Let's go fly a "kite"!

I got this cute idea from my MOMS Club for making homemade "kites" out of plastic shopping bags (Walmart bags), and I wanted to share it now that the weather is great! Make up a few of these on the next wonderful, windy spring day you head to the park!

You will need: 

• 1 Plastic Shopping Bag 
• String and/or Curling Ribbon
• Crepe Paper Streamers
• Scissors
• Stapler

Directions: 

• Cut a piece of string about 2ft long and tie one end to one of the handles on the bag, then tie the other end to the other handle. 
• Cut a piece of curling ribbon or string about 4ft long and tie one end to the center of the 2ft long string already on the bag.
• Cut four pieces of crepe paper streamer, each 2ft long. 
• Staple the streamers to the bottom of the plastic bag
• Hand the end of the 4ft long string/ribbon to your child, and let them run! Enjoy!

The Ultrasound says...

It's a boy!! 

I'm a little late with the announcement since our sonogram was a few weeks ago. It's been a little busy around here, but here are the pictures of our little one, finally!

This is a picture of his face from the 3D ultrasound. His arms are up next to his head. 

I got a few questions about the details, so let me explain it a bit. This is a computer generated image, that means the image is produced by the computer from the information gathered when the ultrasound waves bounce off of the baby and return to the machine (as I understand it). It is not a photograph. The images look like they have been sculpted out of clay because the computer does not pick up all the little details of the face. The baby does have eyes, is about 1lb, and the features are large because the baby has no fat and does not start getting all it's chubby cuteness until the last few weeks before D-day. In case you were curious.

Here is another picture of his face with his little hand on his head.

This picture is 3D in black and white, and it shows the little hands up on his head. This is how he was for most of the ultrasound, I love seeing all his little fingers! It was absolutely amazing to feel him move and see it on the screen at the same time! The feeling was indescribable to watch him on the screen; it was like seeing an angel and wondering what you did to deserve such a gift. 

It was a strange mix of emotions to see him for the first time and know that in a few moments it would be over, and I would have to wait five more months to see him again. It was so bittersweet. I wanted to drink up every moment, and commit to memory the way he moved his hands and how he looked when he stretched. It was amazing.

Sewing Again

I have been doing a little sewing here and there. Here is a sample of my mending pile; I fixed Immy's jeans with two knee patches and hemmed up the legs. I made the patches out of a pillowcase boarder, it turned out kind of Holly Hobby-ish, but it works for a little girl.

I have also made several of these wonderful burp cloths and bibs as gifts for some of the baby showers I have been invited to recently. They turned out so cute! I got the idea from Handmade by Jill, and I like them so much I plan to make some extras for myself.

Not too much more to report, but it's feels great to get back to my sewing. I still haven't started my Cash Envelope Wallet, but I think about it every time I go to the store (and wish I was using it!), so I want to do that next. Oh, if I can just keep my foggy pregnant brain motivated!

Lent 2010: Sacrifice Beans

We have started a new project for Lent as a way to help the kids remember to do little things for others (and behave for Momma), we call them Sacrifice Beans. The way it works is that any time the kids do something nice for someone else (a sacrifice) I put a bean in their jar. If they do something naughty or mean they have to take a bean out. At the end of the week, on Sunday night, we count the beans and the children get a penny for each one.
The system has worked really well in encouraging the kids to do better at home, and we have also seen a wonderful improvement in Immy's behavior at school! The school starts each child with three stars at the beginning of the day, and the kids lose one each time they misbehave, so Immy gets a bean for every star she doesn't get marked off. For the last two weeks she has kept all her stars!


The kids get to keep all their bean from one week to the next, so as long as they gain more than they lose they will get more money each week. This has helped keep them excited about the idea, and since the first week JP had 13 beans and Immy had 17, I'm not really worried about the cost getting too high.

This is not a new idea, and I loosely based our beans on the ones from the book The Year &; Our Children: Catholic Family Celebrations for Every Season. This book has so many wonderful ideas! The author had children of many different ages, so I usually simplify her ideas to work for my young kids. 

Here's how we made ours, we used:

3 glass jars
1lb large Lima beans
A Purple Sharpie permanent marker
2 Small purple Post-it notes
Tape

Use a purple Sharpie to draw a cross on each Lima bean. I only did one side of each bean, because they take a few minutes to dry completely, and it is a bit time consuming. (After an hour of drawing little crosses I decided they didn't really need to have crosses on both sides.) When they are dry place them all in the largest jar.  Make sure your glass jars have been cleaned and dried thoroughly, so that you don't end up with your Lima beans sprouting. Next make the labels for the small jars. I let the kids draw little pictures and put their names on a small purple Post-it note, then we taped them to the jars. Done. You could embellish your jars a lot more and they would be really cute, but I had to go serve dinner at this point. 

I think a pound of Lima beans was a lot more than we needed, so if you are short on time you could probably just do half a pound. I wanted to do extra, because I am planning to use these next year when all three of the kids will be using them.

Recipe Swap: Non-dairy Quiche

This is the wonderful recipe for my Non-dairy Quiche, or as I tell the kids, Dinner Pie. It's so wonderful because it's tasty, easy, and incredibly versatile! the core part of this recipe (3 eggs to 1 cup milk in a pie shell) can be paired with just about any left over meat and veggies. If you have the pre-made rolled pie dough on hand the prep part of this dinner is done in just minutes!

Non-dairy Quiche (Aka: Dinner Pie)

By Bananasbread.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

1 pre-made rolled pie crust or home-made pie crust

1/2 cup cooked Salmon (I use 1 can of wild salmon)

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 cup frozen chopped spinach

3 Eggs

1cup plain Almond milk (You can substitute with Soy milk, Rice milk, or Cow's milk)

1/2 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp dried marjoram

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Olive Oil

(1)Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

(2)Line pie plate with pie crust -follow the directions that came with your crust.

(3)Heat olive oil in a large pan over med heat then add the spinach and onion. Cook and stir until tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt, pepper, marjoram and nutmeg. Set aside to cool.

(4)Mix the salmon with the spinach and onion, and spread it in the prepared pie crust.

(5) Whisk or blend together the eggs and almond milk. Pour into the pie crust.

(6) Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the center is set. Cool slightly before serving, about five minutes.

(7)Serve with salad, or a side of your choice, and enjoy!

I have also added this recipe to Simply Modern Mom's Over-Used Recipe Swap. Go over and check it out!

Over-Used Recipe Swap

Simply Modern Mom is hosting an Over-Used Recipe Swap on her blog. She is collecting 365 recipes from other bloggers, so that we can all have some wonderful new ideas when is comes time to feed our families. I am going to contribute a few, and I can't wait to see all of the other wonderful recipes she can collect! Go over and check them out!