A Sweet Treat; Fresh Apple Caramel Crumble

As we all know, children love dessert. They love candy and chocolate and sugars and sweets but those things just aren't good for us. I try to teach my kids about healthy eating but sometimes a little sweet snack after dinner does sound amazing. Here is one of my quick desserts that I call the Fresh Apple Caramel Crumble. It is very easy to make, there is no baking, the apple aspect of it is healthy and it is pretty darn yummy! So here is are the instructions:

Directions and ingredients for crumb mixture:

1/4 cup flour

1/8 cup sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons cold butter

Mix flour, sugar and brown sugar together then cut butter with knife or fork until the mixture forms lumps. 

The Olive Garden at home anniversary special!

Lettuce with Roma tomatoes, Olives, Onions,
Pepperocini, and salad dressing (recipe below)
The Country Cook's Olive Garden Dressing Recipe

Homemade Zuppa Toscana (my favorite!)
    Food.com Zuppa Toscana

So as some of you may know my husband and I recently celebrated our anniversary. On October 4, 2002 we officially became boyfriend and girlfriend. Me and my romantic side decided that I wanted to get married on our 5th year anniversary so on October 4th, 2007 we officially became husband and wife. We have been together for 10 years now and during that 10 years we have experienced marriage in its fullest. For better or for worse; We have had our share of joyous moments and we have had double heapings of desperate times. From becoming teen parents to becoming a military family, it has certainly been quite a ride. You also have to figure in all of the other catastrophes that tend to plague my life as if Murphy's Law only applies to me. For richer and poorer; We have definitely had our times of financial stability and then times where we had no idea how we would even get food on the table. With three growing little boys that seem to eat like black wholes and expand as quickly as the universe, finances are not exactly in surplus.  Through sickness and health; when I was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago we never imagined it would have been such a battle. I am on my 3rd recurrence in 3 years and sometimes I just feel as though it will never go away and that this battle will just turn into a war. Don't get me wrong, I am still opening a can of kung fu whoop (ahem*) so no worries I am peaches :) but it has still caused a great deal of stress. But even through all of the tribulations we have still come out on top every time and that is something worth celebrating. Especially in a time where so many couples call it quits without even trying to fix it. I believe in the notion that if something is broken you fix and not throw it away. There is something so very special about having someone so close and intimate, that can share in almost half of your life. That builds memories and a family with you and is with you until the end. So in honor of that, this blog is for you Sweetlove! Being such an extreme family person I decided to celebrate our anniversary with the entire family. What better way than to make Olive Garden at home and have a fantastic family dinner? I made Zuppa Toscana, a salad (equipped with the homemade Olive Garden dressing) and of course store bought Homemade Lasagna :) (hey its my anniversary I didn't want to be in the kitchen ALL day lol) I of course decorated it represent Italian decor. Below I have included links to the recipes that I made and i can personally attest that they are extremely close if not the actual recipes! 

The Lasagna I slaved over all day

 

Look how much love the sky felt for us on our anniversary <3 

                   

  

Happy Hauntings

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN! It is that time of year when leaves turn beautiful shades of rustic reds, oranges and yellows. When sweaters come out, sandals go in and hot cocoa is purchased in ample supply. I love the changing seasons. I really cannot choose a favorite because they all have so much to offer. But even though Summer brings heat, for some reason Autumn offers warmth. Perhaps it is because I know Thanksgiving is coming and family and friends come just a bit closer. I think everyone's heart gets a bit warmer with that thought. Of course there are other reasons for excitement too.  As usual I get ridiculously exhilarated over any chance to do a new craft. Of course the husband teases me and acts as though I am some cracked out crafter. With Fall here and Halloween just around the corner there is much to do. From decorations to costumes there is more than enough on my plate. This year Christian and Malachi want to dress up as characters from the video game "Plants Vs. Zombies." It is actually a rather funny cartoon game where zombies are about to attack and you need to plants various plants to defend the homestead. It should be no surprise that Malachi (who is close to copywriting the color green) wants to be the Squash from the game while Christian wants to be the Zombie. Isaiah, of course, sets his expectations high and wants to be an actual transforming Optimus Prime Transformer. Unfortunately they do not make these costumes for purchasing and even if they did I really don't want to spend $60+ in costumes. Being my frugal self that means it is time for Mommy to roll up her sleeves and get crafty! I have posted some pictures of what the characters look like.

