Back to School

Well it's that time again...Back to School! The kids were both excited this morning to head off and start a new year; Bailey in 6th grade and Collin in 2nd. The morning was busy, as usual, but I did manage to make them a real breakfast complete with pancakes, fruit and juice to keep them going through the morning. They didn't get many new school clothes this year, there just wasn't much that they needed before our weather decides to cool down, but they each managed to find the perfect look for the 1st day.

Bailey loves her "cute meets rock and roll" look, right down to the shoes and bracelet. Lookin' good for 6th grade, her dad hopes the boys don't notice!

Collin's favorite 1st day apparel seems to be Tony Hawk, hands down...he's worn it for every 1st day since Kindergarten. Mom likes the look too, and even springs for the shoes (which of course HAVE to be blue), I'm such a push-over!

I don't ever remember looking this cute for school...ever! Of course I started school in the late 70's so there was little hope for "cuteness", to this day I hate corduroy pants! When I was in elementary school both my parents worked, my dad at the INEL and my mom at Mountain Bell. My younger brother and sister and I would come home after school and find a short list of chores to do, and there was always a little something for an after school snack. Our favorite was what we now refer to as the "After School Cake", it's officially called "Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake" It makes the perfect kid cake because it doesn't need a fork, just a napkin and a generous slice...I'll be whipping up a pan as soon as I finish this post! It's easy and quick and I thought it might be fun to share. It has to be served with a glass of cold milk...HAS TO, trust me on this one! So for all the kids headed back to school, this one's for you!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe
a.k.a. After School Cake
1 3/4 c. boiling water
1 c. uncooked oatmeal (instant)
1 c. lightly packed brown sugar
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. margarine
2 eggs
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBPS cocoa powder
3/4 c. nuts (optional)
12 ox. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl pour water over oatmeal; let stand 10 minutes. Add sugars and margarine; stir until margarine melts. Add eggs and mix well. Sift together all dry ingredients and add to wet mixture, mixing well. Add 1/2 the chocolate chips to the batter and pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle remaining chips and nuts on top. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until done.

My kids will be so happy to discover this for their after school snack for the 1st day back to school...enjoy!

Father's Day

We decided to celebrate Father's Day on Saturday this year. Ryan and I are trying hard to eat light and exercise 5-6 times a week but allow one day to eat "normal", usually on Saturdays and since Ryan's heart was set on sushi for his "splurge", we decided to bump all the Father's Day fun to this day. Bailey wanted to make breakfast for daddy so I helped her get started. She got a wonderful "Nancy Drew Cookbook" for her birthday from Uncle Nathan and Aunt Joe and has really enjoyed trying out the new recipes. For her and Collin it would be French Toast with Bananas and Maple Syrup and for Daddy and I she was making .....It's a great cookbook for kids to learn to cook. Nearly each recipe is connected to one of the classic Nancy Drew books or one of the characters. Instructions are easy to follow and not too complex, perfect for my budding chef!We sat down to enjoy the wonderful breakfast Bailey made (with a little help from Mom), and she was feeling very proud of herself. After breakfast Ryan opened his homemade cards and gifts from the kids. He was very excited to open a Blu-ray set of the original 6 Star Trek movies and an "official" vintage style tricorder; for you non trekkies out there, it's the gadget that Spock and Dr. McCoy would use to evaluate things. Ryan was a very happy sci-fi trekkie geek dad as we sat down to watch the 1st movie together. As we were watching Ryan realized that he'd gone to see the movie nearly 30 years ago to the month when it first came out. His sister Debbie took him to the movie, he would have been about 10 years old...not much younger than Bailey. It was funny that our kids were almost exactly the ages today that Ryan and I were when the movie first came out. After the movie we headed for our favorite spot for lunch; Sushi at Kabuki! We love everything at Kabuki, the chefs, the help and of course...the FOOD! We stuffed ourselves on edamame, miso soup, philly roll, jalapeno bombs, seared spicy albacore, and of course my favorite, the lobster roll! Bailey enjoyed the katsu chicken and Collin polished off a California roll. Yummy sushi goodness!
Being stuffed from lunch we headed home to lounge and play in the pool. We had the tile replaced almost a week ago and although we were very upset at having to do this so early in the life of our pool, we're very happy with the results. It was a wonderful way to welcome in the first day of summer and celebrate what a wonderful dad Ryan is! Happy Father's Day!

