Category Archives: food

He Will Never Learn

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My husband will never learn.

We’ve been married 14 years and he still doesn’t get it.

Maybe it’s the fact that he grew up in a family with only two children. He doesn’t have the hoarding tendencies that those of us with many siblings learned.

Whatever the reason, he is still dumbfounded to come home to this.

When there is a bag of Oreos open in our house, EAT THEM RIGHT AWAY!

I tried to tell him. “Dear, I opened a bag of Oreos in the pantry. They are hiding on the top shelf so the kids don’t see them. You need to go ahead and eat some before I eat them all.”

TWO DAYS LATER he goes to look in the pantry and is stunned to find the cookies gone.

I mean, two days later? When I say you need to go ahead and eat some, I mean RIGHT NOW because I am heading to the pantry as we speak.

I know he thinks I should feel bad but I don’t.

I mean, I TOLD HIM.

But, I will try again just like I always do … Derek there is a candy bar hidden on the top shelf of the pantry…go eat some NOW.

 

Halloween Party Food

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Last year we held our first ever Halloween party and it was a ton of fun for everyone (a ton of work too but let’s focus on the fun for now).

My husband and I baked, dipped, frosted, stirred, cooled, and heated till we were on sugar overload.

Below this picture of our buffet are four of the treats and how we made them.

Witches Hats: Use Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies as the base, melted chocolate (orange colored), Hershey Kisses on top

Eyeball Cake: Boxed cake mix prepared and baked in a soccer ball cake pan, colored icing

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies: I don’t particularly love pumpkin flavor but I found these irresistible – every time I walked by the kitchen I would pick one up. I found the recipe at Relatively Reagan.

What you need:
Box spice cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter
1 cup pumpkin pie filling or puree
1/2 cup milk
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and pumpkin with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add all the remaining ingredients and beat on low speed until combined.
Using a small cookie schoop dop mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart.
Bake about 10 minutes and cool completely before frosting
 
For the Filling:
Stick of butter
block (8 oz) cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla and couple of dashes of cinnamon
Put filling on one pie and cover with another

Oreo Mummies: Dip Oreos into melted white chocolate, place on wax paper, drag a fork sideways through the chocolate, place candy eyes on top, cool in fridge – Here are some sources for candy eyes (I have never bought anything from these companies so I’m not recommeding, just listing) : One Stop Candle and The Baker’s Kitchen. I am using some I found at Michael’s this year.

Do you have any favorite Halloween treats you make?

The 36th Avenue

In Case You Were Wondering…

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Last night I went out to dinner with a friend.

I realized 4 minutes from the restaurant that I had forgotten to put on deodorant.

It was 85 degrees and I knew we were going to eat outside.

Plus, I was wearing a sleeveless shirt.

This was potentially a ripe situation.

I hunted around the car.

All I found was a pack of Altoids.

Apparently licking Altoids and rubbing them in your pits works quite well as a deodorant replacement.

In case you were wondering.

No Cost Organizing

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I desperately want to be organized but I have one huge obstacle blocking my path toward achieving this goal.

Toys.

The amount of toys we have is mind boggling. If that’s not bad enough, there’s the fact that each of those toys comes with twelve million little pieces.

If you’ve ever been sitting at your child’s birthday party silently cursing the guest’s parents due to the gift that they brought, than you understand.

Or maybe you are more familiar with the midnight walk into your child’s room where you wince with pain due to a stray lego head or miniature cow.

Either way, cursing is involved and I needed to take action.

And this action needed to be free.

So I looked around my kitchen and settled on a recently emptied pickle jar.

I cleaned the jar with soap and water and applied Goo Gone on the remaining sticky bits. I let the Goo Gone sit for awhile and then scrapped it off using a rough sponge and water.

Two salsa jars and one pickle jar later our game pieces were organized.

Now the bouncy balls, dice, and bingo chips have a designated home in our game closet and are joyfully missing from every nook and cranny of our house.

One of those annoying birthday present were Mighty Beans. Thankfully they now have a contained place to reside on my son’s top shelf.

