Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope it's been a good week at your house.  It's been a busy, but great, week at ours.  It seemed like we were all busy all week and are ready for the weekend.  The best parts of our week were:

1. Find mom. Sit on mom.  Leo grabbed a blanket, said I was his best friend and then plopped himself down on my lap.  My favorite part of the weekends!  Snuggles, big breakfasts and getting to stay in our pjs a little longer are my favorite.

2. Strolling the mall.  The older kids love to walk through the mall.  Olive would love these perfect brown Jordans.  They want to sniff everything in Sephora and Bath and Body Works.  And it's just fun to look around the stores with them.

3. Weekends are for laundry and laundry helpers.  Can you spot Penny, Mr. Mittens & Leo??

4. Go Irish!  Our beloved Notre Dame lost in the national title game on Monday, but we were so proud of this team and how well we played.  We love our coach and are optimistic about the days ahead!  Notre Dame will always be #1 to us.

Touchdown push-ups, Mr. Mittens edition.

5. Penny loves Fletcher.  He made sure she was all tucked in.

6. Winter sunrises.  A perk of waking up really early is that we get to enjoy some beautiful winter sunrises in our backyard.

7. Robots!  The 3rd grade is coding and learning how to code with robots.  Fletcher has won some coding awards and it was really fun to see him in action.  The robots were so much fun.  I just love teaching at the same school as the boys.

8. Chin rubs!  Mr. Mittens loves a good chin rub.

9. Fletcher and I have a really yummy recipe to share with you next week!  We made it twice this week :)

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you back here on Monday :)

Preteen Parenting: Get Outside!

My latest preteen parenting tip is to get outside.

This might sound like a funny tip for preteen parents, but you'd be amazed.

It turns out that fresh air, sunshine and time outdoors is good for everyone.

Ignore the notion that they are too big to do silly things.

Buy them a surprise scooter.  They'll think you are ridiculous and then ride it regularly.

Then watch your kids make up fun street games.

Go on a walk.

Chat with your neighbors.

Hop on a bike.

Hit a volleyball with them back and forth even though you have no volleyball skills.

Count while they jump rope.

Draw with sidewalk chalk.

Play ping pong in the garage.

Sit on your front porch and enjoy a lemonade together.  Or maybe a hot chocolate drink.

Race rubber ducks in the rain water coming down your driveway.

Invite the neighbor friends over to play.

Bundle up because winter sunshine can be tons of fun!  I promise.

Just get outside!  It'll be fun for everyone.

Proof.

Best Breakfast Bites

Happy Monday!  It's a big day for our country.  I'm praying for a peaceful inauguration day, calm instead of chaos and brighter days ahead.  And for fun - we have a big game tonight.  Notre Dame vs. Ohio State.  We're cheering hard for ND to win!

Now let's talk about a delicious new recipe.  I found this recipe to try on a snowy day.  I pulled up Shay's Ultimate Sausage Balls recipe, made some changes and renamed them to be my best breakfast bites.  They are delicious!  The kids and I LOVED them!

Ingredients:

1 lb breakfast sausage - cooked, crumbled and drained

1 t of your favorite seasoning (Kinder The Blend it's salt, pepper and garlic)

3-5 pices of cooked thick cut bacon crumbled

1 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese

8oz package softened cream cheese

1 1/4 c Bisquick mix

Directions:

Cook your sausauge, crumble it and remove any fatty pieces.  Cook bacon, remove grease and crumble.  Put everything in your mixer and blend until well combined.  Use a cookie scoop to make sure your breakfast bites end up the same size.  Roll into balls and put on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until browned.

*Note: I used light and fluffy pancake mix so mine turned out a little flatter than the original recipe.  I'm going to try Bisquick next tiem to get them to be even fluffier.

We enjoyed them warm, straight from the oven.  They were be so good on any breakfast or brunch buffet and they would be a huge hit.  Some people like to dip them in syrup, but we loved them plain.  They did not reheat very well so I'd recommend making them about an hour before you plan to eat them.  I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine did!

Friday 5

Remember back in the olden days of blogging when people would post their favorite 5 pictures from the week??  I'm doing that today.  It was a busy week and I didn't take many pictures.  We are all ready for the weekend.  The best parts of our week were:

1. Would you believe that we are still digging out from the 10+ inches of snow and several inches of ice we got last week??  The temps have been frigid so many things are still icy and frozen.  We were driving in to school one morning and the temp was 8.  That means a week of indoor recess at school and not much playing outside because ice is hard to play on.  The kids tried to sled one last time and got rocket launched off some hills at a local golf course.  They pivoted and came home for hot chocolate instead.

2. Real gold hoops!  Kevin surprised me with real gold hoops for Christmas and I love them!  I don't think I've ever owned nice hoops so this was a really fun surprise.  They are so light and add a fun statement to any outfit.

3. Penny loves Leo.  It's been so sweet to see the cats learn to love Leo.  He is so proud.  He was watching one of the Hotel Transylvanias this week and look who jumped up to snuggle him.  He smiled the whole time and kept saying PENNY LOVES ME.  Now if Penny and Pearl would just learn to love Mr. Mittens we'd be set. 

4. Bundt cakes!  I made a yellow with chocolate icing bundt cake last week and a funfetti with vanilla buttercream this week.  Maybe I should make a bundt cake every week.

