Pillsbury Potluck Party

Sunday was my Pillsbury Potluck Party! It was a lot of fun and we tried lots of great recipes. If you are looking for quick and easy recipes to help make it through the busy holiday season Pillsbury.com would be a great place to start. Many of the recipes take about 30 minutes to cook and less than 5 ingredients. I have to admit I would have never thought about things you could make with ready made Pillsbury items, like Crescent Rolls. I thought a roll was a roll was a roll. ;)

Here is our potluck yummies. I made it a holiday theme with the decor'. haha

I decided to make the Cranberry Cresent Wreaths since it was mentioned in my last post about the party. They were super quick to make and they were yummy. My girls loved them!

Here are the other dishes we had.

Pepperoni'n Cheese Crescents

These were good! The kids in particular loved them.

Leftover Turkey Crescent Bake

This recipe looks awesome for using up leftovers from Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

It was really yummy too!

There were a couple different types of cookies.

Chocolate Chip

These peppermint ones were yummy. I have seen these in the store for the holidays. These were dressed up with white chocolate drizzle and crushed candy cane.

So we took a vote and the favorite dish of the night was the Pepperoni'n Cheese Crescents. They were really fun and easy to grab and eat. It was like a little pizza with no mess. With so few things needed to make them I can see myself making them often for a quick lunch. Of course everything was well received and enjoyed.

Check out the link for more quick and easy dish ideas. Like the Pillsbury Facebook page to keep up with the new stuff. You can print a coupon for Pillsbury products Here.  Maybe plan your own potluck party or make one of these dishes to take to your holiday party's. It was a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the Christmas season! Plus we tried so many things we had never thought of before. Making crescent rolls into a dish? Craziness!  ;)

If you try any of the recipes or host your own party please come back and let me know!

Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark provided me with product coupons and recipe cards to hand out to all of my party guests. We were able to use the cards to write down each others recipes. Here is my little "favor" station.

“Disclosure: The Pillsbury product, information, food ideas, online coupon link, and prize pack have been provided by Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark.”

We Love Arts and Crafts! (Crayola Giveaway!)

I think that you can tell from my blog that we like arts and crafts. My kids are always making, coloring, drawing or painting something. They love it. (Actually I do too, very big into the creative stuff. ) Meghan uses her own money to buy clay and loops for her pot holder making. She has been trying to find something to make and sell and is now painting wood pieces that I will help her make into home decor signs.

Christmas time is the perfect time to talk about Crayola art products too. I always love to give gifts that inspire creativity.

So when I was asked if I wanted to talk about Crayola products of course I said yes! We were sent this lovely package of items. We love Crayola here! (Have you ever tried another brand of, say crayons, for example? The colors are always too light.)

Here is a little information about each item.

You can see it in action here, it looks so cool! Meghan will have a blast with this!

Crayola Jewelry Boutique
With the new Crayola Jewelry Boutique, kids can become their own jewelry designers! Crayola put a unique “spin” on jewelry making with a special “jewelry spinner” that creates multi-colored beads using Crayola Model Magic. As kids spin their beads into shapes, they can string them together to create original bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and pendants that reflect their own personal style. Let the designing begin!

• By combining eye-popping colors to create unique beads with the Jewelry Boutique “spinner,” the amount of fun and creativity is endless because no two beads turn out exactly the same!
  
• For a dazzling finish, coat designs with bead glaze. For even more sparkle and pizzazz, add gems, and interchangeable pendant and bracelet charms!

Recommended for children ages 6+, each Jewelry Boutique kit includes 8 packs of Crayola Model Magic to mold 160 beads, 5 bracelet charms, 3 pendant charms, 2 shape cutters, a bead dryer rack, 5 toggle sets, 4 earring posts and ear wires, a bead punch, 18 gems, 2 necklace cords, 1 elastic cord, bead glaze, and the Jewelry Boutique Spinner with storage areas and retails for $24.99.

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The Glow Book video is here. Again super cool and so fun!

Crayola Glow Book
Let your kids’ imaginations run free this holiday season while creating glowing, moving art with the Crayola Glow Book. Turn the lights out and watch their artwork come alive on each page and appear as if it is actually moving!

