Small Things Are Big Things

If you were at the post office and felt that feeling (you know the kind) AND told your mommy you had to go poo poo AND did it in your travel potty AND had no accidents during errand time then…
…you might get to go to TARGET and pick out anything you wanted in the whole store (dollar section)!!
WARNING!! Your mom will probably put the Tomboy Rock n’ Roll Lid (black side out) on you in 100 degree weather to take a picture!

Eli chose the Dinosaur play pack isnstead of 1 larger dinosaur because the pack had “Like 5 dinosaurs in it!” Already a deal shopper… I’m so proud 🙂

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Don’t forget to enter to win…
…a Rock n’ Roll Lid and an iPod shuffle here!
…a vintage inspired cartoon tee shirt here!
See the full list of giveaways coming the next 2 months here!

Remember when Eli “helped” me get out all the foil and I had loads of foil to get rid of?

One of our great foil creations was this rocket ship…It’s had a bit of wear and tear since we made it but it is endless hours (minutes) of F-U-N!

Be sure to draw loads of controls and buttons for more make believe realism (LOL)!

Click here to print out the controls I made.

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We have had more fun playing in this box that is so much more than a box.

The kiddos just keep adding scribbles.

I just keep counting down from 10.

Wanna see when Marcy’s son (from the Glamorous Life Association the host of yesterday’s giveaway) made a box into so much more than a box. Click here.

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Don’t forget to enter to win…

…a Rock n’ Roll Lid and an iPod shuffle here!

…a vintage inspired cartoon tee shirt here!

See the full list of giveaways coming the next 2 months here!

I met this fiery red head at one of our OC BlogCrush meet ups.
She is creative, genuine, silly, modern, vintage and down right awesome!
She is none other than Marcy from The Glamorous Life Association.
Not only does this amazing blogger have the cutest sidebar buttons (grab one) she is giving away one of her RAD tee-shirts! Pix Below.
(Bloggers – when you see these tees you will laugh out loud!! I have my eye on this one.)

Here’s how you win…
Main entry (mandatory): Leave a comment on this post with your favorite t-shirt from the The Glamorous Life Association shop. (some pictured below)
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In addition to the main entry you can get loads of extra entries if you…
~Follow Marcy on Twitter here. (2 entries)
~Subscribe to The Glam Life’s RSS Feed (2 entries)
~Add the “Eli’s Lids Giveaway” button in our sidebar to your blog (1 entry per blog)
~Follow Eli’s Lids on Twitter, leave your Twitter ID in the comment (1 entry)
~Tweet about the giveaway, can be done daily (1 entry per day)
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For every extra entry, be sure to leave a separate comment on this post!
***Giveaway open one week! Ends Thursday September 10th 9pm PST***

(printing from the

Tell us a little about your family.
I have two boys, although I expected girls. There may or may not have been tears on the ultra-sound table. But now that they are 11 and 8…I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have been married to The Husband (I have to call him that after an embarrassing incident at a Christmas Party when his boss and others were gathered around a computer reading MY BLOG. We, okay HE, decided he didn’t want to be called by name anymore)….for TWELVE years. I have one insane sport freak kid and one science/film making/comedy kid. They are both brilliant and handsome. Just ask me. I am a SAHM or WAHM or MOB (mother of boys) or whatever you wanna call me. I work sometimes (public speaking, apparel consultant, writing) and sometimes I just do laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. Nobody warns you about the laundry involved in parenting do they?

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Three words to describe you.
Bitchin, Awesome and Rad (can you tell I grew up in the 80’s? This question was too hard to answer seriously.)
What will readers find when they read The Glamorous Life?
My hope and goal for The Glamorous Life Association is for visitors to feel entertained for a few minutes. Whether I make you laugh with my AdTalk series, or give you a giggle when complaining about the MOMfia in my neighborhood…I want you to feel just ENTERTAINED. And while I am at it I try to be very honest about living the so-called ‘glamorous life’ of being a wife and mother. So I guess I want you to feel a little NORMAL. Because this motherhood thing is nothing like the brochure. You are not alone. You’ve got me! Heck you are lifetime members of The Association!!! Come on by, just step over the Legos and laundry on the way in…
Favorite post…
Favorite Post? ARE U KIDDING? They are all my favorite. Okay that is a lie…but I really love my blog. Hmm let’s see…how about this one. It is just one of my AdTalk series….there is a handy dandy Page click on my right sidebar that will take you to ALL of my AdTalk posts. So you can read them all here and avoid doing the laundry ALL DAY!!! You can thank me later.

