Sunday, January 31, 2010

Tommy Away


Tommy recently traveled to Massachusetts. When he travels I like to pack him food to keep him alert and well fed. I usually buy a bunch of snack type food from the store, but I thought it would be better to make him snacks. I had some left over nuts in the pantry so I thought I would roast some nuts flavored in some herbs and spices. I also packed him home-made popcorn, cookies, and some fruit. My goal this year is to make as much from scratch. It's better for everyone because I can control what s going into the food. Speaking of I was so excited to see seeds for sale at my local store. It gets me so excited to think that spring is around the corner.
It was recently brought to my attention that my blog is emailed to people. If you do not wish to receive email updates please let me know and I will try to figure out how to control the setting.
This weeks theme is all things February, there are so many holidays, birthdays and things happening in the month February. I felt it was important to recognize each happening.
Stay tuned!!!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Snow Day




So the kids and I woke up today to a surprise that we were not expecting at all...SNOW!! It figures Tommy is away and we get snow, so I will be the one shoveling and playing outside with the kids. As soon as the kids saw the snow they wanted to go sled ridding. I explained that that's Daddy's thing. They seemed to agree with me. But my thing is making yummy treats and having the hot chocolate ready. So on this snowy day I was playing the role of Mommy and Daddy. The kids and I made peanut butter cookies with a Hershey Kiss on top. I boiled the water and put it in the carafe to it would still be warm when we came in from the snow.


We got all dressed and headed outside. I don't mind doing man house work (painting, changing light bulbs, and fixing things around the house, etc. in fact when something needs to be fixed when Tommy is home the kids come to me). Anyway back to my story...but I hate shoveling!!!! Luckily it warmed up and the three inches of snow was very light. The kids were very eager to help me out. Aiden was pushing his lawn mower around saying it was his snow blower and Amelia was loading her wheel barrow with the snow. They were so helpful and sweet. We spent about an hour outside and told them it was time to go inside, but of course they did not want to go in, but I was locked and loaded with hey let's get some hot chocolate and they were running inside!! Thank G*d thought ahead to do that. Inside we sat and had some hot chocolate. I say we had a good snow day even though Tommy was not home!!!

My Obsession


Some girls are obsessed with shoes and some are obsessed with clothes, but I recently realized I am obsessed with purses. Now a days I wear either sneakers or flip flops, so I really have no reason to buy too many shoes. I looked at my shoes that were on top of the closet I realized that they were all high heels size 8. Well since I have had the kids I have not worn a size 8 shoe let alone high heels so I decided that I needed to donate them. As I was looking at my shoes I looked at my purses crammed in the armourer and thought to my self, why have a shoved my designer purses into armourer. (It's like someone put Baby in the corner). So I took the time today during nap time to take care of this utmost importance my purses. I do spend a little too much on purse most of them were purchased pre-kids, but I worked and I thought I could treat myself. Now a day a buy a new purse once in a while, but feel that if I spend a little more on a good quality purse I will probably have it forever and then can give it to my little girl!
It took me about an hour and a half to complete this task. I noticed that all of my purses had junk in them. Old receipts, lists, make up, hair stuff, and money. I found a lot of loose change. But not enough to go buy a new purse ;(
My purse are now neatly displayed on top of my closet cleaned inside and out. They are stuffed with tissue paper so they will keep a nice shape.
Next time you see me with my purse don't judge me and my obsession...we all have them. WHAT'S YOURS??



Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tommy's Favorite Cookies


This is so easy to make!!! Take some pie crust and use a cookie cutter of your choice and go to town. I used seedless strawberry jam (use whatever you have on had) put about a tsp on half of the cut outs then take the other cut outs and place on top of the cut outs with the jam. Take a fork and smoosh them together. Place in a 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Dust with confectioner sugar. Tommy and Aiden loved the cookies. Next time I make this I want to try some other variations for the filling.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

January

January, is a hard month for us because the weather is always so uncertain. The days are so short and cold. The only time we go outside is to run to the car to go someplace. The one thing that I look forward to during the month of January is Shop Rite's "Can Can" sale. It's the high-light of my month. I get to stock up on all the beans and tomatoes our pantry can hold. If Tommy had it his way I would also stock up the basement with cans. Beans is the one thing the kids love. Amelia just can't seem to get enough of them, her favorite are chick peas and black beans.
I am always looking for new recipes that use beans in a creative way and I found it in "Everyday Food" (Martha Stewart) of course!!!. It's black bean and brown rice cakes. It seems so simple and yet tasty. Baked sweet potato fries will accompany the cakes along with a sauce made from plain yogurt, lime juice, cilantro, salt, and pepper.
I made dessert tonight too...Heavenly jam cookies. Recipe to follow shortly!!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Smilebox

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Just trying out this web-site

Week of January 25th


The theme for this week is Potty. Guess what we will really be doing most of this week... you guessed it learning to go to the Potty all the time. We started off by telling the kids a few white lies:
1. Dr Chun called and told us they would need to get a shot if they don't start using the potty.
2. There is a shortage of diaper and if the kids keep using diaper Olivia and Gehrig won't have any to wear.
We might be mean by lying to them but it worked and is working. Aiden had a rough start I guess he doesn't feel the urge like Amelia does. He would pee his pants. He had three accidents before I realized that this might discourage him so I ran to CVS to get him Pull Ups. The pull ups seem to be working for him. Amelia really has no problem wearing her underwear. We set the timer to go off every 30 minutes (so I don't lose track of time). They know when they hear the timer to go off they go right over to the bathroom. They go and then if they go they get a little treat. We are on day two and it is a success. KNOCK ON WOOD!!!! I know we will be ok at home but my main concern is going out!! I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Today we went to our "classroom" and I had Blue's paw print all over the "classroom" with P-O-T-T-Y on the back and then we sounded the letters out and told the kids this would be the theme for the week. We then colored a picture of Blue going to the potty. Then off to the potty we go.....

Week of January 18th


Our theme for last week was snow people. We had a lot of fun with this. Especially since I have so many snowmen laying around the house.
We started the week of by having a snowman pancake breakfast. I think that Tommy and I enjoyed it more. Tommy was off from work on Monday so we didn't have "class."
Tuesday came and the kids were excited to start our activities. We started by playing snowmen bowling. I taped snowmen onto the bowling pins and the kids had a great time knocking them down. The kids worked up an appetite and wanted a snack so we stole from one of our last weeks snacks by covering rice cakes with cream cheese and using raisins for the eyes and mouth and for the nose we used a goldfish. The kids thought it was tasty. I had cut everything out for the kids to put together a snowman. They glued the circles together and then glued the rest of the body parts on.
On Wednesday we learned some songs and dances. We then read the book "Snowy Day" after reading the book the kids were given Jack and some blue paper and told to glue Jack on the paper and decorate the paper with things that Jack did while playing outside. I was really amazed by how much they could recall while doing this picture.
Thursday came so fast we made snomen necklaces and played in snow (made from shaving cream and glue). This was messy but the kids loved the activity. We finished the day by singing and dancing to the dances we learned the day before.
We ended our week early, because Friday Gram and Pops were coming to visit.
The kids were excited to show them everything we had done and their "classroom".
The liked the bowling so much that they wanted to play it again. The kids really seem to enjoy the theme weeks. It's something they look forward to everyday.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Circus Day 4


Circus Day three was a disaster, because the kids were in a horrible mood, so I won't even begin to talk about that.

Day four we started the day by baking a cake so after nap-time we could decorate the cake like a carousel. The kids really got into putting the ingredients into a bowl, cracking the eggs, and mixing the batter. They blew the cake a kiss and into the oven it went for 30 minutes.

After the kids had animal crackers for snack we made clowns from white paper plates and other things I had on hand. The kids really like this because the mouth was made from twizzlers. They kids love their new friend.

