Muffin Tin Monday

My kids have started requesting muffin tin lunches throughout the week! They call it the "lunchable" meal. This meal includes: Goldfish crackers, Enlish muffin w/peanut butter, Laughing Cow spreadable swiss, Ritz crackers, Raisins, More english muffin, peaches, strawberries, graham crackers, applesauce, Mrs. May's Almond Crunch, and gummy fruit snacks.

The Schooling Decision

So the kids are away staying the night at grandma and grandpas so that I can get some work done. So what am I doing? The all so important updating of my blog! That should really top the priority list, right? Anyhow, I think I have finally decided on Levi's schooling for next year. Homeschooling it is. I have changed my mind MANY times, but in light of the number of uncertainties looming in our future, I'm thinking the flexibility that homeschooling offers will be better suited for our family. Now I just have to break the news to Levi. He's going to be dissapointed, but I'm hoping to divert his attention by enrolling him in soccer and some other activities. So, any of you teacher friends out there in blog land, I'm all about any ideas you can give me!

Muffintin Monday

So once again, I have stolen an idea from my friend Lisa -and I'm so glad I did! Yay for a new easy lunch idea. The idea here is to put together a quick lunch while offering a variety of "finger" foods. The kids think it's super fun to eat from the muffin tin as well!


From top left, Row 1: Graham crackers, applesauce (to dip the graham crackers in), cashews, cheeseburger quarter for boy#1
Row 2: Salt & Vinegar potato chips, raisins, string cheese bites, cheeseburger quarter for boy#2
Row 3: Lunchmeat ham, gummy fruit snacks, chocolate chips, mandarin oranges

It was a hit! My kids ate a much more than normal!

Thanks Lisa!!

The craftiness continues...

Here's the gift I'm giving to my friend for her baby girl's room. I bought the plain wooden letters and painted and decorated them.

my newest creative endeavor

I created these one and three tier diaper cakes for centerpieces at a friend's shower. The one tiered cake is filled with all sorts of baby goodies. The three tiered cake is mostly diapers with 2 baby bottles used as the central support; one bottle filled with Hershey kisses, the other is the vase for the flowers.

Our camping trip

We camped at Lake Chelan this Memorial Day weekend. I do believe it will be our LAST camping excursion on a Memorial Day weekend EVER. It absolutely poured on us. We did have some pretty good weather one day though which made it worth our while. We boated over to a little beach with tons of butterflies and the kids got to hold them and watch them for a long time.

books, books, books

So, I was inspired by my friend Lisa to write about the books our family has been reading lately. Aaron has been reading The Count of Monte Cristo. He just finished Kite Runner and now I'm going to start it next. I just finished Water for Elephants, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and Love in the Time of Cholera. I'm currently reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle to Levi, while Landon still prefers any shorter selection from our home library.

More March Snow...

Easter 2008

For Easter this year we went to service at church and then to Brunch at the Maplewood Golf Course in Renton. Since it was pooring down rain, we came home and had an indoor easter egg hunt. The day before Easter I took the boys to a couple local egg hunts. The boys saw the easter bunny, got their faces painted, played carnival games, got LOTS of candy, and we stood in line for 35 minutes for balloons from the balloon man- only to have Landon's pop on the way to the car. He was grinning from ear to ear for the 2 minutes he had it, and then there were lots of tears. Next year I'm going to have to tell the Easter bunny to ease up a bit on the candy flow. The boys have turned into little candy monsters asking me for some no less than 10 times a day.

Keepin' busy

OK, so I'm finally updating this thing. It's been awhile and we sure have been busy. Since my last post we have been to Louisiana and Mississippi for 2 weeks. We had a great time. I also started watching a 4 month old baby girl during the week for some extra income. Her name is Chelsea and she is a really good baby. In February, Landon turned 3. We are still working on potty training. I can't decide if he just doesn't really care or if I'm just not trying hard enough. Maybe a little of both. So that brings us to March. Crazy March. As of tomorrow, Aaron and I will have been married for 10 years. It's been a wild ride. The best 10 years of my life. Over the past ten years we've moved 6 times, owned 4 houses, at least 9 different cars, had 2 kids, and I lost count of how many jobs Aaron's had. But he's finally settled down at the County. He will be transferring next month from the Star Lake pit to the Renton division. This will bring more opportunity for overtime and more importantly a better avenue for networking and crosstraining and therefore moving up the ladder. Later this month, Aaron turns 33 on the 11th, Levi turns 5 on the 15th, and our niece Lacey turns 7 and nephew Carter turns 9. Lacey had been sick with the chicken pox last week, so we are waiting to see if the boys will get it. Landon has shown some signs, but we are just waiting it out at this point... just adding to the madness of March... The video below was taken in New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz music. While enjoying some beignets, the boys were diggin' the music. Pictures at top: 1)At the Louisiana Purchase Zoo, 2)Oak Alley, an antebellum plantation we toured, 3) In front of the Mississippi River