Reunited

After 5 years of sitting at the front of the congregation as a counselor in the bishopric - almost the whole time we've had kids - my husband has returned to sitting with us on the bench at church! The boys are usually pretty good, but it's nice to have back up now. His new Stake Executive Secretary job is still demanding, but requires less on Sunday than being a counselor did. Yes!

(For anyone who is confused by all this lingo, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are asked to serve in various positions in their local congregations/areas without pay, from pianist to teacher to the equivalent of a pastor).

Slop, Sloppy Joes

I didn't like Sloppy Joes growing up. I'm pretty sure the few I ever had were some sort of Manwich thing. But this recipe, with nothing out of a can, is easy and delicious:

Home Made Sloppy Joes

-1 lb. ground beef or turkey
-1/4 c. onion, chopped small
-1/4 c. green pepper, chopped small
-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
-1 tsp. mustard
-3/4 c. ketchup
-3 Tbsp. brown sugar
-Salt and pepper

*Brown beef, onion, and pepper in pan over medium heat and drain liquids. Stir in rest of ingredients. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve on hamburger buns.

And for all you youngsters who don't get the title of this post, watch this:

The red step stool

I recently read The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack, which has some fantastic advice about teaching your kids to work and be independent. When I read about her 3-year-old son making his own peanut butter sandwich, I realized it was high time that 1st Brother start making more of his own food. I just needed a step stool so he could get at the cereal, frozen stuff, microwave, and dishes he needs. I found the one above at a Chinese dollar store-type place on Irving (around 24th Ave I think?). It's tall - it hits me at my knees - and is made of plastic so it's very light weight and easy to carry. I think it cost around $8, and I love it very much.

I craft

You know who's not crafty? Me. So when I do anything remotely crafty as I did for my friend's baby shower in August, I have to blog about it, even if I only have shadowy pictures to show for it.

Since this is my friend's first baby, I thought it would be nice to capture advice from the invitees. I created cards in Word asking for specifics like baby girl name ideas (she wanted them; it wasn't that she had decided on a name and I thought she needed help ;) ). I also left space for favorite kids' books, great stores/websites, recommended baby products and parenting books, and the best overall parenting advice. I printed them on blank 4x6 index cards and did a double hole-punch, then held the cards together with 2 book rings. I stumbled upon some cute paper plates at Safeway and cut front and back covers from them and glued on a title. And voila! A cute little packet of advice cards.

6 years old

1st Brother turned 6 in August, the Saturday before 1st grade started. In the morning, he found his presents by following clues I taped to his door while he slept, then ate his special Trix breakfast cereal:

Star Wars Lego sets were big this year. He also got a Darth Maul Lego watch, the Robo Champ Lego game, 3 Lego Hero Factory guys, Clone Wars figurines, a toy telescope, Kung Fu Panda video game, and some Spider Man books:

After having big parties 2 years in a row, I told him he could invite 2 friends to a movie for this year's celebrations. That is how I got forced into going to a morning showing of The Smurfs. The animation was cool, but it was too long, and I hated how they had to make Neal Patrick Harris learn a valuable life lesson from the Smurfs--whatever. But it wasn't about what I liked; the boys loved it and ate a pack of Sour Patch Kids each.

I came across the movie poster in Spanish--hee hee! Los Pitufos!

We went to Yerba Buena gardens afterward and had corn dogs and chocolate milk, then 1st Brother opened friend presents and they all ran wild at the playground for awhile. After that, it was home for the Baskin Robbins ice cream cake (expensive but SO delicious!) with one of the friends and his family.

The day ended with the usual 6:45pm swimming lesson (which I have since taken him out of because he's such a good swimmer after 8 months). Some other things about him at 6:

-He's very good at reading

-Sometimes I say he's already a teenager because of the sassy back talk he can dish out, but he's also often thoughtful, helpful, and obedient

-He loves being with friends--I can barely keep up with all the requests for play dates

-He has major goofy, class clown tendencies (my fault)

Don't Eat Pete

The family reunion my father-in-law's side has every 3 years happened the first week of July near Helena, Montana. I came up with a few things for the kids to do, including a game to help them recognize their great-grandparents and the 7 children they had. Here's the game board (with peoples' names removed for the Internets). I also included the flags because of the part-American, part-Canadian heritage the kids have, and I added a Free space:

The game is based on one my mom taught us years ago called Don't Eat Pete. You need one marker placed in each square to start (we used Nerds candy). One person is "It." He/she steps away while the rest of the group decides which square can't be eaten. "It" returns and starts eating the Nerds one by one until he/she reaches for the candy on the forbidden square. At that point, the group yells, "Don't Eat Pete!" and the turn is over.

The game is very flexible: you can customize the number of squares on the board, the pictures, the words the kids say, and the markers. I used pennies for a church class once and let the kids keep the money they earned. Or I had some craft pom-poms or removable pencil eraser tops as back up at the reunion in case the kids were eating too much candy.

The kids did like the game, but you know what they liked better? The mini fish pond (bamboo skewers, yarn, and a clothespin for the rods with 2 open blue folders taped to a table for the pond). They kept asking for more even when I was out of prizes and was clipping silly things to the lines. It's hard to beat a classic, I guess!

Best frozen pizza

These pizzas from Costco are the best frozen version I've ever had. And they're $9.99 for 4 of them; hooray!