March Preschool

We had another fun week with Preschool!  Check out these fun activities.

 I had a brainstorm last week.  I was tired of handing out papers every day so I bought each of the boys a 3 ring binder.  Now, I put our daily work in their binders and just add to it each day. This makes it easy for review and the boys are much more involved in their daily work now.  We still need to make covers for their binders sometime in the next few weeks.

 Don't you love this Easel?  I do - it was free!  Someone in the Homeschool group I'm a member off offered this up last week for the first taker.  The boys love it and play with it every single day.  Eventually, when the newness wears off, we'll use it more for school but right now, they just love to draw all day.

 One of our creative Projects for St Patrick's Day.  I found the idea over at Our Small-Town Idaho Life.  As you might notice - we were very "free" with our rainbow concept HA  Josh only wanted on streamer on his but he actually drew a rainbow whereas Nate like streamers but just colored in black.  I plan on sticking this idea in our "Holiday" binder to come back to next year.

 Sometimes the boys like to clean.  They wanted to clean the sink and spent about 30 minutes working together on that project.

 We colored a "In like a Lamb, Out like a Lion" page from Twisty Noodle.

 We also did some pepper painting to make shamrocks with an idea from Train up a Child - Learn as we go.  The boys did really well until they decided they liked finger painting instead :-)

 I have to share this - one of my goals for this "semester" is for the boys to write their names.  Josh wrote his name by himself - once he was done, he came to find me and show me what he did - he was so proud!

 Play time with daddy counts as learning too!  They are expert train builders.

Remember that one of my February Too Cute  was to put up a quote for my kids artwork?  Well, I ordered it and put it on the fridge where we hang our best artwork.  Right now we have our two St Patrick's Day crafts and the butterflies they made in Kid's Korner at church. I purchased the Vinyl from Sassy Sites.  She is great to work with and gets projects in the mail quickly!

 This week we worked on the song "I am a C"  - Josh loved reading the letters so we had to sing it REALLY slow!

A few last photos of our paint project.  :-)

Linking up over at:

Luck O' the Irish, to Ya!

Weekly Menu

We have another week of fun things coming up!   First, the kids are going to be with Papa and Nana for a few days.  I'm taking advantage of not babysitting right now and instead of my mom coming here for the day while I scrapbook, I'm sending my kids to her house for a few days so I can get some things done around here and have a "kid break" :-)  Second, this coming weekend is our annual trip to Metro Beach to celebrate the anniversary of when we got engaged.

Here's our food plan for the week:

Monday:  Time to get the grill going!  Hamburgers and  Sweet potatoes (in the crock pot!).

Tuesday:  Duke's :-)  This is a favorite restaurant of ours; it isn't super kid friendly so we tend to only go when the kids are gone!

Wednesday: We have a Red Lobster gift card to finish up so I plan to do some shopping in town, meet Darryl for dinner and actually go to practice with him - it isn't something I get to do often :-)

Thursday: Steak on the Grill YUM!  Baked Potatoes, and garlic bread

Friday: Heading to my parents for dinner

Saturday: Our annual trip to Metro Beach - we eat lunch at National Coney Island (per tradition) and will eat dinner somewhere out.

Sunday: At the parents for the day :-)

Monday: I think I'll plan Tacos - easy to make after a busy weekend and after grocery shopping during the day.

Hard to believe that Easter comes next!!  I guess I had better start thinking about what's for Easter dinner :-)

Food Friday - A Lasagna Re-Do

Lasagna
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

For years I've raved about the Betty Crocker Lasagna.  It is what I grew up eating and what I have made my whole adult life but, I must confess, the last few times I've made it I have not been thrilled with it at all. It was just . . bland and boring.  Well, I was watching an episode of  Pioneer Woman on The Food Network and she created this Lasagna.  Now, there were just a few things that were different but it was enough that it intrigued me to try it and, boy am I glad I did!  It is layers of Italian goodness - each layer has its own flavor.  Her recipe only puts in two layers of noodles instead of 3 or 4; it calls for 3 full pounds of meat so, yes, it is m.e.a.t.y. (and so good!).  One thing she did on her show that is not reflected in the recipe is that instead of shredded Mozzarella sprinkle in as a layer, she used slices of mozzarella and just layered them on top of the meet layer.  That one step made a huge difference in the flavor.  Let me tell you, the leftovers were to die for :-) 

