Pasta Strainer Fun!

Last night I pulled out the pasta strainer, pipe cleaners and beads to have some motor skills fun with Connor. I had pinned the idea on Pinterest MONTHS ago and thought "what the heck" last night when we were getting bored with cars and blocks.

From the moment Connor saw the pasta strainer he called it a hat (an actually tried talking me into wearing it into work this morning). His eyes lit up bigger when I pulled out the pipe cleaners. I showed him what to do and he did well. He wouldn't bend it over and do the other side BUT he'll get there. Once I saw the pipe cleaners sticking out the top I ran got the left over beads that daycare sent home from a project he was working on. I showed him the idea of putting them on the pipe cleaners and he went to town before getting distracted by Nick Jr.

Workin it

What?! Nick Jr is on?!?!!

"Its mah hat mommy!"

The Winter Wonderland Getaway

Kevin and I had ourselves a getaway this weekend with friends. It was a cold snowy getaway but that is just how Kevin likes them! I love to getaway on a beach and relax with my toes in the sand. Kevin likes to getaway and relax with his toes strapped to a snowboard.

I guess the good things about these differences is.... I don't mind resting by a roaring fire and watching the snow come down outside and Kevin doesn't mind enjoying a fruity beverage while reading on the beach under an umbrella.

Kevin headed up to The Woodlands in WV on Thursday morning with our dog captain. I stayed behind to pack our toddler and ALLLLLLLLLLLL his things to go spend the weekend with his Pop and Nan. Its amazing how much stuff I still had to send for him even with him being a toddler instead of an infant.

The plan for the weekend was to ride up with my friend and her boyfriend and meet Kevin up at the cabin. Them, along with other friends, would go skiing and snowboarding while I relaxed and enjoyed the quiet on Saturday. We would then pack ourselves up and head home on Sunday.

We didn't get to The Woodlands until just before or after 11pm. The snow was coming down harder and thicker as we ventured further and further through Western MD into WV. We had to make a few stops along the way for tortilla shells (I left the original I bought in my car!) and much needed beer and wine.

We arrived and unpacked then enjoyed movies, a fire in the fireplace and good conversation. I found that it was 2am I and was still awake, enjoying a beverage and not worried about having to get up and when our son was waking up.

Saturday morning fast approached and we had ourselves a VERY yummy breakfast brought to us by Pinterest. My friend prepped very delicious oatmeal in the crock pot and I made a breakfast casserole when I woke up. It was a great hearty breakfast to get our skiing friends off to a great start.

The skiers packed up and rolled out to Seven Springs, PA for some snowboarding and skiing. Other friends packed up and headed out for some errand running and hopes of cross country skiing. Me... what did I do you ask? Well I started off with a nap and movie watching, then I woke up ate lunch, baked a double batch of brownies while enjoying another movie, took the dogs for a walk in the snow, read, watched the snow fall, watched another movie while prepping dinner and then made dinner when I heard the skiers were on their way back home. It was perfect. Quiet. Relaxing. Perfect.

The endless driveway....

Walking the dogs in lots of snow!

Almost back to the cabin!

"Baby it's cold outside...."

I must say... we ate well that night. For dinner I made Creamy Chicken Enchiladas with Taco flavored rice. YUMMY! And for dessert of course... we had brownies.

Our yummy dinner!

Bedtime came a lot sooner than it did the night before. Kevin was tired from snowboarding the previous 3 days in a row and well... I was tired from relaxing.

It was really nice to get away but also nice to come home to our super cute toddler! We got so much snow over the weekend at The Woodlands but coming home there was no snow to be found! I've gotten my snow fix in a very wonderful way!

This Week on Pinterest!

I actually completed 3 things on my Pinterest boards this week. I'm so proud! Ha!

Let's start with the yummy stuff!

Last week the grocery store had blueberries on sale and I picked up two tubs of them. Well... Friday rolled around and I needed to something with them or they would be going bad soon. Sooo.... I got on Pinterest and looked up Blueberry Muffin recipes. Once I found one that I liked I went with it. I also added some chopped up strawberries and vanilla extract (I add vanilla extract to everything....). They were sooooooooooooooooooooooo yummy! Gone in pretty much two days! Gone so fast that I forgot to take a picture. Ooops!

