Monkey Bread

Here is another yummy recipe...

3 small tubes refrigerated biscuits

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 stick butter

1 tsp. vanilla


Pour sugar and cinnamon into large Ziploc bag. Tear each biscuit into small pieces (I do about 4 per biscuit) and put into bag of cinnamon and sugar and shake. Put biscuits into greased tube pan. Melt 1 stick of butter and mix with vanilla and remaining sugar mixture. Pour over top. Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until not doughy.


And then about 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven this is what will happen...

Cuties

You would not believe the excitement there was when I walked in with these tonight. I am not exaggerating when I say my family could eat this whole thing in one day. The kids love them and I love them even more because they can peel them by themselves and they are good for them :)

Cottage Pie

I tried a new recipe out tonight thanks to eatathomecooks.com blog. I changed it up a little bit so the kids would eat it and it was a success (except for Emily).

Cottage Pie

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion diced
1 jar beef gravy
2 cups mashed potatoes
salt & pepper
butter

Brown the ground beef with onion, drain and mix with jar of gravy. Spread into bottom of greased casserole dish, top with mashed potatoes dot with butter to taste. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are lightly browned.

This was so quick and easy and tasted very good!! I used the bagged potatoes that you mix with water. Enjoy!!!

Lovin The Weekend

The weather in Michigan was absolutely beautiful this weekend. I think everyone was in a good mood because it wasn't raining for once :) We made a great breakfast Saturday morning with french toast, sausage and eggs. Nick decided that he wanted to go over to his friends house so we dropped them off and then headed to the store so Ryan could buy a birthday present for his friends party. He was so cute picking the present out. I remember when I was little I would get mad because I had to give the present away (yeah I was one of those kids). He was very into getting just the right thing which happened to be a Lego car racing set.

The party was at a slot car racing place. I had never even heard of this before but it was very cool and the boys LOVED it!!! Earlier in the day Emily was bumming because Nick got to go to a friends house and Ryan got to go to a b-day party but she "wasn't going to get to do anything" yeah hold your tears please. Needless to say she was pretty happy when the boys let her race with them and she even got to stay at the party while Josh and I went to get some supplies for a school project of Ryan's had. She actually ended up winning a couple of times.

After the party Ryan ended up inviting himself over to his friends house to play. Emily painted all afternoon while Josh and I took naps. We went to my parents for dinner and Nick spent the night at his friends. The kids were exhausted when we got home and actually asked to go to bed!!! I'll post some pictures of Ryan's school project later in the week.

Friday Night Fun

We have been having one of those weekends around here. I know your thinking who could be sick now???? The answer my friends is NOBODY!!!! It's been one of those weekends that just feels great :) The weather is beautiful, we have spent lots of time with friends (kids and adults), everyone is getting along (I'm knocking on wood as I types those words) and it just feels great. You know "that" kind of weekend.


Friday night started with Nick having one of his buddies over to spend the night. We really like this boy who will remain nameless since I'm not his parent. You know some kids come over and they don't really talk to you and they don't really want to be around the siblings at the house yeah I'm sure you all know of some. Since the first day I met this boy he had no problem talking to me he's very respectful and I actually notice him being nice yes you heard me...nice to Ryan and Emily. Nick was ecstatic that he got to have a friend over (I'm still trying to get better at letting them do that) but then I handed him the Star Wars Battlefront Elite Force Squadron DS game (pretty impressed at my remembering the name are'nt ya) that he has been saving his money for when he walked through the door which put him right over the moon!!!


We had told the kids the night before that we were getting together with some friends of ours the next night and we were wondering if they would mind staying home while the adults went out to dinner(they have two middle schoolers also)? They were all for that idea especially if I picked up some Mt. Dew for them to have. Ryan was so excited that they would get to hang out together without the parents and he was pretty much out of his mind when he found out that they got to make dinner by themselves. Before you get nervous about a bunch of unsupervised kids cooking dinner let me tell you I let them make subs, chips & dip, pickles and pop. Somehow this made Ryan even more excited because now they wouldn't have to use any utensils!!!! Oh to be 9 again :)


So Ken and Mary got here we got everyone situated and we headed out for a peaceful dinner with adult conversation. I'm not even sure what that is lately. We had a great time. It was so relaxing and being with friends is always so much fun when your out. There's never an end to the laughing and the talking. I love it!!! One of the other highlights were the sweet potato fries that we had to order a second basket of. I am not a fan of sweet potatoes but these were amazing. I have got to figure out how to make them. I know that sweet potatoes are extremely good for you and I need all of that I can get. We were thinking of maybe baking them with a little olive oil. Has anyone else ever made these???? If you have please share your recipe :)

Ice cream and girl talk...does it get any better????

We came home and the kids hadn't burned the house down and nobody needed to go to the ER so we considered it a success :) (just kidding guys you did a wonderful job) We all made banana splits for dessert. YUM!!!! I don't know if it was all the great food, the warmth of the fire or just the fact that they are getting OLD that made Ken and Josh fall asleep about 5 minutes later :) The kids, Mary and I didn't mind though because we knew it gave us more time to hang out and have fun!!!!

Do you think the word pathetic is appropriate in this picture??? :)

After the guys were tucked in (just kidding) Mary and I played charades with the kids. It was hilarious. Some of the kids got it but when you have 6 kids ranging from 6-14 things can get a little confusing. Some of the older ones were a little embarrassed to act out the silly ones. I thought all of those things just made it funnier :) The cutest example was when I was acting one out and Ryan guessed it except he said "it's an artist painting on his Kansas" we thought he just said it wrong but apparently that's what he really thought it was called. So stinkin cute :)

This is Nick setting up his scene for the clue.
Can you guess???



Oh yeah it's swimming underwater!!!



Ryan and Alyssa
Quick!!! What is it????



Emily kept saying "I don't think I can play this game I don't even know how to read that stuff" I think she was trying to pull one over on us because she did just fine.

We love, love, love these nights. I love that our families are building lasting memories together.

Say Cheese

What did people do before digital cameras??? I love that I can let the kids take as many pictures as they want and be creative without worrying about wasting film. I still have about 17 rolls of film in a drawer waiting to be developed. I never think to take it to the store but I can't wait to see what the pictures are when I finally do remember to develop it. Emily grabbed the camera today and disappeared for awhile. Here are few of the many many pics she took....

Self portrait

I just love her little chubby fingers. I'm sure she won't have them much longer so I want to have lots of pictures to remember them by. She still has the black and white polka dot nail polish on from Halloween which I'm sure is what she was trying to capture.

Emily and Ryan always make up parties to have for the family sometimes they are dance club parties, sometimes they are game parties, sometimes pretend garage sales no matter what they are always entertaining. This party was a list of papers taped to the wall with questions like what is your favorite color, what is your favorite class in school and then you were supposed to draw a picture on the easel. It cracks me up how much the love it when we draw a picture or write them a note. Emily had the idea to use our finger on the pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns and she drew the bat in the corner. She's pretty creative :)

Nick doing what he loves the most.

That's a little scary!!

Holy glare!!! Elaine (my mother-in-law) took these pictures with the kids before she was deployed to Iraq and gave each of the kids a framed copy. The kids loved them. This is sitting on Ryan's desk and thankfully his grandma was returned safely :)

Another self portrait :)

Chewie

I Scream You Scream

This is the latest form of entertainment at our house.....




I can't believe I actually spent more on four of these little ice cream cups for dogs than I do on a gallon of ice cream for the family. But when we hear the belly laughs and squeals of excitement it's worth every penny :)