Tag Archives: family

Road Trip Fun

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Because traveling with so many people is very expensive, we usually save money on vacation by driving instead of flying. That means that there will be many hours spent in our car and many times the words, “I’m bored,” will be heard and said. I try to make little fun baskets for each child to keep them occupied throughout the drive. I pack one for the drive to our vacation destination and another one for the ride home. I will be posting more about those baskets soon; but wanted to share one of the things that I put in there for now. I made a road trip scavenger hunt.

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Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
1. AL license plate.
2. GA license plate
3. NY license plate
4. IL license plate
5. car with a dog in it.
6. a car with a luggage carrier (not your own)
7. a car with the driver eating
8. roadkill
9. a Coke truck
10. a police officer
11. a state trooper
12. a car with a passenger asleep (not your own)
13. a lake
14. a historic marker
15. a bridge
16. a university or college
17. a liquor store sign
18. a Baptist church
19. a Catholic church
20. a school
21. a billboard for a lawyer
22. a swimming pool
23. a pizza delivery car
24. a sign about God or Hell
25. a car with someone singing in it
26. a park
27. a construction worker
28. a car with a stick figure family
29. a car with an honor student sticker
30. a car with a political sticker
31. a car with “wash me” written on it
32. a boat
33. a shoe or other clothing item on or beside the road
34. a no U-turn sign
35. a cemetery
36. a fireworks store
37. a car with a person drinking Starbucks
38. a Porsche
39. a Grayline or tour bus
40. a truck with some kind of livestock
41. a Frito Lay truck
42. a U-Haul
43. a tree with Spanish moss
44. a car with a HH sticker
45. a hospital

Whoever finishes first wins a little extra prize that I keep up front.

Feel free to copy and paste my little game and use it on your own road trip.

 

May the 4th be with you Breakfast Dinner

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My girls really enjoy Star Wars. After I had the baby boy, they went over to my niece’s house and they watched all of the episodes over the course of a couple of weeks. I think they genuinely enjoyed the movies; but they also have that special feeling of being cared for to go with them. Since The Force Awakens came out, I think they have become even bigger fans.  May the 4th was just naturally a day I wanted to do something fun. I looked over Pinterest for ideas. I wished I had gotten an earlier start because I saw lots of cute ideas that needed cookie cutters and other equipment that I just didn’t have on hand.

We ended up with breakfast for dinner. This is not unusual. We usually do this once a week on our more hectic nights.

The eggs were the Twin Suns.

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Cinnamon rolls were naturally Leia’s Buns.

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We had bacon and hashbrowns, which were a pretty terrible looking  “Chewbaccon”. At least we got a good laugh out of it!

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The sausage links were Light Sabers.

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I made Yoda Soda which was basically just a lime sherbet float.

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I made Chewy cookies from Little Debbie Star Crunch cookies and added candy eyes and a frosting mouth and nose. I got that idea from Pinterest.

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I purchased Star Wars plates and napkins. I also got some Star Wars fruit snacks for little treats. The children all thought everything turned out really cute and I think they love a themed dinner as much as I do.

I made all the signs and the framed “May the Fourth Be With You” sign using DaFont’s Star Jedi font.

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Next, Cinco de Mayo!!

Celebrating Earth Day

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The kiddos woke up to an Earth Day breakfast. I thought that Earth pancakes sounded so cute. image

They were not the hit I’d hoped they would be. Only one of my children would even try them. Good thing I knew that was going to be the most probable outcome and made the rest of the batch normal.

Later, we read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and the two little girls did a couple of worksheets pertaining to the book.

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After some school work, we made seed paper out of old catalogs. We tore paper into about 2 to 3 inch pieces and put them into a blender filled about halfway with water. After blending, we took the pulp outside and used an old screen to press out the excess water and mold them into shapes. Then we added marigold and hollyhock seeds. We plan on giving these away once they dry.

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We even had a Lorax themed dinner and an “earthy” dessert.

I got the coloring sheet printable from Dawn Nicole Designs. Olivia loves to color and after we read The Lorax, she was so excited to color and frame her work.

I made bow tie pasta (the Lorax’s mustache) with broccoli (truffala trees) with homemade low carb Alfredo sauce with Keto fried chicken. For dessert, the kids used chocolate pudding, smashed Oreos, and gummy worms to make their “earthy” dessert.

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I hope you had a nice Earth day too.

April Fool’s Day Dinner

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My kiddos love a good prank. April Fool’s Day has been one of their favorite days as long as I can remember. We usually try to do at least one thing to make the day memorable. Last year I fooled them into thinking they were eating an undercooked lasagna, when it was actually a yummy dessert. This year, I pulled off a Crazy April Fool’s Day Dinner which was actually breakfast for dinner. It definitely takes some advance preparation and quite a bit of work (at least with as many people as we have in our family) to pull it off, but it is so fun! I’ve done a dinner menu like this before and I feel like breakfast items are a lot easier. I used the basic idea and the menu course printables from Dixie Delights. I made some changes, but the general idea came from her site.

