Just a few pictures from the last couple of months...

We went from winter snow...

(eating snow ice cream before school)

... to Spring like weather in a matter of days!

Planning Summer Fun Activities

Summer has been in full swing for the past 6 weeks and we still have another 5 1/2 weeks to go so I am always looking for fun things to do with the kids in and around our town. It would be nice to live closer to super cool, fun things to do but we don't. Around here we have to get creative when we want to take the kids to do fun stuff. And even though my kids will be splitting time between my hubby's work and here at home with me I would love to have a few things that we can go do just so we are not cooped up in the house. No kid wants to be stuck at home with their mom all day.

Here are some great ideas for this summer...

Go to the Movies
Every summer Cinemark movie theaters has a summer movie clubhouse. It's 10 kids movies, all rated G or PG, for $1 a movie or all ten for $5. If you are willing to take your own snack rather than buy them there it is a super cheap thing to do. If not this last week I spent almost $20 on small popcorns and small cokes for just us three. So I highly recommend throwing some snacks in an oversized purse. But don't tell them I told you that :) If you are interested you can go to Cinemark's Summer Movie Clubhouse home page to find a participating theater near you. These are the movies showing at our theater:

Bowling

Last summer I discovered the website Kids Bowl Free. It allows you to register each of your children to bowl 2 FREE games every day this summer. You will have to pay for yourself if you would like to bowl with your children, but sometimes they will let you bowl with your kids for free if they are not busy. You will also have to pay for shoe rentals, but most days they are only $1 (except on the weekends).

Swimming

Even though I have a swimming pool in the backyard sometimes it is fun to head to the city pool for the afternoon and meet up with cousins or friends that we rarely get to see. For me and the boys to get in for the afternoon it is $9 and we bring our own water and snacks. And then on Tuesday and Thursday nights they have family nights and only charge $4.50 for a family of four. 

And no day of swimming is complete without stopping for a snow cone on the way home. 

Local Baseball Games

My boys love to watch baseball with their dad and I feel horrible that we have never taken them to a local baseball game. This summer we are going to change that. Although it is probably one of the most expensive things we can do as a family this summer (about $10 a person + the cost of dinner while we are there), but it is great family fun and they host a ton of theme nights or nights where they give away prizes. 

Picnic at the Park and Bike Riding

Who doesn't love a good picnic and bike ride? Most kids would love to pack a lunch head off to the park and ride around for a while. We are lucky that there is a park so close. It would be super easy to pack up a backpack full of lunch and then ride around the neighborhood after we got done eating. It's a day worth of a nap when you get home. 

oh stormy day

Wednesday as I was sitting in the living room watching some TV before everyone got home for the evening when I noticed that there were some pretty dark storm clouds heading our way. Not too soon after the boys walked through the door. They made it just in time too. Not too long after they came in the sky started getting really dark and the wind started blowing. We decided that since it is very rare that we get good storms these days we would sit outside and watch it and all it's glory.

Sadly our neighborhood got about 5 minutes of rain and 15 minutes of wind while 2 miles away got 2.5" of rain. It was really disappointing. Either way the boys had a fun time riding their bikes outside listening to the thunder and watching the lightning.  

After we were done playing in the drizzle that fell from the sky we headed inside for dinner where I had been cooking these crockpot chicken tacos all day. I originally found the recipe from Chocolate Therapy but made my own taco seasoning instead of using the packaged kind. I just like homemade better than the packaged stuff.

Ingredients:

6 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning or 1 pkg taco seasoning

1 jar salsa - I used mild pace picante

Taco Seasoning Recipe:

2 tablespoons chili powder

1.5 tablespoons paprika

1.5 tablespoons cumin

1/2 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Dash of cayenne pepper

You can double the recipe if you like to have more on hand for a later date! 

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in the crockpot. Give it a good stir. 

2. Set on HI and cook for 6-8 hours. Chicken should fall apart when you stir with a fork.

3. Serve chicken on warm flour tortillas with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole and salsa.

You can even freeze and use your leftover meat to make an easy Chicken Tortilla Soup!