Fresh Veggie Burritos

Our garden is doing very well so far this summer, producing LOTS of cherry tomatoes, salad tomatoes, green peppers, basil, rosemary, oregano and even a few very tiny strawberries. We usually have no trouble devouring the fresh goodies out of the garden. One family favorite it a variation of a Bruschetta without the bread. We simply cut cherry tomatoes in half, add a cheese stick or two, cut into small discs, add some fresh basil leaves finely chopped and toss with just a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper....yummy goodness!

Another favorite recipe we enjoy is for a Veggie Burrito; it's delicious but also great because it is low calorie, low fat and high fiber, and super easy to make! I usually try to find the Mission brand tortillas that are the "carb smart", as long as they are still soft in the package they'll work great (80 cal each).
Recipe for 1 Veggie Burrito (just double, triple or whatever you need for your family)
1 tortilla
1/3 cup sauted ground soy crumbles (don't panic here, they really do taste wonderful in this dish)
1 oz. shredded Veggie Cheese (okay I cheat here a little and usually use regular cheddar)
3 TBSP Salsa (fruity does not work, stick to traditional red or green)
1/2 cup peppers (red, green or yellow, your choice)
1/2 cup onions (I like red best)
1/4 c. Rosarita Vegetarian Refried Beans
Shredded lettuce

Begin with your peppers and onions, they can be sliced or chopped which ever you prefer. Saute for a few minutes with just enough olive oil to keep them from sticking, a tablespoon or so should do it. Once the veggies are beginning to soften add the soy crumbles and continue cooking until everything is hot. While the veggies and crumbles are cooking, heat the refried beans and warm up your tortillas. Prepare the burrito with the beans first, then the cheese, top with the veggies and crumbles mixture and finally add the lettuce and salsa. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Science Rocks

My kids are convinced I'm the meanest mom ever because I make them do Summer Workbooks, which do work great by the way! However, sometimes you have to be a little more covert and I decided we'd have some fun with science kits that I picked up at Michaels....they won't even know they're learning... moohaahaa (evil laugh!). Our first kit was making their own Rock Candy...super fun! How can a kid not enjoy something that involves eating pure sugar, but along the way they learned about measuring, molecules, atoms, super-saturation, and crystallization, not bad for 9 a.m.!
The kit was great, it's the Smithsonian Rock Candy Kit, I paid less than $10 at our local Michaels and it included everything we needed except sugar, water, and a scale for accurate measuring.



The instructions included a good basic explanation of how crystals form, including what molecules and atoms are, although a picture would have been helpful here; it also had instructions that both kids could read and understand. It includes 3 flavor packages, berry, lemon and cherry but you can only make one flavor at a time; there is an order form inside that you could purchase more equiptment so you could grow more than 2 at a time.
It's a great introduction to crystals, everything we used was familiar to the kids; water, sugar, and the provided color and flavor packages. No complex chemical names or words they couldn't pronounce.
The morning of day 2 (Bailey is still in bed), and the crystals are really starting to grow now, it will be a few more days before they're done, but Collin could clearly see the shapes starting to form. In a few more days I'm sure they'll be ready to eat!

Summer is Here

We've had the most beautiful start to summer since we've lived in Arizona, almost 10 years now! The temps have been below 100 up until this week, and we've had a nice breeze and even a few clouds in the sky....all very unusual for June in Phoenix. The kids haven't been in the pool yet because we had to have it completely retiled, we're just waiting for the chemicals to balance out and we'll be swimming either today or tomorrow! In the mean time we've been keeping busy with other things, movies, friends, volleyball, badmitton, and LOTS of Legos!
I also decided that I wanted the kids to learn a little cooking over the summer, our first recipe we'd tackle is Grandma Gardner's Banana Bread (which she can no longer enjoy after developing a banana allergy...so we'll just enjoy it for her)!
Before the kids got up I set everything out that we'd need.Here's the recipe:
1c. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 c. flour
3 TBSP sour milk (buttermilk works too)
3 mashed bananas
1/2 tsp salt
1. c walnuts (optional)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cream eggs and sugar. Add butter and milk, mixing well. Mix dry ingredients together and slowly add but don't over mix. Add bananas and nuts. Bake in 2 greased loaf tins for 1 hour.
Collin got started by peeling and mashing up the bananas, a job well suited for a little boy!