Don’t forget to enter to win a Rock n’ Roll Lid and an iPod shuffle here!
Se the full list of giveaways coming this month here!

This is the first ever giveaway on our blog so I’m super excited!!

Don’t forget to win a vintage inspired cartoon tee shirt here!
See the full list of giveaways coming the next 2 months here!

To celebrate we are hosting Eli’s Lids’ 3rd Birthday Bash!!
We will be hosting a giveaway every couple of days!
For the WHOLE MONTH of September!! (& October too)

Here are the sponsors!!! (in alphabetical order, as these are a my real life friends and I don’t want to offend anyone)
Adventures of Mia & Jacob – 5 pairs of my favorite flower bows! See them on Cora Jane here and on me here.
Blah Blah Blah Blogger – Free photo session!! (Southern California Residents or someone who will make a trip to OC for the shoot!)
Blessed Nest – a Nest Egg pillow
BYOG – Hip mama’s delivery gown
Domestic Chicky (aka The Apronista) – A custom header/button combo. See her work here.
Eli’s Lids (of course we are giving something away!) – Your choice of a Rock n’ Roll Lid AND an iPod Shuffle
French Garden House – Luxurious Mink Couture Baby Jacket
The Glamorous Life – Blogging T-shirt (Bloggers – you will laugh out loud when you read these tees!)
Joy’s Hope – Messy bow (I have my eye on the owl one)
Karen Eileen Designs – Your choice of a tee or onsie.
Kristen’s Custom Creations – Teenie Tiny Initial Necklace (see the necklace I bought here)
Monkey Moon – Family photo sitting & and up to 10 high-res images free to print as you choose! (Southern California Residents or someone who will make a trip to OC for the shoot)
Sewing the Seed – Two precious onesies. (see our X-mas shirts here)
Single Mom Sanctuary – Up to $50 worth of loot for Pampered Chef
Suzie Says (that’s right folks, my mom) – 5 vintage inspired cake plates, however many aprons she decides to make & one special kiddo will win a fun new pillowcase in the mail for 6 months!! (Everything lovingly handmade by my mama!!)
This Mama Makes Stuff – The This is Me Kid’s Journal

Please take some time to check out these amazing ladies (heck, add them to your reader!!) and spread the word about Eli’s Lids’ 3rd Birthday Bash! (with our Handy Dandy button below… too much Blues Clues?!?)

<br /><a target="_blank" href="http://elislids.blogspot.com/search/label/3rd%20Birthday%20Bash"><img decoding="async" border="0" width="150" alt="Add Me!" src="http://www.smallthingsarebigthings.com/images/turning3.bmp" height="150" /></a></p> <p>

I’ve know Jen over at the Blah Blah Blahger my whole life.
What, you don’t believe me?!?!
Here’s proof! ————————————————————>>>
This is my mom, Suzie, and Jen’s mom, Stephanie, at my baby shower… and I’m not talking the one Stephanie threw for Eli! Jen’s mom threw the baby shower for my birth almost exactly 29 years ago!
Now that we have that straightened out…
Jen is also the Jen from Jen Johnson Photography and she graciously offered to do a photo shoot for our family. We trekked out to Crystal Cove and melted in the heat but she was still able to capture this precious (and totally staged) moment with the kiddos. I can’t wait to see the rest.
(In the next month or so be sure to get your Christmas card photos squared away!!)

Coming Soon… (as in 2 days)
Eli’s Lids Birthday Bash Giveaway Announcement!!

Target hosted a FREE summer concert under the stars with the Pacific Symphony!
We were so there! (Did I mention it was FREE?!?)
We met up with some long time friends… as in we knew them before kiddos. (whatever that means)

The event was super kid friendly. The maestro came out before the show and did a lesson on how to conduct. Eli had no clue what was going on and used his baton as a sword… awesome!

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In case you ever wondered what you looked like while you were eating…

The night was just beautiful…

…till we did a few timeouts and I brought out the knifty knitter.

(Cora would tuck her sandwich under her arm and do a dainty golfer clap)

The night was awesome and we will be doing it again next year.

Except we will bring loads of sit still children’s activities!!

Go here to learn about the genius Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony.

Go here to see the Pacific Symphony’s upcoming events.

It’s no secret.
I am lacking in the cooking department.
No matter how many adorable aprons I buy I still need fresh ideas for the kitchen! My friend Melissa over at Frugalissa will be stopping by Eli’s Lids every month or so to give us ideas on how to spice up our cooking.
No apron needed. Though you will feel much cooler if you are wearing one… I promise!!
(P.S. I may talk her into giving us some tips about going Green too!)

