We discovered a new activity in our house this weekend. It's great for wearing out the boys (young and old-er) and also cleaning my floors. Of course this was Tom's idea, and the boys loved every minute of it.
(please excuse the disgusting 3yr old with a whole slice of Italian bread shoved in his mouth....he must be raised by wolves!)
This past week was a weird one! We had some crazy weather. No snow....just ice. I've never heard of freezing fog before but we had it yesterday. hahaha! We got about 1/4" to 1/2" of ice that is still coating everything outside. The temperatures haven't gotten above 29 for the past 4 days so it's been chilly and slick to say the least. Before the crazy ice this week we woke up to our power going out at 6:30 am Tuesday morning. It kicked back on after a few seconds but it did that about 8 times before lunch that day. At 10am we lost power for over an hour. Along with our flickering power we lost all service from Comcast for 2 days. No phone, internet or TV..... Bummer! With the temperatures being too cold to play outside and all of our crafts exhausted I decided it was time for a play place outing. We have a Chick-Fil-A with a play place in E-town. This is very exciting to me because Chick-fil-a is yummy. I believe everything should be dipped in their Polynesian sauce! But back to why I really love them..... The workers there are amazingly nice and helpful! They actually have floating workers that just walk around and take your tray when you're done, offer to get you refills on your drinks and even ketchup. This is amazing. See, it was just me and the 2 boys. Now, I've gotten pretty good at the 2 baby juggle. There's many creative ways to get through shopping, eating lunch or a doctors appointment with 2 very mobile boys who want to go, go go!! However, The woman who took our order asked if I wanted help, I said, "That's OK, but thank you". I've never had someone ask me if I wanted help carrying a tray at a restaurant. She didn't listen to me and actually carried our tray to a table for us, got us straws, napkins and ketchup along with a high chair! How NICE!!! I LOVE CHIK-FIL-A!!! Not only do they have Polynesian sauce, and a play place, but the people who work there are helpful, while being NICE and Friendly, and more importantly, accepting of a mom with 2 boys! Thank you Chick-Fil-A!!!! We'll be back!!!
Ty was a big fan of the little man area of the play place.
The loungey way to slide.
It only took Ty one time to learn the lesson of NOT standing at the bottom of the slide...
The weather wasn't supposed to be so great this weekend. Last week we had freezing temperatures (Beth I know you experience what "freezing" really means up there in AK, so ignore me) and then they were calling for 1-3 inches of snow over Saturday and Sunday. We love the snow so we were ready. The boys have coats, boots, hats, mittens, a sled and an innertube..... we were ready to go. Also I thought ahead (this really doesn't happen often) and I decided to stock up on our cookie dough so we could bake and decorate our cookies this weekend. Well, the snow didn't really happen like they predicted. We did get over an inch but the wind is so crazy that it's just blown all over the place and it really only snowed last night. So my plans for a snowy weekend of snowman building and sleigh riding was a bust but we still managed to knock out some cookies. Since I denied Ty the experience of working with colored sugar crystals, due to his glitter glue fiasco, he got to enjoy a lollipop with Tom while Jack and I worked or better termed...made a huge mess. Hahha!
The infamous McMurtrie, I'm getting my picture taken, face.
He's one gross kid!
....Oh how I loathe you!!!
Pre-dinner time is always craziness in this house. Entertaining 2 whack-a-dos while cooking dinner before Tom gets home is a BLAST (sarcasm!!!) Hahahah! Tonight I decided to make Jager Schnitzel because I was feeling special, like I could pull it off. Silly me! So while I was prepping I set out a bag of crayons, markers, stamps (all washable) and paper for the boys and let them have at it, at the dining room table. This is all of 10 feet away from where I was cooking. Jack was working with the stamps and Ty was all over the crayons happily being artsy, then I looked away. See....you can't ever look away....EVER! Especially with TY! That kid has tiny devil horns sprouting I swear! He found the glitter glue sticks that I seemed to have forgotten were in the stinkin' bag. Glitter Glue!!! Really? Oh yes! In a matter of seconds he squirted it all over the floor, rubbed it on the table, on his face and all over his clothes. And being the mother of this whack-a-do, the first thing I did was laugh and get my camera! Then, while barefoot (that's right barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen), I stepped in a puddle of glitter glue and I immediately stopped laughing!
These pictures really don't do the glitter justice. It was everywhere!
After I stripped him down and hosed off all the glitter the conga line started. Ty held on to the back of Jack and they ran around the house giggling hysterically while I over cooked dinner. :-)
We are all decorated for Christmas. Last weekend we did the outside lights which I'm thankful for because it took Tom and I the whole 2 hours the boys were napping last Sunday afternoon. Plus it was a lot warmer last weekend than this weekend.
Oh yes....that is an inflatable yard decoration! It's an RV with a Santa that pops out of the door! The kids LOVE it! Hahahahah! Don't judge us!
Then this weekend we did the inside decorations which included the tree. Since we're heading to PA for the holidays we went with what is becoming our little unwanted tradition. The fake, bought at the scary German Wal-Mart, Christmas tree. Oh, how I loathe this thing! I really really LOVE real trees. But with going home we put up the fake one, then we don't have to worry about getting rid of it before we travel or not and waiting for it to shed off all of it's needles while we were away. This tree is so lame! It leans and wobbles, has a missing branch and you can see through it. hahahah! For how much I dislike this tree it has been used for 6 of our 7 married Christmases together. I'm sure most of my friends in the military are in the same boat and can relate. Being so far away from family all year round, we usually spend Christmas somewhere other than our own homes. I'll take a huge family holiday over having a real tree any year. Anyway, we are all decorated and the house looks pretty good. The boys did a great job helping with the tree as you can see....
I started following The Pioneer Woman blog a few weeks ago. This blog led me to The Tasty Kitchen blog. I love recipes. I collect them really, not using all of them, but collecting them because one day I'll have the time....one day! See, I secretly wish I knew how to cook with crazy ingredients, had knife skills like an Iron Chef, could create dishes with random stuff I have in my cabinets and everyone would eat every last bite while rubbing their bellies and humming a good ol' "MMmmmm". So I surf through recipe sites and remain jealous of the people who submit these yummy looking creations. But back to this...I'm a total sucker for a quick meal or dessert! I found this cookie recipe on Tasty Kitchen. Jack basically made the whole recipe, he really likes cracking the eggs and is pretty good at it too. Anyway, I used Devil's food cake mix and peanut butter chips. These cookies were a big hit and didn't last long ..... just wanted to share my find! Also...these cookies are really good too!
