Ella and Ava

I absolutely love my mornings with Ella and Ava. It has been so much fun to have time with the two of them while Addison and Olivia are at school. Ella is a little mom and is so great with Ava! She is darling! This morning we met up with some of the girls from my running group for a morning run. Ella filled the stroller with toys and took very good care of sweet little Ava. It was a beautiful morning-the girls loved it and so did I.

Pumpkins

So, we took a trip to the Farmer's Market and each picked out our favorite pumpkin. We love to do our annual glitter pumpkins, and this year we tried to mod podge a few as well. I think that our little Ella could mod podge all day. She thought it was a lot of fun to make a mess...and we did! My kids loved this project and I loved how they turned out. They were SO easy and last through Thanksgiving!

Here is our sweet little pumpkin.

She is growing up so fast!
She is such an easy baby. We love her so much!

Pumpkin Festival

On Saturday, our family spent the day at the Denver Botanic Garden - Chatfield Nature Preserve. Chatfield was hosting Denver's annual Pumpkin Festival. The festivities included a pumpkin patch, corn maze, pony rides, wagon rides, games, crafts, face painting, art exhibits, bands and so much more. We enjoyed every minute of it. Love this time of year!

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent:

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
8 T Tang drink mix (to brighten and crisp colors)

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over
medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.


-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing 
soda, Tang and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top
 with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.


-To make it easy to use, pour it in to an old laundry detergent container.


-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once 
soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.


-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 5 gallons.


-Top Load Machine- 1/4 Cup per load (Approx. 320 loads)


-Front Load Machines- 1/8 Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Each 5 gallon mixture costs just about 2 dollars...under a penny per load. Hooray!