Some Pinterest Fun

I haven't posted any Pinterest posts in quite awhile mostly because, ideas I find from there, I'm posting elsewhere such as our summer fun or weekly recipes.  I thought I would share this here though because the two things I tried were not great but were not awful and you may want to try them (or be glad that I did so you don't have to!)

First up are the Crescent Sloppy Joe Triangles from Tricks Chef's.  (If you click the link, you will find the recipe!).  As I was making these I realized that they were very similar to my BBQ Cups and, I will admit, we liked the originally BBQ Cups better.  Now with that said, each of my boys ate three triangles - they loved them.  As a matter of fact, I'm adding this to our lunch menu - I plan on cooking up some of the BBQ meant and freezing it in small containers.  Then I can make up the triangles as an easy lunch.  They would also make a simple appetizer and a great finger food. 

Second, is  the Copy Cat Hash brown Casserole from Cracker Barrel from Budget Savvy Diva.  Now, here's the deal.  I'm not a huge Cracker Barrel Fan - sure I like the atmosphere and enjoy some of their food but normally, it would not be my place to stop to eat BUT I DO love their Hash brown Casserole and order it as my side no matter what I get to eat.  I was so excited when I cam across this recipe.  Well, let me just say, I'd rather have my traditional Cheesy Potatoes over this recipe any day.  It had very little flavor and was kind of dry.  It is not something I plan on making again.

You'll have to let me know if you try either of these recipes and if your opinion is the same or different than what I shared.

Tidbit Trays

A few days ago Janelle at Comfy In the Kitchen shared a great idea called "Tidbit Trays".  It was one of those no-brainer ideas that I have never thought of until seeing someone else share the idea. 

I'm not sure what happens in your house but at about 4:00 every afternoon I hear this - "Mom, my tummy is so hungry!"  We always then scrounge for food - cereal, crackers, whatever.  I end up with kids under foot while I try to get dinner made and on the table.  So, when I read the Tidbit Tray post I knew I wanted to try it.  So, yesterday, I heard those words and decided to see what I could throw together.  The point of this tray is to just use what is in your fridge and make a fun little snack.  My goal is to keep it healthy so that if the kids fill up on it and don't eat a lot of dinner, it is ok.  On Tuesday, I pulled out Strawberries, Grapes, Animal Crackers and sliced cheese.  Everything was eaten except all of the grapes.  I love it too because I'm usually hungry and this is an easy way for all of us to snack. 

Yep - they loved it ;-)  See how fast that hand is moving!!  The boys munched over the next hour, then went out side and played - leaving me to get dinner on the table.  What a great solution!

I plan on keeping this as something in our plan - some days we eat dinner between 4:30-5:00 so it isn't something we will use every day but my goal is to keep things on hand to use like animal crackers, pretzels, gold fish crackers, all kinds of fruit, cheese.  My kids aren't veggie eaters so I'm going to try and get creative with that too and also some dried fruit.  I also want to find a tray to use that become our "Tidbit Tray" so when the kids see it on the table they know what it is!

Too Cute Not To Toot

Just wanted you to know that I'm taking a blogging break today. . .

Why?

Simply because I haven't had a chance to really search for ideas, it's getting late on Monday night and I'm ready to relax!

I plan to be back with lots of ideas next Tuesday!



Summer Fun - Week 5

To visit our first 4 weeks of summer fun click HERE

It's hard to believe that we have just finished up week five of summer.  It has REALLY heated up in this area and that is really impacting what we do each day.  So even though I had specific ideas on my July plan, we totally did other stuff :-)

Monday:  The heat started to climb on Monday so we spent a lot of time inside in front of fans.  Josh and Nate hauled their car mats from their warm rooms to the dining room where they could play cars for hours under the ceiling fan.

Tuesday:  It got hotter.  So, the boys spent a lot of time going to the basement, killing "spiders" on the stairs (and screaming like two school girls in the process), and then we spent a good hour or so in the hot tub kiddie pool. 

Wednesday:  Happy 4th of July!!!  Just to give you an idea of the heat level - the Heat Index, at 9:00 AM was at 91 and at 8:30 PM it was 98.  It hit 105 during the day.  We don't have AC in the house (well, a window unit in our bedroom) so we made the very easy decision to head to Lake Michigan for the day.  We went to our favorite "Secret" beach. 

Yep, not so secret on this day!  We were shocked to see it so packed because it never is and we've been to the beach on the 4th before.  The good news is that we walked down the boardwalk, which takes you about 1/2 way to the beach before you hit the sand (which is such a joy to walk in, isn't it?), and there was a small empty spot of beach straight up, right by the water.  We had our own little piece of paradise among crowds of people.

