Witch Craft :) LOL

28 Sep

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My boys are completely ready for Halloween.  They’ve been discussing costumes, party favors and decorations.  In true S Brother’s style they’ve started making their own crafty decorations for Halloween.  This project was inspired by the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Episode, The Wizard of Dizz…  Of course you can see why :).  My big boys have seen the Wizard of Oz, but my 2 year old has not so we have to go with the Mickey Version when he’s around…

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Here’s the Scoop:

You’ll Need:

Construction Paper

Fabric Scraps

Buttons or Puff Balls

Scissors

Glue

Ribbon or Noodles for bows

Crayons

Directions:

Depending on the age of your children you’ll need to cut out the dress, fabric patch and shoes.  My older boys were able to do this themselves.  Glue these things on so the dress is at the top of the page.  Let your younger children do the gluing if they are able.  The rest is pretty simple, glue on the bows, buttons, patch etc..  Draw the legs of your witch and TADA… You have yourself the KIND or Wicked witch of the East… or what ever you want to name her…  🙂  What joy this time of the year brings to our little ones!

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Apple Crisp Recipe- A Little Bit Snazzy!

25 Sep

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Last week Sanders and I took a quick trip back to the Land O’ Lakes to take care of some business with our rental property.  I was quickly reminded that I LOVE MINNESOTA FALLS… I really really love them!  The weather was cool but warm- I know that sounds confusing, but it’s the best way I can describe it.  The sun was bright, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the breeze was light and the air was crisp.  One of my favorite Minnesota fall activities is apple picking.  It brings back such fun memories of not only my own childhood, but the times we went picking with our boys!  This trip I really wanted to venture to the orchard, but I just ran out of time.  My Dad has a pretty old, but still fruit bearing, apple tree in his yard and Sanders thought it was so great to pick up the apples and eat them… He also love tossing them into the lake, driving over them with his toy lawnmower and smashing them on the driveway!  Either way, he was having a blast!  Whether you are able to pick fresh apples or buy some yummy varieties in your grocery store, I think you should definitely grab yourself some Honey Crisp or Sweet Tangos TODAY!   OH and while you are at it, try out this snazzy apple crisp recipe!

SNAZZY APPLE CRISP

1-2 lemons (the zest and the juice)

1.5 cups of sugar

1.5 cups flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1 stick of butter (cold)

2 pounds of apples, peeled, sliced and cored

FOR TOPPING:

Zest one to two of the lemons (one large or two small).  Put the zest of the lemon and the sugar in a food processor or blender.  Grind until very fine.  Add the flour and all of the spices to this mixture.  Add the cold butter and combine in the mixer.  Set Aside

For Base:

Slice all of the apples and place them in a casserole dish or baking pan.  Squeeze the juice from the above lemon(s) all over the apples.  Pour the crumb mixture from above (the topping) over the apples and pat it down.  Bake this at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

 

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PS…  I saw this Caterpillar in the Minnesota Green Grass… I’ve never seen anything like it.  It was GINORMOUS!!!!

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Read it or Not

17 Sep

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I have decided to start a little book club here on mommyapolis… I’m calling it Read it or Not (here I come) :). Ill post a book and if you’d like to join in the reading of it please do… We will have a no pressure online book club! Post your thoughts and comments or simply just read along! Take a week, take a month, take a year… There is no pressure! Grab a cup of tea, glass of wine or milk shake… No pressure! Just sit back, relax and enjoy the read :).

Book 1: “Counting By Sevens” by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Comments welcome! Happy Reading!

Mommy should get the treats… Potty Training is No Fun :(

12 Sep

Well, it’s that time again…  Time to Potty Train #3.  My Potty training findings are the same as they were 5 years ago….

1.  Mommy Should Get the Treats!

2.  I don’t know what I’m doing!

3.  Is it considered potty training if you are constantly saying, “do you have to go potty”?

4.  I wonder if you can hire this out?

5.  Mommy SHOULD GET THE TREATS!

 

Why is this so hard?  I have a Master’s Degree for goodness sake… IN EDUCATION, but guess what?  They did not teach me to potty train my kids.  So to all the MOM’s out there, this is hard and that’s OK…  I will not judge you if your child still wears diapers in Kindergarten, at least my #3 won’t be alone 🙂

Here is a little #TBT for you…

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Lost in a Book!

10 Sep

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I love to read…  It’s definitely my hobby.  I love being whisked away into the crazy, romantic, stressful, intense, and emotional lives of others even if it’s only for 10 minutes…  It’s my escape…  When Ben watches random sports (like soccer which is on now at my house) on the television at night, I curl up with a book.  Here’s the issue:  I have a hard time putting books down.  I want to keep reading, it’s almost like an addiction.  Honestly when I finish a good book I have to take a “reading break” for a week or two before I can start another book.  If I don’t my house would be a mess, laundry would pile up, family would be eating fast food, dog would run away, etc.. I completely understand what being “lost” in a book means…  It means not hearing what’s happening around you even if it is someone ringing your doorbell to award you with one million dollars.  It means not hearing the phone ringing to tell you that your child has been chosen as the youngest president of Harvard University.  It means feeling very sad when you flip the last page of the book and realize your new friends were actually only characters in a book…  😦

So… What kinds of books do I read?  I mostly read FICTION, but I’m not opposed to reading non-fiction, historical fiction or biographies.  I have this amazing friend, Patrick, who is much more a reader than I and he recommends books to me.  Most of the books I read are recommended by him, but I also have read books that my 76 year old neighbor has recommended!  Patrick has a reading blog at www.readwonder.blogspot.com which is a great resource for any of you readers out there…  It also has great suggestions for young readers, as well!

