Meal Plan 8/29/11

Monday - Chicken Enchilada Quiche
Tuesday - Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup with Broccoli
Wednesday - Hamburgers and corn on the cob
Thursday -Feta-Topped Chicken *
Friday - DATE NIGHT (leftovers for the kids and my mom...sorry mom)
Saturday - Pot roast, carrots and potatoes in the crock pot
Sunday - Beef and Bulgar Stuffed Zucchini *

Desserts and Snacks
Banana Bread
Crispy Brown Rice Treats *

* Denotes new recipes...will report next week!

As if I wasn't already feeling old...

This was the conversation...

Me: "What a great necklace!"
Carol: "Thanks! I got it at (insert store name here...it started with a B and I can't remember it).  I was actually going to ask if you got your necklace there."
Me: "Huh - I've never heard of that place.  My mom gave me this necklace for my birthday last week. Where is (insert name of store)?"
24 year old daughter: "They're all over.  It's a jewelry store for old people."
Carol: "No it's NOT.  I love their jewelry!" (Carol is probably in her 40s)
Daughter: "Exactly. I've made my point."

*Awkward silence as I realized that I liked the "old people necklace" on Carol and was complimented by "old" Carol on my own necklace given to me by my "old" mom.

Apparently I like old people jewelry.  Or 35 is just simply ancient to a 24 year old...

Busy, Busy, BUSY

Well, hello there! Yes, I am still alive and YES I realize it's very unlike me to go more than a week without posting.  I've had time to write, just nothing really to write about. Nothing worthy of its own post, anyway.  SO here are snippets of what's been happening around here...

Much to my surprise, I'm actually enjoying our back-to-school schedule. With Kaylin being at Kindergarten from the moment Jason goes down for his nap until the moment he wakes up...well, let's just say that I have a lot more quiet time than I'm used to!  I've been catching up on absolutely everything. And Jason sleeps so much more soundly with the big kids out of the house!

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Ryan asked me to make waffles at 7:15 yesterday morning and I reluctantly agreed.  Unfortunately, the first batch wasn't done until he was supposed to be walking out the door for the bus stop, so he ate a granola bar as he rushed out the door instead of the waffles that HE was craving. 

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When I told Kaylin that she had her five year check up on Monday, she looked at me quite seriously and asked, "So they need to check to make sure I'm five?"  She didn't understand why Mike and I almost peed our pants laughing.

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Yesterday, the phone rang as Ryan got home from school.  I was upstairs and could faintly hear the front door close as I answered the phone.  "Hello, this is the Transportation Department.  Your son left Kaylin, on the bus and we don't allow Kindergarteners to walk home unescorted."  I looked down at Ryan, taking his shoes off at the bottom of the stairs and casually said, "So, um...where's your sister?"  Ryan looked around (like she was supposed to be hanging out somewhere) and freaked out as the man on the phone said, "If he runs to the next bus stop, we'll let her off there." And out the door he sprinted.  Kaylin seemed unphased and, when asked why she didn't get off the bus, simply explained, "I was looking out the window and didn't realize we'd come to our stop," while Ryan said that he thought he was still in first grade and walked home alone.  KIDS.

Ryan is trying to grow his hair longer and I am NOT pleased with his $7.99 Great Clips cut.  Crooked much?

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On Monday, some girlfriends took me to a belated birthday lunch at a great local restaurant (3rd Place Grill) that has free childcare.  Please don't judge me, but I guilt-less-ly brought Kaylin to school late that day.  When filling out the sign in sheet, I left the "reason for tardy" section totally blank.  What was I supposed to write? "...because I was selfish and had a magnificent 90 minute lunch with my girlfriends."  Hardly.  It's just Kindergarten, right...?

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This weekend, Mike's parents bought me a new lens for my camera for my birthday.  It's the same lens the photographer used for our recent baking photo shoot. (50mm f1.8) It is my new favorite toy!!!  I can get great bokeh at close range...

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I'm officially 35.  Too old to be young and too young to be old.  I don't feel 35.  But Kaylin announced last night that she FINALLY feels five.  Thank goodness...it only took eight days for her to feel five years old! 

