Monday, March 31, 2014

Battle of the Books

Last week, Zach had his first Battle of the Books. Here is Sister Eloise and the rest of his team:


Of course, my son, is hiding behind another teammate.....

Here he is, getting ready for his round:


He did pretty good during his round, even though they lost. :0( He answered all the questions on the 5 books he read, and even tried guessing on some of the questions about other kids' books when no one was answering. They lost all three rounds, but this was the first time for all of them, and I know they will do better next time, now that they know what it's all about. Afterwards, he still said he had fun. That's a big improvement for Mr. Zachary, we is a tiny bit competitive. ;0)

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Low Carb Snack and Lunch Ideas


I have been struggling to find things that are both low carb and low in fat/calories for lunches and snacks. Since I am just making lunch for me, I don't feel the need to spend a ton of time cooking my lunch. So, I came up with some things that are easy to make, healthy, and tasty!

I love Sabra humus. I can eat that with pretzel thins or for really low carb, red bell peppers or cucumbers. Sometimes it's a snack for me, sometimes lunch.

Inside out chicken cordon blue. I take a piece of swiss cheese or a string cheese stick, and wrap a few pieces of ham around them and stick them in the microwave for a little bit until the cheese is melty. Yum!!

Any kind of lunch meat inside a lettuce wrap with either a tiny bit of mayo or mustard. If I have them, I stick in some tomatoes and red onion.

Celery and low fat cream cheese or cream cheese spread. Laughing cow has a light cream cheese line with lots of yummy flavors!

Chicken strips. I just buy bags of frozen already cooked (non breaded) chicken breast strips. I stick them in a lettuce wrap or a low carb tortilla with some cheddar cheese.

Cucumber salad. Cut up cucumbers, red onion, tomatoes, olive oil, red wine or balsamic vinegar, a little bit of parsley, basil, oregano, salt, and black pepper. 

Mini sweet peppers stuffed with humus or low fat cream cheese spread with herbs.

Ham & egg bowls (more for breakfast). Stick pieces of ham into a cupcake pan. crack as many eggs as you want bowls (3 bowls = 3 eggs), into a bowl, scramble and add salt & pepper. spoon egg into each bowl, top with cheese. Bake at 350* for 10-15 minutes.

Mozzarella and tomatoes. Cut up fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. add salt and pepper to taste.

Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt. It is only 80 calories and 9 carbs!

Hope these will help you with some ideas for some yummy lunch or snack ideas! 

Monday, March 24, 2014

Spring Break 2014

Our Spring Break was jam packed with fun, family, and friends! The kids got out of school early on Thursday, March 13th. They went to go play with their cousins Rachel, Ceri, and Brigid while I went to their conferences. They all are doing great in school!!
On Friday, We went to go see The Lego Movie. It was SO funny!!
Afterwards, Lily wanted her picture taken with Olaf from Frozen:


On Friday night, we took Zach to All Saints to drop him off for his first Boy Scout campout. He was really excited!!

On Saturday, Lily & I dropped Riley off at the ice skating rink for a birthday party of a friend. This was the first time he had ice skated. He was a little wobbly at first, but then got the hang of it & really liked it!


Since Jeff was out of town & the boys were both busy, Lily & I decided to take advantage of the girl time and get pedicures!


Lily was a little nervous at first, but then she decided that she loved it!


They even painted her nails!



She now wants to do this all of the time. ;0)



We got Zach later that evening. Even though they got rained on and they had to come back a little early, he still had a lot of fun!

On Sunday, we went to my niece Karen's baby shower! These are the youngest Ramsey granddaughters:
Madison, Ceridwen, Brigid, Emma, and Lily.


Karen:


Monday was St. Patrick's Day, so we celebrated that by dressing up as leprechauns....


and then we headed over to my mom's to see some family that had come into town. This little guy is one of the people who came into town:
(I tried taking a picture of his sister who is two, but she kept telling me to leave her alone. LOL!!)


These two princesses live here, but I thought their outfits were cute. :0)


Tuesday was my 36th Birthday. My three wonderful kids made me breakfast in bed & were good all day. :0) My sister Kathleen & my nice Karen took me out to lunch too! (I also got lunch out with my mother-in-law & sister-in-law Lisa on Wednesday & again with my mom & sister Amy on Thursday the week before!)

