Maybe I AM Old!

It's Friday! Looking forward to the long weekend with my little guy and hoping it stays dry for a few days. It stayed wet and yucky all day yesterday so the potato soup made for a great dinner! It was so easy and probably the best potato soup I've ever had. Here's the link again: http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2011/03/outback-aint-got-nothin-on-me.html?m=1

I packed a Pacman themed lunch for Scotty today. He knew who Pacman was but couldn't remember his name. Maybe I'm just old?!? I thought Pacman was still around.

Tonight is Friday Family Movie Night! We're watching The Pirates Band Of Misfits. We'll probably make pizza for dinner. I think I'm going to try a fun little project for movie snacks that I found on Pinterest. You put pretzels, popcorn, fruit loops, etc, onto a string necklace and they kiddo can snack on it throughout the flick. I'll post a picture tomorrow!

Good Day For Doing Nothing

I didn't sleep so well, not feeling so good, looks like another gloomy day, sounds like a good day for soup. I just put it all into the crock pot. I'm trying a new recipe, (thanks again, Pinterest). It's a copy cat version of Outback's loaded baked potato soup. Here's a link to the recipe: http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2011/03/outback-aint-got-nothin-on-me.html?m=1

Scotty's lunch today was all bunny themed. We called it the Thumper Thursday lunch.

Cats & Dogs, People!

Rain, rain, go away!  I thought this hurricane was affecting the Gulf Coast but it seems we've gotten a taste of it, as well.  It POURED all day yesterday.  Serious flooding, the market was filled with 4 ft of water, cars floating down East Bay St, just pure chaos.  Luckily my house is still here, and dry, (for the most part).  They're calling for more rain over the next 2 days.  Ughhhhhhh.  Here's a picture that was circulating around facebook yesterday of 2 guys kayaking down Market St, not photo shopped.  I also saw video of people wake boarding and tubing.  (Imagine what's in that water!  Anyone who's been down by the market knows how those drains smell.  Gross!)

We didn't have our taco Tuesday dinner last night.  The boys were asking for breakfast for dinner, so we had biscuits, bacon, eggs & home fries.  It was tasty.  Tonight I'm making crock pot pork chops.  They are so good!  Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
-boneless pork chops (I use 4, you could use up to 6, nay more than that and I think you'd need to add another can of soup)
-1 can of cream of mushroom soup (I like the one with roasted garlic, but you could do whatever you'd like)
-1 can of cream of chicken soup
-1/2 empty soup can of water
-1 Tbsp of oil
-dash of salt & pepper

Directions:
-heat the oil in a skillet, sprinkle chops with salt & pepper and lightly brown them in the pan (no more than 2 minutes on each side, you want to just brown them, not cook them)
-pour cream of chicken soup into the bottom of the crock pot and mix in water
-place chops in the soup mix
-spread can of cream of mushroom soup over the top of the chops
-cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4 hours
I like to serve it over hot egg noodles, but it would be delicious with mashed potatoes or rice.  The chops practically fall apart when you pull them out, they're so tender.

Today's lunch was Lil' Guppies themed, (in honor of all of the water around).  I remembered a story that Scotty told one of our neighbors at the pool a couple of years ago.  She commented on what a great swimmer he was and asked if he had been taking swimming lessons.  He responded, "Yes, I'm in the little guppies class for beginner swimmers".  Total lie, he's never taken swimming lessons, I have NO IDEA where that came from but it was hilarious. 

Hope you're weather is nice than ours!  Have a great day!

Homework For 2nd Graders

Times have certainly changed. My 2nd grader came home with almost an hour worth of homework; daily oral language, math, reading, spelling and an 'all about me' project. Geez. I'm a stay at home mom & I thought it was a pain, can't even imagine how moms who work out of the home get everything done. I worked as a retail manager for over 10 years, but luckily Scotty wasn't in school yet. I'm sure I'd manage, but I think I'd go crazy.

Scotty told me that in class today he had to pick 4 words that describe him. He chose smart, kind, brave and handsome. If I had to add a 5th word it would certainly not be humble! He's so funny, though. I'd love to hear what the other children chose.

Scotty helped me make today's lunch. It's my favorite one so far. He named it the Dino-mite lunch, complete with a cheeseosaurus rex sandwich, Dino doody nuggets, cretaxyrhina carrots, (apparently that's a prehistoric shark), stegosaurus super juice and a Cretaceous cookie. I love that he's so creative and smart. The cookie turned out super cute, I used one of my cookie cutter, sugar cookie dough and decorating icing. It wasn't difficult, but it looks so good!

Dinner will be super easy tonight. It's Taco Tuesday!

Soccer Season!

