Too Cute Not to Toot

So, this list of muffin tin recipes from Recipe By Photo caught my eye so I thought I would share this with all of you. 

I must be hungry but my next idea is also a recipe and comes from Lemon Sugar . These would be great to make for camping or our over night hotel getaway's - a special treat for breakfast.

These little "elephant" feet from Martha Stewart are way too cute not to make.  I can see having these on hand for a rainy day this summer. 

We all have TP rolls at home, right?  Well there are some cute crafts over at Kids Kubby - great inexpensive craft ideas :-)

Well, I usually try to come up with at least 5 ideas but I'm running dry this week so . . .since I posted two links that share multiple ideas, I guess it's ok ;-) 

Happy Crafting!

February Preschool

February has been a little bit of a bust as far as preschool.  Now, don't get me wrong,we do things daily that aren't structured.  We played our version of "I spy" this week where we would "spy" a color and the boys would run through the house to find anything they could that matched that color.  The boys played with their computers - Josh taught Nate how to play his favorite game . . well he tried.

This past week we just tried to recover from a busy week the week before and it took all week!  We were all tired out from our adventures the week before and did a whole lot of nothing!  We did do two things - 1)We went to the grocery store on Thursday plus I took the boys to the bank and out to lunch.  These are great teaching times :-)  2) We made birthday cards on Friday for Darryl

We will be getting back into our groove next week with lessons, activities, a craft or two and maybe a field trip on Thursday since my husband doesn't work that day.

So, are you looking for some ideas for March?  Check out my Pinterest board for ideas.

You can check out some general preschool ideas on this Pinterest board too!

Have a great week !

What Pinterest Inspired Me to do

In January I did not share what Pinterest ideas I was honing in on - I meant to but the post kinda got lost so I thought I would share them now.

First up is something for the boys room. The inspiration comes from The Keeper of the Cheerios and looks like this:

My boys, much to my husband's chagrin, have many stuffed animals.  The boys talk about their "friends" or "kids" or "dolls" (yes, dolls - I'm trying to stick with kids and friends HA) and actually know when one is missing, which one belongs to which boy and they love them all.  As much as I love this "zoo" idea lets get real.  I'm not about to build anything (math is not my forte!) and the boys don't have room for cages in their bedroom.  So I too the above idea and turned it into this:

Just laundry baskets :-)  I know - so not as pretty as the inspiration but they fit right next to the boys beds and the boys love playing them - they haul the baskets out and dump out their friends; set them all up and puppet shows for them.  Then roll around in the baskets for fun HA!  I consider this a success! I already owned one basket so this idea only cost me $3.99 for the second basket.

Idea number two is just a photo pinned to my Pinterest Board - I'm not sure where the original idea came from as the link takes you back to a photo board.

Toy storage in the bathtub!!  We have one bathroom so the toys drive us nuts - for the longest time I've kept them in a bowl in the cupboard and it is such a pain to get them in and out.  I loved this idea but, again, with one shower, this was going to really crowd the adults that take shower (I.e. my husband and I HA)  So I went looking for a similar idea and came up with this!

It is actually a shower organizer that hooks on the shower curtian hooks.  Instead I hung some command hooks and hooked it onto those.  This gives plenty of space for their toys, body paints (which they love!) and even a place to hang their scrubbies.  The toys dry out and are keep out of the way since it hangs at the back of the shower.  The best part?  It cost $9.99.  Super simple and inexpensive!

The last idea is something for the classroom and comes from Attempting Aloha and looks like this:

This is what mine looks like :

I love it!  This Shoe Holder was $5.99 at target and it holds a lot of stuff.  I keep stuff I don't want the kids to get into in the top two rows.  The other stuff I don't worry about so much.  This really is the perfect storage solution for SOOOO many things!

That's all for now but I'm already working on my February ideas :-)

Weekly Menu

Hello there!  This is a normal week, I think! Last week's menu did not go as planned.  I had planned to go to the store on Tuesday but then we got hit with a rain/sleet/freezing rain/snow storm that started on Monday night and lasted all day on Tuesday.  We went no where!  Just to get from our door to the garage meant ice skating across the sidewalk due to all of the rain that "flash froze".  I finally made it to the store on Thursday (My husband stopped on Tuesday on his way home from work to pick up a few things so we would "survive" hehehehe) so I "shopped" from home for Tuesday and Wednesday night.  We had Ham and Cheese Quiche, Donut muffins, and hashbrowns on Tuesday and a Roast, Potatoes and Carrots on Wednesday.  All good food :-)

This past week while at the Scrapbook Weekend, several of us got to talking about menu planning.  One of the women said she thinks that that effort/time of prepping/cooking/eating/and clean-up is over rated and she hates it.  This is what they eat every week - Sun- Order Pizza, Mon . . this one I can't recall, Tues is Tacos, Wednesday is her husbands day, Thursday her Mother-in-law makes dinner and Friday/Saturday they eat out.  Seriously??  Most of us said we menu plan and the meals are different every week or we get bored.  Remember my family favorites?  I put them all back in their normal places of my recipe book - I'm tired of them.  Seriously.

