Chic fil A Mom's Panel Member

I am happy to announce that I am a memeber of the Chic Fil A mom's panel again for another year.

I recieved a nice welcome package; fncluding an insultated bag, food coupons, sunglasses, and my children loved the little cow.  rom them on Friday.  I recieved this gift box Friday.

Victoria the white cat from CATS

My youngest daughter, who I call Peazie, has started to really enjoy musicals.  A few weeks ago, I introduced her to the musical CATS.  Together we watched the dvd of the play and I also read her some of the T.S. Eliot poems it was based on.

Being the little dancer and gymnast that she is, she immediately became interested in the white cat.  For those not familiar with the musical; the white cat is named Victoria.

I had taken her to the Halloween store to look at costumes.  She just didn't see anything she wanted to be.   After looking at some pictures of CATS cosplayers, she decided that was her costume.

We used a white long sleeve leotard and white leggings.  I had looked into ordering her a white unitard but this was more practical.   For her tail,  I used white marabou.  The rest of her fur came from a white scarf that i found at a local dollar store.  I cut pieces for her legs, arms, and neck.   We recycled a wig that my son had used for a school play.   Costwise, I spent around $25.  The most expensive part was the leotard.  

I think we captured the over all like of the character.

Our Halloween inspired lunches

I love making bento box lunches for my children.  Since I have such picky eaters, lunch can be a day to day challenge. I never know who will eat what.

   I have an album on my Facebook page that is called. " Our Lunchbox Project".   I have a weekly lunch meeting with the kids to plan our lunches.   During our lunch meetings, we look for lunch ideas, recipes, and plan our grocery list.   They are still picky eaters but it has helped.

II take pictures of the lunches I make to help me kind of keep of track of what they like and did not like.  It has also been a nice way to share lunch inspiration with friends.  I  was adding pictures this morning of some of our Halloween lunches and I thought I would share them here as well.

With this first lunch, we made simple hot dog mummies.  Our version is made with veggie dogs, but you can use any hot dog.  Pretzel and cheese broomsticks, apple slices, carrot sticks, and for dessert; Harry Potter inspired Sorting Hat caramels.  The caramels are hard to see in the picture.

The Sorting Hats are made with 2 caramel cube and I use a toothpick to create the eyes and mouth,

The Ghostbuster inspired lunch consists of a round turkey sandwich with a cheese and olive ghost on top.  I used red food coloring to help create the look of the logo.   A green carved apple face, I wanted it to look like Slimer,   The Ghost Crisps I found at World Market,   The little ghost picks i found at the local dollar store.

This lunch was inspired by Monster High for my oldest daughter.   A skull shaped PBJ.   I hand cut the shape of the skull and fashioned a bow out of fruit roll up.   Since she likes simple lunches, apple slices, carrot coins, and crisps finish her lunch,  I did add some pop rocks as a little treat.







I created a Ninja Turtle inspired lunch with a homemade un-crustable sandwich.   I made cuts on the top to look like a turtle shell.  I made "ants on a log" minus the ants nunchucks, pretzel sticks and a Ninja Turtle apple.   The apple is sliced in half, a grape was cut in half to create the eyes and wrapped with a fruit roll up.  

I hope you enjoy our lunchbox ideas.  Please leave a comment if you are a bento fan too.  I am always looking for ideas

Trying out Bobby Flay's Banana Bread Waffles with Banana Fosters sauce

Yesterday, while through my Facebook feed, I came across the video for this recipe. I shared to my Facebook page, thinking "I'll save it for later but in all reality never make this recipe" kind of moments.  We all have them right?

As luck would have it, last night a loaf of banana bread landed in my hands thanks to a good friend and the church Fall Festival cake walk.

Here is the link to the recipe.

Of course, I skipped the step of making my own banana bread.  The sauce is easy to make with its 5 ingredients.

I did not use dark rum, instead I used Pyrat Rum which is a little lighter in color then a dark rum.  This particular brand of rum is also infused with a hint of vanilla and orange.   I felt those flavors went nicely with this recipe.

Here's my finished dish.  This is decadent brunch dish that would be amazing for the upcoming holidays.  I served this with turkey sausage links.

Costume Building- Sans from Undertale

This past week, our home has been in full Halloween mode.  I have been busy working with my children to get everyone's Halloween costume finished and ready for the big night. With 4 children, I try to keep all costumes on a budget between $20-$25 each.

My oldest son decided that he wanted to be Sans from Undertale.  I admittedly don't really know a lot about the game.  All I can really tell you about Undertale. is that it is an 8 bit style video game.

So this is Sans.

The clothing was simple enough.  My son already had a white t-shirt, black basketball shorts and a dark blue hoodie.  The problem was how to make the head.  We discussed face painting, which would have worked and been simple enough... but it's Halloween, go big.

I had an idea on how to make the head; so the challenge then was to find a beach ball. You would think that we would have had one around the house somewhere but no luck.  We asked several friends if they had one we could have, no luck.  

 If you ever find yourself looking for a beach ball out of season, forget the $ stores. I tried every dollar store in town,  So my advice here is:  Try Target first! 

My local Target still had pool items and beach balls were .99.  I picked up 2, just in case we are ever need another one for costume building. 

The beach ball got covered with 3 thin layers of papier mache.  I allowed a little bit of dry time between each layer, so it took about a day to get the ball covered.  It sat for another 24 hours to make sure it was completely dry.

