Friday, January 25, 2013

Flashback Friday

Surprisingly productive week.  Considering.

Monday, Tuesday-stomach bug.... absolutely nothing was done.

Wednesday-we got a lot of school done, and skipped our regular activities because of the bug.  I also mostly restored my house.

Thursday-up most of the night with Four (who got the stomach bug.)  Semi-productive day.  Kids all did school.

Today--there was some sleet ice this morning, so we played out in it (since it's supposed to change over to rain for our area, and we weren't supposed to see any REAL snow...lemonade from lemons ya know?)  We came in and had an amazing lunch (tomato bisque with grilled cheese croutons.)  Fitting for a super cold, wet day.  The kids called a snow day...and have been playing board games with the neighbor kids for the last 2 hours.  I made a batch of "erupting snow" in the tub for the boys...it was not a huge hit.  Four hated the texture, and Three kept insisting it made him "itchy."  Really??  What about baking soda is itchy??  And, it's the same shaving cream they play with in the tub on a regular basis...so I'm sure that wasn't it.  Three did still play with it for awhile.  And, I love the consistency of it myself.  It really had a 'snowy' feel to it.


 The above is probably my favorite picture from our time outside this morning.  It so accurately portrays our family.  Three is about to dive on Two (who is on the ground) who is trying to drag One down (that's her leg you see.)  Meanwhile, our dog is jumping around and barking.  My normal insanity.  Captured in one shot.



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Skinny Housewife

Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges.   O.M.G.  There aren't even words for how fantastic these were.  Honestly.  The Punk and I ate a good portion of them directly from the baking dish while the salmon patties I made to go with it were still cooking!

I was inspired by a facebook friend who had made them with his lunch that day and posted a picture.  As soon as I saw the pic I NEEDED to have them.  And, OMG  they were worth the four hour wait.

If you like sweet potatoes at ALL...you need to make these.  Now.

A healthier alternative to regular fries or white potato wedges, just a small amount of brown sugar, and olive oil.  And, so fantastic.  So.  Fantastic.




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Wordy Wednesday

Two's first basketball game.  She scored 6 points, in her second game she scored 10 points (I missed this one....they always seem to do outstanding when I'm not there to watch!)


At Kindergarten Co-op making an AMAZING model of the Earth.  I'm going to give you the instructions for these at the end of the pictures (because I didn't get around to doing Snapshot Sunday.)


Three showing off his Earth model.


They were "camping" in the hallway.

This is Four (on the far left) and two other little boys at his very first Art Class.  He was so excited!  I framed his work when he got home.



This was a glue together snowman.  When asked why he put the hat on the middle of the snowman's face, Four told me "It's a zombie snowman."  Win, my kids are SO WIN!!!



Three went to storytime last week with our wonderful neighbor.  They did this great "It's All About Me" poster.  Three added two kids to our family-when questioned one was The Bestie's son, and the other is my five year old nephew.


For Preschool Co-op we visited the Fire Station.  Here are Three and Four with the mask that the fireman wear.





Here is Four doing a game where I put a "number flag" on the pipe cleaner and he had to put on the correct number of beads.  


Three doing the same game (with higher numbers.)



Another fire station pic.




Ok, so the Earth models.  I highly recommend doing this activity.  The kids all loved it!  We did a different color for the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust.  The kids rolled the inner core color into a tight ball, then covered it with the outer core color.  Then covered that with the mantle, and lastly added the crust.  If you look at Three's picture, you can see his crust is "bumpy" like continents.  After the model magic has gotten VERY dry you can slice it open and be able to see ALL the layers!  What a cool demo for the layers of the Earth?  Am I right?  Yes, I am.  

We have had a rough week.  Three had a stomach bug and threw up all day Monday.  He didn't want me more than a few inches from him at ALL times, so, you guessed it...I woke up yesterday with the same bug.  Yippee.  The silver lining?  It was a fast bug.  Only about 12 hours of misery for Three, and even a little less for me (because I just chose not to eat all day...he kept begging for food and drink.)  My morning was filled with wiping down every surface with a Clorox wipe, and spraying all soft surfaces with Lysol.  Actually, the last three mornings have been like that!  Trying to keep the other 4 people in our household from having to suffer this ick.  

Today has been phenomenal though.  I woke up feeling 100% better.  No one else woke up feeling sick.  We've gotten almost three full days of school done this morning.  I'm about to run an errand and get the stuff to make the boys some "cloud dough" since they want to pretend it's a desert.  It's cheaper than buying a bag of sand, and I can store it in a bin I already have after they play.  It's a good inside sensory thing for a FRIGID day like today!

Recipe for "cloud dough:"  8 parts flour to 1 part baby oil.  It's great!  Seriously!


Saturday, January 19, 2013

Sideways Saturday

Good morning!!