 The boys loved playing in the sand, digging holes, and covering me with sand (what? People pay a lot of money in spas to be covered in mud :-) )

 They also loved running into the water.  Either Darryl or I would sit just off the beach in the water and the other would stay on the beach - the boys would run through the waves to who ever was in the water.  Plus we walked out a ways to a sand bar (where it was to my knees) and we sat in the water while the boys hung onto us for dear life and squealed with excitement every time a wave hit us.  Considering the fact that last year they wouldn't even go in the water, this was a huge improvement and so much fun!

The boys kicking back in our beach chairs, covered in sand and just chillin'.  When we left the beach, we planned to go to Bearnie O's for pizza (our favorite place) but, as we thought might be the case, it was closed.  So instead, we went to McDonald's :-)  No, not out favorite place to go but the boys love it and it was close so it worked out fine.  We had two very tired boys!!

Thursday and Friday - So, I finally said, "Enough is Enough" - the heat has reached record highs and it just isn't fun to be in the house right now.  The boys and I loaded up and headed to my parents house for a few days.  Don't feel bad for my husband - without us home, he is able to pretty much be in A/C all day.  The one downside for him is that his car does not have AC but his Taxi does, any place he wants to eat does, and then the bedroom does.  Rumor has it we'll be in the 80's next week so it should be a little nicer!!   See how I crossed that out?  Plans changed.  I wrote that on Wednesday night before I went to bed, without knowing what was going to transpire.  See, at 2:30 AM our power went off and we immediately had Josh in our room because he doesn't like the dark or thunder.  Darryl got up and 20 minutes later we knew we had to get Nate into our room since it was still cool at that point.  Nate was already soaked from head to toe with sweat.  Well, Darryl left for work and left me to tough it out with the boys and a dog with no power and no air in the bedroom.  It took about 2 hours for the boys to finally fall back to sleep and thankfully, at 6:30 the power came back on.  At 7:30, the phone rang and it was my dad calling to tell me that they had big storms during the night and had no power.  Going to their house kinda wasn't such a great idea since they didn't have air.  I created my own plan and decided that I would take the boys to lunch, to the store and then I had set up a play area in our bedroom so we could hide out there.  While at lunch my brother Jeff called and invited us to his house for the weekend near Indianapolis.  Darryl and I talked about it and decided in addition to the a/c, it would just be fun for me to hang with them since I seldom see my brother and family.  The boys loaded up and headed out.  So, our fun became going to my brothers on Thursday and then on Friday we went to a really awesome Frozen Yogurt shop and we took the boys to see "Brave" - their first movie (and they did awesome) .

Now, here's my take on having central air.  It is awesome :-)  I love being able to give the boys baths without dying from heat exhaustion, getting up in the morning and taking a warm shower, putting on make-up and doing my hair . . .period.  LOL  (I don't do those three things in this heat - I take an ice cold shower, no make-up and pull my hair up while it is still wet!); I also love being able to sit and not sweat.  If I had central air though, I would be white instead of having the nice tan I have . .. I'd settle for being white!!! 

I'm kind of behind on planning this coming week - honestly I haven't even looked at my planning calendar yet and it is Sunday night as I write this post.  Oops.  I feel a little like Monday will be my day to recover from last week - the heat, a holiday and an unplanned trip!

The Things My Kids say

I thought I would share some of the fun things my kids are saying/doing - I know it makes me laugh to read posts like this on other blogs plus, you start to realize that YOUR life is normal :-)

Nathan - he likes to hand me stuff and say, "You please hold this for me mom" and walks away

Nathan - He loves to play catch . . He throws whatever he is holding (a cup, a matchbox car, a drumstick) and as it sails through the air at your head, he yells "CATCH" and then laughs when it hits your face.  He doesn't quite understand that you should yell catch before you throw!!

Joshua - The other day, we were all going to go in the pool.  Joshua informed me that he wanted to put on his own swim suit and underwear - he told me I had to go outside for him to do it.  I went out and sat in the pool and waited and waited.  Finally, Josh came walking out, buck naked, carrying is shorts and said "Mom, I can't do it - they keep getting all backward on me." LOLOLOL 

Nathan - I asked him what he was doing downstairs.  He said "Nothing mom" . . .scary words coming from someone who just spent 15 minutes in the basement. 