 

          

Malachi's costume was fairly easy to assemble. I purchased some green fabric for $2 at the local thrift store. I folded it in half and hot glued the pieces opposite of the fold end together. Next I cut out two large half circles (with a small space in between the circles) in the middle of bottom fold for his legs. I cut out a very large half circle in the direct middle of the upper hot-glued seam for his head to go through and cut circles near the top on both sides for arm holes. I then cut a small straight line halfway down the back so he can get in and out and added left over ribbon on both sides of the slit to tie the costume together. I formed the fabric to look like a squash shape and hot glued the sides together. Next I drew the face on the fabric and voila I had the basis of his costume.    

         

                                                                    

 Next comes Christian and his Zombie costume. This was really easy. I paper mached a head for him from a balloon with newspaper and a flour water mixture. Once it had ample time to dry I cut out a mouth so that Christian could see out of it. I picked up a can of gray spray paint for $0.59 (you can't beat that!) and after I finished spray painting, I drew on the face with other paints I had laying around the house. I was able to get him a church jacket from the thrift store for $1. He already had a tie, white shirt, jeans with holes in them and shoes so we are pretty set!  


                                                      
       

 Finally comes Isaiah's transforming Optimus Prime transformer costume. This has taken up a  lot of time for sure. You will need a lot of small-medium boxes, duct tape, hot glue, paint and an over abundance of wine patience :) Now obviously this will vary a bit from person to person but here is what I did. I took a big double pack box of Honey Nut Cheerios for the chest, two 12 pack cases of pop (or soda for all those who probably have no idea what I mean. Sorry, it's a Pittsburgh thing) for the legs. Two small boxes for the arms (you could probably use something a little bigger than a rectangular tissue box) and another large box that will attach to the back but will become the front of the car when in the lying position. After 1 roll of duct tape, 1 bag of hot glue sticks, 1 bottle of Riunite Lambrusco (not required but it helps a lot) and some crazy engineering skills you will have yourself the basis of a costume! Next comes an INSANE amount of painting and a couple tablets of Aleve for arthritis you are now developing in your hand. At the end of the day, I don't think I spent more than $10 dollars for all of their costumes. It was a lot of effort but my kids love them. Thanks for your time to look at my blog. I hope I may have persuaded some of you to save your money & get crafty!

                

The Best Bath...

Hello all! Thanks for dropping by to check out the best way to an oatmeal bath. As I have mentioned before I have 3 amazing little boys. Unfortunately two of them (Chris and Ki- "The Twins") suffer from Eczema. Eczema is a long term (chronic) skin disorder that involves itchy and scaly rashes. Often times their skin is extremely dry. It can get so bad that sometimes it will feel like sand paper. It is really uncomfortable for them.  :(  I have to be very careful with which lotions I use on them and how much water exposure they can have, which kind of fabrics they can wear and even how to dry them off after a bath. Sometimes despite my efforts, the rash gets unmanageable. Today we played outside on the slip n slide for awhile so their skin got kinda bad. One thing that can help alleviate the dryness is an oatmeal bath. As many of you know Oatmeal baths can be extremely soothing especially to dry skin. Bath time in my house is already a disastrous event. It requires the amusement park sign "YOU WILL GET WET ON THIS RIDE." I am always completely drenched. With their skin condition they should really only bath every other day but they LOVE their baths so it is a complete fight to get them out. I am soaked and all the towels are wet. The bathroom is trashed. It makes matters much worse when there is oatmeal involved.  It is great but it leaves a DISASTER.  So I came up with an pretty great solution with a few different uses.  I take the oatmeal and place it in a sock. I attach the sock to the faucet and let the water run through the now "oatmeal sock." (patent pending lol ) I know this will sound weird but I actually use the cream oatmeal. Yes, I put "strawberries n cream" oatmeal in my babies' bath. The milk and oatmeal make the bath water so silky. When their skin is really bad I also add a tablespoon of Coconut oil to the sock as well. It really works so well. After the bath is filled up I removed the sock and twist it so none of the contents fall out. I use the oatmeal sock as the loofah. It is so soft and doesn't agitate the skin at all! It is amazing. And afterwards the tub is pretty clean!. (of course you still gotta rinse it down as usual, but you don't have hundreds of little oats stuck to the sides. When you are all done you can dump the sock contents into the garbage and wash the sock. I hope you try this out and thanks for reading. 

