So Very Pinteresting

Dude.  It's been a while!  Here's hoping I can actually remember at least some of the pins I've tried.

Yummies:

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese - I hate running across recipes and thinking I COULD'VE THOUGHT OF THAT ON MY OWN!  So frus-trat-ing.  This was one of those.  Jalapeno popper sandwich? Yes, please, and THANK YOU.  The pin says to use cream cheese, bacon, and jalapenos.  The actual recipe it links to says goat cheese, the bacon and jalapenos, and . . . apricot preserves?  I don't like cream cheese and didn't have any goat cheese so I chose to use Laughing Cow swiss.  I skipped the whole apricot preserves part because, really, the eff?  So my sammich was just laughing cow, bacon, and jalapenos and SWEET BABY JESUS was it good! I had it for dinner one night (the rest of the fam had spaghetti which I try to avoid at all costs) and lunch the next day.

Loaded Cauliflower - 'Twas slightly intimidated by this recipe.  I use cauliflower in mashed potatoes and potato soup -- dishes where I can cammoflauge it's flavor.  I wasn't sure if making it "twice baked style" with cheese, sour cream, and bacon would cover the too-veggie-ish flavor or not.  Well guess what?  IT WAS GOOD.  So good, in fact, that this girl went back for seconds.  Of cauliflower!  It's a miracle!  (By the way -- this pin doesn't link to a recipe.  I boiled my cauliflower till tender then mashed it.  Put it in a casserole dish with sour cream, cheese, and bacon bits.  Added more cheese and bacon on top and baked at 400 for about 20 minutes).

Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread - I have been on a major buffalo chicken kick here lately!  LOVE!  I made this a few weeks ago.  The only real "tweak" I did to the recipe was I folded the pizza dough over like a calzone rather than rolling it jelly roll style.  It was super good! It's one that will definitely be made again.

Banana "Pancakes"  - Okay.  Recipe says you can mash one ripe banana with two eggs and griddle 'em up like pancakes.  After reading the comments, I decided to add a tiny bit of banana as well as some Splenda and cinnamon.  The first time I made them, they were super good.  Super good.  The second time?  I'm not sure if my banana wasn't ripe enough or what but I just wasn't feeling the.  I will say this: they DEFINITELY need the addition of the vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar/ sugar sub.  Without those you'll basically eating a banana flavored egg.  And y'all?  YUCK.

Turkey Ranch Club Wrap - I've made this wrap for lunch nearly everyday this week!  I use Laughing Cow Cheese, add a few slices of ham, cut out the lettuce and tomato, and add banana pepper.  Really yummy!

Cake Batter Fudge - Yuck, yuck, double yuck.  The only good thing about this is that I didn't waste a lot of money on a fudge recipe that never even set and wasn't even good enough to just eat with a spoon.  Don't even bother with this one.

Strawberry Cake - I love strawberry cake so I was excited to make this.  And I was, unfortunately, pretty disappointed.  The flavor was really lacking and the icing was too buttery.  The recipe said it tasted better cold -- and that was certainly true.  I wouldn't say it was bad necessarily but it was certainly disappointing.

Baked Pumpkin Donuts - I'm  one of those annoying "OMGPUMPKIN" people.   I love pumpkin.  LOVE.  I also recently bought a donut fan so when I pinned this recipe I knew I would be making it asap.  Aaaaaand . . . once again . . . I ended up pretty disappointed.  They were okay but certainly not at all what I was expecting.  They tasted better when they had a chance to cool a little bit.  Honestly, though, they were too much trouble (well, not so much trouble as they were breakfast and my kids expect instant gratification when it comes to breakfast; notsomuch fans of the whole having to wait for something to bake thing) to make again. 

Finally this is ohsoappropriate for right now.  I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon and evening getting my house to the point that I can just refer to it as a "mess."  Fun stuff!

So Very Pinteresting

I saw this on Pinterest the other day:

Yeah.  Totally my running theme for Pinterest projects this week.

Yummies:

Oven Baked Meatball Subs - Okay, these are totally easy.  Meatballs, sauce, sub bread, cheese.  Oven until cheese melts.  HOW CAN YOU MESS THEM UP?  Apparently, you can.  Or at least I can.  Because I did.  They were edible and all, I suppose, but the bottom of the bread was soggy.  And, as my friend Brittney said, there's nothing worse than a soggy bottom.  I didn't have much success with meatball sub casserole either.  So I'm thinking I'm out of the meatball sub business.

Eggplant Parmigiana - This is not a food I grew up eating.  But I tried eggplant parmigana at one point and really liked it.  Since making this dish, I decided I must've been really drunk when I tried it.  Ya'll.  NOT GOOD.  NOT GOOD AT ALL.  I was so disappointed because I wanted to love it.  Not only that, but I tried to trick Kyan into eating it (by telling him it was chicken) and ended up with a four-year-old who was pretty furious with me.  And I can't say I blame him . . .

Kid Stuff:

Bouncy Balls - The reason - pretty much the ONLIEST reason - I searched high and low (Walmart and Target both, ya'll) for Borax was to make these stupid balls.  The first time we went to make them I realized I was out of corn starch so we made Gak instead and guess what?  I'm still finding Gak in places you don't wanna find Gak.  Ugh.  I finally managed to have all needed ingredients at the same time so Kyan and I set out to  make these earlier this week.  I'll let the picture do the talking:

THAT is not a ball.
THAT is a handfull of GOOP.

In the interest of full disclosure I had one friend that they worked fine for and another that found them to be a little dry.  I have no idea what happened to mine!  Totally NAILED IT though!

So Very Pinteresting

I totally love Pinterest this time of year. It's August.  It's hot and everybody is just so over summer.  All the sudden, everything pinned is fall and Halloween related.  A few Christmas-y things thrown in.  Lots of football related.  "Tailgate snacks!" "Gameday outfit!" "WPS!"

I heart it.

Yummies:

Southwestern Chicken Chop Salad - What I made was more "pinspired" by this recipe than a step-by-step.  I left out the tomatoes, cilantro, and avocados.  I subbed a red pepper (my fave!) for the green pepper and added a can of green chilis.  Guess what?  It was delicious!  I planned to eat it over a few days (I added the lettuce in each time) so I made the dressing daily using a tbsp each of greek yogurt and low fat mayo and 1/2 tsp of Ranch dressing mix and 1/4 tsp of taco seasoning.  It was a super yummy summer lunch and something I'll keep making.

Roasted Summer Squash - So since I finally decided to stop being an 8-year-old and embrace vegetables, I found that I really like squash.  And this squash?  With parmesan cheese and garlic salt?  Nom, nom, nom.  I wasn't crazy about having my oven on for half an hour during the heat of the summer but serioulsy, ya'll.  Worth it.  This shiz was gooooood.

