Best Boss EVER!!!!

No joke here my husband made these 2 cakes for 2 of his employees birthdays..lucky girls!

"A Day at the Pool" Birthday Treat

We have a summer birthday boy(we actually have 2)and today is the day we are going to bring his treat to his class. Since I was relaxing all weekend and quite honestly who wants to bake in 85 degree weather and this idea is the cutest for a summer birthday and no bake.

It is a pool with a child floating in a inner tube or is it?



What you need:
*shortcakes(you find them at the store near the strawberries)

*vanilla pudding or frosting mixed with blue food coloring(or blue moon icecream which wouldn't work for the class)

*sour patch kids

*gummi life savers

Put a spoonful of frosting in the middle of the shortcake.
Pull sour patch kid through center of life saver and place into the middle of the "pool" Done in no time I made 24 in roughly 5 minutes with the help of the kids!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

After a stressful couple of months I decided I inparticular needed a break and so this weekend was just what I thought my body and spirit needed and our family needed(Thank You PK)!!!
Here are some highlights of our weekend:


Why would I start off my pictures with a swan? Well it is a funny story. Our first morning at the lake we decided to go Jet Skiiing. My little Jensen doesn't like to try new things and the first ride on the Jet Ski every year is a difficult one. He will only go with me and we go roughly 2 miles an hour(not very fast for a jet ski)so we are toodling around the lake near the edge looking for turtles and fish and talking about erosion, when we see a couple of swans. Soon we ignore them and start our hunt again for a turtle when I notice out of the corner of my eye one of the swans swimming rather quickly in our direction. It was over a 100 feet away so I ignored it and then when it was 50 feet away I realized it was not happy at all and this is when I decide we need to get out of here and I go full throttle(reminding you my Jensen likes to go 2 miles an hour so gunning it is not going to create a happy moment). As I take off so does the swan flying behind us. You know how the mirror says "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" well I don't know how much closer the swan could have been in the mirror. A family member saw the whole thing happen and they said that when the swan would flap his wings up my hair would sucked up too, this tells you how close it was. Well lucky for us the jet ski is faster than the swan and he backed off when we started to pull away. Now to deal with Jensen who was not happy about going so fast. Luckily for me he was attacked by 100's of bees last year and has a very good understanding about animals protecting things. I was able to say the swan was protecting his baby and I went fast to protect my baby and all was well!!!

TUBING FUN!!!




RELAXING IN THE HOT TUB!!!!


PLAYING IN THE LAKE!!!!



FISHING!!!!





PADDLE BOATING!!!


MORE WATER FUN!!!

*as you can see Christian narrowly escaping the little guys


SPEED BOAT FUN!!!

David III, David II, Christian, Javone, Spencer, Trenton, and Josh
These guys also played A LOT of basketball and they do something else A LOT..... EAT!!!!

I was right it was just what we(I) needed. We relaxed and played and relaxed and jet skiied and relaxed and fished and relaxed and swam and relaxed and played games and relaxed and WIIed and relaxed and tubed and relaxed and went on boat rides while relaxing and just had fun together!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Getting ready for Summer

I have done learning books in the past but this year I thought I would do something a little different to keep the kids engaged in school all summer. I had some file folder centers(by carson delarossa and dj inkers) and some other centers(by the mailbox). All I did was buy another grade level packet of centers(which the school company I order books from was having a huge sale so normal $30 centers I got for $6.25) to 3rd grade and this is what I created for our summer learning fun:


(I found the red holder at a garage sale for $1)

This boy hates to have his haircut and so I just let it grow until I can't ake it anymore. I usually cut it on a Sunday evening so David can be there to hold his head still. However(and I wish I had a picture of this) we have a new way he plugs his ears the whole time I am cutting his hair and when I need him to move his hand I have to shut the clippers off and plug his ear myself before I can continue. It is a hilarious sight!!!

BEFORE




AFTER

Classes

This winter I sat down with my children and we were going to decide what class or sport they wanted to participate in. I had gathered all the booklets, pamphlets, and printouts of a wonderful array of classes and was sure the bright colors and wonderful pictures would entice my young children to be in indecision of what grand learning experience they were going to enjoy.

The first one decided track and soccer, the second swimming, the third swimming, and the fourth said, "Mom I just want to stay home and have fun with you.". I sat him in my lap and showed him all the fun he could have and he responded oh so politely said, " No thank you I want to have fun with you." and then second and third child chimed in, "Me too!" Shocked by the whole situation and my heart about to burst(I think it did I had tears running down my face) with love for my children we began a new meeting. What fun do you want to have with mom?

