Welcome Summer Party

Last day of school - welcome summer!


(Max wrote "the tyrant's are out of power!" - the child who wrote "scool's out" is going to summer school)

Sexy Mommy Fail

This week's weigh in is not pretty.

Caroline - lost 2 pounds! Total weight loss 5 pounds!
Susan - Abstained
Heather - Abstained
Stacey - lost 0.2 pounds. Total weight loss 7 pounds.

Heather had my sister in town this last week and went on a culinary tour of Salt Lake. She also had a birthday party for my cute nephew. Susan was worried about me and some crappy things I found out about this week and did some nervous/worried eating (that's kind of sweet of her huh?). I just did not do well. I'm thinking I am going to have to add exercising to my routine and finding a way to do that is kind of intimidating.

The kids finished school on Friday. We had a big Welcome to summer party - the kids are thrilled and I am . . . not prepared. My summer is going to be insane. I have 8 children here very single day with drop ins every week. I have a lot of older boys here all summer and I am looking for a basketball hoop for the cul-de-sac and a couple of soccer nest for the side yard. It is going to be a very, very busy summer. My car only seats 5 in the back which means we are at the mercy of friends if we want to ever leave the house. So far I have a friend who is going to drive my kids on Wednesdays so we can go to the free movies together and I am looking for someone who might be willing to drive my kids to the Art Park on Tuesdays so we could all go to the free summer kids programs there.

I have classes I need to take this summer for the daycare and I am expecting unannounced visits from the state and the food program this summer as well. My kids are going to spend some time out in Idaho with my parents in late July/August. Crazy. This summer is going to be crazy.

PS I ate the salad above several times last week. Spring greens, peppers, cucumbers, chicken and avocado with poppy seed dressing. Really good.

Preschool Piggy Bank Craft

I'm going to be honest here - I'm not sure I would make this craft with young children again. It is too hot-glue dependent.

Give each child a plastic bottle on which you have cut out a rectangle with an exacto knife. This is where the money goes in so test it with a quarter to make sure you have made it large enough.


Have each child find a cap that fits their bottle and four matching caps for the feet.


With a sharpie marker draw two large dots on the cap for the nose.


Have the kids cut out a piece of patterned paper for the body of their pig and glue it on.

Glue the feet to the bottom with hot glue.


Have the children add the eyes - I put on dabs of hot glue but you could use elmers.


Next have the kids glue the ears together - just two different patterns of paper cut into leaf shape. Fold down the bottom 1/2 inch and then glue them to the top of the pig's head.


Give each child 1/2 of a chenille stick and have them wrap it around a pencil to make it curly. Use hot glue to attach it to the rear of your pig.


Give each child some pennies and let them fill their banks!

So Proud of You

Last week I walked over to the school with two babies and four preschoolers to attend the Math Awards at Red Pine. Max received an award for being on the Math Olympiad Team, for scoring in top 10% of Math Olympians world-wide, a blue ribbon for having the top 4th grade score at Red Pine and another for being accepted into Math Masters next year. Go Max!

Sexy Mom Weight Loss Update

We are still in this race even though I have completely failed at keeping you updated. Here are the results from Sunday's weigh-in.

Susan - Lost 2.0 pounds this week! Total Loss: 6.0 pounds!
Stacey - Lost 2.0 pounds this week! Total Loss: 6.8 pounds!
Heather - Lost 2.0 pounds this week! Total Loss: 5.2 pounds!
Caroline - Lost 1.0 pounds this week! Total Loss: 3.0 pounds!

I am the first to admit this is hard. My plans on making new meals and photographing them for the blog fell by the wayside as I try and keep up with end of the school year activities and soccer. The reality of my life is there is little to no time for cooking other than preparing meals for all the kids - breakfast, lunch and after-school snack. My own kids usually have fruit, yogurt and a sandwich for dinner (if they are lucky) as we are running out the door to soccer. I buy a ton of apples and bananas and clementines because they are easy to grab when we are going to miss dinner. The other reality is that I am tired. The last thing I want to do at the end of a very long day is to cook an elaborate meal.

I have been eating much better. Lots and lots of fruit - especially strawberries and cantaloupe. I have had a smoothie almost every day and I need to find time to get back to Trader Joe's for more frozen pineapple. I am obsessed with Greek yogurt and eat a ton of it with fruit and dry cereal or granola. I have to pee all the time. I have found if I buy a rotisserie chicken at the store and remove the chicken into Tupperware, cut up peppers and cucumbers and other vegis and have them ready in the fridge then it is much more likely I will quickly throw a salad together. the trick is to be prepared.