On Wednesday, the kids all got to invite one friend over at 10:00 and we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Riley invited Britton:


Zach had Taby over:


And of course, Lily asked her BFF Allison to come over:





We wen to Braum's for ice cream when we were done there, and then went back to our house until their parents picked them up at 4:00. Then I collapsed. ;0)


Thursday was pretty low key for me. Grandma Logan came over and got the kids about 9:00 and took them back to their house while I did nothing all day long. It was lovely!! :0) Then I met them at Red Robin for dinner.

Early on Friday morning, Jeff came home!! We were super happy to see him!! Then we had Riley's friend Britton and his little sister Averie over for awhile. The kids were excited to have friends over again!

That evening, we went over to Jeff's brother Aaron's house to witness his wedding to Lisa!


My two sisters-in-law on the Logan side; Norma & Lisa: (and me)


Aaron, Lisa, Sheril, Dot, and Gary:


Jeff & his brothers; Richard & Aaron:


So, I think we made the most of our break. We got some relaxing in and we got to see family and friends and have lots of fun!!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Last night, we got ready for St. Patrick's Day. We are going over to my mom & dad's house today so the kids can play with their cousins, so we thought we would make some cupcakes. Zach frosted them all, Lily dipped them in green sugar, then Zach added a piece of "gold" or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and I added the rainbow:





Then, because the kids really wanted more of them, we made the mint Oreo truffles again to take over there:


After Riley, and Lily went up to bed, the leprechauns came to leave their green footprints & gold!


Wow! Those leprechauns are tall!! ;0)




After the big leprechaun went to bed, I made the kids St. Pat's present from Jeff & I.



They were pretty excited to see those this morning. :0)

All three kids ran in to find the gold too!





I had gotten these leprechaun facial hair sets at Dollar Tree. :0)


Zach wanted me to take this picture of a leprechaun eating a rainbow.....


So Riley did too.....


And if her brothers do it, then.....


I have very goofy kids!
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

Friday, March 14, 2014

St. Patrick's Day Truffles

We like to celebrate St. Patrick's Day around here, so when I saw these truffles, I had to make them! I like to send something with the kids to school for their teachers for St. Pat's Day, and I thought these would be perfect.

All you need is:
1 pack of mint Oreos
1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese
Chocolate almond bark
green candy melts


The first thing you do is place all of the cookies in a food processor and crush them up completely. Do not let your oldest child eat one, no matter how hard he tries. ;0)



After they are all crushed, put them in a bowl with the cream cheese and mix them together with a mixer. (If you have a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.)


After it's nice and creamy, place the bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.


When you are ready to form the mix into balls, get a cookie sheet and wax paper. I used a small ice cream scoop to get the mix out, but you can use a spoon or your hands.


Roll the dough into balls and place on wax paper on the cookie sheet. When they are all formed (It will make 24-28 balls depending on how big you make them), place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for another 15 minutes.


While you are waiting for the balls in the fridge, melt the chocolate almond bark. (I only needed 1/2 of the package.)


Have your kitchen helper place the balls in the melted chocolate. (I do realize that this looks like she is sticking her entire hand in the chocolate, but she didn't do that, even though she would have wanted to. It just looks that way.) :0)


Using a fork so that the excess chocolate can run off, lift the balls out of the chocolate after being completely covered. 


Place them onto wax paper to dry.


While those are drying, melt your green candy melts. (Again, I only used about half) I then poured it into a small Ziploc bag so I could squeeze lines onto the truffles.


Just cut a tiny bit of the tip off of a corner, and squeeze lines out. 



When they are completely dry, pick up each truffle and carefully break off any excess chocolate.

Then I placed them into cellophane bags and put them in these cute baskets. I just got some baskets with a green stripe at Dollar Tree. I put green Easter grass in each one and wrapped clover garland around the handle:


This  was the note I put in each basket:


The kids each got to try one & were very disappointed that they only got one and the rest went to their teachers. :0) They all said we need to make more so they can have more! I think that means they liked them. ;0)

These were a very easy treat to make!