Wordless Wednesday–Kahlen’s New Skates

Since Daddy has started speed skating again, Kahlen wants to also. We made a deal with her that if she stopped biting her nails, we’d buy her a pair of inline skates.

 

They went to the skating rink tonight too, which was a good thing because she couldn’t go fast enough in the house :-)

~S

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Wordless Wednesday - Drive In!

We're currently waiting for Monsters University to start at the drive in theater, which is conveniently located 1/2 a mile from our house. In fact, Tim finished up cleaning the kitchen and walked over to join us.  This counts as our date night this week because our babysitter is watching Shane :)

Menu Plan Monday–July

Wait, it’s July already?!? What happened to June? Seriously. We were so busy that I don’t even know what we all did. VBS, Nate’s fourth birthday, and a ton of hot days in between, and I didn’t really stick to the plan for June. Oh well, sometimes menu planning is just like that, right? Even the best laid plans can go awry.

The new recipes that we did try:

• Ranch Chicken Sandwiches: tasty and delicious. The husband did not like the sauce, but I did. He has a thing against mayo.
• Slow Cooker Enchiladas: Hubby loved this one, I didn’t really care for it. BUT I’ll probably be making it again since he liked it and it was fairly simple. I need to figure out a way to make it bigger though, because he would have eaten the leftovers for a week if there had been enough to do that!
• Chili & Cornbread Waffles: Another hit. The kids loved the cornbread waffles, and we enjoyed the whole meal. They were more filling than they looked, though, and next time I’ll remember that we each only need 1/2 a waffle for dinner.
• Chicken Marsala: easy and yummy. Although, the leftovers did not get eaten up, so it will be awhile before I make it again. We both say that we like mushrooms, but I think we’re just trying to convince ourselves that that’s true.
• Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings: Made this, but totally rewrote the recipe first. I didn’t really realize how much of a food snot I am until I started looking at this recipe and  thought “I can make this way better if I make everything from scratch instead of cans”. And I was right, I might add, it was much tastier and not that much more work (IMO. You might think otherwise!)

Okay, here’s what we’re having this month:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
	1 *Cashew Chicken	2 *Meal through BzzAgent	3 Homemade Sub Sandwiches	4 BBQ for holiday!	5 You’re On Your Own (YOYO)	6 Mac’n’Cheese hubby style
7 Baked Pasta Casserole	8 *Crispy Chicken Rollups	9 *Cuban Subs	10 *Teriyaki Crockpot Chicken	11 Pierogies	12 YOYO	13 Green Beans, Potatoes, and Chicken
14 Noodles Bolognase	15 Sweet & Sour Citrus Chicken	16 *Cream Cheese Chicken	17 Enchiladas	18 Italian Meatballs	19 YOYO	20 Pizza
21 Guiltless Chicken Alfredo	22 Tacos	23 *Ranch Cheddar Burgers	24 Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken	25 Red Beans, Rice, and Sausage	26 YOYO	27 Meatloaf Muffins
28 Dinner at Dad’s	29 Orange Chicken Stir-Fry	30 *Taco Chicken Bowls	31 Crockpot Chicken Parmesan	1 Chicken Lemon Soup with Orzo	2 YOYO	3 Scrambled Eggs & Pancakes

* denotes a new recipe

Trying to keep things a bit simpler this month, we’ll see how it goes! What are you making this week/month?

~S

Mosaic Review–Classical Historian Ancient History Go Fish

 

A few weeks ago, we received this awesome Go Fish game. What makes it different you ask? Let me tell you!

 

This one deck of 50 cards with the answer key teaches the following skills through four fun games: Basic historical facts, Chronology, Geography, Association, and Social Skills required to follow the rules and play games with others.

Four Games in One:
A. Go Fish
B. Collect the Cards
C. Chronology
D. Continents

While it would have been nice to have had this game throughout the year for our study of Ancient History, it is great to have it now too. When we played, it was a great review of the things that we learned all year long.

The cards are beautifully done. Each card features a picture of the object as well as the title, and they’re color-coded to make matching them that much easier.

I had Kahlen (who is 6) play by herself and Nate (who is 4) and I were a team. He helped me with the numbers while I held them, so it was a great family game. Kahlen won the first time we played, and immediately wanted to know if we could play again. We only were able to play the Go Fish way because of the age and skill levels of my kids, but the other ways to play look really fun too, and I’ll be glad in four years when we come back to Ancient History that we’ll have this resource.