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Speaking of birthdays, Kaylin's favorite gift was a pink digital kid camera.  This morning, I found said camera in my tub, speckled with water dropletts.  Upon picking it up, I realized that a certain toddler (I won't name names) ran water on my daughter's prized birthday present.  And it is now dead as a doornail.  I think I was as crushed as Kaylin was.  I don't like flushing money down the drain! Destructo-boy strikes again.

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My $500+ mouthguard is missing. (*sigh*) Jason tends to misplace items from my nightstand and I recently found the empty case on the floor.  We've all searched the whole house, including the trash cans, and can't find my stupid mouthguard anywhere, so I've been grinding my teeth again which is causing me morning headaches.  And I'm too cheap to buy another mouthguard. Curses!

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My dad's dad passed away yesterday.  We had lost touch and were never really tight to begin with, so I'm not broken up about it, but it's the closest I've been to death since 1987.  The really sad part is that he was a proud Atheist for the last few decades of his life.  What a hopeless way to die. 

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Yesterday, it was too hot outside for my kids to play at recess.  The weather has simply been unbearable here!  But I chose to let Kaylin ride the bus to school for the first time, despite the record-breaking heat index.  And when I returned home from the bus stop, I totally needed a shower.  These temperatures are really sabotaging my desire to cross #18 off my 101 in 1001 list, which requires hiking a steep mountain. 

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I need to get on the ball and potty train Jason.  He is so ready, but it's just so much easier to change a diaper a few times a day than it is to race him to the potty seat during meals, at the grocery store or while driving across town.  Ugh.  I just need to bear down and do it.  Soon.

(This was Jason after I caught him hiding in my curtains...he emerged smelling like a port-a-potty)

I think that's it.  A bunch of nothing, but my days are full and I find myself laughing at my kids a LOT lately.  With them, at them, same difference.  We all laugh together...does that sound less cruel???  I'm working on getting caught up on my Picture of the Day blog, so for those who follow that, check back in a day or two.  If you've missed my Meal Plans, you can also look forward to seeing those again soon.  I can't handle the thrown-together meals we've been having lately.  I'm over it.  And I have some fun new recipes to try.  Can't wait!

Mission: Accomplished ... First Day of School

Despite my hesitations and fears, the first day of school came and went without a hitch.  We began the day with donut holes and a bunch of birthday wishes for our new Kindergartener.

We took our standard in-the-same-spot first day of school picture, but with a twist.  I wish I could take credit for the adorable signs below, but a sweet friend forwarded the printables to me Sunday night.  Click to see the detail.  SO cute!

Mike took the day off, per the birthday girl's request, so we did everything as a family all day. Ryan began his day in the morning and we dropped off Kaylin for afternoon Kindergarten after lunch.  Ryan's class has about 5-6 kids from his Kindergarten and 5-6 kids from last year, so he had plenty of familiar faces, despite the recent news that his best friend, Veronica, (who was originally in his class) will be homeschooling this year.

After dropping Ryan off, I took Kaylin for a birthday pedicure with one of her favorite people and her mom, who is one of my favorite people.

 

I went back to the school at 2:00 to bring ice cream sandwiches for her class, but forgot my camera.  (Boo!)  I looked around and noticed that her class has 15 boys and only 6 girls.  Yikes!  It's going to be an interesting year. 

Ryan misunderstood where he was supposed to bring Kaylin for us to pick them up at the end of the day, so they were not at the curb at 3:00.  We ran home to the bus stop to see if they got on the bus by accident, but they didn't, so we raced back to a near-empty school to find them sitting in the office.  What's the first day of school without a little drama for the mama?

We ended the day with a birthday dinner for Kaylin, presents and cake. 

 

My kids suddenly seem so mature to me.  I truly hope we can keep the attitudes in check as we transition into the new school year!  That is always a frustration. 

Short videos of Jason, for your viewing pleasure...

I finally uploaded a few videos of Jason and they are too hilarious not to share. First, we have my 21 month old genius spelling his name...