Bailey started out by cracking the eggs (no shells!), and was ready to start mixing.

Mix away Bailey!

Before we knew it the batter was ready. However, I have to say I think I have the worlds largest bread pans, I should have put the entire recipe into one , since I did not, our bread turned out just a touch burned and dry. The kids however didn't seem to mind because once it cooled they asked daddy if they could get a slice, when I came downstairs it looked like rabid wolves had been in my kitchen! They definitely were enthusiastic about their baking adventure, hopefully next time mom won't over bake it!

More Teacher Appreciation from Last Year

Bailey's 4th Grade teacher's last name is Hopson, and she loves frogs...I mean really, would she have a choice (kangaroos maybe I guess). We used this as inspiration for another altered tin to thank her for a great year.Inside I included many of the same items as in my first tin (in the first Teacher Appreciation post for Last Year)
I covered this tin with cardstock, just adhered with good tape runner adhesive and a few cute frog stickers. The one thing I wish I'd done different was to make this flower a magnet...it would be perfect to hold a small note or two...next time I guess.

Teacher Appreciation Week- Last Year

This week is Teacher Appreciation week and I'm busy trying to put something together to let the kids teachers know just how special they are to us. While pulling this rabbit out of my hat, I thought I'd share some of the cute projects from the past. Last year for Collin's Kindergarten teacher, a truly outstanding first year teacher, I worked together with my friend Tina to make her a little something special.
We certainly weren't the first to alter a lunch box, but were so happy with how this turned out. Inspired by Ms. Evans favorite color, pink, we went to work.
Inside we filled it with everyday classroom materials that we decorated with cute papers to match her tin. Here's a list of what's inside:
Elmer's Glue "You're the glue that holds our class together"
White Chalk "Chalk one up to a great teacher"
Mini Post it Notes "Thanks for such a noteworthy year"
Eversharp Pencils "Thanks for sharpening our minds"
Stapler and Staples "Reading, Writing Arithmetic, thanks for teaching us the staples"
Scissor (pink of course) "You're a cut above the rest"
Highlighters "You're the highlight of our year"
Thumbtacks "Thanks to you I'm sharp as a tack"
Little bag filled with Cerrettas French Mints "You're worth a mint to me"

By triple matting everything, we made each and every little tag stand out, and of course cute ribbon never hurts! Many altered tins are decorated by decoupaging the paper to the tin, to try to keep things clean we decided to simply adhere the paper down with a good quality tape runner adhesive...it still holding a year later! This gift was just from Tina, myself and our kids, but to show her how much the entire class appreciated her I coordinated another little gift.
The "Apples" were from our local teacher store and I send one home with each student with a request to have them write something they loved about Ms. Evans, school, or what they learned. Each student then returned them to me and we put this little corkboard together for her, I love that she still has it as is in her classroom. Inside is a 12 x 12 scrapbook page she can just take off and put in her album. I have to say I love how sweet this is, it was her first year as a teacher, and our kids first year as students...definitely something special.

Easter Fun...posted late!

While much of my family was still stuck with cold weather and even snow, we were celebrating Easter in perfect spring weather...a little windy maybe but still beautiful. The kids were out of school on Good Friday so we decided to dye our Easter Eggs with a few friends on the back patio. I must have bought at least 5 different kits full of decorations so the kids would have ample things to choose from...glittered eggs, star wars eggs, stickers, foamies...you name it, we had it!
I should have probably boiled more eggs, but other than that I have to give myself a big gold star for braving 5 kids and a dozen cups of dye all by myself! Yeah me!
When all was said and done, each kid had a nice little collection of "personalized" Easter eggs that they could take home. After cleaning up the boys headed upstairs for some nerf war, hot wheels, and Star Wars play, while the girls stayed downstairs and braved harsh criticism on the American Idol for Wii. It was a great way to spend a day off from school!

By the time Easter Morning arrived, we had added a few more decorated eggs and enjoyed a nice quiet morning with just the 4 of us and a little chocolate overload! Thank you Easter Bunny!

