Back to School Feast!

On Sunday we had our 3rd annual Back-to-school feast.  Every year, usually the night before school starts, we have a little "feast" and introduce a new school year theme for our family.  The boys work on the menu together and I make it "fancy".  "Fancy" around here mostly consists of a table cloth and some display of our theme.  Our theme this year is:  Choose The Right (or CTR).

The menu consisted of hamburgers, homemade fries, fresh fruit and veggies, and raspberry lemonade (recipe to come).

I even got ambitious and made felt crowns for each of the boys.  (Would anyone be interested in a simple tutorial?)

This is such a fun tradition for our family and the boys look forward to it every year.

Hopefully their enthusiasm carries throughout the school year and our theme gives us a good reminder to make good choices!

Do you have any back-to-school traditions at your home?

Captureing Everyday Life and a Gievaway

I love journaling.  I love capturing everyday life with words and pictures.  I have probably half a dozen different journals, all with a different purpose. There's my personal family blog that I turn into a book at the end of each year.  There's the little leather journal I keep on my night stand that I record the blessing I receive each day.  There's the one that I use to keep quotes and inspirational messages.  Another one holds the family letters that I type up each month to share with family what we've been up to for the past four weeks.  I also have a journal I write for each of my kids documenting their milestones, funny or kind stories, and accomplishments they've achieved.

All my journals are treasures.  I feel that if I don't write it down then before long it becomes lost.  I know I would have forgotten about how my daughter used to be afraid to step on the sidewalk cracks when she was one year old or how my son loved the pez dispenser his grandma bought him so much that he slept with it every night for weeks.  Fun, sweet things to remember.

One of my favorite things to document are the funny things my kids say.  I love to go back and read them over and over again.  I crack up every time.  When they say something funny I always pause and grab a paper and pencil and jot it down or sometimes if I'm out and about I'll send myself a quick email using my phone so I don't forget that funny or cute thing they said.  It takes less than a minute and it is so worth it!  I have a list where I compile all their quotables on my computer and I later add them to their journals and to the end of my blog-turned-book each year.

So, of course when I saw Paper Coterie's new Quotable Book I fell in love.  What a great idea for capturing all those cute kid quotables!

Each book can be personalized with up to 19 photos and is full of space for writing down those sweet things your kids say.  Keep it handy and it will become a treasure to look back on for years to come.

I thought this was something our readers would love as much as I do, so we're giving one away (free shipping included too!).  Enter through rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Giveaway ends Thursday, August 30th.

Want to buy one to document what your kids say, or to give one as a gift?

Visit Paper Coterie and enter promo code QUOTABLE through September 2nd to get one for only $12!

Good luck!

 

Homemade Jello

We were at a dinner party several weeks ago and our hostess asked my daughter if she would like some jello.  My daughter looked hesitant for a moment and then looked up at me and said, "Mom, what's jello?"

Wait.  Time out.

What's jello?

I couldn't believe my ears.  How does my daughter not know what jello is?  What kind of childhood is she having anyway???

Now I have to say that I love jello.  I really do.  I mean, who doesn't?  My favorite jello growing up was orange jello with mandarin oranges in it.  Yum.  When I was pregnant with my daughter I stocked up on all kinds of things to get ready for the new baby and I distinctly remember the long row of jello, in every flavor imaginable, in my cupboard.  I guess for some reason I felt that if I had enough jello to last me a year somehow everything was going to be okay.

When my daughter was two she had some sort of strange allergic reaction.  For a long time I thought it was food dye related, but later realized it was something else.  In the meantime I did A LOT of research on food dyes and decided that it was probably better to eliminate them from our diet as best we could.  Llately we've been trying to cut down on our sugar intake too, especially since the new year.  I've been trying to be very diligent about it.  Needless to say, between food dyes and sugar, jello is something we haven't had for quite a while. 

The other day I came across this fabulous little recipe for homemade jello and since it's made from 100% fruit juice I figured it couldn't be too bad for us.  And more importantly every child just needs to have jello every once in awhile. Right?

The best part about it is that it takes just as long to make as any ol' jello and tastes just as good too!  Plus there are a lot of health benefits to consuming gelatin, like healthy hair and nails.  It's also good for your digestive system, joints, and metabolism.

All you need is three simple ingredients.  100% juice, honey, and unflavored gelatine.