Using special glowing-ink markers to draw on each of the four clear pages, kids can choose one of the four tracing guides to create original scenes, signs and messages, and arrange them in their desired order. Then, just hit the lights and allow your kids to wow you with wildly colorful, glowing animated scenes. Variable light settings create colorful, multi-layered effects. The Crayola Glow Book wipes off easily so kids can use their imaginations to create endless glowing artwork! A simple wet cloth will do.

Recommended for children ages 6+, the kit includes one Glow Book with 4 clear pages, 4 animation tracing guides and 6 glow markers and retails for $24.99.

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Video! We need some huge boxes for sure!

Crayola’s Telescoping Crayon Tower and Ultimate Art Supply Case
For everyday inspiration and creativity, be sure to keep Crayola’s Telescoping Crayon Tower and all-inclusive Ultimate Art Supplies case handy, so they’re can always be prepared to create! Filled with crayons and all of the classic art tools for drawing and painting, kids can share their creativity through colorful works of art! The Telescoping Crayon Tower and Ultimate Art Supplies case make great gifts every child can use to jump start their creativity.

• The Telescoping Crayon Tower puts limitless color at kids' fingertips and compacts neatly for storage with 150 Crayola Crayons and a built-in sharpener for extra convenience.
  
• There are no limits to a child's imagination with the all-in-one, portable Ultimate Art Supply Kit.

Recommended for children 4+, the Ultimate Art Supply Kit contains 24 crayons, 8 washable broad line markers, 12 colored pencils, 8 washable watercolors, 1 paint brush, school glue, scissors, and colored paper and retails for $16.99. The Crayon Tower retails for $17.99.

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You can find many more awesome products at www.Crayola.com

We have never bought a Crayola product that we didn't love!

I think the crayon maker looks really cool too!

I am very excited because Crayola through MyBlogSpark is allowing me to give one of these gift sets away! So fun. You will receive

(1) Jewelry Boutique

(1) Glow Book

(1) 150-ct Crayon Tower

(1) Ultimate Art Supplies case

Here is how to enter! For each item you complete you get one entry, so you can enter 5 times. You HAVE to write a separate comment for each entry or it will not count. :)

#1. Follow Inspired Mom with Google Friend Connect. If you area already a follower just leave a comment letting me know. (This is the required one.)

#2. "Like" Crayola on Facebook. Do not post there but come pack here and let me know you liked their page for another entry.

#3. "Like" Inspired Mom on Facebook- comment here for a 3rd entry.

#4. Leave me a comment letting me know which of these products from Crayola would you most like to give as a gift to a special child in your life to inspire creativity, and why?

#5. Share this giveaway on your Facebook page and come back and leave a final comment letting me know you shared.

I will be drawing a winner for this giveaway on Wednesday December 7th via Random.org.
Good Luck everyone!!


“Disclosure: The Crayola Innovative Holiday prize pack, product information and prize pack for giveaway have been provided by Crayola through MyBlogSpark.”

Starting the Countdown to Christmas!

Yesterday we started our countdown activities. I made an Advent Calendar using my friend Shannon's idea. You can see it here at Nouveau Soccer Mom. I thought it was a cute idea and we have been saving the paper rolls for a while. Here is mine. :) Not perfect but I was up until 2 am doing it the night before the 1st so.... yea.

(I really need to get some curtains)

The kids love doing this! Something else we are doing is RACK (random acts of Christmas kindness). I saw this idea on another blog. We are going to do something everyday. Love this idea and the kids will love helping to think of things to do.

I am excited for Christmas. We have pulled out the Christmas decorations, although they aren't all up yet. We did do the outside stuff though. The kids were sick over the long Thanksgiving weekend, which meant we got to stay home and not go to our family dinner, not super fun. Then as they started to get better I got it. So I have been dealing with a stuffy head and being extra tired. Thankfully I think we're going to be ok soon. :) It does explain why our Christmas stuff isn't out yet though.

I uploaded all my pictures from my camera a couple days ago and realized I didn't do it all of November! Ooops! Of course I haven't been keeping up here either. November was very busy. So here are a few highlights!

Meghan participated in the Veteran's Day Parade with her Girl Scout troop. I watched with the little ones and chased and walked and all that fun stuff.

I really have to get her uniform soon!

Meghan designing potholders. We are doing a boutique on the 10th so she is making things to sell.

