Menu Plan Monday

Darren is back after a week-long trip to California for a few conferences. The kids and I survived by keeping busy and having friends over.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with our AWF community on Friday. Last year the Thanksgiving dinner was about 35 people, including children. This year we had 60 people. It was a good thing we had already found a bigger facility to fit everyone. It was a lot of work pulling together a dinner for this many people, but it turned out well. Good food, good fellowship! What can beat that?!

We are coming up on Joshua's birthday next Monday. This Saturday we are having a little party with a small group of friends. I have lots of work left in the planning, but hopefully things will come together in the next few days. I can hardly believe my little boy is turning 6 already.

Well, on to the menu for the week.

• Monday -- Crunchy Tacos
• Tuesday -- Garlic Lime Shrimp
• Wednesday -- Loosemeat Sandwiches
• Thursday -- Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Friday -- Pasta Tortelloni /w Broccoli
• Saturday -- Beef Sesame Noodles

Check out more great meal ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Happy Monday!

Menu Plan Monday

My friend Emily (Miss Mommy) had her baby this week, little Elizabeth Sophia (Lizzie). I was so excited to get a call in the middle of the night on Thursday to stay with her two kids while they headed to the hospital. They were home by noon the next day with a beautiful, baby girl ... CRAZY! In Scotland, they let you leave the hospital as early as 6 hours after the baby is born. Nice to be able to recover at home in comfort. Congratulations, Josh and Emily!

This Saturday was Guy Fawkes Night (a.k.a. Fireworks Night or Bonfire Night). We joined several friends for a BBQ, followed by a walk down to the big Bonfire and Fireworks show. This was the first year the kids were not scared at all and really enjoyed themselves. We also got to try sparklers for the first time. Great evening!

For this week's Thursdays evening "Kid's Cook", Joshua and Abigail choose spaghetti and meatballs. We'll see how it goes. I haven't really had them working with raw meat before, but they should enjoy rolling the meat balls.

Here is the menu for the week.

• Monday -- Pasta Tortelloni /w Broccoli
• Tuesday --  Garlic Lime Shrimp
• Wednesday - - Loosemeat Sandwiches
• Thursday -- Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Friday -- Crunchy Tacos
• Saturday --   Sausage and Bean Stew
• Sunday -- Lasagna

Check out more great meal ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Happy Monday!

Pumpkins!!!

This was a weekend of family pumpkin carving. This was the first year we decided to actually carve the pumpkins instead of just painting or coloring them. The kids each chose their pumpkin from the purchases early in the week, and browsed the various websites offering free face templates to see what they liked.

  

After the tops were removed, the kids were let loose cleaning out their own pumpkins. Joshua was very unsure about getting all gooey, but Abigail jumped right in.

  

Darren designed Joshua's pumpkin, based on his requests for triangles, teeth and eyebrows. 

Do those eyes look a little like a StarTrek comm badge???

While mommy and daddy carefully carved the pumpkins, the kids sorted all the pumpkin seeds for roasting. Abigail found a recipe in her cook book that included dinner rolls sprinkled with pumpkin seeds that she wanted to make. And Joshua choose several seeds that he wants to save for planting next year. I didn't have the heart to tell him that we probably won't be here next year to see the pumpkins grow...

The kids were so pleased with their finished pumpkins.
We selected some candles and lit them to see their pumpkin-y smiles!

These cute smiley faces greeted our trick-or-treaters last night!