To do this, I gave my family a menu of 16 items with funny names. They also had 4 different menu course sheets. On each sheet they had to put four items that they wanted for that course. Each item has to be picked once so that all items are ultimately chosen. They had to pick for all of their courses before I even started cooking; because I didn’t want to give them any hints with the smells in the kitchen.

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I had one more trick up my sleeve. Number 9 was the CAFD Special. It looked like an egg, but was really just whipped cream and an apricot.

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I pulled out a few Christmas plates to serve this. I also found some “Welcome to 2000” napkins that had never been opened in my party stash. We used those as the Mini Magic Carpet.

Overall, we had lots of laughs. April Fool’s Day is just another good excuse to have a little fun together.

I printed out my menu using Waltograph font from DaFont 

Crazy April Fool’s Day Disney Dinner

1. Mickey Mouse                                         9. CAFD Special
2. Gaston’s Tavern Treat                          10. Pluto’s Dinner
3. Dinoco Motor Oil                                    11. Merida’s Hair
4. Sugar Rush Icing component             12. Elsa’s Bad Day
5. White Rabbit’s Tale                                13. Rafiki’s Staff
6. Three Little Pigs                                       14. Cruella’s Hair
7. Capt. Hook’s Plank                                 15. Dinglehopper
8. Mike Wazowski                                      16. Mini Magic Carpet

 

Here’s the real deal menu:

  1. Mickey Mouse waffle
  2. Cinnamon Roll
  3. Syrup
  4. Powdered Sugar
  5. Whipped Cream
  6. Sausage
  7. Bacon
  8. Egg
  9. Apricot in whipped cream
  10. cereal
  11. orange juice
  12. ice
  13. straw
  14. salt and pepper
  15. fork
  16. napkin

Easter 2016

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Easter was filled with activities and fun. We made our traditional Resurrection rolls. We dyed eggs. We went to Easter service. We had two egg hunts. We had two Easter feasts.

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Resurrection Rolls:

They will be empty (like the tomb) once they are baked. Take Grands flaky biscuits and half. Put a marshmallow in the center and pinch dough around it. Dip the biscuits in butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar. Bake until lightly browned.

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Dying Eggs: We just take packets of regular Kool Aid, add a little water and dip the eggs. No vinegar or anything. It is so quick and easy!!

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We ordered the Easter meal from The Fresh Market and we were so pleased with it!

It included ham, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, broccoli slaw, and yeast rolls. All we had to make ourselves was the deviled eggs, baked beans, and dessert.

We had a lovely day!

Frozen Birthday Party

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Two years ago when Frozen was all the rage, we had a party for my two youngest girls. Their birthdays are only one week apart and so far, they always agree on the theme. We sent out custom invitations with their pictures on them. I like to do this whenever I can, so we have a memory of the theme of their party and what they looked like at that time.

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We made Snow Capped Mountain punch. It was just blue Hawaiian punch, Sprite, and Vanilla ice cream.

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We had snowballs on a different table (powdered sugar doughnut holes), the standard chicken salad and croissants, chips and dip, a fruit tray (not shown), cheese tray (not shown), Swedish meatballs, tuna salad, and two Scandinavian jellies.220

Finding the Frozen decorations was no problem, but finding the snow themed items was a lot harder due to the fact their birthdays are in the middle of the summer. My crafty daughter made many huge snowflakes. I was able to purchase several items on Oriental Trading.

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We made the Frozen tree from sticks we found in our yard. We spray painted them silver and added icicle ornaments from Amazon.

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Once everyone arrived, we played our unwrapping game. Basically a gift is wrapped in many layers and hot potato style it gets passed and unwrapped until the person actually gets the prize. I use all the plastic bags I have on hand at the time. It makes a lot of layers. The gift was an artificial snow making kit. It was a hit!

The kids made Olaf out of jelly beans, powdered doughnuts, mini chocolate chips, multi colored Twizzlers, and pretzel sticks.

We had a game outside where I had a bucket of ice water and items hidden inside. They had 30 seconds to grab as many items as possible. It was hilarious to watch because it was so hard to do.

There was another game where each person got an ice cube and they raced to melt it as fast as they could on a plate but they could not use their hands.

We also played trivia with facts about the movie .

                                                         “Frozen” Movie Trivia

  1. What is the name of the snowman who guards Elsa’s ice palace? (A) Marshmallow (B) Icy (C) Cold Heart
  2.  What other Disney princess is attending the coronation?
  3. Idina Menzel, voice of Elsa, is in what other Disney film?

                   (A) The Princess Diaries (B) Enchanted (C) Brave 

4. What is Anna and Elsa’s favorite food?

  1. Which Hans Christian Andersen story is Frozen inspired by? (A) The Angel (B) Ice Maiden (C) Snow Queen

6. Which of the following is NOT an ingredient for the icy force described in the song ” Frozen Heart”? (A) cold (B) winter air (C) freezing wind (D) mountain rain

7. Which character in the film comes up with the line, “I like warm hugs.”?

8. What is the name of the software that Frozen’s creative team invented to create realistic looking snow? (A) Matterhorn (B) Ice Palace (C) Blizzard (D) Everest

9.How many brothers does Hans of the Southern Isles have?