Since I will not be having any soccer, swimming, or dance pictures to share I thought I would share the fun they decided to have with me!



*I have no pictures of Julianna yet(the girl is not a fan of picture taking unless she is feeling super girlie) but she did decide Art was going to be the activity so there should be pictures to come shrortly. Hopefully of her but if not.... her masterpieces will appear!

Jensen's Building "Class"

Jensen opted for building. He has built out of blocks, recycled amterials, legs duplos, and below his favorite by far are Trios by Fisher Price. As I am typing this he is building a robot!!!

David's Science "Class"

He decided to do science experiments. Here he is doing a dig and put together a fabulous dino skeleton. He has also grown crystals, has put together a other skeleton, observed plants and their roots and other parts, and many other fun science actviviites.

One of My New Favorites

If you are a parent of a teenager who plays sports you know why this is one of my new favorites. There is not a worse smell that can come into your home than that of wet athletic shoes not from rain might I add (though rain adds a new dimension of smell) and the bag they are carried in. This is fabulous stuff!!! Kiss Kiss to the inventor!!!!!

Dippin' Dinner

I have said before half of my children are picky eaters but there is one dinner we have that I know there will be no complaining and that is Dippin Dinner!

First you need dips. Some of our favorites are:

Peanut Butter

Ranch

French Onion

Granny Dip(can not give out the recipe unless you marry into the family sorry)

Hummus:
1/4 C tahini
1-2 cloves garlic
1 Tb lemon juice
1 can chick peas drained
Put these ingredients into a food processor and blend
Slowly add the oil until you have a peanut butter consistency
1/2-1 C olive oil
and then add sea salt to taste

Queso Dip:
1 can Rotelle tomatoes and chiles drained
12-15 slices american cheese
heat until cheese is melted

Avocado Dip:
If you love Jimmy Johns avocado spread try this:
1 small chili pepper
1 medium onion
1 small garlic clove
1 small tomato, peeled
2 medium avocados pitted and peeled
1 Tb fresh lemon or lime juice
3/4 tsp salt
1 dash seasoned salt
1 dash dry mustard
Throw all ingredients into a food processor and blend.

Black Bean Salsa
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
3 roma tomatoes diced
1 vidalia onion diced
1 small chili minced
1 green pepper diced
2 Tbs olive oil
Mix all together

Next the things to dip are endless. Some of our favorites are:

carrots, celery, broccoli, pitas, pita chips, pretzels, apples, bananas, pears, tortilla chips

This is one of our summer no cook family favorites! Enjoy!

Track 2010

On the morning of Prom the first order of business was to travel 3 hours north to Regionals for track. 6 hours of driving for 2 minutes of running-WHAT!..craziness!!!! The relay team Christian is on when arriving at regionals was ranked 13th and they came in 5th which is great for a sophmore team..they beat Midland Highs sophmore record by 11 seconds way to go boys!!!!



Other track meets from this year:

PROM 2010

Can I really be old enough to have a child going to Prom?

Here they are Kendra and Chrisitan..................

Moments in Motherhood

*Holding your child as they slump into you sobbing

*Icing a black eye

*Cuddling in early morning hours

*Opening your home in the late evening hours for friends

*Witnessing heartbreak, you wish was yours

*Having your 7 year old bring you a calendar and want to sit down with you to calendar the month and have the same child come to you with their new morning routine so mornings can be easier

*Laughing together

*Seeing eye to eye and coming up with a plan

*Witness Triumph

*See them get the gospel and why what we teach is important

I absolutely love being a mom...every minute of it! I hate roller coasters but this one is worth the ride!!!!

Italian Chicken Salad

I am a creative person and love creating!!! The other thing I love to do is read cookbooks. Which is quite humorous because when cooking I never follow a recipe, I do with baking and if I am trying a new method for the first time but for the most part I can say I never use a recipe. My love for creating and my love for reading cookbooks come together so beautifully sometimes and sometimes not and below is one of the times I can say YUM!!!



1 large cooked boneless skinless chicken breast shredded
¼ cup plain yogurt
2 green onions sliced
1 Cup baby spinach(take 8 leaves at a time and roll them and slice them)
2 roma tomatoes diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1-2 tsp Italian seasoning
¼ cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
sea salt to taste

Serve on tomato basil wrap with a cup of baby spinach. Yummy!

Preschool Graduation

Contemplating...actually upset we pulled him off the trampoline!!!!!

























The amazing women and wonderful children we have the fortune of doing preschool with!!!!

Sarah and Katie, Anne and Lincoln, Jenny and Sophie, myself and Jensen, Suzanne and Levi, and Julie and Samuel