My 5 Star Accommodations

What a quite wonderful relaxing three day weekend my family and I had over the Memorial day weekend.  We embarked on a trip into the wilderness camping within the Daniel Boone National Forest. We had to really rough it. We only had one T.V, two mini stoves, a bathroom with bath tub, two refrigerators (one even had a freezer) and air conditioning. I am really being serious, try sharing one T.V between seven of us. That is roughing it, especially with three of them being children.  The best part of this roughing it trip we had no cell service or the INTERNET. For me alone that is called roughing it. I would catch myself trying to check my Instagram and Facebook account. I sometimes would get lucky if I stood on one foot and very still I might have got lucky to be able to pull enough signal to get a text thru. 
My families 5 star accommodations.

As I joke about the roughing part of this trip it was a very relaxing trip. Waking up every morning surrounded by trees was very blissful. Just getting to sit around the camp fire and listening to nothing but the different animals moving around was just so serine. 

Camping now days is nothing like what it was when I was growing up. We actually roughed it in a tent with no modern day amenities. Last year we made a big step up in the camping world with a pop up camper. This year we moved up to a hard shell camper. This was so much better than the pop up camper and a tent.
I am kinda sad, I don't think my children will ever experience what true camping is. Once you camp in a pop up or a hard shell camper you never want to go back to sleeping on the ground. I did tease my daughter and tell her that the next trip we take camping the T.V. will be taken out of the camper.

We enjoyed every minute together. I wished we would have brought our bikes. 
We roasted marshmallows. My daughter even invited one of her good friends to camp with us.

We went fishing and out running around on the boat.

Even little man enjoyed strolling down to the boat dock.



I love how we made memories that hopefully will last with our little ones for years to come. Do you go camping? How do you camp? Where is some of the places you like to camp at?

Snickerdoodle Sunday

Hey everyone!! Welcome back to Snickerdoodle Sunday!!

Some exciting news for Snickerdoodle!
Dee from Meatloaf and Melodrama has so enjoyed hanging with us she has decided to join our hosting team! Stop by her place for some snacks and give her a warm welcome! And Felicia from Nifty Thrifty Family had such fun, she is back again this week! She has some nice drinks over at her house to celebrate!
And we have the cookies as usual!
2 Crochet Hooks
 
Special News - the month of June we will be hosting a special giveaway just for our Snickerdoodlers! You will have to wait until June 1st to find out what exactly it is but we can give a hint - you will need a Selfie with your Bestie!!

Now on to this weeks Special Featured Blogger: Trish Martin from The Decoratoraholic!

Trish Martin, The Decoratoraholic Thanks and welcome! I am first and foremost a child of the True Living God, a mother a homemaker, a DIY-er  in the making and a Blogger. I started my blog to share in my journey of DIY-ing. I hope you will visit often. G+/Pin/Tweet/Bloglovin Trish's DIY Wood Tray is this weeks feature! "So beautiful and something I would have bought from a store. Great work, loved the stain color. Amazing!" Says Emily from Our House, Now a Home. DIY Wood Tray Some other great posts over at Trish's place to check out: Sweet Chili WingsCreating Wall Art  Tool Box Makeover
Congrats Trish!! Here's your super special cookie! Everyone stop by and say congrats!!
2 Crochet Hooks
Just a few Rules
**Please DO NOT link and run…Yes we mean YOU….please visit, comment and pin on a few of the blogs that are sharing here today. Visit at least as many posts as you linked up! This is a great way to get people to visit you and everyone’s blogs will benefit!
  • Remember to Follow Your hostesses- 2 Crochet Hooks, Nifty Thrifty Family, Meatloaf and Melodrama and The Decoratoraholic
  • Take a second to comment below - it's the nice thing to do!
  • Link to your post and not to your blog home page
  • Linkback on your post ( optional, but always appreciated)
  • No adult content blogs, Family Friendly posts – old or new
  • Please no more than 3 links to your blog
  • No links directly to your shops or websites selling things/services please! Reviews w/affiliate links are ok!
  • Yes you can link giveaways
  • Share the hop via your social media
  • Adding your link to this blog hop gives the hostesses permission to share your posts and pictures via social media and as features on Snickerdoodle Sunday- All features will be pinned to our Pinterest board and will be linked back to the original source.
   
   

Guest Bloggers Wanted for Grilling 101



Hot weather is around the corner. Soon if not already outside get togethers and cooking on the grill will be in full swing. Ladies the grill does not completely belong to a man. I love cooking on the grill. At out house cooking on the grill is a tag team. Don't let the grill scare you.  My husband and I both want to learn how to better our cooking outside on the grill.  Cooking outside on the grill is not limited to cooking on meats, there is so many other things you can cook.
The only way for us to learn how to cook awesome on the grill is for us to practice and find recipes that have good instruction. I want to make our meals go from mediocre to wow. Starting in June I am wanting to do a series on grilling that will hopefully post every Monday thru the summer months. I would love to have guest bloggers who would like to share tips on grilling and grilling recipes. If you would like to share and be a guest please let me know and I will set you a date. The day your post runs you will have advertisement on all of the Nifty Thrifty Family Media Sites and your post link will be placed at the end of all posts relating to grilling during the series.
 If you can’t wait until June you can check out the Nifty Thrifty Family Grilling board on Pinterest to get some great recipes. You can even guest post about trying one of the recipes.

