Some Summertime Updates

Wow! How time flies! We are in the final countdown of days in the summer! School in only 3 weeks. I just can't believe it.

We've been pretty busy lately, although I can't exactly say where all the time has gone.

On the 4th we went to our friends' house and had a little get together with some yummy food. I brought this cake. It didn't turn out quite the way I would have liked but it still tasted good. I just added a box of vanilla pudding and 1 cup of sour cream to a vanilla cake mix and baked it in a bundt pan. I then melted cool whip and white chocolate chips and then dyed them to make the different colors. It was an alteration to a Kraft Food recipe I saw but it definitely did not LOOK the same. 

I have still been sewing up a storm. Trying to keep my mind off of how uncomfortable I am getting.

Here's another nursing necklace.

A teether.

Some bibs.

And a changing pad that folds compact for the diaper bag. I used some waterproof fabric on the back.

We took Molly to get groomed for the first time. She just got a "puppy cut" but the girl said that she did great. She went prancing around the house like she knew she was a little princess. I'm glad we can see her eyes now, although it's a bit strange to see.

We went to Chuck E Cheese's with some friends and had a lot of fun. There was a few mishaps with the food and the tickets but the manager was very apologetic (and very short staffed) so he provided us with some extra tickets to get some prizes.

Of course my kids are trying to show off their goods.

I'm still trying to find myself some good baby gear deals. Here I scored a Fisher Price baby bouncer/toddler rocker  from a yard sale for $7. They still sell it on Amazon for $50. It's in perfect shape.

The kids went to the public library for the last week of the summer reading program. They scored a free Eeggee and really nice books. We've gotten some awesome prizes including free public pool tickets, an ice cream from Culvers, a kids meal from Raising Cane's, and a nice bookmark that has a light and a timer on it. Very cool in my book.

Elijah gets a Lego Club magazine and they have a contest going on right now to win a Lego Ninjago set if they pick your Lego design. He was supposed to make a Ninjago trophy. I think he did a great job. He's pretty proud of it.

That's all for now.

Lowes Builder

Did you know that Lowes has special classes for kids? My friend, Lauren, told me that they were going to be having Avengers themed projects so I signed the boys up. Unfortunately for Noah and Jonah they were acting up beforehand and were not allowed to go. Elijah had a great time though. They gave him safety goggles and an apron to keep and a hammer to borrow. He had fun putting it together and at the end received a certificate AND a patch to iron on his apron. Super cool. We just need to remember to sign up for the next one!

Puppy pancakes

We have a great place to go to breakfast out here called Mimi's Cafe. We had been there recently for Jake's birthday and Jonah and Noah got puppy pancakes. Well, Jonah just couldn't get enough of them and asked for them the other day. He was just so sweet about it. So we got some to go and I made some eggs and turkey bacon so they could share everything. I had to take a picture so that maybe next time I make pancakes, I can make him some.

What a little cutie.

More sewing

I have been trying to keep my hands busy (to keep me off of my feet) and my mind occupied (to help me battle depression) and so I have more goodies to show off.

Here's another nursing necklace.

Here's a teether toy.

I had a lot of leftover scraps and a towel so I made some bibs.

I also had some PUL fabric in my fabric stash so I made this very basic changing pad. It's actually not padded, but I wanted something that would fold very compact into the diaper bag. Also, when it is rolled up, none of the changing pad bottom touches the area that the baby will be on...and it should (hopefully) be waterproof.

New summer pizza recipe

It's summer time and that means it is HOT here. Of course, making dinner stinks when it's 115 degrees out. I found a great recipe that can definitely be made without making the house an oven. It is for a Chicken Club pizza. The family gave it a very leary glance when I put it in front of them but it turned out to be a dinner that they asked for seconds so I think it's a keeper.

The other day I made 4 balls of pizza dough for the freezer. I grabbed one out and let it rise all day. I then baked it for 10 minutes. I'm sure you are asking how that makes this a heat free dinner. Well, the reason is that you could TOTALLY use a Boboli ready made pizza crust. The crust does not have to be warm to make this. The ingredients also include chopped chicken and bacon. Again, you can use already cooked chicken and bacon OR use the microwave. I originally saw this recipe from Kraft Foods but I tweaked it to my own liking. You can find the original recipe here http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/chicken-club-pizza-123038.aspx

My alterations were the following

-one homemade baked pizza crust on a cookie sheet

-1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

-1/2 cup of ranch dressing

-2 tablespoons of sour cream

-1 large cooked and chopped chicken breast

-8 slices of bacon cooked (could use turkey bacon as well)

-handful of romain lettuce washed, dried, and chopped

-1 diced tomato

Mix mayo, dressing and sour cream and spread onto pizza crust. Cover with toppings of chicken breast, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Enjoy. Super, super yummy. I didn't put the cheese on it...I thought it tasted fine without it. It was quickly gobbled up.