Spicy Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayo - I really love the Skinny Taste website and appreciate all the effort that goes into dreaming up waistline-friendly recipes.  This one, though . . . ai yi yi.  The burgers were easy enough to make.  The hardest part was mashing the black beans.  I don't have a food processor but I do have a good blender and was able to use it without any problems.  The burgers need to be cooked from frozen and mine were in the freezer for a couple days before I put one on the skillet.  Annnnnd . . . it still didn't stick together while cooking.  The cooked "burger" was a little mushy and, honestly, a lot like eating bean dip on a bun.  It wasn't necessarily bad.  It was just . . . interesting.  Different.  Weird.  It did, however, fill me up.  Like, I ate this burger with the squash and didn't even have to eat an afternoon snack.  It held me over for dinner.  I'll tell you this at the risk of sounding TMI McOvershare -- the burger combined with the squash was a lot of fiber that particular day.  A lot.  Don't stand downwind!

Parmesan Zucchini Fries - Prepare to fall in love.  These things?  They.are.so.good.  I tried them with ranch dressing but the next time I make them (and I'm thinking, oh, TONIGHT), I'll dip them in marinara.  Oh?  And bonus!  Both the picky 11-year-old and eats everything five-year-old were fans.  Score!

Chocolate Protein FroYo - Whoever originally had the sheer audacity to actually blog this mess should be tortured.  This stuff is DISGUSTING.  It tastes absolutely nothing like froyo unless the froyo you're accustomed to is something n the dog turd genre.  Seriously.  Don't waste your time or greek yorgut.  *Goes to wash mouth out again*

Skinny Ranch Dressing - I really wanted to like this.  Ever since having Karis, I cannot get enough ranch dressing.  Love the stuff.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really digging this.  It was too salty.  I think adding another cup or half cup of greek yogurt could've helped but I didn't have anymore.  I'm a big fan of "buffalo ranch" so I added some Frank's to the dressing and it sort of helped with the salt overload.  Unfortunately, it also made it pretty runny. 

Here's a "yummy" that I want to share with those of you who are really counting your calories: 40 Snacks under 200 Calories.  Some pretty good ideas on this pin.  One of them is cucumbers with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese. Here's a Brandi twist: mix a tiny bit of Frank's sauce with that laughing cow before you smear it on the cucumber.  OMG. Nom!

Gotta Try This:

Homemade Jewelry Cleaner - I just mentioned to Eddie the other day that my rings were in desparate need of a good cleaning.  So, obvs, I literally tried this jewelry cleaner approxomately two seconds after pinning it.  Score!  It works!  I think the best thing about it is that it doesn't have that icky jewelry cleaner smell.

Dish Towel Doubles as Dryer Sheet - Okay, I'm not sure I gave this one a fair shot seeing as I used fabric softener I picked up from the Dollar Tree (what?  I didn't want to waste money if it wasn't going to work!)  It did work -- for about two loads of laundry.  I'm going to try it again with a better fabric softener and see if it doesn't work a little better.

Homemade Icepacks - Water plus rubbing alcohol to make icepacks?  Had to give it a try!  It wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  They sort of came out like a . . . slushie.  Weird.

Preseve Apple Slices - Apparently you can preserve apples by soaking them in a little bit of lemon lime soda (I used Sprite Zero).  Pretty cool!  I thought this would be perfect to keep from buying those pre-packaged apple slices for school lunch.  It worked good . . . in small ziploc bags.  Once I put a bunch of apple slices in a larger bag, no dice.  I'm not sure why but those browned by later in the same afternoon.  I still have a smaller bag in the fridge - been there for a week - with no browning.



Kid Stuff:

Homemade Gak - I FINALLY picked up some Borax!  I went to Walmart to pick up some random stuff the other night and happened to spot several boxes of the stuff on a shelf.  YAY!  We originally planned to make bouncy balls but total mom fail, I didn't have any corn starch.  So we switched to Gak.  It was fun - and easy - to make and, no kidding, kept both boys occupied for a FULL HOUR.  Holla!  Here's the deal, though: random crap will stick to Gak.  This includes long dark hairs, just in case someone in your house happens to be a shedder.  Also?  Gak will stick to your fuzzy bath rug.  And if you happen to SIT DOWN ON IT, it will stick to your pants.  Sigh.

Sandpaper T-shirts - I pinned this ages ago but we finally got around to making our shirts last week.  Jaidan and Z really liked the idea but they were disappointed in the results.  They weren't nearly as vibrant as we were expecting.  I'm not sure if they just didn't color hard enough on the sand paper or what.

So Very Pinteresting

Mannnnn.  It's been a while since I shared any of my favorite [been there, done that] Pinterest finds!  I've been a pinnin' fool and a tryin' the pins fool this week so I have quite a few recipes/ activities/ fun stuff to share.

Kid Food:

Homemade Jello Fruit Snacks - My kids love fruit snacks.  Love them!  But I don't buy them very often.  Partly because they're crap food and if I'm going to give my kids crap it's going to at least be something like Chips Ahoy cookies or Hostess cupcakes (read: crap that I'll eat too).  But mostly because, with four kids, it doesn't make sense to buy any sort of individually packaged snacks.  They go through them so fast!  When I pinned this recipe, I knew it was something we had to try.

Here's the deal with these fruit snacks:

1) They don't taste good.  They have a . . . waxy, I guess . . . taste to them.  My boys,  however, were both fond of them.  And, for what it's worth, I used sugar free Jello to make mine.
2) The texture isn't like Jello -- it's not slimy or anything.  But it's also not like a traditional fruit snack.  I don't really know how to explain it.
3) You're only using a third a cup of water so, obviously,  you're not getting very many.  I think I got 16 the size in the above picture.

So, basically, they don't taste good and they're not anymore cost effective than buying a box of Phinneus and Ferb fruit snacks.  There ya go.

Frozen Yogurt Bites - My kids LOVE yogurt so as soon as I saw this one I KNEW we were going to have to make them.  And right away.  They were a huge hit!  The boys and Z loved them.  Karis wouldn't try them but that's nothing new with her these days.  We will definitely be making these more as the summer goes on.  One more thing -- if you don't like yogurt, you're not going to like these.  Take it from me, the "ewww, yogurt" person.

Pizzadillas - You know what?  15 years ago, TGI Friday's wasn't everywhere. I can still remember when the town closest to me got one.  They had the "pizzadilla" on their menu and it was soooo good.  (As a total sidenote, I can't believe I actually ordered one. Those were during the days when I pretty much only ordered a burger or a club sandwhich.  No matter where I was eating.  Steakhouse?  I'll have a burger!).  I had long forgotten the pizzadilla until I saw this pinned.  My kids love tortillas and they love pizza so I figured it was a match made in Heaven.  And, well, kinda.  Jaidan ate them. He eats everything.  Karis ate one and Kyan picked the pepperoni out of his.  If this were a test and I was grading the pizzadilla, I'd give it a firm B.  We'll probably make them again but it won't go down in our list of Most Loved Recipes.

