Frugal Friday- Drain Cleaner

We recently moved back to Utah and we are currently renting a home. Our shower is older and gets clogged up all the time. It drives me nuts! I got tired of buying expensive drain cleaner from the store, so I set out to find a home recipe to try out and I found this one here. I gave it a try and it worked pretty well. I had to do this twice to get it to really work but as I said our shower is older and could probably use a professional cleaning, so this should work great for just your average clog. 

Pour a 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain, then pour half a cup of vinegar down. Place a wet face cloth over it and let it sit for 5 minutes and then wash it down with hot water.

-chelz

Things We Love Thursdays: Take & Toss Cups

We drink a lot of smoothies in our house and let me just say, sippy cups do NOT work well with those!  The valves always get clogged and the boys can't drink their smoothies.  And regular cups are out cuz one little tip too far and the contents are all over the floor.  I found these Take & Toss Cups cups at Target (only $3 for a 5-pack!) and decided to give them a try.  I LOVE them!  The lids fit on tight and the straws slide in very tightly so they don't leak.  (Unless of course your kid tips it completely upside down -- then it will dribble out of the straw.)  I always love when I can find exactly what I need. :)

Skinny Pool Side Dip

I saw this on Pinterest and wanted to give it a try but there was no original source -- just a list of ingredients.  But it looked good so I decided to try it.  It was so easy and sooooo delicious!!!  The first time I made it I took out all of the jalapeno seeds and there was no heat to it at all.  The second time I left about half of them in and it was quite spicy.  It's great because you can adjust the heat to your own preferences.

Ingredients: 

1 red pepper
2 jalepenos
1 can of corn
1 can sliced olives, chopped
16 oz fat-free cream cheese (softened)
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dip seasoning mix

Combine all ingredients and serve with crackers. Delicious!!

Pony Royale- Product Review

This post is sponsored by Pony Royale. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

We were asked to give these Ponies a try and we were very excited when we got them in the mail. There are 12 different princess ponies to choose from.  Sydney got the pony's named "Diamond" and "Starfire". She was so excited to open them up and start playing! These were so cute and fun cause you can change their hair and even inter change the hair and even the accessories. 

Each Pony comes with a jeweled birthstone blaze, two sets of hair and a hair brush. So, with 2 ponies there are over 60 different ways to change their look! There is a pony for each month of the year! Diamond just happens to be Sydney's birthstone so she was extra excited about that.

She played for hours and came up with several different looks and is already talking about wanting to get another one of the ponies. The hair and accessories were very easy to change and Sydney did not have any trouble doing it herself. The back of the boxes that they come in have pictures of all the available ponies and their names and she has her eye set on getting "Rosie"!

These are really fun and cute ponies and I wish that I had something like this when I was a kid. You will be able to pick one up for your little girl at Toys R Us towards the end of July!

Check out this cute video on the Pony Royales and how they came to be:

Visit the Pony Royale website for more information. Look for Princess Ponies in stores starting late July! Meanwhile, be sure to check out Pony Royale’s Facebook page and follow them onTwitter!

Things We Love

I ran out of my old smoothing serum a few weeks ago and I needed some more. I was at the store and decided to give the Herbal Essences one a try. I love it! It doesn't take much to make your hair smooth and it smells so good! The best part is it was under $5! I think I have found myself a smoothing serum that I love and will never try anything else! 

What hair products do you like to use?

-chelz

4th of July Treat

Strawberry Shortcake is a favorite in our family. Every summer we make sure to make it as often as we can! With the 4th being a holiday, it is another good excuse to make strawberry shortcake for the occasion and it looks patriotic as well! Nothin like an all American dessert for an American holiday! 

Happy 4th of July! Have fun and be safe!

The G*Rated Girls

What I Read: June

I didn't realize I read so many books this month.  It was a great reading month for me! :)


Vanish by Sophie Jordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There's just something about dragons that I find absolutely fascinating! And I think that is what I love most about this series. It's just so different from all the other fantasy/paranormal books I've read. This was one of those great fast-paced reads that I finished in just a couple days. It was a bit predictable at times, but I can look past that. Can't wait til the last one comes out!!!





Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again Jim Dale did such an amazing job with this audio book. His impersonation of Professor Umbridge was spot on! There's so much darkness and despair in the this book, especially within Harry, but I absolutely LOVE the humor in this book as well. Fred & George are just hilarious!!!



Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, this book went by fast! I really liked this installment of the series. I'm really starting to like Ripred -- his character just cracks me up. :) This book ended with such a cliffhanger and I'm very anxious to see how it all ends!





 Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my favorite book in the series! I absolutely LOVE Ripred. I was laughing out loud so many times with all of his sarcastic comments. There was also a lot of sadness and death in this one. I'll say one thing for Suzanne Collins - she sure doesn't shy away from killing beloved characters! :( I loved seeing Gregor's growth through this series. And I love that he was always about what is RIGHT. This was a great ending to the series and I definitely wouldn't mind if Suzanne wrote more about the Underland. :)





The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Although I wasn't a huge fan of the Iron Fey series, I was still very interested in reading this installment because I really loved Ash & Puck. Unfortunately I was majorly disappointed. I knew Ash was dark and brooding, but I didn't expect him to be quite so .... bland. Even in his point of view I didn't get any sense of who he really was or what he was feeling, which made it hard for me to care. I found I had to force myself to pick up the book and read -- never a good sign. I would've liked it more if it was from Puck's point of view. At least he is funny and entertaining. I know plenty of people who have loved this series, but I guess it just wasn't for me. :/



Destined by Aprilynne Pike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book! I thought it was a great ending to the series. This one picks up right where the last one left off and there isn't a lot of "recap" that happens often with series, but luckily I remembered everything from the previous books. I love Aprilynne Pike's writing style -- it fits the beautiful fae world she created so perfectly. I wasn't crazy about the whole love triangle/square thing, but all in all I loved the story. I also really liked the "alternate ending" the author added. It was a little bittersweet but also made things seem more "real". Too often books end with "and they lived happily ever after" but this seemed very fitting to me.



Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this series maybe two years ago and really enjoyed it. I decided it was time for a re-read and to go through it with my 8 year old daughter this time. This book is pure magic and I loved seeing Fablehaven for the first time through my daughter's eyes. It was so hard to put the book down at night and not continue reading on my own! :P



Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely amazing! JK Rowling is my hero. I am just so amazed at her incredible talent for writing and weaving stories together. I love all the glimpses into the past in this book, getting a glimpse into the life of the man who would become Lord Voldemort. The ending is so heavy and heartbreaking, but at the same time I LOVE the story of friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione. Such a beautiful, trusting friendship and I just feel like I know these people intimately thanks to Rowling. Although I've read these books several times, they never fail to touch me. And listening to them this time around has made it even better! The final book will be very bittersweet!!



Everneath by Brodi Ashton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Soooooo good! I absolutely loved this love story. I'll admit, it took a little bit for me to get into the book. There were so many new "terms" about the Everneath that I knew nothing about so it was a bit of an adjustment. And it took a bit for me to get used to the past and present timing. But once I got past all that I could not put the book down. It pulled at my heartstrings and I am DYING to read the rest of this series!



Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was a really cute story! I loved Jordan's character -- she was a tough football girl with a bunch of tough guy friends and I loved seeing her turn "girlie". I loved her friends -- they were all such great characters. I also really loved the football aspect of it and I found I couldn't put the book down. The one thing I didn't like was that there was a lot of swearing -- more than I'm really comfortable with.



The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this one on audio and I have to say, the narrator was AMAZING! She read with so much passion and was the perfect voice for Lennie. I really felt as if I were listening to a friend tell her story. And speaking of the story -- beautiful! I loved all the imagery the author used and the tone of the book. There were times I wanted to shake Lennie, but I loved watching her growth and watching her figure out who she was without her sister and who she wanted to be. Overall all a great story, but there was a lot of swearing and some crude moments that put a damper on it for me. 



Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the perfect ending to the series. Sophie is such a great character and her sarcasm and jokes during dire situations had me laughing out loud. Love, love, love her! I want to re-read this series now that they are all out because I feel like I forgot so much in between each book.