Dressing a Stylish Kid for Less

1. Buy special pieces. Its okay to spend a little more on one or two special pieces that you can mix and match with cheaper pieces.
2. Don’t preseason shop. Boutiques and stores display the next season’s clothes at full price. If you wait a month for the season, those items will usually be On Sale! In particular, Children’s Place and Gymboree change their collections often and try to rotate them through their stores every month or two, so they usually have a large amount of sale items.
3. Buy neutrals at discount stores. Solid tank tops, tee shirts, sweaters, skirts, and pants are sold at all prices. Unless there is something special (see Rule 1), there is no sense in paying top dollar for the same thing you can get at bargain basement prices!
4. Buy sweaters and tights. Sweaters and tights can extend a summer dress into fall and spring.
5. Mix & Match. Just because an outfit is sold together, doesn’t mean it has to stay together. Extend your child’s wardrobe by taking a special 2 piece outfit and mixing and matching it with inexpensive neutrals.
6. Buy a ½ to 1 size larger. Kids grow fast, and many retailers have taken that into consideration by making bottoms with the adjustable waistband. This will allow your child to wear clothes for longer. Clothes with adjustable waistbands are great for children who have little a little waist and a little more bottom. Don’t you wish adult clothes came like this??!!
7. Accessorize. You accessorize yourself, so why not accessorize your child! Changing the accessories can change an outfit. Accessories can be added to cost conscious neutrals to make the outfit a little more special and appear a little more expensive.
8. Don’t be afraid to overdress. Who says a little girl can’t play in a dress? The Amish do it all the time. Inexpensive sundresses to the park will bring style to any little girl. Not into dresses, then accessorize. Faux pearls can make a tee shirt and shorts look posh. Boys can accessorize too! Try a colored pair of sunglasses or a cool hat.
9. It’s okay to spend extra on items your kid will wear often. A lot of kids have 2 or more bathing suits. Last year, so did my daughter. Each were $15 or under. This year, I saw one online that was exceptionally cute. It was $35, which for me is too much for a bathing suit. However, it was so cute that I knew I would want her to wear it every time we went swimming. I spent the extra money, and it is the only bathing suit she got this year. It’s so cute that I will be handing it down to my niece, who is a year younger, for next summer!
10. Don’t buy anything you don’t LOVE. Just like it is a waste of money to buy something for yourself that you don’t love because you won’t wear it, the same goes for what you put your child in. If you don’t like the item, you are less likely to put them in it. It doesn’t matter if it is $2 or $200, if it doesn’t get worn, then it’s not worth buying.

Here is an example of special pieces. I bought this skirt and sweater at Gymboree, on sale of course! The skirt was originally $29 and I paid $9.99 and the sweater was originally $38 and I paid $14.99 for it. The skirt I got in season. It was from their spring collection which they displayed in February. I bought it on sale in April!



Here's the detail on the sweater...love it! I will also pair this with some dark jeans for her this fall and winter.



Here's an example of a solid tank bought at Wal-Mart mixed with the Gymboree skirt. The shoes I got at the Dollar store for $2!! They had VERY similar ones at Children's Place for $15. The only difference was the CP ones were open toe, which Kennedy can't wear to school anyway. I have gotten soooooo much use out of those $2 shoes. I bought them in both pink and purple.



And here's the same outfit with silver Target shoes.



For early fall or spring, I use a simple white long sleeve tee shirt from either Wal-Mart of Target, accessorized with a hot pink necklace.



For late fall, I would add an inexpensive sweater I bought from Wal-Mart (purchased on sale after Easter!). For winter, I would just add a pair of white or pink tights.



Accessorized differently.



This time with a necklace.



This dress was $6 from either Wal-Mart or Target, it's an example of a nice sundress she would wear to the park.



I found this sweater today at K-Mart. It was 30% off, so I got it for $7.00!!



Here's it paired with the dress (accessorized 2 different ways). My daughter can't wear spaghetti straps to school, so this sweater will definitely get a lot of use.





Lastly, here's my daughter in Wal-Mart or Target shorts and tank at the park. She accessorized herself!

