whoopee pie? I hadn't and to be honest I thought they sounded finicky and very frou-frou (that's a word right?)

 Aside from the actual measurements she was able to do a great deal of the work herself!

Want to make some? Here's how we did it:

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, or preheat a convection oven to 315 degrees F.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, and eggs together until well combined. Add the oil and vanilla and beat again.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Add half of the dry mixture to the egg mixture and beat or stir to blend. Add 1 1/2 cups milk and beat again. Add the remaining dry mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk and beat until blended.

With a large spoon, scoop out 32 circles of batter onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool.

Spread filling onto 16 circles and place remaining circles on top, to make 16 Whoopie Pies.

Filling (Make while cookies are baking)

1 1/2 cups shortening

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 1/3 cups marshmallow topping

Dash salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all ingredients except the milk and beat well. Add just enough milk to achieve a creamy consistency. Spread filling across cooled cookie circles.

These were taste tested and approved by none other than Miss Roo.

Have you had them? What do you think? A perfect treat or over-rated?

How Santa Gets In Without A Fireplace

Not unlike many others, my family and I live in a home without a fireplace. We don't miss it one little bit. The exception to that statement was last week when my beautiful 4 year old daughter had a bit of a meltdown when she realized that the chimney was the entry point for Santa.

In her mind without a fireplace there could be no Santa. No Santa? No presents.

I promised her we would leave the door unlocked so Santa could use the front door and all was once again right with her world. Until bedtime, when she was clearly rethinking the whole thing. As a natural worries she decided that if the door was unlocked for Santa, what was to stop a bad guy from also entering and stealing all those gifts left earlier by the big man?

You see, not only is Roo a worrier she's also famous for being a drama princess, daughter of a self confessed drama queen. So you see, she comes by it honestly.

"Ok honey, we'll figure it out tomorrow, I promise." Once again she seemed appeased at my answer and off to bed she went.

I started Googling and found that you can buy special Santa Keys like this one. Well ok, but it's now too late for me to order and frankly by the time I pay for it and shipping it's going to be an outrageous price that I'm not willing to fork out. That's when the wheels of my crafty brain begin with a squeaky start. I know I've seen cool keys like this before in frames at the dollar store.

I knew it was going to become a neat mother daughter project. Simple and sweet not to mention inexpensive! I found our perfect key, and some holiday ribbon. A thin band of glue around a decorative section then Roo sprinkled glitter to give it just a touch of sparkle! We tied the ribbon into a hanging bow and we were all set! Here is a close up of the detail.



Can you tell she was totally impressed with herself after knowing we'd be safe with Santa having a key. Frankly it never dawned on her that the "bad guy" could also use the key, but we'll cross that bridge if the need arises. Fingers crossed it doesn't because I truly have no further plans.

This is what it looks like on our door! Cute, festive and best of all it didn't cost me a small fortune!

If you are like us, and lack a fireplace you can make your very own Santa Key! How does Santa get into your house? Roo and I would love to hear!

Strawberry Lemon Yogurt Cake

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

 

 



I originally came across this recipe via Pinterest here: Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake. Trust me when I tell you it's as good as it looks! This was my go to cake all summer long. I made it over and over again. Even had requests for it. My and my Roo became experts baking this sweet and tangy summery cake! Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt
• 12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

 



Roo Reviews: Dollar Store Glow Sticks

Sometimes I get bored. So I tell my mom. If is say it enough times, in just the right tone, (you know the one) my mom will give in and find something cool to do. Since we are always watching our pennies she has to get creative.

Recently she took me on a trip to the dollar store and we bought some glow sticks and other glowy stuff.

Here's what we did with them!











So there you have it! Lots of fun for about $6.00! Get some for your kids, they'll love it too!

Child Friendly Lunch Kits

 

With my daughter, Roo, starting “big school” really soon I have been checking out some cool school supplies. I was looking for a child friendly lunch kit. I bought her the best lunch kit ever from Winners, and it’s made by Smart Planet. It’s kinda squishy so it gets small, but pops out to make more room. I got it early so she could practice with it. That way I will feel comfortable that she wont have any trouble when she's on her own at school! It was tough for her at first but I let her work through it and she finally got the hang of it. It has lots of room for all kinds of goodies. Since she's little her lunch won’t fill the spaces so I bought some little containers that fit well inside if I need them. It can be used flat too! How cool is that?! I have a feeling we are going to like this lunch kit! The only downside was our Winners store didn’t have any of the other Smart Planet products so we’ll have to keep our eye out and buy them if we find them.

 

 

 

 

Do your kids have a cool lunch kit? I’d love to know what kind they have!

Just some updates...

So in the last while we've had some changes.

Aussie has graduated from middle school. He'll be moving to high school in September. I closed my eyes for what seems like a short moment and somewhere along the way he grew up on me. Did I mention he started his first summer job? He loves it! Finally feels a sense of freedom and responsibility to people other than family.

The soon to be grad!

Getting his diploma

One last shot in front of the "old" school

His grad cake made by my friend Laura, and his gift- a money tree.

How about a very rare photo of the two of them together? They happen but not very often! She had just given him his graduation card that she coloured on her own!

So now on to Roo, not much has changed with her. At least not in terms of the major changes Aussie has gone through, though she has changed in her own right. She's getting bigger, more beautiful and is becoming a wonderful little lady. Here is an update in photos.

Just a cute grin!

Captured on the trampoline

A post-haircut collage, complete with silly pose!

She may be cute but she's also secretly a nerd!