On Toddler Hairstyles

My little girl, as I've stated many times before, is a bundle full of energy. She is so active!
Another little-known fact about her is that she inherited my not-so-great genes of really fine hair, so since... well... forever, we've kept it short. Her hair has always been above her shoulders. Believe me, I would love Princess to have long hair, but its just not in the cards right now. The problem with short hair for active, energetic girls though is that it is always in her face! Ugh! It drives me bonkers! My older sister has a daughter that is the same age, but her hair always looks so perfect. I swear, my sis is like the toddler hair whisperer! All she has to do is touch her daughter's hair and its put perfectly in place and stays there all day. So since I'm not a hair genius like her, I've come up with a few staple hair-do's for Princess that are wonderful for her... And the nice thing is that all short hair styles also work for long hair... fancy that!

The Classic clip-back look

Side pony variation(she calls this her Rapunzel hair) We make this one a messy bun sometimes instead of a braid.

The 'French Twist'

Twist-under pony

Graduated Pony

That's about it! We pretty much stick to those 5 hairdo's. I can almost stick her hair in a pony or pigtails, but it comes out so easily, its just much easier to have most her hair down.

What about you? Do you have any staple hairdo's for your kiddos?

One More Sauce to Die For- Sandwich Sauce

Around here we love sandwiches. Like, LOVE them.
With homemade bread, there's almost nothing better. So when I found this recipe for a tasty sandwich sauce I couldn't resist. After all, I am a sucker for scrumptious sauces! ;)

Honey Mustard Sandwich Sauce

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup mayonaise

1/3 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

Mix all ingredients together, funnel into a squeeze bottle. Enjoy!

 

(sometimes I add other fun flavors to this base: pepper, dill, beau monde, etc.) MMM MMM MMM! So tasty!

To-Die-For Chocolate Sauce

I am only able to make this chocolate sauce a couple times a year because I just eat it too fast and its just too good...

To-Die-For Chocolate Sauce

1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips (I use milk or dark, but great with semi-sweet also)
1/2 Cup butter (the real stuff)
1 1/3 Cups sugar
10 oz. evaporated milk

In a small heavy saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over medium heat. Add the sugar and gradually pour in evaporated milk. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat. Boil gently over low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm over ice cream.
You can cover a chill any leftovers for up to a week.

Ta dah! Just don't blame me if you get addicted. :)

On Family Meal Planning

Our family is on a budget. Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be. Knight is a full-time student, so we have to carefully plan out our expenditures every month. I'm sure we are like a lot of you out there... right? RIGHT???
Meal planning is one way we are able to anticipate and manage our food budget. I HATE- okay, hate is a strong word, but I really, really, really dislike- deciding what we want for dinner, starting to make it, and finding out we are missing one crucial ingredient. Does this ever happen to you? Well, it gets my panties all in a wad, so I try to avoid it as much as I can. I have done this method of meal planning for about a year now, and it seems to suit our needs quite well.
Now, this is a simple method, and some may even call it 'old-school', but like I said it works for our family.

Excuse the chicken scratch... I'm the only one who usually sees this!

At the beginning of each month I sit down with my handy-dandy notebook and my calendar and make a list that looks like this. Here is a breakdown of what my monthly meal plan consists of:
1. First, I break down the month into weeks. Easy enough...
2. The next thing I do is write in the corresponding week anything we might have planned that would affect the meal plan.  See where I listed my birthday and Thanksgiving break?
3. Then I will list the meals we are having each week for our big Sunday night dinner and our Meatless Monday dinner. Those are annotated with the boxed 'S' and 'MM's.
4. I then write in parentheses next to each meal how many nights it will feed our family. Usually our Sunday meals will last two or three nights, but some are meant for just one night. I don't like cooking every night, so I like making bigger portions to have for leftover nights. We also like having breakfast for dinner about once a week- its really cheap, and my kids love breakfast foods. So those are listed as well.
5. Lastly, I'll fill in the weeks with however many more meals we'll need.

Voila! There is my monthly meal plan. 
But the plan can't stop there, right?  RIGHT!
The next page of my notebook is our grocery list. At the beginning of each month, we also do our 'big shop'. This will be the shopping trip where we'll go to Sam's Club for our big things and our local grocery store for all the stuff we don't get at Sam's. I leave room in our budget for one small weekly shopping trip that usually includes things like bananas, milk, and eggs. But this monthly shopping trip will cover all the items we need for our meal plan.

