He's a big boy now

My little man went off to preschool on Tuesday.

I wasn't sure he was going to go. He had been wishy washy about it for several days.

At times he was really excited and then there were times he would say he didn't want to go.

Tuesday morning came and he was SO excited. He got to take his teddy bear with him for a teddy bear picnic.

Here he is so big and handsome getting ready to go.

He walked right in, found his basket and put his stuff in it.

He took off into the classroom with no time to hug his momma.

His teacher caught him and had him go wash his hands. (A requirement for all students when they enter the class)

I was able to snag him for a quick hug, but he didn't really have time.

Then he was off to find his spot with his new friends.

When we picked him up that afternoon he was wore slap out. Finally someone wore that boy out!

 He is your typical male. He didn't want to share a whole lot of details about his day at first. I think he needed time to decompress.

 As the day went on he began to share details of his first day. He had a great time. He loved music class; which was no surprise. He told us they took their bears with them and sang "We're going on a bear hunt"

We are so blessed to have Mrs. H as his teacher. Sissy had her last year as well. She was a Kindergarten teacher for 25 years at a local school. She retired two years ago and is now teaching preK. Funny thing is she was my cousin's 2nd grade teacher back in the day.

WFMW - Kraft Food and Family Magazine (Giveaway)

UPDATE: Congratulations to Buffie. She won the 2 yr subscription to Kraft Food and Family Magazine! Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

I love love love this magazine. Kraft foods and family magazine.

Most recipe magazines have a bunch of what we call "froo, froo" food recipes in them. They have recipes that you have to have special ingredients that you can't get at your local grocery store.  Or they have recipes that require A LOT of prep time.

But not Kraft Food and Family Magazine. Oh no! This is a quarterly magazine put out by Kraft foods. They have yummy, easy everyday recipes. Recipes with ingredients that you probably have right now in your pantry. Recipes that your kids will more than likely eat. Their recipes are easy to follow. It's very bright and colorful. They offer great tips, tricks and ideas about cooking throughout. There are usually some coupons tucked in the middle of the magazine as well. I have been subscribing to this magazine for several years now. I always find something that I like in every edition. They also have a free digital version you can sign up for.

You can go here to sign up and start receiving your own copy of Kraft Food and Family Magazine.

Or you can leave me a comment and I am going to giveaway one (1) 2 - year subscription to one lucky blessed reader. Along with that subscription Kraft is including a free Best-Loved Recipes Cookbook. Please leave me an email address to contact you to get the necessary information to get the magazine to you. This giveaway will close at 8:00 p.m. CT on Thursday. Winner will be notified shortly thereafter.


Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Kraft foods or any of their affiliates. I am not getting paid to talk about, offer this giveaway or in any other way advertise for Kraft. I just love this magazine and want to bless someone else. Any questions, contact me.

Now go join We are THAT family for some great organizing tips.

Menu Plan Monday 8/31 - 9/4

With homeschooling and all that entails we are trying to be very purposeful with eating meals at home. If I don't have a plan then we don't do very well.

Here's what our Menu looks like for the week.

Monday: Velveeta Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice

Tuesday: Chili (made by handsome hubby and oh so yummy!!!)

Wednesday: Roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. I make this in the crockpot. I throw it all in in the morning and it's ready at dinner time. We usually do something in the crockpot on Wednesday's because of church.

Thursday: Smothered Chicken with brown rice with green beans and spinach

Friday: Velveeta Tex Mex beef and potatoes I chose this so that I can use the other 1/2 lb of my velveeta that I will be using in my recipe on Monday.

Three out of five of my recipes this week come from a free magazine that I get. I will be telling you about it on Wednesday in my What Works for Me post. So come back and see me on Wednesday and learn we I get all these yummy recipes from!

Until then head over to the Organizing Junkie and check out what everyone else is eating this week. I know I found a few new recipes that you will probably be seeing on my menu in the upcoming weeks!

Have a blessed week!

