Some Goodies

These are a few of my favorite things...

I've been doing some exploring of creative blogs in order to come up with some new ideas to get my creative juices flowing.
For those of you that share my interest in such things, I am sharing with you, my faithful 3 readers, a list for your enjoyment.
Some of you may have been the ones that suggest these sites to me in the first place, and if you are, I thank you and am sorry to steal your thunder.

1. We are that family

2. Complete Organizing Solutions

3. EHow

4. Simple Mom

5. Spearmint Decor

6. Todays Creative Blog

7. How about Orange

8. Lloyd and Lauren

9. Not Martha

10. Better homes and gardens
I like this site because you can sign up for there e newsletter. I also like that the format is usually in pictures. I.E. 15 ways to spice up your kitchen, followed by 15 pictures. I'm visual! If you want me to do it, I've gotta see it!

There are others, I'm just leaving it at 10 for today. Leave me your favorites and I'll compile another list soon.

Happy Juicing!

Whats the Plan?

Last weeks menu posting went well for me.
I even got a little dollar dry erase board and put it on the fridge.
The kids loved looking at it and knowing what was for dinner that night.
So I am going to try again this week.
5 more weeks and it will be a habit!
I never even got to 2 of the meals because we had so many leftovers from other meals, so that was what Martha Stewart would call, A good thing.

Breakast, Lunch, and Snacks are pretty much the same.

Dinner:

Saturday- Tacos, Refried Beans, Chips and Salsa

Sunday- Event at Church

Monday- Shrimp Stiry Fry and Stewed Apples

Tuesday- Pork Chops and Oven Roasted Potatoes (Diced-tossed with Butter, Rosemary,and S & P), Brocolli

Wednesday- Red Beans and Rice with Smoked Sausage, Salad

Thursday- Breakfast for dinner- Hashbrowns, Sausage, Eggs

Friday- Leftovers

Saturday- Caesar Crusted Salmon, Rice Pilaf, Peas

As Requested...

This is my recipe for Chicken Dressing Casserole.
You MUST eat this with Apple Sauce. My sister and I do that for some reason and it just makes it yummier than yummy.
We also like to have it with Green Beans for a well rounded meal. ( I say this in my best Food Network Hostess voice.)

Chicen and Stuffing Casserole
3-4 chicken breasts-cooked and cubed ( I just microwave it for about 12 minutes)
1/4 stick butter
1 can Chicken Broth
1 tsp. Rosemary
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
8 oz Sour Ceam
1 Box of Stuffing

Heat butter, broth, and Rosemary til boiling.
Add stuffing and set aside.
Mix mushroom soup, sour cream, and chicken in a seperate bowl.

Place in a greased 9x11 baking dish.
Top with stuffing mixture.
Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly.

When I made it tonight I used Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Ckn just because, and it was really creamy and good.
You can use low fat soups and sour creams.
You can also had celery to the broth mix, but I don't.

Enjoy :)

Must give props: This recipe (although I do it a little differently) comes from a cookbook from the ladies of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Ga.
I love this cookbook!

2 Birds-1 Stone

I blog tonight for 2 reasons.
Reason #1- I need to be a better blogger. I just haven't been feeling it lately.
So in an effort to be more disciplined, I will be blogging more often.

Reason # 2- This week will be one of those tight grocery $ weeks, so I need to really use up what I've got. I thought if I actually have a menu documented, that I just might have to stick by it.
So, here we go.


Breakfast-
Waffles
Pancakes
Cereal
Cinnamon Toast


Lunch-
PB, Honey, and Granola Wraps
Ham and Swiss Wraps
Cheese Quessedillas
Ramen Noodles
Bean Soup
Grilled Cheese
Fruit
Pretzels
Chips
Salsa

Snacks-
Fruit Smoothies
Blueberry Bread
Key Lime Bread
Popcorn

Dinner-
Sunday- Leftovers

Monday- Chicken Dressing Casserole, Apple Sauce, Green Beans

Tuesday- Spaghetti

Wednesday- Ckn stir fry-from a bag cause I already have it, Stewed Apples

Thursday- Breakfast for dinner- Sausage, Hashbrowns, Eggs

Friday- Pay Day

Needed from Store:
Milk
Apple Sauce ( You have to have applesauce with CKN casserole. It is a requirement!)
Bread
Fruit
Chips
Salsa

An All American Boy Birthday Party

Now, say that 5 times fast!
Last Friday was Logans 9th birthday, and in honor of this momentous occasion, we threw him an "All American Boy Party".
What does one do at an All American Boy Party, you might ask...

Well, when I throw an AABP, you are limited to 5 friends! Sorry Charlie, 6 boys for a sleepover is all I can handle!

