Wordless Wednesdays

A Cowabunga Party!

As I've mentioned before, our oldest child turned 4 last month. For months now, he has been borderline obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). It all started when Mr. Fix-it found one of his super old (read: sometime in the 90's) TMNT movies and let Buddy watch it. He was hooked!

Our house has been infiltrated with turtles since then. Buddy lives & breathes Ninja Turtles. And it just so happened that Nickelodeon created a new cartoon TMNT series last Fall so our DVR has been recording those bad boys every since. Buddy has pretty much been wearing this outfit for the past 6 months, as well.

Anyway, it came as no surprise that Buddy requested a TMNT themed 4th birthday party. Now, birthdays are kind of a big deal in our house which I realize is not the case in every family. I grew up with my Mom making a pretty big deal out of all our birthdays and even now as an adult, I feel like your birthday should be recognized as a national holiday. And I'm only half kidding. Just ask Mr. Fix-it. :)

So I tend to spend the few months leading up to each of my children's birthdays scouring the Internet for ideas based on their theme of choice. Of course, given their ages, Mommy has been the one picking their birthday themes so far. When Buddy chose Ninja Turtles as his theme, I realized what a challenge I would have before me. You see, party stores didn't carry a ton of TMNT stuff like they did other party themes like Dora, (ugh, that girl is literally everywhere. She's even on Corky's pull-ups.) Sesame Street, Sponge Bob, etc. There were some basic party items at Target but I was having a hard time finding party favors, balloons, and for goodness sake NONE of our grocery stores carried a Ninja Turtle cake. I mean, seriously?

Plus, Mr. Fix-it has me on these birthday party budgets. It's waaayyy too easy to go overboard on birthday parties and I may or may not have gone overboard a time or two before, which was fine when we had 2 incomes, but not now. So I set out to find as many do-it-yourself ideas as possible for Buddy's party. Plus, it's always more fun to be original anyway. (and I was NOT going to pay $10 for a Mylar Ninja Turtle balloon off Amazon which is the only place I could find the stinkin' balloons to match his theme)

So alas, here are some pictures of his party. Which by the way, I should add that it was a monsoon that weekend and I'm literally surprised we didn't wash away. Also, I am grateful we chose a local INDOOR play place to host his party rather than having 20 kids running in and out of the mud at my house. Though, because of the monsoon, it appeared that everyone and their brother decided to have their birthdays at the same play place. On the same day. At the same time. So that was super fun.

You live and learn.

I had a great time planning the party. The kids all had fun playing & celebrating Buddy's birthday. Now only if the weather had cooperated. Oh well. :)

Buddy helped me make these. And we stayed up well past midnight, but it was a lot of fun. Funny thing about these cookies is that we got so busy at the party that we didn't even set them out on the food table. Oops!

I found these cute little party favor boxes on Etsy. They personalized the sticker for me so that they would look like little pizza boxes. Because everyone knows the Ninja Turtles totally love pizza. dudes! :)

This is a sugar cookie I made, covered in red frosting, with shaved white chocolate as the "cheese." (I used a block of baking white chocolate and just grated it on a regular cheese grater) The toppings are red hots & green gummy bears made to look like pepperonis & green peppers. We gave these out as favors.

 

 

TMNT cupcakes!

We used dollar buckets from Target & painted them to look like the turtles. Then we used them for chips at the party. He was pretty proud of those buckets and still uses them in the playroom now.


 

Since I wasn't about to spend $10 per balloon on Amazon, I decided to make our own. I just used crepe paper, white & black construction paper to look like eyes, and I just drew on the mouths. But the sad thing is, these balloons totally deflated in the car while waiting for our party room to be ready. (the humidity from the monsoon) so I couldn't even use them. Ugh, all that hard work!


 

 

 

Weekend Recap: Teething & Tirades

Apparently, there are allergies or a cold going around my house, can't seem to figure out which one it is. The three youngest kiddos have come down with the green nose, coughing, irritable plague. I think I have wiped a runny nose no less than seventy-five times this weekend. Ah, the joys.

Mr. Fix-it had to work pretty much all weekend, as well. No surprise there. (poor Mr. Fix-it, and poor Mommy!) So our weekend plans were thwarted by that and the green nose epidemic going around. But all in all, we're bound to find excitement somehow, nevertheless.

Saturday morning, Corky decided she needed to wear her favorite outfit for the second day in a row. She didn't care that it was in her dirty clothes hamper and hadn't been washed yet. She didn't care that she had just worn it the day before. And she didn't even care that there were white toothpaste stains on the back of it. (speaking of which, how does one get toothpaste stains on the back of their shirt??) This Mommy has learned to pick her battles.

Corky-1, Mommy-0.

I may or may not have also taken her to the grocery store with me in this dirty, toothpaste stained outfit. Mom of the year award here! :)

Now, I am having a bit of an issue with THIS little boy. Don't let this sleeping beauty fool you, he has REFUSED to nap for more than 10 minutes during the day for about a week now and this weekend was no exception. Now, I know he has a bit of a cold (or something) but good grief, doesn't he know you're suppose to sleep when you don't feel well?

