Summer Fun - August 8

This past week, my kids hit their exhausted point.  They have been going strong since we went camping several weeks ago.  Super late nights, tons of swimming at the campground, really physical swim lessons (swimming 4-5 laps in the huge YMCA pool), and playing outside.  We were swimming at the campground one night and Josh said, "mom, I'm so tired, I just want to go home."  HA!

Our days were pretty much the same this week.  So I'll just share some photos.

 We finally broke out the Slippy Slide this week.  Our friends who I babysit bought this in the spring when I mentioned I wasn't putting a pool up but was just going to get some yard water toys to use instead.  At that point, the events hadn't unfolded which led to my mom being at the campground with the pool.  Since we swim almost every evening, this hasn't had much interest.  But, this week it was so incredibly hot that the boys wanted water fun all day long.  The second day they added bubbles to the slide and that was a big hit!

 Priceless.  The boys love to learn.  Here, they were listening to songs about the countries and capitals of the world. 

This was the last week of summer swim lessons.  They did some hard swimming this week but wow, what improvement.  They went from being afraid of the water to swimming without life jackets on and swimming underwater.  I'm planning to enroll them in lessons for the fall so we can keep up their skills.

The boys also got to enjoy their first real "friend" birthday party by attending the 6th birthday of their friend who I babysit.  It was at the local bowling alley and the boys where beside themselves with this opportunity!

Family Fun - Valentines Day

For our family, Valentines Day is just fun.  A few little gifts, dinner, fun treats and just hanging out.

 My three boys

 A few of their gifts - new t-shirts and highlighting books.

 Our favorite strawberries!

Weekly Menu

I decided to start printing recipes.  You know the ones - all of those recipes that get "pinned" but lost in a folder that gets to big and full of recipes.  I print a handful every few days and put them in a binder.  They are not in order and my basic plan is to try at least one recipe each week, just taking them in order from the binder.  This next week I pulled more than one and added them into the rotation.  I had gotten a little bored with the same stuff all of the time and these new recipes add some excitement and who knows, we might love them and . . .if not, you don't know unless you try, right?

Friday - Hot Dog Bar and Salad

Saturday - Burgers on the grill, Haluski (Fried Cabbage and Noodles)  and fries

Sunday - My mom is taking us out to lunch :-) 

Monday - Amish Breakfast Casserole, Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Breakfast Cookies, and Fruit

Tuesday - Slow Cooker Enchiladas and Mexican Rice

Wednesday -Dinner with my mom

Thursday - Ham and Cheese Pockets, Crock-pot cheesy green beans,  and Pasta Salad

Stir-Fy Beef Lo Mein

Stir-Fry Beef Lo Mein
adapted from Pocket Change Gourmet

After several weeks of doing very little cooking, I actually cooked a real dinner this past week and made this new recipe of Stir-Fry Beef Lo Mein.  It was really, really good.  Better than I expected it to be and is one of my favorite at-home Chinese meals I've ever made.  For the veggies, I used up some things in the fridge - Carrots, zucchini and mushrooms.  I added some frozen snow peas (they were less expensive than fresh) and water chestnuts.  I also just used regular spaghetti noodles since I knew my kids would rather eat spaghetti than a bunch of veggies.  This is a super easy, very quick, a tasty dinner!  I served it with a salad (again, using up stuff in the fridge) and a loaf of french bread. 

Ingredients

• ½ pound Boneless Beef Sirloin Tip, sliced thinly (or chicken)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• ½ each Orange, Yellow and Red Peppers, sliced thinly
• 1 (12 oz) bag Frozen Pea Pods
• ½ pound noodles-spaghetti or linguine, cooked and drained
• ¼ cup Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 (14 oz) can bean sprouts, optional

Instructions

1. Cut and prepare meat and vegetables
2. Boil noodles and drain
3. Heat wok or skillet with oil
4. Cook beef 2-3 minutes, just until lightly browned, just have to be cooked completely
5. Add peppers and snow peas.Cook additional 3-4 minutes
6. Mix together dressing, soy sauce, peanut butter and garlic. Add to beef mixture, stirring until well blended
7. Mix in noodles and about ½ of the bean sprouts, if desired
8. Cook until heated through, serve with additional bean sprouts if desired

 

A Cat in a Box

 Harley is our cat. 

He sat in a box

He sat in a box as quiet as a fox.

 Harley, or "Itty Bitty" as he is called by a boy

Tried to look just like a toy

 Then this little boy, who adores our cat

Put him in another box where he sat

 And sat and sat and sat

He was a very content cat

Harley, our happy cat. 

(for the record, I am not a poet HA!)

Summer Fun - August 1st

It's August.  Wow.  This week revolved around camping and, you guessed it, swimming!

Monday and Tuesday - We enjoyed some wonderful days of camping.  The boys got to go mini golfing for the first time.  We also visited three different Lake Michigan beaches and had a wonderful time playing in the sand and water.

Wednesday - Thursday - We returned to swimming lessons again.  I'm amazing by the improvement of both boys.  Nate moved up a level and is in the same group as Josh and now both boys can swim without a life jacket on (as long as an adult is close by to help as they get tired) and they love to swim under water.

Friday - The boys have spent a lot of time this summer memorizing states and capitals and countries and capitals.  We've been discussing the Olympics too.  So, on Friday we enjoyed the opening ceremonies and seeing all of the different country flags as they entered the stadium.  Oh, and we made pudding dirt cups too. 

Also, with school just over a month away, we have started to do some review.  Reading and sight words are our main focus!!

My Playlist - Good Good Father

I heard this song quite a few months ago for the first time at our church.  It was one of those songs that I had never heard before the praise team sang it but then I heard it like 10 times a day for the next week.  (For real) Apparently the guy leading the praise team that week knew the song was going to hit the radio or something!  It's a simple song, with a simple message.