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Friday, February 17, 2012

Valentine Activities with the Ferrell Boys


I had several Valentine activities planned for the boys leading up to the actual Valentine's Day.

I haven't posted any pictures about our activities because we stay so busy and I didn't want to use my time blogging about the acitivites and MISS the actual fun of doing the activities with my sweet boys.

We live on a tight budget so I had to be creative with our fun!

I found some cute Valentine frame kits at the Dollar Tree.  A great bargain because there were 3 foam frames in each package.


All three boys enjoyed this Valentine craft.  


Shane really enjoyed the glue!



Look at Alex's concentration.


Zach and Alex each made two frames.    



Here are their finished frames:


Zach's Frames

Alex's Frames

Shane's Frames.  I told you he loved the glue!

 We had fun together for a couple of nights addressing our Valentines . . .




Zach had fun valentines that you could turn into paper airplanes.


Alex had to cut his valentines to separate them.







 . . . and making our Valentine treat bags for their classmates.




       Alex picked out dinosaur Valentines . . . .  Will he ever outgrow dinosaurs?


All three of the boys put their Valentine treat bags together without my help . . .


         Well maybe not all three of the boys . . . Shane did need some help. :)


We had a lot of fun and it was great not having to do it all by myself.


 Here are our cute Valentine treat bags finished:




























We decorated brown paper bags with foam Valentine hearts . . .




The Valentine Countdown Calendar was a lot of trouble to implement, but it was so worth it!  We had a lot of fun together as a family, and the boys really looked forward to each day's activity.  Now I'm wondering what we'll do for Easter! Ha!

Have a great weekend and keep your eyes on the lookout for  . . .

the Ferrell boys and me!


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Week of February 13th - Menu Planning Monday



This is a busy week for the Ferrells . . . We have Valentine's Day Parties to plan for and cook for . . . We have the Beauty and Beau Pageant coming up on Friday . . .

So I have to plan with these activities in mind.

Monday:

Crockpot Creamy Italian Chicken
Pasta
Garlic Bread

Tuesday/Valentine's Day:

Grilled Chicken Tenders with Grillmates marinade
Baked Potato (in the crockpot)
Macaroni & Cheese
Green Bean Bundles
Rolls

Wednesday:

Taco Soup (Robin King's recipe-I'll post later)
Cornbread

Thursday:

Pork Tenderloin (slow-cooked in oven and finished on the grill)
Sweet Potatoes
Steamed Broccoli
Rolls

Friday/Beauty & Beau:

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
Cole Slaw
Ice Cream Sundaes!

Weekend Menu:

Pending :)

On Monday night, I have to make Valentine cupcakes for Shane's class party, Little Smokies in BBQ sauce for Zach's class party, and . . . I haven't decided what I'm going to make for Alex's class party.

I want to do something special for Dave on Valentine's Day . . . so I'm thinking about making him a special heart-shaped cheesecake!  If Michelle will please send me her cheesecake recipe!

Friday night Alex will be in our school's Beauty and Beau pageant so I want to fix something easy in the crockpot (because we will be at the pageant) and special (because Alex is so special to me) for supper that night.  We could eat out after the pageant, but the past two years we have gone out to eat after the pageant, and it has been soooo busy at all the restaurants in town!  So not worth that hassle!  So I'm making something special for supper and ending it with ice cream sundaes! 

I'm behind in posting our Valentine Countdown activities.  Mostly because we've been so busy here at the farm!  I'll try to catch up on those posts in the next couple of days.  We've had a lot of fun together . . . although I did get behind on the activities!  Zach and Alex are insisting that I make up any activity we missed so we'll be doing fun stuff together even after Valentine's Day is over!

Hope y'all are having a great weekend and have a fun week planned!  I know we do!

Happy Valentine's Day from

                       the Ferrell boys and me!

Monday, February 6, 2012

A Super-Duper Super Bowl Party


For our Valentine activity on Sunday, I had planned something that was a little less about Valentine's and a lot more about fun!


Dave had to work Sunday so we didn't have any plans for Super Bowl Sunday.  :(

I decided that the Ferrell boys and I would have our own Super Bowl Party together and make the most of it . . . even without sweet Dave . . .

I invited Laycee and her two sweet girls to come over for the party.  Her sweet hubby had to work also so it was just us "single" moms and little ones at the party.

I raided my freezer for kid-friendly appetizers.  Laycee styled the table and made it very festive with football items that I had around the house.


I made pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, chips & dip, BBQ meatballs, and little smokies . . . very kid-friendly food!   The only thing I bought for the party was the chips and dip!   Everything else came out of the freezer!  I even used my double crockpot!  Fun!


