Happy Birthday Dino D - Big Boy is 4 -

Wow, what a busy weekend we've had. My little baby, is no longer a baby. He turned 4 on Saturday, and since he's still completely in love with dinosaurs, we went with that for the theme for the days activities. We gathered all his dinosaurs, and gave him 3 new ones for his birthday. The big stuffed animal ones are super cool, and he loved them. 
We went to the Fernbank Museum for his birthday, and he loved all the exhibits there. If you are in Atlanta make sure to stop by. The kids had a super great time, especially Dino D.
Sunday we ate a great lunch at a yummy Indian restaurant and had cake in the evening. 
Then yesterday we went to the Lake and spent the day having fun all day. We grilled, we ate, we played in the water, took naps, played cards, laughed, and tried to stay cool. Later that evening we dropped of my mom, and had ice cream with everyone, and just hanging out with the family. 
It was a great start to the summer, and I hope everyone else had a fabulous time!!!

Happy Birthday Dino D!!!

Brother and sister huggies. Dino D squeezing his new dinosaurs.

Dino D checking out the huge Argentinosarous skeleton.

The kids admiring the size of this huge dinosaur.

Princess and Dino chilling in a smal canoe replica.

There was this alligator in the kids area, and Dino D would not stop playing with it. 

Big B being cool, as usual.

See what I mean, Dino D was convinced this was his gator. He would freak if any other kid tried going near it. 

He sure does love his reptiles.

They even got to touch a skink.

Family pic with his snake cake. 

The kids, and one of their friends.

Just another family shot with Bunica.

This was the only picture where Dino is actually smiling. He asked for a snake cake, then after seeing it, he wanted a dinosaur cake after all, so he was not being too nice. I forced him to smile and this is the result.

The kids playing at the lake.

Dino D after a day of playing. He happily took a power nap, next to Bunica.

Luckily my aunt brought the cards, so we got a few games in. It was a great time.

We ended the day with ice cream at Bunica's house. The kids also loved seeing their uncle.

My mom couldn't resist making us something to eat. Gotta love that. This is called clatite. It's basically a kind of crepe and filled with jelly. They are SOOOO good. Thanks mom!!!

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Amaze me August #39 ~ giveaway extended by 2 days ~

WOW, I can't believe I forgot to put up the party last night. So sorry everybody. School got out on Friday, and with the long weekend, I totally forgot it was Monday night, lol. It felt just like the weekend still. Ooops. How did you guys celebrate the Memorial Day Weekend? We had a wonderful weekend. Today I slept in until 10am, and the kids are still sleeping. Ahhhh summer, he he. Only today is the last day, we actually should have been at swim practice, ooops.

So let me welcome you to the 39th edition of

I hope that you guys are having a wonderful day, and are ready to link up. I'm serious about getting this party growing. So I want to challenge all of you to help me out. 

Would you please, LINK UP, GRAB A BUTTON, SHARE your favorite part of linking up here, and tell your friends why they might want to check it out. I would be super grateful. 

Now lets see what you've got!!

Come back later today for a weekend wrap up post. I will be sharing some pics on what we did the past couple day, including Dino D turning 4 years old, YAY....

Oh and since blogger was having some issues last week, I will be extending the entry deadline for the current giveaway by two days. So come get your entries in, you have until June 2nd at midnight.

FOUR WINNERS

BLOG MAKEOVER GIVEAWAY

2 BLOGS

Raise your hand if you need a blog makeover!!

2 NECKLACES

Raise your hand if you need one of these?

Raise your hand if you need one of these?

Enter HERE for your chance to win!

Winner will NOW be announced on FRIDAY JUNE 3rd.

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Bread Making with the kiddos... CRAZY BREAD !!

Happy last day of school. For us it is anyway, how about you? Last night we were supposed to have our first swim meet, but after a nasty storm blew in, and nearly blew us away, it was cancelled and we got to go home, fun night, lol. 

