Mr. C's 11th Birthday- Pirate Party!

My son C turned 11 on July 6th. We had a Pirate Party for him at our home on the 10th. We had 18 kids here. It was wild and crazy, but they all had a great time! I wanted to share some of the pictures from the party before Fluff Fest starts. Here they are....

The party table- Got most of the decorations from the dollar store. It worked out great!

My kids and I made these cupcakes

We had this cake made and then added a Pirates of the Caribbean Lego set to the top.

It turned out perfect!

We set up the Pirate Water Table for the little guys and decorated the fence by the play area with pirate flags.

When the kids arrived they played in the water for awhile and then we started games. Here they are searching for gold coins in the sandbox. It was a lot harder then we thought!

Boys digging for treasure!

We had a pirate pool

Tramp to play on and added blow up swords for "sword fighting".

The shark slide of course!

And yummy nachos and watermelon for snacking

Then we did the pinata! My son and daughter made this one all by themselves.

It is a gold lego brick!

Rrrrrrrrrr!

Gifts- mostly legos!

Who's that adorable baby boy in the cute pirate shirt???? ;-)

Cooking While Camping Made Easy- Kelty Basecamp Kitchen Review!

Camping with my family has always been enjoyable, but to be honest after about 1 night I am ready to go home. The main reason is because we have not had the proper gear to make camping comfortable. Little by little we have added to our supplies and each year camping has become more enjoyable! There are so many awesome camping essentials out there. Some are a MUST HAVE for an enjoyable camping experience!

One of these items is the Kelty Basecamp Kitchen. Propping your camp stove on a card table does not have the same appeal as having a well organized kitchen area for your camp cooking. It offers the cook the delight of kitchen function while satisfying the hunger for outdoor experience. The Basecamp Kitchen has plenty of room for food preparation as well as storage. Camping does not mean you have to leave comfort or ease at home with this camping essential.

Kelty Basecamp Kitchen with Binto Storage Bins

The BaseCamp Kitchen comes with a zipped carrying case for storage and transport!

Easy assembly. The storage compartments can remain attached and be folded up with the camp kitchen when put away. Very convenient! The overall kitchen is lightweight and sturdy being made of durable aluminum construction.

There are many handy features that help you stay organized.

Here are a few:

Attached hooks for holding your cooking utensils.

Zipped storage compartment to help keep your dishes, food, and misc. protected from critters! Smart design!

Mesh holder for spices. There is a storage shelf located directly behind this and we used it for storing our mixing bowls.

Removable windscreen to protect your stove and for more efficient cooking. 2 large table top areas for food prep, dish washing, and more storage.

As you can see from this picture the Basecamp Kitchen is properly sized. My husband is 5 foot 8 inches tall and he did not have to bend down to cook.

Using the Kelty Basecamp Kitchen will make your camping experience less stressful and a whole lot more enjoyable. No complaints from this mama, I am thoroughly impressed! You can purchase the BaseCamp Kitchen for $159 directly from Kelty or at any of their retailers here.

Join the Kelty Family for email updates and special offers! Click here. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter to stay connected on their latest outdoor products and promotions.

Thank you to Kelty who provided me with the Basecamp Kitchen free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review.

Fluff Fest Sponsors- Sneak Peak!

Are you getting excited about Fluff Fest??? How would you like a sneak peak of our upcoming sponsors? Their will be reviews and giveaways from each one, which means lot's of fluff to giveaway!!!!

I want to personally thank each and every one of these companies for showing their support in our event. Without their support Fluff Fest would not be possible. Thank You!

Did you remember to grab the Fluff Fest event button to earn extra entries? Click here for details.

My Nutritional Journey- By Brittney Thompson

I think we can all agree that the more fruits and vegetables we can work into our diet, the better. Where things get tricky is when we talk about how it should be prepared and how much is enough. Is a few bites of canned green beans with your dinner enough? Is a sliced up banana in your cereal adequate? Or maybe you feel like you should try to work in a small salad with your lunch every day? Does it matter if your veggies are smothered in butter and salt or your fruit salads are sprinkled with sugar? You get where I'm going with this. For a moment though, ask yourself, do you want to give your body the bare minimum that it needs to get by, or do you want to give it everything you can? Our bodies are vitaly important to our lives and not taking care of it has consequences. When I asked myself that question a couple years ago I realized that I didn't want to just get by. I read Dr. Furhmans "Eat to Live" and his "Eat For Health" books and have learned a few things:

• Calories don't matter as much as nutirients do. If the nutrients per calorie are high then you will automaticaly eat more but consume fewer calories. By making sure your eating a high nutrient diet you are ensuring a healthy calorie intake.
• Raw foods contain the most nutrients. Basically, what this means is that you can have pretty much as much raw food as you want. They are low in calorie but super high in nutrients. It's like getting the most bang for your buck, except with food!
• The majority of your foods need to be fruits, veggies. and legumes. This means that the bread or meat portion of your plate should be smaller then the fruit or vegetable or legume portion.

