Weekend Recap

The weather was warm and sunny.

Hubby had two days off work.

We spent the Saturday morning at the mall for a children's fair with lots of fun activities.

I forgot my camera. (of course)

We spent Saturday afternoon at a friend's birthday party at the bowling alley. (Stella's first time bowling. Again...I forgot the camera.)

After Sunday morning worship, we went to visit my Grandma at the nursing home. It was good to see her!

When we came home, the kids played outside soaking up the last of the semi-warm day.

At bedtime, a nasty stomach bug hit Felicia. We are all praying that it skips us.

Monday morning, the frigid temps came back. Blah.(Wishing we could repeat the weekend.)

Hope your week is starting off better than ours!

Colored Spaghetti Scissor Practice

Lately I have been working extra hard to entertain Stella with activities that we can do indoors while the weather is bad. It's not always easy. She wants to be outside, as do I. This activity kept her entertained for a decent amount of time. I'll take that! 

{You will need}
spaghetti
food coloring
vegetable oil
ziplock bags

Boil the spaghetti, drain it and allow it to cool. Separate the spaghetti in ziplock bags, add few teaspoons of oil and several drops of food coloring. Shake the bags until the noodles are all colored. Now you're ready to play! Stella used tongs, spoons, and bowls to play, but her favorite thing to do with it was to cut it with scissors. 

She's always thrilled when she can cut things! Obviously you will want to supervise your child if they are using scissors. This is definitely something we'll be doing again, I'm sure!

A No Bake Birthday?!

Nineteen years ago today I gave birth to my second son, Brandon! I can't believe that I survived 19 years with him...I kid (sort of). But seriously, he keeps us laughing and I am proud to be his Mom. A few weeks ago, he asked if instead of having a cake could I make his favorite cookies for his birthday. To which I replied, "Of, course!" (Because I love them too!) So here they are!

{You will need}
2 cups sugar
4 tbs. cocoa
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tbs. vanilla
3 cups of oatmeal

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk and bring to a boil. Continue boiling for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add the peanut butter and vanilla. When it is just mixed, add the oats. Drop by tablespoon (or a cookie scoop) onto waxed paper and allow them to cool. They'll harder as they cool.

 

Banana Muffins

As I have mentioned before, we have been dealing with our fair share of snow days. Those days when we are snowed in, I tend to get in a baking mood. I guess when spring finally arrives I'll have to make some extra laps around the neighborhood to burn off all those extra calories! Today's treat was a request from my son, Aaron. He's been asking for a few weeks so I finally got around to making his favorite banana muffins.

{Ingredients}

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup of mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)

2 cups flour  (all purpose or whole wheat)

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons  baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray your muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat the egg and then stir in the milk, oil, and mashed bananas. Add  the remaining ingredients and stir until just moistened. (the batter should still be lumpy) Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes. Remove them from the pan immediately to cool.  This recipe makes 1 dozen regular size muffins. Enjoy!

Snow

Over the past few weeks, we've had quite a bit of snow. It seems that just when we dig out of one storm, another starts dumping more of the white stuff again. Although a few weeks ago I was really missing summer because of the extreme cold we were getting hit with, I really do LOVE the snow! The kids are in heaven and have definitely put their boots, snow clothes, and sleds to work this year. 

Lucy, on the other hand, is NOT enjoying the snow. Her favorite spot to "go" is dwindling fast!

 What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

 

H is for Hearts

Valentine's Day gave us the idea for this page in our alphabet book! Stella painted some cookie cutter prints and then added an H and a few heart stickers. 

 

S is for Snowman

Stella and I have finally gotten busy making her Alphabet Book. This time around I've decided instead of working alphabetically, we will be jumping around and because the theme of our week appears to be snow (we're on our second snow day this week!), our first letter is S for SNOWMAN!

 To make the "snow" for our snowman, we used a hole punch and white paper. The big girls are always wanting to use it, so they were a big help.

I spread the glue around for the snowman and Stella's job was to add the snow and other details.

Stayed tuned for more alphabet pages to come!

 

Never Doubt the Groundhog

Early Sunday morning we got the news from Phil that we were in for six more weeks of winter. Many say a groundhog can't predict the weather, but around here we believe he can...

More snow coming our way tomorrow!