***Before I begin, just wanted to invite you guys to check out this HELLO KITTY cake I posted on our cake blog. It turned out pretty cute, and I'd love to get some feedback on it. Of course if you'd like to follow Euro Style Cakes while you are at it, I'd be super happy. It's brand spankin new, and we could sure use some love, and support.***

This bread making session took place a couple months ago, but I just didn't get a chance to post it yet, 

This is what happens when you let kids take over the kitchen, and design their own bread.The kids and I went to bunica's house to help make bread. Princess had her friend over too. We let the kids do whatever they wanted, and you just have to see what they came up with. Scroll down, slowly, and try not to do a double take when you get to the 12 year olds creation. He's a boy, sorry, but we couldn't stop laughing. We had fun, and so did the kids. It was surely a fun night, and the bread turned out great too.

The bread before it went in the oven. Can you figure out what that funny shape one is? Can you guess who designed it?

Here he is, Dino D, with is new snake bread!!

Bye Bye Bread, off to the oven you go.

My princess decided to make cinnamon bread rolls, they were not sweet, just regular rolls, but look at that girl, she is sweet.

Here is her friend, she wanted to make a turtle, but ended up making it a fish.

Yes, go ahead and use your imagination, I won't tell you what Big B was going for, you just have to guess.

The bread freshly out of the oven. It smelled so good.

Again Big B with his lovely bread,,,, dare I tell you what it's supposed to be, lol. 

The girls, so sweet, so innocent, they had so much fun.

Oh gosh, Big B again,,,, come on, we get it, we get it,,, lol. I'm sorry, but I guess you had to be there, it really was hilarious, we just couldn't stop laughing.

My girly girl, is just adorable. I love you princess.

Sorry just had to sneak in a picture of our yummy dinner too. Did I ever tell you guys how much I love tacos, burritos, and Mexican food in general. Yup I do, and cook it often. We had beef soft tacos, mexican rice, beans, fresh salsa and guacamole, we were pretty much happy after that, he he. 

Here is everyone with bunica, aren't they awesome? Thanks mom for such a fun night. 

Do any of you make your own bread? 

Do you have any special recipes to share? I'd love to hear from you!!

*****Hey just a friendly reminder to enter this weeks giveaway!*****

2 blog makeover's and 2 bib necklaces up for grabs. 

Enter HERE.

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Trees falling, winds blowing, wild weather in my hood.

Tonight we were supposed to have our first swim meet. All the kids were excited to get back in the water, and I took some pics of mine, so you can see how freaking cute they are, lol. Then not even five minutes later, we started hearing thunder, starting seeing lightening, and within minutes the wind picked up so badly that we thought we were literally going to be blown away. Totally scary...! We made it home with no problems, and just a few blocks over where we love, the rain and wind seemed totally calm. Weird!!

Little Princess, getting ready to warm up, right before the storm hit.

Brother and sister hugging,,,, gosh they are so cute when they get along, lol. 

Oh my, let me go eat you guys, you are delicious,,,, hehe. 

SO like 5 minutes after these pictures were taken, the weather turned on us, and it was like we were in the middle of a small hurricane or something.... lately it seems like if the wind picks up at all, everybody thinks tornado,,, or as Dino D kept saying, tomato, lol.... he kept asking if we saw the tomato, ha ha ha.

So everyone went home, FAST,,, drenched, and kinda freaked out, but the weather seemed to calm down. We settled in, watched X-men, love WOLVERINE, and I wrote up tomorrows post. Then my kids come running to me, saying a tree fell on our neighbors house. I was like WHAT,,, no way... Sure enough, two houses down a tree did fall. Thankfully not on her house, but in her driveway. I don't even know when this happened, it wasn't there when we got home, and I didn't hear any loud thunder since then, so when did this happen. She said she literally watched the tree as it fell. 

 Thunder hit the tree, I guess. That's what we gathered from our investigational skills.

 See, that looks like lightning to me!!!

 Even my cat wanted to be in on the action, and came in for a peak.

