family FUn - Metro Beach

 On March 22nd, we headed out for our annual trip to Metro Beach where Darryl and I got engaged many years ago.  This year, the weather was pretty nice - we didn't freeze to death :-)  The boys love walking on all of the walls all around the park.  We headed out fairly early so that we could stop and pick up a rental car.  Our truck went into the shop a couple days prior to our planned trip (something we were NOT planning for but leaking transmission fluid is not a good thing!); we decided instead of taking Darryl's car, we would rent a vehicle for the day and it was wonderful.  Nothing better than driving an almost brand new car with lots of bells and whistles!  Our first stop once we are in town is National Coney Island for lunch.  I love their Hani Sandwich and Chili Cheese Fries.  Once done with lunch we headed to the beach :-)

 Nate enjoyed posing for me. 

 Joshua exploring every single wall no matter how high!

 When we got engaged, we took a photo in this same spot and have gotten one every year since . .. jus tnow we have kids!

 Another tradition, Darryl doing a chin-up (or attempting . . . .)

 The boys love being able to play at the playground. 

 Our rental car :-) 

We also always take a photo of our rings :-) 

From the park our next stop is Morely's Candy Factory.  This stop gets more fun each year because the boys love to pick out a few favorites.  Then, this year, we decided to take in a movie.  We got to see Paddington and it is our new favorite movie! 

It was a great day as a family :-)

Weekly Menu

Well, I missed last weeks menu post.  Not because I didn't do it, I did, but somehow it got left as a draft and I never made it on my actual computer until too late to post it HA!  That's ok because our menu last week was not even to close to what we ate HA!  So, we'll start over this week!  This is supposed to be the last month of the "Winter Menu" but lets be honest, we are really tired of the heavy, rich, cheesy foods . . .uuugg.  I think Easter did us in - with Ham, Cheesy Potatoes and lots of sweets.  So I'm starting the change over now.  :-)   I'm hoping to kind of put together a "salad bar" in the fridge so that I can eat salads more for lunch again and Darryl and I will be eating them with dinner. 

What is on the plan for the coming week?

Saturday - Pizza.  Store bought, homemade or ordered in - put still pizza.

Sunday -Stuffed Shells, Garlic Bread and Salad; Sloppy Joes and Fries for dinner :-) 

Monday - Slow Cooker Honey Ginger Pork, Savory Rice, peas, and Rolls

Tuesday -Dill Shrimp Pasta, Garlic Bread, and Broccoli

Wednesday - Quasidillas, Chips and Salsa

Thursday - We are going out to dinner with my parents to celebrate my dad's birthday

Friday - Tonight Darryl and the boys are going to a Father/Son banquet at our church so I'm on my own.  :-) 

What We're Eating Wednesday - Cheesy Green Bean Casserole

Cheesy Green Bean Casserole
adapted from Spicy Southern Kitchen

Green bean casserole is one of those classic holiday dishes but every once in awhile we enjoy just having it for every day dinner too!  I've tried quite a few different recipes - some that did not use the classic cream soups and some that did . . .and as much as I like to do away with cream soups .  .. this recipe requires it :-)  Josh even liked it . .. well he liked the crunchy onions :-)  Two changes I made - I used canned green beans so I did not need to cook them first and I left out the mushrooms.

Cheesy Green Bean Casserole

 

• 4 cups of green beans (ends trimmed and long ones cut in half)
• 1 can chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 (4-ounce) package white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• ⅓ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 (6-ounce) can French-fried onions, divided

Instructions

1. Place green beans and chicken broth in a medium saucepan. Add just enough water to cover green beans. Bring to a boil and simmer 10-12 minutes. Drain.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 1½-quart baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
4. In a large bowl, mix together mushrooms, green beans, condensed mushroom soup, milk, cheddar, ½ cup of the French-fried onions, and soy sauce, and pepper.
5. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish, Top with remaining onions.
6. Place in oven for 25-30 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown.

 

Teaching Tuesday - Easter Week

This week took on a few twists and turns.  Last weekend all of the grandparents came over to see Josh compete in Awana Games.  Josh and Nate then asked Papa and Nana if they could go home with them and, it just happened that my parents were free and said yes.  So they quickly packed up on Saturday and unexpectedly headed out of town for a few days. My mom took them to a new Aquarium and to see a movie, which they loved!

We had expected to have them gone until Wednesday afternoon but got a call on Tuesday afternoon that my dad was on his way to the ER (don't worry, he's doing better now) so my kids were at my brothers house and we  needed to pick them up that afternoon.  It was actually a nice drive to my brothers and a nice, but quick, visit with his family.  My boys love Ken's kids so it was a lot of fun for them to get to hang out with their cousins.  So, yes they came home a day early - I was going to do school on Wednesday but was at the tail end of Lego Organization so I enlisted the boys help with some final sorting.  We also did a science experiment about electricity.  

These chicks are awesome.  They have batteries and two metal "rings" on their bottoms.  You can put a finger on each one and make them chirp.  But, we also held hands and had different people put a finger on the chick to see how electricity travels through us; the boys also put a little water on the table and saw how water carries electricity as well.  Papa would be proud :-)

We did school on Thursday and then on Friday we focused on some Easter things.

