Calling all Help ...

I usually don't blog about this stuff, but desperate situations call for desperate measures LOL! My little Lu will be 6 this coming Wednesday (wow not so little anymore) And I am at a loss as what to get her A COMPLETE LOSS, I mean I've been to the learning store (which is great and I'll go back I'm sure with a clear mind one day ...) to Walmart, Target, the Dollar store, Toys r us ... you name it we've been there, and I walk out of every store saying, maybe we should just go back to "so and so" and get her this or that, never actually leaving with a gift.

I see all these great homemade toys, games, trinkets, and all the ones from the stores to .. hello why doesn't the stores here carry those cool items? Am I missing something, no probably just over thinking it, hey lets face it, every parent gets tired of spending money on the toys that get thrown in the corners, I know I do, and it happends at least once a year weather it be birthday, Christmas, Easter ect... I actually want to get my dearest Lu something she will LOVE and not want to put down for weeks on end .. maybe shes just a hard kid to buy for YES THATS IT, she is I swear, I mean "mommy I want this, that and the other" just don't fly because I say to myself, didn't I get you something like that last time and now it sits lonely in the bottom of a toy box? Oh the kid! She loves crafts, games, building stuff or things you can put together, so I've thought about it, and I wanna come up with something great .. must have a mind block!

So heres where ya'll come in, I need names of things, stores, tell me tell me, so that I NO longer have to blog at midnight about my perdicament, and yes to my sister Brandy whom I know will read this and have so many great Ideas, I want details on where you find these great things!

Oh man, whats going to happen when shes 13, and wants the things that are unimaginable? I'm in for it if I am having problems now!

Lu's Kindergarden Graduation

I thought I'd share a few pics of Lu's kindergarden graduation (sorry the first one is SO DARK but I didn't want to put the teacher's face on the web without permission so I darkend it) as you can tell thought this is where she is being "capped" and I wish you all could see the beatiful smile!

Shes singing here, they performed 3 songs for us, movements and all, it was a great show! We all cheered them on! Each student got a diploma as well! My mom and step-dad came out to see Lu do her thing, and so when she was done we took the opportunity to snap a few pics, I love this one of us 3 girlies!

Lu is grinning to show "granny" her missing tooth, so although it looks as if shes being forced to smile, shes actually just showing us her pearly whites or lack there of!
This is one of my favorites! I love to take pictures of my little family! This one turned out rather well!

After the graduation we went out for some ice cream! mmm mmm love ice crm!

So proud of my little Lu .... and how the time flies, oh boy!

Kid Friendly Friday- Movie Watchin

Good morning all welcome to Kid Friendly Friday hosted by I Blame My Mother! Jump on over and join the fun! We all include things that are Kid friendly of course!

My kid friendly post is MOVIE WATCHING! Lu and I (oh yes and Joshy too) watch a movie every other friday, if you ask why not every friday is because Lu goes to see her dad, the fridays inbetween! Lu has become at a great age, in which we don't have to watch all the cartoony movies anymore YIPEE for mom! So Last week we watched Hotel for Dogs, which I might add is a really cute movie, and Lu is SO PASSIONATE for animals (I think she'll be a vet one day) that she literally took the movie to heart! I believe on her list next is Beverly Hill Chiuhah LOL...

We pop some popcorn, get out a good blanket, and we enjoy! So Movie watching is great to do with kids, especially when they don't watch tv alot its a real treat!

I just want to take a min to Thank Sarah over at I blame My Mother for giving my upcoming blog carnival recognition, I will be starting a "Kids In the Kitchen" carnival coming up here the 2nd week of June, so get your kids in the kitchen!

Lu in the Kitchen- Chocolate Whoopie pies with Peanut butter filling

In the Kitchen with Lu - Chocolate whoopie pies with peanut butter filling ..... YUM YUM Laney Loves to do the mixing, and I like for her to do it to, this allows me to snap some cute pics!

