Food Friday....

Friday: Spring Fling at Mackenzie's school followed by a potluck

Saturday: Disney to celebrate Jake's birthday

Sunday: Roasted pork loin with a spicy honey glaze
Pierogies
Cauliflower

Monday: Matt's cooking.......some chicken dish he says

Tuesday: Tacos with all the fixings
corn

Wednesday: Chicken with a mushroom cream sauce
baked potatoes
broccoli

Thursday: Matt's cooking catfish nuggets
fries
sweet and spicy cole slaw

Food Friday

Ok, so my friend Tiffany has a blog and she does Menu Mondays. I always like seeing what others are making for dinner and get some new ideas. So, I'm going to steal her idea (thanks Tif) but I plan my menu starting on Fridays because that is the day I go to the grocery store. I like to cook and sometimes Matt and I cook together. Sometimes I like what I have planned for the week and then there are weeks that are just so so. I do have a favorite cookbook though. It is the "America's Test Kitchen Cookbook". My friend Tara hooked me onto that and I absolutely love it. It has lots of pictures and lots of little tips. Like did you know you can make buttermilk by adding lemon juice or vinegar to regular milk? Let it sit a bit and it thickens and sours. Anyway, we have some favorite recipes and you'll see those more frequently. What are some of your favorite recipes??? Here's the menu for this week......

Friday: spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, strawberries

Saturday: frozen eggplant parm from Costco (Matt is on his own with the kids while I celebrate a friend's 40th) and maybe he'll put something else with it....up to him

Sunday: hamburgers, tater tots, corn on the cob

Monday: I work, Matt will decide what he wants to cook....probably chicken

Tuesday: Tacos, chips and salsa... I crisp up the corn tortillas...very yummy

Wednesday: Black beans and rice with onions and Kielbasa topped with sour cream and a little hot sauce, broccoli, fruit

Thursday: chicken cutlet sandwiches, 3 bean salad, coleslaw

I work on Monday and Thursday evenings so Matt is usually on his own to make dinner. I will loosely plan something for him but he sometimes wants to do his own thing.

There you have it.......check in next Friday.......

Something to be said for babyproofing....

Now, I am not a baby proofing parent really. I don't know, I'm sure I baby proofed some when Madalyn arrived and it got progressively less with each kid. So this time around, we put covers in the plugs and latches on the cabinets and called it a day. The latches were a new thing for us. Never needed them for the girls but we figured with a boy, well you know.

All that being said, we've not moved stuff around or put stuff away. We prefer to teach him not to touch things he shouldn't. However, forgot about the paint on the easel that always awaits Kenzie's artistic touch. She loves to paint so we keep the "spill proof" bottles full with no problem......until now. We were just sitting outside and Matt said, "what's he doing, he's awful quiet?" Never a good sign. So this is how we found him........

Huh?

What? You don't like yellow? This reminds me of those beer commercials.......waz up?

Lift Off.......

So I've lived in Florida for almost 27 years and Sunday was the first time I actually went to the coast to watch the space shuttle Discovery take off. We packed up the kids, blankets, and chairs and headed to Space View Park to watch the action. It was packed. We had planned on pizza from our favorite pizza place, Kelsey's, but settled on Burger King so we didn't lose our spot. At the park, they have installed numerous loud speakers so you can hear everything that is going on in the NASA control room. It really was beautiful.

Killing time..............


Playing Miss Suzie






They're just yummy.....


And finally, "Lift off of space shuttle Discovery" at 7:43pm


It goes by fast......

Mason at Mickey's House

Living just outside of Orlando allows us the opportunity to visit Disney. We began buying passes several years ago. I admit that I take the whole Disney for granted given that it is at our fingertips. While the passes are a chunk of money for us each year, they are well worth it and provide our family with some of the best quality time. We've stayed at several of the resorts over the years for weekend get aways and have enjoyed meals with the characters. The girls love going and the magic is still there for them. Kenz has no clue that the characters aren't real and I think Madalyn knows but she doesn't question it. We were excited to take Mason for the first time. He did not like the characters which we expected but loved everything else including the fireworks. Here are some highlights.....

Jack Sparrow's double........

Do you like my new ears???

Mackenzie got an autograph book for her birthday this past year. Daisy was her first one and she was giddy with excitement.

Madalyn is learning to read maps and insisted I take this picture of her as we waited for the parade to begin. She is pointing to the spot where we are sitting.

Disney knows how to do fireworks....a nice way to end the evening.

By the way, Mason never napped.....too stimulated I think. They all passed out on our way out of the park.

"Good"

This is my standard response when people ask "how's the adjustment going?" It's a pretty boring, non-specific response yet our transition home this third time around really has been quite easy. It has been our easiest yet between the 3 kids. The girls are in a good place to welcome a brother and Mason has just been an easy kid so far. Of course, it's only been 3 weeks but we'll take it!

He is beginning to take steps on his own and looks like Frankenstein. Matt and I have always loved watching those first months of walking with the kids. He's so proud of himself. He loves to give kisses, play peek-a-boo, and pretend to tickle you. He says bye-bye, up, night night and signs for "more", "please", and we're working on "sorry". It is amazing what he has learned in just a few short weeks. He sleeps thru the night usually from about 8pm till 7am or so. He will sometimes wake up around 5:30am and we just bring him into bed with us. He loves his bottles before nap and bedtime. He naps about 2-3 hours. When he is mad, he makes this barking sound at us, like a seal. It's very funny and hard not to laugh.

It's been very fun to watch the dynamics of three. They all play well together. While I thought Mackenzie would be the more nuturing and mothering one with him, it is actually Madalyn who is more protective. She's the first the "cheer him up" if he's crying. She likes redirecting him and protecting him and then telling me what she did to keep him safe. Kenzie is a bit of a nuisance to him, touching him on the head when he doesn't like it, hugging too hard, etc. They both love to greet him in the morning and climb in the crib with him. This has proven to be helpful to me as I make breakfast. Matt and I had fun watching the kids push each other around in a laundry basket the other night. Well, it was mostly Madalyn doing the pushing.

We are heading to Disney this weekend. Stay tuned for more pics.........

My Sweet Girl

Today was Madalyn's best friend's birthday party. When we woke up this morning, the weather was bad and it was raining. We left to go buy a present and I said to Madalyn, "oh let's hope it doesn't rain for Riley's party today since it's outside". The next thing I hear from the very back of the van is...."God, you are so mighty. Please don't let it rain on Riley's party. You control the weather......I think. Amen". She has a sweet relationship with Jesus and I just love that she will pray anywhere for anything.