monday's fun lunch....on wednesday :)

This past weekend got pretty busy so I forgot all about choosing a "fun lunch" for Monday. The girls had homeschool co-op classes yesterday, so that brought us to today! This week's creation was a brownie pizza. A deep dish pizza since that was the only round pan we had to bake with. (hmm...I think I see a trend in the pizza world with our food creations...!) It was very easy and the girls had a blast making - and eating - it! You can put whatever toppings on it that you like although we decided to go for "realistic" ones - red icing for tomato sauce, red m&ms for pepperoni, green apple sour straws for green pepper slices, raisins for sausage, marshmallows for feta cheese, and grated white chocolate for cheese. Yes, it was a bit of sugar overload but the fun we had making it was worth it! :)

the best toys

Somehow boxes just end up being the best toys. They allow you to use your imagination to go where ever you wish to go and be whoever you wish to be. We have had several different box creations over the past several years and so here is our latest.

This box was being used both for a choo choo train and a boat, so the next day we chose one...

A young Captain Sparrow in his Black Pearl. He has his treasure, his "arrr! dog", and...

a sword (made by daddy, who can make anything!) ! :) The pirate hat is compliments of the dollar section at Target - and we have definitely gotten much more than a dollar's worth out of it!

*FYI sometimes I do not understand this blog thing! It is not letting me make all the font the same size today for some weird reason......

so big!

Shannon sent me these pictures on my cell phone yesterday and I couldn't believe how BIG Jonathan looks in them!! He also got his hair cut the other day and the lady cut all of his cute curls off! :( Oh well, he's still pretty darn cute! :)

pizza of the sea

incriminating evidence

I would like to share with you my story of the week. And first I must add that I know I don't usually write the names of my children, but for this one post, it is just necessary to share one name with you for the full effect. :}
Earlier this week my girls had been asking to play up in their room, which we usually do for a few minutes in the mornings after we get dressed and make our beds, etc. But then school needs to be started so we head back downstairs and tend to get involved in stuff down here for the rest of the day.
Anyways, I made a special point to take them back upstairs after the baby's nap one day this week and let them play. They were having a blast playing with their My Little Ponies and Webkinz animals while I sat on a bed and watched and "ate" the yummy "food" the baby brought me from their little play kitchen. :)
At one point, my middle child started making some comments that caught my ear, such as, "Who did that?? Did you do that? I didn't do that!!" I looked over at where there were playing by the window seat and asked what was going on. My middle child said, "Someone drew on the seat right here with a pen!!" At which point my oldest piped up and said, "I didn't do it, Kiki!" Now, I must stop here and share with you that we tend to joke that my oldest can't tell a lie to save her life, although my middle child, unfortunately, is pretty good at it sometimes. So when the oldest says she did or did not do something, we tend to believe her. Besides the fact that when something like this occurs, it's just like my middle child to do it - or the baby nowadays.... So at this point I think, oh well, whatever, I'm sure it was the middle child but I'll worry about it later, besides, I am in the middle of a lovely cup of pretend tea!
After a while Wendy came home and happened to sit down on the window seat. We chatted for a minute when she noticed the drawing on the seat. She immediately looked up and said,"Tess! Why did you do that?!" She instantly got an "Uhoh! I'm in trouble!" look on her face and glanced over to see my reaction. I was surprised that Wendy would so quickly blame Tess for the drawing and asked how she knew with such certainty who the culprit was. Wendy asked if I had "seen what it says" and I confessed that no, I had been told about it but hadn't gone over to inspect the damage yet. Then I said wait, it SAYS something?? That right there pointed away from the middle child who doesn't quite know how to sound words out yet. I asked what it said and Wendy said I would just have to come see for myself. Which is what you will have to do too...scroll down.......



















Notice that it is complete with a checkmark in the box! Ha! This is one of those times when you know you shouldn't let the child see or hear you laugh but it was just too hard to hold it in and we both totally cracked up! :}

i two!

Today is my baby's 2nd birthday. I can't believe he's already two years old! Why do babies have to grow so fast?? :) He is so much fun right now. Although, I think I tend to say that at every different stage. :) His vocabulary is expanding quite rapidly and some of his favorite words are "no sir!", "cool!", "oh, twouble!" (He puts a "backpack" over his head and looks for an "animal in trouble" to help, just like Diego.), "so funny!", and many more. His favorite activities are playing with the Thomas train set he got for Christmas, running in circles, doing whatever his sisters are doing, making us laugh, and anything to do with music - singing, dancing, and listening. He is most definitely all boy, but he is also sweet and still cuddly, which I love. I know he won't be small for long, so I try hard to treasure the sweet hugs and kisses he gives, the way he runs his fingers through my hair when he's sleepy, and the times when he just wants to sit with me and snuggle. I pray that he will grow to love and serve God with all his heart, so for now we'll keep singing Jesus Loves Me and I'll keep reminding him Who created him so wonderfully - and I'll keep kissing those little chubby cheeks while I can! :)

