June 2012 Project~ Homemade Ice Cream

It was my intention to blog about this before our family vacation- well that didn't happen.  But I am blogging about it now- better late than never- right??  LOL:)

Our June monthly project was to make homemade ice cream using the Cuisinart ice cream maker I got for Christmas.  This is a wonderful ice cream maker.  Most of the ice cream makers I have seen, you have to use some sort of packet to make the ice cream and you can only get them in the summer.  So, if you wanted to make ice cream in the winter- you either had to stock up on the packets in the summer or you were just out of luck.  The ice cream maker my inlaws got me for Christmas uses ingredients from the refrigerator so you can have ice cream when ever you want- so love it.

We decided to make Strawberry Ice Cream.  I was out of cocoa powder and strawberries were cheaper to buy.  So, strawberry ice cream it was.

To make the Strawberry Ice Cream you need:

1 container of Strawberries
1 1/2 C Sugar
1 1/2 C Skim milk- you can use what ever milk you have on hand
2 3/4 C Half and half or heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put you container of Strawberries into a magic bullet type blender, we have a GE Rocket Blender and blend until you have strawberry juice.

Mix Strawberry juice with milk, half and half, sugar and vanilla.  Mix well.

Pour strawberry mixture into ice cream maker's freezer bowl.  Turn machine on and let it do its thing for 20 minutes.

After 20-30 minutes you will have yummy, delicious strawberry ice cream- Yum:) 

It was super yummy and got a 2 thumbs up from the boys- definitely a keeper.

The Big Declutter Challenge

In case you were wondering, no I haven't forgotten about our declutter challenge.  We came home so exhausted and so out of whack from our vacation that we are taking a break from our declutter challenge to unpack, do the mountain of laundry, catch up on sleep and just get back into the routine of things.

We will pick right back up where we left off on Monday, July 16th:)

Our DC trip Part 2

Day 2 was Sunday.  Still no power.  Saturday night was horrible- no breeze- so hot.  We all had a hard time sleeping. 

Sunday morning got up and showered in our mostly dark bathroom.  I had realized the day before that no power also meant no hair dryer- oh no.  For those that know me, know that I have bangs- always had bangs.  Well, not Saturday or Sunday- it felt so weird not to have bangs.  But we found out with a little or more than a little bit of hairspray, my bangs stayed put.

Almost ready to take the dark stairwell down to the lobby for breakfast, when all of a sudden we heard a strange sound.  Then it happened- the lights all came on and so did the air- yea for air:)  We were so excited- you could hear the hallelujahs and happiness coming from our room.  Unfortunately, it was too late for the hotel to make anything hot for breakfast, so it was another day of bagels, pastries and cereal.

We decided to go to the Natural History Museum this day.  I love the Natural History Museum- the Hope diamond- all the gems.  I would have been so happy just to spend the day with all the amethysts and emeralds, etc that they had.  My boys not so much.  I don't know why they didn't have any interest in seeing the world's largest diamond or seeing all the gems. They did like seeing the animals and the dinosaurs.

Here are some pictures from our day:

Little Michel measuring his hand to that of a koala bear

All my boys having fun at the termite exhibit

I love this picture:)

Neat fish x-rays

Little Michael touching this nice big amethyst- oh to have this at home:)

Dinosaurs

The Hope diamond- 45.52 carats:)

We also discovered that they had a neat butterfly garden- how cool- lets go.  We rushed over only to discover the nice little $7 per person price- maybe not.  We did find out that on Tuesday's you can get into the butterfly garden for free.  Anybody want to guess where we went Tuesday?

Everyone had a great day- now back to the hotel to sit in our air conditioned room and make dinner then off to the neat duck shaped pool the hotel had.

Come back tomorrow for see where we went on Day 3.

In case you  missed the beginning:
Home Sweet Home
DC Trip Part 1

Purex Let's be Honest campaign and Giveaway

Purex has made some really cute videos about everyday life.  The videos were cute and will make you smile:)  They are also short- between 20-30 seconds long, so it won't take you too long to watch them all. 

Once you watch one, you want to see the rest- a couple of them had me laughing.

My favorite Let's be Honest video has to be this one:


Oh how I wish I could do this at times~ LOL:)

Now for the giveaway part- yea!!

Purex has given me a coupon for a FREE bottle of Purex Triple Action detergent- up to $6.00 to give to 3 of my fabuous readers.

All you have to do is go here or here to watch the Let's be Honest videos and leave me a comment letting me know which one is your favorite. That's it- you will be entered to win 1 of 3 free Purex detergent coupons- couldn't be easier:)

Also, if you are on the Purex Let's be Honest website- enter to win a year supply of Purex laundry detergent.  You will need a code from any Purex product to enter.

Due to our going away this weekend, this giveaway has been extended.  Giveaway ends on July 22, 2012 at 11:59:59 pm and winners will be announced and posted on July 23, 2012.  Winners will be picked using random.org.

