Weekly Menu

This is actually an extended week since I've decided to do my grocery shopping on Tuesdays.

Sunday: Mini Cannelloni Bake & Salad (we loved this! ...all of us!)
Monday: left-overs
Tuesday: Seared Fish w/ Crispy Potatoes & Green Sauce (Everyday Food, September 2009)
Wednesday: Roast Beef and Celery Root with Watercress Salad (also Everyday Food 9/09)
Thursday: left-over Roast Beef sandwiches (make bread with bread machine)
Friday: Caprese Mini Sandwiches & Black Bean Salad
Saturday: left-overs/pantry dinner/or possibly dinner with the neighbors?
Sunday: Tortilla Chip-Crusted Chicken & Emeril's Macaroni Salad (I've been saving the "bottom of the bag" tortilla chips and it's time to use them up.)
Monday: home-made Pepperoni Pizza (I'm thinking of trying this pizza dough recipe)

Lazy Dayz

Matt took the weekend off. He did no manual labor...nothing in the yard and nothing around the house. The frequent thundershowers may have had something to do with it but I'm not convinced.

Friday was Matt's Fantasy Football Draft. We had a house full of guys playing poker, grilling out, drafting and drinking. You can be sure that L, T and I booked it outta there. We went to Kylie's house (Lauren's friend from pre-school) for a faux slumber party. I stayed and helped with the painting project, pizza, movie, s'mores and popcorn. It was a ton of fun. I don't have any pictures but I'm patiently waiting for Diane to post about the party on her blog and then I will STEAL the pics from there. (wink)

Here's a random shot of Tyler rocking out with my XM Radio.

Speaking of Tyler, I try to ask him questions about school but he immediately shuts me down and says, "I'm too tired to talk to you anymore." I will keep on prodding though.

Saturday, we had dinner at Dave & Susan's house. It was pizza night. Susan tried to score some "best Mommy" points with my kids by making them themed pizzas. Tyler had a train and Lauren had a dinosaur...I believe.

Ian, (Dave and Susan's 3-year-old son) had me cracking up. Whenever he got in trouble or someone took one of his toys he would thrust his hand straight out (envision "talk to the hand")and shout "BACKFIRE!!" Susan explained that one day he tried something sneaky and it didn't work out for him. She told him that "that sure backfired" on him. Well Ian took that phrase and ran. It was hilarious. He said it with such passion and it reminded me a lot of the Thundercats. ("Thundercats, HO")

Here the three color together in between "BACKFIRE" episodes.

(In keeping with the pizza night theme I brought an Apple Pie Pizza for dessert. No picture but it was really good so I wanted to include the link in case you wanted to try it.)

Today was the ultimate Lazy Day. Matt watched all his TIVO'd shows and then some and I read the paper and made up my menu & grocery list. I've decided to do my weekly grocery shopping on Tuesdays when Lauren and Tyler are both at school; so I didn't even leave the house today.

This afternoon, Tera came over to play. The three played very well together and they played hard. L and T are VERY tired right now. In fact I hear them crying in the bath...which I should take as my cue to go help their Daddy out.

Happy Birthday Family

It's our Anniversary today.

Our Marriage is 8 Years Old.

I love him more everyday.

365 days times 8 years plus 2 more days (leap years)

Equals 2922 days of more love.

...and counting...

photo update

We've been busy.

We've played outside.

T-Ball

Lauren bats and Tyler fields.

Tyler bats

and Lauren fields.

Lauren zip-lined.

Tyler played tackle football at Mr. Buddy's house.

He let Belle snuggle with his blanket before he sweetly tackled her.

Saturday, we hit up another Lowe's Build and Grow Clinic

T and L, with help from Matt and I, built the school bus.

Not pictured, but highly recommended:

The Time Traveler's Wife.

I recently read the book

and on Sunday I watched the movie with my Book Club friends.

We unanimously agreed the movie was better than the book.

(the movie left out the really "dark" stuff...i.e. Ingrid)

But! The movie may be a bit confusing if you haven't read the book.

Go read the book (I'll loan it to you if you like,)

go watch the movie and then let me know what you think.

Tuesday (Today)

Tyler had his first full day of school.

When I picked him up his teacher said he had a GREAT day.

