Family Night-The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's

Friday means it's time to share our family night theme again. 

We watched the Wonderful Wizard of Ha's this week. It was a mix between the Prodigal son parable from the Bible and the Wizard of Oz...it was so cute, and the kids loved it.

For my weekly email to the hubs, he received the menu below. I found the picture from Christians Best, and used Picmonkey to add the menu.

  If you think you might want to re-use this picture, feel free to copy and paste...or go to the link above, and create your own.

Here is our delightful spread for the evening. 

 We had homemade strawberry lemonade in mason jars, and since we were watching Veggie Tales, I decided to add in a few veggies:o)

 We were supposed to have mini hamburgers for dinner, but I forgot to thaw the hamburger meat...we made a quick trip to visit grandparents on Wednesday, so I didn't fix the Ham and Cheese Sliders that evening. They were a quick and delicious fix! The hubs loved them!

For dessert, we had Bob the Tomato cookies. I used store bought cookies and cookie icing. They were fairly easy to make, and you can kind of tell who they are supposed to be;o) We also had a slew of unhealthy candy....we had veggies, so that counteracts all the sugar, right?;o)

 Here is a closer view of the Bob's.

 I also found these cute coloring pages from the same website from above. The kids loved this part as well, especially S.R.

Since the movie was short, we put in the real Wizard of Oz to finish the night off. 

Another great family night!!!

Loft Makeover

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of the loft we made over. This loft was given to us by some very dear friends. It was given to them, but they couldn't use it b/c the ceilings in their basement were too low. So they graciously offered it to us, and we gladly accepted:o) When we first received it, the loft was around 4 feet longer..which was way too big...so the hubs took some length off and it now sits at 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. I think it's about 4 feet off of the ground.

It fits perfectly in the corner of our bonus room. We had talked about dividing up the room, and having one half be the kids play area and the other half be more of a t.v./theater type area...so this is step one...well actually we skipped right to step two because we should have painted the walls first:o) 

We have had this loft for a couple of months now, but the kids weren't really all that interested in it because there wasn't anything drawing them to it. A friend of mine told me about this little kitchen set her daughter was selling, and that was enough to get me inspired to make this loft more of a little house for creative play.

 This little table set was given to S.R. for her 3rd birthday and it has gotten a lot of use...it was a great asset to this area. The high chair was a thrift store purchase. It has been in the attic for almost a year now, and I finally got around to recovering it. $2 well spent:o)

For the top of the loft, I made cushions and pillows for a seating area where the kids could either read or pretend that it was an upstairs bedroom..E is just short enough that he can lay flat on his back across the two cushions. All of the fabric came from my craft closet. 

 The cushions needed a little something extra, so I appliqued these cute elephants on them. I googled elephant silhouette and came across this little guy. I felt that the elephant was fairly gender neutral, and it fits since this is a BAMA household;o)

 Here are two little rascals sneaking into the photos:o)

 And we have a diva pose...;o)

The rugs were a Target purchase. The loft required 2, and I just used a staple gun to hold them in place. Before, the floor of the loft was just bare wood, and really uncomfortable to crawl across. Now that the rugs are there, it makes crawling so much better...especially for big people when they have to get up there to re-adjust a pillow for pictures;o)

 Here S.R. is hard at work making dinner for everyone:o) She has been "preparing meals" everyday since we got this little kitchen set...I LOVE it:o)

 Remember at the beginning of the post I said we were going to divide the room up? Well this is the other side of the room. Scary, right? The hubs took apart the entertainment center, and it's going to be brought downstairs later today so we can paint it(white). Then there will be re-wiring, and then we will begin the task of building built-ins between the two windows. The entertainment center will be the starting point and then we'll just build off of it. Who knows how many weekends we will have in front of us, but in the end, I know it will totally rock because I have a very talented husband!! 

The Business August 8th 2012, The "Yukon Ho to Sacramento!" Edition

There’s gold in these here guests! This week at the Business we welcome comics from lands of great riches. Two Canadians and two Sacramentans (Sacramentese? Sacramenti? Sacatomatoes?) will be joining us and presumably teaching us how to use a sluice box to get our own nuggets.