Now onto crafts....

Weather Chart! Now I know Connor is a little young to be caring about the weather but I saw a weather chart on Pinterest a while back ago and my girlfriend also made one for her daughter that is about 4 months older than Connor a while back ago too and I thought it was neat. I figure each morning (if I remember) I can update what the weather will be and talk about it as we get our hats and coats on before walking out the door. Either way... it turned out cute!

Each Season and Weather Type is laminated and has a magnet on the back.
It sticks right to Connor's dry erase art easel.

Dress Up Snowman! I found a snowman printout on Pinterest a while back ago and with the snow/ice that came our way this weekend I thought it would be fun to color him, cut him up and turn him into a dress up magnet for the easel. Only problem I had was Connor was not interested in coloring at all. He colored a little bit of the snowman but then left the rest up to me. Once colored, I laminated the page, cut out the pieces and then slapped some magnets onto the back of the pieces. Voila! We have ourselves a fun snowman to play with and draw pictures around.

Dressed up the Snowman and
drawing the background

Extra snowman pieces

I run back to my craft room and came back out to finding Connor was tasting the dry erase crayons.....

So that's what happened this week! Looking forward to more crafting and cooking!!

This Week on Pinterest!

Again I only created one new thing from Pinterest this week. Sigh.... There is just SO much to do this holiday season. I'm going to be getting my baking on in the next coming weeks and I'll be using some of my pins left and right!

On Wednesday I did another croissant recipe. I made Pepperoni Rolls. It was simple and yummy. I made them because Kevin wasn't home for dinner so it was just me and Connor. I served them up with a side of sliced apples. Mmmmm....

This is the picture from Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/pin/251779435387309212/

This Week on Pinterest!

I haven't done much doing on my Pinterest lately BUT I've been doing a lot of pinning! I'm hoping to be back to the doing part over the next couple of weeks with Christmas crafts.

The one Pin I did do this week was Chocolate and Peanut Butter filled Crescent Rolls. One of my very best friends, Lindsey, was coming over for a visit so I decided make a yummy treat for us while we got caught up with life.

I really really enjoyed these. They were simple and fast to make and tasted great. A glass of milk would have made them simply PERFECT! Sooo if you looking for a little something sweet that's easy to make for yourself or a  friend, try it out!

This Week on Pinterest!

I started this week off trying one of my "For The Home" pins. It says to take a magnetic strip and place it in an area in your bathroom and attach your bobby pins to it. I did it... and its ok. BUT when I go to take one off my fingers bump other and then they fall off. NOT COOL. Soooo I think I'm going to get a small bowl with a magnet in it. This way all of them will gather together and I don't have to worry about them spilling.

Image from Pinterest

NOW FOR FOOD...

On Monday we were going to meet at a friends house for a Halloween get together Potluck event. My problem was it started right after work and I needed to have something prepared. I went to my Pinterest boards and found Chicken Fajitas in a crockpot. YUM! They turned out great and it was very easy to make!

Tuesday I made Spicy Honey Chicken. I didn't have all the spices she was requesting but I made something similar. THEY ROCKED. It was great grilling too because the weather was nice and cool.

The spices I used.

On Wednesday I blogged about how two of my friends came over and we made Snickerdoodle muffins. THEY WERE TO DIE FOR! VERY YUMMY!

Friday I made foil wrapped bacon ranch potatoes and tossed them on the grill with some Italian sausage. These were also a winner.

My potatoes... mmm... soooo good.

Saturday I made Hawaiian Chicken in the crock pot. My family found it funny because my father is in Hawaii for work right now. It turned out ok. Kevin and I agreed that the sauce was a little strong.

Theroy was good but I'm going to have to adjust it.

This morning I made Apple Sauce Pancakes. They were pretty good. I added All Spice, Ginger and extra Cinnamon to it and I'm glad I did... they would have been bland. I made Connor a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake...

Now for the crafts.....

I blogged earlier in the week that we have a Thankful Zone in our house. The idea came from this pin.

Gobble Gobble!

Repeats...
This week I also remade the Red Velvet Hot Chocolate to go with the Snickerdoodle Muffins and the sliced potatoes to go with dinner on Tuesday.

This week on Pinterest!