Never fails, she always licks the mixing thingies ... she lets me have one quick lick, if I want anymore she tells me to lick the bowl .. LOL

All cooled off and ready for the filling, this recipe took more steps than what I usually make with Lu, and by mid point she was itching to go outside and ride the scooter.

After cooling the peanut butter cream filling goes on one side and sandwhich with another cookie!

Don't they look delish? Here the How to..

for the cookies you'll need:

1/2 cup Shortening

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks (just disregard the white they wont be needed

2 cups flour

5 tbsp coco (unsweetened)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

preheat oven to 350

Mix together the shortening, sugar, and yolks.. set aside

In seperate bowl, sift together
flour, coco, baking soda, and salt .. add to the shortening mixture gradually, alternating with mixing in milk as well. Then add the Vanillia.

bake for 10-12 mins and LET COOL

Filling:

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp peanut butter

2 cups confectioners sugar

milk (enough to make mixture creamy)

Mix together first 3 items and gradually pour in milk until a cream consistancy forms.

AFER cookies have COOLED completley spread cream mixture on one half of cookie, and sandwhich it wit another.

We wrapped each one individually with seran wrap and froze for 30 mins, helps keep everything together and is a nice TREAT!

Warning: the cookies are soft be careful when spreading cream mixture on, and they are VERY RICH IN FLAVOR!

Wordful Wednesday - Graduation

Welcome to Wordful Wednesday, head over to Seven Clown Circus to join the fun! Mr. Linky is being kinda Stinky today, but we are going on without it!

Funny today because my plans were to use pictures from the BBQ we went to on Memorial day, I didn't write a seperate post about it and so I was gonna post some of the boys playing Bocci Ball, the girls gossiping and of course the kids playing at the BBQ .. but when I started to look at my pictures I had a Change of heart and heres WHY...

Tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m. I will be going to a Ceremony of my BABY girls Kindergarden graduation ... as I tear up, Is she really getting this big? A year ago, which is pictured below, we were at her PRESCHOOL grad! Now tomorrow I will be attending a Kindergarden grad? OH where does the time go to?
And then theres this picture, I'll never forget it! Her very first day of Kindergarden! I cried atleast HALF the day, I was the first parent to arrive and the last parent to leave (I bet the teachers love me) I snapped more pictures than would could believe as I probably will do so every year!

Oh, man whats next high school grad?? My little Lu will be 6 one week from today, and I must say I am so proud of her, what shes learned and what her future holds!

Honey Walnut Pork Chops

Honey Walnut Pork Chops! YUM

Ok, so these pork chops are to die for! I made them over a week ago (but I haven't been feeling well, mixed with being very busy= not blogging to incrediblly much) I saw a recipe similar to this (kinda) but I changed it alot to fit the ingredients and taste buds in my household! I am FOREVER looking for new pork chop recipes, lets face it there is only a couple that stand out from others ... so when I find one worth jotting down, I think Its blog worthy! And my 5 year old asked for 2nds, that is RARE ... very RARE, well unless its dessert LOL!

Heres the Ingredients and the how to...

4 pork chops

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup maple syrup

I used a 1/4 cup of walnuts, you could use more or less.

Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper, dredge in flour and brown on both sides, put on hot plate, and it same pan put syrup, honey and walnut, Stirring constantly until a nice glaze forms (not to long or it will turn into a candy like hard glaze) pour over chops and serve! WAS DELISH, I served with apple slices and put a little pork chop glaze over them, and buttery mashed taters!

Wnjpy

Memorial Day Dessert - Trifle - TMTT

I thought I would share this recipe with you all! It was a HUGE HIT at the Memorial day BBQ we went to, infact I came home with NONE left. I thought It was very good too! It looked PRETTY and FESTIVE!

Heres how to make it...

4 Cups cold milk

2 pkgs vanilla flavored pudding

2 pound cakes (I bought Entenmann's they were 11.5 oz each and buy one get one at publix this week which was extra bonus!)

