Day 299.. Dinner Dance Party

Are you ready to dance?? 

Carson was our D.J. for the night. He loves music!!

Maddie and Carson set up a small table for dinner and snacks.  

The girls dragging Jack onto the dance floor. 

Carson jamming out!!

My crew!!  We have come a little way since their days of dancing with Lawrence Welk. 

Strike a pose.. Vogue!!

Love this kid when he is happy and having fun!!

             What is a dance party without the Conga?? Love my team!!

Day 298... Italian night

I worked in Italian restaurants for twenty years. One of the first things I learned how to make besides pizza was cheese sticks. I thought tonight for fun I would teach the Greeneteam how to make them. They were excited because they all LOVE cheese sticks.  

We took the easy way out and bought string cheese. You can also use a block of mozzarella cut into pieces. We cut our 12 sticks in half. 

Next we set up the breading station. In one bowl we have egg wash, and in the other we have Italian bread crumbs spiced up with extra Italian seasonings, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. 

The secret to making them quickly is to keep one hand with the wet ingredients and the other hand with the dry. If you start mixing them together you have a mess. All of the kids except for Makenna got FIRED on their first attempt. They just could not keep it straight. It was pretty comical. 

Place them on wax paper in a container that will fit in your freezer. Also make sure to separate them. You do not want them to freeze together. 

Place them in your freezer for an hour. Then take them out and redo the steps again. This time the other 3 got it right and Makenna got fired!!  Put them back in freezer until frozen. We fried them in oil for a few minutes. (3-4?? turning them over and over) You have to just watch them carefully for browning and of course exploding.. 

YUM.. the kids thought they were fabulous!!  The kids were amazed that they were real cheese sticks just like the kind you get in restaurants. Yes team it pays to know how to cook. We made 24 sticks for under $5 as opposed to a restaurant order of 6 sticks that would cost us $6-$8. 

Carson my food critic giving them two thumbs up!! " I could eat these everyday mom."

I also taught them how to make this easy crock pot dish called pizza pasta!! 

Friday night Italian fun might just be a regular monthly rotation on the dinner menu. The kids loved it, and I loved showing them how to cook things I learned from my restaurant days. 

Day 297.... One on One dates

Today for fun we took the kids on individual dates. They love doing this and we very rarely do it. I generally try to save up gift cards or rewards so that taking the four of them out is affordable. The kids really don't care where we go and are usually happy just spending time with John and I. 

I love spending one on one time with them. They are really great kids!!

John and Kenna off on their morning date. 

She was thrilled to get to go to the library. For her a new set of books to read is Heaven!!

Jack and I were off next. He was dying to know where I was taking him. 

Surprise!! I took him to see The Hunger Games. Thanks Aunt Dee for the gift card. He loved it!!

Daddy and Maddie were the next couple to go out. Maddie was happy to be heading to Pizza Hut!!

YUM.. Pineapple Pizza!!

All of the kids were treated to Menchies. Thanks Jennifer P. for the gift cards!! The kids LOVED it!!

Carson and I were the last date of the night. 

I think his favorite part of the date was starting the engine for the new rental car. He loves engines, keys, motors etc. I let him keep the keys, lock and unlock doors, and even start the car. 

I took him to Chilis for a kids meal and then to Home Depot to see the riding mowers. He was psyched to find this cub cadet!!

One on one time with each of them is so great. I hope that we can do more of it soon. 

Love my team!!

Day 296... Spring Cards and letters

Maddie knew that I was feeling sad and blue today. Lots of stress with the cars, the accident etc. She set me up a little spot on the couch with a pillow, blanket, heating pad, and one of her favorite stuffed animals to watch over me. Then she told me to go rest. A little while later she showed up with flowers that she had picked out in our yard. So sweet!!

 It made me think of family and friends that are having a hard time, have been sick,  or have just been helpful and kind to us in so many ways. Tonight's fun is inspired by my sweet 7 year old who thought enough of her mama to go and pick some flowers from the yard. She told me she really wasn't worried about the cars, but that it made her sad to see me cry. 

 I love your great big heart beanie baby!!

This one has a heart of gold. 

For fun we made Spring Cards and wrote letters.  We will mail them off in the next day or so.  I love how intense Jack is when he is doing any kind of art or even writing. He tries so hard. 

This is bound to pick up someone's spirit. 

Trying to give Hallmark a run for their money!!

This one is going out to a very special lady fighting cancer.. We love her so much!!

We had lot's of fun getting creative making cards for loved ones tonight. It probably should be something that we do every month or two. Who doesn't like to get something besides bills in the mail???

Day 295 ... Peep Smores

Tonight was an epic FAIL on fun. 

We started the evening heading to Skyzone to jump on the trampolines with the kids. On the way we were in an accident. To make matters worse it was with each other. I had driven one car, and John the other and he ended up hitting me. Crazy but  true. Thankfully we are all fine!! It was very scary and the kids were shook up but in the end we were happy to have all walked away in one piece!!

We headed home all in one car as the other was towed away. We decided to make a fun Easter treat that I had seen on Pinterest (Peep Smores)

 This had to be fun right??? 

We had fun crunching the graham crackers!@!

It sure did look cute in the jar!!

A cute jar snack to give away as a hostess treat at Easter. 

Dump it all into a bowl. Chop up the bunnies and then add  melted butter and vanilla. Press the mixture into a pan and bake.

Hmmm is this really going to be a yummy Easter Smores Bar, or will it be just a crumbly mess?? 

The result: A crumbly sweet mess. I hated to waste it so we took a small scoop and put it over some vanilla ice cream. 

A new Ben and Jerry's flavor it was not.. OH well. You win some, you lose some. Today was definitely a LOSE for the Greeneteam!!

Day 294... Dot to Dot Coloring fun

I found an undersea dot to dot book while I was cleaning out our curriculum. When I looked through it I thought "maybe this could be a day of fun?" I showed it to the kids last night and they wanted to do it today.  They loved that on some of the puzzles you had to connect upwards of 300 dots. Almost an extreme dot to dot. 

Jack told a neighbor friend what we were doing for fun today and he wanted to come too. 

Jack working on his blue whale. 

Maddie loved it and worked on a second one!!

The boys with their masterpieces. Ryan liked the dot to dot's so much that he asked me to copy two other ones for him to take home. Who knew they would all like it??

The finished product.  Mine is the giant red crab.  (Yes I was feeling a little crabby when I picked it)

Love the book Under the Sea Dot to Dot's by Evan and Lael Kimble. Each animal has a page of facts and then a dot to dot page to color. The price on the back was $5.95. This was fun and educational. Now to see if they sell any others in different themes. 

Day 293... Randys Perrenials and Water Gardens

Today we headed to a beautiful nursery called Randys Perrenials and Water Gardens. The team and I would love to start a garden in the next month and thought we might be able to get some ideas. 

The first stop The Butterfly house. There were lots of beautiful butterflies. They do not charge to go in here but there is a donation jar. 

The girls and I LOVE this bench!!

The kids were amazed at the gazebos, plants, and even a little putt putt course. They thought it was really neat that it was all for sale and that you could have some one come help you design a fabulous back yard. 

There were lots of fish to observe!!

The kids loved reading all the tags and seeing how much sun the plants need each day.  We also had a little lesson on perennials verses annuals. 

The boys loved this and thought it and the gardens were right out of the Percy Jackson movie!!

One of the many beautiful water gardens!!

This was a great place to visit on a beautiful sunny afternoon here in Georgia.