Yummies:

Cheesy Potato Fries - Weird: before I got pregnant with Karis, I didn't really care for ranch dressing.  In fact, I knew I was pregnant when I started craving ranch.  These days I can't get enough of it.  You know the scene in Patch Adams where the lady takes a bath in Jello?  Yeah.  Me.  Ranch.  This recipe was like all my favoirte things in one dish: carbs, bacon, cheese, and ranch.  It was good.  Very good.  Vedddy vedddy good.  My only complaint would be that the sauce was - believe it or not - too much!  I used four potatoes (the recipe calls four 4-6) and had wayyyyy too much sauce.  Next time I'll probably cut the sauce recipe in half.  But, believe me, there WILL be a next time for this recipe!

Secret Sauce for Burgers  - This is actually a burger recipe with a secret sauce.  But I have a tried and true burger recipe that the whole family loves.  I'll stick with it for now.  I knew the sauce was something Jaidan and I would both like and I was right!  The only issue I had was I used a little too much soy sauce (boo!) and had to try to balance it out with the other ingredients.  It was good.  I'll have it again.  But it also didn't blow my socks off and make me proclaim that I'd never again eat a burger without it.

Homemade Cookie Cake - I love cookie cake!  Good stuff!  This one was pretty good.  It doesn't have any white sugar in it so be sure to add plenty of M&M's (I used two of the king sized packages in mine) to make up for the missing sweetness.  We thought it was best straight from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Chicken Tortilla Bake - I was approxomately 30 seconds into making this (easy, five ingredient) casserole when I realized "Duh, this is Mexican chicken!"  My family loves Mexican chicken so I pretty much knew it would be a hit . . . and since it doesn't have sour cream I knew it would make the hubs happy.  I added taco seasoning to the cream of chicken soup/ Rotel combo and an extra layer of cheese rather than just putting all the cheese on top of the casserole.  My family tore it up!  Karis especially enjoyed it -- to the point that she was literally licking her plate.  Definite hit!

Summertime!

Water Bottle Sprinkler - Seriously?  A sprinkler that took approxomately three minutes to make and used things I already had in the house?  AWESOME.  I used the pin to give me an idea but I did things slightly different (read: I rednecked it up). 

I took a water bottle and cut slits in it.  Then I took the bottle and DUCT TAPED it to the water hose. DO NOT SCRIMP ON THE TAPE.  Use the heck out of that stuff!

So far, it's held up for three days!  And I havent' had to re-tape it yet.

Bubble Snakes - Apparently I'm all about the upcycling this week!  This is such an easy activity.  Old water bottle, a sock, duct tape, and a little bit of dishwashing soap.  It was so much fun!

Jaidan and Karis both  loved it and had a lot of fun blowing the bubbles (well, Karis had more fun playing in the soap/ water mixture).  Kyan was being a turd.  All in all, it was a fun little activity.

Real Talk:

So Very Pinteresting

I have a little bit of a Pinterest gripe to share with ya'll.

I've noticed that one of my favorite couponing blogs often posts recipes.  They are generally things that obviously came from Pinterest -- I know these because they're things I pinned long before she ever posts "her" recipe.  In every single one of these recipe entries, she'll of course encourage everyone to pin the recipe.  Her recipe.  Not the pin she got the idea from.

Am I the only one who is bothered by this?

It seems like people think they can just throw in an "inspired by Jan at Cooking in Flip Flops*" and change the baking powder in the recipe from one teaspoon to one and a half and claim it as their own.  That's just . . . not cool.  It's like using someone else's ideas to get more clicks for your website even though the 20934209 you get in a day aren't enough.  Blah. Maybe I'm just more irritable than usual right now.

* Totally Googled Cooking in Flip Flops and if a blog of this name actually exists then, I hate to break it to it's author, but it doesn't show up on the first page of searches. 

Anyhow.  Just a few pins to share with you today.

Yummies:

Skinny Taste Salisbury Steak - Our dinner the night we had this totally looked like a TV dinner!

Salisbury steak with corn and mashed potatoes?  Total TV dinner!  And, holy starches, Batman!

Wee bit o'tangent here: those mashed potatoes were made from scratch.  Like, I peeled the potatoes (ick, worst part) and boiled them and mashed them by hand and added the appropro seasonings.  I did the same thing a week ago when I, once again, made home made mashed potatoes.  It's not something I always do because, hello, there are generally four kids in this house while I'm trying to cook dinner.  Anyway.  Last week, when I made the FROM SCRATCH mashed potatoes, Jaidan took it upon himself to talk to some woman at the playground and, who knows what possessed him, but he told her that I always made mashed potatoes from a box.  Thanks a lot, you little turd.

This recipe was SUCH a huge hit.  It was really good.  Jaidan and the hubs both had seconds.  It will most definitely find it's way into our permanent dinner rotation.  The only tweak I made - an accidental tweak at that - was I forgot to add beef broth to the meat mixture (you'd think I had four kids running in and out of the kitchen at the time).  Since I did that, I went ahead and used all two cups of beef broth to make the gravy and since I did that, I added just a touch more flour to the gravy.  Regardless, it turned out fantastic!  Definitely going to remake this one.

"Easiest Breakfast Ever" - Um.  Yuck.  This just was not good.  At all.  The pinned link is to a message board on MyFitnessPal.  I read through some of the comments that the "muffin" (or whatever it is) tasted to egg-y.  I only used two tablespoons of egg whites rather than a full 1/4 cup.  I also subbed blackberries for blueberries.  And it was just . . . not good.  And still too eggy!  I sprinkled some Splenda on top to try to make it edible and . . . no.  Just no.  Also, here's another Pinterest gripe from me.  The picture is misleading, ya'll!  The one I made wasn't anywhere near as large as the one in the picture I pinned:

Seriously -- that pin HAS to be the recipe doubled.  Has to be.

Black Bean Brownies - I've been wanting to make these since the summer after Kyan was born, back when Hungry Girl was my Bible.  I just never got around to it.  My friend D mentioned she made them a couple weeks ago and I was all, "I have really GOT to make those now!"  So I mixed some up yesterday.  (Total tangent here for a minute: I bought a blender a few weeks ago.  It was, like, a $40 Oster and the first time the hubs tried to make frozen drinks in it, it started smelling like smoke.  Gross.  So he took it back and got a Kitchenaid and I'm pretty sure I want to marry that Kitchenaid.  Oh man.  It is so fast!  It pureed those black beans in approxomately 2.8 seconds.  Awesome).  They taste . . . okay.  They definitely aren't the best brownies on the planet (though they do taste better with some Cool Whip and strawberries on top).  The kids, except for Z, all ate them pretty enthusiastically.  The texture reminded me of the Little Debbie fudge brownies. So maybe I just need to frost them and sprinkle 'em with nuts?  ;)

On a really good note: they were so easy to cut and ended up being some of the "prettiest" (i.e. no brownie pieces falling everywhere when I cut into them) brownies I've ever made.

