Breakfast with the Grinch

Reading the story

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Grinch

Giving the Grinch high five

Green Eggs and Ham

Kindergarten

& Mrs. Mace

A "KA-Chow" UPDATE

Love shopping Kohls online. Recently they had some awesome Black Friday deals that lasted all week long. The best part was earning $15 Kohls Cash on every $50 spent! I may have spent hours upon hours searching their deals, but I think I done great. Toys for $16 that were originally $49. Once the items arrived I was wowed by the 'steals' and wish I'd ordered more. I got some serious Christmas shopping done and was ready to shop for the best deals to use my Cash on...

Take a look at this... 2 more Christmas gifts and a pair of much needed work shoes for myself!

.40 Train set
.63 Emergency Kit
.95 Shoes

My little Student of the Month

Student of the Month

Elijah James Gibbons

So Proud of this boy!

 A few short months ago I couldn't look at Lone Jack School Center without wanting to cry! Thankfully I had ignored school starting until the week before so I didn't have time to shop around and decide where to send Elijah. I think if I had started to think ahead and plan it out I wouldn't have chose to send him to Lone Jack.





Of course just a few months into Kindergarten we still don't know much of the staff, just our teacher, her aide, the speech therapist and the office ladies. As you can tell I still don't really know their names but I do know that I LOVE these ladies. They have shown nothing but kindness and love to my boy and have (very quickly) turned my little scared boy into a good student who loves his teacher and dare I say loves going to school!?




One day he told me he had something for me in his backpack that I was going to love. A few minutes later he got out a Snowman shaped Hershey cookies and cream bar that his friend gave him and I figured that was what he was talking about. Then he handed his little card/pin to Daddy. Student of the Month! My sweet little boy is the Student of the Month November!

Rotten Boys!

So of course then on November 30, I had to get some pictures of him and the board before they changed it! I love these little rotten boys SO very much!

Pinterest KnockOffs

 I am addicted to pinterest.com. Of course who isn't? This holiday season Pinterest is booming with ideas, projects and recipes! So excited to try some of those during my time off work. Today though I am showing you my Snowman tower made from boxes! I turned some of last years wrapping paper inside out (you can see the bottom box was skimped a little) and wrapped up some of my FedEx and UPS boxes. Elijah drew on the snowman's face and gave him some buttons. Then I added a little mesh for sparkle and gave him one of my scarves and a toboggan.

BUT do you want to know their secret!? They have the gifts I've already purchased wrapped and tucked neatly inside! The boys are none the wiser! Hopefully my secret is safe until Christmas Eve!

This little 24 days of Christmas books was also found on pinterest. I found some really cheap ones from booksamillion in October and had them tucked away, and we had a few Christmas books on our bookshelf. I added in some Christmas movies and hope to hit the library for the last five books we need!






The best part is we get to begin opening a book and reading tomorrow night! I've really been looking forward to this because Elijah's Kindergarten class has been reading 20 minutes a day in order to earn a pizza from "BOOKIT." Reading is fun! (And Elijah has been learning so quickly.)

Zachary, our Elf on the Shelf

Day 2

He was found in a Christmas candy dish filled with miniature marshmallows. Elijah says he bets everything at the North Pole is made of candy!

Day 3

He got into our bathroom and wrote a message for the boys, "Be Good" in toothpaste on the mirror.

Day 4

Then he was found in the kitchen cabinets with a straw in a syrup bottle, chocolate on his face and wrappers everywhere. Apparently he had also started writing a note, "Dear Santa, Elijah and Levi, Z"

Day 5

Day 6

 Thankfully after these two messy days he chose to play on the printer/scanner and he made copies of himself. The pictures turned out really cool.








Zachary decided to try to make Elijah look like an Elf in his school picture!

Day 7

 

Day 8

Playing a little game of cards with Woody and some soldiers.










Another note was found "Dear Santa, the fishing is great here." He was sitting in a little purple "boat" fishing in the frog's tank.

Elf on the Shelf

This is Zachary

The boys LOVE this little guy! I think he is pretty cute too! Looking forward to a month of mischievousness from our little Elf on the Shelf (with the help of pinterest). Just hope he doesn't try to kill us in our sleep! LOL.

He made his return on November 23, 2012

He got our book we had misplaced and put it in the front of our book basket

Fourwheeling

Just like Big Brother

 This boy adores his big brother. He watches, tags along and hangs on to Elijah's every word! He had a difficult time at first when brother started Kindergarten. He would walk around asking if Elijah was at the "hospital." There was even one day when he went to the door and was crying to put on his shoes and "go get Wijah, Mommy." It was only 10:00.

This is Elijah's backpack. It's an old one he's played with for years carrying cars in it to Grandma's and such. This day we were going to play outside and Elijah had this backpack with toys for outside and when Levi wanted to wear it he politely handed it to him.

You might notice in the photos how proud Levi was, he flipped back and forth showing off.

Levi Loves Noodles

Noodles

This boy LOVES them!

& Momma loves watching him eat

Nothing like watching those little hands work

Being a ROCK STAR MOM

Eager to Play

Loves It!

Working away

I once was a Y now I'm a turkey track- By Elijah!

Recently looking through pinterest I came across "how to be a Rock Star Mom." Of course I want to be a Rock Star Mom just like everyone else, right!? So I began reading through the list. It has lots of creative ideas such as lunch box notes, going on a nature walk, baking with one child, foam sword fighting. The list was a long one. Just before I stopped reading I found one reader suggested buying a notepad, construction paper and writing utensils and playing "I once was" with the children.

Since Elijah has made "homework" for me a couple nights in a row, I decided I should do this with him right now. Easily 45 minutes have gone by and he's still interested. I took a notebook and wrote the alphabet and handed it to him. I explained that the game was to take a letter and create a drawing with it. I started (from the pinner's suggestion) with "I once was an A now I'm a swing-set" and let him watch as I transformed the A into a swing-set! His face lit up. Levi wanted a turn so after he marked a little I said "I once was a B now I'm a butterfly and created the other wing and antennas. Yes, I was a ROCK STAR MOM!

"Takes Pride in His Work"

Working Hard

This sweet boy takes his work seriously

Pampered Chef Brownie Pan

Pampered Chef Brownie Pan

LOVE LOVE LOVE this pan! I had been "eyeing" this pan from the first time I'd heard of it. It took me a while to take the plunge and purchase such an expensive (ha $19.95) item. And the day I got it and brought it home Elijah said, "you'll just look at it and put it in a yardsale!" He does know me well. Did I mention he is only 5!

The first thing I made using my pan was in fact brownies! We made the triple layer with chocolate chip cookies, reece cup center and brownie on top. It was not our favorite. In fact my husband and I both attempted to eat the brownie off top. Lucky for me brownies are not why I purchased the pan!

As soon as the brownies were out of the pan I mixed up some cornbread and popped the pan back in the oven! The pan not only comes out perfectly clean (best nonstick ever) but the cornbread is evenly brown, and tons of edges just the way momma likes it! :) After discussing with a coworker who asked if it was still "crunchy" I realized even though it is nonstick I should still oil the pan like before! So I did, and oooh it's so good!

Sunday I was thinking of all the make ahead breakfast and dinners I could do for the week. Of course the brownie pan was first out of the cabinet. I had made these http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/mini-frittatas-687877/ for breakfast once before and I used my muffin pan and what a mess! This time they are a little more square but each one slid right out! Ah yes! Makes momma happy! These little delights will last in the fridge a couple of days, if they aren't eaten before they get there!

Breakfast Mini Frittatas