1 and a 1/2 pint of strawberries

1 cup blueberries

16 oz heavy whipping crm (you could use a tub of cool whip, but I think if you make your own it taste better)

Mix the 4 cups of milk with pudding, as per directions (set in fridge)

mix heavy whipping crm (with handful of sugar) also set in fridge

Cut up strawberries, and cut pound cake in cubes.

Place pound cake in trifile bowl, top with 1/2 of both kinds of berries, then pudding, then whipped crm, and repeat save a few extra berries for top to make decoration!

This fills an ENTIRE trifle bowl (with a little extra) so if you'd like to make less just half the recipe!

ENJOY!!

I linked this to Tempt my Tummy Tuesday hosted by Blessed with Grace jump over and join in!

Menu Plan Monday

Goodmorning, Happy Monday and Memorial day to all! Been a busy weekend over here! Back to another MPM Jump on over to Organizing Junkie to join the FUN!

Last week our highlight was Beef and Bacon Pinwheels, YUM I found the recipe here this is one of my favorite blogs! They were very yum, easy, Lu helped me alot with this meal, and everyone CLEANED their plates!

On to this week.. We have ALOT of beef, I don't know why I haven't been cooking beef much, so this week feels like beef overload..

1) Memorial Day BBQ at friends

2) Bubble Pizza with watermelon slices

3) Tuna Cassorole

4) Quick Beef Pot Pies (see I do love this blog)

5) Spaghetti with Salad and garlic bread

6) Pork Chops with rice and corn

7) Free Day

BlueBerry Picking

Who doesnt LOVE some good blueberry pickin? Thanks to Run DMT, I was able to find out about this great U-pick Blueberry farm close to my house!

Lu had an absolute blast, it was great, she would find a big one or a few nice ripe blue one and RUN so fast yelling " found one mom look look, theres a whole bush here see!?"

We stayed about an hour, got 1.7 lbs (which at first I thought was more than plenty) mostly because I don't buy them at the store, unless they are on major sale, bc they are just to expensive!

The only reason we left was because mother nature blessed us with RAIN and alot of it!!! But up until it starting pouring it was nice outside, not muddy at the farm or anything it was great! The owner/worker (I'm not sure which) was wonderful, she told us to eat right off the trees... UM UM so we probably got a quarter of a lb in our bellies :) (thanks to the fact that they are an organic, non pesticide farm, you gotta love that and at only $4 a lb)

I think I might have to seek out more blueberry sales when its not pickin season, because we popped them in our mouth like little candies the whole afternoon, and what a healthy alternative to candy which is what we usually eat instead!

AMERICA GETS IT RIGHT!

If anyone reads my blog than they know how happy I am after last nights American Idol Finale! I absolutley think American got it right!! YAY! Go Kris! Lets just say this much, I haven't watched American Idol in 2 or more years, it sometimes gets boring and repetative! Most of the time America doesn't even ALMOST get it right! I will say that they are BOTH talented! However my type of singer isn't screaming through half the song! Adam takes EVERY SONG ... classical, country, hip hop, blues and whatever elese, and turns it into some kind of rock KISS rendition! So for those who love that music than Adam is for them. I agree with alot of people either you love Adam or you don't and I don't. I think he will go far in life and appeal to alot of people, the ones that do love him! He is VERY theatrical, I think theater would be great for him, I mean because for me, its hard to visualize him singing without his performance put on. I am not sure the average AI watcher is rock hard core, theatrical, black nail polish wearing. Lets also go into the fact that good lord the judges SHOVED Adam in our faces! I think that put a sour taste in alot of peoples mouths, and I disagree with them having PICKED A FAVORITE! They should have been professional enough to talk about the performance at hand instead of going into "how he's the best and should win and blah blah blah"

