Things my Kids say

* Discussion overheard this past week: 
Nate:  Oh no Josh, I broke the Lego Van
Josh (from the bathroom): That's ok, just get the map and rebuild it.
Nate: I can't, I didn't go to building school like you.  Remember, you went there a long time ago.
Josh: Well, you can still try. 
Building School?  Really? 

* Nate asked me to close the curtian one morning because it was  "making his eyes browed"  LOL

Weekly Menu - the one with a trip, surgery, and a hospital stay.

I do not have a Food Prep photo so I didn't do any food prep.  This was our "eat simple" week and boy, did we ever.  Darryl even had to scavenge  around the house for food because I never bought the chicken and rolls but he managed :-) (Don't worry, there were Hot Dogs, Soup and even some ham for him to eat)

This next week we are heading out of town for a family gathering, sending the kids to Papa and Nana's, sending Darryl into surgery, and getting to enjoy a hospital stay for a few days so the menu will be a little different than normal.

Friday - Hamburgers (on the grill of course!) and Fries.  I picked this meal because it is a favorite of the boys  . . Josh LOVES Hamburgers and Nate LOVES Fries!

Saturday - We have a little family gathering at my nieces so we will be enjoying food cooked by other people! 

Sunday - The kids are now at Papa and Nana's house so lunch will be out.  Dinner will be whatever we find at home (Soup, Mac and Cheese, cheese and crackers etc)

Monday - Steaks on the grill, sweet potatoes, and Steakhouse Rolls. 

Tuesday - Today, Darryl and I are talking the day off so we'll be eating where ever we happen to be :-)  This is the last day before his surgery so it will be weeks . . a month . . .before we are able to go out to do much. 

Wednesday and Thursday - Wednesday is Surgery day so I wll be eating at the hospital.  Thursday, I will be eating at the hospital (or grabbing some tacos from my favorite Mexican place just around the corner!) 

So, that is the simple week we have food wise.  :-) 

Happy Father's Day! (Ok, a post about our Father's Day!)

This past Sunday, as most of you know, was Father's Day.

 Darryl with his "mini-me's" Josh and Nate

Of course, we always need a funny photo!

For Father's Day, we headed to our favorite Chinese Buffet for lunch - this was Darryl's choice and, trust me, I wasn't complaining about not cooking! 

After dinner, we headed back to the house to open a few gifts.

 Josh gave Darryl his gifts first which included this water gun :-)  Now, lets keep this all real - we were all a bit tired from our fun on Saturday and getting home very late so a bit of the "crankies" was going on.  Nate got a little upset because he was sure he picked out a different card for Darryl than he actually did and . . .well, Nate STILL hasn't given Darryl the gifts he picked out.  For. real.

 I was able to get Darryl a few things.  I had set my budget and went shopping.  First, I got him this fabulous Detroit Tigers shirt (which was on sale for 30% off . .. ) then I also got him a pair of sandals (that were 30% off, plus on sale PLUS I got an additional $3.00 off with a coupon) AND a pair of water shoes (for $1.00 since the shoes were all buy one/get one for $1.00)!  My budget?  $20.00 . .. I spent?  $22.00.  Seriously.  Even I was proud of myself . :-)

All of my wonderful "men".  I'm beyond blessed with all three of them.   The rest of the day we just hung out until it was time for the boys and I to head to Vacation Bible School!

Weekend Fun

This past Saturday we headed to Darryl's mom's house for the day to spend time with his Uncle and his wife as well as the rest of the family.  It dawned a beautiful day - Sunny and cool (my kind of weather!)  After getting the grocery shopping done and a salad made, we hit the road and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  As we were driving down the road Nate pipes up and says, "Mom, lets sing the song I want to sing!" and he started to sing "Over the river and through the woods .  .. "  Of course, Darryl quickly made up new words like "Over the big road (the expressway) and down the road, to Barry County we go . ." hahaha  We sang it the whole way changing the words as we drove along.  On a side note, we tried a new thing for Nate's car sickness.  I picked up a bottle of some stuff you put behind his ears that is supposed to help - for the record, he did not get sick and he usually does so we'll keep using it and see if it works.  If not, we'll find something else just so he doesn't get sick!  We've also noticed that if he rides with his window open, he doesn't seem to get sick so yes, we let him put it down even driving down the expressway (yuck!)

Anyway, here's to our fun! This is the first time that we've been at my Mother-in-laws when we felt like we could just let the boys run.  I felt like I could just make sure I knew where they were but I didn't have to follow them around like puppies :-)  It wasn't long before they came back into the house and handed me their shirts - it was obviously time to go shirtless!

 The theme of the party was "Hawaiian" but to the boys it meant "dance party" HA!  Nate kept asking when we were getting out the dance party stuff out.  Don't worry, eventually we did have a little dance fun on the lawn!

 The boys had strict instructions that they couldn't go down by the lake without either me, Darryl or Grandma so they were beyond excited once we were all outside and they could run down on the grass below the deck. 

My sister-in-law brought her Akita puppy and Nate just adored the sweet thing.  She is a beautiful dog!