Good Luck:)

Also, don't forget to go here and enter to win a free coupon for Dry idea deodorant.

Our DC trip part 1

Our Day 1 was Saturday.  We still had no power.  Trying to sleep with no air conditioning was quite interesting, especially since the temperature during the day was over 100 degrees.  There was no breeze in sight.

We were very thankful to have running water- not hot water but at least warm water.  Trying to take a shower in the dark was also quite interesting.  I have never thought about it before- but no hotel I have ever stayed at had a window in the bathroom.  Luckily, our hotel room had 1 bedroom attached to the bathroom and a door separating the living room from the bathroom.  So, we closed the living room door and left the bedroom door open with so that the light from the bedroom made the bathroom area not so dark.

The hotel staff was great and kept apologizing.  We told them it was kind of like camping so all was good.  There was no since getting upset over something no one had any control over.  There were people quite upset :(  Since the hotel stay was free for us- we decided to tough it out.

After our not so hot shower, we went downstairs for breakfast- which was cereal, bagels, pastries- anything that didn't need to be cooked and no coffee :(

We decided that we would go to the art museum.  We were blessed to have a free shuttle from the hotel to the metro.  The boys had a blast riding the metro.  We got to the art museum and went right to the gift shop.  Each of my boys picked out the postcard of their choice.  It was a neat game to see if they could find their postcards on the wall at the art museum.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

I absolutely love stained glass

Nathan was the only one who found his postcard

One of Christopher's favorites

We had a lot of fun.  The postcard game worked out great.  I didn't realize how huge the art museum was.  The little boys were done after just the upper floor but looking for their postcard kept them looking, learning and moving:)

Come back tomorrow for Day 2 and see where our adventures took us.

My Shopping Day~ 07/09/2012

Things are starting to get back to normal.  We have all gotten off our schedules.  This week, we are focusing on unpacking and getting our schedules back to normal.

I did go shopping~ when we got home Sunday evening, I soon realized we didn't have a whole lot to eat so I had to go to the grocery store yesterday morning.

Here is what I bought:

Dollar Tree
$1.00- Qt zip bags
$1.00- Gallon zip bags
$1.00- Sandwich bags
$2.00- (2) pkgs toilet paper
$1.00- Arm Floats
$2.00- Swim goggles
$1.00- Dust pan
$2.00- (2) Frozen strawberries
$1.00- Frozen peaches
$1.00- Mop
$1.00- Broom
$14.63- Total with tax

Martins
$5.98- Whole chicken
$5.99- Whole chicken
$0.84- Hamburger buns
$0.54- White bread
$1.09- Wheat bread
$1.09- Wheat bread
$15.83- Total with tax

Kroger
$9.56- (4) gallons skim milk
$2.99- White wheat flour
$1.77- (18 ct) eggs
$1.78- Chicken legs
$1.58- Chicken legs
$1.72- Chicken legs
$19.40
-2.00- Daytona catalina
$17.84- Total after tax

Walmart
$1.68- Celery
$1.52- Carrots
$0.98- Frozen mixed veggies
$0.98- Frozen broccoli
$1.28- Lettuce
$2.32- Lunchmeat
$2.00- Shred cheddar cheese
$2.68- Cheese slices
$1.28- Chicken Bologna
$1.78- Brown sugar
$1.00- Mac & Cheese
$2.42- Cocoa cereal
$4.27- Trash bags
$4.27- Trash bags
$3.56- Cat food
$0.94- Cream mushroom
$0.94- Cream chicken
$1.36- Tuna fish
$1.56- Bananas
$0.98- Cheese Puffs
$0.98- Corn chips
$6.57- Brita water filter
$46.95- Total with tax

This shopping trip has been added to our July Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of July.

July 2012 Monthly Spending

Here is where I will keep a list of our spending for the month of July.  Our monthly budget has changed due to a couple of unexpected hospital bills.  Until we get them paid off, we are going to attempt to have a $200 grocery budget.  This is for everything for our family of 6 and 2 pets, not too mention our 2 bird feeders outside. We didn't do that bad last month. We had $112 leftover from last month and used that money for our grocery money for our family trip.  Lets see how we do this month:)

07/09/2012
$45.95- Walmart
$17.84- Kroger
$15.83- Martins
$14.63- Dollar Tree

07/16/2012
$15.18- Kroger
$0.54- Martins
$4.18- Dollar Tree
$9.22- Kroger
$1.38- Martins
$33.32- Walmart

07/23/2012
$2.08- Dollar Tree
$1.93- Martins
$2.04- Kroger
$1.53- CVS and got back $5 ECB's
$19.55- Walmart

$188.16- Running Total for July- WOOHOO- we did it- we stayed under our $200 budget for this month- so excited:)  We are going to take what is left and combine it with a Walmart gift card and purchase a Sam's Club membership next month and see if we can save even more buying in bulk:)