 

I had to capture this moment in history. He was asleep without being in my arms. This lasted 8.2 minutes

I am also blaming it on the fact that he is teething. Within the past week, Baby CJ has grown two of his bottom teeth. Now, I've been through teething a time or two four but I don't think any of my other kiddos have gotten their teeth so early. In fact, I distinctly remember thinking that Corky was going to have to get baby dentures because she would be toothless forever! Her first tooth popped up around 11 months finally and she kept that only tooth for several more months before the others began to arrive. But Baby CJ is only four months old! Sheesh! Regardless, he's going to have to learn to man up pretty soon and DEAL because this no napping thing is for the birds! ;-)

In other Baby CJ news, Mr. Fix-it decided he wanted to give him his first bowl of rice cereal Saturday evening. Now there's one thing you should know about Mr. Fix-it and that is that he doesn't prefer the "baby" stages. I swear he starts these kids on a "Learn to Walk/Potty Train/Talk Boot Camp" as soon as they exit the womb. His favorite stage is when he can run around and play with them in the backyard. So he's been itching to give Baby CJ a bowl of cereal for a while now and I finally obliged.

Mr. Fix-it - 1, Mommy-0 (are you noticing a pattern here, people? I clearly do not wear the pants in this family! HA)

The picture in the middle of him grimacing sooo reminds me of the look Mr. Fix-it gives me when I cook something new and unusual for dinner. hehe

I must admit that the child LOVED it once he got the hang of it and literally sucked it down.

We did manage to escape the house for a quick outing to give Mommy a sanity break allow the kids to burn off some energy. It always makes for a better naptime experience when these four are worn slap out! :)







Hope you all had a great weekend! Check back tomorrow when I'll be sharing some pics from Buddy's Ninja Turtle birthday party last month!

Foodie Fridays: Tilapia with Garlic Cream Sauce & Asparagus

In an effort not to bore you with only stories of my crazy kiddos (though, I am sure I could fill a book with those!) I thought I would dedicate one day of the week to some of my tried & true recipe staples.

It's no mystery that I love food. I may not be athletic or coordinated and although I've tried, I just can't sew. I'm totally not crafty, can't sing or play an instrument...but man, do I love to cook, bake, and try new recipes. It's a trial & error process in my kitchen and on Fridays I'll share some of the recipes we've grown to love in our family.

Lately, because of Mission Lose Baby Weight I have been trying to stick to mostly clean-eating recipes. I say mostly clean rather loosely because, let's be honest, I have 4 little kids and one VERY picky husband. So I do what I can to cook as clean and as lean as they will allow me to without grumbling too much & threatening to order pizza instead. :)

Today's Foodie Friday recipe is a tried & true crock pot recipe that has Mr. Fix-It's stamp of approval. And that's saying a lot, actually. Granted, he does love fish and this is one of the easiest fish recipes I have found so far. It's a go-to staple in our home. (and the kiddos love it, too) 

Here are the ingredients: (bare with me here, I am no Pioneer Woman and my photos are quick shots with my phone while my kids scream "Mah-MEE" in the background)

Tilapia with Garlic Cream Sauce & Asparagus

To begin, mince 2 garlic cloves (or more, we tend to like garlic around our house...wards off all those vampires) and mix the minced garlic with 1/2 cup Mayo (we use the kind with Olive Oil and to be honest, I probably use closer to a cup of the stuff because Mr. Fix-It loves an extra helping of the garlic cream sauce) 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. 

(note: fresh lemons would work best but when you're in a pinch and running to the grocery store would literally mean 2 kids fighting over the front seat of the buggy, 1 squealer in the back, 1 baby on your hip drooling, and 3 meltdowns over candy in the check-out lane, then please feel free to make do with bottled lemon juice. No judgements here!) 

Your mixture should look like this:

Trust me, it tastes WAY better than it looks!

Next, take your frozen tilapia fillet and place it on a large piece of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Chop a bundle of asparagus into bite-size pieces and place a handful of asparagus on top of each tilapia fillet. Like this:

I buy a bag of frozen tilapia and just use them as needed. Typically for this recipe, I use 3 total fillets and we split them amongst ourselves. :)

Then, you take the garlic cream sauce as shown in the bowl above and dollop it on top of the tilapia & asparagus like so...

This is Mr. Fix-It's portion, and he tends to like it heavy on the garlic cream sauce. (I go a little bit lighter for me and the kiddos)

Then you fold up the edges of the foil to make packets and place them in the crock pot on the Low setting for about 4-6 hours. Or whenever your fish is flaky & done.

It's totally okay to stack them on top of each other. Mr. Fix-It likes his fish only lightly cooked so his goes on top.

This is truly our favorite way to eat tilapia and it's just so easy, which makes this busy Mama very happy! I would typically serve this with brown rice and rolls. Because no dinner is complete in Mr. Fix-It's eyes without some type of bread. ;) Here is the link to the full recipe. Hope you try it!

Tilapia with Garlic Cream Sauce & Asparagus (Crockin' Girls)

Bon Appetite!