Next, is Jason playing Hide and Seek with the big kids.  You might want to turn the volume down for this one...he screams, "One... Two... Seven... Fourteen... Twelve... Thirteen...here I come!"  You can almost even see how red his face gets between numbers.


Finally, Jason is singing our night-night song to Kaylin's babydoll.  I love his sweet voice, but the end of the video proves that he is all. boy. I could watch this a million times!

Kaylin's Hello Kitty 5th Birthday Party

The day after Kaylin's 4th birthday party last year, she announced that she wanted her 5th birthday party to be a Hello Kitty theme.  Sure enough, the idea stuck 12 months later!

Ryan suggested that we start the day with Hello Kitty pancakes.  An oval pancake with batter pulled up for ears, chocolate chip eyes and leftover candies from the cupcakes.  They turned out cute!

And, most importantly, Kaylin loved them...

A friend gifted me with some of her gently used Hello Kitty decorations and paper products, like a banner, the poster that we used for the bow game (below), a Hello Kitty bowl, plus plenty of leftover HK plates and cups. 

Then I met a girl who made the most adorable hair clips.  She gave me a discount for buying multiples and I was going to clip each one onto a toothpick, insert it into the cupcakes and that was going to be each girl's party favor.  Are these cute or what?

Picture credit - I'm not saying.  I don't want to embarrass the photographer who left me high and dry, without party favors the week before my daughter's party.

But bad news: the girl TOTALLY flaked on me a week before the party. A week. Before. The party.  So instead, I bought a bunch of chochkie junk and filled goodie bags with the garbage that most moms hate.  I wrote, "Hello Kaylin" and "Hello Elizabeth" and "Hello..." with each child's name on the tags.  I'm sure someone else out there has come up with that idea, too, but I didn't get it from anyone specific, so I've decided that I came up with it on my own.  Aren't I creative!?

Then during one of my multiple trips to Party City, I found a huge circular with reasonably-priced Hello Kitty items.  After the goodie bags were stuffed.  !!!  So I decided buy enough prizes for all of the kids, and they played Hot Hello Kitty. (like hot potato, but we passed a Hello Kitty doll)

Ryan stuffed the prizes in Kaylin's new Hello Kitty purse and passed them around like a grown up.  He was very excited about the fact that he was in charge of the games!

I bought very few HK decorations, since I had so many hand-me-downs.  I went with pink and green for a color scheme...everywhere.  We had pink, green and white balloons, pink and green table clothes, pink bead necklaces in a large glass jar, pink lollipops in a lidded glass jar, green peppermint candies in another glass jar, pink flowers, even pink and green foods included: pink marshmallows, green grapes, pink and white frosted animal cookies, watermelon balls, pink popcorn (red food coloring in melted butter, drizzled onto the popcorn) and sparkling pink lemonade.

Of course, I took pictures to share of my beautiful (I really was proud) table-scapes, but somehow, someway, I accidentally deleted them from the camera without downloading them. 

On to the flow of the party: as guests arrived, we had a Hello Kitty movie playing while the kids colored HK pages at the kitchen table. 

We also played "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty" - I printed off a printable bow and added each child's name.  Donkey's and tails are so 1980s.

(I had to get a picture of the baby brigade...many parents dropped Kaylin's friends off, but those who stayed seemed to all have babies!)

When we needed some downtime between activities, Ryan read the crowd a Hello Kitty story.  He proudly showed everyone the pictures after reading each page.

For those of you who read my Hello Kitty Cake Pop disaster story earlier in the week, you will be happy to know that I decided to use my plethora of supplies to turn my chocolate cupcakes into Hello Kitty faces.  I piled white frosting onto two white chocolate chips for "ears," used yellow candies (found at Party City) for the nose, Wilton red heart sprinkles and an upside-down mini M&M for the bow, and black gel frosting to draw the eyes and whiskers.  Who needs cake pops, anyway?!?

We didn't have enough seating for all 16 kids (plus a few siblings) so we brought in the picnic tables from the backyard.  As the kids began eating, Mike announced that the cleanest eater would get a prize.  Sure enough, we had a fierce competition going with the older ones!

