Date night

 My oldest son came over tonite and watched the younger kids so hubby and I could go out on a much needed date!  We went to an afternoon showing of "The Hunger Games", which we were excited to see.  It wasn't as good as we thought, but not bad.  Afterward, we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, to take advantage of the $10 off coupon we had.  I treated myself to a filet, a very nice cut of meat that I never have!  Even though it was only so-so, I had to gobble it all up to get my $20 worth, right?  :-)

After we got home, we made ice cream sundaes with the kiddos, in sugar  cookie bowls that I made yesterday.  Not only was the ice cream and toppings great, how many times do you get to eat the  container your dessert came in?  Lots of fun..

Well, tomorrow's Monday, which means getting ready for the new school week.  After that's done, it's time to kick up my feet with a nice cup of tea.....enjoy the remainder of your weekend!

Food for the mind and the body

I'm fortunate that I have kiddos (at least most of them) that love to read.  Most days, we have at least a half hour required quiet reading time, in addition to their regular school reading, of course.  It gives them some time to explore their own interests, whether it be animal stories, adventure books, or,  in the case of my girls, American Girl dolls! 

Yes, they are American Girl doll lovers and my 3 oldest all have the dolls-my oldest has two.  They love the books, the accessories, and anything related to it.  Amazingly, an American Girl shop is opening right here in Houston in August, and let's just say, they are more than looking forward to it!

This week, I tried my hand at baking some kaiser rolls.  It was tricky trying to get the design on the top, but they turned out great-nice and soft and great for sandwiches!  Will do again for sure...

My 14 year old volunteered to make breakfast one morning-a blessing!  He got up at 6:00 a.m. and made everyone eggs, bacon, and toast-all by  himself. It was very tasty, too, as everyone scarfed it down!  My daughter even decided to make cute little faces out of it.  Who needs I-Hop.  We can do the same thing here!

My son even offered to make another breakfast this weekend-french toast.  I could get used to this!

A long absence....

Wow, looking at the date of the last post, it's amazing how long it has been. So much has happened over the past year-both ups and downs-and the blog was one of those things that just had to get pushed to the side. But we are still here, plugging along, living life, enjoying all that God has blessed us with! At this point, we are now down to nine kids at home. Yes, my oldest, who is 18 now, moved out to his own apartment last month. Yes, I miss him terribly, but am so happy for him to have the chance to experience all life has in stor

e for him. Fortunately, he's only a few minutes away, also, so he is able to come back and visit. As for the rest of the crew, my next oldest is now of working age and has two jobs, while everyone else is busy with schoolwork, activities, and just keeping this household running! During our day to day work, we try to make some room to have fun. So what have we been up to? Here's what we made the other nite (my little ones loved it!)

Yep! That's an angry bird pizza! My little ones loved this and it made pizza nite extra fun!

We love holidays around here and valentine's is no exception-a great excuse to bake-and bless our neighbors with lots of goodies! :-) From heart cookies....

To cookie pops...

And, to top it off, a cake! Don't worry, these treats were made over several days and shared generously with others! Otherwise, we'd be oompa loompas!

I didn't even take pictures of all the green st. patrick's day goodies....let's just say we had lots of fun with the green!

My 3rd boy also turned 14 this month-wow! Where does time go? We celebrated with a yummy cookie cake and a special dinner. Growing up too fast! This is just a short little snippet of life at our house. So much has happened and will happen for sure over the coming days-hopefully it will not be so long between posts! It is never a dull moment around here!