Not to be left out, our kitchen shelf holds our BoxTops jar. For complete disclosure I want to let you know all of these Box Tops were taken off of vegetables and fruits. Huh, never heard of Box Tops on those items? Must be only our store that does it.

Now if only my kids would hurry up and eat jelly and pickles on their eggs I could have another jar for organizing.

Do you have any cheap organizing ideas that have worked for you?

The Kitchen Art Wall Reveal…Finally

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Our kitchen art wall has been a long time in coming. I searched and searched etsy for just the right art. I chose pieces which were fun, bright, and made me smile. I made six printables for the wall as well.

Last time I left you I had given you this sneak peek at our wall

Here’s the completed wall

I am so excited with how it came out.

The five small frames are from Target, 2 others are from IKEA, 2 frames I already had, and 2 are from Goodwill. The frames I already owned and the ones from Goodwill were given a couple of coats of white paint.

Let me show you how we chose where to place the frames.

I knew I was working with an 44 x 44 space on the wall so my husband and I made a 44 x 44 template out of newspapers taped together.

Next we moved around the frames until we were happy with their placement

There is a wide variety of color in the pictures so I decided white frames would help give a cohesive look.

Where did those wonderful pieces of art come from you ask?

Clicking on the links below will direct you to the etsy shops or to my post with the free printables.

You are the Pancakes to My Syrup – Williston Letter Co

Olive You – free printable Big D & Me

Super Dean with Hamburger (made from individual pieces of paper) – Greenbean Art

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry – Graphic Anthology

If You Want Breakfast in Bed, Sleep in the Kitchen – free printable Big D & Me

Baby You Spin Me Right Round – Oh, Dear Molly

You Are My Hot Pot – Oh, Dear Molly

You Can’t Buy Happiness But You Can Buy Ice Cream & that’s Kind of the Same Thing – free printable Big D & Me

Hey Yogurt, If You’re so Cultured Why Do I Never See You at the Opera? – free printable Big D & Me

Lettuce Turnip the Beet (Let Us Turn Up the Beat) – free printable Big D & Me

Give Thanks – free printable Big D & Me

So that’s it. Our kitchen wall is finished.

Except that I want to change a few colors on the printables.

Maybe add another frame.

No. No. No. For now it’s done and I’m pleased it’s done.

Now onto our next big project.

Hmmm, my husbands not smiling.

I, for the life of me, can’t understand why.

 

 

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Inspired

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One of the best parts about linking up to craft parties is perusing through other blogger projects. This week I have been inspired by many creations. Here are a few of my favorites:

Freshly Completed made this amazing Birthday Seat which slips over a chair. The word boy is removable since its attached with velcro and can be replaced by the word girl. If this seems too complicated even a hand made sign and balloons above the birthday chair would be special.

Minimoz created Super Hero shoes which would go over very well with the cape loving crowd at my house

Minimoz also created this love map which I will be replicating somehow somewhere in my house.  Inside the frame are three hearts made of maps which represent cities in which- “We met,” “We married,” & “We live.”

Britches and Boots gives a clear and simple tutorial for freezer paper stenciling – I just love this gnome shirt. The possibilities are endless.

One Artsy Momma shared a brillant way to capture first day of school memories. Wouldn’t it be so much fun to do these every year and place them in an album to share when they graduate from high school.

We Learn As We Go shares the simple recipe (even I might be successful with this) for Graham Cracker Toffee.

The Nature of Grace shared spoon puppets which I know my kids would love making


The Mommy Diaries organized a delightful The Very Hungery Caterpillar 1st Birthday for her son

We are beginning to prepare for Halloween party and Design DNA has created something I will surely be adding to our decor. I can’t wait to fill the jars with eyeballs and growing body parts.

I am going to be busy this weekend working on some new projects.

Did you see anything that inspired you?

Shopping with My Children

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Shopping with my children is going to cost me big.

In fact, it’s starting to add up right now.

Just this morning we were in our neighborhood grocery store picking up a few items when it happened.

Again.

While holding my two year old, I began placing apples in a bag quickly. I was focused on buying the few items we needed and getting out of the store as fast as possible.