Fruit Cobbler Dump Cake

Since I've only been working Monday's lately, I have been very interested in cooking. I think mostly because it takes me away from the other tasks that I really need to do, but don't enjoy (i.e. mowing the lawn, cleaning, laundry, patching up walls, building new front steps, and did I mention laundry?!).

I had dump cake for the first time in my life a little under a year ago. At first bite, I thought, "O.M.G. this is GOOD!" I asked how it was made and they said, dump a can of fruit, spring a box of cake mix, and pour a melted stick of butter over it and bake. Easy enough. Except, the stick of butter doesn't go very well with my diet. So, I went to the internet and looked at a whole bunch of dump cake and low fat/calorie cake recipes. I decided to combine a few of the items and come up with a low cal/low fat dump cake. It is actually more like a cobbler in texture, so don't be scared that it's not done. I can't rave enough about how well this turned out. Soooo delish!



Ingredients:

1 Box of Cake Mixture (I used Betty Crocker Yellow Cake)
2 15 oz cans of fruit (I used one peach and one fruit cocktail, but you can use
whatever you prefer or substitute with one can 30 oz can of fruit pie
filling)
1 12 oz can of Diet Soda (I used Diet Red Code Mt. Dew)

Directions:

Spray just the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan with fat free non stick spray. Dump cans of fruit in pan, juice and all. Sprinkle the box of cake mix over the fruit. Then pour can of soda over the cake mix. Do NOT mix, that's why it's called DUMP cake! :-) Finally, cover and bake at 350F for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes. Makes 12 servings. 195 calories per serving.

Not just a Princess

I cannot tell you how excited and proud I am of the little girl I am raising. I have always prided myself on my own dueling personality. I love all of the girly things in life, but also have been a mechanic in the Army and can give any man a run for his money in carpentry. That's probably why I am so proud of my little sporty girly girl!

Today Kennedy had her first T Ball practice EVER. I was so amazed at how much of a natural talent she had. She went for every ball, hit the ball hard, and ran faster than the boys!

So, while she still has to have her hair fixed everyday, doesn't like to be dirty for too long after she's finished playing, and would rather buy a new pair of shoes anyday before a toy, she's also a tough girl, with a competitive side! I am just beaming with pride.

So proud of my little girl!

After finding out in January that a fellow graduate of mine's daughter was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, I wanted to help in some way. I also thought it was a good way to teach Kennedy empathy.

I started an on-going conversation with her about how sometimes people get sick. I introduced her to this little girl through pictures, and tried to explain her story as best as I could in 3 year old terms. I explained that her and the little girl were the same age, and how they had things in common. For instance, they both liked Dora and love doggies!

I wanted her to connect with the little girl, and feel. We then talked about how we could help. I remembered how another fellow graduate's daughter had donated her hair. I asked Kennedy if she would be willing to do that. I explained to her how her hair could help make a wig that would make someone sick very happy. She was very excited to help.

I looked online about how to donate, and read the requirements for length. We measured her hair, and it wasn't long enough yet. Every month we'd measure her hair. Finally, this weekend we measured, and it was long enough!

All week we had been trying to explain to her Memorial Day, and teaching her how other's have been selfless and given a lot to their country. I showed her pictures of her Mommy & Daddy in uniform. Even the one where I'm 8 months pregnant with her! (Which noone else will EVER see!)

Since her hair was finally long enough, I decided that a great way to celebrate Memorial Day would be for her to have her first lesson in giving back. I started hyping it up, asking her if she still wanted to donate her hair. I told her over and over again how proud I was of her, and how much this would mean to someone else who needed her hair very much. And as she sat in the salon chair, getting ready to, and even during having her hair cut, I could see the pride on her face. And I've never been more proud myself!


Hugs,
Theresa

An Enormous Heart Filled with LOVE

Before I had my daughter, I had never imagined how strong and all encompassing love can be. Sure, I had felt love for my husband, but the love of a child…your child, is different. Sometimes I look at her, and can feel my heart swell with love. The feeling of warm chills flowing through your veins…making you a little light headed. And just when I feel like there is no way I can love her more, my heart grows bigger.

I RAN my first 5K!!

