Kale chips

My girlfriend Yesenia sent me this recipe a few days ago and I decided to try it. They came out pretty yummy. Plus, when you have two cute helpers, it makes snack prep fun ;)

Directions:

1) Tear some Kale leaves into bite size pieces, wash & drain.
2) Toss the leaves in a bowl with olive oil, salt-free seasoning, a tad of garlic salt & a little taco seasoning.

3) Set oven to 400* Bake until they look completely shriveled... pick one up one to see if they feel crunchy.

NOTE: Now, a word to the wise; use a little olive oil so they're not soaked and even less taco seasoning! I made one batch with too much taco seasoning. and salt overload! Go easy on that stuff. You can also just make them plain with Olive Oil, salt and pepper but I wanted to make mine taste like chips though.

These are VERY addicting :)

PreK cooking; Watermelon sandwiches

The letter this week was 'W'. I thought of watermelon and witches, neither of which seemed particularly interesting to me (or appropriate in regards to witches). but I searched around and found this fun edible 'craft'...

So, we made PB&J sandwiches, made to look like Watermelon!

I gave the kids two pieces of bread that I had cut into watermelon shaped slices ahead of time. They spread peanut butter on one side of the bread and then put the other slice of bread on top:

Then they spread strawberry jelly on the TOP of their sandwich, and sprinkled some raisins on top as the 'seeds':

Finally we added some green grapes as the watermelon peel and voila!

Granted, the kids 'watermelons' weren't nearly as ahem, pretty as the one in the link above but they loved making them (and eating them) so that's all that matters :)

And while the kids smeared PB&J all over, miss Meg chowed down on some peanut butter (and my finger!)

Next up... X foods?!?!? HELP!

Yogurt dipped blueberries

My kids LOVE snacks. And I love them to eat healthy. So when I found this site, my little helpers and I got to work in the kitchen.

First we got our toothpicks and stabbed our blueberries (that was Jake's favorite part, the stabbing!).

Then we dipped them in Greek vanilla yogurt:

 Put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes and voila! Yogurt dipped blueberries. YUM!

Inchimals

I've mentioned before how much we love Inchimals around here; one because they're cute and fun to play with but two because Jake is very interetsed in learning and adding his numbers right now.

Plus, when daddy helps, it makes it all the more fun for him ;)

And while I think he's genius (I'm his mama so I can!), he isn't yet adding 3+9 yet. He's doing basic addition with his fingers, but he simply copied the numbers above. Still, at 3 years old,  it's a start!

*Just a disclaimer; we don't push him or Lauren to know their letters or numbers... both of them have asked and while we encourage when they're ready, we don't push. We try to incorporate learning with play as much as possible so they are happy to learn if it's fun. We don't nail 'em to the chair with flashcards at three ;)

Dry Erase

I was part of an online mom's board a few years back and there were always threads asking what's one of your 'must haves' in terms of kid gear. This is one of our 'must haves' at our home because my kids LOVE this thing. Seriously, keeps them entertained for hours as they dry, erase and draw some more ;)

Duck park... again :)

It was a really nice morning so the kids and I hit the park... the 'duck' park to be exact.

We did some sliding,

some duck chasing,

and played with some friends.

We went swinging,

Haha, love her face here!

and pretended we were 'acrobrats' ;)

Finally, we fed some ducks and geese and a few squirrels who snuck their way through the hoards of birds.

Spring weather + parks = FUN ;)

LLC; All about Me day

Yes, yes, it was a tad narcissistic but it was a cool way for our kiddos to get to know eachother a bit more. After all, it's been 2+ years and we've never done a 'get to know you' day :)

We started the morning off with the kids each dressing in their favorite outfits or colors. There was a lot of pink and cowboy hats. My girl chose her favorite Hello Kitty shirt, with leggings and a velour skirt (!?!) and Jakey chose his favorite Spiderman shirt.

When we arrived at Grace and Max's casa, the littlest girls were off playing together.

while the rest of us did Show and Tell. Each child brought a favorite toy from home and a favorite book. They shared what they loved most about their items.

Next up was a little game called "Circus, circus" where we all gathered in a circle, sang a little song and then one kid gets in the middle to do his or her 'act'. It was super cute to see some of these 'acts' ;)

After that, they created some self portraits. Apparently Jake is a whale because that's what he created ;)

Finally, LUNCH! They all brought their favorite snacks and surprisingly, they were all mostly healthy (minus the trouble maker Mandy who brought ice cream cones!). In addition, we had sandwiches, strawberries, bananas (Jake's fave), granola, grapes, carrots, and chocolate milk (Lauren's fave).

And dessert? ICE CREAM!

YUM ;)

PreK cooking; Vegetable Dip!

I am so sad about this post because somehow when I was looking through the pictures, I happened to erase all of my PreK cooking pictures from the day before :(

I have one, lonely picture of my two big kids and I:

What you can't see from this lone picture is that we made dip to go with opur assortment of veggies. It was fun, and yummy and easy.

But you woulnd't know that based on this post ;)

Breather

We've got a lot going on right now. Between college, work, church commitments, Bible studies, and soccer, we've reached our max and I need a breather. Plus, we're in major praying mode about the seminary and a possible moving date. All that to say, the blog is sort of my last priority in light of all that's going on...

I'm sure I'll update this week after cooking class with the PreK'ers, but not sure how consistent I'll be for a while. But that's okay because honoring God and taking care of my family come first :)

'See' you all soon!

Patience; Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Galatians 5:22-23

Today I am meditating on that verse because I need a reminder that the Holy Spirit dwelling in me is full of those qualities. But more than that, I need to remember patience. And I'm not so good at being patient. I need to be patient while waiting upon the Lord and His timing. And I need to (and desire to!) be joyful in my waiting. Until He calls us to another place, I will be bold, share the Good News and show love to those around me; my husband, my babies, family, friends, and those around me who need to experience God's love for them.

Thanks you Jesus for this sweet reminder that today, I will focus on your word.