Ingredients

2 pounds hamburger
1 pound hot breakfast sausage
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
One 6-ounce can tomato paste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
10 ounces lasagna noodles
1 pound mozzarella
10 to 12 fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
3 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 eggs, beaten

Directions

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, saute the hamburger, sausage and garlic until brown. Drain off the excess fat. Add the tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, 1/2 teaspoon salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Stir together well. Simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the olive oil and a dash of salt. Cook the lasagna noodles according to the package directions until al dente. Drain the noodles and lay them flat on a piece of aluminium foil to keep their shape.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grate the mozzarella cheese and set aside. (Or use sliced mozzarella and just layer in the slices)

Cut the basil into a chiffonade by stacking the leaves on top of one another, rolling them tightly and then cutting across. Finely chop the parsley. Add half the herbs to the meat mixture and stir together. In a medium bowl, combine the other half of the herbs, the cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan and the eggs, and stir together well.

Now let's assemble the lasagna! Begin by laying 4 lasagna noodles in the bottom of a deep rectangular baking pan; the noodles should slightly overlap. Spoon half the cottage cheese mixture onto the noodles; spread to distribute evenly. Sprinkle half the mozzarella on top of the cottage cheese mixture. Spoon just under half the meat mixture on top of the mozzarella, and spread evenly, being careful not to disrupt the layers below. Now repeat the process, beginning with a layer of lasagna noodles, followed by the cottage cheese mixture, followed by the mozzarella and ending with a thick layer of the meat mixture.

Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan over the top. Bake until the lasagna is hot and bubbly, 35 to 45 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/lasagna-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

 

This Little Light Of Mine

From November through January we lived in a very dark house!  My kitchen lights went bad and then, the dining room light went bad!  We even ate by candlelight some nights because it was too dark in the dining room HA!  Well, my favorite electriction (i.e. my dad) was able to come over in January and replace all of those lights! 

We had a fan in our dining room before and, as much as I would LOVE a beautiful chandeliar, we HAVE to have a fan since we don't have central air.  The fan is what makes it possible to eat in the summer.  We went to Menards to pick out our fan and I found this one.  I loved the light fixture because it actually looks like a chandelier and is just so cool looking!

Then, my new kitchen lights!  Again, I love seeing beautiful lights in a kitchen but with our set up - I needed these bubble lights.  You should see it - the kitchen is SOOOOO bright; It is nice to finally be able to see to cook :-)

My new lights reminded me of a great song so I want to share that too!

Flowers

Today and tomorrow I'm going to share two very small decorating updates and, by small, I mean small. But it is still fun to share updates!

This flower arrangement is something I've had for years.  The story behind this is the vase.  When Darryl and I first got married we used to walk through a really cool furniture store and I saw this vase.  He remembered how much I loved it and, at Christmas time, bought it for me.  When I first got it, I used to buy fresh flowers every week to put in it but, eventually, that fell out of the budget so I picked up this natural arrangement and put it together.  For the last year or so I've thought about changing it out but just never remember to buy new flowers.  Well, a few weeks ago, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out $15.00 worth of flowers (thankfully they were 1/2 off . .so it was really $30.00 worth of flowers!) and put together my new arrangement.

Isn't that pretty?  I actually added back in some of the elements from the original arrangement because, well, it needed more.  I will pick up more flowers at Hobby Lobby each time I go just to add more color to it but really, I actually love it just as it is!

This now sits as the centerpiece on my dining room table :-)

Too Cute Not To Toot

Ok!  We are back on the wagon again with ideas!

First up is an idea to use with my Birthday Board/Week ideas that I'm putting together.  Check out the tutorial from ameroonie designs for a great birthday banner.

Ok, I feel like I've shared this idea before but it hasn't been in the last few months.  Now that I"m actually trying to share ideas I will make the following month (or within the next few months) I wanted to share this idea again from Oh Frannson! with a tutorial to create an ironing board to use for crafting. 

Wouldn't these cute tents be great in a playroom? Check out the tutorial from Lindsey and Drew.  (I think this might be a "Papa" project! hehehe)

Ok, last month I had a beach them going so I'm going to add this to it - a beach bag made out of a towel. I need a way to carry beach toys and this would be perfect except I would make the handle long enough that I could carry it over the shoulder. Check it out at BuzzFeed. (on a side note - this site is not my "normal" site that I would post . .just saying)

One last idea for this week from Craft-o-Maniac and it is a link with some great ideas to do with kids.  She lists them as spring break activities but they would be great summer ideas too!

Happy Crafting!