 The first thing we did was this great worksheet on the events of the Holy Week.  It gave me the opportunity to go through the events with the boys and we talked about why Jesus Died on the Cross and why he Rose again.  You can get the worksheet HERE. 

 Once we finished with our Bible lesson, we worked on an Art Lesson using water, tape, sidewalk chalk and an egg template.  I found the idea HERE.  The boys really enjoyed it. 

 Our finished holy week projects.

 Josh's egg - the point of the tape was to show a "relief" painting, therefore the lines of white on the egg.

Nate did not like the white lines after we took the tape off so he just colored in his entire egg!

Make It Monday - Birds Nests

This past week we did a few activities related to Easter.  The boys are always asking to cook with me and, I will admit, I tend to say "Next time".  It takes extra work (and extra cleanup) to get three of us cooking at once.  Well, this past week we did cook and I think they may have even had some fun.

 To begin with, I melted the chocolate and butterscotch chips in the microwave (one bag of each) and then mixed them up with three cans (5 oz each) of Chow Mein Noodles.  I then put some of the chocolate mix into bowls for each of them.  The used spoons (and their hands) to make small nests. 

 Once they made nests, they added Jelly beans as eggs :-)

 Josh's tray of bird nests.

Nate's tray of bird nests. 

These turned out pretty good . . and actually taste better three days later since the noodles have taken on the flavor of the chocolate more and softened slightly. 

I think next year we will move on to bunny cookies or cupcakes!

April Goals

I'm finding it hard to believe that it is already April.  March flew by and I'm not even sure where it  went.  I do know we were busy and had a lot of fun!  The downside is that I did not get nearly enough done on my goal list.  I was thinking the other day - if I could actually accomplish what I want to get done this year . . the next year, I should be able to sit back and relax :-)  Things would be organized and cleaning would have a perfect routine to keep it light and easy.  Yet so often the motivation to do anything is just not there HA!

Here's whats on the radar for the coming month.

Home
1.  The Kitchen/Dining room - I'm back to the first area I tackled back in January.  So it is deep cleaning in these two rooms once again.  This time I want to focus more on the corners and the windows.  Basically cleaning into the corners of each room - lots of floor and baseboard cleaning.  Plus, cleaning the windows inside and out to get ready for summer and, if possible, updating some window treatments.  Finally, I need to do some touch up painting both in the dining room and kitchen.
2. The basement - My nemesis.  HA!  I have a huge goal this month - to get the whole basement done.  This entails cleaning up the playroom and setting it up for real play, organize the storage/work side, and just do general cleaning.  I don't know why this is so hard to do - I know that in the end, it only takes 3-4 hours to get it all done and cleaned back up but I just don't like doing it HA!
3.  The Outside - This is a new item on the list but it is time to start focusing on the outside.  I'll break this done into a few areas.
      a) The garage - the past two years we have not been able to do our semi-annual garage cleaning because of Darryl's back/recovery.  This entails cleaning off shelves, getting rid of some broken shelving, going through and cleaning out the outside toys, finding spaces for the bikes and getting rid of anything that doesn't belong.
     b) The landscaping - All of the flower beds need to be raked and then have new mulch put down.  The trees need to be trimmed, and I have some new plants to pick up and plant along side the house.  Along with landscaping is figuring out our garden area and prepping for that as well. We also need to get sand to fill the sandbox.
     c) The outside of the house - We are (crossing our fingers) going to start painting the outside of our house.  It's just a matter of buying two gallons of paint and starting.  (Yes, we'll need more than two but this will be a slow process so we'll get two and go from there!)

School
1. Our number one goal this month is to wrap all of our school work by the end of the month.  I'm kind of amazed that we are wrapping up Kindergarten for Josh.  Wow.
2. Summer Planning - I know that we need to continue with phonics and math.  So, with that in mind I want to put together some plans for work for 2 days a week.  A friend mentioned to me that she also focuses on Science more in the spring, summer and fall because it is fun and there is so much that can be studied.  I might look into that idea a little bit and come up with some "units" of study to do maybe one day a week.
3. Continue in either saving and/or ordering our books for the fall.  There is a Homeschool Convention coming up in May I plan on attending so I want to wait to purchase everything until then - I should be able to get some things used at a better price.
4. Organization - I need to go through everything we currently have on hand and sell what we are done with and won't use again.  That money can help go towards the next years purchase.  (Plus it will clean out my homeschool stuff!)

Scrapbooking
1. Photo organization - I've been lacking on keeping my photos organized and backup-ed on the external hard drive so this month I will get it all current.  I also need to upload them all into Snapfish and start ordering them.
2. I've done this next step so many times it isn't funny but then I go a year without doing anything and lose my notes!  So, I need to go through my projects and figure out what needs to be done and starting working on them. 
3. I will budget to start getting my stuff caught up - ordering page prints, pages, an album, and protectors.  (This is the second part of #2 above)
4. Continue work on the graduation album for my nephew.  This month I will be e-mailing the family and asking them write their letters to him so I can add those to the book.
5.  I am going to an all day crop this month.  With that in mind, I need to prep what I want to get done on that day which includes finishing 2013 (I just have a few days left to do).