Amelia came down the stairs from her nap asking to decorate the cake. The kids helped me decorate the cake by supervising me spread the icing. I inserted straws into the cake, added the animals (animal cracker), and added the top of the carousel made from scrap booking paper. The kids can't wait for Daddy to come home to show him.


As the day progressed, I thought it would be a great idea that the kids and I have a place to go and not worry about the glitter, glue, and other stuff getting all over the house. (Not to mention Tom has gone to work several days this week with glitter on his face). So I went to the basement and made it kid friendly. I'll post pictures another day. I am excited that we can go down there and have it be a change of scenery for all of us.

I already started planning next week's theme...Stay tuned for that!!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Circus Day 2










Day 2 began with the kids decorating a horse cut out. I let them go to town with markers, gems, glue, and glitter. (Yes glitter it's so much fun for a three year old.) They are making these horse so I can make a carousel for them while they are napping. The kids loved the glitter. They were only allowed to glitter one at a time, which surprisingly they went along with.


After I cleaned up the glitter mess, which was not so bad, we got ready for the snack activity. I bought rice cakes, icing, and licorice. I told the kids we were making balloon snacks. I bought white icing, they picked the color they wanted their icing to be. The kids iced the rice cake with the frosting (TIP: Next time I will use whipped cream cheese-less sugar). They put the licorice at the bottom of the rice cake for the string. They loved this new snack. I thought this was messier then the glitter.


This afternoon's activity will be jumping thru flame hoops. Don't worry I haven't lost my mind (yet). We will be jumping thru hula hoops with red, yellow, and orange streamers attached to it!

Circus Week


The first day of the Circus theme week was kind of fun. We started off the morning learning that we would be doing activities revolving around the circus all week. The kids were excited, but then started to ask to go to the circus. (Little poor planning on my part) I explained that the circus is not in town at this time, but when it comes to town we would go and see it. We learned the letter "C" I showed the kids an upper and lower case "C". We looked at a picture of the circus and the kids identified all the different things they saw.
After breakfast we pinned the nose on the clown's face. My little man was not thrilled with messing with the clown picture. He also did not want to be blind folded. However the little princess enjoyed playing this game. Especially when she asked me to play the game with her. I think her favorite part was spinning me around. I have to admit I was pretending to go all over the house and the kids thought it was funny.
We ventured to the dollar store and AC Moore to get all the supplies that we needed for the week. As we shopped we talked about all the circus things I was buying.
After nap time, the kids were surprised with caramel corn for snack. Something they don't get often. After snack the kids decorated their own big top. I made a big top for each of them made from construction and computer paper. I gave each of them circus stickers to decorate the big top. They had a blast. The activity was finished fast, so I needed to come up with something fast. I remembered that I just bought a picture bingo game to play with the kids. The kids loved the game. At the end of the day I explained to them that tomorrow will be another day filled with circus activities. Day 1 was a success!!!

Theme Weeks

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to start doing fun activites with the kids that teach them new things along the way. So last week I decided that each week we would have a new theme. All the activites will revolve around the theme. I hope that it will excite the kids to know that every week we will be learning something new and doing new things!!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Hat

Here is a picture of the hat we made!!

The New Year

The New Year has begun and we are off to a great start!! The cold weather has forced us to stay in the house today!! So I am determined to make it a great day! We started the day off with a great breakfast. Our first activity of the day was decorate Newspaper hats. I made the hats and showed them that you can make something neat out of a newspaper. The kids less then interested until I broke out the stickers and told them to decorate the hat anyway they want. They sat for awhile and decorated their hat. Amelia decided to decoarate her hat with animal stickers, each sticker was discussed whether or not the "Wonder Pets" save this animal. I am truly impressed with her memory considering I can't remember what I had for breakfast.


The kids are now doing self directed activity. Amelia is laying in my laundry basket and Aiden is cooking in his kitchen. Snack is in few minutes and then we will be bowling. Winter is a rough few months for us, as I don't like driving in the snow, and when it's windy I don't like driving because I am afraid of trees falling. I am already compiling a list of activities to do with the kids. I am looking for Martin Luther King activities too.


Well off to prepare snack.

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