Family Fun - Campin Trip One

We had the wonderful opportunity on Memorial Day weekend to go on our first camping trip of the season AND we were able to camp along side my Aunt and Uncle.  This was a HUGE help to us because they are well-seasoned campers.  My Uncle Dick was able to give us a million pointers on setting up our pop-up and taught us so much.  I told him that we were going to pack him up and take him with us each time we camp HA!  My aunt also threw out lots of ideas - many of which I've already put into place or are on my "to do" list. 

We camped extremely close to home (the advantage to having a state park just a few miles from home!)  The advantage was being able to leave the dog at home and being able to run home to take showers :-) It also gave me the freedom to go home for anything we had forgotten. 

Here are a few highlights from our first trip!

Our camper all set up :-) 

 The boys were finally able to go fishing!  The first time we went out (in the first photo) we had just baited the hooks when the skies opened up in a downpour.  We were soaked!  We went out later and each of the boys caught a fish (Ok, Darryl and I each caught a fish HA!)  We were able to get Nate's in a photo (above) but Josh's broke the line - it was HUGE. 

 It rained off and on during the day on Monday but it didn't stop Nate.  He loved the rain - even drinking it off the canopy.

 Blowing bubbles - a very favorite activity!

 And, riding bikes.  The boys loved the freedom of being able to ride between our site and my Aunt/Uncle's site.  I think they spend more time at their site than ours.  :-)

 And the fire . .. Nate loved the fire and loved helping with the fire.

It was really a great trip and prepared us well for our upcoming trips!

Weekly Menu

We had a fabulous time camping.  And I feel like my fridge and cupboards are feeling the brunt of summer.  Not that they are empty, they aren't.  It's the opposite.  I have odds and ends of food items in the freezer, cupboards and fridge from meals we didn't eat that were planned but life got in the way.  Usually my fridge is near empty by Saturday but this week it is near . .. full.  It's just weird.  This next week is another "odd" one so the plan is pretty simple . . or maybe just not planned!

Saturday - The boys and I will be at my parents helping my brother and his family as they prepare to pull out in the moving truck on Sunday for South Carolina.  Darryl has to work all weekend so I've left soup and chili behind for him (He is in the middle of having a root canal done so super easy food to eat is all he wants!) 

Sunday - The boys and I are hanging out at my parents until after lunch.  The plan is the boys are staying at my parents for a few days.  So for dinner Sunday night - I have no idea HA!  Soup? Mac and Cheese?  I'm just not sure.

Monday - I'm realizing how hard it is to plan meals that are easy to eat is not fun HA!  I found a recipe on pinterest for a new fish recipe that I might try.  And rice is always good along with some green beans.

Tuesday - I'm hoping we can go out - to our favorite Mexcian restaurant.  Darryl likes the cheese enchiladas . . .and those are soft :-)

Wednesday - The kids will be home.  The plan is pork chops on the grill, mac and cheese, applesauce, and green beans

Thursday - Beef Tips and Noodles and Biscuits.  (I can make the Beef in the crock pot!)

Friday - Guess what night is back?  It's Taco Night!!  T- ball is done so we are back to our normal schedule. 

What We are Eating - Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs . .. in the Crock Pot

Crock Pot Stuffed Meatballs. 
adapted from Creme de la Crumb

In an effort to use my crock pot more this summer in order to avoid heating up the kitchen, I found this recipe for Stuffed Meatballs.  Well, this was a huge success.  My husband raved about them!  He said he would rather have them with just some great sauce and some hearty bread then even with spaghetti!  This would make a great dish for a potluck because the meatballs only need to cook for about 3 hours . . .then you could just add the sauce right to the crock pot and people could enjoy the fabulous taste!  


Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup bread crumbs (panko or regular, Italian seasoned or plain)
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (or 2 teaspoons garlic powder)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 3-4 mozzarella cheese sticks (string cheese)
• marinara or alfredo sauce, for dipping

 

Instructions

1. Chop each cheese stick into half inch pieces (about 6-8 pieces for each cheese stick). Place on a plate and chill in the freezer until ready to use.
2. Add ground beef, bread crumbs, egg and egg yolk, garlic, onion powder, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to a bowl. Mush the ingredients together with your hands until everything comes together.
3. Remove cheese from freezer. Scoop out about 4 tablespoons of meat mixture and roll into a ball. Gently push a piece of chilled mozzarella into the middle of the meatball. Roll the ball in your hands to cover the hole where the mozzarella cheese was pushed in. Place inside a greased slow cooker and repeat with remaining meat and cheese.
4. When all meatballs are in the slow cooker (*see note for alternate cooking method), cover and cook on high for 1-2 hours or on low 3-4 hours until meat it cooked through (no longer pink). The cheese may start melting out of the meatballs, that's okay.
5. If desired, sprinkle with a bit of fresh chopped parsley or dried Italian seasoning for garnish and serve with your favorite marinara or alfredo sauce for dipping. Enjoy!

