Nana Came to Visit

Mom came to visit on Flat Stanley's last day with us. His was a short visit since he had some other families to visit.

He got to meet Nana and even played Monopoly. He went to jail twice.



Nana and The Personal Space Invader.



I love that last picture. I'm going to add it to my list to frame for the boys.

Family Game Night

I've said this before, we love games. Seriously, we play a lot of games together as a family. So what do we do for Memorial Day Weekend? We play games. Lots of games...and snacks. Nothing goes better with family game night than a big bowl of cheese puffs and strawberry sodas.



These are my children:



These are my children hopped up on cheese puffs and strawberry soda. Any questions?



Jeremiah is a Personal Space Invader. He's just so touchy.





Matchmaker matchmaker make me a match. Find me a find. Catch me a catch.



Daddy's head was lucky this night.



Joshua and I smiling the same smile.





Flat Stanley was visiting us from Germany. He got Yahtzee!!! Lucky duck!

Bucket Garden progress

It's coming along nicely. Some of the plants are growing very slowly. I can see buds on the pepper plant.



The bucket to the left is my herb garden. I have oregano, rosemary, dill, and more basil here.

Leon found this wood box. Working for the wine merchant has it's perks. The stores often change their displays and throw away the old ones. This box from a display from Whole Foods that they were throwing away. He thought it would be perfect for my veggie plants, and it is! I think the deck will be better off with the plants lifted off. Now I just need something for the blue bucket and we'll be all set.

Hot Dog Spaghetti

Ingredients for the cheese sauce: 2tbsp butter, 2tbs flour, 2 cups half/half, 1 whisked egg, salt, pepper, 1 tsp ground mustard, and sharp cheddar cheese.

I started with sticking uncooked thin spaghetti noodles into pieces of hot dogs and then boiled them.

Before:


After:


While the noodles/hotdogs were boiling I made my cheese sauce. I made a normal amount of cheese sauce because I'm also making a side dish of macaroni and cheese for dinner. I'm sure you could reduce the ingredients by half and still have plenty for your Hot Dog Spaghetti.

I started with a rue.

Melt the butter in a pan. Whisk in the flour until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the half/half (you can use milk instead) and heat to almost boiling.


Then add salt, pepper, ground mustard and cheese.


My kids would probably have eaten this plain like this. But it looks so lonely without cheese.




That's MUCH better.

Any food they can play with is going to be a big success.






They want to have it for lunch again tomorrow. :D

***Disclaimer:

This is part of the meal I made for my kids a year and a half ago. We were experimenting with the concept. If you don't like it, you don't have to make it. My kids have no trouble eating whole grains and veggies; so a rare meal of hot dogs and noodles, for fun, doesn't hurt anyone.

Bucket Garden

I'm growing some veggies in buckets this year.

So far I have (from left to right) cherry tomatoes, regular heirloom tomatoes, roma tomatoes (I love tomatoes), and in the last bucket I have sweet red peppers and cayenne peppers. I also planted some basil in with the tomato plants.

Razor Head

Jeremiah is my kid who is always dressed up. Nothing phases me with this kid and clothes. Monday he had on a navy turtleneck and a green hoodie jacket. But he was only wearing the hoodie on his head. Sort of like a cape. Since this is normal Jeremiah behavior I didn't question him.

When it was time to get ready for scouts he quickly donned his Tiger hat and went out the door with Daddy. He had to take off his hat in the building and that's when Leon saw it...



Those are skid marks for an attempt to shave his head with his mama's razor.



Notice the "gun" in his hands. *major eye roll here*


Also take note of the vest over his shirt with the "hoodie" from the beginning of this tale. It's 80deg outside.



Kid likes clothes and lots of them. ;)

Spring 2009 Car Show

Leon took the kids up to the car show on Main St. The boys had been looking forward to this event for over a month.



It was all that they dreamed it would be.



Even Kelsea had a good time.



And you KNOW you live in Mayberry when this is entered in the car show.



I on the other hand enjoyed a nice quiet morning with a cup of coffee catching up with friends on the internet.