I highly recommend going to Dr. Furhrmans site and learning more about his nutritarian approach.

After learning these things, I began trying to eat a minimum of 60% raw. Sometimes I did more, sometimes I totally failed, but most of the time I was at about 60% raw. I interpreted that as basically eating a large salad with both lunch and dinner and a smoothie for breakfast. Then a few months ago my mother in law mentioned she was "going raw". I was a little baffled as I pictured a life without sandwhiches, desserts and, well, flavor! Don't get me wrong, I am a die hard salad eater, but I'm also passionate about cooking. She started telling me about how amazing she felt. More energy, less aches and pains... I then really started looking into it. I found people who had avoided bypass surgeries, stomach stapling, overcome diabetes! I was more than intrigued. I had read all this before in Dr. Furhman's books, but hearing come from someone I knew? This is something I needed to think about and consider. Everthing I had read was pointing me in the raw food direction. If these people were overcoming these health issues, what could I possibly avoid completely?

Now, I wont bore you with all the nutritional ins and outs of an all raw or nutritarian diet, if you are interested you can Google it, there is lots of indepth information out there. What I want to really talk about is my own personal journey to a healthier lifestyle. All the information I have read has pointed to the obvious conclusion that the more raw foods I eat the better. I am not an all raw eater. I am also not an "only fruits and veggies" raw eater. I am happy to consume raw grains and dairies, where others consume only plants. I am breastfeeding and though it is possible to be all raw while doing this, I have decided that it is not something I want to attempt at this time. What I am doing is trying to consume up to 90% raw. At the moment I vary between 60-80% with a few total "junk days" in between. Thankfully those days are becoming fewer and farther between! I am trying to switch out some of my favorite foods with raw alternatives. For example, raw cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts and raw oatmeal is delicious! I feel fantastic, my skin is improving tremendously (to see some raw facial products, click here. ), I am 3 months post partum and have lost just over 40lbs with almost no effort and I have discovered a world of truly decadant, guilt free desserts.

If I have learned anything in the last couple years it is that we need to be focused more on our health than how we look physically. So, if you are intrested in going all raw or just incorperating more raw foods into your diet like myself, stay tuned because I will be posting some truly scrumptious raw/mostly raw food recipes and updates on my personal journey to a truly healthy lifestyle over the next few months.

Is eating more raw fruits and veggies important to you? How do you incorporate them into your life?

Post Written By: Happily Domestic contributor, Brittney Thompson

Cloth Diaper Q&A - I need your questions for Fluff Fest!!!

Hey mamas, got cloth diaper questions you need answered? I want to help! I have been cloth diapering for 3 years and although I am not an expert, I think I know enough by now to be of help. On August 23rd, during Fluff Fest I will have a Q&A time where I answer your questions. I hope this will be helpful to some of you, especially you beginners.

Please send your questions to: HappilyDomestic09@yahoo.com

Calling all Cloth Diaper Mamas- You can be featured during Fluff Fest!

Want to be featured during Happily Domestic's upcoming Fluff Fest? If you are the mama of a cloth diaper baby (or two), we want to tell the world all about you and your decision to go cloth. This is a great time to meet other mamas who share your passion for cloth diapering!

If interested please copy and paste the following questions into an email along with your answers to HappilyDomestic09@yahoo.com Please also include a picture of you with your cloth diaper baby (or entire family) AND one of your cute baby in cloth (by themselves). You can even add a picture of your diaper stash for fun!

Name:

Children:

Occupation:

How long have you been cloth diapering?

How did you get started cloth diapering?

What is your best cloth diaper advice?

What is your favorite diaper brand and style?

What is in your diaper stash?

Tell us your funniest cloth diaper moment:

Is your husband supportive of your choice to cloth diaper?

What type of comments do you receive from friends/family/strangers about your cloth diapering decision?

Tell us a bit about yourself!

Website/Blog:

Raw Gaia Facial Products Review and Giveaway!

Being the health nut that I am, I have been learning a lot about the importance of raw foods. When you eat raw foods or use raw products you are getting all of the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that it has to offer. I was very excited when Made Raw offered to send me 3 raw facial products from Raw Gaia. Made Raw is a fantastic company that only sells organic raw products. You will find everything from foods, supplements, beauty products, household items and more. Until I saw their website, I was only familiar with raw food and the difference it made in how I felt. Body products that contained only raw, uncompromised ingredients was an exciting discovery. I couldn't wait to see how using raw products would benefit my skin!

