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. 

Our Austin Trip 2014

While on hiatus these past couple of weeks Michael and I celebrated 9 wonderfully happy, crazy and sometimes downright stressful years of marriage!

So far it has been quite a ride. Even after everything we have been through, the good, the bad and the ugly I would not change one minute of it. I am incredibly blessed. God could not have given me a better man. He is a wonderful and I look forward to rest of our lives together. 

This year for our anniversary we decided to take a family trip to Austin. And since our anniversary is so close to the 4th of July we just made a weekend of it. 

While we were gone I should have taken more pics. But to be honest most of the time I just got caught up in the fun and ended up forgetting to take pics. Damn the fun! However, I did get some so I will share our Anniversary/July 4th weekend with y'all.

Thursday July 3rd: 

We didn't get in until late afternoon so we didn't so much. All we had time to do was check in to the hotel and eat dinner before it was time to crawl into bed and prepare for the 4th of July fun ahead. When we travel by ourselves we like to stop everywhere and take our time. Not being on a time schedule is the best way to travel! 

We were excited to see some afternoon thunderstorms roll in. Rain is always a good thing!

When we got to town we went out to eat with our cousin. I don't know how he does it, but he always picks the best places to eat. (And I just realized how blurry this photo is. Eeeek!)

What would any vacation be if you didn't take at least one picture of your food :)
Z Tejas Grill has an amazing crispy salmon!

Friday July 4th

We got up early to eat breakfast and then drive the hour and half to the Guadalupe River for a day of floating fun! After getting everything in order and hauling our massive tubes down to the river we were off for 5 hours of fun in the hot Texas sun. We ended up making several new friends and at the end of the night we took the boys to their very first concert to see the Eli Young Band. It was probably the best 4th of July I have ever had.

We fell in LOVE with Torchy's a while back in Dallas. Now we have to eat there all the time. We were lucky to find one just a few blocks from our hotel so we ate there EVERY SINGLE morning for breakfast.

RIVER BOUND!

And were off... 

Perfect way to end a wonderful day!

Saturday July 5th
This just so happened to be a recovery day for all of us. We were so exhausted from all the fun and sun we got the day before that we drove around Austin looking at all kinds of fun things. We got to take the boys to the Texas State Capitol! Neither Michael or I had ever been so it was something we could all experience for the first time together.

Texas State Capitol

I love these guys!!!

Here we all are inside the capitol.
The boys had a blast!

We couldn't help but laugh at this sign at Whole Foods. 

To be honest we came here every day. Our bedtime snack was fresh fruit. Yum! I would love to have one of these here in town, but until then I will just dream of the day I get to go back. *sigh*

We even made it to The Container Store. Have you ever been there? If not I suggest you go. It was probably the coolest store I have ever been in. I loved it!

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! 

I Absolutely LOVE Rainy Days

Happy Saturday Lovelies! 

Hope that you had a fantastic week and that you are enjoying your extended holiday weekend.

This week I worked so hard to make my pool super pretty for this weekend. Happily Mother Nature had other plans. We are supposed to get rain all weekend long. And I couldn't be more excited! We desperately need it. In a really bad way. So the more rain the merrier. Plus, as much as I like laying out in the pool, I love sitting on the porch and listening to the rain even more!

Bring on the rain clouds!!!

The most entertaining part was realizing that Miss Molly had never seen the rain. And talk about excited! She ran around the entire yard trying to catch the rain. 

What I love even more than the rainy weather is the fact that I can make rainy day soups! 

Here is one of m super fave rainy day recipes...

Ingredients:

4 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces

16 ounces chicken stock

3 tsp flour

2 cups of milk (I used 2%)

1 cup heavy cream

Salt & Pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes, optional

Garnish:

Colby jack cheese

Green onion

Bacon 

Directions:

1. Heat your chicken stock in a medium saucepan over high heat.

2. Peel, wash and cut up your potatoes. Add to chicken stock, cover and cook until fall apart tender.

3. While the potatoes are cooking whisk together your flour and milk.

4. Once the potatoes are falling apart and looking kind of mushy add the milk/flour mixture and the heavy cream. With a potato masher mash the potatoes until you get a chunky soup consistancy.

5. Add the heavy cream, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Put on low heat and let thicken.

6. Serve garnished with cheese, green onion and bacon.

a little swim before bedtime

Since the start of summer both of the boys have been going to work with Mike. It's a nice arrangement for all of us most of the time. The boys get to go play on a huge ranch and get dirty and do little boy things while I have a chance to clean or run errands without all the distractions. But there are times where it sucks as well. They have only been in the pool a handful of times. By the time they come home it is late or the water is so cold that you can barely stand to be in it. Luckily they don't seem to be bothered by it too much. 

That's why last night after everything had settled down we thought it would be a good idea for a nice little evening swim before bed. Here are a few pictures I snapped since I don't get to do that very often with them anymore.