 See Tiger peaking, he he. Hello Tiger,,,, pronounced TIGRU, actually, in Romanian. 

 No idea how the top of this electrical box flew off,,, maybe the thunder sizzled it?

 Clearly this was a big deal for all the neighborhood kids... they were all checking it out.

Oh and posed with the fallen tree, like it was cool or something..... I'm just super glad nobody was hurt. This is the second tree that has fallen in our neighborhood in the last couple years. Last one the fell, totally destroyed my neighbors house, 2 houses away on the other side of us, they just finally finished fixing it back up. Oh and did I tell you guys about the tornado that hit our city, last year, not even 5 minutes from where we live. That was scary!!! Hello people, I'm from California, I'm not used to all this, the only thing I ever had to deal with was earthquakes. Yes fires too, but not where I lived. 

My prayers are with all of you out there who have been effected by the crazy weather, floods, and tornados. I know we got off easy, actually we didn't get effected at all, I know many were not as lucky. I can only imagine what you are going through. I hope things get better REALY, REALY soon.

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Copy and Paste, How to leave a GREAT comment.

Today I wanted to talk to you about something I do to make my life easier when leaving comments. I copy and paste, ALOT!!! Read the whole post before you go judging me OK. I may sound like I am breaking the number one rule of leaving sincere comments, but in fact it couldn't be further from the truth. 

We all know that visiting blogs, and leaving comments, is probably the number one way to get people coming to visit yours. However  leaving a cookie cutter comment, JUST won't cut it, if you know what I mean.


I admit, that I love seeing pictures, so when I visit a post with a tutorial, I'm usually all about scrolling down to see the pictures. No harm done right, but I do try and read a bit of the post, always. I actually am a pretty big reader, and that's one of the reasons why I get stuck at blogs, and it takes me forever to leave comments. I get sucked in. Especially if you are funny, and have a way with writing, I'm all ears, and really enjoy reading the posts. 


This, and the fact that I really try to get a feel for the person writing the blog, by reading their profile, or about me. Looking over their categories, or archives, also gives me a good idea about the kind of stuff I may find on their blog. I like to do this all, the first time I visit a blog. It's really important to me. I like to feel a connection with the writer, and always try to pass that on when leaving a comment. 


How do I do that exactly? Obviously I comment on the post I am leaving the comment on. Trying to be as detailed as possible with WHY I loved their post, or recipe, or project. We all know the feeling when we get comments, that are left without much thought, and sometimes we get some that we wonder if the person payed attention to our post at all. That's no good. 


Here is what I do, when I leave comments. On my MacBook, and all Macs actually there is a app called, STICKIES. It's basically just post it notes that you can have up on your desktop, and with options like being translucent, and floating, I can have the ones I use daily, up no matter what, but I just scroll them to the bottom of my screen so they are not in my way. I have one sticky for example, that reads :

I loved it so much I FEATURED you, I hope it puts a smile on your face.

Come grab a button girl, and display it proudly!

**Features from week #35** @ Bella Before and After

Thanks girl :)

Hugs, 

Bella

This is usually left on posts that I've featured. I make sure to leave the link to the post where I did the feature, because sometimes, the person may have a hard time finding it. Now obviously if I just went around leaving ONLY this as my comment, that would be not cool. I haven't addressed the person by their name, I didn't tell them WHY I loved their post, and what if they already saw that I featured them, before I could leave them a comment, he he. This happens sometimes, then I change the comment up, by saying :

I know you already saw that I featured you, just wanted to say THANKS again for linking up, I really appreciate it. 

Or something along those lines. Here's an example of what I would say for this cake my friend Maria from Mommy Made did. 

Hey Maria, I love that guitar cake you made for your little guy! How creative using the two cake pans, and all those candies to make the decorations. The rice crispy treat was a great idea too. I am so impressed with how it turned out, good job mama. 

I loved it so much I FEATURED you, I hope it puts a smile on your face.

Come grab a button girl, and display it proudly!