I am having sweets once in a while. Last night was book club (I took the kids with me this time as Max's soccer was canceled due to rain - I hate bringing the kids to book club) and Tiffany made this amazing sticky pudding. It was a 10 on the yum scale so I ate every bite.

Here are a couple of things I've been eating. This is a fish taco - I just took some grilled white fish, tossed it with pineapple salsa and wrapped it in a tortilla with tomatoes and spinach.


This is a vegetarian lasagna that I made - the serving sizes are HUGE (and only 250 calories) and it is really good and filling.


Here is the basic lasagna recipe (I just made this up, so feel free to add different vegis) for 9X13 pan with high sides. This made 12 servings. For the sauce I sauteed an onion, a bunch of asparagus, one container baby bella mushrooms sliced and a red pepper (all chopped of course) in a little olive oil. Then I took one jar of roasted red peppers and garlic in water (drain) and pureed them in the blender. I also pureed three cans of stewed tomatoes. Combine and simmer with some fresh chopped parsley.

For the filling I used one thing of tofu drained and crumbled (I think I bought firm), one 10?15? oz jar part-skim ricotta, three eggs, a whole bunch of fresh spinach chopped, fresh dill, one cup shredded Italian cheeses, salt and pepper. Stir until combined.

To assemble you need one package of whole wheat lasagna noodles (do not pre-cook because it is a waste of time). Pour one cup sauce on the bottom of pan and add one layer of lasagna noddles. Then, take 2 zucchini and slice them lengthwise into long noodles. Layer them on and then add half the cheese/tofu mixture. Add more whole wheat noodles, cheese mixture, then the rest of the sauce and then on the very top, spread 2 cups of shredded reduced fat mozzarella. Bake covered at 350 for and hour. Uncover and keep baking until the lasagna noodles are cooked through and the top is a nice golden brown (about another 1/2 hour).

Let sit for about 15 minutes before cutting. This recipe freezes really well.

Preschool Craft - Birds in a Nest

I'm playing catch-up today. It is pouring rain outside so we will be spending our day indoors and hopefully getting a lot done. My "messy desk pile" is overflowing.

This is a craft we did a couple of weeks ago and it is a good one for a young crowd.

Start by cutting paper plates in half. Give each child one half and have them color it brown. You can use crayons, markers or paint - we went with markers and used a mixture of brown, black and yellow. You want to cover the entire plate.


Next, glue the paper plate half to the bottom of a sheet of construction paper turned on its side. Set aside to dry.


In the meantime, we are going to make birds. Cut out some rounded rectangles from different colors of construction paper. Let each child choose three.


Give each child six googly eyes and have them glue them on - you could also just use markers. when working with very young children, I like to make the little dabs of glue and just have them stick the eyes on.


Next give each child six feathers and have them glue them on the sides of their birds. They will also need three triangles (cut from construction paper scraps) to glue on as beaks.


When dry, glue the birds inside their nest and you are done!

Monster Cake

WHAT HAPPENED WITH BLOGGER?!!? I had big plans on updating today, but blogger was down since last night and now I am off to soccer with the kids. I'll have to try to update late tonight, but I'll leave you with photos of the birthday cake I made this weekend. The party was for a one year old and the theme was monsters!

Homemade chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache between the layers, chocolate sour cream icing . . . covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. I tried to match the colors to the party invitations.


I'm linking this up to the Shabby Nest because I spend every Friday browsing through the great ideas people submit!

I'm Drowning

Cyber Friends,

I have all sorts of crafts and recipes and photos to share, but soccer, end of school year stuff, daycare paperwork, a cake order for this weekend, watching a baby overnight from Monday through Saturday and preparing a lesson for Sunday have wiped me out. Cross your fingers that I can get everyone to nap at the same time tomorrow!

Thank you for your sweet comments and encouragements.


I'm telling you - take all photos from above. I'm going to start making people stand on a chair if they want to include me in a photo.

Memorial Day at Fort Snelling

The perfect place to visit on Memorial Day. We met up with friends and enjoyed a few hours learning about our military past and present. The kids loved it - especially Max!

If You Please

I'd like a week off to lounge by some lovely pool with no children and an endless supply of smoothies so I can read this stack of books. I have a feeling several of these will head back to the library without being read.