Menu Plan Monday

MONDAY: Aidell's hotdogs with our pickles, baked beans and star fruit (yuck, none of us liked it)
TUESDAY: Pork Stir fry with brown rice
WEDNESDAY: Cajun Mac and Cheese with ham, broccoli

cheese sauce: melt half a stick of butter, 2 TBLS white wheat flour, cook a couple of minutes, add approx. a cup of milk, heat, add handfuls of cheddar until you like how it looks, add a TBLS or so of sweet chili sauce and 2 teaspoons of Cajun spice. Pour over cooked, drained whole wheat pasta mixed with cubed, cooked ham. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.

THURSDAY: Sausage, Quinoa, Veggie concoction--I'm winging it.
FRIDAY: Baked Tilapia, baked potato, broccoli
SATURDAY: spaghetti and meatballs
SUNDAY: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, curried cauliflower

Get more meal ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Return of the Jedi

No words required.

My Arteeest!

Today I walked past the easel and did a double take. I looked again and called Reese. I asked him who drew this picture of Hulk. He said "I did it all by myself. Are you impressed?" Except he says impressed funny. In a cute little boy with a new word way.He has spent a good chunk of time every single day for months working on coloring, tracing and now free hand drawing. And YES I am totally impressed. I feel like his heart is as good as one I'd draw. He wrote his name and the X to "sign" his work. I haven't figured out why he needs both. The letters at the bottom "OAM" apparently they say "HULK." The black bumps he drew on Hulk's arms are his biceps. Reese was very adamant that I notice the biceps. I love that he has teeth and hair and toes!!

He is very proud of his artwork and we must save EVERY.SINGLE.PAGE he draws or colors, even coloring book pages. He discovered one in the recycle bin once and had an absolute conniption fit. I assured him I had no idea how that outrageous mistake could've been made and we pulled it out...hooray.
I am sure we are neglecting some other skill to focus so much on this one, but I am so happy with his drawing. This time last year I was a little worried all his preschool classmates were drawing stick people or other things that looked like beings while Reese's artwork looked like scribble. I am quite relieved that not only has he caught up but I think he's doing super well. We are very proud of our in-house artist!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Smoky Chicken Tacos (using leftover chicken from Sunday's dinner)
Tuesday: homemade chicken soup using broth from Sunday's chicken
Wednesday: Ham, Cajun macaroni and cheese, mixed veggies
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: pork and veggie stir fry with brown rice
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Pork Chops, mashed potato, broccoli

Get more diner ideas at Organizing Junkie!

Happy Easter!!!

We started the morning off with our egg hunt!

Then we hunted for the Easter baskets. Gus excitedly showed his dad his Angry Birds shirt. He was SUPER excited about it.

Reese has been asking for this Spiderman dvd since Christmas. He asked again on his birthday. The Easter Bunny finally came through. He loves it!

His Darth Maul Pop bobblehead joined his Star Wars bobblehead family.

Reese announced he knew a good place for them to be. He decided to put them on top of his preemie diaper, hat, wristband shadow box.

He was very happy with his Easter morning.

We went to church with Kyle's parents. I should've asked his mom to take more than one photo because I hate the double chin look I'm sporting!

Then we had dinner at Kyle's parents house with both our families and Kyle's mom's best friend's family. I couldn't get my camera to focus on my mom's deviled chick.

We finished with the individual rainbow cakes.
Easter turned out to be the best weather of 2012! It was a perfect sunny day and the mountains were crisp and clear. Why can't I remember to take photos of the people and the mountains?!?!!?

Easter Prep

Saturday night we did our Easter prep. We did potluck style Easter dinner with our parents and Kyle's mom's best friend's family. Our potluck contribution was dessert. We made individual rainbow cakes.

Gus is not much for taking turns. He screamed "NO, me do it! Me do it, too!" every single time it was Reese's turn to add something. Reese doesn't like to crack eggs so he let Gus do all 3, but it was not enough. Of course the nano-second the bowl came back to Gus to add something it was all sunshine and rainbows again.