I made sure I was in the front of the pick-up line in order to get a chance to see my big guy play on the playground.

He played with a dump-truck the whole 20 minutes I got to watch him.

He and two other friends each had their own dump-trucks and together they drove them all over the playground. I even noticed a couple of girls tagging along with the boys. (so cute!)

It was so much fun to watch.

When Lauren was in her 3 yr. old class she pretty much clung to the teacher's leg...all..year..long.

It's amazing how different they are in some aspects.

After school we went to Lauren's dance class (combo: ballet & tap.) She loves this class. I think it helps that she has neighborhood friends, playgroup friends and school friends in her class with her.

Back at home we played.

Tyler looked cool while playing his computer game.

and Lauren baked up a storm in her kitchen.

--and now--

Let the evening begin.

The kids are in bed and Big Brother will be on in 15 minutes.

Hav'A G'Night Y'All

Big Day and then some

It was a BIG DAY today!! However, since I haven't blogged in almost a whole week I will need to back track before spilling today's beans.

Let's talk about FOOD. (one of my favorite subjects...I'll have you know)

This week was a "pantry week." Instead of making up a menu and buying groceries to fill that menu; I instead, just cooked what I had in my fridge and pantry.

Spinach-Feta Greek Pizza (from Rachael Ray)
I made my own pizza dough (to save money.)

The pizza was De-lish. Lauren was all over it and even Tyler asked for two or three! more pieces.

Today we had Baked Lemon Chicken w/ Mushroom Sauce over brown rice and sauteed bell peppers & zucchini. I found the Lemon Chicken recipe from Recipematcher.com. This is a site where you type in what you have in the fridge and pantry and it will suggest dinner recipes for you. Awesome. And dinner was Awesome too.


Enough about food. Let's move on to Tyler's first day of school. Three Year Old Pre-School to be more precise.

Monday was "Meet the Teacher" Day. Tyler had a blast meeting his teachers and telling them a bunch of stories. The teachers commented on how they liked his Spider T-Shirt. In turn he told them this story.
"One day we had a red spider in our house and Daddy banged it and then it didn't move any more."
Yep...That's my boy.

And finally Thursday came. Tyler's OFFICIAL first day of school.

The obligatory "in front of the door" photo.

in the car, on the way to school

(it's sideways...I know...I'm too lazy to turn it around)

Mrs. Beadling shows Tyler what to do with his "communications folder" and backpack before he comes into the classroom.

...the folder goes here...

and then it was on to some serious playtime.

I had to ask the boy to say Good Bye to me.

I knew he'd have a good day.

After I dropped Tyler off I headed over to Lauren's Dentist's office. Matt took her to her appointment so I could see Tyler off to school.

Here's a pic of Lauren showing her two Very Loose Teeth. (on the bottom, the center-left and the one to the left of that.)

Here's my big girl gliding through a cavity-free dental check-up. She's too busy to look at me since she's watching a movie on the TV in the ceiling.

The dentist said her teeth look beautiful. He ALSO said she needs to start wiggling those loose teeth of hers. Apparently, if you don't give the loose teeth a good wiggle to spread things out in there then the permanent teeth won't grow in straight. Hmmm...Who Knew?!

He also said she needs to stop sucking her thumb since it's starting to cause a problem with her bite. (Six months ago they told me that it was still okay....so 5 years old is about the turning point....so y'all know.)

In the parking lot of the Dentist's office I showed her how to wiggle her loose teeth.

While wiggling I happened to nudge (aka quickly pull) one out.

YAY!! She lost her first tooth today!!!

We went directly to Lauren's school from the dentist's office (minus one tooth.)

We made it just in time for her to participate in the Fun Run.

This was the event I was going to request multi-state sponsors but didn't because I didn't think she would be able to participate. Thank You to all of you who offered to sponsor Lauren. Next time we'll definitely hit you up. =)

Here are some shots of the Fun Run.

They gave her a Fun Run T-Shirt and on the back they marked off a square for every lap she ran. My future marathon runner ran a total of 27 laps.

Yay Lauren!

I left the Fun Run to pick Tyler up from his school.

Here I am waiting in the pick-up line.

and here come Mr. T.

a bashful Mr. T.