I'll leave ya with this little bit of "real talk" that reminds me of one of my favorite shows of all time, Designing Women:



So Very Pinteresting

It's 10:15 and we've already been on our walk, hit up a couple yard sales, played at the playground, and witnessed an epic fit by a certain two-year-old who is wearing her Diva Pants today.  Ai yi yi.  Gonna be THAT kinda Saturday.  Fun stuff.

Here are some of the Pinterest finds we've tried out this week:

Yummies:

Turkey Stuffed Peppers - Ya'll.  This is a Skinny Taste recipe. Skinny Taste is kinda like Pioneer Woman.  Without all the butter, obvs, but you are not going to find a bad recipe on there.  These stuffed peppers were no exception.  They were really good.  So good, in fact, that Jaidan asked for seconds and then asked to have the leftovers the next day for lunch.  Turkey stuffed peppers for the win!

"Healthy" Peanut Butter Cookies - What a farkin' disappointment!  The cookies tasted okay (but a little dry).  But the pin reads 36 calories per cookie.  Um, no.  No way.  Especially not given the size of the cookies in the picture.  I got 16 cookies out of the batch I made (they were not as big as the ones in the picture) and - using Splenda instead of sugar which saved 774 calories - each cookie was 99 calories.  The only way to get these to 36 calories each is to literally make them bite sized. 

Parmesan Garlic Knots - I need the time in the day to organize my pin boards (breads, vegetables, meat, crap that'll make me fat).  You don't even wanna know how long I looked for this pin!  Then I STILL couldn't find it so I just searched by the name and re-pinned.  Lard.  Anyway.  Eddie said this was the best bread-type dish I've ever made.  So he's definitely a fan.  The kids and I didn't really like them oil-based.  (Yeah, I'm a weirdo).  I made them twice this week, though, (I KNOW!) and the second time I did some of them with some fat-free butter type substance instead of the oil.  The kids and I liked those much better.  Eddie was crazy about the ones with the oil.  Definite keeper with this recipe.

Chicken Florentine Casserole - This isn't something I pinned but it's a new recipe I wanted to share anyway.  I'm not a fan of cream cheese but I bought some of the Philadelphia Cooking Cream because I had a ridiculously high coupon for it.  I wasn't sure what to make with it so I googled and found this recipe.  The deal: the flavor is good.  Really good.  But it was dry!  I'm not sure what to do to make it not so dry.  More milk?  Another container of the cooking cream?  It definitely needed something.

Kid Food:

Cute Way to Serve Kids - Yeah, my kids love ice cream cones so much that Karis goes and gets the box of cones out of the pantry by herself.  This idea was made for them.  How cute are they??

I filled them with kiwi and strawberry.  They were a big hit!

Kid Stuff:  I wanted to share this 71 Things Your Child Needs to Know Before Kindergarten.  It seems to be a pretty comprehensive (and correct) list.  It's crazy how different kindgergarten is now than when we were in Kg!  I full expect my children to all be way smarter than me by the time they hit fourth grade.

Finall, got to love just how real this REAL TALK is:

Keep that in mind when you head out for your Cinco de Mayo celebrations!  ;)

So Very Pinteresting

I've been pretty boring this week.  I've basically just been reading The Help (finished it last night!) and pinning stuff.  In addition to, you know, cooking and cleaning and making sure the children don't kill each other (or me).  Here are a few of the pins I've tried over the past couple weeks.

Yummies:

Light King Ranch Casserole - I used to hate Mexican Chicken Casserole.  I have no idea why because, basically, it's pretty much the best stuff ever.  Don't argue with me.  This was a slightly lightened up version of the casserole and it was totally delicious.  Karis cleaned her plate and yelled for "marrr!"  In fact, I think everyone except Kyan asked for seconds.  I used more cheese than the recipe called for (I think it called for, like, a fourth a cup.  Not gonna work for this family).  Also, using corn tortillas instead of chips cut hella calories.  However.  My husband ATE HIS OVER CHIPS.  This man.  Seriously.

Baked Cheese Balls - I actually made these twice this week!  Once for a snack and once for dinner (we had appetizer night).  So, obviously, we really like them.  I dipped them in egg whites rather than milk and the second time I made them I tried using panko (use regular bread crumbs -- it works so much better).  I froze the cheese before coating them in bread crumbs and baked at 400 for about five minutes.  They were super yummy!

Cheesy Baked Tomatoes - I made these to go along with appetizer night as well (if you're interested, we also had mini corn dogs [I used turkey hotdogs], baked tortilla chips with salsa, and Texas cheese fries).  I don't like tomatoes but I LOVE provolone cheese so I figured I'd give them a try.  Ummm.  No.  Not for me.  Too tomato-y even with the yummy cheesy goodness.  Jaidan and Zhariah both like tomatoes and neither of them were crazy about them either. 

Homemade Spinach Manicotti - People!  Do not pass go.  Do not college $200.  JUST GO MAKE THIS MANICOTTI.  It takes some work (I made the Italian crepes which were totally delish) but it's worth it.  I added ground beef to some of them because I knew Eddie wasn't going to eat them without any meat.  I actually planned to make them on a night when he was working and therefore not home for dinner.  But he saw the picture Pinterest and asked me to make them.  He must've really liked them, too, because he took all the leftovers with him to work the next day.

Baked Apples - These were really good.  We had them for dessert one night and Jaidan liked them so much that he requested I make them for his birthday!  His birthday is still six months away and I'm sure he'll change his mind, but that just goes to show how yummy they really were.

Skinny Taste Pancakes - Another one that I made twice this week!  We had breakfast for dinner one night and I mixed these up.  I made them again for breakfast the morning my brother and his family were here.  The kids had chocolate chips in theirs and they really liked them.  I ate mine with a little bit of peanut butter.  They weren't the best pancakes ever but they were good -- especially for being "skinny!"

Easy Cheddar Garlic Biscuits - Confession: sometimes I buy those mixes of cheddar garlic biscuits.  Never again!  These were good and incredibly easy.  They were a little flat but I'm assuming it's because I mixed the batter too long. 

Strawberry Icebox Cake - Good stuff!  I made it about half the size of what the recipe calls for.  We had it for dinner one night and since I wouldn't let the kids completely destroy the whole thing then, they also had it for snack the next day.  It was delicious and something we'll definitely be making again.

Asparagus Gratin - Yum!  I was the only one in my house who really seemed to like this (the rest of 'em are jerks).  But take it from me -- it was GOOD!  Next time, I'll do things just slightly different.  I'll cook the asparagus until tender and then just put under the boiler for a couple minutes.  I think that'll make the taste better overall.  But it was really good.

Artsy Craftsy:

So, Storme's 30th birthday was last week so I had to do some of the cute "milestone birthday" things I found!

30 Sucks

I Can't Believe You're Flippin' 30!

