Spring Break OVer

Spring Break is over but we couldn't end it without a trip to McDonald and some of its amazing French fries.

 Boo and Mommy 

Oh so tired!

Picnic Lunch at the Zoo

Listening for the train.

Being the tour guide

Playing at the playground.

For the size of our town we have a great zoo.  

Art Museum

Montgomery has an amazing art museum and cultural park that we visited.  

 Boo was so tired that he didn't want to do anything except play with the rotary telephone.  

 Boo's cousins came to visit for the day and they had so much fun playing at the museum.

I hope to go back on a day when Boo feels like playing.

Fire station fun

Boo loves fire trucks, So he really enjoyed his trip to the fire station.

 He wasn't leaving until he got to sit in the drivers seat!

Chuck E Cheese

We started our spring break with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.

 Yeah!  For Gluten Free Pizza.  I got one bit and then Boo Gobbled up the rest and wanted more.

 Oh so tired!  He was worn out from the 1st day of Spring Break!

Easter Bunny

Last week was Spring Break.  Boo and I had many adventures.  One of them was getting to meet the Easter Bunny.  As you can tell from this picture Boo wasn't so sure about the Bunny this year.

My Sunshine

Enjoying a good day of Sunshine.

Christmas in March?

While cleaning out/reorganizing Boo's closet I found some Christmas Outfits that I never shared with you. 

Bo and I are on the fence about what Boo should wear to shirt.  We agreed that this Christmas he could still wear appliqued clothes.  Next year we will more than likely move into sweater vest and khakis.  Meaning I'll have a little boy and not a baby.  One sad Mommy. I guess I'll just have to take up knitting so I can make him some sweater vest!

 I was determined for Boo to have a new shirt for Christmas Eve service.  The bad part was I was still making this shirt at 5pm on Christmas Eve and our service started at 6pm. Nothing like waiting until the last moment.  Boo wore black cords with it.  A good compromise between baby and big boy

I had four santa buttons that would have been perfect if my machine wouldn't have messed up one of the button wholes. Making me move the button and leaving a large gap between two buttons. Since it was at the last moment I just safety pinned the gap and promised myself I would fix it later. But since Boo will never wear it again I'll probably just remove the buttons and use them on something else.

Woody Shirt

Boo had cowboy week at school this week.  And we had nothing cowboy at our house.  Lucky for me a friend had a 5/6 shirt with a whole in it near the seam.  She gave it to me and said have fun making something new out of it.

 As you can see it was big on boo.

I cut it down and made it smaller. It still was a little big in the neck but it worked for school.

Old to New Pictures

I had 3 safari animal pictures in the old bathroom. The really were just stretch canvas.  So I decided to cover them.  I had green and white striped fabric.  But it was a little thin so I took some white cotton

Here you can see I laid out the canvas to measure it to cover it. 

Finished product.  I stapled the fabric to the back of the canvas.  Placed a sticker on the front and hung on the wall. Best part was it they were FREE.  Can't beat that.

Choo Choo Bathroom

Boo was given some Thomas wall stickers for his birthday and I have been wanting to use them.  Boo's bathroom was done in an safari theme that really didn't match his personality. Also it had been there a while and I was ready for a change without painting the walls. 

I made this art work the other day and in tomorrows post I'll show you how. 

 This shower curtain was my inspiration.  I found it at Target 70% off.  I also got the matching rug and hand towels.  But they were out of the Bath towels.  I guess making some will be on my list of things to do. Boo was so excited when he saw the curtain he asked me how I did it.  Meaning how I made it.  I'm so glad he thinks I can make anything including a Thomas shower curtain.

Boo loves the stickers on the cabinet door.  They are right at his level.  I hope to find new cabinet knobs within the next week or so.  I have about $20 in my new remodel and I have one super happy little boy.  Choo Choo. 

Spring Sickness

I didn't get lost in Boo's closet.  We have just been dealing with the crazy spring sickness going around.  Boo has had two ear infections. Bo had a sinus infection that wouldn't go away, and I have had a cough for about the last 3 weeks.  Boo was so sick that he convinced me that he need to drink Diet Sunkist (my soda of choice) in the dinning room on my nice wicker rocker all by himself.  Hey, whatever soothes a sick baby is okay with me.  I will say we had no spills and he didn't drink all of the Diet Sunkist so it was all good. Thankfully, we are back to our usual Almond Milk and water. 

So Boo's closet isn't really cleaned out, but it is more organized.  I apparently missed out on the consignment sales in town and will have to wait until fall.

Starting with the Biggest Challenge

Boo has a really clean neat orderly room on the outside, but don't open his closet doors or this is what you will see...

This closet by itself my take me most of Lent but I am going to empty this closet.

Kitchen Clean Up and Lent

Today is Fat Tuesday, and Lent starts tomorrow.  Past years I have given up numerous things like cookies (always hard because it is Girl Scout Time), the elevator (lasted a day), soda, tea, chocolate and so on and so on.

Many of these years I failed.  Not that I wanted to but because I don't think it what was God wanted me to do, but what I wanted to do.  I have had years when I felt God leading me to give up something and it turned out to be the best thing for our family.  Amazing how that works. 

Well, this year I decided to take something on instead of giving up . 

 Let me give you some back story.  Bo and I were married many years before having Boo.  When it was just the 2 of us we had lofty goal of paying off our house by the time Bo turned 40. It was just one of those things that was mentioned at dinner one night and some how it stuck. We worked several years at it, but didn't come anywhere close before having Boo. I went back to work after having Boo.  I was miserable. Boo was miserable.

