Snow Day = Princess Spa Day

Snow Day, Spa Day!

We had a full Friday planned of gymnastics, Occupational Therapy, more gymnastics and a major clean up for Daddy coming home after being away for the week. Yet all of those plans were put to a hault, when we awoke to the second blizzard of 2016. Being new to the North East we chopped today up to a "PJ and Lounging" kind of day and I was excited for this. I even put on a movie and snuggled up on the couch, however, around 10am the kids were already getting restless and were looking for something to do.  

I don't know if I had been living under a rock or what, but everyone seemed to know about this storm but me, I had some clue about it last night when I noticed the neighbours lifting their windshield wipers ( wiper blades ) I was not prepared for this and raided my pantry for cookie mix, there was none and then I thought we could paint.... but I really did not want to deal with THAT mess when I already had so much to clean.

My eldest Savannah (5) was complaining that she had a hang nail on her toe and it came to me!!! PEDICURES!!!! I could give them a PRINCESS SPA DAY!!! and it kind of took off from there ...

I quickly rounded up all of their make-up, nail polishes, lotions etc and made up a wee station with towels & foot baths and created my own mini spa for them, I called them through to the living room, offered them a robe and welcomed Savannah and Sienna (2)  in for their 11am appointment at "Spa Mummy" ;)

Because I am me, I needed to create the ambience of a Spa and mentioned "we need Spa Music" Savannah suggested the Princess Tea party soundtrack that Aunty Ali had used for their Princess Tea Party last year, and I thought.... Hmmm Princess Lullaby Music.... that will be perfect so I went on YouTube and found the perfect one  Piano Collection - Full Album (Disney) RELAXING PIANO by Hirohashi Makiko

It was.... PERFECTion!

I even remembered that I had bought them some magazines while grocery shopping earlier in the week and they enjoyed having one, "just like Mummy does, when getting her nails done" THEY WERE LOVING IT!

They read their magazines, drank water with a splash of lemon out of play tea cups and chatted amongst themselves, as they enjoyed their pampering, it was adorable.

First I started with the Pedicures, where I just soaked their feet in their usual bubble bath, cut their toe nails as normal, gave them a little foot scrub with their loofas and then a moisturizing massage. They then got to choose their colors and I painted their toenails. Savannah picked blue and Sienna pink :)

As you can see they were enjoying every second of it....

  

Next Came the Face Masks...

 While their toes dried, I thought it would be cute to put on a wee organic, homemade face mask, so I quickly googled child friendly face masks and surprisingly the first one that came up was simply a mashed banana.... (apparently for adults it's "better than Botox" and excellent for moisturizing so I even put it on myself)... Even for a little sensory play I thought it would be fun for them putting mush on their face.... and it was fun for everyone.

I left it on them only for 5 mins (20 for me) washed it off with a warm face cloth and put a little moisturizer on their face (which they think is make-up)

Spot of Lunch

By this time I was getting really into it, I made them a spa like lunch of sandwiches and fruit (and of course I had to make their sandwiches heart shaped...right?!)

Surprisingly Sienna ate EVERYTHING! Which NEVER happens!

While they munched their lunch, I set up an Manicure station, with many of the same items I had used for their Pedi's and they could barely wait for it....

Growing up in Brooklyn, NY they have visited the nail salons many a time with mummy so are very used to this game ;)

After their Manicures, at their request...well Savannah's (with Sienna mimicking her) I curled their hair and applied their princess makeup.....

Then it was time for them to choose their Princess Gown to wear;

Savannah chose Merida....

And much to my amusement Sienna Chose.......

                                                                                                          ...       GECKO!!!!!

                                                               Who was I to Argue!?

All in all, an excellent day of mother/daughter bonding and with me being away all of last week for school, we ALL needed this.

An excellent, fun and impromptu #Snowday!
and it was all made up as I went along!!!

 

And This is just beautiful and even relaxing music for any ordinary day, if you appreciate Disney ;)

Have a Great Snow Day,

<3 G x

Life Hack #1: Fill Your Freezer with Crockpot Meals to Go!!!

I was scrolling away on Facebook during my daily ritual of creep...eh...."surfing the web" when in my newsfeed, a magical post caught my eye.....

"40 Meals in 4 Hours

Crockpot Slow Cooker Freezer Cooking!"

I immediately double clicked myself into a wonderful new world of Pinteresting Gold.  One pin took me to the next and I suddenly realized that the world was full of genius men and woman who had discovered the art of pre-freezing Crockpot meals for up to 40 days!!!

