Breakfast

When my mom was visiting this past spring she came across a recipe for Pancake and Waffle Mix in one of my magazines and encouraged me to try it. We eat pancakes or waffles almost every Saturday, and having a homemade mix rather than having to start from scratch every weekend was appealing. Besides, I had not quite found the perfect recipe to satisfy the pancake monsters who reside in our house. All that to say, we tried it and love it!
In our house chocolate chip are a standard addition to pancakes or waffles. I use about 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips in a batch. Today I was feeling adventurous and decided to add some colored jimmies to the waffles, everyone loved the splash of color and it did not effect the taste.

Pancake and Waffle Mix

Dry mix:
7 C flour
1 C sugar
8 tsp baking powder
4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt

Mix ingredients and store in an airtight container up to 3 months.

Pancakes:
2 C mix
1 C buttermilk
1 C milk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Waffles:
2 C mix
1.5 C buttermilk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp melted butter
1.2 tsp vanilla

*I use powdered butter milk, so I add the powder to the dry mix first and then add the wet ingredients and mix.
Also, I have double the original recipe to accommodate our 6 person family. If you follow my directions it makes about 24 pancakes and I can fill my Belgian waffle maker 2.5 - 3 times.

VBS

Today was the last day of VBS. The kids had a great time and Lulu and I had some special time, just the two of us. Here are some pictures from today.

Micah singing with the Kindergartners and First graders

Regan singing A wiki, B wiki, C wiki
I think the A stands for admit, B- believe and C- confess and wiki means quickly, at least that is what the kids said.

Regan on the water slide. I was wishing I had my bathing suit on, it was HOT today!

Regan getting ready to climb the wall

look at her climb!

Max watching

Micah belaying on

And up he goes

I even got in on the action!

(the last 4 pictures were taken by Regan with my Canon D40, not bad for her first time!)

strawberries

While Regan was at the birthday party last night my friend Erica and I spent 2 hours wandering through the isles of Michael's, without kids! I am making curtains for her play room and we went to pick out ribbon for the ties. While we were there we saw these Martha Stewart fabric strawberry stickers, too cute!I think they were like $4 or $5, too rich for my blood! So, I came home and decided to make my own. Here they are!

another party another bag

Regan has another birthday party tonight and this is the gift of choice! We just got the invitation Sunday afternoon, so I have been forcing Kool-aid on my kids all week, yuck! I think we will stick to Caprisun 100% juice from now on! I took lots of pictures to do a tutorial, but I don't have time now. Leave me a comment if you are interested and I will try and post it later.

Isn't this gorgeous?

I saw this skirt today and immediately fell in love! Look at all those ruffles. It is so romantic and I absolutely must make one for myself! I will have to win the lottery first though, the seamstress of this skirt used 22 yards of fabric, not to mention all that silk ribbon! If you want to see more click here.

I hope I never forget...

the cute things my kids say. Like when Max was 2 he said "wes" and "weah" instead of "yes" and "yeah". And today when we were coming home from VBS He was excitedly telling me about his snack of "smarshsmellows" dipped in chocolate (yes, they had a chocolate fountain at VBS, a bit over the top, I know).

Lulu is about to turn two, so she is overflowing with cuteness as she tries to talk... My favorite word of T's is "bo-bo" which is really "elbow". Tonight as I was saying goodnight to the girls I said "I love you, Lulu" to which she replied "I wuv ooo" I think that is the first time I have heard her say that in three distinct words. My baby is growing up!

watching TV

or not!

Muffin Tin Monday

I started this post after lunch and in true Amy fashion, I got distracted and just remembered I never finished the post! I am sure my list bellow is unedited and incomplete, but I had to get my MTM picture up while it was still Monday!Left to Right: Craisins, Ranch, Carrots, crackers with strawberry cream cheese, string cheese, raisins, patriotic gold fish, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, pretzel rods, blueberry bagel and apple.

So, I was inspired by my friend Jen to put all my to do lists together and make a master list for the summer... My brain seem more disorganized than usual lately, so I am not sure how this will turn out, but here goes.....

Make lesson plans for the whole school year (So far I am halfway through the fall semester, not too bad considering it's still June)

Order books and other online school supplies/curriculum

Register and Attend the NOVA home school convention. Buy Konos stuff I still need.

OFFICE MAX: binders, dividers, page protectors, laminating, binding cut off and wholes drilled in Konos book.... you get the point

Finish putting planner together and make schedules (daily, weekly etc.)

Type all (at least the ones in the meal planner) recipes, print and put in binders.

Finish these crafts:
frogs/lily pads
house number mosaic
collage house picture

Go to the pool a lot

Organize and host a going out of business sale

Create with my kids daily

Enjoy my garden and back yard

Just for fun

So, despite my better judgment, I am about to post some embarrassingly bad photos of myself. Hopefully the humor in the following pics will out-weigh how bad they are! And if you look at any of them and think that they do not look "that bad", please don't write to tell me, I would like to keep living under illusion that I do not really look like that!