Post below written by Melissa from Frugalissa

Kiddie Kabobs!!
I am always trying to come up creative ways to jazz up our food. Change it up a bit for the kids so it seems different to them even though it might just be a banana. But add yogurt and sprinkles and it is a little treat or push raisins on it and it makes a crazy eyed snake. Kids can sometimes get stuck in a food rut. This helps them get out of the rut try new things and changes up the norm a bit so it is not the same PB & J everyday.
Here is the step by step of making our fruit/marshmallow kabobs…
Get strawberries,blueberries and marshmallows and let the kids make whatever concoction they want.
My daughter decided she wanted hers to be color coordinated. My son loves blueberries so there were a lot on his skewer…It is so fun to see what they come up w/ and let them be creative. Then they eat it. I found they eat better if it is on a skewer or even a toothpick. I don’t know if it is the novelty or what.

Here are more examples:

Nanas Gone Wild: Cut big chunks of banana and dip in yogurt and roll in sprinkles and skewer….Yummy!

Fruit Art: Get your kids fave melons and take cookie cutters to make different shapes and skewer. You could even do this with cheese too.

Pizza: Take chunks of bagel or even Focaccia bread, cherry tomatoes, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese and skewer..Dip in pizza sauce…Viola pizza…

Sweet Treat: Angel food cake and berries and skewer….Sweet, light and healthy!.

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About Melissa…

Hi, my name is Melissa aka-Frugalissa. I am a wife and mom to 2 kiddos. We live in TN. I am quite savvy at finding deals and saving money. My motto is “Frugal does not mean I have to be cheap”. I am into natural living, being green and try to feed my family healthy, wholesome food. I am proof you can still be healthy and frugal too.

Being faithful OC residents means you have Disneyland passes.
I’ve had one most of my life.
Our passes were about to expire and Eli is turning 3, which means we have to shell out the dough for a pass for him. It’s going to be some time before we get passes again.
I suggested to Hot Hubby that we should go every night the week our passes expire (as a joke!).
Hot Hubby said, “Great idea!!”
So we did.

I packed sandwiches, we hopped in the van and headed out for a night of fun! We started with our beloved Kettle Corn. I love this stuff… I just can’t stop shoveling it in my mouth.
I absolutely look ridiculous eating it… see…

We went on the rockets for the 1st time then hit up Eli’s all time favorite, Casey Jr and ended the night with the Carousel.

Day one was a success and we were giddy with our week of Disney challenge.
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Day 2 we were fresh and felt more than cool that we were going everyday of the week! We couldn’t have sandwiches for dinner every night so I packed ravioli (fyi: not the best car food).

We took the kiddos pix with the giant letters out front to spell their names!! They have every letter except for “E” so we are going to photoshop it (better than the one here).

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This time we headed over to California Adventure and went on every ride in The Bugs Life Land (Brad and Cora on the spinning Ladybugs below) and watched the Electrical Parade for the first time. If you are visiting California Adventure the Electrical Parade is a “must do.”

I’m going to be honest Day 3 was hard. We were tired and the kiddos were a bit strung out from two late nights in a row. But off we went for another evening at the “happiest place on earth.” We played catch in the car with a wadded up napkin. The night was starting out so fun, little did we know…

The park was CROWDED, and we saw Nicolas Cage. I felt bad for him because he couldn’t walk 2 steps without being stopped for pictures with tourists. We inched our way into the park and saw the Corn Dog stand everybody and their mother has told us are “amazing” (Rob Howards). Every time we walk by, there is a line long line so it must be good, right? No, it was awful!! It made Hot Hubby sick.

We wandered the park and every ride we went to was either closed or had a 3 hour line. It stunk. Then as a last stitch effort for a ride we tried to go on the train that goes around the park… closed!

Conductor Gordan saw Eli’s long face and took pity on our sad party. He brought us backstage and showed us how the steam engine works and sprayed steam all over… awesome!

As we were walking to our car the fireworks started and we watched them from the top of the structure. It was awesome and an amazing close to a not so awesome and amazing night.
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Day 4, and the last day because Friday night is date night and we don’t mess with date night.
Cora kept putting on her own Lid… it cracked us up! Eli pushed Cora off a giant letter… it didn’t crack us up!

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First we went on the giant Farris Wheel in California Adventure. It is so high and I was scared that there was going to be an earthquake and we would go plummeting to earth. Then we went on the Toy Story ride; the wait is long but so worth it.

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I’m thinking that we will make this a yearly tradition when our passes are about to expire!

It was a lot of work.
But these faces made that time a priceless treasure…