I actually DID end up passing out the defective, undecorated cake pops to the adults and they swooned.  Apparently it doesn't matter that they weren't pretty...they still tasted great!

I'm seriously bummed that I don't have my beautiful table pictures to share with you.  Oh well...God's probably trying to keep me humble!  (Update: I was able to take a quick partial-picture of the front hall table, but this was after I'd removed the pink feather boa and after the basket full of goodie bags had all been sent home.)

I also just realized that I didn't get a picture of the birthday girl in her amazing outfit.  At the last minute today, I found a skirt that matched her birthday shirt perfectly!  Good thing she's wearing it all again on the first day of school, which is her actual birthday.  She was just adorable.

Q&A Wednesday - Kindergarten Advice

Teresa asked, "Any advice for a mommy who has a child going to Kindergarten?"

Every Kindergarten experience is so different.  Depending on where you live, your school might have full or half day, a great school district or a mediocre one...it's so hard to say.  It's a huge adjustment for most five year old kids.  I remember when Ryan went to school, there were all-day Kindergarteners falling asleep on the bus on the way home each day.  It's an overwhelming transition and a long, exhausting day! 

In the beginning, expect your child to come home from school hungry and burned out. (it's worse on Thursdays and Fridays than it is on Mondays and Tuesdays)  As soon as my kids are home from school, I go through their backpacks while they have a snack and some downtime.  For the first 30 minutes, we talk about their day, who they sat by at lunch, go through highs and lows, look through paperwork that came home with them...basically let them decompress a little before diving into homework.

I started Ryan doing his homework at the kitchen table.  Until he could read instructions, homework was very parent-lead.  Now, we have a homework desk that is stocked with pencils, a pencil sharpener, scissors, glue, markers, etc. 

The biggest thing I'm going to focus on with my new Kindergartener is having a good attitude.  She's a really good kid, especially when she's away from home, but she gets her feelings hurt easily, so I'll work on strengthening her confidence for sure.  (Girls can be so snotty and I dread that drama!) When she comes home with a bad attitude, I expect to deprogram her from what is (much more widely) acceptable at school, guiding her back on track with the way things are done in our family and in our home.

That being said, I guess I'd recommend that you start with what you require of your children at home.  We have a list of House Rules that our kids know they are expected to follow whether they are at home or away, with us or in someone else's care.  When I first developed our list of rules, we went over them every morning at breakfast for weeks, even months.  Then when a rule was disobeyed, I'd quote the exact verbiage from the list, cementing the concept into everyone's head even further. 

Whenever you send a child to a new environment, I would recommend focusing on the principle of "Do what's right, even when others don't and even when no one is looking."  That single idea encompasses so many decisions kids (and adults!) make every day.

Explain to your child that when other kids talk back to the teacher or test the boundaries, they need to stand firm and "do what's right."  When they have the opportunity to cheat on a test, they need to "do what's right."  When a child on the playground is excluding someone else from playing, yours should include them because it's the right thing to do.

Everything can be a teachable moment.  But don't wait for situations to arise and smack you in the face...be proactive and go through what-if scenarios to set your child up for success beforehand. 

This parenting thing is tough! Even more when the kids are away from home for eight hours a day, being introduced to new attitudes and behaviors.  On the positive side, for kids who are out of control, starting school can really ground them. The social pressures of sitting still during story time, walking in a line to the library and following directions in general can be such a blessing for some parents!!!

I hope that answers your question, Teresa.  Get excited for Kindergarten...it's a great transition into big-kid school and your child will mature SO much in the next few months.  I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it...

A Cake-Pop Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful maiden who continually went overboard for her children's birthday parties.  Let's call her...oh, I don't know..."Super Mom." (I mean why not, right?  It IS my story...)

One day, Super Mom was perusing Bakerella's blog and stumbled upon a post about Hello Kitty cake pops.  They were absolutely adorable and looked relatively easy to create.  Super Mom was so excited about the cake pops that she even tried to convince her three year old daughter, Princess Kaylin, to have a Hello Kitty 4th birthday party.  But Super Mom's manipulation skills were horrible and a butterfly party was planned instead. 