On a slightly different note, I've started to think about summer cooking.  I want to have a plan this year - a small "summer" recipe book maybe with things that are not so "hot" to cook or eat.  It's funny to think about right now as I watch a snow storm out the window but I know that if I don't think about it now, we'll hit the first hot week and eat out every night (which, by the way, we will eat out more in the summer - it's even going to go on the menu!!) 

Here is this weeks plan!

Monday - Homemade Pizza and Homemade Sauce - I've had this recipe sitting around for awhile and decided this was a good time to try it.  If the sauce is good, I'd like to make a huge batch and freeze it . .. if it isn't, I'll go back to the can!  We will also have breadsticks (probably just pillsbury kind) because my 3 year old doesn't like pizza!

Tuesday - A few weeks ago we were supposed to meet friends for dinner but my truck died so we had to cancel.  This is our "make-up" day :-)

Wednesday - Darryl has practice so I decided to try something new that might not be his favorite - Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice.  This is a pinterest recipe that has HUGE reviews even from people I actually know.  We'll see how it turns out.  Darryl might just have to learn to like it :-)

Thursday - I've had quite a few "I want to try this" recipes floating around in my recipe book for awhile - this is another one and it is Apple Stuffed Pork Chops with Herb Gravy.  I'm going to serve it with Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes and a veggie I have in the pantry . . .green beans, carrots, peas - I'll decide by dinner!

Friday - I saw a recent episode of Pioneer Woman - she made Lasagna and Garlic Bread - I'm going to try her recipe; it is just slightly different than mine but the changes look like they are a good thing :-)

Saturday - Tonight we are heading to a night of "Dinner and Praise" at a local church.  We get to eat dinner and then there is a music service (Yep, I'm singing).  Should be a great night.

Sunday - After church - Puerto Rican Chicken (we use this recipe for our Thanksgiving Turkey), Stuffing, Mashed Potoates and Gravy and Green Beans.  Later in the evening I think we will get a Pizza or something.

Monday - Korean Taco's, Chips and Cheese and Oven Roasted Green Beans.  This is my first night back to practice with the Lakewood Choral Society so I wanted something easy for dinner :-)

Our sweets this week - Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Scotchies in a Pan and Cool Whip Dessert.

Food Friday - The Perfect Lemonade Punch

The Perfect Lemonade Punch
Adapted from Pinterest

First up, this photo is not mine :-)  I forgot to take a photo of my punch plus this one is much prettier since I didn't add lemons to mine.  I recently made this punch for a Ladies Meeting with Ladies from church and it was a huge hit.  It was a great combination and so easy to put together.  I plan on using this for future get togethers for something different to drink than just soda! 

1 cup Country Time Lemonade Mix
2 cups Cold Water
1 Can (46 ounces) Pineapple Juice - Chilled
2 Cans Sprite (I used Sprite Zero)

Mix well and serve. I added ice cubes to mine and also, like the photo shows - sliced lemons would look awesome in it! 

Snowman Craft

I saw this idea originally over at Confessions of a Homeschooler and knew it would be a great craft to do with the boys.

We tackled this at the end of a preschool unit at the beginning of February and the boys loved it.  I think they loved it most because we got to use "blue!" (I.e. glue hahaha)

You will find a full list of supplies through the link above but this is our version!

Before we started this craft, I drew the snowman body on the blue paper.  I also cut out the hat, nose and buttons so the boys just had to follow some simple instructions . They had to find a white crayon (or a "whipe" crayon ;-) ) in the bin and draw snow on the ground around their snowman.  They then had to find a brown crayon and draw the stick arms.  Finally, they got to use the glue and paint the bodies (we use paint brushes to paint on glue - it keeps the HUGE puddles of clue from forming.)

I love their finished products.  The boys ages and personalities really come out in an art project like this.  Nate's is the top photo - he thinks outside the box and is still very abstract.  Josh's is the bottom piece of art - he stays inside the lines and follows directions pretty closely with just a little flair of his own.

This is such a fun easy project for the kids and, depending on their ages then can do more (or less) of the project on their won. 

A little time away

Last week we had some great, fun things take place and I know you will find this hard to believe but I did not take a single photo!  Sometimes it feels good to leave the camera at home and just enjoy the moment.