Once in the car I got him talking.

Things he liked about school:

1. "playing with cars and trains”

2. “looking at the lady-bug” (he meant the "caterpillar" which lists the class rules.)
3. “I liked eating.” “I eated cookies, cookies?, maybe I eated pretzels and maybe that was all.”
4. “I like-ed everything.”

What he did not Like:
“I didn’t like sitting down, even though I was sitting down on my knees like this.”

I'm so proud of my favorite boy after his first day of school. Go Tyler!!

After Lauren got home from school we practiced her tooth wiggling some more. While teaching her the family wiggling technique I was able to tweak and quickly pull out her other loose tooth.

This is monumental. My baby girl lost her first TWO teeth in ONE day. Good Lord.

And the following pics show them off.

holding her baby teeth

a gross close-up...but I'm a MOM...deal with it.

Lauren checks out her new look in the mirror.

What a day, what a Day!!

Before bed we read Little Thumb by Wanda Dionne.

Lauren is naturally, having a rough time giving up the thumb-sucking. We made a deal that she would only suck her thumb in her bed for the next week. After that she will give up the thumb for good. So far she's doing great. It breaks my heart to see her struggle with this first

Big Life Dilemma.

She's a smart and strong girl so I know she can do it.

And this concludes our Big Day and then some.

...quickly...

I was going to post last night but Big Brother was ExPloSive!! If you know anything at all then you know what I mean. (hahaha)

Anyway let's back track to Wednesday. While Lauren was at school Tyler and I went to playgroup. They all discovered Sam had the coolest toy EVER! This was a battery powered elephant who launched butterflies out of it's trunk. They looked like butterflies but Tyler kept calling them "coffee." He probably thought the sound was similar to my coffee grinder.

Thursday, Tyler and I met Susan, Ian and Erik (or Eric...I can't remember right now) at Jump 2 It for another playdate. Ian was pretty attached to his Momma and Tyler was happy to tag along.

While Susan played with the boys I got to take care of this bundle of happiness. He liked to fake me out. He'd come barreling toward me and almost reach me but then right angle it another direction. Susan better keep a close eye on him because I just may nab him for myself. (JUST KIDDING SUSAN! (I know she reads this blog sometimes.))

Tyler likes to play in the arcade with pretend money too. Jumping or pretend motorcycle riding...he's happy either way.

" smile Tyler"

After Lauren got home from school we asked if Lea could come over to play. We've missed her the past week.

I simply asked them to look at me for a picture.

Tyler and Two Divas

During a lull in the playdate I turned on a DVR'd (is that a verb now?) episode of Wipeout. They all loved it and watched it for 5 minutes before constructing their own Wipeout obstacle course.

Today (Friday) Tyler and I went back to Jump-2-It for a Mom's Club scheduled event. I didn't take any pictures because they look identical to the ones I took on Thursday. Worth mentioning, Tyler made at least 25 consecutive climbs-up and slides-down on the monstor slide today. I got tired just watching him.

Since Matt had the day off today (remember he only works 4 days a week now) he asked what I'd like him to do. I gave him a list which involved the pressure washer. He absolutely went crazy. He pressure washed the front porch and then he pressure washed the entire back deck. This took all day and the coloring on the wood changed from a dark gray to an orange-ish red. AMAZING. Attempting to write down the effort he made in completing this task is laughable. There's no way to describe how hard this was. Needless to say he's a tired boy tonight. Lucky for him though...I'm still making the family dinner even though I will be eating my dinner at the neighborhood Bunko game.

And to close: the Top 6 and Bottom 2 from Lauren's past 3 days of school.

Six Things She Liked About School

1. when the fire alarm “ringed” (fire drill)

2. I like two of my teachers. Mrs. Thomas, Ms. Dawn (she only has 2 teachers)

3. “look at my brand new sneakers” (part of a song she sang in music class)

4. I liked my friend but I don’t remember her name.

5. I liked my chocolate milk.

6. riding on the school bus

Two Things She Did Not Like About School

1. Lea wasn’t in my class. Maybe I’ll tell my teachers to move Lea and Emma into my class.

2. We couldn’t play on the playground because the grass cutters were cutting. Me: So what did you do? L: We just stayed inside until we could go outside.