Family Photos

A week ago, we had our annual family photos done and, as always, we were not disappointed.  Our photographer at Signature Photography always captures the perfect shots.

 This is actually my second favorite family pose but this gives you a good idea of what we look like :-)  When I get the actual disc with photos, I'll share our favorite!

 This is by far my all time favorite photo of the the whole shoot.  I'd like this one blown up into a poster and put on the wall!

Such fun memories !

A guest post - Father's Day Ideas

I am pleased to welcome the very first guest post to this little blog by Brittany from Razorback Britt.  She is here today to share some great ideas for Father's day.  So, welcome Brittany! 

Father’s day is quickly approaching. I am now a grown woman, but I still struggle with what to get my dad. I don’t have kids yet, but man, it will be tough to figure out gifts for my dad and my husband.  Today, Darryl is letting me share this space to give you some ADORABLE Father’s day ideas that I’ve found online.

My dad is definitely the family handy man.  If the dad in your life is the hammer-wielding type, he would probably love this nuts and bolts frame from Kaboose.  Super easy to make (you could even use a frame you already had!).

Another frame idea (because every dad wants more pictures of his adorable kids!) is to use Scrabble tiles!  I found a Scrabble game for cheap at a thrift shop, and I’ve been using the tiles for projects for a while now.  You could put any words on the Scrabble frame.  The sample from All Free Kids Crafts shows “My Hero”, but you could do anything, including something like “Dada” or whatever your kiddo calls him.

If the father in your life loves to snack, why not give him a man bouquet full of treats?  I saw this one on Pinterest, it is just snacks glued to sticks and placed in a mug.  I love the mustache and bowtie finishing touches! 

Or if dad loves soda (several dads that I work with regularly bring 12 packs to work to drink), why not show him he is tops with some printable soda labels? Oopsey Daisy gives you adorable printable that you can attach to dad’s favorite drink.

I hope you found some inspiration for your Father’s Day gifts!

Brittney is a blogger, Zumba instructor, wanna-be crafter, and moving specialist at U-Pack. She specializes in social media, decorating, fitness and holidays.

Food Friday - Nutella Dip

Nutella Dip
adapted from Cooking Classy

 
Every once in awhile, I cook a little piece of heaven and this is one of those times.  I've never been a big, hooked-on fan of Nutella until I found little snack packs with cracker sticks at Wal-mart.  YUM!  When I saw this recipe I just had to try it and it so did not disappoint.  This is a "eat it with a spoon, standing by the fridge, in the middle of the night" kinda goodness.  I think you could take this dip and put it in a graham cracker crust to serve it as a cheesecake.  For real.  So fantastic it is hard to put it into words! :-)


Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
• 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup Nutella
• 
  

Directions

• In a mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate mixing bowl, whip cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, about 1 minute. Add nutella and blend until well combined. Add half of the whipped cream and gently fold mixture until nearly blended then add remaining whipped cream and gently fold mixture until well blended.Serve with strawberries or graham crackers. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

Weekly Menu

I totally 100% missed a post yesterday - oops.  Had one on the list, never wrote it, forgot that I didn't write it so I guess I had a one day break :-)

This past weeks menu did not go as planned.   We had a vehicle break down so we ended up eating out a few nights as we shuttled back and forth.  One night I did not cook we just all picked what we wanted when we were home (since we weren't all home at the same time!) and I did not even make good food to take to the Ladies Meeting - I backed up some "break and bake" cookies at the last minute.  Some weeks just roll like that, right?

Then, I prepped the next weeks recipes and just as I was getting ready to start the menu/grocery list I realized that it was NOT Memorial Day weekend this weekend so I needed to start over HA!  At least I'm ready for next week too!

This is the plan for this week

Friday - Brats, Corn on the Cob and Mac and Cheese

Saturday - Biscuits and Gravy and a nice Fruit Salad

Sunday -  I'm hoping to make it to the Kite Festival that is at Lake Michigan so I planned a picnic - Chick-Fil-Lay Nuggets, Potato Salad, Fruit Salad, Chips and Salsa and Brushetta

Monday - Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Rice and Corn

Tuesday - This is normally Taco Day but tacos are on the plan for lunch so we will have Sloppy Joes and Seven Layered Salad.

Wednesday - Chicken Scallopini, Rice, and Roasted Green Beans

Thursday - Ham and Cheese Quiche and Easy Banana Bread.

Maybe I can stay on track a little more this week !!

Too Cute Not To Toot!

I know that by the time this posts, Mother's Day is done but this idea from in lieu of preschool was too cute to pass up.

These adorable bookmarks from I heart Naptime are great.  I have been looking for something small to be able to stick in cards and these would be perfect.

 A Short post this week :-)  Happy Crafty!

The Summer Version of Preschool Posts

Well, summer hit.  Wow.  Actually, we are having PERFECT summer days - not too hot, no humidity, blue skies.  The kids are outside before 8:00 AM and are out most of the day.  I'm not about to stop a 3 and 4 year old from playing outside to work on worksheets :-) (Uummm we did have some snow flurries on Sunday but that is also perfect weather for me HA)

So, here is my plan:

1) I'm going to print some theme units/letter units and file them in order I want to do them; we can use these on rainy days and really hot days.  The curriculum I've picked for the fall for each of the boys will totally build on and review what we have done this past semester.

2) Prepping art projects and other activities to do on rainy and hot days (or when they are bored!!).  These will be fairly simple but I will have all of the supplies ready, cut, etc so I can just grab the container and we can do the activity.

3)  I also will be prepping some fun outdoor stuff too - like obstacle courses, canvas painting and more.  My goal is to do at least one purposeful activity with the boys each week.  It might be learning a new outside game, playing with bubbles, shooting big squirt guns - anything to just add something new each week.

4) Prep for our "next year".  I'm trying to work towards being in a more set calendar next year so we can get used to that for Kindergarten.  With that said, I want to plan our calender with days off - I may try to do the 6 weeks on/1 week off rotation for my sanity sake but we'll see how that works out .

5) Finally, I want to get our "office" set up - it will be a place for me to do my crafts/scrapbooking as well as prep everything for home school and, sometimes we can do work at my desk in that room.  Plus my husband has requested a space in that room too so I will make sure he gets a space as well :-)

I plan on still posting on Mondays but the posts will contain the fun stuff we did as well as my prep stuff; sometimes it might just be photos of our week!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all have a wonderful day!  We are spending the day as a family . . .my husband has a concert :-)