Why I usually don't shop at Albertsons

I have been to Albertsons twice recently, and both times I saved a HUGE amount, 77.43 on the first trip (spent 17.ish) on the second trip I saved 70.07 (spent 38.45). Which makes me realize that my three little bags of groceries without any of the clearance savings would have cost me over $202.00!! When I looked at what I had purchased, no way would I "waste " that much money. ( I mean, who will spend 5.00 for a little bunny shaped aluminum pan??)

I feel totally stocked up on pans for freezer meals, and I have Adam stocked up on drink mixes for work.

Now I'm off to use the clearance splurge; mini muffin pans. Now I can go make some fun muffins for the kid's breakfast. I'm thinking apple-oatmeal-cinnamon.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

1 pkg white or yellow cake mix

1-2 c quick cooking oats

2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t baking powder

3 eggs

1 3/4 c chopped peeled apples (I don't add these, I tried them the first time and the kids spent the whole time trying to pick out all the apples)

1 1/3 c milk

1/4 c melted butter

1/4 c applesauce (if using apples, delete applesauce and increase butter to 1/2 cup)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a well in the center mix all the wet ingredients and then incorporate the wet into the dry.

Spoon into prepared muffin tins

Bake at 350

20-25 min regular muffins

9-11 min for mini muffins

By the way: If you double the recipe and make mini muffins, be prepared for slightly less than six million muffins!

Menu Plan Monday ??

I am so behind this week, I haven't figured out the menu plan for the week-

Today I did the BBQ CrockPot Pork from last weeks menu (I didn't get around to it last week)

I think tomorrow I will do the chicken and brown rice CrockPot that I didn't get to last week.

More later when I get the menu up and running!

Xander in Crayon

I have been scanning in Xander's artwork to add to his blog (if you want access, e-mail me or fill out the contact form and he will "invite" you) and I just loved this self portrait. It's funny to me because he so rarely spikes his hair, but that is how he always draws himself.

Menu Plan Monday #3

Last week I ended up changing the menu a bit, as I remembered I have so much in the freezer that I need to use (the freezer needs to be defrosted). So this week all of the dinner items start with something I have in the freezer or in the cupboards.

Adam is working on Sunday, So an easy dinner is a must for that evening.

MiMi

I finally set aside some time to take MiMi's 1 year portraits, these are a few of my favorites.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny visited us on Saturday morning, which meant for us this year that he arranged everything. The kids were each responsible for putting together a basket for the younger sibling and MiMi "made" one for Xander.

Don't forget Eggs a la Goldenrod:

A few pictures from the egg hunt:

and a quick pic of all the Easter cuteness:

The dresses for the girls are my own version of pillowcase dresses, which of course had to have some sweet bloomers to go underneath.

Menu Plan Monday

Here is what we will be eating this week:

If you have any suggestions for fast tasty breakfasts, let me know. I am having a brain block of things that are fast and somewhat healthy so we are having the same things as last week.

Here is the recipe for the muffins I will make this week:

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins

Source: 101 Things to do with a Cake Mix

1 chocolate-fudge cake mix

1 small box chocolate instant pudding

3/4 c water

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 c applesauce

1/4 c vegetable oil

1/4 t almond or vanilla extract

3/4 c chocolate chips, frozen

Muffin papers

Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper muffin cups. mix together

cake mix, pudding, water, eggs, applesauce, oil and extract until

smooth.

Stir in chocolate chips last. Fill cups 3/4 full.

Bake about 23-33 minutes, or until done when tested with a toothpick.

Don't forget to check out Organizing Junkie for more menu plans and tons of recipes.

The First Pony

MiMi has never had enough hair to make a ponytail, so here is her first ever:

her curls made it a cute little waterfall.

Eggs a la Goldenrod

I realized tonight as we were dying eggs

that I have neglected to include a HUGE family tradition in my weekly menu! We will NOT be having cold cereal for breakfast tomorrow (as previously posted on the menu) instead we will be having :

Eggs a la Goldenrod

Basically this is a cream sauce with the whites of the hard boiled eggs cut up into it, this is poured over slices of toast(or toast cups if you are feeling adventurous) and topped with the yolks which have been grated.

I don't know of any other family that eats this, but my mom has been making this every Easter that I can remember. I think the best part is that the "whites" of the eggs are not so white anymore, after going through the dying process with young kids. You've got to love technicolored food!

FYI- Xander couldn't get enough and kept asking to dye more eggs, even though he will later refuse to eat them.

Imogene dyed most of her eggs in pink, when she was forced to give it up, she only wanted the other "girlie" colors: purple and red

MiMi was supposed to be sleeping, but spent most of the time crying, as it was past bed time and she was not at home (she was much happier during dinner, when she managed to get popsicle and pink frosting into her ponytail, causing it to stand straight up)

It's taking Boring

Imogene's favorite phrase right now. What she means is she is bored and whatever we are waiting for is taking too long. I just think the combination of the two phrases is great.

By Xander

My new Webkinz

Meet Dark wind!

I love playing on webkinz world!

Menu Plan Monday

Here is what we will be eating this week:

This is the first week that I have written out every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. The kids have loved having a dinner menu, so I'm hoping they will like being able to plan on what they will eat at other times too.

For other menus and meal plans (some with recipes) check out Organizing Junkie.

Xander's FIrst Tooth

Xander came down after going to bed to show me that his tooth really was loose. He had bent it to 90 degrees.

I told him to just keep wiggling it, he did and 2 minutes later he had it out.

Because he shares the room with MiMi, I didn't want to risk waking both of them up while "The Tooth Fairy" searched for a tooth under his pillow, I quickly sewed a small bag and appliqued a tooth to the front. He put his tooth inside, wrote a note to the Fairy and hung it all on his door.

He is so excited to be starting to grow up!

A little bit about us...

Adam and I have been married for (gasp) almost 10 years!

Update 7/17/09: It has officially been 10 years!

We have three beautiful children:

Xander

6 years old and can't wait for a loose tooth

(update: he lost his first tooth 2 days after this posting)

Imogene

age 3 aka "Bree"

(now if we could only channel this for good)

and

Maggie Mae

more commonly known as MiMi,

and who is now officially 1.

Here we are in one of the only pictures we have ever had of the whole family:

So, I know I have said I am a little leary of setting up a public blog, but I enjoy reading about and keeping up on what everyone is doing, so it feels like it is the right time to start getting my feet wet in this "new" blogging world.

April Fools!

I have never gotten into April Fools, but with kids, it's fun to see their reactions and to help them plan pranks.

I found some instructions on Family Fun for faux fish sticks.
theirs:

Mine:

I didn't realize it would take a lot of airheads to make the peas, so I only bought two and it made what you see here. They were also very light green, so I told the kids they were edamame, instead (since they haven't seen them before I could say they were whatever I wanted.)

Xander was extremely upset over having to have fish sticks for dinner and was fussing until I said he only had to eat one. Imogene was excited, she likes fish sticks. So when it was a prank, she was more upset that she didn't get fish sticks and didn't eat the treats.

The kids thought it was great, so they wanted to play a prank on Dad, after much brainstorming, we came up with putting an elastic around the kitchen sprayer. So when he turned on the water, he was sprayed.

Xander couldn't get enough, and kept trying to come up with other prank ideas, none of which really worked.