First soccer practice

The kiddos wanted to play soccer this season instead of gymnastics, so we signed them up. Monday was the first day of practice and it was so cute watching them chase the ball with no clue where it was supposed to go :)

Lauren was pretty good actually, Jake had some sportsmanship 'issues' we'll be working on but it seems the real star in the family is emerging:

She would NOT leave the soccer ball alone!

First game is Saturday and I'm looking forward to seeing my littles in action!

PreK cooking; Tostadas!

Another messy one so I had to help the kiddos more than usual which is why there isn't many pictures. Still, the kids really enjoyed last weeks cooking...

We had tostada shells, refried beans, shredded cheese, tomatoes, corn and olives. YUM!

Even Miss Meg tried some tostada although she wasn't a huge fan of the olives, haha!

Next week I need to come up with something 'U'... now this I'll need help with. Thoughts??

MUD fight!

We had our friends over a few days ago and the boys beelined for the play sink we have in the backyard. Boys will be boys, and before we knew it, they were dumping the sink and making a GIANT mud puddle.

Within moments, there were mud balls, mud slinging and a whole lotta happy boys :)

They were in boy heaven. And my shower soon became very sad, lol!

Tomatoes!

I have two things stacked against me when it comes to gardening; I don't like dirt or care for the outdoors much, and I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes. But my kids are, so I buckled and we bought a little tomato 'garden'. This is my attempt to garden so that next year, we'll grow zucchini, squahs, strawberries, watermelons, etc... all with our black green thumbs :)

Bring on the salads!

Budding photographer

You all can tell from my blog that I love to take pictures. Actually, it's that I love to capture memories. And it turns out, my girl is no different...

Lauren asked if she could take a picture of 'something super cute!" a few days ago and I said yes. I totally forgot about it until I uploaded my camera pics and found these gems:

I have no idea what the spoon picture was about but I think it's safe to say she adores her animals... and my camera ;)

Experiment; Elephant Toothpaste!

When I find an experiment that looks fun, I print it out and stash it away until we're ready to use it. This was one of those times and unfortunately, I don't remember where I 'stole' it from. So sorry about that (you can probably google it to find the original post if you'd like), but here's what we did with awesome results:

Supplies:

-Empty water bottle

-Baking dish

-Packet of yeast

-Dish soap

-Hydrogen peroxide

-Warm water
-Food coloring

Directions:

Measure 2 tablespoons of warm water in a separate container.

Next, add 1 teaspoon of yeast to the water:

 

Stir well. The yeast will catalyze (speed up) the reaction.

Next, put your water bottle in the middle of the baking pan. Add 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide, a squirt of dish soap, and 4-5 drops of food coloring. Swish the bottle around to mix the ingredients a bit.

Then add your yeast to your water mixture.

Watch the foaminess begin!

This is when you tell your kids that it's called Elephant Toothpaste because it looks like toothpaste coming out of a tube that's big enough for an elephant to use :)

Pesto fish packets

I have always loved fast food, hence my struggle with weight in the past. But for the past year or so, I have been actively working on cooking healthy meals and eating better in general, plus exercising and losing weight. Gone are the days of Burger King and Wendys :)

Added some cherry tomatoes and a bit of Feta cheese and YUM!

But it's all good because I've found some yummy things to make! This is what we had a few nights ago and dang, it was good! Justin wasn't fond of the pesto, so he scraped it off, but he inhaled the fish and veggies, as did the kids :)

Ingredients:

Heavy-duty foil

Nonstick cooking spray

Grated peel and juice from 1 lemon

1 container (7 ounces)BUITONI Refrigerated All Natural Pesto with Basil or All Natural Reduced Fat Pesto with Basil

1 bunchthin asparagus spears, trimmed into 2-inch pieces (about 2 1/2 cups total)

1 large yellow squash or zucchini, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced horizontally into 1/4-inch half-moons (about 1 1/2 cups total)

5 (4 to 5 ounces each) about 1-inch-thick white fish fillets (such as wild halibut, red snapper, orange roughy or talapia)

Course salt and ground black pepper

1 basket cherry tomatoes, halved (about 1 1/4 cups total)                               
2 tablespoons sliced green onion

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Arrange five 12 x 13-inch pieces of foil on work surface; coat lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Stir lemon peel into pesto. Divide asparagus and squash evenly down center of each foil sheet; spoon 1 tablespoon pesto mixture over vegetables. Place one fish fillet over pesto vegetables; sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Spread each fish fillet with 1 tablespoon pesto mixture.
Top each fish fillet evenly with tomato halves and green onion. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Bring up foil sides; double fold top and ends to seal each packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place on 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan or rimmed baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes or until fish is just opaque in center and vegetables are crisp-tender. Carefully open packets, allowing steam to escape away from you and let cool briefly. Using a spatula, gently push the fish and vegetables onto plate.

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Servings: 5          

Stunning girl

My girl was chowing down on a banana a few days ago and at some point, the lighting from the patio out back hit her beautifully. So I pulled out my camera and started snapping :)  

I know I'm her mama, and I'm biased but she's stunning!

Easter 2012

It started the night before when I pretty much begged my hubby to help me bake these little treats for our Easter lunch the next day. They became our placecards :)

After we were done cooking and hiding the eggs, I got the baskets set up and ready:

The next morning before we opened the baskets or searched for eggs, we did our 12 days of Easter devotional where we discovered that on the final day, Easter, the egg was EMPTY like Jesus' tomb :)

After praying and breakfast, they dove into their baskets:

I don't know WHAT I was thinking putting Megan in Christmas-y jammies the night before :/

And then, the search was on!

but the littlest one stayed indoors where she searched for eggs with puffs and cereal and other baby goodies inside:

Someone found sister's Chocolate bunny!

Before we left, I attempted to get some Easter shots:

 Those were the best I could do with a sugar rush in full effect :)

And then after church, we headed to Grammy's house where they searched for more eggs with cousin Dylan:

It was a great day celebrating the fact that Jesus is ALIVE :)