Smothered Chicken with brown rice

Ingredients:
4 slices Bacon, chopped
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
4 large carrots (1 lb.), thinly sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided
2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
3 cups hot cooked brown rice

Cook and stir bacon in large nonstick skillet on medium heat 5 min. or until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet; drain on paper towels. Discard drippings from skillet.
ADD chicken to skillet; cook 5 to 6 min. on each side or until golden brown on both sides and done (165ºF). Transfer chicken to plate; cover to keep warm. Add vegetables and 1/2 cup broth to skillet; cover and simmer 10 min. or until vegetables are tender.
STIR in broth and Neufchatel; cook, uncovered, 2 min. or until Neufchatel is melted and sauce is thickened, stirring frequently. Return chicken to skillet; cook 2 min. or until heated through. Spoon rice onto serving plate; top with chicken, sauce and bacon.

Homeschool - Week One

We had a great first week of  homeschooling. The A Beka curriculum that we chose teaches them to write in cursive. So far this week we have learned the letter I and the letter U. She has done really well with those two letters, and I know she will getter better and better as we continue to practice. That's not to say there weren't a few tears shed. There may have even been a few I can't do it and but momma's spoken. Momma gave her the "we're not quitters" pep talk and dried the tears. She rallied and kept at it and wound up doing pretty good on those cursive letters.

We have been doubling up on some lessons because of our upcoming vacation in September. Which is why we covered two letters in one week. This will allow us to be on vacation and not have to worry about getting behind. We will be taking our flashcards and such to keep progressing though.

Here are some pictures from this past week.

 

This is our official first day of kindergarten photo. She even put shoes on, which I told her she didn't have to. 

Here we are working at the kitchen table. This is where we started the week out. 

Here she is at her desk we wound up and purchased Tuesday night. She made the letter I out of pretzels. 

We decided to buy a small desk because our kitchen table has benches and not chairs. After her and I sat there for two hours with no back support and her little legs hanging down it became difficult to be comfortable and still for both of us. We picked up this little desk at Big Lots for $25. Can't beat that!

Overall we had a great first week and looking forward to next week! 

Flowers, Ducks and a Wedding dress

First I started the weekend off with a cupcake bouquet for a friends mom. I was really excited because I got to use my new airbrush machine my hubby just bought me for my birthday.

This was a dozen white cupcakes with vanilla butter cream icing. I arranged them in this bowl to look like a bouquet of flowers.

I added tissue paper under the cupcakes to give it that bouquet look. I also tied some ribbon around the bowl to fancy it up a little.

Next up was a baby shower cake for a friend. The shower theme was ducky. I searched all over looking for an idea and couldn't really find anything that just jumped out at me. Wilton has the 3-D duck pan. All the pictures of the cakes made with that pan I didn't really care for.

I hate doing the star tip on a cake to make an image or cover a cake. It give my hand major cramps. So I steer away from that if at all possible. So instead of using the duck pan to make a cake out of, I used half of the pan and made a chocolate mold out it.

I used pre-colored yellow chocolate melts. I melted them down, poured them in half the pan and stuck in refrigerator to harden. Then I just popped it out and painted on the eye and bill with more pre-colored melted chocolate. You can actually do it in stages where you put in the white for the eye, and orange for the bill and stick in fridge and let that harden. Then pour the yellow in on top of that and let that layer harden and it all pops out together, it's just that I forgot to do that. :o) So, I opted for painting it on, then smoothed it with my gloved finger. The chocolate will soften from the heat of your hand and will allow you to smooth it out.

The cake was a 12 in. chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream icing. Around the bottom is a piece of yellow grosgrain ribbon. I think he turned out adorable!

And, last but not least was a wedding shower cake for our Children's Minister and his fiance at church. This was again a 12 in. chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream icing. The wedding dress and bouquet are made from fondant. There are also tiny edible pearls adorning the dress and bouquet. She loved it so much, it made her tear up.

That's all I got for now!

WFMW - Target Dollar Spot

Since we are homeschooling now I am always on the look out for good teacher aids. I happened upon this goldmine at the Target Dollar spot a couple of weeks ago.

These are all kinds of flashcards, from your basic mathematics flashcards to USA Landmark flashcards. There were phonic, science, and animal flashcards. Also at the top of the picture next to the clock is a alphabet bingo game and a math bingo game. There was so much more stuff that I didn't purchase.

I have decided the two shelves I cleared out on my bookcase are not going to be enough room for homeschool goodies. I know all of you veteran home schooler's are chuckling at me. But, that's ok...I'm learning!

Target Dollar Spot works for me! Now go check out what works for everyone else at We are THAT family!