We participated at the boutique my church puts on every year. I used to help plan the boutique a long time ago. It is sooo huge now. We did great and I hope to do it again next year. Meghan liked the mustache cookies. :)

Ellie trying to peel potatoes.

Kaden and Ellie watching a movie.

Christmas Shopping

We are currently having a discussion on my homeschool board about what Christmas gifts people are thinking about and what some of the favorite things have been. We might be in a little different category than most people since we homeschool. We just think a little differently about things and what we want our kids to be playing with and doing some times.

What is really cool about these discussions though is that I always learn about new things. Like these Keva Planks for example. There are sooo cool!


I have never seen them or heard of them before today. I watched the video on the homepage and then started going through the photo lists. All the different things they have made with them is just amazing. I think this is something we will keep in mind for the future. I can see us all playing with these!

My kiddo's are really getting into Lego which is nice to see. Meghan asked for some a couple years ago and Kaden has started using them with her. Meghan follows the directions to make the little sets and Kaden just starts stacking. He may be getting a set of his own this Christmas. They are playing with Lego's right now and its so quiet...

Meghan is probably getting a Next Generation Doll. They are similar to the American Girl Dolls. I would love to get her one of those but they are much more pricey. I think the Next Generation Doll will work out well. They can wear all the same clothing and they have cool accessories also. She learned about the American Girl Dolls when we were at the boutique in November. There was a lady there that made clothes for them. They also have matching clothing for dolls and girls. Cute! This seems like something she will use for a long time.

I think books are always great gifts too. We like to read here and the kids love looking at their books. Plus we use books all the time for our unit studies. I also like memberships to places like zoo's, the science center, children's museum, even water parks. I think we are just getting to where we want the things we spend money on to matter and enrich our lives and not just be another fad toy with no imagination required.

This post is mostly my rambling but I really thought the Keva Planks were cool and maybe some of my other homeschool (or not) friends hadn't heard of them either. :)

It's Time for a Party!

I am excited! I have been asked to host a Pillsbury Potluck Party. I am going to invite my friends and family over and we are all going to make a dish using Pillsbury products. It is really a great time to share this because we all need some easy dishes to prepare during this busy holiday season. I was provided with a package by MyBlogSpark which includes coupons for my attendees. It should be a lot of fun!

The part I need your help with is this....
What should I make for my dish!?? There are sooo many choices here.
Some of the recipes I am contemplating are
Chocolate chip cookie stuffed pies
Tomato pesto appetizers
Cranberry Crescent Wreaths
Italian Crescent Casserole
So-easy Chicken pot pie
Spicy Chipotle Twists


There are lots more recipes on Pillsbury.com

Weigh in and let me know what you think I should try. If you have made any recipes from the site that you liked let me know that too. I have to decide very soon what to make.

Thanks!!

Myths about MegaChurches

I just have to share this blog post my friend Jennifer posted today. She doesn't go to the same church we do but they are very, very similiar. I love this article and I love my church!
Megachurch Myths

Halloween Fun

This is a quick run by posting. I'm late, I'm late for an important date... err something.

Monday was Halloween as we all know. ;) It was also Muffin Tin Monday. I made a tin that I decided to call "The Eye's Have It". Cute right? I've never named a muffin tin meal before. hehe

Apple with marshmallow eyes, more marshmallow eyes, chocolate zucchini muffin with cheerio eyes

More apples with eyes, pumpkin shaped homemade bread with choc. chip eyes and yellow tomatoes, that I used edible marker on for more eyes. ;)

The kids had a great Halloween! My brother and sister in law brought their two little ones to trick or treat with us.

Can you tell what Meghan was? lol Meghan was a cheerleader, Ellie was a cupcake and Kaden decided to be Wow Wow Wubbzy again. He was going to be Luigi and changed his mind. Then he told everyone that he wasn't Kaden anymore but call him Wow Wow Wubbzy. He also told this to everyone as we trick or treated. :)

My nieces were both princesses and this one didn't want to get in the group shot.

Got my brother to smile for a picture. He tries to avoid the camera.. hahahaaa (evil laugh)

My sister in-law took pictures too. She probably has the ones I am in.

After trick or treating the kids dumped out candy and ate some and traded and made a general mess! Then they watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and played some more.

Most of the time the adults were in the kitchen. We all stayed up later talking and laughing and had a great time!

I hope your holiday was fabulous! Be Blessed!