 The other purpose of this party was a birthday party for Darryl's Uncle Jim's wife, Janet.  The boys love parties and were watching Grandma light the candles on the cake.  A funny story - Nate came inside and said something about "Daddy's mom and dad are outside."  We just figured he meant Darryl's mom and Charlie, her husband.  Later at dinner, though, Nate said, "Look, there's Grandma talking to daddy's Mom and Dad."  I had to not laugh out loud - he thought Darryl's Uncle and Janet were his mom and dad . .it made us all giggle a little :-)

 The boys love following Grandma around - I even heard the words, "I'm going to follow you everywhere, grandma" said by one of the boys.

 The boys waited and waited and finally we got to go on a boat ride.

They had so much fun walking from one end of the boat to the other, looking over the side. 

 They finally settled in by Grandpa and he let them honk the horn as much as they wanted . . ..

 . . . .and then let the steer the boat too. 

 The whole group!  I love group photos :-)

 This is Darryl's Uncle Jim and his wife Janet.  I love this photo with the boys standing right by them. 

The night ended with a great bonfire and smores.  Josh worked very hard at roasting his own marshmallows and I'm not quite sure how no one ended up with a burning marshmallow in their face but all in all, he did ok :-) 

Homeschool Happenings . . .kinda

We had a busy weekend - so busy that I never got a chance to even write the a simple Father's Day Post for yesterday nor to put together the post I wanted to write for today but just as a teaser .  ..  .

I have 90% of our curriculum in hand.  I'm working on printing some things  . . . .wrap my mind around a timeframe . . .. and gather the last 10% of the items I need.  I've had some true budget blessings like someone actually giving me the phonics curriculum that sells used for $250 or more.  The US history study we will use as a suppliment for several years was 30% off a few weeks ago and the PE supplement I was looking at was also free for Teacher Appreciation Week a few months ago or so  I was also able to find a few things on Amazon for a much lesser price as well. 

With that said, this week we are busy with Vacation Bible School every night this week and a family gathering this coming weekend followed by surgery week.  I'm hoping to get some posts written during the day and even get ahead but I also have lots of projects to finish up and lots of play time with the kids this week too.  It's about time for me to get in that pool since it is warming up this week!

Water Fun

First, let me state that I am LOVING this summer.  The weather is near perfect and by "near perfect" I mean that it has been in the 70's with lots of sunshine and very little humidity.  We have only had to shut up the house and cool it down with the window units one weekend so far which is just fabulous.  I'm soaking up my kind of summer as much as I can because I'm sure the killer heat will show up eventually!

With that said, the sun has made it warm enough outside for the boys to starting asking for some water fun!  Last week we pulled out the sprinkler and boy, did they play in the water for hours!!

 Josh trying to water the garden with the water but instead he watered himself!

 Nate just trying to spray Josh :-)

They loved pulling the sprinkler around the hard and, yes, for the record, my kitchen got a little wet.  Note to self:  Shut the kitchen window when the kids have the sprinkler out hahaha

 Joshua just hanging out and having fun!

The boys also have been asking for me to put the pool up.  I bought a new pool this year -one with a filter and all that fun stuff so I don't have to empty it every day like I did with the little plastic pool we've used the last few years.  I kept saying that it takes more work but Nate told me that it was "Three easy steps Mom" and proceeded to show me on the box that you just had to 1)Blow it up 2)Lay it out 3)and put water in it.  I finally told them we would do it on Sunday.  Now, to keep it real, I was beyond excited to get up on Sunday morning to a rainy morning and was already planning my afternoon of watching TV, reading, and relaxing on the wonderful rainy Sunday . . .. except my boys must have prayed extra hard because the sun was shining by the time we got home and, while I was cleaning up from lunch, they hauled all of the pull stuff out to the yard.  Their excited was unmeasurable as we worked to set upt.  Josh kept saying, "Mom, I'm your helper, I'll do whatever you need me to do." HA!

We worked and worked and finally got it set up but no one could swim in it on Sunday because it had to fill!  I finished filling it up on Monday and told the boys that they couldn't swim in it until we did the chemicals.  But, then I got to thinking, I filled it with the same water they take a bath in HA!  Yep, we fill it from the kitchen sink so that the water comes through the water softener.  Darryl and I both said - Go swimming!! - especially since they wouldn't be able to swim in it on Tuesday while we got the chemicals stabilized.  Which, for the record, made me feel DUMB!  Darryl figured it all out, though, and now we have crystal clear water and it is wonderful!

Food Friday - Slow Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Slow Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
adapted from Eat At Home

This is a super simple recipe but it tastes so good!  Because it didn't need to cook quite as long as a lot of Slow Cooker Recipes, I was able to use this for a "Sunday after church" lunch!  I served this with "Chinese Coleslaw",  fruit and chips. 

Ingredients

• 2 - 2.5 lbs. boneless chicken breast
• 1-2 cups barbecue sauce
• hoagie buns
• pineapple slices
• provolone cheese slices

Instructions

1. Put the chicken and bbq sauce in the slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
3. Shred meat with a fork.
4. Toast buns.
5. Place meat on buns. Top with pineapple and cheese.
6. Broil until cheese melts.