Tag Archives: Target

The Year I Dressed Up As My Favorite Condiment

How is it already November 4th?

I ran into Trader Joe’s for milk and eggs this morning and the 99cent Christmas advent calendars are out, the candy cane green tea is on the shelves and the Thanksgiving staples are stacked up high! Turkey Day is 3 weeks from Thursday…

Halloween was celebrated here for what seems like weeks with a church trunk-or-treat outing mid-October, the school Fall Festival the following week and the piece de resistance last Friday night. Not to mention the school costume parade on the morning of October 31st, too.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really give too much thought to the kids’ costumes. As a matter of fact, I picked up a Michelangelo Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume for Holden last year at Target for 90% off {$2} and he was thrilled with it for this year. Elliott wanted to be Wednesday Addams which I thought was brilliant. I started my hunt for a white collared shirt, black dress and striped tights when I came across a darling {dead bride} costume at Ross for $12.99. It was different and well made so I picked it up and she ended up loving it so that is what we went with for her this year. I guess that means I have 12 months to procure the proper Wednesday Addams attire!

For truck-or-treat I literally went into the dress up box and pulled out two super hero costumes. Bam. Easy.

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{the fall festival wasn’t ready for this motley crew}

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{apparently pizza isn’t the only thing TMNT’s like to eat}

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I wanted them to participate in the school parade, obviously, but tried to keep the costumes simple. Elliott begged me to take her to Party City for these suspenders and I found a cute “nerdy” math equation tee at Old Navy for under $3. Holden decided to don an old AYSO jersey and go as David Beckham. Done and done.

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{a friend’s older teenage daughter did Elliott’s make-up for Halloween night}

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The Tuesday before Halloween I needed some serious hocus pocus to come up with a costume for me. A friend posted a Sriracha costume on Facebook awhile ago that was from Target. I checked my local Targets for it with no luck and then decided to try Target.com. I found it on sale, but had to pay expedited shipping to guarantee it here for trick-or-treatin’. I ordered it on Tuesday and it was at my door the next afternoon…

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{the best $8 I’ve ever spent ~ I’ll wear it for years to come}

That’s about it, folks. We managed to carve a couple pumpkins and Elliott decorated one for the contest at school…

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{Elliott’s “Girly Pumpkin”}

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Is it just me or does it seem like after Halloween, the holidays are downhill from here?

Fasten your seatbelt.

Bubbles Two Ways ~ EOY Classroom & Campus Helper Goodies

OK, so apparently I’m on a roll with the EOY goodies…..

Today we’re focusing on classroom treats and little tokens for the campus staff like yard duties, librarian, cafeteria friends and classroom aids.

Holden is in a split class this year ~ kindergarten & first grade. I don’t like to give candy, so I was on the hunt for something summery for him to hand out on the last day of school. One year Elliott received the cutest little bucket of sidewalk chalk and I was trying to keep that in mind as I began my hunt. But, I spotted some fun bubble wands in the Target dollar section and decided to roll with those and save time {and gas!} driving all over town trying to gather other options. Plus, if I decided to go with the wands and go back to Target next week, they may very well be gone. Now I can check this off my list and move onto the next thing {for example: clean the bathrooms!}.

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I just thought these were so fun and came up with a cheesy message which I printed on clear labels and affixed to some fish cutouts that I picked up at Dollar Tree and tied on with baker’s twine.

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{pretend the labels didn’t get cut off at the top, OK}

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Now onto the campus helpers….

In keeping with the bubble theme {well, there really was no bubble theme, but it just sounded good}, Ross had some 4.1 ounce bottles of shower gel in fruity/floral/botanical scents that came in a pack of seven for $3.99. Seriously….this comes out to 57 cents a piece! I grabbed some clear Spritz favor bags at Target and bagged them up with a few paper shreds. I also used up some leftover paint chips from crafts that I did with the third graders earlier in the year and made a little tag with a message ~ again just printed on clear labels.

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Done and done.

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Now I just need to figure out what I’m going to do for Elliott’s class…..

I hope these ideas have been helpful. In the past I have not done much at the end of the year because I found that I waited until the last minute and was so over the whole school year that I didn’t do ANYTHING. As a result, last year and this year I tried to plan ahead so we could thank all the special school people who become such important parts of our lives.