On Tuesday, the 12th, my kids left to go to Papa and Nana's for a week.  It was fun watching them pack ;-)  I SHOULD have taken a photo of what they gathered!  They each have a bag that they are allowed to fill with anything they want to take.  Those bags included everything from trucks to tools to . .. . a bag of cookie mix and green sprinkles HA!  Yep, they wanted to make cookies at Nana's house :-)  I'm kinda surprised it all fit in Nana's car with the dog but we made it work and I sent them on their way!  The reason they left on Tuesday is because I was hosting the Ladies Meeting for church.

Ladies meeting - where the ladies from church meet together once a month at someone's house to play a game, eat snacks and have a Bible Study.  It is too hard to host when my kids are home since there is no where for them to go so I lined this time up once I knew there were other things going on at the same time.  We had a good time at the meeting - a lower turn-out than normal but we all still enjoyed ourselves.

Wednesday - Ahhhhh no kids :-)  I got up early and took my husband to work so we only had one vehicle to deal with over the next two days.  Of course I laid back down to get some extra sleep ;-)  Once I got up, I packed for an overnight trip with the hubs, loaded up, and headed to get my hair cut.  This was a much needed cut after having to cancel when I was so sick in December.  I picked up a Mocha Frappe and went to enjoy an hour's worth of pampering :-)  I had a few minutes to spare after I was done so I went next door to the scrapbook store to pick up a few supplies for my weekend adventure before heading into downtown to pick up my husband!

We were given a gift at Christmas that we saved for Valentine's Day week.  Back in January, we used our best friend, Priceline, to reserve a hotel for Wednesday night.  We also had a gift card to Red Lobster so we started out by stopping for dinner and we both looked at each other and said, "There is no time table for the next two days", then we took a deep breath, sat back, and relaxed.  We took our time at dinner, enjoying our food, quiet conversation, and laughing at other people (Yep, I said that out loud).  After dinner, we did some window shopping.  We have a long list of things on our wish list so we went to our local Art Van Furniture Store to check out some things.  Ironically the one thing we found that we loved was a Sofa and that was the one thing that was NOT on our list HA!  We loved the sofa so much that, if we were impulse buyers, we would have bought it right there but we aren't so we didn't!  Instead we headed to our hotel to check in and relax.  We got all situated right in time to watch Survivor.  Then at about 9:30 we did one of our favorite things - we got a "treat".  Normally, when the kids are with us, we wait until they are asleep, then Darryl runs out and gets a late night snack for us but this time - we both went and ended up at Culvers for burgers and Fries.  (What? we ate "dinner" at 4:00! and that was the only real meal either of us had eaten!).  We even stayed up to watch the late night shows - something we never do anymore.

Thursday - we slept in. Yes we did.  It was great.  Usually we have kids in our room by 7:00 AM.  Once we got up and got ready, we headed to Grand Traverse Pie Company for an early lunch and some internet time :-)  Then we headed to a movie.  Darryl picked one that was more "artistic" and is something I would have never picked to watch but it actually kept my interest.  The buttery popcorn and large Pepsi didn't hurt either :-)  From there we did some more shopping - we started by picking up new batteries for our computers - those were actually our Christmas presents to each other.  Both of our computers had given up the ghost in batteries months ago. (It is so nice to be writing this post, sitting on the couch, not at my desk, since I no longer have to plug in!).  Then my husband "made me" go next door to Payless and bought me boots.  I finally can play in the snow . .. that has all melted HA!  Darryl wanted to stop at the Guitar store to check out some stuff so I went next door to an upscale furniture store just for fun and found another couch that I love that was on clearance . . .but we still didn't buy :-)  Finally, we headed to Baker Book House - a Christian Book Store - that has recently remodeled and includes a coffee shop.  We used to go to the Book Store all of the time but now, we never get a chance to so this was a treat.  Oh. my. word.  The coffee shop was to die for.  I wish I had taken a photo of our coffee - the Barista had even written "Mocha" in chocolate on top of our drinks and wrote in Chocolate on the plate that held a slice of cheesecake.  It was so good!!!  I did some shopping while Darryl enjoyed the Wi-Fi.  I picked up a Devotional book and some soundtracks :-)  So much fun!.  We wrapped up our day by picking up a pizza to take home - it was free :-)  We had REALLY bad food from them a few weeks ago so they sent us a gift card to try it again.  The pizza was very good, the service to get the pizza was awful - we won't go back.

Friday - Darryl expected to work today, even made the 45 minute drive in only to find out that his cab had been given out to someone else.  It was a nice bonus to have him home but it would have been nicer if he had not had to get up at 3:00 AM :-/  Anyway, for me, I was repacking for a weekend away!  I left on Friday to head to a scrapbooking weekend and would not be home until Sunday evening :-)  I ended up completing 70 pages and two small projects that had been hanging over my head for . . .well. .. years :-)  It was a great get away and Darryl got to enjoy some time alone and get some recording done too.

The boys returned on Monday and life is slowly getting back to normal . .. did I say slowly?  :-)

This would have been a much more exciting post with pictures :-)