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I grew up in the south, but spent almost all of my adult life in the midwest until we moved to southern Kentucky for my husband's work about three years ago.  I love. love, love magnolia trees!  I remember climbing them as a child and enjoying their beauty when I was old enough to appreciate it.  I missed them all those years so now that we are in a more southern climate where I can get magnolia leaves, I am decorating with them.  

I love this simple magnolia wreath that can flow from fall right into Christmas just by changing up the mantel decorations.  Plus this is so budget friendly with most of the supplies coming from Dollar Tree.  

Supplies needed:
Wire wreath frame (from Dollar Tree)
Floral wire
Rubber bands
Ribbon (also from Dollar Tree)

A big thank you to our friends the Mikulcuks for giving us magnolia cuttings!  

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Watch my video tutorial in which I show you how to make a magnolia leaf wreath.  

I probably explained this better in the video, but you make small bundles of leaves by grouping them together and wrapping rubber bands around the stems.  I used 7 leaves in each bundle.  One wreath easily has over 100 leaves in it.  Then you tie the stem bundles to the frame and continue until the wreath is filled in.  You can always adjust leaves and add more to get the look you want.  If you like, add a bow or ribbon to hang the wreath.  

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I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.

As a mother of four, I have used several diaper rash products over the years and my favorite has always been  Boudreaux’s Butt Paste®.  Plain and simple...it works.  I had only used original strength until now, and it always did the job.  This stuff works!

• Pediatrician recommended, Boudreaux’s Original Butt Paste® starts relieving diaper rash on contact. 
• It is free of dyes, parabens, preservatives, phthalates, and talc.
• With Zinc Oxide, it starts to soothe on contact and creates a barrier to keep future wetness out.

This was my first time using the  Butt Brush™ applicator.  I thought it would be kind of silly to use an applicator to apply diaper rash cream, but I loved it.  It went on so smoothly and mess free.  It was so easy to use and I feel like more product went on my baby's bottom so less was wasted on my hand.  

 The Rash Kicking Kit™ with the new  innovative Butt Brush™ is available on amazon and would make a very useful baby shower gift for new or seasoned parents.  

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.

We are all about learning at our house.  We value learning through exploration, play, and especially curiosity.  One of the best ways to foster a love of learning is to foster a love of reading so we provide lots and lots of books for our boys.  There are book shelves full of books in all of their rooms.  Plus the weekly library bag full of books in the living room.  We highly limit screen time in our house so the boys reach for books.  

Which such avid readers in the house, it is often challenging to provide new reading material.  It hasn't been difficult for the younger boys yet, but it has been challenging to keep up with my oldest.  He is a voracious reader.  He will consume entire books in less than a day if given a few hours to himself.  He has read and reread most of his books multiple times.  His favorites are classics like "Swiss Family Robinson" and "Where the Red Fern Grows" and anything survivalist or adventurous in nature.  It has become hard to find new books for him that are both his reading level and his age level.  As his reading level has increased, the selection of books appropriate for his age level has become harder to find.  I was thrilled when he became interested in "Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret" and the best part...there will be more!

All three of the older boys are hooked on this new National Geographic Explorer Academy series.  I have been reading "The Nebula Secret" aloud to them before bed and one night my oldest decided to continue reading it on his own after story time.  He finished it the next day and then told me he loved it and had read the beginning of the next book "The Falcon's Feather" at the end of the book and was ready to read it next.  Yeah!  A new series!  

One fun aspect of this book which helps keep the younger kids engaged is the illustrations.  There aren't illustrations on every page since it is more of a middle grades (ages 8-12) book, but there are some dispersed throughout the book which peak interest and even help illustrate some scenes.  

Our boys are inquisitive and LOVE facts so the new "National Geographic Kids Almanac 2019" is right up their alleys.  This book is fun because you can pick it up and learn something new about an entirely different topic every time you read it.  The front cover says, "Everything you always wanted to know about everything" which I think is a pretty accurate description.  The boys love the animal facts, but I think my favorite part is all of the maps.  There is so much in this book!   It will be nice to have along on long car rides as a boredom buster since you really can learn about everything.  

This little guy is ready to get in on the reading action too (board book style)!  