Much to Super Mom's delight, Princess Kaylin decided to have a Hello Kitty birthday party for her 5th birthday.  Super Mom was going to get to make her cake pops after all!!!

So she planned...and compared prices...and saved craft store coupons...and gradually purchased all of the supplies she would need to create her tiny masterpieces.

Finally, the week of the birthday party arrived.  Super Mom was so excited and so prepared for the cake pops that she began baking the cakes four days early. (frozen cake tastes just fine later in the week, by the way)  She reviewed Bakerella's How to Make Cake Pops blog post and saw that it was recommended that a virgin cake pop maker might want to begin with cupcake pops first.  "Perfect!" thought Super Mom. "I even have the flower-shaped cookie cutter that's pictured!" 

Super Mom decided to divide the 9x13 cake in half (since one cake should make 50 cake pops) and make 1/2 of the cake into cupcake pops and the other 1/2 into Hello Kitty cake pops.

With little ones crowding around the kitchen island, Super Mom proceeded to crumble the cooled cake into a bowl, add the frosting, mix them altogether and began rolling the cake balls.  The process was smooth as silk.

Once the cake balls were chilled, Super Mom and Princess Kaylin began shaping the "cupcake liner" end of the cupcake balls with the flower cookie cutter.  Super Mom decided to make cupcake bites instead of cupcake pops, in order to save the lollipop sticks for the to-be-amazing Hello Kitty cake pops. 

She took each cupcake bite and dipped the "liner" half into dark chocolate.  As she placed them on the waxed paper lined cookie sheet, she realized that they do not, as pictured on Bakerella's blog post, stay upside down to set.  They fall.  And they roll into each other.  And the beautiful layer of chocolate gets mushed and ruined.

Suddenly, Super Mom had an idea!

She took a wooden mixing spoon and gently leaned each half-dipped cupcake bite on the handle to dry.  "Brilliant!" Super Mom thought to herself.

On to the Hello Kitty cake pops. 

Super Mom pulled out the chilled pops to begin adding the white chocolate chip "ears."  Using a toothpick as a paint brush, and white candy melts as the glue, she carefully adhered each ear to the top of the Hello Kitty heads. 

Placed in the fridge to set up, Super Mom turned her attention back to the cupcake bites.  She pulled the chilled bites out of the freezer and was ready to dip the tops (the "cupcake frosting") of each bite into the white candy coating.  As she grabbed each bite from the tray, she realized that the dark chocolate coating had dried to the wooden mixing spoon.  No matter how carefully she removed the cupcake bites, each one left a huge chunk of chocolate behind on the spoon, creating a gaping hole in the smooth coating of the "liner."  Awesome.

But never fear!  These were practice treats, after all, so Super Mom trudged on.  She dipped the tops of each cupcake bite into the white candy and placed them back onto the wax paper, quickly realizing that they were easily standing up!  They would actually dry properly!!! A ray of hope began to flicker in Super Mom's hardened heart...

One after another, the cupcake bites were dipped into the melted white candy and drizzled with colorful candy sprinkles.  They were beautiful!  Super Mom proudly placed her tray of cupcake bites into the fridge, balancing them on a stack of leftovers.

(Does anyone want to guess what happened next...?)

As Super Mom closed the refrigerator door, a heavier corner of the full tray of cupcake bites tipped to one side, sending the still-drying bites tumbling down the side of the fridge.  The not-yet-hardened sprinkley tops were mushed beyond recognition and there was melty candy coating everywhere.  As if in slow motion, Super Mom heard herself scream, "NNNNOOOOOOOOO!" (like Courtney Cox's character, Monica, from Friends)

After cleaning up the cupcake bite fiasco, Super Mom reluctantly moved on to finish the Hello Kitty cake pops. The kitchen was already destroyed, the coating was melted and anxiously waiting to be used...there was no turning back now.  It was time to dunk each pop into the white candy melts for a smooth, white cover. 

