Good Morning My fellow Sugar Bloggers

We ate lovely food

and met wonderful friends

We now get to be introduced to each others

lives through a wonderful thing called

Blogging!

I can not wait to read

into the lives of my new friends!!

These woman and men

who share themselves and their passions

through their eyes and their words!

Cheers,

Lise

Daddy can you buy Broccoli from the store

I think kids say the best things in the world.

I am thankful that I have been feeding my kids organic produce from Tanaka Farms the past few years. Because both Kylie and Peyton LOVE veggies and fruit. But, for the last month and a half I did get my regular boxes of fresh produce since we were out of town and I let it slip my mind last month. And because of this I have not purchased a lot of veggies at the store either. I guess I am a creature of habit, I am used to getting the veggies in my bi-monthly box and when I go to the grocery store I totally walk past the vegetables.

Anyway, just last week Kylie said, Daddy when you go to the store can you buy some broccoli. I guess the craving have started, she hasn't had fresh broccoli in a couple of weeks.

My kids favorite things to eat:
Edamame
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green beans
Corn
Peyton loves cherry and grape tomatoes, he pops them in his mouth like its candy
Kylie loves cucumbers
raw carrots
bananas
apples
oranges

If you start your kids early with veggies and fruit, they want it. I started both my kids on edamame at 3 months. I chewed it and put it in their mouths, I know it sounds gross, but they love it and want it all the time.

Both Kylie and Peyton love their candy and junk food as well. But, I am happy to know they love veggies!! And Organic is so much better for them!! Thank God for Tanaka Farms!

Love,
Lise

My favorite product!!

Since, I sell Mary Kay I thought I would write about my favorite products that I have tried and LOVE!! I believe that this is going to be a weekly addition to my blog, but it will not my any means be just Mary Kay products. I know too many moms that make great homemade products that I absolutely Love.







My first favorite product is Mary Kay Satin Hands. It comes with 3 things in a cute carry bag. Satin hands comes in peach or non-scented.

This is the Peach Scented

The first of the three products is Satin Hands Smoothie Hands Scrub. I love this product!! You pump a little of the scrub into your hands and can use it on your hands, feet, elbow, heels..or anywhere that needs to be a little softer. It exfoliates your skin, so when you wash it off your skin has a softer feel to it. Its great on your feet and it much like the scrub the spas uses when you have a pedicure.



The second is the Satin Hands Hand Cream. You put this on after you exfoliate with the scrub. It has the same soft smell of the scrub and makes your hands feel even more soft. Massage it in and your hands will have a relaxed feel.



The last is the Mary Kay Extra Emollient Night Cream: Put this on at night on all your rough spots. Perfect for you feet, heels, elbow and rub the rest into your hands to keep them as soft as possible. Put on socks to keep the moisture in and you wake up with silky skin. The threesome runs $30.00 for the scented and $34.00 for non-scented. And it lasts forever!! I think that's one of the most important thing, you spend your money and the products lasts. You dont have to buy another a month later. Satin Hands, a little goes a long way!!

To clean- MY ADHD

I think I have ADHD!! Or maybe its my new excuse... I can not for the life of me clean one whole room at a time. I am trying to clean my daughter, Kylie's room today. She is having a sleep-over in a few hours and they need room to sleep and play. I managed to straighten her shoes up in the closet and vacuum the floor. But, the room still looks like its has NEVER been cleaned.
My cleaning goes as follows:
I start in the living room, I pick up toys and then grab the broom to sweep up the dust, dirt and food that has been left by the kids. Done!! But, as I am putting the broom away I notice dirt in the kitchen and sweep that. Walk back to find a toy in the kitchen, put toy away in Peyton's room, notice his clothes on the floor. So, I fold and put away the clothes. Now, I am in his room cleaning up what is in there. He has a cup in his room so I walk into the kitchen. I notice after I put the cup in the sink that the dishes need to be washed. I fill the sink with water and soap and decide to start a load of laundry. Run into the kids room for dirty clothes, fill washer with clothes, shut off water in sink and I am so exhausted I go sit in the living room for a quick TV show. Dishes sit, the laundry washes and I need a nap!
So, here I am in Kylie's room looking at the computer (it's in her room) and decide to check my email. I manage to read and answer my mail and turn to see her room still in a shambles. Why? Why, can I not finish at least one room a day?

Off again to TRY to clean her room. Please give me an idea of how to do one thing at a time.

Lise

Talents of the Woman I know

I believe all of us have talents. I think I have to focus on the talents of the women I know. Some, are talents I desire and envy those who have them.