Here’s a synopsis of the four ways to play:

Go Fish

Players try to collect all four-of-a-kind cards from the following categories. The player who captures most sets wins.

Collect the Cards

Players use historical facts (hints) to try and guess the image on the card. If a player guesses correctly, he wins the card.

Chronology

Following the Answer Key instructions, shuffle the cards necessary for the chronology game. When one player signals, the other player assembles all cards in chronological order, as fast as he can. The fastest time wins!

Geography

Place the Continents cards at the top of the playing field. Shuffle the other cards. When one player signals, the other player assembles all cards under the correct continent, as fast as he can. The fastest time wins! Answer key provided.

This game was a big hit, and I’m considering buying the Medieval History Go Fish game for next year, since we’ll be studying that portion of history next!

You can go here to read other reviews, both of this game and of other products. Or you can go here to purchase this and other products. The Go Fish games retail for just $11.95!

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book through Mosaic Reviews. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Some links may be affiliate links, which I may receive a small compensation from in connection with their affiliate program.

Wordless Wednesday–Kool Aid Soda Pop

This is on our Summer Fun! board of activities to do this summer. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, since I changed the recipe a bit. Instead of adding these to Sprite, which is already so sweet, I poured club soda over them in a pitcher. The kids *loved* them! Granted, my kids are limited in the amount of sugar they have, so this worked great for us :) I’m guessing by the time they’re 10, I’ll have to use Sprite instead.

I made five 1/2 batches of kool aid and froze them. I couldn’t find any green kool aid, which frustrated my daughter, lol. A 1/2 batch made just over two ice cube trays, which is more than enough for us. I then just layered them in freezer bags and stored them for use later. I’ll be making more after I remember to buy more club soda, since we still have a ton of ice cubes. I might even use them for our lemonade stand that we’ll get to at some point!

~S

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Happy 4th Birthday, Nathanael!

In honor of my middle child’s fourth birthday, we had a Fire Truck birthday party for him last weekend. His actual birthday was yesterday, but Mondays are no good for holding parties :)

Thanks to Pinterest, I may have gone a bit overboard with the party decorations. now I have to think of how to top this one for Kahlen’s next birthday!

It started with the invitation:

I used the Cricut Cartridge Everyday Paper Dolls for the fire truck, axe, fire hydrant, and hat. I used the Create a Critter cartridge for the flames. It was actually my husband’s idea to make an aperture out of the fire truck window so we could see Nate from the front and inside. It’s on a 8 1/2” x 4” blank so that it will fit inside a regular mailing envelope.

After that, I found a YouTube video on how to make the cake simply yet perfect for what I wanted:

Fire Truck Cake courtesy of Family Fun Video

Then I went looking for some game or activity ideas and found this great tutorial on how to make a pull string piñata.

Also, a ton of the fire truck / fire fighter themed parties that I saw were held actually AT a fire station. I didn’t think this would work, until I just called them to ask. We were planning on having it at a park that is right next to a fire station anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right? Well, they said YES (as long as they weren’t out on a call, of course). Turns out, they were on a call when we first tried to go over there, but we were flexible about it and just came back after we saw them pull back into the station:

Nate said this was the best part!

I also found some great decoration ideas for a banner, food and cute signs, and cupcake designs. Naturally, me being me, I had to make all of those things. By hand. *sigh* sometimes my crafty side gets the better of my practical side.

The banner as it's hung up at my house. I didn't get a good picture of it at the party :(

"Matches" - Pretzels dipped in red melting chocolate. "Fire Truck Wheels" - Oreos. "Fire Hoses" - Licorice, both black and red. I also had some gluten free candies because one of his friends has a bad reaction to gluten.

The cupcakes. The red rope ones were lemon flavored and the flame ones were chocolate flavored. I also made the cupcake wrappers by cutting them out with a template first, then using decorative scissors to cut the tops. I then stuck on the little decoration on the front, which I also made, since I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for.

I am so grateful for good friends. I tried to do the flames, but I’m just not that skilled at decorating cakes. So I called in one of my best friends and she did them for me. Thanks, Melissa!

So, how did everything turn out? GREAT!! I think that Nate will never forget this one :)

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Nathanael!

~S