​You could win a once-in-a-lifetime trip! To celebrate the launch of Explorer Academy, one lucky family will experience a spectacular ship-based expedition, just like the students at Explorer Academy. The grand prize is a family trip for four to Alaska’s Inside Passage from National Geographic Expeditions. Enter the sweepstakes at exploreracademytrip.com.

Where to purchase?  National Geographic Kids Almanac 2019 and Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret are available to purchase on Amazon, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Powell’s, or wherever books are sold.

I find it amazing that in 11 years of hosting kids birthday parties, this is the first time that we have done a Star Wars party.  We have been so busy, that we literally planned this party in less than a week. We decided it would be fun to show a Star Wars movie on the barn and planned the party around that. A quick email invite, late night on pinterest, amazon prime order and of course some effort and we had a party.  

These pool noodle light sabers were a huge hit and made great party favors.  In fact, our kids have been playing with them for days.  My husband made most of the light sabers for the party, but the kids have been making things all week with the extra supplies.  They even made an elaborate shield.  

I bought the light saber supplies at Walmart.  All you need are pool noodles (which are unfortunately seasonal), duct tape, and electrical tape.  My husband got really creative and made all different kinds including a pair of numb chucks.  For most of the light sabers, he used a half length of pool noodle, but made some of different lengths too.  

I always make a meal for our parties, but don't usually make theme food.  This time I made some things with a Star Wars theme.  There were so many great ideas online and it was fun to bring the theme into the kitchen.  My husband formed this Jabba the hummus out of some store-bought hummus and peppers.  It was adorable and delicious too.  

We served with fresh cut vegetables for something healthy since we had sugary cookies and cupcakes. Gotta have some balance or the kids will bounce off the walls, LOL.  I always make guacamole so I served some with chips.  I saw some creative Yodamoles online, but didn't try to sculpt a Yoda out my guacamole.  We can only do so much...

I didn't get the best picture to represent what these are, but these are cheese and cracker tie-fighters. I used some port wine cheese spread to "glue" hexagon shaped crackers to small slices of cheese sticks to make the tie-fighters.  The only crackers I could find in this shape, were these small gluten free crackers which broke easily when handling, but they were delicious and a fun food for the party.  

Pork carnitas has nothing to do with Star Wars, but it's one of our favorite meals and has become our party go-to main dish.  So we served our favorite pork carnitas.

I wanted something really simple for the cake because with four kids I don't have time to do anything elaborate.  I bought yellow cupcake liners at Walmart, made simple cupcakes in vanilla, chocolate, and lemon from cake mixes, and frosted them in homemade buttercream frosting tinted black,  

I ordered yellow star candies and light saber cupcake toppers on amazon.  Also, if using a cake mix, the Betty Crocker Original Recipe is my favorite, although it is getting harder to find in my local stores.  It is the old fashioned fewer ingredients version and tastes more like homemade.  I may have to order some to have on hand for cake emergencies, ha!  Although, from my link it looks like its $15.99 a box!  Yikes!  I will have to see if I can find a better source.  I used extra star candies as a decoration scattered on the black tablecloth on the food table.  

I decided to make Wookie Cookies, but wanted to keep them pretty simple.  I used one of my favorite recipes adding cocoa powder to make them brown and eliminating the nuts and chocolate chips in the cookies.  I melted chocolate chips to make the bandoliers and used white chocolate chips to finish them.  I ran out of brown sugar so I used coconut sugar which works well too.  I used this recipe because we love them and because the coconut and oatmeal would give them a bumpy texture like hairy Chewbacca.  Wookie Cookies were a big hit at the party.

I doubled this recipe for the party.  

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar or coconut sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
½ cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 cup  old fashioned oats
Chocolate chips (for melting)
Raisins (for the eyes)
White chocolate chips for the bandoliers

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl.  Set aside.  

4.  Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.  Beat in egg.  Gradually beat in flour mixture and milk.  Stir in, oats, and coconut.  

5. Drop by rounded tablespoons on parchment lined baking sheets.  

6.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are crisp but centers are still soft.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; press raisins onto warm cookies for the eyes.  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

7.  Melt chocolate chips in the microwave then pour melted chocolate into a plastic zipper seal bag.  Seal the bag and cut one corner so that the chocolate can pour out like from an icing bag.  Draw a bandolier in a diagonal line across the cookie with the melted chocolate.  Then place white chocolate chips on the melted chocolate to finish the bandolier.   

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

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