Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

A little bit of everything. Life, animals, family, crafts, recipes.

Archives for 2014

Friday Photos

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Here are all the photos that I posted this week on Instagram:

Just a little bit of randomness for today 🙂

This is Angus last night on our way into Chicago for a show. He and Moose were both requested for the show but since the vehicle was full of all the other animal’s crates, Angus got to ride with me 🙂

I made this yummy Shamrock Smoothie yesterday. Recipe is here. You won’t believe this is so healthy and that there is spinach in it but there’s lots! It tastes like the Shamrock shake from McDonalds!

Another recipe I made yesterday – Spinach and feta muffins. Healthy and sooooo delicious!! The entire batch is gone already, 1 day later. Recipe is here.

A family favorite: Pancake breakfast! Steve likes his plain and Ava and I love the raspberry ones! made from scratch, recipe is here.

Watching what else? Bubble Guppies of course!

I’m ridiculously excited that our chickens are laying eggs again!

 

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Meanwhile at the zoo

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or rather, at our house….

baby hedgehogs our zoo

playing with 3 of the baby hedgehogs. At just a little over 2 months old, they are now the same size as their parents! Wow, did they ever grow fast. Thank goodness human babies don’t grow this fast. These 3 babies are all female and they still live with their Mama. We are keeping all of them, hooray! If you know us in real life, you will know how hard it is for us to part with our animals… it’s hard enough just going away and leaving them overnight!

raccoon animals zoo

Peek a boo!! It’s Russell, our raccoon.

patagonian cavy animals zoo

Waldo playing in Ava’s room again. This guy has come such a long way the last few months.

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Mesmerized by the Bubble Guppies. It’s the only thing she wants to watch and as a result I cannot get the theme song out of my head.

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This is Emmy, our baby iguana.

hairless guinea pig and teddy bear guinea pig

Playing with our 2 male guinea pigs. Dobbie is a hairless piggy and Charlie is a Teddy Bear Guinea Pig. Fun fact: Dobbie is Charlie’s Daddy! It’s always fun to take them to shows together as no one can believe they are father and son 🙂

toddler in the snow pet pig

We ventured out into the snow a few days ago since Ava was feeling better. We were out there for literally maybe 4 minutes, tops. Basically long enough for me to get these photos. Let’s just say Ava is not impressed by the snow. At all. That’s my girl!

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toddler in the snow

toddler in the snow pet pig

toddler in the snow puppy

I’m late posting this but this is our latest family photo ( from December)

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Right now

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  • not enjoying this winter in Illinois. Not. At. All.
  • Did a deep clean of the house yesterday and it felt fantastic. Although now my back doesn’t feel so fantastic….
  • Stayed up way too late last night and woke up way too early. (huge thank you to 2 of my dogs for waking me up to go outside at 3:00am – after they had been out at 1:30am!!)
  • I would actually be very happy if I never saw snow again.
  • I want sushi right now in the worst way.

 

In other news:

I recently got to review a very cool music album over at the Little Lake County Blog

This mini album of mine that was in my book was featured a couple weeks ago in Women’s World Magazine.

friends mini album

friends mini album

 

Over at Homeketeers I did a couple tutorials on some Kids Crafts:

These crayons were really fun to make and they are so easy for Ava to hang on to!

DIY homemade toddler crayons

DIY homemade crayons

the other kids craft is also using crayons: stained glass crayon melt art

stained glass crayon melt art kids craft

I’ve been baking and creating new recipes like crazy. All those cookies that I baked last week took me back to the baking I did for our wedding almost 3 years ago. I baked hundreds of cookies and hundreds of cupcakes from scratch! Right up to the morning of our wedding day (as I wanted everything to be fresh). Thankfully a few of my friends helped and one of my friends husbands came over to finish baking some of the cupcakes for me so I could go get my hair done! Thinking back on it now, I can’t believe we managed to pull it all off!