I'm headed to a 2 hour Zumba Party, followed by a horribly bad for me but oh so yummy breakfast/lunch at Ihop with a friend (she is joining me for the party.)  I'm being honest....I only workout, so that I can eat.  I LOVE food.  I can't diet, I'm horrible at it.  I just do my best to eat clean things (except for when I go out-then all bets are off.  I'm not one of those people that can go out and order a salad or some plain grilled chicken.  Nah, that ain't me.)  Then, I work my buns off with Zumba and running to offset my caloric intake.

Then, I have a couple house projects I'd like to get done today.

One:

Phabulous Photo Phrame

Two:

Holiday Centerpiece  (I don't see it as a "holiday" centerpiece, I think it makes a beautiful WINTER piece though.)

I'll add pictures this afternoon, hopefully.  I have everything I need for the Phrame, but I have to go out into the woods and look for the branches.  It's been wet here, so I may have to postpone for a few days depending on the condition of the woods by my house.


Friday, January 18, 2013

Flashback Friday

Another good week in the books!

We skipped school for Three on Monday because he had a ton of "bad" food on Sunday (birthday party!) and really the difference in his attention span, and focus ability was GIGANTIC.  I was frustrated.  He was frustrated.  He's 6.  It really isn't worth it.  So, we just skipped it.  All the kids had bowling league that afternoon.

Tuesday we got Monday/Tuesday's work done for Three and he went to storytime at the library with a neighbor.  He really enjoys going.  They made a really cute "It's All About Me" poster.  Two had her first basketball game of the season Tuesday night, her team won 17-5.  She scored 6 points.  :)

Wednesday Three and Four toured the fire station with Pre-K co-op.  It was lots of fun.  I mean, firemen are the way to start the day.  FYI.

Thursday Four had an art class.  He really enjoyed it.  I framed his work, and hope he continues to enjoy it.  We signed up for 4 classes.  Three wants to take a class too, so next week he gets to try his own.

Today is a full day!  Gym class this morning (it's 90 minutes of free play in the gymnastics facility here.)  Kindergarten Co-op on the planets this afternoon.  Three was up BEFORE 6 am, so it's going to be a seriously long day.


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Lazy Housewife

A while back I pinned something that I thought The Punk (my husband) would love.  He (and One) loves Mexican food  and I am not a fan.  This translates to:  we don't have anything more than taco's very often.  However,  this recipe even looked good to me!

Mexican Stuffed Shells

For the recipe, since we are trying to eat better, more wholesome and made from scratch items I made the taco sauce myself.  It was simple, and quick.  I made it using tomato sauce that I made myself a couple weeks back.

I always use this Taco Seasoning, so I already had it on hand.

This got rave reviews from everyone, and since I made it mostly from scratch I was even able to serve it to Four.  One of my goals in this "eating cleaner" effort is to make a greater percentage of meals that we can ALL eat.  Since, because of his allergies, Four is FORCED to eat very cleanly.

It will definitely get added to our regular rotation.

Enjoy!

In addition to sharing some great recipes, I'm going to share a new addition to my workout routine:

Sculpt-Sexy-Abs-in-15-Minutes

Monday, January 14, 2013

Manic Monday

This morning I'm working on deleting photo and video from my phone. I found some shots from sometime in December and I don't want to just delete them without sharing them somewhere. So, lucky y'all!

Today isn't very manic. We have bowling league this afternoon and I want to get a run in. I need to do baking since I didn't get that done yesterday. Last week was the best school week we've had in a LONG time and I'm thrilled with the way my new system was working. We're going to model this week exactly like last. We played games, we made a number collage (for 15 because Three ALWAYS forgets 15 wen he's counting. 13, 14, 16. Every. Time. ) I read "Tonight on the Titanic" aloud to the boys, Three learned sight words and we played sight word tic-tac-toe. It was a great week (you can see pictures from last week in the Snapshot post.)

Now-random pictures of school related things in December so that I can get them off my phone.















Sunday Snapshots

















Sunday, January 6, 2013

Sunday Snapshots

Museum for Preschool Co-Op:  Meet the Animals.


Snuggles with me:


Excited Daddy was home after a week away:


They made a tent (my favorite part of homeschooling is the relationship between my kids:)


At a birthday party on Saturday, it's a jet pack and a ray gun (this clown was amazing.)


Four continuously asked for a "coyote."  She appeased him with a "red wolf."



At Kindergarten Co-Op, Four got in on the measuring fun.


This hawk was VERY close to the playground and the kids actually got to watch it HUNT!  It went after two squirrels.  I was so excited, I'm a goober like that.


These: http://www.thespiffycookie.com/2012/06/12/guest-post-mini-peanut-butter-cup-cheesecakes-by-traceys-culinary-adventures/