Skyline, Streakers and Sweets

Last night (Friday) we went to the Falks for dinner and games. We ate pizza and skyline dip (causing Eric to come with the idea of Skyline pizza. Wonder why that's never been tried before....)

Then the kids played while we got down to business. Kari had a hot winning streak (of one) to maintain and she did...just long enough for us to play one game, and eat the dessert I made.

Then I crushed everyone in the second game. The next "game" we played was "how many tries will it take to get a group picture the girls like". After all, we didn't want to be left out of Kari's next $500.00 photo album... It only took three shots (and three different seating arrangements)this time-a new record!

Then we sat around and talked about toys, the body part shaped muffins from my last post (innocent me thought they looked like eyes...apparently that was not the general consensus. How embarassing!) Christmas, potty training (that came up after their oldest, O came a'streakin) and other things until our kids had meltdowns from exhaustion. As always, we had a blast!

If you give a Moose a Muffin

Today's theme was "If you give a moose a muffin... by Laura Joffe Numeroff



For breakfast, we made blueberry muffins (Jiffy mix with some frozen unsweetened blueberries and a pinch of cinnamon thrown in.) W put in the muffin cups and stirred. (I tried to get him to wear a sweater like in the book, but he wanted to wear his pajamas...I couldn't really say anything since I was wearing my pajamas too!)
For art we made Moose finger puppets out of toilet paper rolls.
During playtime, the kids put on a puppet show. (Push play to watch the video of their performance. W is the cookie monster.)

B made a great audience.
I only wish I had big buttons for the kids to practice "sewing" with like in the book.

Lunch was corn dog muffins. (cornbread muffin mix with hot dogs baked inside.) W loved helping.They look like eyes to me....hmm...could be useful for another theme day...

After lunch, we read and some more fall/Thanksgiving books.

Snack was pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. They are so easy to make! all you do is take the box of cake mix, add 15oz of pumpkin (half of the can pictured here) and half a pkg of chocolate chips. (I also add 1/2 cup water, but you don't have to.) Mix it all together and bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes. (They don't rise or change from how you put them in, so you can fill the cups pretty full.) No eggs or oil! Next time I'm going to try butterscotch chips to see how that tastes.


We had a fun, but it's not over- Now I'm off to make meatloaf muffins for dinner!

Wordless Wednesday

This is a video. You have to go to my blog and push play to see it. (Just a heads up for those of you who get confused when I only put the word video in all caps. Ahem-Doug!)

Nothing exciting, we were just doing flashcards and B thought the sound the letter X makes was amusing....

Sneak Peek

Readers, meet ugly Christmas sweater 2009

Stay tuned to see it in its full glory....

Second Game

W had his second basketball game Saturday morning. I had practiced with him throughout the week, doing drills and explaining how to guard someone. (My parents are laughing right now, remembering how I fouled out of every game I played in junior high....)

Even though he seemed to 'get it' at home, he did not show it on the court. He kept playing with the string on his shorts and made sure to keep where he felt comfortable...

(yep, this is in the middle of the game. Everyone else is on the other end of the court.)

He ended the game having made some good inbound throws and getting a white star for his uniform. I'm proud of him for coping so well and not crying, even though he didn't want to come. I hope eventually he will start to enjoy himself.

Suspicious Minds

Friday night, Eric presented me with a red rose plant. He said he went out just to buy it for me.

Sweet, right?

My response wasn't.

The first two things I said were, "What did you do?" and "What did you buy for yourself?"

Hmmm.... Guess he needs to buy me more stuff for no reason so I will get used to it....

One Year Older....

Eric is 29 years old today!

I told W that daddy's birthday was coming up and suggested he make a card. Here is what he wrote:

(Just to be clear, he does call him "dad"...not sure why he didn't want to put that on the card....)

Kari and Doug came over last night and brought a white cake. (Eric's fave) Eric questioned why I put 11 candles on it. (it's two and nine, for pete's sake!)We sang Happy Birthday to him
he opened his "birthday boy" card, then we ate (Sam's Club cake...yummy!). W enjoyed SOME of his cake....

Anyone like cake the part only (only slightly fingered)?

Jambalaya

JAMBALAYA

3 cups cooked rice

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1 can red beans (tried with dried beans, and the beans were still rock hard.)

1tsp Franks hot sauce (can add more...this is all my kid and me can handle.)

2 TB Worcestershire sauce

2 gloves garlic

1 small onion, diced

1 1/2 green peppers, chopped

1 pkg (1lb) Eckrich smoked turkey sausage cut in rounds

1/2 cup fat free beef broth

OPTIONAL-chopped celery or sliced mushrooms

Place beans, (mushrooms, celery), tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, broth and half of the onions, garlic and peppers in the crock pot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Cook rice according to package directions. In a sep. Pam-sprayed pan, saute sausage and rest of onion, peppers and garlic until tender. Add contents of this pan and all the cooked rice to the crockpot. Stir and serve.
Serves 8-10.