Well…I did it! I ran my first 5K Run yesterday. I’ve never been a runner. I forced myself to do it when I was graduating college and getting ready to join the Army National Guard. In the months up to joining, I found it extremely difficult to run, but loved the feeling afterwards. That changed though when I joined the Army.

Training was a killer for me. As someone who has never been a runner, or stick thin, I was slow. Not just normal slow, but severely slow. Like, people could speed walk beside me as I run, slow. Then it came time to take my first physical fitness test (PT test). This only confirmed that I was slower than two old people…well…you know how the saying goes. It took me 25 minutes to run 2 miles! I was embarrassed and humiliated. I was placed in group D for all the formation runs. D for Damn slow! For someone who is a perfectionist and had always pushed herself, this was extremely upsetting. There were words of encouragement, and the hope of someday moving up to a faster group. Ahhh…yes…something to strive for!

After about a month of running and pushing myself to improve, I felt I was ready to move up to Group C. This was my big chance. When it was time to get in our groups, I went over to Group C. The run began fine, but shortly into it I began to fall behind. I was told by Drill Sgt. Ellis to get to the front. Oh no! This was my worst fear. Everyone was going to pace off of me! So for the rest of the 20 minute run we ALL ran slow. I could hear the complaints behind me, from people wanting to run faster. At the end of the run, I was pulled to the side and yelled at in front of everyone for joining Group C, and banned for the rest of training to Group D.

My run never got much better for the rest of the 2 months I was there. As a matter of fact, after one long ruck march (where you carry a 30-40 lb ruck sack on your back), my run got worse. I now had a terrible pain in my right hip. I refused to get it checked out because one of the biggest fears in training is not repelling off of a 50 ft wall, but being recycled! If you were recycled for any reason, including an injury, you’d have to do this all over again with another company! I pushed through the pain, and tried my best. The final PT test was around the corner, and I was determined to pass. The day of the run, I pushed myself hard. I barely failed….by literally 3 seconds! I’m not kidding you. That PT test is still in my military file. Three lousy seconds!

I would get another chance to take it. The next day we did our last ruck march….15K! (9.35 miles) We marched out early that morning, and arrived by lunch time. We ate, set up our hooches (a tent made with a plastic poncho), dug ourselves a shallow fox hole, ate dinner, then spent half of the night pulling guard duty of one sort or another. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about this. Under normal circumstances, I actually enjoy this kind of stuff. But this wasn’t normally circumstances. The next morning, they got us up at 5:00AM, and drove us back to the Battalion to retake the PT test! Yes, I got to retake my PT test….after taking the first one, hiking 15K with a 35 lb ruck sack the next day, then taking another PT test the following day! Not the idea situation, and obviously I didn’t pass again.

I eventually passed the test after some rest. I also later found out that the pain in my hip was a broken hip! Yep, I had stress fractures in my hip that I had been running on for a long time. Believe it or not, hip injuries are a common injury for females in Army training (if you want to learn more, there’s an article here: http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/8/4/265.abstract). Needless to say, this didn’t help with my hatred of running, which is why running this 5K was such a big deal to me.

This time, I chose to run. I decided how I would train for it, and I decided how I would test myself. For the control freak in me, this was satisfying.

Now, when I run, I run for me. I run without peer pressure…without scrutiny. And for the first time in a long time, I love to run again! I’m planning my next 5K in October. I don’t plan on stopping then either. My goal is to run a mini-marathon (13 miles) in the next year or so, then run a marathon with one of my former Drill Sgt’s (not the one in the story above) to his retirement!

Preparing for my 1st 5K

Well, it's been a while since I have posted here. I really want to post more often. Let's see what has happened since I've been on here last. I got a different job (closer to what I want to do) with the same company. What else...let's see...yeah, that's about it. What do you expect, I live in Iowa!

One thing I've been doing for the past month in a half is preparing to run my first 5K! I've only been running 3 days a week, but have been trying to increase the amount of time that I run at once. I decided after getting out of the Army, that I wasn't going to put pressure on myself to run fast anymore because it discourages me from running at all. So, I've just focused on running period.

I ran the run path today, and timed myself. My only goal next week is to beat that time. I'm going for a personal best. Well...if you can call it a personal best when it is only the second time running it. LOL.