Do you know what this meant?
With a little bit of dedication and effort for a couple of hours, I could avoid cooking for up to a MONTH!!!

Slow Cooker, Freezer Cooking is when you dedicate a few hours in one day, preparing meals for up to 40 days in advance. Meals that are ready to simply defrost the night before and pop into the crockpot each morning, so that they are ready for dinner as you wrap up your busy and hectic days. Genius!

As a full time student and mother I was finding that our dinners were lacking in nutrients, I, myself was munching on dino nuggets and mac n' cheese alongside the kids and I wasn't happy with that being all I could manage to muster up each night. I was also ordering in, far too often, pizza, Chinese, last minute fixes  for when my brain was too fried to even think of what we could have to eat. It wasn't good.

I saw whoneedsacape.com's magic words: "All I have to do is pull a bag out of the freezer the night before and place it in the fridge to defrost. The next morning I dump it into the slow cooker and turn it on. That’s it! Dinner"

Well this was something that I really had to try, and within the next hour I was on my way to the supermarket, I searched through Pinterest for various recipes, created my shopping list and headed out to the store, ready to make my life 100 times easier.

*Sneaky tip 1: Figure out what recipes you would like to try before you go to the store and combine a shopping list for yourself of all the items you will need. If you know your supermarket well, try and write your list out as you know where things are in the store, this makes it a lot easier to grab and go.

Not only was it convenient, it was cost efficient. Money wise I spent no more than my usual weekly grocery shop, only this time I knew that my food wasn't going to go bad (I regularly forget about the veggies in my fridge and constantly waste them) And this weekly grocery shop was going to last me for 3 weeks!.... I would have bought enough for 40 days, however my teeny freezer would not be able to fit it all.

I purchased 20 Freezer Zip lock Bags a Sharpie permanent marker and was ready to go...

*Sneaky tip 2:  I used bowls around my house and my crockpot itself to stand up my Zip lock bags whilst I filled them, but I have a friend who has recently jumped on the Crockpot freezing Bandwagon and highly recommended these for holding your Zip Lock Baggies up : Jokari "Crazy But it Works" Hands-Free Baggy Rack Storage Bag Holder

I chopped and measured and had a fun time, dividing up vegetables, sauces and meats into the bags, I labeled each bag with the marker so that I knew what was what and placed them in my freezer. As simple as that, my dinners were complete. I chose not to pre-cook any of my meals, but that is always an option, as you can always just "heat-up" with the Crockpot too.

Shopping and Clean-up included, it took me about 5 hours in total to make 14 Bags of Dinners, Which, including leftovers, ended up giving me 3 weeks of food. My kids were eating great dinners, and at the nice and "Normal" time of 6pm! I was eating healthily and I didn't have to cook for 21 evenings.... some nights I didn't even know what to do with myself.....until I remembered... oh yeah.... Laundry! But other bonus of crockpot cooking, You don't have all the pots and pans clean up!

Want to try it for you and your family?  Here are my top 10 recipes, collected from my favorite mama bloggers and crockpot preppers out there. These were part of my first month of Crockpot Freezer Meals to Go!

Mongolian Beef
Easy Pulled Pork
Orange Chicken
Wild Mushroom Beef Stew
Balsamic Glazed Drumsticks
Teriyaki Chicken

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes

Pineapple Glazed Ham

Applesauce BBQ Chicken

Chicken Curry

*Sneaky Tip 3: Once your bag is full, push out the air, and flatten out the bag, to provide more room in your freezer, for MORE meals.

The best part about all of this is; I can have one of those menu's that some families have that tell them what they are having for dinner each week, because I now. actually. know what we are going to have for dinner each week (this seriously used to cause me so much anxiety even just figuring it out!) Yeah - I can be THAT WIFE! Who am I kidding, I'm never going to be THAT WIFE, but I can be as imperfectly perfect as I am, feed my children yummilicous meals and stop eating those dino nuggets myself ;)

* Picked this cute menu chalkboard up in Family Dollar for $8.00 (Bargain!)

So get started today, have fun and I hope this makes your lives as easy as it has made mine.

                         G x

   

To follow some professional "Crockpot Freezer Preppers", check out these sites:

http://whoneedsacape.com/2012/11/crockpot-freezer-cooking/

http://www.mynaturalfamily.com/recipes/paleo-recipes/the-30-best-paleo-crock-pot-recipes/

http://therealisticorganizer.blogspot.com/2014/01/organized-slow-cooker-freezer-meals.html?m=1