This week in Pinterest!!

Lets start off with the Pumpkin Carving!! On Monday I carved our two smaller pumpkins. I carved one that looked like a vampire and one that looked like a cat. I got the cat idea from Pinterest. It looked simple and cute... IT WAS. LOVE IT.

This afternoon Connor and I carved the bigger pumpkin and used cookie cutters to make the shapes. On Pinterest it shows to use a rubber mallet but I used our crab mallet and it worked! We used the star shaped cookie cutters to make a starry sky on the pumpkin.

Ew Mommy... This looks gross.....

Helping mommy bang in the cookie cutters

Finished Product

This week we also made some Halloween crafts. On Thursday evening Connor and I made paper plate ghosts and then I made some mummy bars!

The paper plate ghosts were super easy. You just glue some black construction paper eyes and mouths on to the plate and then tape white crape paper to the back! Connor ran around with the streamers behind him yelling, "Oooooooooo Ooooooooooooo Oooooooooo"

The mummy bars were really simple too. I bought Hershey Bars, wrapped them in white crape paper and then glued googly eyes onto the front. Everyone at the office LOVED them.

Can you tell which one Connor made? :)

Mummy Bars! We're watching you!!!

I did some cooking/baking this week from Pinterest as well. On Monday I made Sliced Baked Potatoes. You slice them real thin but not all the way to the bottom. Drizzle olive oil, butter and salt/pepper on them, then wrap them in aluminum foil and bake! Super easy and very yummy. Next time I'm going to get inventive with the seasonings.

It was yummy with our London Broil and Veggies.

For Saturday's lunch it tried out the wonton mozzarella sticks. The description said baked not fried but then the actual recipe was to fry it. I tried baking them and they were just ok. I'm now looking at other mozzarella stick recipes.

Tonight for dinner we had Spaghetti Squash Lasagna. Now.... for the last year and a half Kevin and I have been eating Spaghetti Squash in place of pasta. We LOVE it and I highly recommend trying it out. This was a little involved because I had to bake the squash, cook the meat and then put it all together and bake it BUT it was WORTH IT! Yummy yummy!!!

SUPER YUM!

Not sure what Pinning items will be accomplished this week... I'm looking at moving towards some Thanksgiving crafts and yummy desserts right now!

This Week on Pinterest....

Sunday's are going to be my Pinterest Posts! This week I did a lot of what I found I've been "Pinning" lately.

Earlier in the week I blogged about how I got crafty can created Leaf Creatures and a laminated fold-up travel mat for Connor to play with when we're out and about.

This weekend I have been kicking some Pinterest butt and cooking/baking my butt off!

On Friday I remade the Mini Deep Dish Pizza's that I made about two weeks ago. They were still just as yummy.

I started on Saturday by cooking making Cheese Cauliflower Pancakes to go with our steaks for dinner. These were a tad disappointing. It was very involved to make these while trying to watch the steak on the grill and then they caused me a bunch of grief by not sticking together. After all was said and done they only tasted ok. Nothing spectacular. I deleted the pin.

For dessert last night I made Red Velvet Hot Chocolate. Can you say, "OH MY GOD"?!!! It was Ahhhh-mazing! It was the most work I've ever had to do for hot chocolate but well worth it in the end. It was a piece of heaven! Instead of little marshmellows on the top I sprinkled chocolate chips. Nom nom nom.....

My Red Velvet Hot Chocolate... Mmmmm

NEXT I steamed sweet potatoes and mashed them to prep for Sunday morning's breakfast. This morning I took the mashed sweet potatoes and made Sweet Potato Pancakes! I found the recipe Sweet Potato Waffles but we don't have a waffle iron so I adjusted the recipe and made pancakes! They were sooooo good and Connor tore them up too!

In preparation for this week's breakfast I decided to try another recipe. I found on Pinterest, Mini Frittatas. I sampled a little piece that came out of the oven and they were yummy too. I'll follow up with these once I've actually ate a whole one. BUT it was really simple to throw together and toss in the oven. I put orange and green peppers, mexican cheese and bacon bits in them. Mmmm.

Ready for this week's breakfast!