(recipe to come later)

For the rice:

Rice is one of Tyler's favorite things to eat so when he asked me if I bought the rice just for him I took that as the highest of compliments from a 6 year old. 

Ingredients:

2 cups of long grain white rice

1 can petite diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon oil

Spanish rice seasoning

Knorr Caldo de Tomate seasoning

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the rice and cook until slightly browned.

2. Add the entire can of diced tomatoes with juice, the water, spanish rice seasoning and caldo seasoning.

3. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat and cook on low until rice in cooked. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. 

:: the start of summer and a menu plan ::

Happy Monday Ya'll!

It is officially summer...

And mohawk  season!!!

pizza friday's

Back in the day when the boys were a little younger, okay more like last summer, we always designated Friday nights as pizza and a movie night. We let the boys pick a movie and we would all pile up on the couch and just hang out as a family. It was great! I loved our Friday nights! I miss our Friday nights. I think they are going to make a come back really soon. 

When we were poor I would always make home made pizza, but then it just got easier to order Dominos (and less messy too!). But then I started to miss making home homemade pizza with the boys. 

Does it make a HUGE mess? Yes, of course it does. But it can be cleaned. 

Do they always eat the ingredients before they make it onto the actual pizzas? Duh! What kid wouldn't?

But it always so much fun to gather in the kitchen and pick out what they want on their own pizzas. I mean look at these happy faces...

(2009)

 (2012)

Now our big thing has been cooking outside. With the weather so nice these past few weeks it makes it really hard to not want to cook outside. Then on Pinterest one day I saw that people were grilling pizza. 

Ya, I know. I thought they were crazy too. 

After seeing several pics of people grilling pizza and doing some more reading into it I thought I would give it a shot. worst thing that could happen is I completely screw it up and we eat takeout that night.

Ingredients:

2 boxes Jiffy pizza crust or you can make your own using the recipe below

Pizza sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Pizza Toppings of Your Choice:

Pepperoni        Ground Beef 

Sausage                  Ham

Chicken               Pesto

Peppers                 Onions

Olives               Jalapeños

Mix and match with whatever you like! 

Directions:

1. Start by making your crust. Either out of a box or from scratch. While your crust is rising, preheat your grill.

2. Once your dough has risen, form a ball and cut in half. 

3. On a piece of wax paper brush on some olive oil.

4. With each half roll out a crust on the oiled wax paper. You don't want to go to thin or it will not work on the grill. 

5. Gather all of your toppings so they will be easily accessible. 

6. Once you are ready to grill your pizza flip your crust over so that the wax paper is facing up. The wax paper will will pull right off. 

7. Let the crust cook with the lid open for 6-8 minutes (mine was on medium)

8. Once cooked flip over and start applying your sauce then toppings.

9. Close lid and let cook another 5 minutes.

10. Remove from grill, let cool and enjoy!

A Mini Vacation and a Graduation

It's sad to say that I am just now getting around to blogging about our little mini family vacay that we took almost two weeks ago! It has been so crazy with the school year coming to a close, me starting school (i'll have to blog about that after my final), kids running around, birthdays and lots of things needing to be done around the house. 

But here I am ready to go into picture overload mode. 

We usually don't take many vacations during the school year, especially if the boys will have to miss any days, but Michael's little brother was graduating with his masters from seminary (we are so proud of him!) so we decided to pull the kids out of school for a couple of days and make a quick road trip to go see him walk the stage. 

We started our trip off a day early so we could take the boys to Great Wolf Lodge and spend a little bit of time together as a family. Work has been crazy for Michael so it was fun to just hang out without the worry of work. Our friends have always told us about Great Wolf, we had just never been ourselves. It was so much fun that now we can't wait to go back! 

If you have never been I would highly reccomend going. The kids will love it!!

The boys loved the 'wolf den' that they got to stay in. They felt special that they had their own little space, even if it was just for one night. 

