My little piece of the world. . .

Groupon . . .

If you haven't joined Groupon, let me know - I can refer a friend and earn groupon bucks. After you sign up, you can earn some too!

They have many other city deals but today under Sacramento . . . CUPCAKES!

The Baker's Daughter . . .

Our brownie troop went on a field trip to The Baker's Daughter and the girls had a blast!  I'm sharing because I know we've all probably exhausted all the birthday party places in Folsom more than once and I think this place is a great new find - at least for us - not one family had ever been there before.  They teach you how to decorate cupcakes with fondant! SO cool!!  It's not far either - it's off Sunrise/Hwy 50 in Rancho.  If you want more info, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you :)

            Hannah made a cupcake of Marley                                                    Our Brownie Troop

  

 

Free . . .

If you are looking to make a calendar for 2011, Vista Print is offering two choices and you get to personalize each page with a picture. I just ordered the desk top kind and it was SO easy. You just pick a background design and upload 12 pictures and 1 for the cover if you want. Easy! You can even personalize days throughout the year for birthdays, etc. If you pick slow delivery, it's under $6.00 for s/h. Let me know if you get one!

The Grace Foundation . . .

Recently our Girl Scout troop went on a field trip to The Grace Foundation. This is a horse rescue and rehabilition  facility located in El Dorado Hills. They run on volunteers and donations alone!! Hannah and I had been there once before for a birthday party (pic here) but this trip was so the girls could learn about the horses, the facility, how to groom them, feed them, etc so they could earn a patch. We all had a really good time!

Here's our Brownie troup (along w/ some sibilings).

 

Hannah & I
 

Hannah petting a horse (but she wouldn't feed him)
 

She loved grooming them though!
 

Cleaning his feet.
 

And of course braiding his hair . . . :)
 

The troop in front of Pony Town.
 

Recommendation . . . Salad Topping

These are so yum! We've had them at Red Robin on their salads many a time but you can get them at Raley's/Bel Air now. You may have been able to for awhile but I just noticed them over the summer (no luck at Safeway or Winco though). It's a great alternative to croutons and my kids just love them - they both had 2 helpings of salad w/ dinner tonight just so they could sprinkles these on there :)

 

Recommendation . . . Electrical

Greg Sconce at http://www.sconceelectric.com/

So we've had a brand new ceiling fan sitting in our garage, in the box, for at least a year now (but I think much longer!). Jason and a friend tried to hook up fans w/ lights in the kids' room last year. Jordan's works fine, Hannah's is freaky . . . it randomly turns on the light at all hours of the day and night! So instead of fixing it, we took out the light bulbs. Our 4th bedroom has had this "fancy" track lighting  and no ceiling fan at all . . . needless to say it's toasty in there! So while I was browsing our great little local website (folsomliving.com) looking for a carpet cleaning coupon, I ran across an electric business/ad that caught my eye. I called, talked to the owner, and within a week he and his partner came out to the house and worked their magic!  Though I have zero idea how much an electrician's rates run, I think we got a very decent deal and Jason said the two guys were great!! We now have 4 working ceiling fans/lights in all the bedrooms - woohoo! Oh and while they were at it, they replaced our entry light too (which had been sitting nice and cozy next to the ceiling fan in the garage).

The "fancy" track lighting that came down.

 

The fan that replaced it (from our master bedroom)

 

And our new fan in the master . . . love it!

Recommendations . . .

I'm starting a new category called Recommendations. Most of these will be local but I know it's hard to find good people and businesses sometimes so this is just based on my experiences.

First up . . . Soccer Trophies

Stacey at Crockett Trophy: http://www.crocketttrophy.com/ (cut and pasted in the link since the Insert Link doesn't appear to be working on TypePad right now - ugh). She and her husband run the business out of their home and they do a great job! We met them several years ago when our first trophy guy backed out of our order at the last minute due to a family emergency out of state. We felt bad for him but we were like what do we do now - aagh! So . . . went to this fab little local website of ours (http://www.folsomliving.com/) and found them. We have been using them for about 3 years now. If you use them, let them know we sent you there :)