Summer Shakedown...Murphy's Law Strikes Again!

        Do you remember in my first blog when I told you how no matter how much planning I do something almost always goes wrong? Well I figured I would give a fine example while also giving some fun ideas for welcoming your school aged student to summer break! As a surprise I decided I would ambush my son with water balloons as he came stepping off the bus from his last day of school. I filled up water balloons for a half hour and decorated the back of my car to say "Welcome To Summer!" Chris and Ki were more than willing to help with the task of filling the balloons with water to prepare for their big brother's ambush. We filled A LOT. I could not wait to arrive up the hill at his bus stop with the back of my vehicle facing the road for him to read. I had the bin full of balloons sitting in the seat ready for attack. Chris and Ki were in their swimming trucks waiting for the water balloon fight. Everything was perfect. As I was about to get in the car to drive up to the bus stop I received a phone call....

Chris and Ki helping fill balloons.

 

Ok, So here is where Murphy's Law is always rearing its ugly face in my direction. As I said, I got a phone call. It was the school. My son missed the bus and he was waiting up at the office. The secretary informed  me that they had already tried calling about  15 minutes earlier but since I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off I left the phone inside and missed the call. My heart sank. At that moment all that was in my head was my poor baby is up at the school by himself waiting. What a horrible mother I am. I threw Chris and Ki in the car. I buckled them all up (including the patiently waiting bin of water balloons) and headed up to the school. Luckily the school is only about 1 1/2 miles away so I was there fairly quickly. As soon as I arrived at the school I realized Chris and Ki were still only in their swim trunks. No shirts. No shoes. Just wet swimming trunks. Crap. Obviously I can't leave my babies in the car so I unbuckled my half nude boys and the three of us walked proudly into Topsail Elementary School...soaking wet. Now at this point embarrassment took a backseat to retrieving my sweet baby who was waiting patiently for us in the office. I do not think I will ever forget the look on his face when his brothers and his mom walked into school in their bathing suits. He looked confused. So confused. As soon as I knew I had him and he was safe I was wondering how I could possibly make up for not being able to ambush him. I mean the surprise is going to be blown as soon as he sees the car, hops in and wonders why there is a bin of water balloons buckled safely in his seat. Luckily, I parked close to the entrance so as soon as we made it out the door I booked it to the car. Looking back now Isaiah probably thought his mother was crazy. I made it to the car and grabbed a balloon, I turned around and whipped it at his feet. He cracked up immediately and asked where I got it. I showed him the entire bin of balloons and told him that we were to have a water balloon fight when he got home. He was so excited. We got home and the war started. Even though things certainly did not pan out the way it did in my head I still think this will be a memorable last day of school for Isaiah. From missing the bus and waiting in the office, to family arriving at school in drenching wet bathing suits with a major water balloon fight at the end--this certainly will be something I will never forget. It would be nice for things to work out how I plan them... but if they did it wouldn't be MY life. My life is full of quirks, imperfections and at times catastrophes but it also adds come color and some definite lasting memories. Below is a list of ideas you can do to surprise your little one on their last day of school! Happy Summer Everyone!

Last Day Of School Celebration Ideas or Inspirations

• Water Balloon Ambush
• Silly String Ambush
• A Run Through Banner saying "Schools Out" , "Congrats" , "Welcome to Summer" or whatever you can think of!
• Place a banner and hook up all of your outdoor water toys for when they arrive.
• Go on a surprise trip as soon as they arrive.

