November 30, 2012

Kiwi Crate Review

I first heard of Kiwi Crate through a friend. It looked interesting and like something Marley would enjoy, but at the time it was a little too pricey for us.  With Mike starting his new job, I decided to splurge on a monthly subscription for Marley. 

Her November box arrived the other day and she dove right in. It was the Carnegie Hall Making Music Crate.  Each box has 2-3 crafts in it. This one had a xylophone and rhythm bells.  The crafts are geared towards 3-7 year olds and each comes with instructions (with pictures)  Marley needed very little help from me once I read her the instructions. 


Getting started. Apparently Zeus had to check it out too. 








Done, now it's music time. 




She played a "song" and then immediately asked to do the next one. 





Done with the rhythm bells. Now it's time to rock out! (Marley loves rock n roll music so I'm sure she thought she was playing rock n roll) 



Overall, I think Marley really enjoyed this, and it only took her about 15-20 minutes to make both crafts. I'm excited to see the December one! 

Does anyone else subscribe to Kiwi Crate? If you want to try it out, they're having lots of holiday specials right now, and I have a coupon if anyone is interested.

Want to sign up? Just click here. 

November 29, 2012

Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops

Here's my latest Pinterest Recipe- Ranch Pork Chops


All you need for this is 

Pork Chops
1- Can of cream of chicken soup 
(original recipe says you can use 2 cans of cream of chicken or use 1 can and 1 can of water)
packet of powder ranch dip


Just combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. 

If I were you, I would mix the soup, water and ranch before adding the pork chops. I put the chops in first, but then it was a little difficult to mix up the other stuff. 



This isn't the best picture because I ate some first and then remembered I needed to take a picture. 


On the original recipe her sauce looks pretty thick. Mine, however, was very runny. I assume it's because I used a can of water instead of the 2 cans of soup. Next time, I will use 2 cans of soup and see if it's thicker.


Overall, the pork chops were very good and my family of 3 eaters ate all 7 pork chops (Mason does have 6 teeth, but he doesn't count yet)

November 28, 2012

Mexican Chicken Casserole

This week, when I did my grocery shopping I made my list from my pinterest food board so get ready for lots of recipes in the next week. First up is Mexican Chicken Casserole.


1 (10.75 oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 (10.75 oz) can cheddar cheese soup
1 (10.75 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (4 oz) can green chilies
1 whole chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken (I used cubed chicken, but it would of probably been better with shredded chicken)
11.5 oz package flour tortillas
2 cup shredded cheddar cheese


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together the three kinds of soup, and chilies. Stir in the chicken.


In a greased 13 x 9- inch pan, layer the tortillas and the chicken mixture, beginning and ending with tortillas.


Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes.




I had two helping of this, but it wasn't my favorite. Mike told Marley this was probably the best thing I've ever made so apparently it is his new favorite!

November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving

My side of the family had our Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We had a good time, and the night ended with some games and some tears. 


Mason and his cousin Tristan. Mason is 20 days older and 3 lbs lighter. 


I didn't get any pictures while everyone was there because I was too busy stuffing my face. 



Playing some Disney Trivia. 

And this is how the night ended. It was close to 11pm and Marley was upset because Julia wouldn't play with her so she just sat in the toy room and pouted. =(


Mason crashed out fairly early on his great grandma's lap. 



November 26, 2012

Bottle Cap Stamp Craft

I'm always looking for ways to keep Marley occupied during the day. She could sit and watch tv or play her DS all day if we let her.  Saw this idea on pinterest and thought she would enjoy it since she loves to paint and draw. My aunt actually had the bottle caps, but they're just off milk and gatorade. Then I picked up the foam stickers at Wal-Mart for $1. At the time I wasn't really thinking, but I can't use all the letters because once you stick them on the caps and stamp with them, they are backwards- oops!  I did the letters I could and just let Marley play with the rest of the letters. 


Very easy, just stick the letters on the caps and voila! 




November 23, 2012

Jack- Week Two

Night Eight


Listening to the radio


 Night Nine
Sitting in Mason's seat


Night Ten
Coloring


Night Eleven
Playing guitar


 Night Twelve
Hanging from the ceiling fan. 

Night Thirteen 
We watched the movie Up the other day so I thought Marley would like this. However, the balloons were almost on the ground by morning. 


See all our elf adventures here





November 16, 2012

Jack- Week One

Night One

His first night out and he didn't even make it back inside before morning! When Marley woke up and saw this she screamed and ran back into her room crying. She wouldn't leave her room until I came up there and carried her downstairs. She is terrified of him! Maybe if he's doing more fun stuff she'll like him a little better. 


Night Two

Going fishing. Marley come down and went to the bathroom and didn't say anything, so when Mike went in there he noticed that Jack was swimming with the fishes. So he set him back up there while Marley was searching the house for Jack and she eventually saw him. All day she was talking to him and laughing because he was on the tub in the dark. Much better reaction to him today than yesterday. 

Night Three

Roasting marshmallows. Marley immediately saw him up on the stove and thought it was so funny that he was roasting a marshmallow. She wanted me to light his candle/fire for him though! 

Night Four

Just going for a ride with a sock monkey on a dinosaur.


Night Five

It took Marley a while to find him here but when she did she cracked up laughing. She seemed a little happy that since he was in there he couldn't actually see her. 

Night Six  

Going for a ride on a remote control truck. Thanks for the help baby doll. 

Night Seven 


Just hanging out on the towel bar in the bathroom. 

I'm already running out of ideas of what to do with him. I think our biggest problem is that you can't touch him, so I can't put him anywhere that will require us to have to move him. I've seen ideas online of things to do, but we don't have a lot of extra tables or places to set him that would allow him to stay there all day. Maybe once we get our Christmas decorations up that will help a little too. 

Is anyone else doing the Elf on the Shelf this year? I would love to hear some other ideas of what to do with him.

See all our elf adventures here.


November 14, 2012

It's for the birds

Marley and I did a quick little craft project today after she brought home some bird food from school. (She had a field trip last week to Chesterton Feed & Garden and they gave each kid a bag of bird food).

First, you need some used toilet paper rolls, peanut butter, bird food, something to spread peanut butter with, and something to lay the bird food out on.


I spread the peanut butter on the t.p. rolls first. I did it pretty thick for a few reasons, one- because I wanted the bird food to stick good, and two- I knew I wouldn't be using this jar of p.b. again so I figured I wouldn't waste it.


Next, I passed the roll off to Marley and she rolled it all over in the bird food. Making sure to smoosh it down good so the food sticks. 



That's it! Then we just bundled up and went outside and slid them over tree branches. We put them where we could see them from inside so Marley could watch them if a bird does come.



It took us about 10 minutes from start to finish and was free since I already had p.b. and t.p. rolls.