Snow in Georgia!

Well, it doesn't happen often in Georgia, but we have had snow.  Ok, so technically WE didn't have much snow.  The heavy snow stopped about 10 miles north of us, but we did get a small amount of snow.  In the middle of the night.  And it didn't really stick.  But it was snow none the less.  And since the Hubs's parents live just north of us where there a couple of inches of snow had actually fallen and stuck, we had a place to take the kids to play.  Here is how things looked at our house--not too thrilling.

Nothing much to speak of, but my car doors were frozen shut which was interesting.  So after loading up the car, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for some playtime in the snow.  As soon as we pulled up, B jumped out of the car, threw himself on the ground and started making a snow angel.  It was hilarious!

The kids wanted to make a snowman, but the thin layer of snow was not enough to make a real snowman.  We did what we could and decided to call it a snow minion.  B was thrilled with that idea and was totally satisfied with the rather slight stature of our snow creation.

 We headed in to warm up and have some delicious hot chocolate, then it was back out for a few more minutes of snow play before heading back home.

In spite of the fact that I was completely disappointed about our lack of snow, it was fun to watch the kids play in the snow.  This was C's first time seeing snow, and she was loving it!

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

I have been in a serious cooking frenzy lately.  I am on an intense mission to both lose weight and save money.  Combine those two and you get cooking and eating at home.  A lot.  And so I have been sharing lots of recipes.  I have one more for you that has been a staple in our home pretty much since we got married--Easy Chicken Pot Pie.  It is actually a combination of two recipes that I got from two different friends--the filling from one and the crust from the other.  I always loved friend J's chicken pot pie, but she makes her crust from scratch.  By "made from scratch" I mean cutting in the shortening, roll it out, the whole ball of wax.  It is flaky and delicious . . . and a lot of work and a mess to clean up once you are done.  Another sweet friend shared her chicken pot pie recipe as part of a game at one of my bridal showers.  Her filling calls for eggs which I do not love, but the crust could not be easier.  So I decided one day to combine them and see what would happen.  The result was heavenly, and I have been making it ever since.  Here are the ingredients:

 

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Filling:

1 can of chicken

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cream of potato soup

1 can of mixed vegetables (or half a bag of frozen mixed veggies)

1/2 cup of milk

Crust:

1 stick of butter melted

1 cup of milk

1 cup of self-rising flour

Combing the filling ingredients and pour into baking dish.  Combine ingredients for crust and pour it over the filling.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

You read that right--you just pour the crust over the filling.  Much like those peach cobbler recipes wear the crust rises to the top, this crust looks like pancake batter, stays on top and browns up nicely.  Here is the before and after:

Yep, that's it.  It could not be easier.  This recipe is a Go-To recipe for me for many reasons.  One, all of the ingredients are either pantry items that I can easily keep on hand or they are household staples that everyone has like milk and butter.  Two, I can throw this together when I have forgotten to pull meat out of the freezer to thaw.  Three, my kids LOVE it which means it is an easy way to get vegetables in them.  Four, it is the meat, the sides, and the bread all in one.  I usually throw together some pear salads or peach salads and call it a day.  And don't be turned off my the canned chicken.  I am not usually a fan of canned meats, but once everything gets mixed in, you can't even tell it is canned.  But if you are real particular, you can always pre-cook some chicken.  I like the ease of just opening the can.

For anyone who cooks for a family, this is a no-brainer.  I have made this for potlucks and friends who had been in the hospital, and it is a hit every time!  Enjoy!

Kitchen Curtain Reveal

I mentioned several months ago that I had a kitchen curtain project on the horizon.  I bought the fabric and trim, managed to get it cut out, and then the holidays hit.  Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day, the fabric sat and waited to be made into the lovely curtains you are about to see.  Once all the holiday hullabaloo died down, Mom was able to get busy sewing them, and the Hubs and I were able to get busy finishing them up and hanging them.

So here are the before pictures of the plain, drab windows with sad metal blinds.  Unfortunately the metal blinds are still there, but I have plans to replace them with the more updated wood grain plantation blinds.  Two of the windows look out onto the front yard--one of the sink and one in the breakfast area.  (Please ignore the plastic cup, Crock Pot, and junky shelf in the pictures.)

The third window is also in the breakfast area and faces the side yard.

 And here is the finished product.  They are gorgeous, if I do say so myself.  I could not be happier with them.

 

The fabric is Richloom Kathranne in Licorice, and the tasseled trim was a steal from JoAnn's.

 

Like I said, I am really happy with how these turned out and am very happy with the more finished look my kitchen and breakfast area have.

Sensory Bins

I recently took a little bit of time to create a couple of sensory bins for the kids to play with.  After looking around on Pinterest for ideas, I put two of them together for about $15.

I started with a rock box with construction vehicles.  This bin kept B busy for a solid hour one morning last week.

I bought two bags of rocks (I probably should have gotten four) and the construction trucks at the Dollar Tree for a buck a piece.  The orange trucks were actually two for a dollar!  The most expensive item here is the bin itself which I think I paid $4 at Wal-Mart.

The next bin I did was a rice bin.  Our local Winn Dixie had rice buy one get one free a few weeks ago, so I snagged a couple of bags with this activity in mind.  Then I took a little bit of time during naps to color the rice to make it extra fun.