Here are some of the other pictures from our Portrait Innovations session last week....

eating an octopus

I have decided to try some fun lunch ideas on Mondays, since last week's pita pizzas went so well. So here is another idea from one of Shannon's books....the kind that makes you go, "Well, DUH! why didn't I think of that?!" :)

I should have taken a close-up, but I forgot. Oops. I made Pasta Roni - the (sea)shell noodles with white cheddar cheese - and then stirred in a can of peas and carrots. The hotdogs I simply sliced about 3/4 of the way up into 8 legs. I had found regular goldfish at the store and just as I was picking it up, I saw a new kind (same brand) right next to it that has goldfish AND starfish! Add two dots of mustard for the eyes and you have a seafood lunch of seashells, goldfish, starfish, and an octopus! :) The girls thought it was entirely fabulous. The baby.....

...was a little weirded out by the octopus sitting on top of his food at first! Then I showed him how fun it was to pull the legs off and eat them. He thought it was great after that! :)

Patience...

...is always a lesson in progress. :) I had been wanting to take my kiddos to have "real" pictures done just before Christmas, but I ended up having to make a total of four different appointments due to one or more of us being sick! I was very sad when I ended up having to postpone the pictures until after Christmas, since I had wanted to do one set in their Christmas jammies. However, I finally got to go to Portrait Innovations on Wednesday and the whole thing turned out much better than it possibly would have if we had made it to one of the other appointments. There was one lady there looking at the pictures of her baby, another mom with two kids just finishing up a portrait session, and then us. By the time we were halfway through our session, we were the only customers in the building! It was so calm and relaxed and laid back and my kids had a blast.

Ok, here comes my plug for the day, so if you don't want to hear it, or I've already told you about it before, just skip this paragraph! :) I LOVE the way Portrait Innovations does their pictures! They have big rooms (compared to the tiny spaces provided at places like Penny's or Sears...) and the kids sit or stand on the floor - not up on some high platform. The photographer takes a million pictures (since it's a digital camera they're not worrying about using tons of film!) and just keeps snapping picture after picture - big smiles, laughs, quiet looks - to get a range of beautiful photos. There is no sitting fee at all. After your session is over you sit and look through all the pictures on large, flat screen tvs, going through 3 at a time to narrow them down to your very favorites. (While the kids can sit and play with toys!) The price is always up in the top corner of the tv so you can watch to make sure you're staying within your price range. (We had a total of 154 pictures and narrowed them down to "only" 62 at first. :} This would have been over $1,000 !! in the end we narrowed it down to 6 for less than a tenth of that first price!) If you purchase 3 or more poses (and you get three sheets of each pose you choose - in whatever sizes you want.), you also get a cd with all the pictures on it. You can bring this cd back anytime to have more pictures printed (at a higher price, of course) or you can print them right from your own computer at home, share them online like I'm doing, or email them to friends! :) You can even choose just one absolute favorite photo for their on-going $9.95 deal - which includes a total of almost 50 prints of your picture in varying sizes!

Ok, I'll stop rambling on about them now and just get to the actual pictures! :)

This is the one we used for the $9.95 deal. :)

The girl with the camera stood on a small pedestal to take this picture from a different angle. My middle child was standing with me watching and asked, "Why is she standing on that?" The girl turned around and said, "To make me taller - because I'm short!" My middle child wasn't quite satisfied with that answer and looked at me and said, "But, Kiki, she is not the statue of liberty!" Evidentally the statue of liberty is the only one allowed to stand on a pedestal?? :)

This next one is an example of how they just keep snapping pictures and end up capturing some great moments:

One of the best sounds in the world - a child laughing!! :)

Oh, you are also guaranteed one clothes change, and we did a more casual look for those but I will save them until next week....

pita pizzas

For Christmas, my best friend, Shannon, gave me an awesome book filled with all the neat, fun, and easy craft ideas from the Family Fun magazines. I couldn't wait to try out an idea and there were so many to choose from! However, "peanut butter and jellyfish" sandwhiches are my oldest's all-time favorite so I chose to do PB&J pita pizzas for lunch yesterday.

We spread peanut butter and then jelly on top of a pita for the "sauce". Then we added bananas, raisins, and pretzel sticks. The recipe also said you could use small apple chunks or dried cranberries or peanuts, but these ingredients were what we had on hand. The girls LOVED this lunch and it was easy and fun to make. Thanks, Shannon, for the book!! I know we'll be using it a lot!! :)