New Mantle

We recently bought a new house and the one thing that I really wanted to change was the fireplace.  It looked extremely plain and needed a mantle.  After searching around we found a mantle we thought would look great.  It arrived on Saturday and we quickly installed it.  I just love it and can't wait to decorate it for Christmas.

Before the Mantle

 With the new Mantle

Mickey Mouse's Birthday

Today is Mickey Mouse's Birthday.  We had a playdate at a friends house complete with Mickey ears, grilled cheese and sugar cookies.

To make the ears, take a headband, cut out black felt the width of the headband and hot glue it on.  Then trace around a glass onto black foam and cut out the circles.  Glue the circles onto the headband using hot glue.  There you have it, a quick and easy set of Mickey Mouse ears.

 To make the Mickey grilled cheese just use a cookie cutter and cut out the mickey shape.  Spread butter on one side and put on a griddle to toast.  Add cheese and let partially melt.  The cheese wasn't fully melted when the bottom was toasted so we put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse!

Crafting with your kids: We are thankful for...

My oldest son has been on fall break for the past two weeks.  To say he is driving me insane is an understatement.  He is constantly board and begging for things to do.  In an effort to keep him busy I have been trying to do one craft a day with him.  Today we made a thankful tree.

My son used a punch to cut a bunch of tiny leaves out of yellow, orange and red construction paper.  I used brown paper and cut out a tree shape.  We then used some cloth leaves I had on hand and my son glued them onto the tree.  On each leaf we wrote something we are thankful for such as family friends, Jesus and our pets.

This was a fun and easy craft.  It also gave us a chance to think about the many things that we are thankful for on a daily basis.

Menu Plan- November 13th - 19th

We have a lot of food in our pantry and fridge so I decided to make up our menu plan based on things we already had.  I just had a few items to pick up to complete the meals and was able to spend the rest of our grocery money on stock up sale items. 

I found a recipe on Pinterest that I can't wait to try so I added it to my menu plan.  Aside from that it is all things we have had in the past and one recipe we didn't get to last week.

Dinners:
Creamy Chicken Piccata, salad
homemade calzone
tacos
chicken and artichoke
chicken meal from Raleys (free with a coupon)
breakfast- ham, eggs, hash browns
left overs

Leaf Turkey

My boys and I went for a walk today and collected some leaves that had fallen from the trees.  We saw a craft somewhere (not sure where) that was similar and wanted to make one of our own.  We live in a newer neighborhood with small trees so the leaves aren't as nice as I had hoped but they worked just fine.

 You will need construction paper (white, brown, orange and red), googly eyes, yellow pipe cleaner, leaves, scissors, glue and two circles to trace around.

 Start by tracing around the circles and cut them out.  One will be the body and one the head.

 On the small circle glue on the googly eyes, a beak and a waddle.  My son glued his a little lower then it was supposed to be.

 Glue the leaves to the white construction paper.

 Glue on the big body circle.

Attach the small head circle then use the yellow pipe cleaners to make feet.

My boys really enjoyed this project.  My 5 year old did most of it himself and the two year old helped with all the gluing.

Carmelized Garlic Cheese Ball

At our recent Halloween Party I made this carmalized garlic cheese ball.  It is a great make ahead appetizer and can be altered for any holiday.  I served it with chips but it is also great with little slices of bread and veggies.

Caramelized Garlic Cheese Ball

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup sliced green onion (optional)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely crushed cheese flavored crackers

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in skillet, add garlic and sugar.

Cook over medium high heat stirring constantly until garlic starts to brown (3-5 minutes).

Combine garlic and all ingredients except cheese flavored crackers.

Beat on medium until creamy.

Shape into ball shape with hands.

Cover and refrigerate for 1 hours.

Place crushed crackers in a bowl, roll cheese ball in crackers pressing firmly to coat.

Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

Serve with crackers and veggies.

Linking up to life as mom!

Crafting with your kids: All about me

One of my friends is hosting a play date called All about me.  We are unable to attend so I decided to do the project at home with my kids.  I wanted to make it simple and use things we already have so I used long sheets of drawing paper that I taped together.  This made it wide enough for my kids to lay on.  I had them lay on the paper and then drew around it.  Both moved a lot because "It tickled".

 Once their outline was traced they used crayons to draw faces and clothes.

 I weighed and measured them and wrote it on the paper.

My craft room was really cold so I couldn't get a good picture of my son without a funny face.

Target Halloween Clearance

I stopped by Target last night to pick up a few things and saw the Halloween stuff was 90%.  My boys have been playing dress up a lot lately so I picked up a bunch of costumes to add to their stash.  I also grabbed a few other things like marshmallows, treat bags and Pez.

Menu Plan- November 6th - 12th

I have been slacking on grocery shopping and cooking.  So much so that my husband asked me to please go shopping and make a meal plan.  Everytime I come up with something to cook we are missing 1-2 items, which leads to us eating out.  I decided to make things easy on myself this week and use my slow cooker for the majority of our meals.  My hope is that the meals will allow enough leftovers for him to take to lunch the following day.  He is getting really tired of peanut butter sandwiches.

Dinners:
Butternut Squash Soup & Rolls (from freezer)
Orange Chicken, Rice & Broccoli
Chili & Corn Bread
Chicken & Artichoke, Salad
Lasagna, Salad
Chicken & Dressing, Veggie
Eat Out

Now if I can just stick to my plan it will be a tasty week.

Crafting with you kids: Cloud Dough

It is snowing today which means we will likely be staying indoors.  In an effort to keep my boys busy we made cloud dough.  I have seen it made before using flour and baby oil (which I don't have) but found where canola oil can be substituted so we went with that.

 I used 8 cups of flour and one cup of canola oil.

 We mixed it all together.  My hands feel really soft now which is a plus.

 The boys have used baking cups, cars and now have a whole Hot Wheels track set up in the cloud dough.  This is messy but a lot of fun.