You can't see it, but behind the "flippin 30" is several pictures of me and Storme over the years.

She aslo got a "30 blows" that's a little bag full of bubblegum!

Quite possibly my favorite little Pinterest find from this week.  We ALL know one of these people!

Happy Saturday!  Karis has been up since before 5:00 and Kyan since before 6:00 so I see naps in our future!

So Very Pinteresting

People!  I did not log on to Pinterest for a total of 40 days and 40 nights.  This is amazing!  Of course, I've been a pinning fool since Sunday and I've already tried a few of the things I pinned.  Figures.  I really think giving up Pinterest was more difficult than the year I gave up chocolate. 

Now that I'm back to pinning away, it's time to bring back So Very Pinteresting!  So here are a couple recipes I tried this week as well as a few I tried before Lent but forgot to SVP for ya.

By the way, they're all food.  Who's surprised?

Yummies: Sweets:

Slutty Brownies: They're oh so easy and more than a little bit filthy.  COME ON.  Who wouldn't want to try a brownie recipe with "slutty" in the title.  I actually made these to take to New Orleans with me back in February.  They were sooooo good and a hit with my girlfriends as well!  They were way too easy to make too.  The only thing: it takes way longer than the baking time in the instructions.  I'm pretty sure I baked mine for at least an hour before they were done!  But they were still moist and perfect.

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies: Confession: after I made these the first time, I made them every day for, like, an entire week!  They are so good.  And so easy.  Unfortunately, while my stomach appreciated them my scale did not.  Chocolate Lave Cookies have been relegated to special ocassion only food.  Maybe in my next life I'll have a speedier metabolism.

Vitatop Muffin Knock Offs: I was way excited about these.  I have been wanting to try Vitatops since I first started receiving Hungry Girl newsletters a million years ago.  I just refuse to pay $8923892 for a box of, like, three and a half muffins.  Unfortunately, these were pretty disappointing.  I let the kids each try one not long after I pulled the first batch out of the oven.  Karis actually ate all of hers.  Kyan took one nibble and would go no further.  Jaidan - my human garbage disposal - took one bite and proclaimed it, "yucky."  He wasn't too far off.  The second batch I made, I used far less dough.  There was a bite of chocolate chip in every bite so they were better.  Still nothing to write home about though.  Oh!  And there is no way to make 24 full sized muffins with this batter.  I got 17 and the last five were more the size of muffin tops.  You might be able to get 24 that are muffin top size but you're not getting 24 full sized muffins by any means.

Kid Food:

Fruit Leather: Make these.  Seriously.  Go make them.  Now.  They are easy (you literally mix a large jar of apple sauce with a packet of jello -- I used unsweetened apple sauce and sugar free strawberry banana jello).  They are good.  My kids LOVE them!  I was able to get more than 30 fruit roll ups out of that one jar of apple sauce and one packet of jello -- so for about $3 I got 30 roll ups!  When was the last time you could buy that many fruit roll ups for that price?  Plus: they taste BETTER.  Belive it.

This is going to be a weekly thing in our house!

I'll leave you with this little gem from this week.  Probably the realest of any "real talk" I've run across!

{Via}

So Very Pinteresting

So you can now link up Pinterest and your Facebook account so that EVERYTHING you do on Pinterest shows up in your Facebook feed.  I allowed Pinterest to do this because I wasn't paying attention and just clicked the "try it now!" button because they didn't have a "yeah, yeah, whatever" button.  Turns out, when you have this feature, your Facebook friends can see all your Pinterest activity.  So if you pin something with the f-word in it and your grandma is on Facebook then *gasp* she will know you pinned something with the f-word in it.  It also means that you can see someone left a comment on the comment you left on someone else's pin of Pinnacle whipped vodka.  And if you've had a glass or two of Moscato (even though you swore you weren't drinking again until you went to New Orleans) it might confuse you a little bit.  Not that I speak from experience or anything.

I saw this on Pinterest this week (I didn't repin it because I don't like to pin things that make me feel old):

{via}



Holy MEMORIES, Batman!  I had that one in the peach dress (was she peach blossom Barbie or something?), the one in the white, and most definitely the one in the blue thing.  I remember that blue thing pretty vividly and somewhere in the recesses of my mind is a memory of her in a red Barbie car under the tree on Christmas morning.  Good times . . .

Part of me can't wait for my daughter to be into Barbies -- I'm not one of those "NO BARBIE EVER" moms.  Barbie was my favorite toy growing up.  I cut her hair and lost her shoes and, since I only had a brother, played lots of "Barbie Meets GI Joe."  Sure, she's disporportionate and blah blah blah but why would I deny my daughter the joy of playing with them? 

The part of me that can wait for her to get into them is the part that purchased some for our angel tree child this past Christmas and realized how much Barbie costs these days.  HO-LY CRAP.

Anyway.  Onto pins I actually tried this week.  I've been good on keeping it lazy in 2012 but I do have a few to share.

Recipes:

Skinny Baked Potato Soup - This.Is.Good.  Really, really good.  You can't taste the cauliflour and it has a nice, rich flavor to it.  Kyan even ate it!  That is HUGE.  Jaidan and Zhariah both went back for seconds.  Plus, it was filling enough that one cup of soup was plenty for me.  This is one soup recipe that is most definitely a keeper!

Secretly Healthy Chocolate Cake - If you're getting ready to pop a cake into the oven and start to question whether you should add some white sugar . . . that's probably not a good sign.  This cake was . . . not good.  We piled Cool Whip on top and it still was not even edible.  I ended up throwing it out.

Lasagna Rolls - People, this is a look at my dinner the night I fixed these:

That entire plate was just 365 calories!

365!

The lasagna rolls are sooooo good.  I did deviate from the actual recipe -- I broke my noodles in half before boiling them (so while I had two rolls, I only had one noodle).  I made mine meatless and I measured the cheeses and sauce exactly to keep the calories down.  The lasagna rolls were fantastic.  Eddie declared them a keeper and both Karis and Zhariah threw down on them.  They will definitely be added to the dinner rotation.

As far as non-recipe related things:

I tried this to make my house smell heavenly.  Ummm.  It made the two foot circumference surrounding my stove smell okay but, yeah, other than that?  No.

Kid Stuff:

The boys made penguins and polar bears.  Here's to hoping my January Fog lifts next week and we DO a little more!

So Very Pinteresting

I haven't done a Pinterest round up in awhile.  This one is mainly recipes because . . . well, because it's January.  Enough said.  I could never homeschool because of the month of January (and also because I'd probably end up in a pretty white room with nice padding on the walls).  We'd never do anything that month.  Forget summer vacation -- we'd have to take January and February off.  Therefore I will ship these children off to public school when the time comes so that someone else, hopefully someone less lazy in the winter months, can train them up just right.

