Eli’s Lids is 3!!

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 border="0" width="150" alt="Add Me!" src="http://www.elislids.com/images/turning3.bmp" height="150" /></a><br /><br />

Jen Johnson Photography Teaser

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!!

Pacific Symphony

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)

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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.

Kiddie Kabobs!

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.

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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.

4 Disney Nights...

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...

Capital Photo Booth = Box O' Fun

Hot Hubby and I were walking into the Just Spotted Blog Awards and a strange guy begged us to get into his photo booth (wearing uber cool nerd glasses, no less)... not really.
Well, he really was wearing the cool nerd glasses
(<--see) but we weren't accosted by him; we practically jumped at the chance for some free family photos (Christmas card?).
Darin owns Capital Photo Booth Co and after talking shop (kiddos and farts) for only a few minutes we knew he was great!
I thought it would be fun for you to "talk" to him too...
Tell us a bit about your family…
My wife Kristen and I have been married for a little over four years. We have a beautiful daughter named Avery who just turned one this July. We also have Winston, our ginormous Boston Terrier and Avery's best friend. My wife is a 3rd grade school teacher in Anaheim.
How long have you been the “photo booth guy?”
It seems like forever, but its only been about five years now. In a previous life I was a "graphic designer/photographer guy" who would take photos with a far less awkward "camera".
How long does it take for the pictures to pop out of the booth?
It fluctuates a bit between 35-43 seconds for a set of double prints. I know this only because the photo booth program keeps a log on printing times, and not because I'm an obsessive weirdo who holds a stopwatch next to his booth.
Why should people book a photo booth for their events?
They're just plain fun. I think a photo booth truly brings out the honest, unfiltered personality of the people being photographed. A photo booth seems to wash away any preconceived ideas as to what one should or shouldn't do while being photographed. Creativity prevails! All in all, by the end of the night your friends and family will have left you with a wealth of hugely memorable photos.What is the quality of the booth photos?
I've been told that its good :) I think its good. I've had several wedding photographers say very nice things about them.
Three words that describe your booths…
BOX O' FUN!
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As you can see we agree... (mom- if you click on the pix you can see them bigger)

This was my "big plan" photo. The Reader's Digest version of our life...

Brad and I kissing...

Me preggers...

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Us tired with 2 kiddos...

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Us happy as can be!!