Saturday, January 5, 2013

Snowman Pancakes

On the weekdays I don't have time to make fun or fancy breakfasts. On the weekends I splurge a little more. This morning I made Snowman Pancakes.


3 blobs of pancake batter on a griddle and you have yourself a snowman. The eyes are dark chocolate chips, the nose it 1/2 a small m&m and the buttons are small m&ms. I suppose I could have gone a step farther and dusted them with white powdered sugar, but the boys were happy with them just as they were. They didn't even have any syrup on them. I added a little more flavor to the pancake batter. We didn't have any buttermilk, so I made my own with lemon juice and milk. I just added more lemon to make the buttermilk. The pancakes had a subtle lemon flavor.

Mica thought Mr. Snowman needed a scarf. Any ideas? I suppose I could have used some spinach if I had some more.

Usually we have more spinach on our plates, but we ran out this morning. Mica says he hates eggs, but we make him eat them every once and awhile. I also made juice: 1 apple, 1 kiwi, a clump of grapes and 1/2 a cucumber.

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This is a new band to me. I asked my college art students to write down unique bands, singers, musicians for me. They did. Some I love. Some I dislike. That's why we all have opinions right? What I really like is some of these bands lead me to other cool, unique bands. Certainly a score for me.

This group is called Dear Reader. It's an alternative pop band from South Africa.

In 2010 their album called, Replace Why with Funny won the award for Best English Adult contemporary Album at the South African Music Awards.

This song is called, Great White Bear.



This song is called, Dearheart.


This song is very playful. It's called, Heavy. 

Friday, January 4, 2013

In China...

Mica had a friend over and each kid kept getting left out at different times. Daddy had to explain the concept of what a third wheel is. I had to explain what it is like to have a younger sibling. My friends always wanted to play with my little sister AKA Aunt Terra.

See this game:
Spiderman Fishing Game
Source
This was one of Isaak's favorite things he got for Christmas. I don't always get why Isaak likes the things he does. Hummm...like the plastic babies he's played with since he was 2 years old. Anyway he was super stoked about his new Spider-Man fishing game that he got from Aunt Angela. Somehow I knew he would be.

Mica's friend wanted to play this game with Isaak. They had total disregard that Mica didn't want to play. 

The boys started playing with Nerf guns when the game was being set up. The game just sat. No one wanted to play it anymore.

Isaak said, "I don't want this game anymore." This is totally untrue. He may not of wanted it at that moment in time. 

Mica's friend said, "Well give it to someone that does want it. How about you give it to a child that didn't get ANYTHING for Christmas?" 

I was thinking, I like where this is going.

Isaak looked at Mica's friend in question and said, "Who?"

Mica's friend said, "I know the perfect place to send it! You can send it to China! They don't get Christmas at all!"

I think that game was made in China. They sent it to us, so we could play with it.

For the record Isaak's been playing with the Spider-Man fishing game once again.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Peanut Butter Popcorn

For New Years dinner I wanted to have something simple. We went through a lot of work preparing for a party on New Years Eve the night before.

I chopped up:
  • carrots
  • sweet peppers
  • celery
  • apple
  • strawberries
Then I made popcorn. We had two types: Plain Popcorn and Peanut Butter Popcorn. I have to say that I can eat just Peanut Butter Popcorn, but I prefer plain sitting on the side. Then it's not so sweet. It's just right.



Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Oreo Challenge

A Nut in a Nutshell had an Oreo Challenge going on.

Five people were selected at random to participate. I was one of the five. Then we submitted photos to hopefully win $100. I didn't win, but I'm still proud of my outcome. Congrats to the winner out there! Visit here to see the other entries. I guess the winners were picked randomly by numbers.

First here is my inspiration:

King Author Flour has the best recipes for desserts. Aren't these cute?
I know the Oreo package included a lot of images of cake balls. I love cake balls. I've made them. I kind of feel a little like they are done so much now. I guess one could say that of cookies and cake to.

Here's an Oreo Cake I created:





The heart welcome mat is an Oreo. I just carved out the heart and scraped away the frosting. The Gingerbread Man and the Snowman were the patterns on the Oreos. I tried cutting and sanding the characters out, but the cookie kept breaking. In the end I just pumped frosting in them. I thought about making a cake ball snowman and other characters instead of using the Oreo characters. Then I felt like I wasn't using enough visible Oreos.

The cake is filled with Oreos to. I didn't exactly say it was healthy.

Here's the recipe:


You can make it in a 9x12 pan, but I made mine in 1/2 a Wilton ball pan and 2 small bread loaf pans. I didn't use both of the loaves, I have an extra just in case the cutting got messed up. The blocks were done individually. Then I crushed up Oreos and mixed up chocolate frosting to pump in the lines. The Oreo clogged up my frosting tip, so I went with just chocolate frosting.

The inside of the cake is pinkish from the cherry chip cake mix I used.  You can taste the Oreos. 

Will I do this type of challenge again? It was fun. I did get stuff sent to me to help with it. It's better than art contests I've entered where you slave away, pay to enter and get no supplies to help you with it. I would opt for it to not be between Christmas and New Years though. With sickness and a lot of plans it just got kind of hectic. I knew it was going to be during this time. I just didn't know people in my house would get sick and we would have a lot of snow to take care of on top of it.

How about you, have you ever participated in any contest?

Gingerbread House

Daddy and Mica started making the foundation of our gingerbread house shortly before Christmas. Daddy worked on the roof. I just love the icicles hanging down! They were going to finish it on Christmas Eve day, but Mica had to go to the Urgent Care to get his ear infection treated. On Christmas night I finished it.