The boys, who had been following behind me, were now picking up fruit and weighing it on the scales. First an apple, then a cucumber, but then they decided they needed to go bigger, finally settling on an enormous Christmas melon.

Just as I turned around from the apples, I saw the melon fly from Alex’s hands and land on the ground. With a thud and a splat the melon split open.


Alex looked up at me with big eyes and said, “Oops.”

It was here where my moral drawbridge came crashing down. Without children I would have picked up the fruit, placed it gently back on its former resting space and walked away nonchalantly. My eyes  would have remained focused on the fruit in an attempt to avoid all eye contact with other customers or grocery store employees.

With kids though it’s another story.

If I walk away from the fruit while I’m with them, I’m convinced I’m leading them into a life of crime. When they are standing before Jugde Wapner and being sentenced the only statement they will give is, “Well sir (in my mind they may lead a life of crime but they will still be polite) I was just doing what my mother does. My mother once ripped a shirt trying it on and she just left it in the changing room.”

I let out a sigh and had Alex place the melon into our cart. I explained that if you damage something in a store you are still expected to pay for it. At least when you are with me.

So with my $3.79 melon combined with the $5.95 doll I had to buy earlier in the week due to my daughter ripping open the box, I am out $9.74.

So as you can see my children are costing me a fortune. I’m thinking of starting a tab for each one of my children. Each time they damage something in a store I’m taking it out of their first paycheck.

And I will be charging them interest.

CARS Bingo & Party

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When Alex turned 5 four years ago he requested a CARS party.

It was tons of fun and fairly easy to put together.

Since it was a race car party we needed a race track cake. The track is made of black sugar crystals while the side boards are cardboard. We made the “start” and “finish” signs and placed some of his hot wheels on the cake.

Race Car Birthday Cake

The first activity of the party was to take some Crayola Air-Dry Clay and use it to form their own race cars. This activity didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked. Some of the kids were not satisfied with their creations and complained since it didn’t look like Lightning McQueen.

While the clay didn’t go over so well, the bean bag toss was a huge hit. We took a large piece of wood, cut 5 holes in them, and modged podged some large CARS stickers on with various point values underneath. HUGE HIT with the 5 year old crowd.

Creating Cars from Air-Dry Clay
Bean Bag Toss

Another favorite outdoor activity was “The Big Race.” Alex and I decorated 2 diaper boxes and turned them into cars. Alex put race numbers on them as well as headlights and wheels. Two at at a time the kids raced around the yard usually laughing the entire time. The plastic helmets I bought added to the excitement.

“The Big Race”
Little Brother wants to play too

After running around the backyard the kids were ready for an inside activity. I made the CARS Bingo cards, laminated them, and created call cards. I went a little over board and created 15 individual cards. All of the kids loved the bingo game and played several rounds.

CARS Bingo Game
It’s a Printable!

Would you like a copy of the CARS BINGO game?

Please go here & print a copy.

Please consider becoming a follower of Big D and Me if you decide to download the game

Having difficulty downloading? Contact me and I’ll email you a copy.

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Shameless

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I was a shameless mother to Caroline.

But in the interest of full disclosure I should tell you this.

After consuming a dinner of milk, orange slices, and cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster last Friday night, Caroline proceeded to vomit her entire stomach contents on the restaurant floor.

It was a lot. I’m talking change of shoes and clothing bad.

I’m pretty sure I will never eat another cheddar biscuit for as long as I live.

Oh, and it was our first and only trip to Red Lobster.

The following day Caroline and I ended up in the children’s book section of Borders while the boys finished up in a movie. One hour into the movie and she was done so we went for a walk.

Caroline and I were standing side by side browsing the movie section when I let quite a foul smelling gas escape. It was silent. I do have some pride.

At the moment of release, a woman stopped directly behind us to examine a book.

I’m not proud of what I did next.

I bent down and said, “Caroline, do we need to change your diaper?”

Yes.    I     Did.      I blamed her for the smell.

Let me just remind you about REGURGITATED CHEDDAR BISCUITS ON THE FLOOR!

A little tit for tat.

I am pitiful and shameless.

And smelly.