For old times sake, here are some photos of our wedding baked goods: everyone got one of these Mickey cookies – which turned out to be HUGE so there were 100 of those.

mickey mouse wedding favor cookie disney

wedding favor heart cookies

 

Then we had plates of mini heart cookies on each table so there were probably 300+ of those. And we had a Cupcake Display as well as a cake. My goodness. I think we had about 100 full size cupcakes and 100 mini cupcakes. 3 different flavors and 1 plate of gluten & dairy free for those with special diets. More on our wedding here

wedding cupcake display

wedding cupcake display

white chocolate chip cupcakes wedding

wedding cupcake display

I did create all the recipes myself so I will scrounge those up and post them up here soon. The few months leading up to the wedding I did so much baking, trying to find the perfect recipes. It was a good thing I had 100 testers as not only would my 5 roommates test them for me, but I took everything else to the zoo and let everyone there test them out 🙂 I do miss those days…. Now my only taste testers are my toddler and my pig and neither of them provide very accurate feedback. Ava will eat anything in a cookie or cupcake form and Norman will eat….well…ANYTHING at all. Steve does not like sweets, so he’s out. (occasionally  though he’ll like something, like the cookies I made last week).

So that’s what’s going on around here right now. Feel free to share what’s going on in your world 🙂

 

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Thrifty Thursday – Great Finds

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thriftythurs

We have found some incredible deals at thrift stores so I wanted to share some of our best finds as of recently. When I lived in California, the area I was in did not have many thrift stores at all and the ones it did have were a big disappointment. So while I was living there I gave up on thrifting. Sad. So it really does depend on the quality and abundance of thrift stores in your area. We have a few that we really enjoy going to, and then there are several that we won’t step in ever again. Thrift stores, resale stores, kids consignment stores – these are where we have found some great deals. We tend to go looking for stuff we can use for the animals such as new crates, cages, bowls, etc. One time we found a giant parrot cage that was brand new  – for $60 (regular price of the exact one is $400+) so you better believe we snatched that up pretty quick. But we have found some wonderful other treasures as well!

Here are our most recent “Great Finds”

“Toot” the Train

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This one was a few months ago but it’s still one of our favorite additions to our home. It’s a Fisher Price train set “Toot the Train” – complete set and it is fully working as well. It’s in excellent condition and was all neatly packaged together when I found it. Guess how much? $4. I found the exact one, also used of course since it’s from the late 90’s, for $100 online. So for $4, it was an INCREDIBLE deal. Even better though, we set it up Christmas Eve in front of our Christmas tree, and all of us adults (my parents, Steve and myself) were just enthralled with it. I have always wanted a train set to put around our tree, or in front of it. This train added a whole new level of magic to our Holiday. Ava loves it as well and knows how to turn him on and everything. We have all spent lots of time playing with Toot!

 

“Elmo” Wilton Cake Pan

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When I saw this cake pan I knew I had to get it to put away for future use. Even though at the time Ava didn’t have a clue who Elmo was, she has very quickly learned who he is just within the last few days. She is now obsessed with everything “Elmo”. So glad I listened to my inner voice and bought this cake pan a couple months ago! It’s brand new and was only $3. Score!!

 

Glass Cake Dome & Plate

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I love this so much and was so happy when I found it. It is really quite heavy and beautiful in person. A glass cake plate with dome and for the set it was $4. Amazing. I washed it as soon as we got home and left it to dry in the dish rack, so anxious to use it. I had baked muffins that day and my wonderful husband saw it in the rack, dried it and put all the muffins in it. It looked great on the counter, and he even said to me “this was really a great find! I’m glad you found it”. Yes, I’m glad too.

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DVDs

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Thrift stores are a great place to pick up some cheap DVDs but I always open the box and examine the DVD before I get it. If there are any scratches at all, it goes back. We have been fortunate though in finding several brand new and sealed DVDs even. Most recently I picked up some kids DVD’s for the future when Ava might be interested in them. I’ll be honest and say that the Berenstein bears one is more for me, haha. That was always my favorite series when I was a kid, and it was a special treat when the cartoons came on TV. Now those same cartoons from the 80’s are on DVD’s and I think I own almost all of them now. I keep telling myself that Ava will like them one day. DVD’s were all $1.99 each.