Notes

*For a quicker method, the meatballs can be baked. Follow directions to make meatballs, but instead of placing in the slow cooker, place meatballs 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes until browned and cheese is melty.
**These can also be made ahead and frozen! Prepare the meatballs as instructed in the recipe but instead of putting them straight into the slow cooker (or the oven if baking), just place them side by side in a zip lock bag ( you may need two), seal and place in the freezer. When ready to cook them, follow recipe instructions and increase cooking time slightly to allow for thawing.
*This recipe makes about a dozen large meatballs. This works great for an appetizer or side dish. If you want to use this for a main dish, I'd recommend doubling the recipe to be safe.

Teaching Tuesdays - Haivng Fun

This is the first week that the munchkin has been out of school so, with that in mind, I knew that we had to do something to break up the long afternoons.  Our week was filled with fun and a little review!

Our week started with a first - only Nate was home on Monday.  Josh stayed with my parents an extra day.  Due to a very late night home on Sunday night, Darryl took an unplanned day off and we did some things around the house/yard.  One of those things was mowing the grass and I love this photo.  Nate loves to walk in Darryl's footsteps when he mows.  I looked outside and saw a "game" of follow the leader. 

We also set up the pool.  The boys were all beyond excited to get to play in it on Tuesday afternoon.  This came after we did some review pages of course! 

On Wednesday, the boys played in the pool from 10:30 AM (because that is the earliest I would let them get in it or they would have gone in at 9:00!) until 4:00 PM.  They scarfed down their lunch in 10 minutes so they could get back outside.

Thursday we did some review pages and then on Friday, we did an art project about Plant Needs and Parts of a Plant. 

 Nate's very neat work!  He kept asking me if I liked "how proper" he was doing his work.  (This was because the other two boys did some scribbling in a race to get done first!)

 We also read this book - it's awesome!  The boys were totally engrossed in the rhyme, the photos, and the names of all of the bugs and flowers on each page.

Josh's work of art. 

The boys did finally plant our "garden" on Saturday.  I will admit to a total garden fail this year.  We had such a cool/cold spring that I put off putting in plants so they wouldn't freeze and then we just weren't home on any weekends.  The boys finally picked out their seed packs when we were at the store and planted them totally unsupervised.  I'm just hoping they sprout and but I doubt we will actually get anything to pick this year. Oops :-)

Make It Monday

Filling pools, prepping for camping; corraling four kids - that is what is consuming my days lately.  I really want to "make it" . . .to create something . . .to pick something out of my pinterest boards and see it come alive but, that just isn't happening! 

Shoot, I'd just like to "make" my basement organized HA! 

I've heard alot about this little book lately:

It's my reading for our camping weekend.  It's my theme word - Simplify (again). 

I do plan on making something at camp though . . so here's a tease for you!

And it has nothing to do with food!

Family Fun - Tee Ball

This spring, we signed the boys up for Tee Ball and it has been a huge success.  Josh, especially, loves it.  Nate is learning to love it but he still says he loves soccer more.  Josh enjoys watching the Detroit Tigers play and has informed us that some day, he will play for the Tigers and we will be watching him on TV.  Guess what, I'm ok with that dream :-)

 Their first practice was great.  Not only did the boys learn things, Darryl and I learned how to help them at home and a little more of how Tee Ball works. 

 Josh and Nate at their first game.  We were all very excited!

 When it was time to go on the field, Josh volunteered to be the catcher - which was funny since they had never talked about that position during practice. 

 He's so cute :-)  The job of the catcher in Tee ball is just to get the ball with the player on first throws it home and place it on the Tee. 

 Nate playing in the field. 

 Josh's first time up to bat.  He did great - hit the ball and remembered to run!

 Nate hit the ball too and yes, remembered to run!