A good old fashioned AABP has to start on the trampoline...


And some water balloons...

And maybe some boys thinking about throwing water balloons over onto the trampoline!

An AABP must have All American decorations...

And good old All American Boy food...

A shrimp boil, complete with Shrimp, Smoked Sausage, Corn on the Cob, and Potatoes, with some garlic bread on the side.

Of course you have to have Coca Cola in glass bottles to round out this All American Meal!

Cheers to some truly All American Boys!

No AABP would be complete without a gift card from Wal-Mart.

After all the Wal-Mart smiley face IS the new symbol of America.

Of Course some good ole fashioned Lincoln bills are pretty All American Boy too!

Now what good ole American boy doesn't love a Smore?

Here we combine the best of both worlds with these Smores Ice Cream Sandwiches.

All American boys must have at LEAST 1 picture with the classic "Rabbit Ears."

These All American boys where a little to wet and messy to eat Smores inside this All American Moms house ;)

NO Red blooded All American Boy actually wears their PJ's the right way in front of others All American Boys!

All American boys don't sleep until at least 3 A.M. and of course the ones that fall asleep first, get pranked on!

Even the All American Birthday Boy got a taste of the blue marker!

All American boys go to bed late, and awake mid morning, hungry and waiting for their Cinnamon Rolls! Give me Cinnamon Rolls or Give me Death, they declare!

Yes being an All American Boy is a good thing. The ages of 8-11 are kind of like the "Golden Years" of boyhood, and I think these Golden age boys succeeded in having a Birthday that Logan won't soon forget.

Slumber Party!

As you may know, last Friday, June 5th, was Lana's 7th Birthday!
Also my ten year anniverary, but since I just had a hysterectomy, we had a child with the stomach bug, and one with a bday, there really isn't much to say about that. ;)
We will be going away in the fall, just the 2 of us, so that will be nice!

Anyways, this year was the first year since Lana turned 3 that her Bday did not fall during VBS. It was the day after, so her and I got to do some fun stuff.
We went to the Chocolate Biscuit Tea Room for lunch, which was lovely.
Then I took her shopping at Cato and let her pick out a couple outfits. She's been dying to shop at Cato and they start at size 7, so this was a nice treat for her.

The real fun though started last night when she got to have a slumber party with 3 girlfriends!

Since Lana likes pretty things I tried to make the table extra pretty.

I picked some flowers from the yard (OK, really the only flowers!), and we had a candlelight dinner with my China plates and nice glasses.

On the menu, per birthday girls request...

Crescent style chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

MMMMM....

Here the girls are enjoying their "fancy dinner"!

Lana, Christina, Gracie, and Bella.

Of course she wanted chocolate cake!

And she wanted chocolate covered strawberries.

So in honor of turning the ripe old age of 7, I made a Triple 7 Cake.

7 layers of cake. 7 layers of homemade/madeup frosting. 7 ginormous chocolate covered strawberries.

And yes, I was a liiiitle bit nervous about carrying this monster. But it never fell!

Add some sparkler candles....

And we are ready to present it to the birthday girl!

I think she likes it!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Lana!

Happy Birthday to you!

I know you are wondering how to cut a cake of such large proportion...

Um, there just was no perfect way...so we settled for taking off a couple of layers.

This face is why I do what I do!

And obviously the guests are pleased !

Christina knows how to work the camera!

Gracie, being the queen of suave!

Bella, cute and poised!

And yes, let us not forget Daddy, with chocolate on his teeth, embarrasing his little girl!

After present time, which was totally fun...we gathered on the couch for a group hug!

And a few silly shots as well.

On to the movie watching and a little dress up with makovers.

Ouch!

Time for bed!

Yeah right!

They had a good time giggling on their pallet.

And finally fell asleep around 12:00.

Ah!!!!

By 7:30 in the morning they were already out jumping on the trampoline while I made some pull apart cinnamon rolls.

MMMM good!

And they finished out the morning making bracelets from the bead kit she got from Bella.

All in all I think they all had a wonderful time and I was happy to do this for my little 7 year old.

My kids have had to put up with alot this year and I wanted to thank them for a job well done and honor them on their special days!

Lana got to go first, but Logan is soon to follow the end of the month.

Thank you LanaLou for being a totally sweet girl and appreciating the little things!

I hope you had a memorable 7th birthday :)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

That is one of Logans favorite books right now.
I haven't actually read it, but I like the idea of cartoon drawings of my daily life with comments on how wimpy I am.
I think I may write my own book..."Diary of a Wimpy 33 Year Old".
Perhaps it will be a best seller.