 

Books

Ava LOVES books, a girl after my own heart. She has quite the library already and  she literally spends hours everyday looking at books, bringing them to us to read to her, and scattering them all over the house.

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The first thing I do at any thrift or consignment store is to check out their book section. I’ve managed to find some excellent books (Where the Wild Things Are, Courderoy, Berenstein Bears, Board Books) in almost new condition for anywhere from 0.50 cents to $1 or $2 each. Most are around $1 or cheaper. I try to be picky with the books we get though since she has such a great library already, but there are just some I cannot pass up.

Also in the book section, Steve goes nuts here. He always comes home with at least a couple new books – usually the “do-it-yourself” type books. Oh or Star Wars. Actually anything Star Wars related that we find usually ends up coming home with us.

 

“Farley” the Singing Frog

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This frog is quite hilarious and since Ava loves stuffed animals that sing or dance, this was a must have. It is a Gund and still had all original tags on it (and original price tag of $35) and was clearly brand new. However he barely made a peep so I figured his batteries had died and just needed some new ones. For $4 he was a great deal! Yes he is wearing a graduation cap and is holding a diploma but that doesn’t bother Ava. He sings “Shout” and waves his arms around while his mouth opens and closes as he sings. It’s actually not nearly as annoying as some of her other toys, which is good since we have to listen to him sing “Shout” about 20 times while she is eating dinner. She actually has 4 of these critters now that sit on our table and they provide her with entertainment while she dines. What a lucky kid, Dinner and a Show every night! 🙂

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Ava’s Dinner Entertainment Group.

Pottery Barn Kids Clock

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I found this a few months ago as well and it made a very nice addition to Ava’s room. It’s in perfect condition and was only $5!

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Baby Shoes

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We have this wonderful Kids Consignment Store nearby and they have a great selection of little shoes. Often I’ve been able to find good quality shoes that are almost new. Recently I found this pair of Skechers and a pair of Puma shoes too – both were $2 a pair and look like they’ve barely been worn. I’ve found many Stride Rite’s, Keen’s, Skechers, Merrill’s and Crocs at this store too. Ava officially has more shoes than I do now.

Bee Bop Band

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I was really excited to find this as all pieces are here including a couple wooden Melissa & Doug pieces! All for $6! I really like these toys by B. I’ve eyed this set many times at Target and Ava has a few other toys from this company which she really likes. I washed everything as soon as we got home and Ava has enjoyed playing with her new stuff.

Thrifting is so much fun – and addicting! What are your favorite thrifty finds?

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Hidden Veggie Recipes for Picky Toddlers (& Kids of all Ages!)

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hidden veggie recipes for picky toddlers and kids

It was literally only a few months ago when Ava was eating everything we put in front of her and I remember boasting proudly that she did so. Well I sure learned my lesson, now she has become much much pickier with her food. She has also learned that having 3 dogs and a pig sitting under her chair are great friends, as they happily gobble up any evidence of her not eating her food. Therefore, because I refuse to let her eat only bananas and mac n cheese for every single meal, I have had to get creative with adding veggies into other foods. Here are a few of our go to meals that so far have been a great success! It also works for hiding veggies from my husband too! He loves these meals as much as Ava does 🙂

My newest favorite (and this will now be my go-to rolled cookie recipe! Yep it’s that good!): (click on the photo to see the recipe)

(all of my recipes are posted at Homeketeers now, and you can print them out directly from there if you’d like to 🙂 )

This muffin recipe is also a new favorite, they are so moist and delicious!

 

This oatmeal is really tasty and Ava loves it! It’s a great way to get some veggies into her first thing in the morning:

 

We make these latkes in our house all the time! They are good for any meal, any time of the day 🙂

 

These Broccoli Cheddar Sweet Potato Pancakes are soooo yummy!!!

There are a bunch of neat ideas of healthy additives to jazz up mac n cheese:

I have some more hidden veggie recipes that I’ll get posted up here soon. I also have a bunch of other great healthy recipes for toddlers on my Toddler page here.

Enjoy! 🙂

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