Yummies:

Ranch Roasted Potatoes - You know something?  I didn't even like ranch dressing until I got pregnant with Karis and wanted it on everything.  (Seriously, my monthly visit-ah wasn't even late yet but I knew something was going on when I poured ranch on my SCRAMBLED EGGS.  No lie).  But, mmmm, I love me some ranch now!  And, even better, is the dry ranch dressing mix.  Oh, sweet mystery of life.  That stuff is proof there is a God and He does love me.  I made these for dinner two Thursday nights in a row (I guess Thursday just feels right for ranch potatoes . . . ) I used the regular ranch seasoning the first time and they were soooooo good.  Jaidan ate SO MANY of them.  The second time I used the fiesta ranch.  They were still really good but Jaybird and I both preferred the ones with the regular mix.  Z said the fiesta ranch ones tasted like fries from a restaurant.  Suffice to say, we love this recipe and it'll probably be a weekly staple on our menu.

Christmas Crack - I obviously made this at Christmas.  Saltine toffee seemed to be all the rage this year and I decided to try this particular recipe.  It was the easiest one out there.  Here's the deal-io: if it seems almost too easy then it probably is.  It never did set and it just . . . it wasn't that good.  I'll be trying Christmas Crack again next year but it'll be with a different recipe.

Cheeseburger Ring - Made these for dinner for the kiddos the other night.  Jaidan LOVED them.  Like, begged me to make them for lunch the next day type of loved them.  Kyan and Karis ate the meat out of them (what kind of weird ass kids don't eat crescent rolls?).  When I make them again, I'm going to add in some onion.  Oh!  And I omitted the pickles because I knew my picky 3-year-old wouldn't touch them if he saw pickles in them!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal - Mmmm.  No bake cookies are just about the best.thing.ever.  As soon as I stumbled across this recipe I wondered why *I* had never thought to make a no bake cookie type of oatmeal.  This oatmeal was . . . okay.  It took a lot of sweetener, though, and I really prefer the usual way I make it -- with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mini Deep Dish Pizzas - I originally pinned these as "kid food" but decided to eat some myself for dinner one night.  They.are.so.good.  I never thought about using a muffin tin to make a deep dish pizza!  Each little pizza was all sauce-y and flavor-y and just nom, nom, nom. 

Apple Sandwiches - These were lunch for the boys one day -- I left out the raisins and granola; just apples as bread with peanut butter spread between the slices.  They thought they were really neat and requested to have them again the next day.  Which means this recipe = success.

As far as non-food related things -- we also did this The Snowy Day printable pack, made these for our New Years resolutions, and decoded site words with a little watercolor fun.  None of which I have pictures of because it's January and I'm lazy.

And that's pretty much it for the past few weeks.  Happy Saturday!  Go take a shot every time you see the "Tebow" in your Facebook feed and you'll be white girl wasted in no time -- that always makes your average winter Saturday better.

So Very Pinteresting

One week till Christmas Eve!

The kids are excited.  I'm excited.  And a little bummed.  Because once it's over and once the after Christmas sales are over and New Years Eve has come and gone, we're onto the worst part of the whole entire year.  I hate the month of January.  I used to hate February more but now at least I have my trip to New Orleans to look forward to.  But we're still two weeks away and I'm already dreading January.

Notsomuch dreading the fun of watching Eddie put together an arcade style basketball thingamajig on Christmas Eve night.  Our brother-in-law told us it took him the better part of a day to put one together.  So I'm assuming this could get pretty interesting.  I'll have a bottle of wine on hand, all the left over food from previously in the day, and the camcorder on my phone ready to go . . .

Here's a look at some of the Pinterest activities we did this week.

Yummies:

Root Beer Pulled Pork - So the root beer in this works as a tenderizer.  You drain it all out before adding your barbecue sauce.  Honestly, it tasted just like any other pulled pork recipe.  I didn't notice it as being any more or less tender.  And since it cost less to buy a 20-liter of root beer, I have more than half a bottle left over.  Because my kids are weird and don't like it and I've only had two (small) glasses because if I drink my calories then there better be some kind of alcohol involved . . .

Kid Food:

Pepperoni and Mozerella Crescent Rolls - Zhariah and I have a standing theory that anything rolled in a crescent roll tastes good.  This is just a mozerella cheese stick and a few pepperonies rolled up in a crescent roll.  They were really good!  I only had a few bites but Zhariah absolutely loved them (true test) and the other kids liked them as well.  I served with a side of marinara so they could dip.

Kiddie Christmas:

Handprint Santa that I can no longer find the pin for.  I swear I pinned it though!

Santa's Stuck

(If Santa got stuck in my chimney I would . . .

Use a rope to lasso him out then make him go through the door)

Baby Jesus crafts

Zhariah also made these ornaments and today will be putting the finishing touches on these.  (I don't have pictures of either though).

So Very Pinteresting

So before any DIY or crafts or kid stuff or anything else I have to tell you the awesome deal I snagged last night.  The awesome deal that meant Christmas shopping for my kids is DONE.

Unless, of course, I happen to wander into the Disney Store some time in the next two weeks and absolutely HAVE to buy something with Buzz or Woody or a Princess on it.

Anyway.  Eddie went to Toys 'R Us Thursday evening and picked up the kids' "big" gifts."  In doing so, he got a $30 gift card.

I took the $30 gift card last night and did a little bit of online shopping: bought two sets of bath toys for Karis (buy one, get one 50% off), a game for Zhariah (clearanced to 50% off), and NINE Crayola products for stocking stuffers.  They have Crayola running on a buy one get TWO free.  I was able to buy 24 packs of Crayola and get things like twist up colored pencils and dry erase crayons and bath crayons for free.  My total for nine Crayola items (and only three of these were the 24 boxes of crayons) -- $4.23.  That's more than what anything other than the crayons cost originally.

Also, all of this stuff?  I STILL HAVE MONEY LEFT ON MY $30 GIFT CARD.  That deserves all caps.  Basically I got the kids at least two stocking stuffers each and finished up Christmas presents for FREE.

Um, yay.

Now, Pinterests!

Kid Stuff:

Paper Plate Christmas Tree - Ours turned out nothing - NOTHING - like this one.  But Jaidan did most of it himself and I thought he did a pretty cute job!

Picture Under the Present Flap

Names on Lights
Handprint Tree - Jaidan's on bottom, Kyan's in the middle, Karis on top

I pinned this yesterday and decided to try it right away.

It's a block of ice, salt, and food coloring.  People.  Jaidan could have done this all day long!  I told him I would buy more salt just for this project.

I discovered ScienceBob via Pinterest and tried two of his projects this week.

We did the milk trick:

And - super cool - used a little yeast and sugar to blow up a balloon:

Kid Food:

We made these cute little reindeer snacks:

That one on the bottom . . . he's special.

And also these cute little reindeer.  It's been a reindeer type of week.

Christmas Stuff:

I made an ornament wreath!  It's really, really cute -- except I should've sprung for something a little more expensive than a $2 bow.  :/  It won't be hung until I get another bow.