THEN....(I did a lot of cooking and baking!) I made a Chicken and Broccoli Casserole. It was a type of casserole that you make your own sauce instead of using a cream of soup. It was yummy but involved. Something that would have to be saved for a weekend and not a week night. I also left out the last step of pouring melted butter with poppy seeds over the top. I left out the butter part because there is already a stick of butter in the sauce and I left out the poppy seeds because I couldn't find them at the grocery store so I used black pepper instead. STILL YUMMY!

This afternoon Connor and I played a sensory game I "pinned" on Pinterest as well. I hid the foam alphabet pieces of a puzzle we had in a shoe box of corn flakes. He had to move around the flakes, find the pieces and then I helped him figure out where the fit. HE LOVED IT. We played the game about 6 times today. I used Corn Flakes because we have a huge box of them sitting on top of the fridge and its taking FOREVER to go through them. I figured using them for the game wouldn't hurt. PLUS we could munch on them as we played.

Enjoying the great outdoors while playing a sensory game.

Sooooo that was my Pinterest week in a nutshell. Most weeks probably won't be this involved (especially this week... I'm studying for midterms) but I hope to accomplish at least one "pinned" item a week!

Soooo I Bought A Laminator...

Backstory....
I pretty much still have every children book that I had when I was a kid. They are now in Connor's room on his book shelf. Some of these books went through two children before me and some of them have my mom's scribbles in them. Some of these books have seen better days and are out of print. I have been trying to find a way to preserve some of them without re-buying them (lots of $$$$$$ due to being out of print).

Connor especially LOVES Stop That Ball by Mike McClintlock and from what I've seen its out of print. I was kinda bummed about it. UNTIL... I found an awesome idea on the blog I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here. It gives you step by step instructions for laminating older books and making them more durable. AWESOME!!

My next thought was... Well... ok... where does one find a laminator?! Are they expensive? They MUST be...

I emailed my friend who I knew recently bought one and asked her if I could borrow her's or did she mind telling me where she bought hers/how much was it. I came to find out that they sell them on Amazon (duh!! they sell EVERYTHING at Amazon). AND it was reasonably priced. My Laminator

My lamintor was delivered on Saturday.


Fast Forward to Last Night....

FINALLY! I had some downtime... I took some of the farm animal coloring sheets that Connor and I used during "Farm Animal Theme Week" and laminated them to put the together as a flip book. My thoughts:
WOW! COOL! OOOOOOO AHHHHHH!

Next I searched laminated projects on Pinterest..... WOW! Lots of awesome cool learning projects came up for Connor. I spent the next 1/2 hour to 45min "pinning" ideas.


THEN.... after doing some homework for my online class I ventured upstairs to work on a project that I had found.  I made a laminated fold up travel play mat. It was so easy!

Now I'm planning out my next projects.... A weather board for Connor, a mini cookbook for a coworker, mini "quiet books" for Connor.... its new awesome crafty idea <--- aka... new addiction/obsession to feed my Pinterest addiction/obsession... YIPES! Help me! :)

Any other ideas? Are you going to run out and buy a laminator now?

Pin It!

My new addiction (thanks to Christine at Inspired Life) is Pinterest!

LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

I've always hated flagging things as favorites or bookmarking something in a web browser. Unless I name the favorite/bookmark something ingenious I can never remember why I saved the links that I did. With Pinterest you "pin" a picture of whatever is on the link to a board on your account. Its a visual bookmark! Woot!

When you log onto Pinterest you have all your boards in front of you for with a preview of your pins!

Example...

You can see that I have started a Halloween board as I'm looking online for costume ideas for Connor they are all in one place AND I have a visual what is on the link. After the Halloween board is the Bathroom Redesign board because we are in the middle of repainting and designing our bathroom. As I'm looking for ideas and inspiration I "pin" it! It really makes organizing ideas online visually fantastic!

When you click on your board you can see all the pins that are attached to the board:

If you were to click on one of the images it takes you to the link that it is associated. Soooo if decided to order Connor that super cute dragon costume... I'd know exactly which one to click on rather than clicking through 50 bookmarks trying to figure out where it is.

You can also follow your friends or other people if you like what they are pinning. If you see something someone pinned you can re-pin it to your boards. You can also comment and "like" someoneelse's pin. AND of course... it links to Facebook and Twitter.

Check out Pinterest!