Seventeen more {school} days ’til bubble blowin’!!!

Season’s Greetings ~ 2013 Style

I don’t know about you, but the minute I drop the 120+ Christmas cards into the big blue mailbox at the post office drive-thru I can breathe a sigh of relief. I like to get them out fairly early so they aren’t hanging over my head too far into the season. But, getting them out early means that you have to have your picture and your card in the works before Thanksgiving! We usually just include the kids in our Christmas card photos because honestly, who wants to see a couple of tired, 40-something parents?!?

This year, on Thanksgiving weekend, we headed to nearby Mentryville on a Sunday afternoon and Jay snapped a few pics. I was, of course, determined to get “THE picture” that day so I could get on with the Christmas cards. I had already scoured Shutterfly, Costco, Walgreens, you-name-it for a template that I liked. I found one on the Target site that I loved which coordinated with the paper that I chose for our annual letter. Score!

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For me, coordinating the kids’ outfits is the hardest thing about photos. Do we want formal or casual? Plaid or stripes? Traditional red & green? As I was wandering through Target one day {not unusual, of course} I noticed that the Levi’s dENiZEN jeans that fit Holden so well were temporarily marked 40% off. I immediately grabbed the camo pair that I had been eyeing for full price in the last size 6 and knew that I was going to work these into the holiday photo somehow. Then minutes later I visited the girls’ clothing section and found this lonely camo shirt {from the Disney D-Signed line} hanging on the clearance rack for 50% off ~ about 10 bucks. Done.

I knew Elliott would wear her favorite Old Navy skinnies, but now I was on the lookout for a top for Holden. I quickly ducked into Crazy 8 on Black Friday and found a green and blue checkered plaid button up and fun graphic tee for Holden {both for under $10!!} Done. I like to layer the short sleeved tee on top of the button up…the saleslady looked at me funny when I told her that’s what I was going to do, but I think it looks darling….er, cool.

He needed some shoes so I popped into Children’s Place and found the little brown boots that I thought would be good church shoes since he always seems to wear either his beat up tennies or flip flops to mass. Black Friday deal on the boots ~ $9 and change! Done.

I didn’t order enough of the above card and Jay needed extras for his co-workers so I reordered 25 more cards with this simple chalkboard design…

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That’s our Christmas card story for Twenty Thirteen.

Until next year….

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We hope your holidays are merry & bright and filled with family, friends, laughter and good cheer!

Many blessings to you and yours in 2014 and always.

XOXO,

The Aspiras’

Smooth Sailing

Hi friends!

Happy Humpday.

Hope your week has been smooth so far. Mine has been drama-free thus far and I have been able to get up to the gym the last couple nights which was always good for me and seems to make life smoother.

Last week I {invented} a little breakfast smoothie with one of my new finds via Instagram. A friend posted some {Cookie Butter} from Trader Joe’s during Lent and I immediately fetched a jar to enjoy on/after Easter! It is fabulous alone on a spoon, on bagels, Ezekiel toast and graham crackers, but I thought I’d incorporate it into a smoothie in place of peanut butter and see what happened!

{Cookies & Cream} and Banana Smoothie

You will need: 2 cups crushed ice, 1/2 cup almond coconut milk, 1/2 cup plain low fat yogurt, 1 banana, 1 tbsp ground flax {flax meal} and 1 tbsp. TJ’s cookie butter

Place all into a blender and blend ’til smooth!

Pour into a glass, add a straw and enjoy!

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And speaking of {sailing}, we plan to take a quick little trip to the beach this weekend.

Last time we went to the beach {in January!} Jay captured some cute pics of the kids just frolicking in the sand…this time I wanted to plan a little better with their wardrobes and hair and have a little Nautical inspired photo shoot at the shore.

I had originally picked up the anchor tee for a gift for a little girl….when the guy rang it up, it came up as boy’s. I thought it’d be cute on Holden so I set out to find something complementary for Elliott and stumbled upon this little striped number with the big bow on the shoulder. Both of them will wear rolled up jeans and bare feet ~ I think it’ll be perfect for some fun photos to get us excited for summer.

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Make the most of the rest of your week…Saturday and Sunday will be here before you know it!