I wish I could sew. I have great ideas but putting a thread to a needle is not what I have the patience for. My mother is an excellent seamstress. She has created things ever since I was a little girl. She designs wedding dresses and has even made wedding dresses for a friend or two of mine. Her talent is endless. She has so much patience with fabric. I, on the other hand hate to pin fabric with patterns, so I give up before I even start. I know many other woman that create lovely things with fabric and I envy their passion and creativeness.

One of my friends is a talented cook. She has the ability to make simple pancakes a beautiful taste in your mouth. She had a birthday party for her daughter and the theme was If You Give a Mouse a Party. She made pancakes, muffins and cookies on a stick for party favors. The party was a great success and the food was even better than the theme. Now I desire to be as great a cook as her, but if I was I would also be 200 lbs over weight.

My daughter, Kylie's teacher has the talent of teaching and being patient with children. There is so much a person could learn from her. I see the beautiful light of understand in her eyes. She radiates life into the children that surround her. Kylie missed school for a whole week, because we went on a cruise. She said she didn't miss school, she said she missed Mrs. Roberts. This is the first year Kylie has gone to school and I am blessed to have my daughter in a class with a wonderful, loving woman. I know a lot of women have the talent of patience and teaching because I see posts from other moms about their children's teachers and can not believe how blessed we truly are. These woman are such a strong force in the lives of our children. And that force is past onto us through our children. They should be celebrated everyday with all that they do.



Another friend has the talent of being a great friend. She is a ray of light on a clouded day. She is friendly, fun and a joy to be around. She is patient with her children and has an understanding heart. I think all of us have a friend like this and maybe we are this friend to others. I desire to be that friend to someone, if not everyone I know. I think at times I am this person and other times I know I could do better. Friendship is important to us women. We have our families, our children and even some of us have co-workers. But, we really need each other, someone that knows what we go through, someone who will let us cry when we are need a shoulder to cry on. A friend that helps with our children when we can't for some reason or cook us a meal when we just had baby. Someone that gets us straight through the core of who we are. I am blessed to have made friends with this woman and others that have the same talent and strength.



Thank you,

for all the love, talent and being who you are



Lise

Cruising with 2 (part 2)

I didn't realize that I had so much to say about my first day on the ship. So, I think this will be the last part of Cruising with 2.

As I said before the kids were going to entertained in The FUN ZONE with the other 3-7 year Pelicans . Each age group had their own room to play in with their own counselors (or teacher as the kids called them). When we were at sea Kylie and Peyton could join their friends (up to 45, 3-7 kids were on this cruise) from 9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm and 7pm-10pm. When we were in a port the kids could be in The Fun Zone from 8/9am-5pm and then 7-10pm. They had a lot of time to do several activities, including playing PS II, board games, watch movies, do crafts, face painting. They also had late night babysitting from 10pm-1am at an additional rate of $5/hr per child. I also picked my kids up before 10pm. No need for anymore expenses and the kids were completely worn out anyway.

The second day at sea, the kids were super excited to go play and do whatever they could with new friends. Peyton had me paged 2x the first day. He wanted to be with mommy. But, after that, he never wanted to leave. Kylie one day had a melt down and had me pick her up and Peyton stayed to watch a movie. A lot of the time the kids hung out in with the other little Pelicans. Some of the time they wanted to swim. I took them swimming 4 days out of the 6. One day, it was too windy to swim and one day they were in time-out from the pool.

Princess cruises will not have their staff change a diaper, so I was called a couple times when Peyton had a poopie-doop. Peyton is still in his potty training stage and the poopie is not coming along yet.

The first day we swam together I tried several of the pools. The two main pools were way too deep for me to be with 2 non-swimmers, even with swim vests. I found the kids little pool and the kids were super excited about it. But, of course 1 foot deep did nothing for me and we were in the shade. So, the day that Kylie had her melt down we found a pool that was 3 feet at one end and about 4 feet at the other (although it was a circle pool). We spent the rest of our swimming days in this pool. Although, I loved this pool because it allowed me to sit in the water and let the kids paddle around I also HATED this pool. They had so much chlorine in the pool the ends of my hair turned sea foam green. I figured it was because I have dyed hair. NOPE!! Kylie's hair end also turned green (but, not even close to the color I am still sporting). Everyday after swimming or just hanging out the kids were so exhausted they took a nap.

