Household Ideas, Discounts, Coupons & Life

Follow Jeannette Tomanka on your social media network of choice via the links below.

Mom, housewife & life hacker! Corporate drudge escapee writing recipes, tips & discount alerts. Still bring home the bacon & cook it up in 101 healthy way. You’re also going to find out that I’m a total Disney geek. I don’t know if it started with the Read-Along records (“When Tinker Bell waves her wand – bbblllliiiinnnggg – turn the page!”) or the Disneyland book my grandfather gave me around age 3, but however the innoculation happened, it was very effective. I’m happy that my kids share my passion, and I’m even happier that Portland has one of the fancy-shmancy new Imagination Park Disney Stores!

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Archive for Events – Page 2

Jun 05,

2014

Maleficent is Magnificent!

by Jeannette

The most recent Disney film, Maleficent, brought in $90 million its opening weekend. My husband and I contributed to that when we went to “preview” it before taking the kids. While my kids don’t spook easily, the trailers make the movie look very dark and intense, and when we read the story about how Brad and Angelina’s daughter had to play Aurora as a young child because no other child would come near “Maleficent,” we just wanted to take a look for ourselves. We took the kids the next day.

This is another clever film by Disney. I’m not going to include spoilers, but I will say it’s not Read More→

Categories : Events, Movie Reviews

Tags : Disney films, movie reviews, movies

May 23,

2014

Memorial Day Weekend in Portland

by Jeannette

I’m really looking forward to us taking our kids to the Portland Rose Festival CityFair this weekend! My daughter will be excited to ride the Ferris Wheel, and I’m looking forward to the traditional corn dogs. I also want to try out the deep-fried rose petals — I can’t imagine what those must be like!

Portland Rose Festival

Beyond that, my family and I will enjoy a low-key holiday weekend with family and friends, and we’ll be hosting a barbeque on Monday.

There are a few other events happening, however, if you live in the Portland area:

If CityFair is a bit too loud and crowded for you, try the Multnomah County Fair instead, over at Oaks Park amusement park. The petting zoo and pony rides are great for kids, and children and adults alike will probably enjoy the magic show, miniature golf and go carts. Read More→

Categories : Events, Portland Fun Things To Do

Tags : Dr. Suess, Dragon Boat Festival, festivals, Hip Chicks do Wine, Memorial Day Weekend, Multnomah County Fair, Oaks Park, PDX Urban Wine Tour, Portland, Portland CityFair, Zombie Prom

Apr 20,

2014

Poems to Celebrate Lima Bean Respect Day

by Jeannette

The poor lima bean. Picked out of vegetable soup, snubbed by children everywhere – it just doesn’t create much culinary excitement. Some people (ok, one band) have even blamed it for the extinction of the dinosaur!

Lima Bean Respect Day

For Lima Bean Respect Day, my family decided to pen some poems to honor this maligned legume. They made me promise I wouldn’t say who wrote which, but it’s pretty easy to figure out who wrote the last one.

Categories : Events

Tags : Lima Beans, poems, vegetables

Apr 01,

2014

April Food Celebrations

by Jeannette

I will admit that I enjoy any day that celebrates food, because I haven’t met (ingested) many foods I haven’t liked. But April is, I think, my favorite month of food. I think you’ll see why before we even get through the first week!

April Food Celebration Days:

National Sourdough Bread Day. Sourdough is actually a fascinating culinary science project –
National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. ‘Nuff said.
PB & J
National Chocolate Mousse Day. Oh.yes. And don’t panic: here’s a yummy swap.
National Caramel Day. The possibilities are ENDLESS!
National Caramel Popcorn Day. Try Dirt Candy’s delicious Popcorn Pudding recipe, serviced with caramel popcorn on the side!
Coffee Cake Day. I haven’t actually tried any of these yet, but I’m leaning toward the Blueberry.
National Empanada Day. You can make empanadas with everything from beef to fruit to s’mores! Be creative!
National Cinnamon Crescent Day. These are really so easy to make, but I have a cheat for the sugar/spice mixture: a friend gave me Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar from the Savory Spice Shop, and it’s really hard to beat. I do add extra cinnamon. Read More→

Categories : Events

Tags : April Food, food days, food events, food festivals

Apr 01,

2014

Ten Awesome (and Harmless) April Fool’s Pranks

by Jeannette

I’m not a consistent April Fools’ prankster, but I do always enjoy reading or seeing good pranks – as long as I’m not the victim! Here are some of my favorites.

Freeze your kids’ morning cereal. [ http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/awesome-april-fools-day-pranks-your-kids-will-totally-fal #4]
Replace the cream filling in Oreos with something nasty like toothpaste. [http://www.viralnova.com/awful-april-fools-pranks/ #15]
Cut a bunch of brown construction paper into the shape of the letter E and put in the container you usually use for baked goodies, then tell your family you made “brown Es.” No, they won’t appreciate that these “special” brownies have extra fiber!
Put googly eyes on everything in the refrigerator. Read More→

Categories : Events, Life Hacks

Tags : April Fools Day, pranks

Mar 10,

2014

Food To Celebrate In March!

by Jeannette

Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Gâteau Saint-Honoré is a great way to celebrate Chocolate Caramel Day on March 19th! Photo by Kimberly Vardeman (CC by 2.0)

There are many things you’ll learn about me, one being that I am a Foodie. I love food. It doesn’t have to be fancy food, either – I get immense joy out of a spoon of peanut butter. So, any celebrations of food are right up my alley. If you didn’t know these national celebration days existed, you can thank me later for giving you little reasons to put something special in your kids’ lunches or have a dinner that’s a little out of the ordinary. By the way, this is not an inclusive list – I just picked ones that sounded particularly fun to observe. (Some days, like National Turkey Neck Soup Day, just sound icky.) And don’t worry, I’ll find you some healthy ways to celebrate the scary-calorie-count days!