10. What time do Anna and Hans break into their song “Love Is An Open Door”?

11. A stuffed toy version of which famous Disney character makes a very brief cameo in the film? (A) Donald Duck (B) Goofy (C) Pluto (D) Mickey Mouse

12. Where does Elsa create her Ice Palace? (A) South Pole (B) Southern Mountain (C) North Mountain

13. Which animals serve as backup dancers to Olaf when he sings “Summer” (A) penguins (B) chipmunks (C) seagulls (D) squirrels

14. Who convinces Kristoff  to go back and help Arendelle?

15. When was Kristoff adopted and by whom?

 

I don’t have a picture of it, but we did make snow cones as well. It was messy and required more than two adults. 236234235

 

237 We had the movie playing while the party was going on.

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The cake was one of the easiest I made in a long time. It was just three layers with buttercream icing. I decorated it with the snow looking sprinkles, rock candy lollipops (from Oriental Trading) and the figurines I purchased at the Disney Store.

I wish I had a picture of what we did to Prince Hans. We stuck him upside down in a cup of water and froze him solid. We brought him out before we had the cake and the kids thought it was the funniest thing ever!

We had a nice party. I wish I had more pictures. Now that I’m writing this little blog, I hope to do better with that kind of thing.

 

 

 

Daddy Daughter Dance

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One of the things all of my girls have enjoyed is the annual Daddy Daughter dance our church hosts. (I don’t have any pictures on my current computer of my oldest daughter when she was going to these dances; but she went from kindergarten through fifth grade.)

Sometimes they are themed, like 50s or 80s, or even a cowboy theme, but many years they are just a dressy occasion.

No matter what theme, the best part of the night is getting to spend special time with their daddy. They love getting dressed up and having him see them and telling them how beautiful they look. They love riding in his car. They love receiving the little gift he always gives them before they head out to the dance. He loves taking them.

I’m so happy that they all get to spend these special evenings together.

 

Lent

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Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season. Easter is probably my favorite holiday. I love the meaning of it the most. It has gotten more and more commercialized over the years but has seemed to stay purer in some ways. I think the reason is Lent. I think that for many people, the time of reflection, sacrifice, and prayer leads to this fact. We don’t come up with lists of things we want or feel the pressures to fulfill somebody’s every desire. We don’t have a thousand parties or activities to attend. We tend to be stiller and more reflective during the 46 days leading up to Easter.

I have always tried to make this time one that really draws my family to the Lord. I want them to really think on what it means to be THAT LOVED. I want them to think about what it means to have owed a debt and the fact that someone thought they were WORTH THE PRICE.

This year, we are doing something extra. Right now, I have about 30 activities (I need 10 more) that we will do each day. Some are the simplest little things, like hold the door open for someone, make a dinner with everyone helping, and try not to complain all day (that might actually be the hardest one). Some require more work. One is “egging“. We “egged” several people last year and we loved doing it and the people that we “egged” loved it too.

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Others are making a dinner for someone and making resurrection eggs.

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photo credit: Christianbook.com

If anybody out there has some suggestions or other ideas of things to fill the rest of my days, I’m ready to hear them.

 

Plates on the Wall

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Having lived my whole life in the South, I am shocked that I had never seen plates hung on a wall until I was an adult. Maybe it just didn’t fit in with the shag carpets and orange and green color scheme of the 80s or the huge floral and bright brass touches of the 90s. That’s actually just a guess. I have no idea why I just am getting in on this. I’m frequently late to party when it comes to home decorating.

I saw it in a magazine first, then on one of my favorite blogs (Dixie Delights). I instantly loved the look and with a new house with lots of naked walls I needed plates STAT!

I asked for them for my birthday and nothing happened. Then I asked for them for Christmas from the one person I knew would come through…my sister. She is one heck of a gift-giver. It’s a talent and that girl’s got it! So, I got my plates. I ordered the hangers. I cut out templates of the plates and hung them in different configurations until I found the perfect one and then I was ready to hang them. All I needed now was for my husband to hang them. I waited and waited. For months I waited. I finally took the papers down.

Then I asked the one person I knew who would come and get it done…my niece. She and her wonderful husband arrived ready to hang some plates. He is more meticulous than my husband and I, so it’s probably for the best that we didn’t do the hanging.

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It looks fabulous in my opinion. I love looking at that wall. I love that Baby David always says Tasha and Jason every time he goes into the dining room. I also love that every time I look at it I think about the people who bought them and hung them…my family, the people you can always count on.

Snow Day

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Most of the south is covered in snow. Where we live is no exception. I got up this morning and it was snowing and it hasn’t stopped so far. We have about 9 inches of snow on the ground. This is definitely the most snow most of my children have ever seen. The day is still young, but they have made snow cream and done some sledding. They came in to warm up and now they’re bundled up again and playing outside. This is just the kind of day I like. Everyone is home and everyone is looking for fun and no one expects us anywhere.

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