Weekly Menu

I've been trying to make a weekly menu plan to help with my what'sfordinner-itis. It has helped in some ways - I remember to use ingredients I have before I have to throw them out, and I'm keeping a running list of what I've made to help me plan out future meals. I could still use some inspiration, so if anybody else out there is planning meals, please share.

This Week's Menu

sun: breakfast for dinner
mon: chicken enchiladas
tues: pulled pork sandwiches
weds: cranberry chicken
thurs: casserole ole!
fri: tilapia and rice
sat: pizza

Bakeshop

Back in December, Bakerella went to a Christmas party and documented her friend's amazing decorating. I showed this to my girls, and they all went wild for all of it. Emma has been particularly hung up on this adorable play bakeshop. All the goodies are made out of felt.

Emma drew me this sketch, to remind me of my duty to make her, her very own bakeshop. I love the ruler on the side, showing how tall the shop needs to be in relation to her height. Will this actually happen? Hard to say...but it is certainly a fun idea.

Hearty Heart Hope

Don't look now..

Valentine's Day is right around the corner! We had a fun little photo session with Hope today. I'm hoping to get all the girls together for some fun photos in the upcoming week.

Stuff

We enjoyed another Rachel Ray recipe yesterday - this time going for the Cheesy Rice Fritters. They were delicious. Not the healthiest thing on the menu, but we ate spinach with it - that has to count for something, right? I was scared of the wilted spinach at first, didn't like the texture or taste much, until I ate it with a bite of fritters - and that was a whole different story. Nice accompaniment. I also like that I can make these ahead of time and freeze for a quick meal or side later. Yum.

Next on the cooking front, crock pot liners are the coolest thing to come to the kitchen in a long time. I love them!

I love the feeling of having dinner ready by noon, kitchen clean, and now the only mess to clean up is the dishes we eat off of. That liner will save me a bunch of scrubbing at my "vintage" crock pot. Love.

Other stuff: Madelyn's grandma gave her a pretty potted plant for her birthday. The tub it came in was not the prettiest, so I stuck it in my yellow soup tureen, and now it is so gorgeous on my kitchen table.

Hope taking a dance break with the frog she stole from Amelia. This girl is a dancing fool.

Emma experienced a minor tragedy yesterday when she stuck her favorite mini Polly Pocket into the trunk lock for her Barbie car, trying to use it as a key. Polly's bottom part got lodged in the key hole, and her top part broke off. Emma, mourning the loss of her Polly's legs, found a key ring that fit through a hole in her waist, to make a wheelchair for her. Nicely done!

I'm Cooking with Rachel Ray

images from Rachel Ray Mag

I got a couple issues of Cooking with Rachel Ray, and decided to try a few recipes. Our first experiment was dinner last night - "Thanksgiving Any Day: Turkey Meatloaf Burgers". The things that really intrigued me were the english muffin "buns" and the cranberry sour cream sauce - both of which I loved after trying. The turkey burger was a little strange at first, but by the time I had finished it, I was happy. And my warmed-up leftovers for lunch today were delicious. My food-cautious family were not so gung-ho about the whole thing - but it's good for them to try new things once in awhile!

The other sandwich pictured above is RR's new favorite - "Inside-Out English Muffin Grilled Cheese". She just butters the english muffins, lays the cheese, tomato, bacon, spinach (or whatever you want) on the unbuttered sides, adds little salt and pepper, another cheese slice, and cooks in a skillet until cheese is melted and the buttery muffins are golden brown. So simple, but sounds yum. I'm trying this soon, too.

Anyway - here is the turkey burger recipe if you're in the mood to try something new!

Still Scrapbooking

Here are a few more completed layouts - from this last Christmas and the one before!

Next Project

I am so going to make this.

The House Spread

Scrapbook Season

It's scrapbook season again. I'm a year behind, but finally in the mood to put some memories down. I've been thinking about simplifying and putting 4x6's into albums, but then I get excited about story-telling, and go back to my digital pages. Once again, the blog is saving me because I can just copy and paste from there.