My kids love to help make this favorite treat.  It's a simple enough recipe that they can help do most of it.  Measuring and mixing are the perfect way to let kids help in the kitchen.

It makes a great snack to pull out of the fridge in the afternoons.  Yum.

Juice Gelatine

4 cups juice

4 packets unflavored gelatine

2 tablespoons honey

Pour 2 cups juice in bowl and stir in gelatine.  While this sits heat the remaining juice and honey to a boil.  Pour hot juice over juice and gelatine mixture.  Stir for 2-3 minutes until gelatine is completely dissolved.  Pour mixture into 8 x 8 pan.  Cover in plastic wrap and chill for three hours or until firm.  Cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Several months ago I was trying to decide on a sweet treat to bring to my in-laws house.  I had some super ripe bananas that needed using so I eventually decided upon these banana oatmeal cookies.  My mom used to make these when we were growing up and I always loved them.  I would even rationalize that they were okay for breakfast because they were full of bananas, oatmeal, and raisins.  Here's the thing though . . . none of my boys (including my husband) or my in-laws like raisins.  Seriously.  In fact, I wasn't so sure the cookies would be a hit at all but I persevered.  To make them a little more appealing I subbed dark chocolate chips for the raisins. 

Once we got to my in-law's place I quietly put the plate of cookies on the counter and didn't say anything.  I did notice that they were gobbled up fairly quickly though.  The next day I got a text from my mother-in-law begging for the recipe.  She couldn't believe it when I told her that there were bananas in it . . . she hates bananas!  Even months later when I mentioned it to my sister-in-law she couldn't believe it either.  "You're very tricky, Jeanine," she told me.

So here is the recipe slightly adapted from the one I grew up with.  I hope you enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup coconut oil

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 bananas)

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 3/4 cups quick oats

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix ingredients together.  Place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

**Note: the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans and 1 cup raisins . . . and no chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

Big Big Dinosaur Week and Giveaway

My daughter loves dinosaurs and trains.  Since she was as young as one year old she'd choose a dinosaur or train toy over a baby doll or princess every time.  A few years ago when PBS premiered the new show Dinosaur Train of course my daughter fell in love.  Two of her very favorite things wrapped up together into one great educational show.  It was a perfect match.

Well, did you know that this week is Big Big Dinosaur week on PBS?  There will be new episodes of Dinosaur Train all week long.  And to help celebrate we're giving away a Big, Big Dinosaur giant coloring book that also includes over 100 stickers.

My kids have had a blast coloring theirs! 



If you'd like to win a giant Dinosaur Train coloring book for your little fan enter through Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway closes Friday, August 17th.
Good luck!
*Giveaway open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

Family Olympics

While the summer Olympics are going on I wanted to make sure that we celebrated!  In addition to watching events during the day and evening we held a "Family Olympics".  This is so simple to put together that you could do it in a matter of minutes--like I did!  After a nice healthy dinner we headed out back.  My husband had the boys warm up and stretch while I posted the signs of our events.

First up was basketball.  Since our kids are still little we just had them make a few baskets each.

Next event: Fencing.  

We have a plethora of light sabers at our house which is what we used for our swords but you could use sticks or wrapping paper tubes--anything works!  This ended up being J's favorite event.

One of the best things about our new home is the jungle gym in the back--and it made a perfect venue for our third event: gymnastics.

W showed us his skills at hanging upside-down.

And the boys loved doing their fancy jumps on the mini trampoline.

Our last event at home was track--my personal favorite (Amy and I both ran hurdles in high school).

We held a few different track events.  First was a race from one end of the yard to the next.  And since A was so sad about coming in dead last we had a relay--the two older boys were a team and A got paired with Dad which evened things up pretty nicely!

For our final event of the night we headed to the neighborhood pool.  

Usually when we head to the pool in the evening we have it all to ourselves.  Unfortunately there were several people swimming that night!  We adjusted our events and instead of swimming we did "diving".  After watching the men's diving events the night before the boys loved showing off their fancy dives.

After returning home we got in our jammies and held our medal ceremony.  Every boy got a gold medal (which my mom had given to me last summer and I miraculously still knew their location),  we sang the National Anthem, and had a special treat before heading to bed.

It was such a fun, low-key evening and everyone had a great time!  If you hold a Family Olympics we'd love to hear what events you compete in!