When Kylie and I were done swimming I had planned on doing an on board scavenger hunt, so I took her with me. There were 10 people altogether (most people were still in Port), so Kylie and I were a team and we ran around the ship and collected items. We were not the first to arrive back, but we did come back second. We found 11 out of the 13 items and won 2nd place with 3 other teams. We walked with a Silver Medal. Kylie was so excited she worn her medal all day long. After our game we went and had Tea. Everyday at 3:30-4:30 they served English Tea. We had our tea, cookies and scones and chatted with other passengers. I continued to go to tea 2 more days. I really enjoyed this and thought it was one of my most favorite things that Princess had to offer.

Princess also offered true English Pub lunches 2 days, but I never went. There was comedy shows ( I went to 1 out of the 4) and production shows. They had a production called I can Dance. I went to watch it the 2nd night and left within the first 20 mins. The singing was okay and the dancing was okay, but it was a little boring.

The thing I did the most was gamble. I won and lost and won and lost. But, in the end I won...not much but, I won. I borrowed $5 from my dad and played the penny slots and made a mistake and hit the play 350 button and won $27.00. I cashed out, cashed in my cash, paid my dad his $5 and paid part of my tip bill with it. I played $2 in another slot machine and won 15.00. I cashed out, paid more off my tip bill and then went back to the roulette table. This is were I spent most of my time and money. I would lost money and then my dad would let me play his chips and I would win money. I cashed in several time and gave him half of what I won.

I think both kids really enjoyed their experience in The Fun Zone and liked their teachers. I was surprised with all the things they got to do and take home. They got a T-shirt that they colored in themselves, a drinking cup, lots of prizes for games they played, cards they made, key chains they made and lots of coloring pages. The last cruise I took with Carnival (owned by Princess), you had to pay for all the big extras. With that being said, I think Princess really did do a good job with my kids. But, I do compare it to Carnival and their staff and know that Carnival is geared a lot more to my children's ages.

The last thing I have to say: Tips on Princess are $10.50 a day per person, no matter what the age of the child is. So, my tips or what they called HOTEL Charges were $220.50 and this would be taken from your credit card or you could pay cash for it. I was really disappointed that this was there policy. I could have fought it but decided against it since both my kids were in The Fun Zone. I did talk to one dad whose 13 month old also had to pay tips even though she was with her parents the whole time. My experience with Carnival last year (same cruise to Mexico) was children under 2 did not have to pay tips. So, I thought Princess policy was bad.

All in all we had a good time. The kids really enjoyed themselves, my parents had fun and I was sadly disappointed with the serves and the food, but I had a nice time as well. I know the next time I take a cruise with my children I will stick to a more KID FRIENDLY cruise line like Disney or Carnival.

Cruising with TWO

Part 1

One of my favorite things to do is cruising! We took a Cruise to Mexico on The Princess Sapphire. Kylie (4), Peyton (who turned 3 a week before) and I shared a cabin with the view of a life boat and part of the beautiful ocean. My parents were down the hall and all the way on the other side of the ship. They had a really nice view with NO lifeboat. All I every heard was how Princess Cruises were the best in the business. I was going to find out soon enough.

The first night the kids were extremely hyper. And I was the only parent there to settle them down. Of course my parents were there to help, but the kids were in their own world doing their own thing. Princess cruises has on board activities for all kids under 18. My kids were going to be in the Princess Pelican program for kids ages 3-7. But, the first night all we could do was visit the Fun Zone and sign them up. It seems like all Cruise lines do this the first night. Its a time for the Cruise Staff to get organized. So, our first night was walking the ship and spending time in our cabin. This can really be trying on anyone with 2 pre-schoolers.

We did have dinner that night with our assigned waiters and at our assigned table. This probably the WORST experience I have ever had Cruising. Our waiters seemed unhappy, maybe it was the task of have 2 kids at our table. Princess usually caters to adults. I really don't know what it was, but, I do know that I was more than frustrated with the approach they had towards my family. Our head waiter wanted to have the kids served first...I went with it. But, I soon realized that doing this was a BAD idea. Once the kids were finished with their meal, then they wanted to run around/underneath the table. We were lucky that we had a window next to our table and the kids wanted to look out the window a lot. Our table was close to the next table of cruisers and my waiter was helping push my chair in so he could walk by and he spilled water all over my arm. This was really not a big deal, but he went on severing the other table and didn't stop to help or apologize for this mistake. I gave myself one more night with these waiters, if it didn't improve then I was not going back. Luckily, the attitudes of our waiters improved, but they really didn't go out of their way to make things a wonderful dining experience. I judge this mostly of the way they treated their other tables and my other cruising experiences. My other cruising experiences the waiters were happy, friendly and went out of their way for the kids and my family.