Attempting to be a Super Mom

It's 75 degrees here today!  I'm so excited and I think tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.  My plans were originally to take the kids to the park tomorrow but I don't think that I'll have time for that. Tomorrow afternoon, I have a doctor's appointment, a meeting with HR at my former employer, and it's Water Paint Wednesday for Ben.  I would say that we could cancel the painting for tomorrow, but we didn't get to do Finger Paint Friday last week.  I do like him to get to go outside and run and play, but at the same time, we have to keep up on our regular things as well.  I'm hoping that this weather is here to stay, although I'm not holding my breath.  This is Kansas after all.  Maybe we'll get to spend some time outside this evening.  I've been craving a big, juicy hamburger ever since we had the amazing burgers Saturday night at Shawn's Aunt Kathy's house.  I'm hoping that tonight we might be able to grill some good burge...

Someone asked me for our recipe for this today, so I thought I would post it.  It's very popular and it's a family favorite.  I bring it to all holidays and family events.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of what it looks like. Cheesy Corn Casserole  Ingredients: nocoupons 1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained 1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn 1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix (recommended: Jiffy) 1 cup sour cream 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded Cheddar Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, half of the cheese, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with Cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

The other night, Shawn told me he wanted scalloped potatoes.  I immediately freaked out because this is something I've never cooked before that wasn't a box mix anyway.  I love to cook and take pride in my abilities, but this was something that I thought was a little outside of what I'm capable of.  I told Shawn that I couldn't guarantee they would be eatable but that I would try if he found me a recipe like what he was wanting.  He found a recipe for me on about.com .  Tonight, I tried the recipe with a few of my own adjustments and they actually turned out wonderful! Scalloped Potatoes This picture isn't from my scalloped potatoes, but this is exactly what they looked like.  I just forgot to take a picture of them before we ate them. Ingredients: 4 cups sliced raw potatoes  ( I used Yukon Gold potatoes since those are our favorites) 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion ...

I can't believe it's already Wednesday.  Time is flying by so fast.  Yesterday, Sydney turned 2 weeks old.  Ben is becoming such a little man and a wonderful big brother as well.  I am still having a pretty easy time juggling the two kiddos and all the house work.  I keep waiting for it to get hard.  Even the days when Ben's being a bit of a brat, I'm exhausted from being up all night with Sydney and the kids won't nap aren't that bad.  I've not felt overwhelmed even once.  I love being here with them. Last night was a sad night for our refrigerator art gallery.  We officially ran out of room and had no where to put the H is for House project we did last night.  I had to take A through G down from the fridge.  I'm trying to decide where to put them now because I don't want to take them down yet.  I'd like to keep them up for his learning.  They may go on the kitchen wall...  Stay tuned to see where the art ends up. ...

This week for us is the letter H.  This week was another letter craft that came from Totally Tots . H is for House What you need: Construction paper Scissors Glue Markers 1.  Cut an H out of the construction paper. 2.  Cut a door, 2 windows, and a roof out of another color or colors of construction paper. 3.  Color the letter H. 4.  Glue the door onto one of the bottom sides of the H. 5.  Glue the windows on towards the top of the H. 6.  Glue the roof on the very top of your H. 7.  Glue your H house to another sheet of paper.  This is optional of course, but ours was really flimsy.  We also put a little black dot on the door for a doorknob.

As I mentioned before, I've been making the alphabet out of craft foam for Ben as we go along with each letter of the week.  This week we've been working on the letter G with the exception of our little time out for St. Patrick's day crafts.  He likes to play with the letters and eventually after he really learns what the letters sound like and whatnot, we might be able to spell out small words with them as well.  Here's what we have so far: (They are not the neatest, but they were the best I could do...) As I mentioned yesterday, Ben really loves the letters and asked me yesterday to do shapes for him as well.  I made these for him and maybe as we learn more, I'll make him more. Last night, at Michaels, we bought finger paints.  Ben had so much fun with watercolors that I was excited for him to try the finger paints.  We tried them today for the first time.  It didn't turn out to be as messy as I was thinking or ...

We are on day number 2 of Shawn at work and me home with both kids.  So far, everything has been great.  I imagine as Sydney grows and becomes more active, things will get more challenging and difficult, but for now, it's been fun and not really any harder than before she was born. Today, Ben and I worked on his letter G coloring sheets.  Tomorrow, we'll play our alphabet matching game, that I added the G to today.  Ben also decided that since I've been making him his letters out of the craft foam, so he can play with them and not have to worry about tearing them as easily, he wanted shapes as well.  I started them today and tomorrow I hope to finish them.  I'll take pictures of those tomorrow. I thought I also needed to include pictures of Ben and Sydney on the couch today.   Today, Ben did one of the funniest things.  I know, I'm starting to sound like one o...

So we've had a great day.  I don't know why I was so worried about Shawn's first day back at work.  Last night however, was not as pleasant.  While we were sleeping, Ben accidentally head butted my nose.  It's nice and bruised and swollen now.  Oh how it hurts.  Ok, enough of my complaining. I dressed my kiddos in their green outfits for St. Patrick's Day nice and early and decided I'd better take their pictures ASAP.  We all know young children have a tendency to ruin their clothing pretty quickly especially if you are wanting to take their picture or the clothing to last all day. Here's the kiddos decked out in their St. Patrick's Day green: Ben colored his St. Patrick's Day coloring sheets.  We also did a few crafts today.  The first one was a rainbow with pom poms. We also wanted to do this craft that I saw here on Ramblings of a Crazy Woman .  Ben had other plans.  He decided that he just wanted to paint in ...

This evening we went to Walmart to search for St. Patrick's day clothing for the kiddos and I was completely disappointed in their lack of options.  By options, I mean that I saw t-shirts for boys to big for Ben and nothing for anyone smaller than those shirts, boy or girl.  It was pathetic.  We ended up just getting Ben a green and blue, soccer, jogging suit and Sydney a green and white pair of pants to go with a green and white onsie she already has. I was also looking for paper and pom poms for our craft tomorrow.  I couldn't find the large sized pom poms that included purple or paper for watercolors.  I guess we'll have to do with out the purple pom poms and using regular paper for painting tomorrow.  We have yet to paint.  I think the project I'm going to attempt tomorrow with Ben may be a little bit over his head but that's ok.  I may end up painting for the project and letting him just paint on his own... whatever he wants.  It doesn...

So we took a break last week from the letter of the week to have a baby, but now, we are back with the letter G.  This is letter idea that I got from Totally Tots .  This mom does some really cute and amazing things with her little one and if you haven't stopped by there yet, I highly recommend it. G is for Goat What you need: construction paper scissors glue googly eye markers or crayons 1.  Trace and cut out the letter G from construction paper. 2.  Color the letter G. 3.  Cut out a beard, horns, and ears for your goat.  Remember to fray your beard a little. 4.  Glue the horns on your G. 5.  Glue your ears on the G.  We glued one to the back side and one to the front side. 6.  Glue your beard on the G.  We glued this to the back.  I just thought it looked bette...