OK… Here is a list of some of the books I’ve enjoyed this summer.  I always read more in the summer for some reason,  but maybe that is changing as my kids get a little older…  EVERY SINGLE BOOK I read this summer I enjoyed.  There is not one that I couldn’t get through. Many of them caused me to shed more tears then I expected 🙂  My list starts with my favorite and goes down, but please know that I enjoyed each of them for different reasons!  Someday I’ll tell you why, but writing a book report isn’t on my list of things to do tonight!

1.  LOVE THIS BOOK, LOVE LOVE LOVE…Me

2.  I HEART THIS ONE TOO…  fault

3.  THIS ONE WAS INTERESTING TO ME…Kitchen House

4.  LOTS OF TEARS WITH THIS ONE TOO…

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5.  UM WOW!!!!  (I actually read this one before summer)

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6.  Great friendship novel!Unknown-4

7.  I read all her books, I’m addicted!  Unknown-2

8.  Yep, this was my spring read I think…  Unknown-5

9.  I had to read this one after loving it’s prequel!  Unknown-3

10.  Recommended by my neighbor, I LOVED IT!   🙂

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S’mores Bar

9 Sep

DSC_3515My boys decided they’d like to have a few friends over for a “S’mores” party to celebrate the ending of summer and the beginning of fall.  We had a fun time planning what we would serve at our party.  Of course we went with simply just S’mores, but spiced it up a bit by making a S’mores bar that had all sorts of goodies!  My favorite is still “peanut butter cup” S’mores, but the others were pretty yummy too! Here is a list of some of the fun things we put on our bar! Let us know if you’ve tried something different and how it was!

*Traditional S’mores Supplies

*Peanut Butter Reese’s Cups

*Kit Kat

*Chocolate/Caramel

*Heath Bar

*Chocolate Graham Crackers

*Chocolate Marshmallows

*Gluten Free S’mores (two marshmallows on the outside, chocolate in the middle)

* S’mores Cupcakes made by my neighbors 🙂

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Did I mention I loved peanut butter cup s’mores…

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This would be a great weekend to spice up your S’MORES life a little bit :)!

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Back to School Teacher Gift….

21 Aug

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I’m a gift giver…  I love to give gifts and so do my boys.  I think my “LOVE LANGUAGE” might be rubbing off on them, but I’m OK with that.  Giving gifts need not be expensive or fancy, just a little something to let the person know you are thinking of them!  Here is what we made for our teachers for Back To School NIght…  Like I said, nothing fancy and super easy… I ordered these veggie crates from Amazon and filled them with any “strawberry” flavored items I could find…  You could give these as an open house gift, first day of school, first Friday of school, teacher appreciation, or any time for that matter…  Show your teachers some LOVE people 🙂 They will appreciate it :)!

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Sunflower Project

7 Aug

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I love this time of year when the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the grass is green!  The boys have really been interested in sunflowers this summer so we thought we’d do a little project that reflected that!  We went online and looked up all sorts of different “sunflower” art.  We found paintings and drawings and decided to make our own.  The school that I taught at in Minnesota used to have the second graders make these amazing sunflower pictures and they would hang them up all over the school.  I figured my boys (and our little neighbor friend) could make something similar, as well.  Sanders did not make one (he’s 2) but I think that had I drawn one for him he definitely could have colored it and made it his own.  This time he was more interested in playing race cars, however :).

Here’s the scoop…

You’ll need:

Poster Board cut in half

pencils

oil pastels

water paints

What To Do:

Go ahead and look up some pictures of sunflowers and talk about their seeds etc… It makes for a fun “learning” lesson!  We also talked about how some “smaller” flowers (black eyed susan’s and daisies) sometimes look like sunflowers, but they are in fact very different.  Our neighbor has some sunflowers in her yard so we’ve been watching those grow taller and taller and taller, as well!   Once we had a good grasp on sunflowers I let them use a pencil to draw their own.  I reminded them that NO TWO SUNFLOWERS look the same (this was more so that they didn’t feel the pressure for perfection).  Once their sunflowers were drawn they used oil pastels to color them how they wanted.  Our neighbor and Shaeffer decided to add some butterflies to their art, as well.  It’s their art so I always let them do what they want :).  Once they were done coloring their sunflowers we did a water paint wash over the top for the blue background.   TADA…  BEAUTIFUL SUNFLOWER ART!!!!

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Juice Box Chicken

29 Jul

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Back about 12 years ago when Ben and I were merely dating he (his words) “invented this recipe to woo you”! He called it, “Sautéed chicken with caramelized onions in a mustard cream sauce”. Well after 10 years of marriage and 3 children under our belts I’ve renamed it “Juice Box Chicken”.
The reason being, you begin the process by sautéing some onions in apple juice. I of course was out of apple juice one evening, but had apple juice boxes so viola- juice box chicken!

Here’s The Scoop
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (6 ounces each)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 cup apple juice or juice box 🙂
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1
Slice onion and salt lightly. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until soft. Add apple juice and cook until reduced. place onions on a plate to the side. Add chicken to the pan; sauté until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, turning once. Transfer to the plate and keep warm.

STEP 2
Scrape chicken juices in pan to loosen. Whisk in cream, mustard. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about 2 minutes.

STEP 3
Add chicken and onions to cream sauce to warm. Right before serving, drizzle cream sauce over chicken. Serve and enjoy!

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#tbt

25 Jul

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