I truly hope I gave you all a little laugh today and hopefully some inspiration on how to make the last day of school special. I spent $2.50 for supplies (balloons and car paint) so it didn't break the bank. Thanks again for reading! HAPPY SUMMER!!!

A Couple Quick Tips

            As some of you may expect cleaning in my household is a never ending battle. Laundry is probably the worst of the household chores. With three very active boys the laundry pile seems like an endless abyss. Then there is the joy, nay, the pleasure of putting it all away. But despite all my effort my nice neat drawers get destroyed when one of my little tornadoes decides he needs his favorite shirt. (sigh)  A few months ago I was looking on Pinterest (LOVE THAT SITE)and found this wonderful tip from Simple Organized Living


 She folded her clothes and set them sideways in the drawer so you could see each and every shirt. This has been a miracle in my children's  disaster area bedroom. I make one small change when it comes to folding the shirts though. I fold them like how they do in department stores so you can fully see the t-shirt design. Ultimately it looks like this:     

                       

                                              

  

See it works for jeans too!

     Another cool little money saving tip that some of you may already do involves your bathroom waste basket. I stopped wasting money years ago on the little garbage bags that fit those small waste paper baskets. Instead I use plastic grocery bags. Saves money and clean up is super easy.Well there you have it, here are just two tips for saving time and money while staying more organized. 

The Business of Boys

   As many of you already know I have 3 extremely crazy and rambunctious boys. The stuff they come up with on a daily basis, astounds me. At 4 and 6 years old they have already started to prank me...so not cool. From jumping around the corner and scaring the crap out of me to leaving fake poop on the toilet seat, my days are of endless wonder. 

Growing up I used to love the movie "Overboard" starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Now, I watch the movie and the similarities between that movie and my life scare me. I mean we even had the pet turtle and one of my kids sometimes sounds like Pee Wee Herman. But through them I also get constant amusement. They have yet to super glue my hands to plates but I fear one day that will come so I try to come up with activities to keep them busy thus hindering their ability to plot war against me. :)

                                                                               Today, I decided I would take Chris and Ki to the woods and resume construction on the fort. They love going there and usually it's a race to get there. I love going there because it provides a good amount of entertainment for them, it's great exercise moving all the tree logs and branches, and it is absolutely free! Since I am in no way an architect, I find myself trying to figure out ways to make the fort sturdy. Obviously, years of Lincoln Logs have provided no true experience but I found myself trying to stack all the logs that way anyway. After many failed attempts to build my giant fort lincoln log style, I knew I needed to figure out a different way of doing it and doesn't involve power tools. (not that I have any objection to power tools, I just don't think the extension cord would reach) So I decided to stack all the logs in between standing trees thus creating an armature for our fort. This worked out much better. The boys diligently followed me through the woods and did a fantastic job carrying sticks and informing me when there was a spider on one. They also got quite a bit of amusement sword fighting with the twigs and creating their very own imaginary fire. At one point ,to their dismay, I accidentally stepped on their "fire." To alleviate any rising tension and potential melt down, I immediately started screaming "AHHHHH..my feet they burn help help help." At that point Chris and Ki started blowing on my feet and laughing hysterically. Meltdown avoided.

 After awhile they were ready to call it a day and let me know how "starving" they were. On our walk back to the house Christian wanted to race Malachi. Both boys suffer asthma, but Malachi definitely has a bit of a tougher time so he wasn't really up for the challenge. Christian was upset so I asked Christian's left foot to race Christian's right foot. Both feet accepted the challenge and ran off. Malachi and I kept a steady pace and made it home, where we were met by Chris. He was lying in the grass panting and building up to his climactic death(he is my dramatic child.) All in all, I think they had a pretty fun morning. 

Malachi (red shirt) and Christian (blue shirt) showing off the construction masterpiece.

   

Thanks for reading <3 Christina <3