We happen to know Ray Molina is from Sacramento, but when asked he usually responds by saying a "Random City." When asked for a bio, he will tell you "A bio won't make me funnier" but added "my favorite food is mermaid." W

e have fresh mermaid on the grill just for him.

Also coming to us from Sacramento but starting from a humble beginning in Parts Unknown, Johnny Taylor has fought against the struggle and has emerged as an amazing stand-up comedian, humanitarian, and incredibly nice guy. If you asked most people, they would agree with the part about him being a nice guy. He is also attractive and loves cats.

And now the Canucks!

“Julia Hladkowicz is not only pretty, but super funny!”-indiscover.net. This blonde dynamo is a rising star at YukYuks and just landed a US National commercial for Lindt Chocolate with tennis icon Roger Federer. This year she showcased at LAFF (Ladies are Funny Festival) in Austin, Texas, was a semi-finalist in The Great Canadian Laugh Off, and performed with Comedy Records at NXNE.

Matt O’Brien is one to watch in the Canadian comedy circuit. In 2010 he was named Canada’s Next Top Comic by XM Radio and was featured at the Global Comedy Festival in Vancouver. In 2011, he filmed his first Comedy Now! special for the Comedy Network at the legendary Masonic Temple in Toronto. He has headlined and performed across North America, selling out shows at Yuk Yuk’s, The Improv, The Punchline, The Comedy Store, The Comedy Mix, Absolute Comedy, and Second City with his brand of high energy story telling.

Your Business regulars are still all glowy after an EXCELLENT Business LA with Guy Branum and Bobcat Goldthwait. Chris Garcia, Chris Thayer and Alex Koll are still off in the wild. Sean Keane, Bucky Sinister and Caitlin Gill will be there holding down the funny fort.

Come join us! $5 gets you in.  BYOBurrito cause we probably won’t share ours.

NBC's Olympic Coverage Shows Audience Expectations Aren't in Its Cross Media Strategy

NBC’s Olympic coverage in the U.S. reveals the conflict media companies face as they try to simultaneously manage traditional media delivery and digital distribution.

The company is getting it right with the traditional broadcasts, garnering excellent audiences and more than $1 billion in advertising—a figure that surprised even its most optimistic executives and may allow the broadcaster to break even on the games which have traditionally been a loss leader for the company.

The company is also giving audiences more coverage than every before by streaming additional content on cable channels and digital live streams. These are provided on platforms that consumers have come to expect will give them the power to choose when, where, and on what device they will be viewed.  

In order to support its traditional, advertising supported services, however, NBC has used tape delays on the broadcast services and has excluded many sports or blacked them outs on live streams—angering millions of consumers and setting off one of the greatest storms of criticism in the history of social media.

In trying to put its feet in both distribution markets, NBC is forcing the digital community to live by broadcast rules and in doing so has disrespected the audience and norms of cable and online platforms. The result has been widespread audience frustration and anger.

The only thing keeping audiences from going elsewhere are the exclusive national rights and the fact that most users don't have enough technical skills or inclination to bypass the ISP-based protections against streaming material from other countries. 

Hopefully, NBC will learn from the experience and get the formula better for the 2016 Olympics.

On the Menu for the Week...

Thank goodness for Pinterest sometimes:o) I was in desperate need for some dinner ideas for this week, so I turned to the trusty old internet phee-nom:o)

I am really excited about these meals because they are super simple to make, and I am sure they will be a hit for the rest of my family:o) Plus, there will be minimal clean-up which is a HUGE bonus;o)

Here's what's cookin'...

Monday Night-Crockpot Chicken Tacos

Recipe from Chocolate Therapy 

Tuesday Night-Homemade Honey Baked Ham

Recipe from Frugal Upstate 

Wednesday Night-Ham and Cheese Sliders

Recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything 

Thursday Night(family night)-Mini Hamburgers

Recipe from Mommy Hates Cooking

Friday Night-Crockpot Orange Chicken

Recipe from The Pursuit of Happiness

We were busy all weekend working on the bonus room. I am working on the finishing touches for the kids play area. They LOVE it, and I can't wait to share pictures with you all. I hope that you are having a great start to week, and I'll see you back here in a day or two with the Kid's Play Space reveal!!