After the ball was completely dry, I cut the holes for the nose and eyes.  I made them larger because I wanted to make sure that he had enough visibility, Then I did a layer of masking tape on the inside and outside of the head.  I did this because I wanted to re-enforce the head piece,

I then used newspaper and tape to shape the cheeks.  Once I was happy with the cheeks, I covered the entire head with another of paper.  When that layer was dry, I cut the mouth and re-enforced the edges with masking tape.  

The whole head was then painted with 2 layers of gesso and then white acrylic paint.  I used window screen mesh and black tulle for the eyes, nose, and mouth backing.

What you won"t see in the pictures that I am posting are the teeth and eyes.  I used a large hole punch on white adhesive vinyl to make the eyes and then cut the vinyl to make teeth pieces.

I did pick up a few other items at a local dollar store. Luckily, I went at the right time because most of their Halloween items were 2 for $1.  I found a pair of skeleton gloves and pink slippers which the character wears sometimes.   I also got a pair of white knee socks that we will use to cover his legs.

Overall, this costume was fairly inexpensive cost wise to make.  The head took about 3 days to complete.  As I said, we used clothing my son already owned.


     Here is the materials cost:
Beach Ball- $1
2 rolls of masking tape $6
Gesso-  regular price 8.99/ with coupon 6.99
black tulle 1.50
window screening- free, had scrap pieces
skeleton gloves - .50
pink slippers - 1.00
socks- 1.00

My son is thrilled with his costume this year! That is the main thing for me, I want them to have fun and enjoy Halloween.  He was really involved in the building of the head and did help with a lot of the  painting.

Be sure to look for my other costume posts.  My youngest daughter decided she wanted to dress like a cat from the Broadway musical CATS, my oldest daughter is going to be a unicorn, and my littlest guy is going as a Ghostbuster, complete with a vintage proton pack that we have been working on restoring.

Trying to come back to blogging

In 2010, I started my blog because I thought it would fun.  It was fun! I got excited when I got new followers or someone would comment on a post.  It was a great feeling!

For 2 years, my blog grew and then I kind of abandoned it.  I had a lot happening in my life. The short version is this; We had our 3rd child, I struggled with depression, I had a miscarriage, then I got pregnant again and had our 4th child .

  My last pregnancy was extremely difficult. Weekly trips to the maternal/fetal specialists took their toll. I was not emotionally ready to be pregnant again.

 I cried every week before my appointment because of fear something was wrong.  I cried every week after my appointment in shear relief that every thing was ok. And, I cried a lot inbetween appointments.

Finally,  I had a beautiful, healthy baby boy and afterwards, I struggled with depression again.

With all of that going on, I just didn't feel like writing anything.   I have made some attempts at posting little things, they were half hearted and really weren't anything worth typing.  

But, I have decided to try again.  Will I post everyday? Probably not.  My goal is few times a week.  I think that is a reasonable goal.   I will post the things that I enjoy and things that make me happy.  Hopefully, some of you will enjoy them too.

 Thank you to those who have stayed with me. To those who left, that's ok.  I will gain new followers.   I will rebuild my blog.

Wordless Wednesday- stuff on the ground. (#wordlesswednesday)8

Chick-fil-A National Breakfast Giveaway. #cfaone,#chickfilamoms

Chick-fil-A is launching a National Breakfast Giveaway during the month of September. Customers who create a Chick-fil-A One account between Sept. 1 and Sept. 10, as well as all existing Chick-fil-A One Members, will receive an offer for a free Egg White Grill, Chicken Biscuit, or Chick-n-Minis™ (3-count).

The offer will be available for Chick-fil-A One Members beginning Sept. 1, and will remain available until September 30th.

#CFAOne #ChickfilAMoms

Nature's Harvest "Make A Splash with Whole Grains Sweepstakes"

 

Get ready to swim into some fun with everyone's favorite, forgetful, blue fish, Dory and her friends!  

 

Now through July, select packages of specially marked Nature's Harvest® breads, made with at least 8g of whole grains per serving, will feature the loveable "Finding Dory" characters, along with a chance to bring home a free, limited-edition Dory TY® Sparkle Eye Beanie Boo™ plush toy!

 

Swim by www.naturesharvestbread.com for more info for instructions and official rules on how to complete and submit the offer form.

 

Can't get enough of "Finding Dory?" Nature's Harvest® bread invites you to "just keep swimming" and enter the Make A Splash with Whole Grains Sweepstakes!

 

From April 28 to July 7, Nature's Harvest® bread is hosting the Make A Splash with Whole Grains Sweepstakes on its Facebook page, and you can enter for a chance to win! Weekly prizes include movie tickets, autographed posters and more. See official rules here.

 

For more information about the sweepstakes and how to enter, please visit the Nature's Harvest® bread Facebook page. No purchase necessary.

The Nature's Harvest® Bread Make A Splash with Whole Grains Sweepstakes information has been provided by Nature's Harvest® Bread." 

#finding dory

The new Chic-Fil-A app is available #CFAone

Chic-fil-A has introduced a new app that includes features like mobile ordering and paying.   The app will also remember your favorite menu items.  Best of all,   you can also earn rewards.

Download today and recieve a free sandwich of your choice (regular, spicy, or grilled).
#chicfilamom,#cfaone