**Features from week #35** @ Bella Before and After

Thanks girl :)

Hugs, 

Bella

Super easy, and to the point, but I left a sincere comment, you see. I also had some standard things I needed to say, so why not copy and paste that part. You see the link, I didn't just add it it, I made sure it was CLICKABLE, which is also really helpful. That leaves one less step for the person to do, they only need to CLICK on the link, rather than copy and paste. It also can lead to other people seeing your comment, and clicking on the link out of curiosity. I know I've done that many times. 

Don't know how to leave a CLICKABLE LINK, here's how. This is obviously where having this on a sticky can come in handy, so you don't have to remember the code all the time. 

< a href = "your direct link"> what you want your link to say < / a>

**** Make sure there are no spaces in the section I highlighted above , I don't know how to write the code in here, without it turning into a link, lol. ****

Pretty simple right???

Yes, I admit my comments are usually rather long, especially compared to other peoples, but so far I've NEVER had anyone complain, in fact I always get told how much they appreciate my kind comments, and sincere words. I do try my best to leave good comments, and if I can't figure out a really good thing to say, then I just don't leave a comment. You don't have to leave one for every post you visit, only the ones that you REALLY enjoy, and then you should have something really nice to say, right?

Here are some other examples of things I have on my stickies. 

This one is for when I visit a post, and I'd like to invite them to link up to my party. 

I'd love if you linked this up. Stop by anytime to say hello!!!
Hugs,Bella :)http://bellabeforeandafter.blogspot.com/search/label/Amaze%20me%20August%20Challenge">**AMAZE ME AUGUST** @ Bella Before and After  

Or this when I am leaving a comment for something I've linked up to a party.

I linked up my Garage Remodel PART 2 .

Hope you can stop by to say HI.

Hugs, 

Bella :)

Sometimes, I want to invite them to see my PINTEREST boards, maybe I've added that post to my inspiration post, and I want them to check it out. 

Also I would LOVE to invite you to check out my new http://pinterest.com/bellab4andafter/">PINTEREST BOARDSI added your awesome dress on my-- I WISH I COULD SEW THIS board.  Let me know what you think!!  

Remember, all these are just PART of the comments. I always add a personal message to each one in addition to the above. Those are just things I would leave standard on each one, but now I don't need to rewrite it each time. Saves a lot of time. 

So here are my top tips for leaving comments. 

1. Try and use the persons name, when leaving your comment.

2. Leave at least one specific reason why you liked their post, two is even better.

3. If you want them to visit your blog, or party, try and INVITE them to do so, rather than saying just do it, lol. 

4. Leave a DIRECT CLICKABLE link to either the party you want them to link to, or to your homepage in general, if it's just an invite to your blog.

5. I like to leave this link next to my name, so that it reads:

Bella :) Bella Before and After

6. Be sincere, and don't leave a comment expecting a reply, or visit, leave it, to make that person happy. The more you do this, the more others will do it for you too. Just watch and see.

Here are some tips from my readers. 

Patricia from THE MOM ZONE adds:

If I'm visiting someone from a Linky Party, I will put my comment and end with "Found you @ Bella Before and After" (or wherever the linky party is, obviously). Same goes for if they're featured somewhere and I click through to see their post. 

These stickies, are very useful for me. I hope I gave you an idea of how easy it is to leave a great comment. SO there is no excuse to leave lame comments from now on, or not leave comments at all. We all love comments, but lets all try to leave the best ones we can. It really makes a difference, and sometimes, even a few kind words can make all the difference to  struggling blogger. It's really easy to feel like you did a really great post, and them nobody leaves comments. I sure know the feeling, but hang in there. With time, you will find your followers, your friends, and sometimes, perfect strangers leaving the sweetest comments, that just make your day. Try to remember that feeling, and strive to make others feel like that too, with every comment you write. 

Hope this helped some of you. 

Just curious, do you have any tips for leaving comments, or any other suggestions you'd like to add? I'd love to hear about it, just leave me a COMMENT below (wink).

             

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