Made Raw sent me the Raw Gaia Rhassoul Clay Face Pack, Living Facial Cleanser and Living Moisteriser For Her Daughters.

The Living Facial Cleanser comes in a glass spray bottle. You do not mix it with water like soap, you simply spray it onto your face and wipe it off with a cotton pad. It contains witch hazel and juniper floral waters, jojoba and wheatgerm cold pressed oils, as well as sweet orange and eucalyptus essential oils and more. There are no fillers, no synthetic ingredients. Just pure, unaltered skin rejuvinating goodness in its most potent form! When it hits your skin it is refreshing and when it is wiped off, your skin feels nourished and clean. I really love that you get a deep clean without stripping your face of all it's natural oils.

Next, I tried out the Rhassoul Clay Face Pack. Rhassoul Clay comes from Morroco and is known for it's beautifying abilities due to its high mineral content. Unlike other harsh facial masks, you can use Rhassoul Clay on a daily basis if you choose. It exfoliates, cleanses and detoxifies without drying out your skin. I also learned that it can be beneficial to those with exzema or psoriasis and can improve skin elasticity and firmness with regular use. As I was putting on the face pack I was aware of how different this was from other masks I had used. It is not thick, I did not need much of it and it has a very earthy scent that I really enjoyed. I left my mask on for about 10 minutes applying a cool rag once to keep the clay moist. As I was taking it off I could feel the small granules working their magic on my skin. My face was a little pink after taking it off, however that is not abnormal with most clay masks. I felt refreshed, and I was shocked to see that a couple teeny pimples I had seen starting to peek through that morning were gone. I am all about stopping break outs before they have a chance to rear their ugly white heads!

My absolute favorite part was rubbing on the Living Moisteriser For Her Daughters. It is an amazing blend of cold pressed cocoa butter, apricot kernal, rosehip and evening primrose cold pressed oils and palmarosa, rose geranium and lavender essential oils. For those that have not had the pleasure of smelling the intoxicating, earthy scent of such pure substances let me just tell you that it is nothing like any of the perfumes or body products you have smelled. It is deep, rich and calming. You don't need much of this moisteriser. It glides over your skin and feels incredible. It doesn't absorb immediately but takes about 20 minutes for your skin to really take it all in. Normally I need to moisterise a couple times a day as I have very dry skin. I have not needed to apply it more then once a day.

Overall, I have seen a huge difference in my skin since using these products. I don't have bad skin, but I have never had a truly smooth complexion either. I haven't had any breakouts and have actually gotten rid of a few stubborn acne patches that have been around for a long time. My skin is hydrated and smooth. I have almost no blackheads across my nose anymore. I would highly recomend trying out these raw beauty products and any other's that are on the Made Raw website.

BUY IT- You can buy these Raw Gaia products and more on the Made Raw website. Click here.

WIN IT- Made Raw is giving one Happily Domestic reader the Living Facial Cleanser, Rhassoul Clay Face Pack and Living Moisteriser For Her Daughters. This is a $70.00 value!

Here is how to enter:

First Mandatory entry:
Visit Made Raw and tell me what other products you would like to try.

*Remember to leave your email address in your comment! YOU MUST DO THIS TO WIN* After you have completed your first entry you are eligible for additional entries. *See my giveaway instructions here for more information. * *Remember to leave a separate comment for each additional entry and include your e-mail address.*

Extra Entries: (1 each unless specified, leave a separate comment for each thing you do)

• Follow Happily Domestic blog publicly through Google friend connect (can be found at the right sidebar.) - current follows count too! Counts for 2 entries.

• Subscribe to Happily Domestic blog emails via Feedburner. Sign up box on the right sidebar. Counts for 2 entries.

• Blog about THIS giveaway between July 23rd and August 2nd and gain TWO entries!!! Link back to my site- leave the URL where you blogged. Please leave separate comments for each entry. Example "I blogged about your Made Raw giveaway@ #1" then "I blogged about your Made Raw giveaway@ #2".

• Grab Happily Domestic's button! (found at right sidebar)- Leave the URL where it is posted.

• Follow Happily Domestic on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (counts as 1 entry)- after this you may "tweet" daily and gain an extra entry each day that you tweet-limit one per day. Leave your tweet status.

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Giveaway ends Thursday, August 5th, 2011 at 10:00 p.m.(MST). Winner will be drawn by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

*This giveaway is open to USA residents ONLY.
Must be 18 years old or older to win.*

Sponsored By:

Thank you to Made Raw who provided me with the Raw Gaia products free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review and giveaway.