Family Night-Shark Tale

It's Friday again, so I am sharing our Family Night theme with you all. Last night we watched Shark Tale.

I had originally intended for us to watch Big Miracle, (hence the whale themed family night)but apparently, there is a ton of language in it, so that was definitely a no-go....and it's rated PG...I don't get it:o/ Anyway, I had to find another movie to replace it, so we went with Shark Tale. I could still stick with my "fishy" theme:o)

For those of you who don't know what Shark Tale is or need a reminder, here is the trailer.

Every week I make a little sign for what we'll be having for dinner that night, and I try to make it match the theme. Last week I didn't get around to it, but this week I was on the ball:o)

I sent it in an email to the hubs so that he would know what to expect:o)

The food was pretty simple. It took a little more than 20 minutes to put everything together.

We had "fish & chips" which were Gortons Tilapia fish sticks & crinkle cut fries. I am not a fish fan, but since tilapia is such a mild fish, I was able to drown it in tartar sauce and it wasn't that bad:o)

I served the popcorn in these cute little cones. I found the idea HERE. I just googled whale art, and found this little cute guy. I used publisher and put the whale in the upper right hand corner of the page, tilted him a bit, printed, and rolled the paper into a cone shape. Easy Peasy:o)

For dessert, I purchased blue jello cups. You can find these in the refrigerated section in your grocery store. I used a little bit of whipped cream for the "foamy wave effect" and added a little red gummy fish in each bowl. It can't get any easier than that folks;o)

For the drinks, I bought blue kool-aid, and filled up these little clear plastic cups. We called this our "ocean water."

We had such a fun evening last night, and the movie was cute...there were definitely some laugh out loud moments:o)

I want to encourage you all to start taking time out every week to spend with your families. This took less time and preparation than most meals, and it's definitely more memorable.

For this free printable for your own family night, just click on the link below the picture.

HERE

Next week's theme will be:

The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's

Sharing this fun night at:
Design Dazzle

The Daily’s rocky performance shows legacy brands create digital advantages

The News Corp’s launch of the tablet newspaper The Daily in February 2011 was heralded as the future of news and revealing opportunities for major new entrants in the news market. After a year and a half of operation, the digital newspaper has lost more than $30 million, managed to gain only 100,000 subscribers—not a trivial amount but low for a global player, and has just announced that it is cutting 1/3 of its editorial staff and ending original production of sports news and commentary.

Journalistically The Daily is not a bad news product and its app is facile and effective. So why hasn’t it been more successful? The fundamental problem is that the digital-only paper has been overshadowed by the success of legacy print newspaper brands in the market for digitally delivered news.

The Daily has never been so brilliantly written and edited that it could gain the significant attention and acclaim needed to overcome the brand advantages of legacy news providers. Major newspaper—such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times—have used the strengths of their reputations and brands to make the largest inroads in digital subscriptions. Concurrently, larger

local and regional players have also been grabbing paid digital customers in their markets and providing additional competition to the digital startup.

The Daily has also had to compete with widespread availability of free digital news from news providers such as BBC.com, CNN.com and aggregators such as Yahoo! and Google. These have all been successful in attracting consumers who are less attached to print news providers and paid services.

Those who predict the demise of legacy newspaper companies often forget the critical importance of the credibility and trust those companies have with news consumers and many assume that print organizations cannot transform themselves into digital players that may become so successful they may one day drop their print editions. 

Brands are important for habitual news consumers and they tend to be highly loyal consumers of specific news brands. The Daily has been unsuccessful in breaking that loyalty, but more successful in creating relationships with persons who have not been strongly bonded to legacy brands. It remains to be seen whether News Corp. will be willing to maintain a relatively small news digital brand among its holdings, even if it manages to move The Daily into operating profitability.