Super Mom gently dipped the first Hello Kitty head into the bowl.  As she turned to coat the opposite side of the cake pop, Hello Kitty's head fell off the lollipop stick, plunging into the candy coating.  Deeper and deeper it sank, like a tree trunk in quick sand. Sticking half of her hand into the bowl, Super Mom rescued the fallen kitty.  "Hmmm..." she thought, "This isn't nearly as easy as it looks on Bakerella's blog!" 

Getting right back up on the horse, Super Mom grabbed the next cake pop.  As she placed it into the candy coating, the lollipop stick popped through the top of Hello Kitty's head.  This kitty officially resembled a unicorn.

Take three.  Carefully, gently, slowly turning the cake pop to coat, Super Mom successfully achieved the desired smooth, white layer of Hello Kitty's face.  Success!  She poked a hole into the Styrofoam block to place the lollipop stick in so that the cake pop could dry.  Unfortunately, the Styrofoam must have been too shallow, because the top-heavy cake pop began to lean at a 45 degree angle.  Super Mom said a little prayer, hoping that her first attractive cake pop wouldn't plummet to its death.

Super Mom continued to quickly coat all of the Hello Kitty heads.  There were a few more  decapitated kitty heads and several other cake pop disasters (including running out of candy coating with six whole kitties left to dip) but she just wanted to be done.  Because this whole experience was starting to feel less like a fairy tale and more like a nightmare.

As Super Mom slowly lifted the Styrofoam piece to place it in the refrigerator, the cake pops began to sway.  Determined not to have another tragedy, Super Mom ripped the cake pops out of the block and placed them on their side.  "So what if the backs are mush!" she thought.  "At this point, these stupid things are going to be a humorous conversation piece instead of resembling anything remotely attractive."

With no intention of attempting the faces or tiny candy bows until later in the week,  Super Mom retired upstairs, vowing never to attempt cake pops again.

(unless, of course, maybe the boring round ones are easier...)

The end.

Q&A Wednesday - Canyon Questions

The only way I have to answer questions that I'm asked in the comments is to do these little Q&A Wednesday segments.  So SORRY for those of you who don't care about these answers!  I do my best to answer most of the questions I'm asked, so if you have a question, ask away!

In response to my recent Grand Canyon post, Chandy asked, "Wow, that was very spontaneous of you! Was that the first time you had been? Our Canyon trip is less than 2 months away and I'm getting very excited!"

Yup, first time.  Isn't that pathetic?  People come from all over the world to see this amazing sight and I've lived 4 hours away for 13 years and have never made the trek up there.  That's why it was on my 101 goals list...as an Arizona resident, it had to be done!

Sheila asked, "We just moved to Arizona (Prescott) and want to go to the Grand Canyon as soon as it's a little cooler. Would you recommend the place you stayed?"

Because we didn't leave until after Ryan's basketball game Saturday, we stayed in Flagstaff that night and drove the rest of the way to the Grand Canyon on Sunday morning.  I'm a bit of a hotel snob, so no. I wouldn't recommend the place we stayed.  In fact, it was a source of discussion all weekend.  I tried not to complain about the frayed bath towels, near-flooding toilet or tiny holes in the sheets, but Mike sees a hotel as a place to sleep.  Period.  So a 2.5 hotel is fine in his book!  It was an $87 hotel with free breakfast for the four of us, so he was thrilled.  I, on the other hand, had a nightmare about someone busting through the door and kidnapping Kaylin.  No joke.  I think Mike might have realized during this trip that I wasn't being snooty about it, but that I actually felt unsafe.

Bottom line: no.  I wouldn't recommend our hotel.  I'm not sure what your standards are, but a 2.5 star rating is officially too low for me!

I don't wanna...don't make me!

I don't want school to start.  This summer went by too fast and I've gotten WAY to used to my kids getting along 95% of the time.

I want more of this...

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this.

It wasn't long ago that I couldn't wait for the first day of school!  But I've come to realize how different my children act after being around other kids all day, every day.  The bad attitudes they pick up, the intolerance for their sibling's quirks, the over-stimulation of tons of learning combined with tons of play and not enough down time, deprogramming them from the acceptable behaviors of other kids...


Seriously, I dread.

I guess I'll just have to get used to it being me and Jason for a while. (*sigh*)

I don't want the summer to end!!!