More priceless art!

I was going to wait and post this in a couple days but I'm sooooo excited to show you this and how it turned out.

I know I have posted a lot, so bear with me.

We (we as in the kids) have been painting a lot and I didn't want to just put their art work on a shelf. Or even thrown away.

So I decided to capture some of what they did and put it somewhere I can see it all the time.

I love it.

I love them.

Nevaeh just doing her thing.

 Painting makes him hungry, and makes his fingers red! I should have taken a pic of hime before I washed him. He had paint ALL OVER. 

 A before picture. 

 After! 

 Can you tell what they are? I hope so! If not, that's ok. They are only kids after all. 

Priceless Art

I was so excited to decorate our new house after moving in. Having an idea ready and waiting for every single room. I basically mentally Pinterested my entire house; some my own ideas and others not so much.

I had dreams of an amazing family picture collage in hallway, really neat shelving in the family room, and beautiful art in the kitchen.

Well, fortunately I have Nevaeh and Gray's rooms done and they are too cute. Unfortunately, 2 months later, that's all that is done.

Until now.

Today, my favorite piece of art I have ever hung was placed on the wall today.

I have had a blank canvass for a long time now and I could not decide what to do.

Until today.

My Priceless art.....

Nevaeh painted the top with her hand prints. And Gray painted the bottom with his foot prints. Then I used a permanent marker and wrote this verse. 

 Perfect for their play/school room.

I realized after taking the pics that I forgot the reference to this verse. Don't worry, it's on now. 

I am definitely going to be doing more kids inspired art for the rest of the house. I can't wait. 

minty and fresh

Last night, after having a wonderful BBQ with our church family, I really wanted mints. Who knows why, and not just any mints. But those little square ones that you get at hotels, give out to wedding guests, or you just buy a ginormous bag and eat them yourself.

So I went on an internet hunt to find a recipe... and tracked down a really easy recipe.

I couldn't wait to try these and so that's what I did after church today. I made mints.

Old Fashioned Mints

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar plus 1/4 cup+, if needed
• 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract*
• food coloring, optional

Since you are making a dough, use the paddle arm in a stand mixer and combine the butter and salt for 1 minute on medium high. If you do not have a stand mixer, use a hand mixer. 

Add rest of ingredients and combine until it forms a crumbly dough. It should stick together when pinched or rolled.

****be careful adding the peppermint! Peppermint is a STRONG flavor, so if you want  to add a little more, add a LITTLE at a time. 

It sure is yummy!

You can add the food coloring color you chose, or it can stay white. Nevaeh chose green!

Watching it turn green. 

Roll into golf ball size balls of dough, then roll out to a centimeter size string. Cut through. I used a pizza cutter and it went quick.

Refrigerate for a couple hours so they harden a little. Will last for a couple weeks in an air tight container. Can freeze! 

Note: These don't get super hard like the store bought ones. They have a crisp exterior and a very silky middle. Delicious.

Apple Water Drink

Here is another recipe that I have tried this week. It's a water drink recipe. 

All you do is cut some apples up. With 2-3 cinnamon sticks, place in a gallon jug. Add water on top and let sit for 10 minutes. 

And it is actually pretty good. But because of my aversion to adding flavor to water, I can't just keep drinking it. I drink it occasionally through out the day. 

The apples and cinnamon help boost the metabolism. Also, if you look up health benefits for these two ingredients, the results are through the roof. 

Enjoy! 

Old Fashioned Mints

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar plus 1/4 cup+, if needed
• 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract*
• food coloring, optional

Since you are making a dough, use the paddle arm in a stand mixer and combine the butter and salt for 1 minute on medium high. If you do not have a stand mixer, use a hand mixer.

Add rest of ingredients and combine until it forms a crumbly dough. It should stick together when pinched or rolled.

****be careful adding the peppermint! Peppermint is a STRONG flavor, so if you want  to add a little more, add a LITTLE at a time. 

You can add the food coloring color you chose, or it can stay white. Nevaeh chose green!

roll into golf ball size balls of dough, then roll out to a centimeter size string. Cut through. I used a pizza cutter and it went quick.

Refrigerate for a couple hours so they harden a little. Will last for a couple weeks in an air tight container. Can freeze! 

so good!

I just had to share this recipe with you! It's pinterest inspired, but what isn't these days??

It is so simple and quick enough, we had it for an after-nap snack. The granola part is yummy enough to make on its own for yogurt, cereal, or anything else you like!

Not to mention, it's pretty healthy.

Granola topped baked apples!

• 3-4 apples
• 4 1/2 Tbs butter melted ( I used 3 Tbs butter, and 1 1/2 Tbs coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup oats 
• a little less than 1/2 cup wheat flour (it actually calls for all-purpose flour, but we used this and it was great. If you use all-purpose, use a full 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger

Cut the apple in half. Core the middle out. Combine the other ingredients and spoon on top. Bake 350 for 30 minutes. 

So good. Next time I'm going to cut the apples up a little more and sprinkle the granola on top. These were great, but I had to cut them up anyway for the kiddos.

Also, I have seen so many activities where the kids just stick something in play-doh. That's it. I finally did that with Gray and he loved it. Amazing what keeps them entertained. He did this forever and it was great because it let me sit and catch my breath today. 

a little diy

So today I got the creative bug.

I wanted to be much more creative than this, but with a budget of zero, this is all I had. My vision was to take different styles and sizes of serving trays, paint chalk board paint on them and go from there. At some point, I will go to goodwill and start my search!

Well, this is what I had on hand. Two cheap frames and some scrap book supplies.

Viola! My menu and weekly planning board. 

Love to all! 

just plain old water

These last two weeks have been busy! Oh, my.

Last week Nevaeh started swimming lessons. She's a pro. She dunks her head under water like she can breath under there, jumps in without being helped at all (and I mean at all, even the going under and coming up from the jump), and just enjoys every aspect of swimming.

Buuuuut, we couldn't finish them this week because both kids got pretty sick. :( Sadness.

We did get a couple of pics to document her first ever swimming lessons though!

Water itself is so fascinating and fun to my kids. Just running the hose keeps them occupied for a good amount of time. But this great activity kept them occupied for over an hour. 

I am always trying to find activities that will catch their attention for more than 15 minutes. Especially for after nap hours. Between nap (2:30) and supper (5) seems to be the hardest time of the day for them. I don't know what it is, but I really have to make sure I spend some with God before nap time is over. Otherwise (in the words of my Pastor's wife) I might tear their heads off if I haven't been encouraged by God before heading into this battle.  

Today was so fun though. I have been wanting to try this activity and I randomly did this after giving our dog a bath.

Water painting!!!

 Give them a paint brush and let them go! 

Nevaeh likes to make sure every spot of the cement is wet anywhere we go. That is what she does at the wading pools; spends her time pouring water making the cement wet. This was perfect for her.

 Gray liked being the big man, the one in control of the hose and making sure the buckets were full enough. So I let him at it. He did a good job with his responsibility. 

 Gray also liked making sure Nevaeh's water was dumped so he could fill it back up again.... 

They sure did have fun!