The sun was very bright :-)

The boys have three fabulous coaches.  I have been so impressed by what they have been able to learn and how the coaches encourage them and correct them in order for them to learn to be better players.  I'm actually sad that they only have one more game and we have to wait a whole year before they play again.  Next year, Josh will move up to "Machine Pitch" where he will have to learn to hit a ball thrown by a machine.  Nate has one more year of Tee Ball  For now, they are looking forward to Soccer in the fall and Swimming lessons as soon as I can fit them in.  The boys have also asked to go back to gymnastics so the plan is to do that once soccer is done.  I try to find activities to do as our "PE class" for homeschool and these extracurricular activities fit the bill perfectly!

Weekly Menu - with a little camping thrown in

I can tell it's summer.  The days are lazier, the weather is warm, and I don't blog as much ;-)  I'm putting off installing the window A/C units as long as possible since we haven't had unbearable weather yet but, that also means sitting with a warm computer on my lap in the evenings is not on the top of my list.  If I don't get a chance to write blogs during the day, it usually doesn't happen. 

This past week was filled with VBS which was an unexpected break.  I didn't work in it this year because I had originally thought my kids were going to stay with my parents (but they decided they really wanted to be at VBS instead so they both missed Sunday night and Josh missed Monday as he did stay with my parents an extra night).  So, I was able to drop them off and then actually have a few hours each night of down time.  On Monday, Darryl and I dropped Nate off and then went to Applebees for dinner - it's 1/2 burger night so, with tip, our meal was not anymore than McDonald's would have cost (but so much better!)  On Tuesday we ate at home but after dropping the boys off, we treated ourselves to Frappes. (Are you seeing a trend? HA)  It ended up being a great week!

This coming week we will be camping again and we can't wait.  Our last trip was so fantastic that we can't wait for this one.

Saturday - this will be our prep day before camping so I will be busy prepping food, packing and loading the truck.  We usually end up with at least one trip to the store too.  In order to save money, we'll eat at home - I'm thinking we'll just end up with Corn Dogs/Hot Dogs and Chips to make it super easy.  

Sunday - Camping day one!  We'll eat lunch before we hit the road and, as is our tradition, after we get everything set up, we'll head a few miles down the road to our favorite pizza place, Bernie O's, for dinner . Naturally, we'll have s'mores and, since I have marshmallow fluff in the cupboard, I might take some strawberries and try out the latest "roasting" craze (per pinterest) and see if they are any good.

Monday - Breakfast at the campground - Sausage McMuffins (homemade), cereal and fruit;  Lunch - Soppy Joes in the crock pot along with chips and salads.  (I did this last time and it was awesome!);  Dinner will be steak kabobs (ok, we've modified these and now I cook them in the electric skillet - it's easier with kids); Baked potatoes (I can do them in the crock pot - you have to love crock pot bags HA) and salads.  This is also the night we like to go to Ruthanne's and get ice cream  - it's fun to get ice cream and watch the sun set at the beach.

Tuesday - Breakfast will be waffles and bacon (nothing smells better in a campground than bacon!).  Lunch - we always stop at fast food on our way out of town.  By the time we have packed up, loaded up and headed out we are hot, tired and thirsty PLUS starving!  By doing this, we know we can get home, unload and put stuff away without dying of hunger!  Dinner will be Chili mac.  I did this last time and it was perfect - it's actually already cooked and in the freezer - the Chili will just need to be heated up and I'll cook up some spaghetti to have with the chili.   A perfect end to a perfect trip.

Wednesday - Dinner is leftovers.  Between camping and Chili, we always have leftovers.  Sloppy joes, salads, and potatoes plus if needed I can always make mac and cheese. Oh, and I will be gone all day at a conference - my mom will be here so this way, between the time I get home and the boys need to be at their last T-ball game, we don't have to think too hard about dinner!

Thursday - How's this. . .. I have no idea ;-)  I plan to take the boys into town since I'm not babysitting this week and do something fun.  We will probably meet Darryl in town for dinner after his doctor's appointment.  Whether it be Pizza Ranch or Smashburger - it will be something quick and easy.

Friday - As of the writing of this - I'm not sure if we will be home or at my parents.  My brother is moving to South Carolina and this is their last weekend home.  Depending on how the goodbye's will go - We'll either drive over on Friday evening or Saturday morning.  So maybe we'll have tacos tonight or maybe not :-)