We made white cake, divided it into 4 bowls, added pink, purple, yellow and blue dye then layered them into 8oz. wide mouth mason jars about half way. I baked them on a cookie sheet about 3 minutes more than the cupcake instructions.

Since we were taking them to Kyle's parent's house the next morning I just put the mason jar lids and bands on to keep them fresh and easily portable.
*****
Once the boys were in the bed we did our Easter morning prep...egg collecting baskets in the bedroom doorway. Since I wanted them to go to sleep I didn't tell them there would be an egg hunt. So I wanted to make sure the boys didn't miss the baskets.

The eggs were "hidden" with care.

I was awakened I am sure before dawn to Gus' face and a basket in my face, "what's this, Mommy?!?!?!" I about hit the ceiling I jumped so far. So we got up and egg hunted. Since we didn't see any baskets I told them they must've caught the bunny in the act of hiding the eggs, so they better get back in bed and close their eyes so he could finish with their baskets. And they did!!! We slept for about 2 more hours!
When we got up I asked Reese if he found an Easter basket. He said "No, but we did our best to close our eyes, we really tried." He seemed to completely accept that there would be no Easter basket. Bless his heart he was so sweet. I suggested we check the basement and they quickly found their loot!

The Easter Bunny left a little candy, a C3PO Pop bobblehead, angry bird shirt and Muppets Treasure Island for Gus.

The Darth Maul Pop Bobblehead, angry birds shirt, Season 1 of the Amazing Spiderman cartoon and a Scooby dvd. So glad we got only a few candy items because the bunny left a TON of candy at the grandparents' houses.
We have so much candy it's ridiculous! This year we discovered no one likes Junior Mints. Really, none of them will eat them. They aren't my favorites or anything, but who doesn't like Junior Mints in pretty Easter colors? Gus was overjoyed with his purple peeps though. He carried them to church and to the grandparent's house.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Chicken Sausage Pasta Bake - YUM!
Tuesday: leftover pasta bake
Wednesday: Jambalaya with turkey kielbasa
Thursday: Ham and Potato Casserole
Friday: Nachos - I use ground beef, green chiles, corn, black beans and diced tomatoes
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Roasted Chicken, baked potato, broccoli

Check out what's for dinner around the blogosphere for more ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Awesome Deal

The April Special for Thirty-One is a great one!! For every $31 you spend you can choose apurse for 50% off!! This photo shows the skirt purse with a pink skirt (50% = $22.50) and the retro metro bag (50% = $26)

The snazzy new cargo purse (50% = $31)

The demi purse (50% = $14.50)

There are more purse styles and fabric options to choose from. You can see a catalog online at my site. Send me an email and I'll get your order for you!

EASTER EGGS

The boys slept at Gigi's last night. They woke up at 7am...we never get up before 9am at our house, so they were tired. I convinced them to lay down for a rest with not too much complaint because I said we couldn't color eggs until after the resting. Within 15 minutes they were asleep. When Reese woke up almost 3 hours later he immediately popped up in bed and announced "I'm ready to color eggs!"

We used a jumbo muffin tin and koolaid as dye. My safeway had a very limited assortment of koolaid colors which kind of surprised me.

Each boy got to do 6 eggs. Gus was WAY into. Reese was a nice brother and gave one of his to Gus so they did 7 and 5...everyone seemed happy.

Gus still looks not quite awake.He perked up to taste his koolaid tinged fingers.Reese promptly got busy drawing, coloring, and cutting out artwork.Reese's rendering of our eggs sitting in the carton to dry.
Tada! Our completed colored eggs.

Um, yeah I need to google silver polishing methods for my Nana's Easter basket.

Big Boy Bed....April Fools

I noticed Gus getting out of bed and rummaging, then returning to bed. Since there was no shrieking or annoying Reese I let it go. Then when I walked passed their bedroom door this is what I found:
Because this is what was in his big boy bed: This kid is a crazy sleeper!