The children played together all night . . . hide & seek, tag, video games . . . you name it . . . they played it!  Laycee and I watched the game and visited.  Such a fun night!


The food was ready right at the beginning of the half-time show so we all got together and started fixing our plates.  Shane is still being difficult about getting his picture taken!


We all watched Madonna and enjoyed our Super Bowl cuisine!  It was a special treat for the Ferrell boys because I relaxed my rule about not eating in the living room.


Alex is mesmerized by Madonna!

Jacey getting comfortable on the floor.
Laycee brought Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream for dessert with hot fudge, hot caramel, and strawberry toppings!  Yum! 

After dessert, the children continued to play . . . Shane and Kaylee dressed up as Super Heros . . .

Captain America and Black Spiderman :)
Laycee and I cheered for our team . . . Yea Eli!    I mean . . . Way to go Giants!

It was a great time, but it was really hard to get up this morning!  Maybe a party is not a good idea on a Sunday night ?!?

Hope your team won at the Super Bowl  . . . and you had a party to go to  . . . even if it was a small party  . . . with close friends and your kids . . .  like it was for Laycee, Jacey, Kaylee  . . . and . . .

                        the Ferrell boys and me!



Week of February 6th - Menu Planning Monday



I'm not in a cooking mood this week.  I don't know what's up with that . . . so I'm doing some good ole stand-by meals for this week. 

Monday:

DiGiorno Pizza  (on sale @ grocery)

Tuesday:

Crockpot Roast & Gravy
Rice
Carrots

Wednesday:

Chicken Fajitas
Rice

Thursday:

Grilled Chicken Tenders
Loaded Potato Casserole (Betty Crocker Box/Mix)
Broccoli
Macaroni & Cheese

Friday:

Pizza with Homemade Pizza Dough

Weekend Menu:       Pending :)

I'm looking forward to an easy week of suppers for

                   the Ferrell boys and me!



Saturday -- Valentine Fun!


I woke up Saturday morning and went to my Weight Watchers meeting.  I have been going to WW on Monday mornings after teaching my business law class, but I was always getting there too late to participate in the meeting.  The meetings are important I think to the whole WW program, so I've decided to try going on Saturday mornings instead.

Okay.  I officially LOVE the Saturday morning WW meetings!  Why, you ask?

I stepped on the Magic WW scales on Saturday . . . and I had lost 4.8 pounds!  That makes 16.2 pounds total since I started Weight Watchers at the beginning of the year.  The leaders at the meeting were so great and supportive . . . and jealous!  :)  (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating)

But of course, I know the secret to weight loss that those skinny WW leaders don't know. . . Fat people lose weight faster in the beginning than skinny people.  It's just not as hard for a fat person to drop 3 or 4 pounds in the beginning of weight loss, while a skinny person has a more difficult time dropping 3 or 4 pounds. 

Of course, that is just my opinion from years of experience of losing and gaining weight.  Not a scientifically proven fact.  I know that the more I lose, the harder it's going to be to lose even 1 pound. . . but I'm rejoicing in the weight loss victories here in the beginning!

After WW, I picked up Zach from his spend-the-night birthday party.  They had stayed up until 4 o'clock in the morning!  He was ill and exhausted and just plain miserable to be around . . . so when I checked on him later that afternoon, I found this:

















He was worn out after his BIG all-nighter!  After he woke up, he was still a little tired, but he was much easier to be around!

I had planned a fun cooking night with the boys as their Valentine surprise.  Zach loves cinnamon rolls, so I had planned on making the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls with them. 

Well, they weren't interested in helping make the cinnamon rolls!  They wanted to eat the cinnamon rolls, but they didn't want to help make them!  I was kinda disappointed.  Afterall, this was supposed to be their special Valentine activity with me . . .

My original plan for Saturday night was a "camp-out" in the living room with the boys and their sleeping bags, but after Zach's all-nighter on Friday, I didn't think that would be a good idea.  After my initial disappointment in the cinnamon roll surprise, I told Zach that they could camp-out in the living room for their special Valentine activity . . . and he thought that was a great idea!   And . . ."Momma, can we make a tent to sleep in too?"   Well . . . of course!

Here is Zach making the tent for their camp-out in the living room:


Yes, that's my kitchen table and my dining room table in the middle of the living room!  Apparently, you need tables to make a tent for camping-out inside!

Zach draped sheets and blankets around the tables until the whole area was enclosed.


I put the couch pillows on top to keep the sheets in place while Zach arranged the boys' sleeping bags and pillows inside the "tent."


