Homemade Meatballs

This evening the original plan was to make homemade meatballs and the kids were going to help. The recipe makes A LOT, 3 cookie sheets worth of meatballs, which is great for me to freeze them to use another night. Normally I mix it all up and the kids help roll them into balls. Win win, I have help, and they are entertained! The weather was so nice, they ended up playing outside and I didn't want to interrupt so I made them by myself this round. Also a change of plans, I left the room and came back and they started eating them off the cookie sheet. (You can see by the pic there is one already missing.) This is not including the other half eaten sheet. I hope I have enough left to freeze this time! Gotta go eat spaghetti now, before it is all gone!

Meatball / Meatloaf Mix

4 lbs. ground beef
3 cups bread crumbs
6 eggs, beaten
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons dried parsley
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. These are not very salty, since you will serve them with sauce or gravy. Bake in 350 oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through. (Took about 20 min. for mine to cook.)

Playing Outside!

I know everyone is thrilled to be able to get out of the house for a little bit, we are for sure! This past week has consisted of playing on playgrounds at school and at home, riding bikes and even dragging out all of the toys to the backyard. Really, we had 2 buckets full of my little ponies, big horses, race cars and barbies EVERYWHERE! They thought it was fun to load them up in the back of the truck and then dump them in different spots in the yard! I have to admit that it was not fun going around with a flash light looking for all of it later on that evening. The kids enjoyed it though. Nothing like a scavenger hunt looking for toys with a flashlight!



Mason and Caroline probably spent an hour in the back of his truck enjoying their Valentine suckers. Too cute and REALLY STICKY! (Which is why they had to eat them in the yard!)

Caroline riding around after church.

Mason riding around.

Mason and Caroline painting. Mason and Kate had donuts with dad at school last week and they brought picture frames home with them. We thought we would personalize them a little bit more. And Caroline is painting a cross since her class did not do frames. I am not sure how Kate missed out on all of the pictures? Maybe next time!

Our Valentine's Dinner

When you have been married for 10 years and have 3 children going out on Valentine's is not a priority. At least not for us. But I did want the kids to know that today is a fun day for them and for us too! So I took this recipe I found on Kelly's Korner www.kellyskornerblog.com last year for an Enchilada Ring and turned it into a heart! I could not find the recipe today, so I have my version of it below. Anyway, and we ate our supper in the dining room and used our china. The kids loved it and I actually think they behaved much better in that room?! Maybe we should do that more often! Afterwards the kids got ice cream for dessert, which is a huge treat to get ice cream after dinner around our house. Check out their excitement!

Before going in the oven. I took a picture just in case I burnt it!

Chicken Enchilada Ring

2 cups cooked chicken

1/4 cup chopped black olives

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 small can chopped chilies, undrained

1/2 cup sour cream (I used cream cheese 3/4 of the 8oz pkg.)

1 package taco seasoning

2 rolls of crescent rolls

1 small chopped tomato (I used 1/2 a can of petite diced tomatoes.)

1. Chop chicken and add olives, cheese, chilies, sour cream and taco mix. Seed and chop 1 tomato; add to chicken mixture.

2. Unroll crescent dough and separate triangles. Arrange on round baking stone or cookie sheet making a circle (or heart) with wide ends OVERLAPPING in the center and points toward outside. (Spray cookie sheet if needed.) There should be a 5 in. diameter opening in the center.

3. Spread chicken mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle.

4. Bring points of triangles up and over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough at the center of the ring.

Sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake @ 375 for 20-26 minutes. Garnish with tomato and serve with salsa and sour cream.

Crazy family shot

Excited about the ice cream coming her way. (I think she must have had a sample of it b/c that is a choc. chip on her lip!)

Ready for ice cream!!

Yummy!

Babies Taking A Nap

Can you guess which one is the real baby? The other day I turned around and this is what I found in the floor. I think she and Mason had been playing, but this is who I found! They love to drag the changing table pad downstairs to change the babies diapers and they have to use real wipes too. Would not be like the real thing without the wipes right? She said they were taking a nap.

Baby Caroline.

Our Super Bowl Half Time Show

The Corley's came over to our house for the Super Bowl and boiled some yummy shrimp, but the funniest part was the kids during half time. These are not the best pictures, but they were too cute. As soon as it started up all of the kids ran over to the tv to dance dance dance!

Pizza time!

The girls showing their moves.

Dancing Girls!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Daddy and Kate went to the Daddy Daughter Dance in Allen on Saturday night. Such a sweet Daddy to take her and brave the icy driveway! Not the streets so much, just our driveway! (It is on a hill and does not get much sunlight.) I was told that they had a great time. I don't think there was much dancing, at least for Kate. She said that she can't dance that well just yet. Ha! Check out the pics below and you can be the judge. :)
Caroline, Kate and Mason before she leaves for the "ball". Can you tell she felt special?

Daddy with the kids.

Daddy and Kate.

Dressed up girl.

Think we can dance?? We KNOW she can twirl!

Valentine Entertainment Ideas (For Kids)

Since we have has so much snow and ice this past week we had to come up with some entertainment inside and out. We try to not let the kids watch any tv if at all possible. It has helped Mason tremendously with his speech and just overall attitude. Sooo, with removing shows from the options for indoor fun this is just a taste of what we have done!

Anyone remember making "stained glass" at church? Melt crayons between 2 pieces of wax paper with an iron. We made a valentine heart mobile.

Directions:
You have to take the paper off the crayons first, then I just broke up the crayons, the smaller the better.
Layer in order: a towel on the ironing board, wax paper, crayons, wax paper and then another towel on top. Then apply the iron until the crayons melt.
This does take several minutes, but the kids helped peel crayon paper and loved watching the colors melt together.
After it cools, cut it into hearts.
Use a hole punch and string ribbon or yarn through it.
Voila! Your new Valentine decoration!
Would be really neat with frilly fringe instead of a ribbon. I was in shock that we even had red ribbon. I wonder what project that was left over from?!

Our creation.

After playing in the snow hot chocolate is a must. I happened to have heart marshmallows! Perfect!

Play time!

Snow Angels!

Outside fun!

Addressing Valentines for school friends.

Caroline working on her Valentine cards.

Kate's "Personalized" Art

Kate decided that the art work in her room was not personalized enough to meet her standards. She called downstairs to me last week, "Mom, the ballerina painting is mine right?". Which I said "Yes", it has only been in her room for a year! She then told me that she needed her name on it and I told her that was not a good idea. When I went up to make sure everything was ok the damage was already done. The good news is that she used watercolor pens, so I was able to clean it, and that she does know how to write her name just fine!
If you notice to border you will see the purple lines she added and an outline on the shoes.

"Kate"

Painting Again!

For some reason I apparently like to paint when we have snow or ice. I painted Kate's half of the bath yellow when it snowed earlier in the month and stenciled during the ice! I think it is b/c we are actually at home not running out the door. And yes, I know I said I would NEVER stencil again. Never say never right?! You can't see it very well from the pictures, but I thought I would post it anyway. It is a yellow background and pink stencil. Kate now wants me to tackle painting her room pink! Maybe another snow day....
Yellow jack and jill bath.

Pink stencil, can't see it very well due to photo. Also, after I painted the first wall, the background looked light green. Funny how colors change!

Proud Kate showing off her new bath.