Floating Hearts

I love my new floating hearts above my kitchen sink. (inspiration)

Hope and I spent the morning cutting and gluing paper hearts. I even taught her to use the kid scissors. I'm thinking that may not have been the best judgement call, but I'm hoping we can keep them locked away when she's not being supervised. The hearts are strung with fishing line, which I tied to a little piece of ribbon at the top, that is thumb-tacked to the ceiling. I'm excited to show it to my girls when they get home from school.

Valentiney Inspiration

Some things I want to consider doing this Valentine's Day, most found at Martha Stewart.com. Hanging Hearts are from m.writes. Love these ideas!


These are clothespins glued to hearts. - reminding me of these clothespins I wanted to make last Christmas, but never got around to:

Madelyn's Party Plan

Madelyn is having a few friends over tonight to celebrate her 12th birthday. Hope helped me put up a few extra balloons this morning.

We have the required pop, and will be making mini pizzas and fruit with marshmallow cream cheese dip. (My girls have been loving it since New Years, Maria!)

Madelyn fell in love with the little purses I made for my visiting teaching blog, and has made almost a dozen of the little cuties. These she is filling with nail polish and candy as a thank you for coming to her party.

Madelyn requested strawberry cake cookies for her birthday.

We really love cake mix cookies.

We are also making these fun fold out origami scrapbooks. We'll take pictures at the beginning of the party, get them printed at Sam's, then let the girls play with the photos and the books they created until 10 p.m. when the party is over!

Alter Egos

Seemingly sweet to the core and musingly mild mannered, AmeliaVanhoosernstein Ribaldo had a shocking alter ego.

Left to her own devious devices, AVR played and pretended. She plotted and planned. The world would be hers! Bwa-ha-ha-ha! The mad genius could trust no minion to help her accomplish her dastardly deed.

She often found herself closing her eyes and counting to 10, just to keep her terrible temper from flaring at the slightest misstep from one of the many who failed to carry out her orders to her satisfaction. Taking matters into her own tiny yet capable hands, AVR, mistress of disguise, transformed herself into Aunt Myrtle.

Prunes! Get me prunes! I will take over the world with prunes!

AVR, upon realizing that no one could understand her mischievous baby talk plans for prune world domination, burst into tears. Her baby tantrum was devastating, but only the beginning of many incoherent plots to master her universe.

Side note: Amelia weighed in at 11 lbs today and is strong in the 1oth percentile of her universe.

Family Scrapbook

I love this idea of an extended family scrapbook. Hey family - is anybody else interested in starting this up next year?

4 months

I can't believe Amelia is 4 months old. She started pushing herself over from her tummy to her back a couple days ago. She scares herself silly every time. She also has a major love affair going on with her hands. So yummy.

More House

Per request, here is a shot of our photo wall. There are 3 rows of 8x10 frames and 1 row of 5x7's. Most of the pictures are black and white, and I chose a few in color that have lots of turqouise or gold in them. I love that I can switch photos in and out as I please, and that there are many many memories to sit and gaze at.

These are the curtains I just put in the dining room. I decided I liked the blue toile better in my kitchen, so adjusted these gold ones for the dining area. They were too short, so I added the gold silk skirt at the bottom. I still have a little fine-tuning to do on them, but I'm happy with the change.

Here is our new kitchen again, with a few pops of red I was looking for. I tried the little red pom pom fringe with my toile valance, but Madelyn said it made her feel like she was at a Mexican fiesta searching for a sombrero. That wasn't the look I was going for, so I ripped that seam and just kept it simple.

I spray painted the R at the window and the mug hook hanging on the wall. The framed photo is hiding some ugly cords and a baby monitor. I am still on the look-out for some other pops of color. One of these days maybe I'll get a cherry red Kitchen-Aid! That would do the trick. :)

Clean Slate

I love a clean slate. A new year... a new theme... just waiting for wonderful things to happen.

But man, howdy, were those letters a pain to remove from their "perforated" pages. Dollar store letters - I should've known.