Camping
This is a totally new line item but we have 4 different camping weekends booked for this summer so, it's time to start working on this item!
1. Food - one of the more expensive parts of camping is the food.  It tends to be different that what we eat at home and, well, we tend to eat more while camping probably due to all of the extra activity!  I learned last year that convenience is key so buying snack sized things is key - I realize they cost a little more than making my own snack bags but buying the prepackaged stuff means that it will stay fresh all summer so what we don't eat on what trip, we can use on the next one.  So, I need to make a master list/menu and work on picking up a few things each week including the steak for our kabobs which I can cut up when I buy it and freeze it ready to go!
2. Activities - I had a lot of fun last year planning activities for our weekend - right down to a small Bible lesson with a craft for Sunday morning.  The dollar store becomes my best friend because I know that whatever we use while camping ends up dirty and broken HA!
3. Supplies - I need to rework my list of supplies.  Our first camping trip in May is local - about 10 minutes down the road - I plan on using that first trip to set up the camper and make it user friendly for us for the rest of the trips.

Holidays
1. Easter - It's only a week away so it's time to get busy!  I want to have a craft to do with the kids on Friday, plus eggs to decorate/hide on Saturday and small Easter Baskets.  I'm guilty of going overboard on things so I'm trying to do better.  I plan on getting the boys each a small lego set and a little spray fan they want.  My kids are not big candy eaters but I know what they like so I'll add one or two of their favorites.
2. My Birthday :-)  Darryl and I were just talking about some ideas for my birthday weekend the other day so the plans are in motion.
3. I still need to do my recap/ideas for Christmas - I wish I would have done this back in January when it was fresh but I need to work on it now anyway.  Also need to make my Christmas storage plan since the boys saw the gift under my bed (oops) but I just kinda grazed over the conversation and have since hid it elsewhere.
4. Birthdays - My goal this month is to come up with the 5 day plan (a week of birthday).  Then go from there.

 Misc
1. I still have my 4 things I'm working on.  Aprils a new month so I'm hoping to have more success!
2. Quiet time/devotions - Looking for a new Bible Study!
3. Plan April's Budget and stick to it.

Just One Thing - I really love this concept - it helps me focus on those things that I tend to never get done! 
The last few months I didn't list things but this month I think I will.
1. The truck - it's that time of year - time to deep clean the truck.  I even have new truck mats waiting to go in.  I also need to "refresh" the truck bag to make sure it has everything in it we need for the unexpected :-)
2. Finish the kitchen wall - just need to pick up one thing for it and hang it - then it will be done.
3. Clean the blinds in the bathroom
4. Do the closet exchange for Darryl and I - move the winter clothes downstairs and the summer stuff upstairs.
5. Change the Monthly Menu for the summer plan to begin in May.  This also means I need to "stock" the grilling area so we are ready to use the "outdoor" kitchen.  
6. Update the photo boards in the living room
7. Clean out the filing cabinet and update the files so I only keep what we need.
8. List 1-2 things on the local garage sale site to start cleaning out things.  I was going to do a Mom to Mom Sale but the thought of all of that work is more than I want to do.  So instead, I'm going to just list a couple of things at a time.  This money is all going towards Birthdays/Christmas.
9. Work on my "find a home - make a home" concept - One thing we have struggled with in this house is finding homes for things.  It has to do with lack of stoarge.  I've made a lot of progress with finding creative ways to make a home (like a three armed hook in the kitchen where winter coats/snowpants can hang in the winter!) My main goal this month is the kitchen - my counters tend to get cluttered because the cabinets get full . . .I want to make sure things have a home - an easy to use home - so we don't get the piles!  

Teaching Tuesday - A Field Trip

We had a very simple, quiet week this past week as far as school work.  Nate is working on a lot of review and Josh is is at the very tail end of his handwriting and money books.  Plus both boys have finished their AWANA books so we are just doing review.  We ended up with a "unexpected" day this week where it was just the boys and I so I put together a very simple, fun "field trip". 

We started our field trip with lunch.  We drove to another town to have lunch at McDonald's but, more importantly, the McDonald's has a playland.  The boys love it - gives them a chance to run and climb and to make new friends.  I enjoy it because the boys are at an age where they just go and play so I get to "read and watch" while they play!

The second part of our field trip was something that Nate has been asking to do for months and, has been waiting to do since the first day of spring!  We went to the Skate Park.

 There is this fun little park about 10 minutes from our house that includes a skate park.  Nate has been so intrigued by it and was beyond thrilled to finally get to ride his back all over it.  I wanted to go during the week while other kids are in school so that I didn't have to worry about them running into anyone else (or being run into!)

 Josh loved it too - can you tell by his smile?

 Nate had to check out the ramps before he actually rode on them.

The boys rode bikes for well over an hour.  Two college age guys showed up to skateboard but they were extremely nice and Nate made "fast friends" with them. 

We ended our field trip with the grocery store.  The boys did awesome and it sure was nice to do grocery shopping during the day :-)