Nathan - When asked where a marble was he was playing with . . his response was "In my tummy" AHHHHH  (We think we found the marble on the floor so all is good)

Joshua - Joshua made me breakfast the other morning.  It consisted of 4 slices of plain white bread.  I hate plain white bread but he was so proud!  I managed to hide two pieces and then toasted the other two and made some eggs.  He also "made eggs" by putting water in a pan.  It was all good until he took one of my pieces of toast and dunked it in the water.  Has it got all mushy and was falling apart, he shoved it in his mouth and said "Yum, this is good". I almost threw-up.

Joshua - when we drive over bridges, he looks out his window and yells "Hello down there" LOLOL
Both Boys - For Easter, we put a pair of flip flops in each of the boys Easter baskets thinking they would enjoy them in the hot summer.  Well, they did not want anything to do with until a week or so ago when they walked around carrying their "Cric Crocs" and asking me to put them on.  Yep, Cric Crocs . . .and their other summer shoes, can you guess?  Are just plain old crocs HA!

The Things My Kids say

I thought I would share some of the fun things my kids are saying/doing - I know it makes me laugh to read posts like this on other blogs plus, you start to realize that YOUR life is normal :-)

Nathan - he likes to hand me stuff and say, "You please hold this for me mom" and walks away

Nathan - He loves to play catch . . He throws whatever he is holding (a cup, a matchbox car, a drumstick) and as it sails through the air at your head, he yells "CATCH" and then laughs when it hits your face.  He doesn't quite understand that you should yell catch before you throw!!

Joshua - The other day, we were all going to go in the pool.  Joshua informed me that he wanted to put on his own swim suit and underwear - he told me I had to go outside for him to do it.  I went out and sat in the pool and waited and waited.  Finally, Josh came walking out, buck naked, carrying is shorts and said "Mom, I can't do it - they keep getting all backward on me." LOLOLOL 

Nathan - I asked him what he was doing downstairs.  He said "Nothing mom" . . .scary words coming from someone who just spent 15 minutes in the basement. 

Nathan - When asked where a marble was he was playing with . . his response was "In my tummy" AHHHHH  (We think we found the marble on the floor so all is good)

Joshua - Joshua made me breakfast the other morning.  It consisted of 4 slices of plain white bread.  I hate plain white bread but he was so proud!  I managed to hide two pieces and then toasted the other two and made some eggs.  He also "made eggs" by putting water in a pan.  It was all good until he took one of my pieces of toast and dunked it in the water.  Has it got all mushy and was falling apart, he shoved it in his mouth and said "Yum, this is good". I almost threw-up.

Joshua - when we drive over bridges, he looks out his window and yells "Hello down there" LOLOL
Both Boys - For Easter, we put a pair of flip flops in each of the boys Easter baskets thinking they would enjoy them in the hot summer.  Well, they did not want anything to do with until a week or so ago when they walked around carrying their "Cric Crocs" and asking me to put them on.  Yep, Cric Crocs . . .and their other summer shoes, can you guess?  Are just plain old crocs HA!

Weekly Menu

I shouldn't have even planned last weeks menu!  We did have a few things - Burgers and then Chicken Tacos but once we hit Tuesday - it went out the window!!  Tuesday night my husband and I got something out; Wednesday we did not grill but ate at McDonalds because of going to the lakeshore to try to cool off and then I left and went to my parents for the rest of the week to get out of the heat!  It's suppose to cool off this coming week so hopefully we can stick to a menu again!!

Saturday - Pizza - simply because the boys and I are coming home in the afternoon and heading right to a festival where I have to work for a bit.  We'll grab a pizza on our way in.

Sunday - Burgers :-)  One of our favorite meals to cook!!!  Baked beans and chips

Monday - This is a repeat from last week and is also a new recipe - The "Best Roast Ever" - but I'm going to use a pork loin for the "roast"; included in the crock pot will be potatoes and carrots.

Tuesday - Chicken Fried Chicken with mashed potato's and green beans - also a carry over from last week and also a new recipe :-)

Wednesday - Sloppy Joe Crescents and Cracker Barrel Hash brown Casserole - this was from last week too (see, I told you we didn't eat anything I had planned!)  

Thursday - Marinaded Pork Chops on the grill, corn on the cob, mac and cheese - The chops were planned for the 4th last week so this is, again, a carry over!

Friday - Crock-pot Orange Chicken with Rice, Steamed Broccoli and eggs rolls (My husband is bringing these home!)

How's that for an easy to plan menu since almost all of it is from last week!

I do have a new cookie recipe to try and also, I'm picking up stuff for some Crab Dip to go along with shrimp cocktail - I figure the next time my husband has a day off we'll have some fun food for dinner. 

Here's hoping for some cooler days!