Doesn't America want a Idol that can sing every kind of music and make it sound good? Thats what I want to hear anyway! I think alot of people underestimated this wholesome guy next door, a college kid, happily married to a cute girl. Really he was the underdog, and that is appealing to his fans, I also think that the Danny Goeky fans were gonna make sure that Kris be the winner (and glad for that) I think Kris makes every song his own, hes talented, hansome, instrumental, and was a delight to watch, he grew with every performance, took the judges advice most of the time, didn't let the judges critisim or "favorit pick of Adam" get him down. I am glad that Kris got the confidence he needed to show everyone he could do this! I would definatley run out and buy a CD that Kris produces, and I wish him the best of luck! They have had a few great AMERICAN IDOLS such as Carry Underwood, so I hope Kris does JUST AS WELL OR BETTER!

I think Kris, Adam, Danny and Allsion will go far, their names and faces are out there now and I think that all 4 of them will have a little fame and fortune at some point! The Finale was actually good this year, unlike previous years lame and boring, they had good names and singers on the show, the AI awards were funny and added a little humor, Keith Urban and Kris Did wonderful, and how about Allison and Cindy Lauper? I think this year the judges did have a hand in picking the best talent they have had so far...

But for the time being WAY TO GO america! We all did a great job picking such a talented singer, I for one know I voted, and finally have faith back in AI i might just watch it again next year!

In the Kitchen With Lu- cookies

On Wednesdays we usually bake something from scratch or close, almost never from a tub, packet, or premade pie. But Lu had a fundraiser earlier this month and talked us into 4 tubs, Snickerdoodle, White Choc Macadamian nut, Choc Chunk, and Peanut butter. So, lets just say I wasn't gonna make anything other than these since I had 4 tubs of cookies takin up space in my freezer!

They were quite easy to make, you just spooned some out from the tub roll... and then flatten , the picture above and below my writting should be switched ...

But.. you all get the point right? Then you pop them in the over on 350 for 10-12 mins.. then you ....

just watch :)

I didn't know how they were gonna taste, I was skeptical, but they were good, last night we baked the white choc macadamian nut mm they were tasty.

and tonight we baked the snickerdoodle, see she couldn't even wait till they cooled. They were quick, good, and most of all easy, we didn't even use a quarter of the tub, we baked 7 cookies each night (and yes they are all gone all 14 of them) Whats nice is if you have a sweet tooth these are so fast, no prep work or anything, while you put them on the baking sheet the oven is heating up and 12 mins later VOILA cookies!

Love that face!
even Joshy joined in the picture fun, I think he thinks I'm crazy because I blog about everything!

So thats what we baked this week!

My Watermelon Carrier!

As soon as Lu hopped in the car from school, she had noticed that I'd been to the grocery and she saw a nice big watermelon! She always helps me carry the lite bags in the house! But today she INSISTED that shes a big girl and she should carry the watermelon. I offered to help, but she said no. So I ran inside to grab the camera because the watermelon is as big as she is! I knew this would be camera worthy and it was! She dropped it atleat 3 times!

But picking it up was funnier .. Oh you shoulda been here HAHA! If you look closely she looks bow-legged!

She finally grasped it, and RAN! Like the wind! Did i mention the ground was wet, the watermelon was slippery and it had been raining all day? Hey I asked to help her! LOL

OH the sweet rewards! mm mm she loves her watermelon!

Worful Wednesday - Sleeping Beauty

Welcome to another Wednesday and another additon of Wordful Wednesday! Hop on over to Seven Clown Circus if you have some pics you would like to share! This picture was taken 2 weeks ago, usually when I have the weekend off, we run around town like crazy, we just came home for a quick second to get ready to go out to dinner next thing I know Lu is out cold, I guess SLEEPING BEAUTY was tired, look closely at her mouth, a fly could get in there LOL! So precious when shes sleeping!

Bananna Pancakes - Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays

I know I know, anyone can make pancakes, but this isnt homemade tuesdays, lol .. I actually changed it up just a little with the banannas and thought It was yum so I thought I would share.

