Happy Birthday Garrett

Opening Presents and a watergun to even things out Happy 4th Birthday Garrett

Okay, Summer gets in the way of me being a "good" mom and remembering to get online and post simple things, but Garrett turned 4 on June 30th. He is now "Big" or so he is telling people. The fun part is that the next day he got up and asked me if he was 5 now. But his birthday was a cool evening and a campfire and sweatshirts were required but he had a Thomas birthday cake and family stopped in for supper, cake and ice cream. A watergun and a nerf gun will even things out with Robert and painting pads and a new hay rake for his "big tractors" and a round baler for the small tractors will round up things. He spent that night sleeping on his floor in his new sleeping bag. But if nothing else He are excited to be 4!

Dirt and Sand

I really enjoy having fun with food, especially during the summer. For a picnic a couple of weeks ago, I let the boys decide were we taking dirt or sand. It was decided dirt this time, but if your looking for something fun for the next picnic or get-to-together here is the recipes (general) for Dirt & Sand.

Dirt
1 package Oreo cookies crushed (generic chocolate cookies work too)
2 packages chocolate pudding made up
1 tub of whipped cream
1 container of gummy worms

I usually use a dedicated sand bucket and a sand shovel to serve with (this container never goes near the sandbox - it's MOM's). Just begin layering the ingredients in until nearly full. Always end with oreo crumbs on top with a few worms sticking up through. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Amounts depend on the size of your sand bucket as you may need more ingredients depending on the bucket or serving container.

Now for those who do not like chocolate it is the vanilla version.

1 package Vanilla Oreo's (generic vanilla sandwich cookies work too)
2 packages vanilla or you could use butterscotch pudding
1 tub of whipped cream
and try to find seashell shaped candies or I have used swedish fish too. I've found that you need to check the gummy section of the bulk goods store or the local candy store. It's amazing the things hey make in candies.

Once again I use the dedicated sand bucket and sand shovel to serve. And just layer the ingredients into the bucket until nearly full. End with the cookie crumbs on the top like sand and add a few seashell candies or fish that got stuck on shore. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Amounts depend on the size of your sand bucket as you may need more ingredients depending on the bucket or serving container.

This is a lot of fun especially for the kids. You could substitute ice cream for the pudding and freeze. Remove from freezer before serving (very hard) but artificial flowers out the top is a lot of fun - some people will think you are really eating DIRT or maybe SAND.

Fun with Food

"Hi I'm Mr. Corndog Man! How are you?" (are you sure we can play with our food?)

Summer time can sometimes mean a little more flexibility and that meals can be fun. Today the boys wanted corn dogs (questionable on how healthy)which I had purchased and had in the freezer. When I pulled them from the microwave, I noticed that there was a bump on the batter that looked like a nose. So I grabbed some shredded cheese and made little eyes and then I took a mushroom (left over from mountain pies the other night) and made a mouth and set them on the table. Robert and Garrett were like "Cool" Robert wanted to add hair - he said that cheese could easily make hair or maybe streaks of ketchup. Anyhow we had fun at lunch today and made the next time, I will let the boys create instead of me, but it is fun to make something different or unexpected for lunches during the summer. Try even using a cookie cutter for sandwiches - some days we have cows, pigs and hay bales. (Which Robert will even ask for once in a while because he remembers doing it when he wasn't in school)

Baby is here!

My new neice arrived at 3:45am this morning. Haylee Catherine made her arrival. She is 7#3oz. and 20" long. Catherine is doing well and the delivery went well from what I have heard (it was long) But all are well, what a blessing from God!

Wooden toy tops

This summer we have had several toy races at our house. These were simple toys that we made at VBS and here at my house for a last minute craft and they are SOOOO simple. They are simply wooden wheels (that my husband uses when he is building toy trucks) and a dowel rod cut to 4 inches in length. Sharpie markers were a simple decoration and makes them individuals. Then the kids set them on the floor and push the top away from themselves. We have had a great time with these simple toys. We have timed the spinning and also who's spin the longest amount of time or has the most unique spin pattern.
Tops are still a lot of fun!

Tye Dying Hand-me-downs

My sister is expecting which is great but we understand that it is to be a girl. This means that all the hand-me-downs can't be used. Some are definitely boy clothes. But a couple of weeks ago, I went to the attic and pulled out the clothes and sorted through them and found some that could be male or female. I also found 18 white (some what stained) outfits. My nephew (future big brother) was here for the day and we decided that Robert and my nephew could tie dye the outfits so that the baby would have some color. They picked pink, purple and a tealish blue. They turned out great and what a way to let kids help get ready for the new baby. We spent all afternoon. wrapping rubberbands, carefully putting the outfits in one color and then the next. After they dried, I rinsed them and then took the bands off. What excitement when they saw their handiwork. We also did a plain white sheet for the crib that turned out really cool. But here is a picture of a few of the outfits. But what a simple way to make hand-me-downs more exciting.