Its usually a shopping trip we do together as a family on a Saturday, but sometimes I'll go when Princess is in Joy School so I just have Studley with me. MUCH easier to shop with one kid in tow than two!

What about you? How do you do your family meal planning?

Bird Feeder Tutorial

We are having unusually warm weather over here in the western half of the states. It has been great for my kiddos to enjoy crunching the fall leaves without freezing off their toes at the same time!
We did this craft with Princess' Joy School group and it was a hit. All the kids loved getting their hands messy with the glue goop. Now every morning, Princess wants to check out the window to see if any birds have eaten any of the seeds off her bird feeder.
And its really quite simple....
Step 1: Make the glue goop...

 This is a mixture of one part vegetable shortening and one part oatmeal. We have a little boy with a peanut allergy in our play group, so we couldn't do the traditional peanut butter on our bird feeders. Come to find out, this mixture is even easier to use, and just as loved by the birds! I mixed our goop with a large popsicle stick; also used to schmear it on our pine cones.









I found the perfect pine cones in the yard of a house down the street from us. I went over there, knocked on their door, asked for their pine cones, and the homeowner was elated to get rid of some pine cones! So that part was easy. :)
I ended up baking our pine cones at 200° for about half hour... this was because when I was tying the first string around the first pine cone, a spider crawled out! I freaked out and decided I needed to 'kill' our pine cones. All for a better cause, right?
Step 2: After you've cooked your pine cones, tie a string or piece of yard around the top of your pine cone. I used left over yarn from making my AWESOME Rapunzel wig for my daughter. (had to boast, sorry)
Step 3: Schmear that goop on your pine cone, then roll in bird seed.
Step 4: Hang on a tree branch and wait to hear the chirp of starving little birds!

On a more serious note- Although we are having great weather over here in the west, there have been many families affected by Hurricane Sandy. Our hearts and prayers go out to them!

Cozy Comfy Fleece Blanket Tutorial

What a perfect day to make a nice, warm fleece blanket to snuggle my kiddos with! Its snowing and windy, and all I've wanted to do all day is drink hot chocolate and watch cartoons.

Nonetheless, I made this blanket during nap time today. Its actually for Studley for Christmas, but hey, I gotta get it done!

I got some fleece at our local Joann's on super-duper sale, so the blanket cost me about $10. Perfect price point for me for Christmas! And its no sew... even more up my alley!

I purchased a yard and a half of two matching fleece fabrics. I put them back to back, outsides out. Then, cut the fleece ends into strips, no measuring involved. Come on, that'd be too hard!

Then, double-knotted the ends together and repeated this process on all sides.

Easy, right?!?!?

Super-duper, cozy-comfy, easy-peasy fleece blanket!

Way cool trick for making ice...

My mother-in-law is such a wonderfully awesome lady. She is always amazing me with everything she does, and this trick is all thanks to her. (more on her awesomeness in a future post, I'm sure)
She was hosting a going away party for her son and was expecting upwards of 50 guests. I was helping her with her preparations when I saw her pull out some yogurt containers from her freezer. What does she have up her sleeve this time? I thought to myself. Lo and behold, she had made some gigantic ice cubes for her 5-gallon water jugs! Genius right?
Just fill these babies almost all the way full, freeze overnight, then dunk the container in some warm water so your ice will wiggle out into the water jug.
Now you have ice cold water without emptying your ice cube tray or spending money on a bag of ice.  Say whaaaat? I know, I have the coolest MIL on the planet. 'Nuf said. :)
Now you'll never throw away another yogurt- or sour cream- or cottage cheese- or cool whip container again! I apologize in advance to the hubbys out there who will start finding piles of containers in their kitchen. It's my fault.

Taco Pizza, a family favorite!

We love us some very Americanized Mexican food around here, and Taco Pizza is definitely one of our favorites!

Isn't your mouth watering just looking at that scrumptious pizza???
Here's what you'll need:
2 cans refrigerated croissants
1 lb. hamburger
8 oz. cream cheese
1 sm. tub sour cream
1-2 cups shredded cheese
toppings: lettuce, tomatoes, olives, green onions, peppers, etc.

On a cookie sheet, lay out flat all the croissants, stretching to the edges of the {ungreased} cookie sheet. Bake according to package directions.
While that is baking, brown and season your hamburger, and whisk together the cream cheese and sour cream. After pizza crust is out of the oven, let it cool for about 5 minutes, then spread cream mixture over top. Add hamburger, sprinkle with cheese and any other desired toppings. Voila! Delicious, easy taco pizza!