So, here goes... I have been thinking about cutting bangs. I was watching So You Think You Can Dance the other night, and I love Courtney G's hair! (I am sure that it has something to do with how cute she it too!)

So, here is a picture of me, just regular old me, sitting at my computer. (and yes, I did make the pictures smaller on purpose)

Here is where two incredibly ridiculous pictures should be. You know, the ones from one of those web sites where you upload your picture and then add different hair-do's trying to find the best one for you. If you have not tried it before you really aught to give it a shot, it is worth a few giggles anyway, and Lulu loved seeing mommy's hair change. Anyway, back to my story... Something went wrong and the files were corrupt when I tried to upload my saved pictures. It is probably better for me, honestly, but you are missing out on a good laugh!

This was supposed to be another, not quite as ridiculous, but still pretty bad picture, once again, you loss and my gain!

Finally there was the closest I could come to Courtney G's hair, considering the fact that it was fake internet hair pasted onto my head.

So, I am sorry to have to leave you with my own version of me with fake bangs. I hope you are not too disappointed. I know, I had built it up so much... I am I bit disappointed that the pictures would not upload... or maybe not!

So, what do you think? Bangs or no Bangs?

bag number two

Here is the second bag!This one even has interior pockets

I ran out of pink and purple bags, so this one is only two colors, but I like it!

frog casualty

I have been working on these frogs to make this for a bit now. Two are (were) done and 6 more are cut out and ready to be sewn and filled. The kids were tossing them around today and I guess Micah and Lulu got in to a tug-o-war with this one unbeknownst to me. Such a sad end for this little guy with his fun vintage fabric and all.Other than the frog tragedy, we have had a pretty uneventful day. Had a big breakfast and hung around the house this morning, recycling a box to make masks and getting ready for swim lessons. My friend Helen introduced us to Mrs. Karen, our swim teacher. She is wonderful with the kids and we get private (just Regan, Micah and Max) lessons for the same cost as group lessons at the Y. Lulu loves going down the slide at Mrs. Karen's pool. You can't see it in this pic, but she is standing at the top of the ladder of the Little Tykes slide , getting ready to slide into the pool.

practicing our flutter kick

Action shot, Regan jumping off the diving board. Today she jumped in and swam to the ladder all by herself for the first time, no floaty or anything!

Fearless Max just after he jumped

Max and Lulu took a nap after lunch and I spent the afternoon sewing this bag for Regan's friend Mckenzie. She is having a birthday party tomorrow at the roller skating rink.
This is not my first Caprisun bag. I started out a year ago with basic tote bags, the size of a medium gift bag, with ribbon handles. Last Fall I made a small purse for another birthday gift. This year big bags seem to be all the rage and I keep seeing versions of this large pleated bag, so I though I would try my hand at it Caprisun Style. I think it turned out pretty cute. So cute in fact, Regan does not want to give it away, so now I am busy putting together another one for her, which I may just have to use myself!

Muffin Tin Monday... a little late!

I had fully intended to do this over the weekend so that the post would be up on Monday when we were away, but time got the better of me and we did not get a chance to have our Muffin Tin lunch until today. So, here is my post, sorry it is a bit late!Left to Right: 1. salt water taffy from the beach 2. pear slices 3. ranch dressing 4. carrot sticks 5. peanuts 6. craisins 7. blueberry bagel chunks 8. string cheese 9. cubes of monterrey jack 10. peanut butter 11. apple slices 12. pistachios

OBX

Just a little peek at our trip to OBX
The First Colony Inn, where we stayed.

Our room

Shells on the beachI've never seen the water so green on the east cost!Pirate putt-putt. We found our favorite t-shirt of the trip at this place. It was a pirate shirt that read "the beating will continue until moral improves" Leave it to the beach shops to glorify everything depraved! Jockey's Ridge

All tuckered out

Phil and I got back from our little getaway this afternoon. We had a great time, I will post pictures from the trip tomorrow, but I could not resist posting this one now!

We put the kids to bed about 8pm and headed out the the back yard to sit in the hammock for a bit. It is a beautiful night here, 75 degree's with a nice breeze, hard to believe it is the middle of June! Anyway, we just came it to call it an early night ourselves and found this... I snapped the picture before Phil woke him up to take him back to bed. Turns out he was looking for me to tell me he loves me, so sweet!

Happy Father's Day!

Remember these?
Phil got to unwrap them today. I got the idea here
Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Phil and I are going away for two nights, without the kids! We haven't done that since Micah was born. I am not sure we will know what to do with ourselves at the beach without kids! I am bringing a book and plan to sleep in, play games and even have a couple of quiet dinners with my hubby! Be back on Wednesday.

Things I love about Saturday...

Sleeping in and unmade bedsChocolate chip pancakesYard Sales
Look at today's great finds!

and this

This sweet little nest matches the mirror

The kids found a new hiding place :)

Aren't they so sweet?

Shhh, don't tell...

We have had some busy little hands in our house..... Wouldn't you love to see what's inside?Sorry, you'll just have to wait!