Snickerdoodle Sunday

Hello lovely people! Welcome back to Snickerdoodle Sunday!! The most fun and delicious party in the world! Really :) You guys always link up such awesome posts that it is hard to choose a feature! Keep up the great work!
2 Crochet Hooks
A lot going on this week so let's get to it! First off we have a special co-host this week - please welcome Felicia from Nifty Thrifty Family! We are so excited to have her join us this week!
A bit about Felicia: I am very excited to be co- hosting today, I am looking forward to getting to know everyone and checking out all the different links. As for myself, I am a mother to two wonderful little ones, that keep me very busy. Between school pick ups, working 40 hrs, dance and gymnastics, I love to provide honest reviews of recipes and products, sharing DIY projects and life happenings.
 
You can follow her here: Blog/FB/Pin/Tweet/G+/Instagram
And Dee from Meatloaf and Melodrama is returning this week too! She has so much fun visiting with everyone! She even brought a snack to share! Dee's Easy Tomato Bruschetta

Now to this his weeks Super Special Featured Cohost: Emily from Our House, Now a Home! Please give her a warm welcome!

Dee, our special cohost from last week, fell in love with Emily's Coastal Gallery Wall

So lovely and beautiful so I can see why Dee picked it! Follow Emily @ Blog/Pin/Tweet/FB/G+ Some other great posts of Emily's to check out:

Meet the family in her Mother's Day Post, DIY Tray Recycle and a Wicker Chair Tutorial

Congrats Emily!! Here is your super special button!

2 Crochet Hooks

Just a few Rules

**Please DO NOT link and run…Yes we mean YOU….please visit, comment and pin on a few of the blogs that are sharing here today. Visit at least as many posts as you linked up! This is a great way to get people to visit you and everyone’s blogs will benefit!
  • Remember to Follow Your hostesses- 2 Crochet Hooks, Nifty Thrifty Family, Meatloaf and Melodrama and Our House, Now a Home
  • Take a second to comment below - it's the nice thing to do!
  • Link to your post and not to your blog home page
  • Linkback on your post ( optional, but always appreciated)
  • No adult content blogs, Family Friendly posts – old or new
  • Please no more than 3 links to your blog
  • No links directly to your shops or websites selling things/services please! Reviews w/affiliate links are ok!
  • Yes you can link giveaways
  • Share the hop via your social media
  • Adding your link to this blog hop gives the hostesses permission to share your posts and pictures via social media and as features on Snickerdoodle Sunday- All features will be pinned to our Pinterest board and will be linked back to the original source .Social media features are linked back to the hop.

Tooth Pillow



To children the Tooth Fairy ranks right up there with Santa and the Easter Bunny. The magic of a fairy who brings money and candy can make some children scared.  My oldest child is afraid of all magical characters. We always have to promise that we will leave a note for the magical character letting them know that they are not allowed to come into her room. When my daughters first tooth became loose I knew the whole placing the tooth under the pillow might not be a good idea. So with the help of my Mom we created a tooth pillow that my daughter could hang on her bedroom door.
Making the pillow was so easy. You make it the way you want to make it.  Don't worry if you don't have a sewing machine, you can sew it by hand.  We found it was easier  and faster to sew it by hand.

To make the pillow that is pictured above you will need the following items:

Pink felt
Black felt
White felt
2 buttons
Ribbon
Silver sequences 
Stuffing
Pink pipe cleaner

To start you need to draw a tooth pattern. On the pattern draw a pocket. Once you are happy with the shape of the tooth and pocket, cut the pattern using the white felt. You need to cut two tooth shapes one for the front and one for the back.
On the extra piece of white felt cut out a pocket. In the middle of the pocket piece make a slit for the smile. Add pink felt behind the open slit. Add the button for the eyes. Then sew the pocket on the piece of felt you are going to use for the front.  Once you have the eyes, pocket and mouth sewn onto the front, then sew the two pieces of the tooth together, place the stuffing in the tooth and completely seal the tooth up. After the pillow is sewed up add anything extra you want to add. This is when we added the wings, string and skirt.

 

At our house the Tooth Fairy brings golden chocolate coins and one dollar for each year of age.  The chocolate golden coins and dollars fit just perfect in the pocket. A word of advise, I would place the tooth in a plastic baggie in the pillow. It just makes it easier for the Tooth Fairy to find the tooth and exchange it for money. 
I would love to see the tooth pillow you design. Please send me a picture of yours. Have fun making your own personal tooth pillow. 





I have linked this post to the following sites:

Adorned from above: Wednesdays Adorned From Above link party