Mommy Monday - Nate is 9 months old!

My, how time flies! Nate had his 9 month appointment doctor's appointment today, he's still growing, but not as fast as before. He weighs 19 pounds, 1 ounce and is 28.5" long. He's in the 50th percentile now instead of 90th or 75th like he has been.

Nathanael wants to be where ever his sister is. On Sunday, she was taking a bath and he got really excited, flapping his arms and squealing to let us know he wanted to join her :) Silly boy *still* has not cut any more teeth! I can still see six in there waiting to pop through with no luck :( He's still eating a ton of food; 1/2 jars of fruit and 1/4 cup cereal for breakfast, 1 cup veggies for lunch, and 3/4 cup fruit with protein for dinner. Plus he eats about 1/2 cup cheerios or veggie puffs throughout the day, usually as dessert after his meals so I can finish eating my food.

Here's a couple pictures from the last week:

This is what he thought of sand on his toes for the first time. I was fine with that because that meant he wasn't trying to eat it.

Nate and daddy in the back yard

Siblings playing together

Nate was hungry in this picture, so he was *NOT* happy about his sister kissing him.

Just for y'all not in Colorado: yesterday we were wearing shorts and playing in the 70 degree weather. Today there's a near blizzard. Ah, spring in Colorado!

~S

Muffin Tin Monday (on Tuesday) - Sticks

This week at Muffin Tin Monday, there is no "assigned" theme, so I decided to do "sticks"

Back row: Carrot sticks, Apple "sticks", Cheese stick

Front row: Fish sticks

Yesterday we were enjoying the lovely warm (70 degree!) weather so we didn't do our muffin tin lunch. Today it's snowing, so we definitely did not go outside today :(

~S

Menu Plan Monday - March 22nd

Really wanted to get this up yesterday, but I got going on a project in the basement and didn't make it back to my computer last night :)
I actually nearly stuck to my menu plan this week. On Thursday, we had a boxed Macaroni Grill meal instead, which if you haven't tried them are very delicious (at least as far as boxed food goes). I did make the Triple-Cheese Spirals and it's a keeper. I added some sliced ham since it didn't have any protein in it, and it was very tasty.

Our menu for this week:
Monday ~ Hashbrown eggs. Another new recipe from my latest issue of Food Network Magazine

Tuesday ~ Cashew Beef Stir Fry. I'll try to post the recipe later, got it from Taste of Home awhile back.

Wednesday ~ Leftovers. Meeting with my girlfriends, so hubby has to fend for himself :)

Thursday ~ Spaghetti Pie. Haven't made this before, so if anyone has an amazing recipe, I'd gladly take it! Otherwise, I'll just go find one somewhere on the 'net.

Friday ~ Southwest Crockpot Chicken - 1/2 package each of Zesty Herb and Southwest marinade from King Soopers, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup oil, 2 cups water, 3 chicken breasts. Cook in crockpot all day. Shred chicken and serve with beans, tortillas, and cheese.

Saturday ~ Rice'a'roni, chicken, and broccoli

Sunday ~ Breakfast burritos -Southern style hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, turkey breakfast sausage, cheddar cheese inside a tortilla. I make a batch of about 2 dozen of these about once a month and freeze them for hubby's breakfast, then we have them for dinner the night I make them :)

Next week, I'm going to try really hard to not go to the grocery store (except for milk and maybe some veggies) because I have a freezer and pantry *FULL* of food.

So, what are you having for dinner this week?
Link up at Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie or leave me a comment!
~S

Great Giveaways

Found several new great giveaways this week:

Curious George 2 DVD at The Cloth Diaper Report (Ends 3/23)
The Vintage Pearl jewelry gift certificate at The Idea Room (Ends 3/21)
ONE little BELT at Someday Crafts (Ends  3/22)
Money Savvy Pig at Home Grown Families (Ends 3/27)
Finders Keepers Game at Mama to 3 Blessings (Ends 3/31)

~S

stART - Humpty Dumpty

 

Each Thursday A Mommy's Adventures does a great blog carnival. Read a story to your child; then accompany it by art.

We started our month-long Easter unit from Hubbard's Cupboard this week. Watch for our tot school post later in the week.

Our first story this week was Humpty Dumpty by Daniel Kirk 

  Fun twist on the classic rhyme. Builds it into an actual story, which was nice. The only complaint I had was that it didn't actually say the original rhyme in it anywhere.

We did several related activities, but the main craft we did was making a humpty dumpty from shapes

First the wall

Then Humpty and his various parts

Tada, Humpty Dumpty!

I used my Cricut to cut out most of the shapes just because I'm lazy and I like an excuse to play with my toys :)

What are you and your child(ren) reading this week?

~S

Preschool Planning - Easter weeks 1-2

Remember back at Valentine's Day when I posted my planning info for the unit? Well, here's my planning sheets for the first two weeks of the Easter unit. Since I'm trading kits with two friends, I won't have all the planning sheets that I can give you, but I will post the ones that I do in hopes that they will be useful :)

I've divided this one out, and unfortunately, I didn't save all the sheets that I'm using as supplements, but I'll try and figure out where I got most of them.

Anyway, here's the overview of what we'll be doing for the next two weeks:
Easter at a Glance

Here's the detailed activity list including what I put into each kit and what each mom needed to have on hand:
Easter Detailed Activity List

Humpty Dumpty Magnet Page

 Make Palm Branches

Donkey Outline for donkey craft

H Handwriting page

P is for Palm Magnet Page

Easter Memory page

P Handwriting page

I reformatted this Resurrection Eggs activity a little bit so that it was easier to print:
Resurrection Eggs

That's all I've got for the first two weeks. Stay tuned for the next two weeks, I hope to get them done this weekend :)

~S

Crafty Wednesday - Tie Shirt

Okay, I finally finally got to my Cricut project that I've been wanting to do for weeks now. I watched this video a couple months ago and got really excited about it, then just didn't have the supplies or the time to do anything with it.
Here's what I made:

This is what my little man will be wearing for Easter.
I got the shirt on clearance for less than $1 and the fabric was on sale at JoAnn's (don't know how much, I think $4/yard, and I got 1/4 yard). I still have a lot of the fabric and interfacing left too, so I can do many more projects with it :)

For instructions on how to create your very own, watch this video:

I used paint to draw a tie since I couldn't find one and then used Make The Cut software to cut it out. It was an extremely smooth process, loved loved it! Now to find some more shirts to embellish...

~S