Thursday Thoughts

I once read a blog that featured a "Monday Mind Dump." The blogger shared some of her random thoughts every Monday. It was hysterical to read and I often could relate to many of her mindful musings.

So I thought I'd create my own "Thursday Thoughts" to essentially do the same thing, dump my daily thoughts. Now, when you're home alone all day with a houseful of small kiddos, you tend to store a lot of random thoughts. Mr. Fix-it is a good listener (most of the time) but he's not always interested in hearing all of the rabbit trails my mind runs after in the span of a day. My blog gets to be my listening ear now. :)

So here's my thoughts for this Thursday. 

1. I wonder why fitted sheets are so darn hard to fold? And why Mr. Fix-it seems to always fold them better than me. What is up with that?
 

2. I wonder why my kids are obsessed with my drawer of plastic Tupperware type bowls? I mean, they have a crap ton of toys. What is so appealing about a bunch of mismatched bowls with lids? And why do they do THIS to them?

Boys will be boys!

3. I wonder why Baby CJ is an excellent nighttime sleeper but is a terrible napper throughout the day? This is how he likes to nap, with my hand on him and in his bouncy chair. Doesn't this kid know I need to get stuff done around here? :) 

This is how he likes to nap.

4. I wonder if you can buy stock in wet wipes? Because we sure do go through an awful lot of them around this house. Not just for diaper changes either, but for cleaning just about all sorts of things, wiping runny noses, cleaning up spit-up, I even use them for dusting....when I do dust, that is. Please reference the above picture for why I do not dust very often. :) 

 

5. I wonder why kids' TV channels are allowed to air ridiculous "as seen on TV" commercials for worthless products that WILL appeal to kids and then show those commercials at least twenty dozen times in the span of one Ultimate Spider Man cartoon? Because then the kids will beg, and plead, and twist our arms. Then we parents end up buying said worthless products like this: 

 

Let me just assure you that this ice cream shaker maker whatever you call it does NOT produce yummy ice cream after simply 3 minutes of shaking! I think I have carpel tunnel after shaking 3 of these stupid gadgets all night. And we still ended up with mush! 

It's all about the memories though, right? ;) 

Wordless Wednesdays

Weekend Recap: Memorial Day Weekend

Weekends are usually very much anticipated in our home because typically weekends mean more time with Mr. Fix-It. Buddy counts down the days during the week and gets extra excited when "Friday" is here because that means Daddy can wake him up the next morning.

Mommy gets just as excited about Friday getting here, too. Because that means an extra pair of hands to help out around the house AND some much needed adult companionship. It can get a wee bit lonely around here during the week when the only person to talk to is just about waist high.

But alas, Saturday morning arrived and Mr. Fix-It was called into work. Story of our lives lately. But before he left, he went into Buddy's room to wake him up (rather early, I might add) so that he could fulfill his promise of being there to wake him up on Saturday morning. Then off he scooted to work. Which left me with a very tired & whiny four-year old in my bed an hour earlier then he would normally wake up. Thanks, Mr. Fix-It. :)

Shortly after breakfast was finished, (Honey-Nut Cheerios, the staple of choice in our home) Buddy must have been battling with a guilty conscience because he mumbled something about stealing my eyebrow tweezers the night before and losing them in the grass. What???

Yes, so apparently he was trying to juice an orange and needed something sharp to pierce the orange. My eyebrow tweezers came to mind evidently and he managed to finagle them out of our bathroom upstairs and outside into the backyard before we noticed he was missing, where he then must of dropped them in the grass and lost sight of them. Yet, he didn't bother mentioning any of this until the following morning. So this is how we spent the next couple of hours on our Saturday morning...

kinds reminds me of the movie, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"

 

We never did find those tweezers. Even Mr. Fix-It came home and looked for them after he mowed the grass. No sign of the tweezers anywhere. So I apologize in advance for my bushy, misshapen, caterpillar eyebrows until I find time to run to Target and buy another pair. :-/ I told Buddy I was deducting the cost from his ice cream man fund.

Sunday was busy as usual with church, lunch, naps, errands, etc. Have you ever tried to get four small kids up, ready, and out the door for church on time while also fixing your own hair, putting on make-up and wearing something other than yoga pants? It's quite the task! Thankfully, Mr. Fix-It was home for the rest of the holiday weekend after his impromptu call to work on Saturday was finished.

Monday was a much-needed day of rest & relaxation. Well, sort of. I mean, it's not like the days of sleeping in, watching TV programs all day, catching a movie and going out to eat or anything. Those days are long gone, friends. But we did have some fun enjoying the beautiful weather at a local park & then grilling hamburgers on the grill back at home and even making homemade peanut butter ice cream for dessert. Family days are my favorite! (totally fell off the cleaner eating plan this weekend, though - getting back on track today for sure!) Here are a few of my favorite pics from Memorial Day.

My loves playing in the creek! My gosh, it was COLD!

Boo was having a bad hair day.

Baby CJ zonked out!


 

Hope ya'll had a Happy Memorial Day, as well. As always, we are grateful for the many sacrifices of our soldiers both past & present.