Kite Flying and Rollerblading

Once Spring officially arrives in Arizona just about everyone can be found rushing to cram in all the outdoor fun we can before the heat arrives and we're restricted to indoor activities or ones involving water. After getting some kites as party favors from a friends birthday party (kites make AWESOME party favors by the way), we were hit with just the right amount of wind to head out for a little flying.
Ryan and Collin were in the air first while I sat happily in the grass taking pictures and Bailey got her kite set up.

It didn't take long before both kites were flying high in the air at the end of the strings and the kids were running back and forth trying to work in a trick or two without running into one another or crossing their lines (don't cross the streams...it would be BAD, little Ghostbusters throwback there).
Ultimately our kite day went great; no injuries, no lost kites, and they spent the last half hour hunting ladybugs in the grass.

The kids also love any opportunity to play in the cul-de-sac. There's usually no shortage of kids (or their parents) playing outside on bikes, roller blades, scooters, and we've been known to play a good game of kickball out there as well. This day the kids wanted to roller blade, which they're getting pretty good at, I'll just be happy for the day that they can gear up all by themselves. Honestly, it would be easier to put them in a suit of armor then in the helmet, wrist guards, knee guards, and elbow pads not to mention the olympic wrestling match that has to occur just to get their rollerblades on their feet...but like mom always said safety first!

Happy April Fools Day!

After being inspired by a couple of friends (thanks Tina and Shelly) who were going to "get" their kids for April Fools Day, I decided I'd get in on the action too! I told them that we'd have dessert for dinner...and then dinner for dessert! They were very excited with this idea and were only too happy to sit down for the first course.
Of course what they believed to be a fresh cupcake with blue frosting (Collin's favorite) was in actuality meatloaf with tinted mashed potatoes on top. Even knowing that everything would taste the same, it was a little challenging to "dig in".They were also very excited when they believed they were going to be treated to Mt. Dew as their dinner beverage...come on kids, Mt. Dew...for dinner?! Try lemon jello!

When they discovered that it indeed was not a delicious homemade cupcake...well, I think the pictures pretty much sum things up!
In the end they did eat their dinner and were later rewarded with dessert...but remember my original plan...dinner would be dessert. So I decorated cupcakes to look a little like an old T.V. Dinner, complete with chicken drumstick, mashed potatoes with butter and gravy, and of course good old peas and carrots. Happy April Fools Day!

Nancy Drew Mystery Party

For Bailey's 11th Birthday she wanted to have a Nancy Drew Party! We lucked out and one of the office ladies at the school lent us her Nancy Drew Mystery Game for the party! We started preparing for the party by creating some fun invitations for the 10 girls from school that Bailey planned to invite. Once the invitations went out I had to get to work planning the details. The party was set to have 5 different stations that would lead the girls to solving the mystery. To begin I made each of our guests a Clue Book to keep all the information they gathered written down.

Then I planned to create a fun scene for each of the places for the Game. We staged Nancy's house in the living room, where all the girls could fit easily and listen to the CD for clues. Next was the Crime Scene, complete with Crime Scene tape we tipped over the chair, left the girls a series of clues provided by the game, and made sure to provide a handful of "red herring" clues to throw them off track (and boy did it!). They then were instructed to check out the Cyber Cafe, an area we set up outside with some clues, and a few traditional Nancy Drew snacks including Lemon Bars and Blondies for the girls to snack on while they researched the clues. Next they moved onto the Psychic Shop which was staged in the cabana behind the pool. We covered the table with a black table cloth, tarot cards, even a green garden ball that worked great as a "crystal ball"! Once we lit the incense the stage was complete! Finally the girls visited the "Police Station" to see who the police were considering as prime suspects! Once the girls finished the Mystery Game it was time for a little pizza and fruit smoothies, followed by Bailey opening her gifts. We rounded out the party with cake and started to watch the Nancy Drew movie, but the girls were way too wound up so we ended up playing in the backyard instead, even Belle got in on the action in a game of "duck duck goose". Bailey is really lucky and has some wonderful friends. To show our appreciation we gave each girl a new Nancy Drew book with a bookmark with the lemon bar recipe. It's hard to believe that Bailey is now 11 years old, and as fun as it was to plan this party for her, it's really nice that it's behind us! We'll just have to see what she wants to do next year!