Bo and I prayed and thought and ran the number and we came to the conclusion that I should stay at home.  We went from trying to pay off our house early to cutting every cost imaginable.  What a change. After two years of being at home I wouldn't have it any other way.

In those two years I have felt several times that we are still being called to get rid of our mortgage payment.

I know your question is how do you plan on doing that without winning the lottery or contest or inheriting a butt load of money from some distant generous relative or I don't know how else a person would pay off a house without a lot of hard work.

Except selling our house.  A house that the three of us love.  A house that is in so many ways perfect for us. And imperfect all at the same time.  A house that Bo owned before we were married.  A house we came home to after our honeymoon. A house Boo came home from the hospital.  A house my dad helped us paint and install ceiling fans.  A house that has been our home for so many years. And now I have this feeling we are suppose to get it ready to put it on the market.

Which brings me back to lent and a kitchen cabinet.  As I cleaned out the spice cabinet I was thinking about lent I was thinking about how many cookies or how much soda I could drink before the start of Lent.  Well, I don't think that is what I'm suppose to do.

I'm going to take on cleaning out one cabinet, drawer, closet, something a day for the next 40 days. While I do this I plan on praying for God's plan for our house, our attitude towards selling or staying, and remembering Jeremiah 29:11 knowing God has a plan for us.

Spinach Stuffed Chicken

Bo has been working a ton of hours the last couple of weeks so he has asked me make him a meals that he could take with him to work to eat as his suppers.  He wants them easy, delicious, warm up friendly, gluten free and nutritious, adult food. Not to much to ask is it? Meaning he doesn't want to live off of Hot Pockets and Lean Cuisines. Nothing like a good challenge to get the brain pumping.  I knew I had a winner the other night while I was making it. 

I know Bo loves spinach and mushrooms. So I wilted a bag of fresh spinach and added mushrooms onions and garlic.  Onions and garlic have become a staple at our house. If you would have told me that as a kid I would have laughed at you. Neither of us really even like onions, but we know they add tons of flavor.

Organic Chicken Cutlets were on sale last week so I stocked up.  I covered the chicken on both sides in Italian Seasoning and then pounded them out with a rolling pin. I really should get a meat tenderizer it would make the job easier. 

 I put slices of Colby Jack cheese on top of the Chicken.

 Filled the chicken with the stuffing mix.  Ignore the hair brush.  It doesn't usually sit on the kitchen counter, but Boo keep on bringing me things as I cooked dinner this night.  I actually ended up putting the Parmesan cheese in a drawer with the foil only for it be found hours later. It was really stressful cooking and being brought random things from other parts of the house.  I'm glad I didn't have a recipe to follow.

Bake for 30 min at 350.  I used toothpicks to hold the chicken together.

Topped with a little Parmesan and served with Marinara Sauce.

This was excellent.  Bo LOVED it.

Under the Weather

The sickness bug has entered our house.  Just a lot of movie time and snuggling.

 Hoping that we feel better soon.  

Pumping Water

While waiting for the Trolley to arrive Boo found a water pump.  He had so much fun pumping that water.  My grandparents used to have a mail box that was on a water pump stand and even though it didn't pump water we loved to play with it.  Fun how the simple things entertain kids.

St. Augustine

Over President's Day Weekend Bo, Boo, and I went to St. Augustine to visit Bo's Aunt and Uncle. We had so much fun.  We took an Old Time Trolley Tour which was great except the gift shop was closed when we returned to the station at 4:30 and many more trolley's were coming in behind us.  Lets just say that company lost money that day.  

Boo loved the trolley and every time it started to take us to another location he call out - All Aboard. It was just adorable. 

 The Fountain of Youth.

The Lightner Museum's only interactive exhibit.  Boo was excellent in one of the oddest museums I have ever been to.  

New Pet

Boo has been wanting a pet for a while and it was pet week at school.  My heart just broke thinking he didn't have a pet to show the class. We went to PetSmart and got a Beta Fish.  Boo has loved her more than you could imagine.  He has tried to pet her, take her out of her bowl and just in general over lover her.  He loves to lay on the kitchen counter and talk to her. We asked him what he wanted to name her - his answer was BOO. Now we have two Boos in the house.

Scratch Off Ticket

I didn't come up with this idea but I thought it was to great not to share.

Start off with card stock stamp or make pretty. Write your message.

Cover with packing tape.

Paint with gold paint and dishsoap mix. 2 to 1 ratio of dishsoap to paint

Scratch off and see what fun message is reveled.

A Funny Thing

Another Dollar Tree find. Michael J. Fox is a very interesting person to write a graduation book since he didn't graduate from high school.  But he wrote an entertaining book about how life can sometimes duplicate the adventures one has in college without going to college.  If you were interested in giving a book as a graduation gift this would be a good choice.

Here's the Deal

Howie Mandel's Book - 

The other day I went to the Dollar Tree for stuff for Boo's birthday and like always I found stuff I didn't need.  I LOVE there book section and I found Howie Mandel's book.  I couldn't pass it up.  I have been wanting to read it for a while.  It was an easy entertaining read.  I loved how honest he was about his OCD and how life happened to him. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read.

Time to Ride the Train

Yes, We rented a train for Boo's Birthday party.  It was so much fun and the kids LOVED it.