Coloring rice is super easy as long as you have the basic food coloring in the droppers and enough counter space for drying it out.  I pulled out 6 soup/cereal bowls and put 2-3 tablespoons of water in each bowl.  Then I used my food coloring to make the different colors shown.  I added the dry UNCOOKED rice (about 1.5 cups) to each bowl, mixed each bowl of rice so that each grain was well-coated in colored water and let it sit for a few minutes (5-10 max). 

Then I lined my counter tops with towels and paper towels, poured each bowl of rice out and let it sit out overnight to dry.  Then I poured it into a metal pan that I had sitting around.  I picked up an ice scoop and a set of measuring cups and spoons for less that $1 each at Wal-Mart. 

 This is the kids' favorite bin--they love to put the trucks in the rice bin and bury them in the rice.  They pretty much ask to play with it every day.  I will warn you--this one gets a little messy.  I have to sweep the entire kitchen floor every time the kids play with the rice bin.  I tried lining the floor under the pan with newspaper as you can see in the picture, but it didn't really work.  But like I said, they do love it.

I hope to make more of them--in fact, I have already picked up some more packages of little airplanes and trucks at the Dollar Tree for another bin--but I have not made the investment yet.

Fun Park Fun Day

The Fun Park is a mini-golf/arcade/bowling alley/go-karts/you get the picture place.  Hence the name, Fun Park.  And it is run by Christian owners, so there is always praise and worship music playing, which makes it a safe place for families.  It is out of town, but not too far of a drive, and it is one of B's favorite places in the world.  He has been wanting to go since before Christmas, and the Hubs told him he would take him over Christmas break.  But then he sprained his ankle and was out of commission over the break, so we decided to take the kids Saturday night.  B wanted to play putt-putt and ride the go-karts, so that is exactly what we did.  And B got his first Hole-In-One!!

C, however, was not interested in playing putt-putt and was done after about one and a half holes.  So I pretty much just chased her around the course trying to keep her from falling into the waterfall until I got some tokens and let her ride one of those little whip-lash inducing kiddy rides three times in a row.

When we finished up at the Fun Park, we headed over for a quick shopping spree at Target, and then we went to dinner at Outback.  The Hubs and I used to go there all the time when we were dating, and we went recently for a date night.  Our experience was not so great and when we politely mentioned it to our server, she told the manager who gave us a $40 gift card on her!  WOW!  We we enjoyed a family meal at Outback for less than $10 out of pocket!  YAY!

I keep those little $1 Play Packs that have a coloring book, crayons, and sheet of stickers in C's diaper bag, and I love to pull them out when we are eating at restaurants to keep the kids entertained until the food arrives.  Coloring doesn't occupy my kids for very long, but they LOVE stickers!  And I have the pictures to prove it.

 They really enjoyed the meal and playing with the stickers.  It was a really fun evening spent with family.

First Haircut

Well, after over two and a half years, the Hubs finally agreed to cutting C's hair.  The Hubs wants her to have long hair, and I don't really care one way or the other (which I realize sounds strange, but I just think she is adorable regardless of her hair length).  If it had been solely up to me, I would have cut her hair a year ago.  You see, C was born . . . with a rat tail.  I kid you not--and as she got older it only got more obvious.  This picture is from when she was about 9 months old--Exhibit A.

 So, after she turned a year old, I was ready to take her in for a trim.  But her daddy just couldn't bring himself to let her get a hair cut.  He loves how sweet she looks with long hair.  So here is the before picture of her hair.  And as you can see, as her hair grew the rat tail kind of blended in--kind of.

So, yesterday we took C for her first haircut.  She has seen B have countless haircuts, so she knew what to expect and was excited--especially about getting a sucker when the haircut was done.  So even though B was also getting a haircut, she wanted to go first in the chair.  She did GREAT!

And here is the after picture. 

You can barely tell a difference, but everything is just a bit more even and polished looking.  I can't believe my sweet baby is getting so big!

My hilarious oldest child

My kids are hilarious.  Now I know everyone says that about their kids, but mine are certifiably hysterical.   I like to think they get it honest from their mama, but their daddy has been known to get a few chuckles from time to time as well.  But I digress . . .

They are constantly amazing me with what they know and the new things they are doing, but B has really kept us in stitches lately.  One Sunday morning recently, while the Hubs was shaving, B decided he needed to shave too.  So the Hubs lathered him up.

 I pulled out the magnetic letters and a pan recently, and B has had a ball making his sight words and everyone's name.  We were hanging out in the living room one night recently, and he decided to make his numbers.  He made 1-20, and I was super impressed with how resourceful he was when he ran out of ones.

There is a local pizza place that we frequent way too often, and what the kids love about it the best is the chalkboard walls by several of the booths.  They love to get pizza and "color on the walls" so we have to rush to one of the coveted booths and get the kids busy with the chalk.  B drew Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales.  Then, with some spelling help from me, he wrote "Veggie Tales" underneath the veggies.  He was so proud--and so was I.

 

And as is evidenced by his Christmas gifts and his birthday party, he is WAY into Angry Birds.  Now, it has been WEEKS since he actually played the game on a phone or iPad, but he's got so many Angry Birds toys, I don't think he has missed it too much.  He loves to draw Angry Birds and carries around the various Angry Birds (and pigs) that he got for Christmas.  At lunch yesterday, they surrounded his plate while he ate.  Note the Angry Birds drawing in the background.

The kid is a crack up.  He keeps us in stitches and with his quick wit and unpredictable quirks, we never know what to expect from him.  I love that sweet boy with all my heart.