I used Fruit Roll-ups for the door and windows. The stepping stones are gumdrops that were cut in 1/2.

Some type of holly bush is on the side yard.


A holly tree is on this side yard.

I thought I'd feel annoyed finishing this thing. I had many more things to work on! I wanted the mess to go away. In order for that to happen, the project kind of needs to get finished, right?

I actually felt the opposite of annoyed. It was fun and peaceful. Isaak tried helping, but he was more or less bumping into me. Daddy called him away.

We don't make ours to eat. It's just decoration. We had it on the table when guests were over for our dance party.

The Letter of the Day is S

The letter of the day is S. S for sick and S for Snap.

Mica's sick. He has the tummy flu. It happened at 5 AM this morning. Of course we had kids over on New Years Eve. I hope no one else gets it! First it was Strep Throat (Isaak and I), then it was a bad cold; bad enough to give Mica an ear infection (Isaak, Mica and I). Now Daddy thinks he's getting our bad cold and Mica has the stomach flu. None of the rest of us are sick, so I don't think it's food related.

Mica always puts his hands down his pants when he's sick. I'm not sure why? I have plenty of blackmail photos. 


Not everyone is under the weather. Isaak's bouncing around all happy today. I told him to line up all his cars and see how long the line would get. It's pretty long.

Isaak also learned how to snap. He's pretty happy with his new skill. You'll have to turn the volume up to hear his snap. Otherwise just watch it and enjoy the smile on his face.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

WW: Cousins On Board {Linky}

We went to the Durham Western Heritage Museum right before Christmas. These are a few of my favorite pictures of our boys with their cousins.

In order: Cousin Evan, Mica, Isaak and Cousin Elijah




Below: Is my monkey son!


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Fun and Function Laser Pegs Review

Our boys got Laser Pegs from Santa AKA Fun and Function.

They were really excited to get something that can be built and has the ability of being able to light up.

We got two sets to build: DuneBuggy and Tractor. Both have 9 different models you can build in each box.


Both construction sets include:
  • Tractor set includes: 29 Laser Pegs
  • Dune Buggy set includes: 31 Laser Pegs
  • A Triangle Power Base
  • Fractoids
  • Instruction Manual
Both sets we got are $24.99 and for ages 5 and up.

Mica built the model called Do-Si-Do:

Mica needed very little help. It was the first time he built it, so a few pieces he needed help snapping into place.

Daddy helped Isaak build the Scooter: 





Isaak is only 4 1/2, and these toys are for ages 5 and up. Isaak wouldn't be able to build any of the sets himself. Since Daddy was helping it is possible for a 4 year old to put together the sets.

Both boys love that their constructions light up! We lit it up last night at their New Years Eve dance party.

I love store Fun and Function

They had a lot of products on their site for kids with special needs. They have up on their website that their company is, "Where Kids of All Abilities Learn Through Play!"  Since I have a nephew with special needs, I know I'll be going back to look at more of their things.

Here's just some categories out of many that they have on their site:
I know my kids will continue to play with Laser Pegs for a long time!

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Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. I did receive a free product to help with this review.

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Monday, December 31, 2012

Climbing Chairs and Trees

Today was eventful. We had Grandma Spiehs' family Christmas. It was postponed to today because on Christmas the hosts got the tummy flu. Round two of me making food.

Isaak said to me while I was making the food, "Mom you are so old, but you really look young. You probably don't want to look old because then you might die."  Kids say the craziest things!

I stepped out of the kitchen to go do something and heard a laugh from Mica and a cry from Isaak. This is what I saw:


Isaak thought it would be fun to climb our kitchen chair like it was a ladder. "Sorry son if you're going to do something so silly, I won't rescue you until I grab the camera." For the record he's alright.

Once we got to our destination I thought we came on the wrong day. No one was there hardly. Usually I'm running on the late side when a lot of food is involved. I'm not the best with my timing in the kitchen.

Isaak was well entertained with these dogs:

We ate, the kids played in the snow with their cousins and later on the kids got a three presents each from a big huge box. Great Aunt Becky asked a Christmas question and if the kid got it right they got to pull a present out of the big box.

When it was Isaak's turn he would not answer any of the questions. He all the sudden became REALLY shy! Somehow he got presents anyhow.


Mica of course was super outgoing.




Cousin Emerson had fun during this time!


I caught Aunt Angela in a really funny moment! I thought she might kill me if I posted this photo to her facebook wall. If someone posted something like this photo of me, I'd laugh my ass off!


The kids went to play outside again and then I heard Aunt Terra say, "Is that Mica and Evan in that tree? OMG they are as high as the telephone pole!" Sure enough they were! 20 something feet up in the air. Thank goodness they got down! I wish I got a picture of that one.

The boys came in and went downstairs to watch a movie. All the sudden my cousin's kid was crying.

This is what we heard, "Isaak threw a chair at Colton!"

We envisioned this type of chair being tossed in the air and hitting my cousin's kid in the head:

Then we found out my cousin's kid threw a chair at Isaak. Isaak said, "That didn't hurt!" Colton said, "Throw one at me!" Isaak threw one back at his head.

Then we were envisioning a lot more action. A flat out brawl; little kid style.

Then we found out they were throwing this type of chair back and forth at each other:


On our way home I asked the boy's if they had a good time? Mica told me that he wishes he had a sister just like Kensley; my cousin's other child. I told Mica, "That's wonderful you like Kensley. You are not going to have a sister though." Yep we're done having kiddos.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

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