Usually I cut the banannas very small and throw them in the batter and then a few on top, but this time I purreed them and also threw some one top, the purree gave it a fluffier, golden like yum texture than just oposed to the few bananna pieces you would normally taste, after a few bites (which of course isnt pictured) we threw some strawberries on OH YUM, was it good, and best of all we ate it for dinner, how I love breakfast for dinner.

heres how I made them:

2 1/2 cups of Bisquick mix (the box says 2, but the extra 1/2 made them fluffier/thicker batter)

1 1/3 cups milk

1 egg (the box says 2, I used only 1, I also think that makes it better, im weird I know)

1/4 to 1/2 cup of purreed banannas (depending on how much you like banannas)

extra banannas and strawberries for top

mix ingredients together well.

Place on griddle, until golden brown, hope you enjoy

Jump over to Blessed with Grace for more yummy goodies!

Making Crayons

This is my first time participating in Kid friendly friday, and I did this earlier this week, but its something everyone can do with their kiddos. Hop over to I Blame My Mother her blog is one of my favorites! Go join the fun and check out what everyone else is doing with their kiddos this week!

Tonight Lu and I made crayons .. take a close LOOK at her face its priceless, she was getting mad bc she couldn't get the wrapper off!

First you'll need old crayons peel the paper off of them, then brake them into pieces, she didn't want to put them into different piles according to color, she wanted them all in one pile.

I put wax paper on a cookie sheet, and foil around my cookie cutters (if you don't use the foil the crayons wont stay in the cookie cutters)

Place in 300 degree oven for 8-10 mins, or until melted, and place in freezer, crayons should seperate from cookie cutter just enough that you can pop them out easily!

Then start to color! She had fun, and it was REALLY cheap, so if your frugal this is for you, it was under $5 and took us about an hour start to finish (not including coloring time) which is for us a fair amount of time spent on a project!

Each cookie cutter - .99 cents= $2.97

Crayons - I had on hand

Cookie sheet and wax paper - I had on hand

Cheap - Easy - Fun .. Lu love it, next time we will try it in a muffin tin!

Menu Plan Monday

Wow, I thought by getting on here early enough I'd have one leg up, but theres over 100 mpm post already, everyone is on the banwagon .. so if you wanna join in on the fun to all you have to do is click here and jump right in.

Another Week another Monday .. Trying to make it simple this week.



1) Mini Meatloaf with homemade mashed potatoes and peas

2) Crockpot Applesauce Chicken

3) beef and bacon pinwheels

4) Pancakes, fruit, and sausage

5) Bacon wrapped stuffed Chicken with green beans and fruit

6) Sloppy joes and coleslaw

7) Freebie day (probably something simple like sandwhiches)

Have a Nice Week!

Theres a Little Wild in me!

Okay before I start this post, Let me begin by saying, "Mom since I know you follow me, please quit reading now!" With that said, anyone that knows me knows I love tattoos, I have just 5, but 2 have been added too, which would technically make around 7ish.

Josh and I decided what a great weekend to go get a tattoo, so we both did, I already had the flower atop my foot (yes it hurt just incase anyone asks, top of feet have LOTS of bones) anyhow, I've always wanted whispy stars and whimsy colorful dots.

So, we recolored the bigger sized flower that was previoulsy orange and yellow, to pink, purple orange and yellow, then it looks like stars magically come out of my flower they go from the bottom of my foot and wrap around my ankle, I think it is a good way to express oneself, though I know tattoos are certainly NOT for everyone, I try to make mine classy, AND EVERY one of them can be covered, I am not a walking tattoo, I dont have them on my arms, neck, face, so on and forth.

And this is Josh's, He got a cross on his forearm (first he checked with his boss, making sure it was appropraite, see this was a well thought out event)

It does simbalize alot for him, his brother has the same one, it is a cross, with the crown of thorns.

Just thought I'd share my weekend with you guys! :) Again shh don't tell mom, even at 25 yrs old, she would not be happy with me. (and if she does read this, I'm not getting anymore, I'm done just so you know!)