Alex and Zach were both so excited about camping out!  Little Shane had already fallen asleep early in his room, so he missed out on the camping experience.

































The next morning Shane crawled in the "tent" with them  . . .


He wouldn't let me take a picture because he doesn't like the flash.  Sometimes he's such a joy!  Ha!

Sunday morning, I got up early (5:30 a.m.) because Shane woke me up.  I had made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe Saturday night and put the dough in the refrigerator overnight.  Since I was up so early, I decided to go ahead and make the cinnamon rolls to take to church for the boys' Sunday School class.

These were very easy to make . . . And very convenient too since I made the dough the night before . . . The only noteworthy item about the dough. . . It's a sticky dough so when you roll it out, be sure to flour your board generously to make rolling it up easy.


That's my Pampered Chef pastry mat I used to roll the dough out on . . . I love it! 

Here are the cinnamon rolls right out of the oven:


And wait . . . .Here they are after pouring the icing on them:


Aaahhh!  Soooo Gooood!  I did alter the icing recipe.  I didn't have maple flavoring so I used Vanilla flavoring, and I didn't add the coffee.  I didn't have any coffee to add. :)

They were still soooo good.  Very very sweet stuff!  That pan represents 1/2 the recipe!

So even though my original plan to have a fun baking night with the Ferrell boys fell through . . . we still had a great night together and yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning!

Flexibility is key with . . .

                                 the Ferrell boys and me!



Thursday, February 2, 2012

Day 2: Make & Decorate Valentine Boxes


When Alex woke up this morning, the first thing he did was come into the kitchen to check on the Valentine Countdown Calendar . . . to see if there was anything in the little heart marked #2.



We waited until after all their homework was completed and supper had been consumed before we started on the Valentine boxes.  I cheated a little and bought the boxes at the Dollar Tree.  I had initially considered decorating shoe boxes like I did as a child, but decided to use the ones at the dollar store instead. . . so much easier for this Valentine Fairy!  :)



Stickers came with the boxes . . . I bought some glitter glue sticks too . . .






The finished Valentine boxes were beautiful.  Zach said that his was like abstract art . . .

From left to right:  Alex's Box, Zach's Box, and Shane's Box


Reverse side of Zach's Box

Reverse side of Alex's Box
Some beautiful stuff to this Momma . . .  A beautiful night of fun for . . .

                           me and the Ferrell boys!


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Valentine Kick-Off Breakfast -- So Much Fun!


Last night, after the Ferrell boys had FINALLY gone to sleep . . . Dave and I decorated the breakfast area.


I need some red or pink placemats . . . and some red hots or conversation hearts for the candle centerpiece . . . and another chair . . .

But other than those little issues, I think the table was very Valentiny for the surprise Valentine breakfast.

Dave helped me hang the Valentine Countdown Calendar that I had made earlier in the day.   We draped it around the breakfast window . . . I need curtains for the breakfast window. . .


I raided my craft supplies and found some foam sheets in Valentine colors that I used to make the hearts for the calendar.


I cut out a large heart and a small heart . . . 14 of each . . . and hot glued the smaller heart on top of the larger heart.  I put the glue in a "V" shape at the bottom of the small heart and left the top of the small heart open to make a pocket.


I used my Cricut to cut out white vinyl numbers to stick on the hearts for countdown days.


And then I attached the hearts in numerical order with clothespins to the wired heart garland I got at the Dollar Tree.  This project cost me $1 to make since I had all the supplies already except for the wired heart garland.


I think the breakfast area looked really cute and Valentiny (is that a word?) when Dave & I were finished.  

This morning Dave and I got up a little earlier than normal to get everything ready for the boys' surprise Valentine Kick-Off Breakfast

Dave made the heart-shaped bacon . . .


while I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the pats of butter . . .


Dave cooked the pancakes while I fixed the boys' drinks.  I put red food coloring in their milk to dye it pink!  We used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the pancakes.

When Zach walked into the kitchen . . . he was soooo confused! 

What is going on ?!?

As you can see . . . He loved it!


Zach doesn't like milk so I squirted red food coloring in his orange juice which made it a bright pink!  Totally freaked him out at first until I told him it was his normal OJ!

Alex was also thrilled with the surprise breakfast  . . .


Shane wasn't very cooperative this morning . . . He wouldn't let me get a picture of him!


Now isn't he just precious . . . Ha!


I thought the breakfast turned out very cute . . . and I didn't buy anything for it.  We already had the bacon, sausage, and pancake mix . . . and the Valentine plates and napkins too  . . .


Wonder what fun Valentine activity or treat is waiting for

                                me and the Ferrell boys tomorrow . . .