Celebrating Moms

     My latest hobby has been checking out some of the blogs out there.  Awhile back one of my friend's referred me to the MADE website when they were doing the Celebrate the Boy month.  I fell in love with the blog and check it frequently.  Well today when I went to check it out I saw that they have teamed up with Ruffles and Stuff and are doing a two week special celebrating moms just in time for Mother's Day.  Yay!  There is sure to be some great crafty ideas perfect for any mom.  I really need to get a sewing machine so that I can take full advantage of the great tutorials that they have.  Anyway it starts tomorrow April 19, so check it out!

A Camping We Will Go...

     Okay, so maybe we didn't go camping in the traditonal terms of the word.  But we bought a tent and packed up our things for an overnight camping adventure out at my aunt's house.  We spent Saturday afternoon out at her house and enjoyed a little fishing and the kids were able to run free around the yard.  Again, I'm not sure you can really call it fishing.  We didn't get any bait until late in the evening, but I did get some practice casting in as it has been a really really long time since I have gone fishing.  Oh and even though we didn't have any bait, Mikayla did catch her first fish!  Well after a fun afternoon we pitched our tent and got ready to spend a chilly night in the great outdoors.  It was definitely a chilly night, but I can say that we made it through our first family camping trip.  Yay!  We are looking forward to the weather getting warmer and you can bet there will be more camping in our future.  Maybe we will actually venture out to do some "real" camping.  Until then I will continue to plan a backyard campout for our kids.

Our home for the night.

Noah peeking out.

Mikayla and her cousin Delaney.

Mikayla with her cousin Chance and her fish.

Camping was so exhausting.

White Chicken Chili

Yum....  I have been wanting to try white chicken chili and this week it was the meal deal at one of our local grocery stores.  So we gave it a try and it was really good and simple to make.  Here is the recipe:

White Chicken Chili

Makes 4 servings.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 package McCormick® White Chicken Chili Seasoning Mix

1 cup water

1 can (15 ounces) white beans, undrained

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 5 minutes or until browned.

2. Stir in Seasoning Mix, water and beans. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 minutes.

Water Table Fun

     Yesterday it reached about 80 degrees here and I decided to get the water table out for the daycare kids to play with.  The boys always try to play with the table so I figured I might as well make it fun and add some water to it.  As if there was any doubt, the boys had a blast with it and got more than just a little wet.  Bring on Summer!!!

Impromptu Fun Tuesday

     Today it somehow worked out where I did not have any of the daycare kids. Okay, so that's not totally accurate.  I knew that there would only be one of the kiddos here, so I planned for a fun trip to one of our favorite places, Deanna Rose Farmstead. It ended up working out that his mom was able to go with us, so it really ended up being a fun playdate for the kids there.

Feeding the goats.  Noah loved it, but Mikayla was a little more timid.

Noah and his friend Will playing at the playground.

Mikayla riding on the tractors.

Noah, Will, and Mikayla sitting on the cow.

    

Weekend Rewind

     Our weekends just seem to continue being filled with more and more fun activities.  Other than sleeping I think Mikayla and I were home literally a total of two hours this weekend.  Tiring...  So here is the playback of our weekend. 
     Of course we kicked the weekend off with swimming lessons.  Only two more weeks left.  Phew!  We went straight from swimming to the mall.  After a little bit of shopping we returned home (briefly) to pick up my niece Ava's birthday present.  Then it was off to the birthday party.  We had a great time enjoying the company and the bbq.  Yum!
     Sunday started with us doing our first walk.  We participated in EarthWalk 2010.  It is approximately a 3 mile walk to raise awareness between individuals and businesse about some of the things that can be done to take care of our community.  It was a beautiful day for the walk and both the kids did great.  After the walk there were some fun activities that we were able to participate in.  We watched a puppet show, the kids made noisemakers, and Mikayla made a book.  All in all we had a great time.

Mikayla got to design her own reusable bag. She decided to make a picture of her, me, and Noah outside in the sun.  Cute!

Noah in front of Brush Creek.

Yay!  She finished the walk.

Enjoying the puppet show festivities.

Working on her book.

Yep, I did a little chasing of Noah that day.

     Sunday afternoon Mikayla had her first princess party.  I had a lot of fun getting her all dressed up and ready to go.  It was really cute seeing all the little girls in their pricess gowns.  The party was fun too!  It involved a "real" Cinderella who lead all the girls on a fairy tale adventure.  All the girls were able to choose three pieces of treasure and received a makeover by Cinderella.  After the fantasy ended we headed back home for some much needed rest.

Pre-party princess.

Post-party princess.  (I was hoping to capture a little bit of her makeover, but I could not get a good shot.)

Easter Weekend Rewind

     Happy Easter!  We had a great Easter weekend filled with lots of activities and outside time.  Awesome!  Here's the weekend rundown:

1. We kicked the weekend off with a birthday party for Will, one of my daycare kiddos.  It was held at Antioch Park and the kids had a great time.
2. After the party we headed to my family Easter gathering out at my grandma's hill.  Mikayla and Noah enjoyed having the Easter egg hunt and of course came home with lots of candy.  It was also good to spend time with the family.  Oh and I made these cute chick cupcakes (with a little of Mike's help) with a recipe that I found from McCormick.  Since I have been making my cupcakes from scratch I found a great recipe here.  And the best buttercream frosting here.  I wanted to take a picture of the ones that I made, but we were a little short on time.  Here is a pic from the web.

P.S.-Mine were not quite as cute, but still turned out great.

3.  Easter morning started off with the kids opening their Easter baskets and then we headed out to church.  The service was a really good one.  They featured a sand artist that was drawing along to a dialog.  It was really neat.

4.  After the service we headed out to Kauffman Stadium (home to the KC Royals) for an Easter egg hunt, family-friendly activities for the kids, and watching the team practice.  It was pretty crowded, but we still had a great time.

5.  We found out that Mike has been accepted to KU's graduate program for a Masters in Information Systems.  He is still waiting to hear from Iowa State prior to making a formal decision, but it looks like he will be starting grad school in the fall.  Yay!  I am so proud of him.

And of course there are some pics...

Waiting in line patiently.  Tried to keep them entertained with Thomas and some bubbles.

Getting ready to run.