XO

Down By The Sea

Almost a year ago I wrote this post and mentioned how I missed out on some Miss Trish of Capri flops at Target.

NOT THIS YEAR!

I set out on an early morning Target run for a couple 6-year old boy birthday gifts, odds and ends for end-of-the-year teacher gifts and whatever else {jumped} into my cart….do you have that problem, too?

I turned the corner into the shoe department when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a clearance rack holding Miss Trish’s flops, oh dear!

Not gonna get away from this mama again……

{I loooooooooovvvvvve the metallic pair with the fish! Actually love is an understatement….I [may] have picked up an teeeny tiny pair for a special little girl that will be celebrating a birthday real soon, too}

In order to soften the blow that the turquoise beauties don’t come in my size, I treated myself to this gorgeous coral statement ring…

…and these gold seashell danglies…

{both 75% off…yup!}

I also picked up a spf rash guard for Holden for under 5 bucks.

I would say that we have a good start on our summer wardrobe and our trip to Myrtle Beach!

Love me some {orange sticker} Target finds.

Happy Friday!

Dye Another Day

I had all intentions of dying my grays in time for the Easter Bunny.

But after little missy fell ill, I just told myself, “Dye another day!”

So, I mentioned this stuff last week…

{pure darkest brown}

I’ve noticed, while looking at pictures of myself over the years, that I like my hair darker ~ almost black. I do not do the highlights thing. I am a one color all over girl. I have mucho grays. I need to color the ‘do about every 5-6 weeks. I get my hair professionally colored about twice a year, but to save money in between, I color it myself at home.

I hate coloring it myself at home.

Drips. Drops. Spills. Stains.

I’d heard about these new foams or mousses and decided to give it a try.

Love. It.

I was able to color my hairs this morning despite the kids running around screaming. No mess. No drips. GREAT coverage. Pleasant smell.

I picked this up on sale at Target for about 8 bucks.

Bottom line…doesn’t matter if I spend $80 or $8, the grays still reappear after 3 weeks! My hair follicles do not know the diff. I am thrilled that I can now do touch up between my twice a year professional colorings with ease.

For root touch ups I use this…

It’s fantastic and blends well with any professional hair color. Have used it MANY times and will continue to do so.

But today I needed the whole she-bang! I highly recommend L’Oreal Sublime Mousse.

The second best thing about this mousse?

It’s calorie free.

 

Me, Myself & I

This morning was fabulous.

I had 3 hours to myself.

No calls from the school. No laundry. No vacuuming.

Just me, myself and I.

I ran some errands…picked up a few treasures and some goodies for Holden’s birthday.

I am attempting a {much} smaller version of this…

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How cute is this Roxy dress I scored for Elliott {6 bucks!}…

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Anxiously awaiting Spring!

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And, yes, I did go back and pick up another pair of $4.48 gloves at Target:

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Have you tried the new fruit & maple oatmeal at Mickey D’s?

It’s great for a quick breakie on the road…290 calories with 5 grams of fiber!

It really is {undeniably delicious}.

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Remember this {Friends} episode:

There is a woman that I see every Tuesday/Thursday morning on the way to Holden’s school. She has a very {Phoebe-esque} running style and I always get a kick out of it ~ brings a smile to my face at 8:45am.

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Hope your Tuesday involved a few laughs and some {YOU} time!

22 Degrees

Nothing like a little cold air to wake you up on a Saturday morning!

By 9:00am, after a quick stop at the bagel shop, we were about 45 miles from home for a little early morning sledding.

It was gorgeous!

Last night we ran to the local children’s resale store and scored some snow pants for Elliott. They had ONE pair left in a size 6…perfect!

I love this one…

Do you like my mustard gloves? They were this week’s frugal find at TargĂ©…$4.48 {reg. $17.99}, and yes, they are leather. I bought them for the early morning walks to school and took a chance wearing them in the snow today. I thought for sure they would get ruined, but they held up fabulously and dried out nicely. My hands stayed surprisingly warm, too. They had TONS of pairs left…I think I need to go back and pick up another pair in turquoise suede…that is if they’re still there!

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Looking forward to staying in and trying out a new recipe this evening. I know it’ll be one that I pass along….yum yum! Also looking forward to popping open that bottle of almond champagne from Valentine’s Day, as well.

Happy Saturday to you!