Sizes and Strawberry Picking

Caleb has been working on measurement in school this week. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) he has two little sisters to help him.

On Thursday, we had fun strawberry picking with our home school group.

Happy Easter

The girls' dresses arrived in the mail yesterday around 1:00 pm. Just in time for me to get them washed, dried, and ironed! Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Easter Egg Hunting

Yesterday morning I took the kids to a yard sale/carnival. They got to bounce, have doughnuts, play games to win prizes, and see Grammy who was selling stuff at the yard sale. Meanwhile, Dave stayed home and "hid" the Easter eggs.

Here they are looking for eggs.


And opening the eggs to see what was inside.

Happy Birthday, Grandmother

My grandmother (who I am pretty sure will never read this blog post) celebrated her birthday yesterday. The kids made her cards. Caleb's had monkeys on it, and Alexa's had princesses.

And then we had dinner with them at their assisted living home. Jordanna warmed up to Granddaddy and shared her toys with him.

Haircut!

Menu Plan Monday

Tonight - Grilled picante BBQ chicken, corn on the cob (the small frozen ones, Alexa ate 3), Caesar salad, garlic bread

Tuesday - Chicken quesadillas, carrots, fruit

Wednesday - Pizza pasta, bread, salad

Thursday - Eating at the retirement home for my grandmother's birthday

Friday - Homemade pizza

Saturday - ?

Sunday - Ham, potatoes, eggs, green beans, rolls, maybe a salad, orange creamsicle pie

Mommy's Helpers

Alexa helping me babysit
Jordanna and Alexa "mopping" the front entryway
And Jordanna checking to see what's on sale this week

Jordanna Cuteness

Cookie Baking

Caleb and Alexa have liked helping me bake cookies for quite awhile.

But now I have a third cute helper as well.

Naked Baby

Jordanna LOVES running around without clothes on. Though technically, I suppose she's not naked since she has a very cute cloth diaper on.

Alexa the Problem Solver

This was Alexa's solution to wanting to wear a hat that was at the top of the closet. Until Dave stopped her at least. She also builds a similar tower in front of her closet when she wants to wear a dress like the one you can see in the bottom corner of this picture.

Daddy and His Girls

Back to Work

We enjoyed our Spring Break, but it was back to work for us this week. Here's Caleb working on the first page of his 1st grade phonics book,
Alexa doing a puzzle,
and Jordanna keeping busy in the playroom (once I finally distracted her from Caleb's pencil).

Family Movie Night

Okay, I'm going to try to get caught up on blog posts from the last week, which I apparently decided to take off from blogging. Anyway, Alexa and I went to see the new Disney movie Tangled over Christmas break. It was really cute, so I preordered from Amazon, which means it arrived the day it released. We watched it that weekend while enjoying homemade pizza for dinner.
And later my helpers and I made some popcorn.

Spring Break!

And I have not take even one picture. But here's what I've been up to:
-shopping both by myself and with Molly and Alexa
-reading lots
-lying in the hammock
-a bit of laundry and cleaning
-having friends over for lunch (and tomorrow for dinner)
-going out to eat
-procrastinating about all the research papers I have to grade
-doing lesson plans for school (I still need to do lesson plans for Caleb for next week)
-watching movies and TV (Tangled on Friday and Little Fockers last night)
-driving Dave crazy (at least it's mutual)

The kids have been busy
-playing outside
-reading books
-playing with Dave's old Construx
-playing with friends
-making a mess of my house
-eating me out of house and home

It's been a nice, relaxing week so far, and it's been wonderful to have a break.

Menu Plan Monday

Tonight - Easy chicken picatta (bumped from last week), egg noodles, roasted broccoli, rolls

Tuesday - Tortilla soup, chips, veggies and dip

Wednesday - Hamburgers and hotdogs, fruit, macaroni and cheese, corn

Thursday - Steak, sauteed red potatoes, salad, rolls

Friday - Bacon strata, cinnamon apples, tater tots

Saturday - Steak N' Shake

Sunday- Ham, green beans, potato casserole, rolls

March 2011 Books Read

28) Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliott - for school
29) Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah - good book, set around the fall of Leningrad
30) Daniel’s Gift by Barbara Freethy - I read a few, okay a lot, of her books this month. They are quick, easy reads with good story lines but are not entirely clean so read at your own risk.
31) Rachael Ray’s Look + Cook
32) Uncharted by Angela Hunt - weird!
33) Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
34) John Adams by David McCullough - for school
35) Ryan’s Return by Barbara Freethy
36) Some Kind of Wonderful by Barbara Freethy
37) Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - read this one to Caleb
38) Golden Lies by Barbara Freethy
39) Brass Ring by Diane Chamberlain
40) Just the Way You Are by Barbara Freethy
41) The Duggars: 20 and Counting by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar - I needed a nonfiction book after all the novels I have read lately.

From My Kitchen: Spinach Calzones

I wasn't sure how well spinach calzones would go over with my crew. Since they gobbled up spinach dip when we went out to dinner for Dave's birthday, I thought I'd try. And everyone ate them!

I started making dinner when this cutie came in to "take my order." You can't see very well, but she has about 10 hair clips in her hair.
So, I started mixing up the filling for the calzones. I adapted 2 different recipes I found online.
Meanwhile, Alexa brought my dinner - a carrot, a french fry, and a hot dog.
And the finished product. I served them with marinara sauce for dipping and a salad.