Fun Idea:

I made this!

I love it!
I bought the frame at Walmart on Black Friday for about $6.  The scrapbook paper probably totaled about $3.  All in all, the project cost less than $10 to make.

In honor of today's Heisman trophy presentation (RG3!!!), I'll leave you with this.  It encompasses way too many of my friends who consider themselves Red Sox/ Patriots/LSU/Ohio friggin' State fans:

So Very Pinteresting

You know the poem Babies Don't Keep by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton?

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and baies don't keep.

That's my motto.

When it comes to cleaning my house anyway.

My house is pretty much always clean - on the surface.  There are toys strewn around because I have small children but it's nothing that a five minute sweep through can't take care of.  Yes, we keep it pretty surface clean.  But please don't look any further than the surface.  You'll probably find a cobweb or two.  And dust - oh, lots of dust (my house breeds it).  But I would rather do a craft project with my boys or snuggle with my baby girl than scrub my baseboards or organize a closet.

I've been pinning various household hints and never tried a single one of them.  Until this week.  I'm pretty proud of myself for finally trying some of them out.

Household Tips:

Cleaning a Glass Top Stove - Ya'll.  I'm not going to lie.  My stove was NAS-TAY.  Those little glass top stoves are nice and all but they are boogers to keep clean.  So I decided to try this.  It worked pretty decent.  The baking soda did leave a weird film on my stove but it wiped off just fine with a damp rag. 

Cleaning a Ceiling Fan with a Pillowcase - Funny Story.  We took the kids to Buffalo Wild Wings Sunday night.  They were given balloons -- the strings were pretty short.  One of the kids let go of a balloon in our room.  We couldn't reach it and didn't think anything about it.  Until about 1:00 in the morning when it got caught in the ceiling fan and we thought someone was opening up machine gun fire on us!  Bam, bam, bam, bam, POP!  The next morning, I observed the carnage and realized that the balloon had caused quite a bit of dust to fall off the fan.  The fan was even NAS-TAY-ER than my stove!  So I decided to give this little trick a try.  Nice that all the dust went into the pillow case instread of flying all over the room.  Will definitely keep this one.

Vanilla Extract to Clean the Microwave - One of the first fights Eddie and I ever got into was over the microwave!  I wish I could think to just wipe it down everytime after I use it.  Of course, I don't and there's caked up crap all over it.  So I gave this little trick a try.  Ummm . . . no.  Didn't work.  I guess I was expecting everything just to wipe right off but I had to, you know, use some elbow grease and, like, scrub.  I'm much to delicate to scrub.

Recipes:

Easy S'more Bars - Best recipe I've made from Pinterest thus far.  These were SO easy and SO good.  They were still good when they cooled but not as good.  I would definitely eat them warm.  This is how my girl acted when she finished hers and I wouldn't give her another:

Cheddar Ritz Chicken - If I were to grade this dish, I'd give it a solid C.  It was okay with a side of meh.  It was hard to get the cheese to stick to the chicken.  The sauce was basically just trumped up cream of chicken soup.  It was just . . . okay.  Probably will not make this one again but, if I do, I'll make a cheese sauce to top it with.

Baked Club Pinwheels - This is a Plain Chicken recipe so you know it's good.  Simple as that.  Little story about the night I made these: I fixed them to go with potato soup.  My husband will not eat a meal that doesn't contain meat.  EVERY MEAL MUST HAVE MEAT.  I discovered this early in our relationship when I fixed cheese tortellini for dinner one night and he added SAUSAGE to it.  And not like Italian sausage.  *Harf*  So, I have the soup in the crockpot the other night.  He comes in and gives it a stir and says, "So we're not having any meat with dinner tonight."  I told him I was making club sandwiches.  Well, ya'll, apparently turkey, ham, roast beef, and BACON don't count as meat.  *Rolls eyes*  He bitched.  He complained.  He told me he was going to the store to buy some canned chicken to ruin my soup with.  Then I pulled the sandwiches out of the oven and the angels started singing.  They were sooo good.  Eddie thought they would be better for breakfast but he also thought that they - combined with the soup (which he thought was the best potato soup ever) - were plenty filling that he didn't need any "real" meat.

Bakin' Bacon - I made bacon in the oven!  And it was delicious.  I went with the 375 for 20 minutes way.  It was delicious and just the right crispiness.  Will definitely - definitely - be doing this again.

Kid Food:
I  made peanutbutter banana burritos for the boys for lunch one day:

I promise there's a banana in there!

They were a hit!  Kyan can be very, very weird about food but even HE ate the whole thing.  He pulled the banana out and ate it first.  Then licked all the peanutbutter off the tortilla.  Then ate the tortilla.  Silly kid.

Yesterday for lunch we had these turkey sandwiches. Now, the original pin looks MUCH cuter but I liked the way mine turned out too:

They ate them with pretzels (and that pretzel marshmallow thing is supposed to be the Mayflower) and turkey toes.

Artsy Craftsy:

Maybe it was the weather turning [much] cooler the end of the week, but I got in full on scarf making mode!  I made a t-shirt scarf for Karis (it was a tester -- I'm going to make red and white ones for both me and her):

If you can't tell, my model wasn't exactly feeling the whole photo session thing!

And I made myself an infinity scarf.  I think it's cute -- and it was the easiest thing EVER to make.  It could have turned out longer (I used an old size L spaghetti strap tank to make it -- next time I will get a man's XL or XXL to make a longer one).  I'm just not sure I'm a scarf person!  I want to be but I am . . . fashion challanged.

 

Kid Stuff:

The boys made paper plate pilgrims and turkeys out of toilet paper rolls; pilgrim hats and Native American head dresses.

Apparently I forgot to take a pic of the turkeys and I'm too lazy to do so now!



I'll end with this one:

Oh, they do.

And THIS Arkansas Girl is really hoping her Razorbacks aren't looking forward to next week and get tripped up by Mississippi State today.  OSU lost last night so if we make it past MSU (and we SHOULD) then we're in the Top Five!  Woo Pig!

So Very Pinteresting

Before I get to all the pinteresting things we did this week, I want to share this little video of my Baby Girl.  She has a favorite song!  For the longest it was Trey Songz Bottoms Up (yeah, I KNOW).  But now she likes that Party on Top of the World song.  Yesterday, at lunch, she started asking for "Night!"  I found it on YouTube and she treated us to a little performance:



(We had bacon, egg, and cheese burritos for lunch because we can no longer have breakfast food for dinner since Eddie is off shift work and not working nights.  I love breakfast for dinner but I married a weirdo.  So the ocassional breakfast for lunch has to suffice).

Now, our Pinterestings!

Food:

Crockpot Ranch Potatoes - This was the biggest recipe FLOP I've had in a long time.  We eat dinner around 6:00.  I put them on about 10:00 in the morning to ensure they'd have plenty of time to cook (the recipe says to cook for 6 hours on low).  At 4:00, the potatoes were still hard.  I flipped the crockpot up to high and an hour and a half later, they were STILL not soft enough to eat.  The flavor was a little weird too.  I ended up feeding them to my garbage disposal and making a pot of mac and cheese instead.