We had a fantastic weekend! I didn't cook dinner, as I was all alone on Saturday night and we ate out Sunday night at Panera Bread, (I LOVE the mac & cheese!). I did make a big breakfast on Saturday morning with pancakes, eggs & bacon. I tried to make triceratops pancakes with my metal cookie cutter but I forgot to spray it with nonstick spray first & it got stuck. I'll remember next time. I made small, round, babycakes instead.

We went to Dick's Sporting Goods and picked out Scotty's new soccer gear on Sunday. Practice starts on Thursday and his old cleats & shin guards were too small, (his foot has grown through 4 shoe sizes in 1 year, a 12.5 to a 2.5!). They've got a good deal going on right now, Umbro brand cleats, shin guards & soccer ball for $34. They look cool, too. You can choose blue or pink in all 3 products. I can't wait see how he plays this year, he told me he's serious this season & isn't going to goof off. We'll see.

We also practiced riding the big guy bike, no training wheels. It's frustrating for both of us. I think it's going to be a lot harder than I anticipated. Pray for us!

Today's lunch is Scooby Doo themed.  Scooby & friend's shaped pasta, a ham & cheese sandwich, fruit and Scooby graham cracker sticks.  I made this lunch after he went ot bed so he's going to be surprised.  I hope I can keep this up through the year. I told one of my friend's who asked that I have 110 cookie cutter shapes and I think there are 180 days of school so there will be some repeats.  He loves it and I think it's nice to have a fun little lunch in the middle of the day to reenergize him.

Tonight we are having buffalo chicken strips with potato wedges and celery.  I buy the Purdue Simply Smart frozen chicken strips lightly breaded and bake them according the the directions.  I make the buffalo sauce with 1/4 cup of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and a few tablespoons of Tabasco hot sauce, (melt the butter then add the hot sauce and bring to a boil, mixing it really well), then roll the cooked strips in the sauce.  It's so good. 

I'll end with a funny Scotty story.  He told me yesterday that he went to feed the ducks with Pappy and while he was walking he saw a wriggly worm on the road.  He said, "I put my face just 2 inches away from it.  Okay, maybe it was more like, 10.  I wanted to respect it's space".  What a little charachter he is.

Another Difference Between Boys & Girls

We had a fun day yesterday visiting the aquarium. We stopped at Easy Bay Deli for lunch before going to the aquarium and I had an awesome French dip sandwich. I think they called it the Charleston dip, whatever it was named it was delicious. The aquarium was fun, Scotty was literally running through most of the exhibits. We stopped at the face painting booth so our little friend Ella could get a unicorn on her face and Scotty asked to get his painted, too. He has never, ever wanted his face painted, I was surprised. He chose to become dinosaur, it was a little creepy but very impressive. Ella kept Asking if she looked beautiful, Scotty kept asking if he looked hideous & terrifying, another difference between boys & girls I suppose!

No Sleeping In

It's Saturday, and my child still woke me up at 6:45am, (I've got to work harder at keeping him up later on Friday nights, I suppose).  He said he didn't mean to wake me when he was crawling around on the floor around my bed and blowing at my hair the back of my head.  If waking me up wasn't the intention then I'm a little scared to learn what was.  He won the battle against a rested mommy and I got up and made pancakes and bacon.  I've got to recommend Oscar Meyer select bacon, smoked but uncured, no nitrates or nitrites, (it's the new line of products with the little green leaves on it).  It cooked so well, crispy and perfect.  I baked it on a foil lined cookie sheet at 415 degrees for a little less than 15 minutes, (I start checking it at 12 minutes).  If you've never cooked bacon in the oven you have to try it, it's life changing.  No mess and WAY less work.  My only suggestion is put thicker pieces on the edges of the pan and thinner ones toward the middle so that they all cook evenly. 

Last night we watched Beethoven, the movie about the unruly but lovable St Bernard.  I haven't seen that movie in so long.  Scotty thought it was hilarious, me too.  We started Friday Family Movie Night when he was in kindergarten, I thought it was a good way to get him through the school week, looking forward to Friday nights.  He loves it, he always plans out the snacks. I hate to think about it ever ending but I'm sure there will come a day when spending Friday night watching movies with your mom won't be cool :(

I made Scotty a couple more felt Angry Birds this week.  They turned out so cute.  He likes to build structures with Lincoln logs and throw the birds at them.

We've got a fun day planned today.  We're going to lunch downtown at Sweetwater Cafe, Scotty's been asking to go there for months now, then off to the aquarium with Monkga & Pappy.  I think we might be able to squeeze in a trip to Cupcake, as well.  Hope you all have a great weekend, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous here!