So perfect for two little boys! 

That night Michael's sister flew in from Missouri so we all met up with his little brother for dinner. We went a mexican food place called Mi Cocina. It wasn't too shabby for mexican food east of here. The crazy part being while we were outside waiting on our table Troy Aikman (Dallas Cowboys Troy Aikman) walks out! I don't watch football but I know who he is and my SIL just loves him and was speechless. The look on her face was priceless. Apparently it is one of his fave restaurants to eat at and is there all the time. Who knew? He was much taller and tanner in person than I would have imagined.

And here we all are...

Since we were at dinner so late we got up bright and early the next morning for a hearty breakfast before we headed down to the water park. 

It was this huge breakfast buffet and Tyler chose cereal. Crazy boy!

Me and my man

Love him to pieces! 

Unlike Tyler, I had an awesome breakfast!

Then went back for more bacon.

Right before putting the phone away so we could go down our first water slide.

(we don't get many family pics so I absolutely love this one) 

The boys are ready! 

One of the many fun play areas that they have for the kids

 

Tyler did not want anymore pictures so I got Jake to take pics with us (: 

He is such a sweet boy.

  

Another family pic! 

Two in one day is just unheard of for us!

After our super fun and exciting day at Great Wolf we headed up the car and headed for the Holiday Inn to get cleaned up and ready for Ethan's graduation. You should see five people in one room trying to shower and get ready in less than two hours. But after all was said and done we met up with Michael's parents and headed for the church. 

It was really weird being in a place with so many well educated people. I felt bad at times because I had no clue what they were talking about. The boys were so exhausted from swimming that they fell asleep within 5 minutes.

WooHoo Ethan! 

We are so proud of Ethan for his hard work and dedication to his education. We pray he finds a pastoral job that he will love grow even more in Christ in. 

The next morning we all gathered for breakfast at Torchy's Tacos (and it was delicious!) before we all went our separate ways. 

We enjoyed the time with family we rarely get to see and missed the ones who couldn't be there with us. 

We hope to get to see everyone again soon! 

boys.

I know I have not posted about my boys in a long while so I thought today would be about them.

This morning they were complete and total hams.

I love seeing there sweet smiles early in the morning.

I really love the 2.3 seconds that they are sweet loving brothers.

Then well all hell breaks loose until bedtime.

(Yes, I know the hair is a bit messy, but we are growing it out so they can have mohawks again this summer. It will only get worse over the next couple of weeks.)

Tyler saw some girl the other day on TV doing the famous 'duck face' that seems to be all the rage, so he thought he would give it his best try. Hilarious! I think he nailed it!

one crazy month

Oh my, what a month it has been! I swear all I ever do is play catch up. I think I am going to sit down and schedule in some blog time. I really do miss sitting down an reading all the posts on my blog roll and sharing about what's going on in my world with everyone.

I want to start off by talking about the name of my blog. I have spoke about my little identity crisis in the past and apparently still feel confused. I hope you all don't think I am too crazy. Xo

Now on to the catching up part. I thought the best way to catch everyone up was to just post the pictures. Hope you all enjoy this little catch up post! 

Let's start with these wonderful Strawberry Spinach Popsicles I made for the boys. They were super easy to make and they were super yummy!

This delicious Enchilada Casserole was a HUGE hit with the family! Thank you Jen! 

 My amazingly wonderful friends got me this awesome Kelly Moore Libby bag. And I absolutely love it!

Tyler started flag football, and even though it has been rocky and back and forth, he still loves it.

Love watching him play!!!

Finally got my Fall Bucket List up from Loves of Life. Thank you Katie!

Found this sign at Marshall's and thought it would make a great addition to my kitchen.

 Bought me some new boots for this fall and have been having fun dressing myself from Pinterest :)

 And dressing myself out of things that I find in the back of my closet. 

Well that has been a lot of catching up for the past month. Hoping that I will be better about at least updating every couple of days instead of every month. 

Y'all have a Wonderful Wednesday!