Potato Slabs - I washed too many potatoes the day I made the crockpot ranch potatoes so I decided to fix these for an afternoon snack.  They're sooooo good.  I knew they would be -- I mean, it's basically "meatier" potato skins or bacon cheese fries.  Good stuff.  The kids loved them.

Secret Ingredient Cheesy Garlic Bread - These were alright but I could totally taste the honey (that's the secret ingredient) and I only used about 3/4 teaspoon.  In fact, Eddie took one bite and said, "Why are they sweet?"  I knew he'd freak if I told him they had honey on them.  He brought home a bottle of Moscato that night so I just told him it was probably the wine!  Ha!  The kids really loved them though and I thought they tasted better the second day.  I'll probably make them again but I think I'll just use the basic recipe and no secret ingredient!

Kid/ Thanksgiving Stuff:

We had a really tough week with the time change.  My Jaybird is not an earlier riser.  He's also a night owl and it's practically impossible to get him to go to sleep before 10:00 or 10:30 at night.  I have no idea what we're going to do when he starts kindergarten . . .

Anyhow, Jaidan had been waking up every day when Kyan got up (always before 6:30!).  It made for a really grumpy Jaybird and very long days!  We didn't get near as much accomplished as I'd hoped we would this week.  I've been letting Jaidan sleep in Zhariah's room the past few nights (and he's sleeping in!!) so maybe we'll get him on a normal-for-him sleeping schedule and have a better week next week.  *Crosses fingers*

Here's what we did get done:

We did almost this entire preschool pack from Homeschool Creations.  I love the stuff Homeschool Creations puts out!  They have kindergarten and preschool levels and the stuff is just . . . well, it's just better than anything else (free) I've found out there.  I even got Kyan to do some of these activities!  That one deserves a round of these: !!!!!!  And my boys absolutely loved the "Top the Pie" activity in this one.  I put the cotton balls in a Cool Whip tub (as suggested on this pin) and they think it's a game.  They love it!

We worked through some of these worksheets.  This pack includes about 9 or so pages of basic addition.  Jaidan LOVED doing those.  Also, these are all in black and white so they're easier on the printer!  (Or, rather, the ink consumption which is easier on the wallet!)

This preschool pack includes a game idea (alphabet printed out on little turkeys, a few other turkeys with the word "Gobble" on them, kids draw one out if they correctly identify the letter then they keep the turkey, if they get a "Gobble" card they get up and act like a turkey [easy enough for MY children to do]).  We played it mainly because I wanted a better idea on where Kyan is with his letter recognition (turns out, I didn't need to worry).  Cute little game idea but a little beneath my boys' levels.  They also got MAD when they pulled a Gobble card because they wanted to be the one with the most turkeys at the end of the game.  *Sigh*

If there is anything I haven't been vigilant about when it comes to preparing the Birds for kindergarten, it's scissor practice.  We have ONE pair of kid scissors and he's only been allowed to use them in the past couple months or so.  I just . . . I dunno . . . I like my kids' hair.  You know?  So we haven't been all about the scissors in this house.  But I did print out these cutting pages for him to try out.  And, well, he still needs a lot of work.  :/

We tried to make these little pinecone turkeys.  We even went and, uhhhh, "borrowed" pinecones on our walk one morning.  But pinecones are really hard for little hands to work with.  And the're not exactly the easiest things to glue stuff on.  Craft fail.  We abandonded this one really quickly.

We did make this thankful turkey though:

We didn't use a TP roll for the body or give him a hat, but he still turned out pretty cute!  Notice that Jaidan actually said he's thankful for his brother!  Miracles!

I'll leave you with this little gem I pinned this week:

So Very Pinteresting

Before we get on to this weeks Pinterestings, let's talk about FOOTBALL.

Ya'll. 

Forget the SEC championship next month.  Forget what happens in January.  There is a good chance that tonight is the most important game of the season, that tonight IS the national championship.  For those of you who are unaware, LSU and Alabama - ranked first and second in the nation - meet up.  Tonight. 

Of course, I am an Arkansas fan.  Arkansas has one loss and that was to Alabama.  In my dream world, LSU beats Alabama then Arkansas goes on to beat LSU in a couple weeks. Then all will be right with the world and the SEC - and national championship picture - will get a lot more interesting.  So tonight I'm cheering for LSU.  And hoping that my Hogs can pull their heads out their collective asses and DO SOMETHING against South Carolina.  The past couple weeks have been nail biters.  And, while there's really no such thing as an easy game in the SEC, they should've beat Vandy by a whole lot more than 3 points and a whole lotta luck.

This is for you, Jess!  Geaux Tigers!

End football talk.

Begin Pinterest talk.

Some fun Thanksgiving crafts:

We made these cute little spoon pilgrims.

Note: They're frowny faced because, well, the Puritans weren't exactly known for being joyous people.  And they're clear because a) I only had clear spoons and b) I'm pretty sure the pilgrims were whiter than white.  ;)

This craft is neat because the kaboose link countains a pattern.  I mean, it's basically just rectangles and all but I love and adorea and appreciate anything that comes with a pattern.  This craft is notso neat because, well, glueing paper to plastic spoons?  Not all that easy to do.  Still, Jaidan was proud of his pilgrims.  Also, if you ask him why pilgrims came to the New World he'll tell you, "to eat!"  Goober.

We used these printables both to decorate our thankful box and to write down things we're thankful for.

Every day at snack time, the kids tell me something they're thankful for (so far we have things like food, Mommy, Daddy, Spongebob, candy . . . you know, the usual).  We put them in the box.  Then we'll take them out sometime around Thanksgiving and talk about everything we're thankful for.  That's the plan anyway.

P.S. Have you ever tried explaining thankfulness and being grateful to preschoolers?  Gah.

We also made The Mayflower!  I don't do paint (very often) so we used construction paper and made the clouds out of cotton balls.

I also gotta tell you - I just love the way my kid writes!  I realize it's typical five-year-old writing but, man, I think handwriting my kids at that age is just so cute.  Can handwriting be cute?  Well, his is!

We used a couple different preschool packs this year.  This one from Our Little Monkeys and this one from 1+1+1.  Honestly, I wasn't crazy about either one of these.  They were both kind of a little young for Jaidan.  I got Kyan to do a few sheets from the 1+1+1 pack and I can definitely say that they are more geared toward a 3-year-old/ early 4-year-old.  I wasn't crazy about the graphics used in the 1+1+1 pack (doood. How nit picky can I be?).  I prefer graphics that the kids can color in and this looks like she took pictures of kid's toys and then extracted them in Photoshop.  Just not my style. 

Turkey is a hard word to spell, ya'll!

But he finally got it!