5. It's tricky to keep our house running smoothly with both of us working full time now.  We are doing it with some team work and taking life one week at a time.  I snapped this picture last night after the busy dinner rush and everyone was trying to get stuff done.  Olive called in Fletcher for some coding help.  Leo was watching a show and I was trying to get lunches made.  A real life moment of enjoying being together after a busy day. 

A recap:  

-We had to call in grandparent help one morning thanks to early meetings (Kevin), early start at school (Me, Fletcher and Leo) and a 2 hour weather delay for Olive.  My parents came over to hang out with her and that was so nice.

-Icy roads meant bus delays for Olive.  That meant changing up our regular routine so that Kevin could take her to school to keep her from waiting at an icy bus stop.

-I scheduled our kid pick ups for the week then had to make some changes due to last minute meetings.

-I had groceries delivered and the boys put everything away on my night to work late.  Mom win!

-I gave all the guys haircuts.

-Work drama meant extra meetings for both of us.

-Olive joined a new club at school so we have a new early morning drop off.

-I'm ready to sleep in tomorrow and enjoy a weekend with very few plans.

I hope you have a great weekend!!  See you back here next week :)

Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish

I had a blueberry danish at Notre Dame this past Summer that I still dream about today.  

Does that ever happen to you when you travel?  You try a new food and have to recreate it at home.

I have been determined to recreate the recipe at home.  This danish recipe truned out so yummy.  Not quite as fancy as the pastry I had, but it was close.

You just need 5 ingredients.

1 can of crescent rolls

1 egg white for an egg wash

blueberry preserves

whipped cream cheese

zest of 1 lemon

Directions:

Press crescent rolls out onto a greased baking sheet.  Make sure they over lap.  You can make them in a line or in a circle.  Spread out whipped cream cheese, add a strip of blueberry preserves, mix together with a knife and add lemon zest on top.  Wrap the triangle side of the crescent rolls over the overlapped side.  Egg wash the top of the danish before you put it in the oven.  

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Let cool.  Slice and serve.

Best served warm right out of the oven.

**You'll easily have enough filling to make this 2-3 times if you want to buy 2-3 cans of crescent rolls.

Swirl everything around to make sure you get a mix of cream cheese and blueberries in every bite.  I loved the blueberry preserves with the whole blueberries in it.

No one at my house appreciates cream cheese so I delivered some to Kevin's Nana.  We both loved it.

This would be perfect for any breakfast or brunch you've got planned in the new year.  And you could easily customize the blueberry preserves for any flavor you love!

Christmas Break Recap

We had a great Christmas Break!  It ended up being 3 weeks instead of 2 which was a fun surprise that no one saw coming.  We stuck close to home and did all of our favorite things.

Mr. Mittens seemed to enjoy having us around more.  He was a menace to our Christmas decorations so I'm hopeful he'll outgrow that by the time next Christmas rolls around.

We picked up fun lunches and had van picnics.  Culvers and Chick-Fil-A were favorites.

I made some big meals and shared them with Kevin's Grandma.

We watched several movies and ate candy corn (popcorn topped with candy!).

My 2025 treat to myself was buying a Walmart delivery subscription.  I love grocery pick up, but I don't love spending my weekends doing that.  I'm hoping grocery delivery will mean more time to do what I want with my family.

Leo has been really into writing words lately.  He's always asking us to spell out words for him.  He wanted more Doritos last week so he grabbed my grocery list and asked me to spell out Doritos for him.  Haha.  Then he's been practicing writing his full name.

We made a couple of bundt cakes.  Delicious boxed cake with extras and homemade frosting.

We got to go to some friend Christmas gatherings.

Olive and I went thrifting and found some treasures.

Kevin had a fun trip with his Dad and brother to Las Vegas.  We were sad to see him go, but made sure to fill our days with extra fun things.

We stocked up on favorite foods at our favorite grocery store.  I will be sad when Leo outgrows riding in the cart while we shop.

We love Schnucks donuts!  I let the kids pick out a favorite donut + a new one to try.  They loved it and it only cost a couple of dollars to make their morning.

I don't decorate a ton for Valentine's Day, however, I had to have this garland from Target!  I loved the details and mixed fabric.  Now I can't wait to do a Valentine's Day mantle.

The house was looking a little bare after the kids helped me take down all the Christmas decor.  I trimmed some things from the yard to make a free bouquet.  That was a good idea, but these two rascals kept attacking my stems making a big mess.  I found the pefect spot to keep the cats away and am enjoying a free bouquet.

Cute chaos.

You know I LOVE bundt cakes, but the pans are a little hard to store.  I saw an idea to hang them and got the supplies at Lowes.  I love having them hanging up in my pantry.  They're pretty and so easy to use.  Two are vintage - from my grandma and Kevin's and two are just ones that I've collected.  I can't wait to watch my collection grow.

We tried these Sister Schuert's cinnamon rolls.  They were delicious!  The closest to homemade cinnamon rolls I've found.  I used homemade butter cream frosting instead of the cream cheese frosting.  They would be so fun to deliver to a new mom, a grandma or anyone who would enjoy a sweet treat.

I aslo had time to try some new recipes over the break!  These cheesey bread was so good.  It felt good to have a little extra time to try out recipes.

And lots of kitty cuddles + late night shows for this night owl.  I watched some documentaries and got caught up on a few new series.  Penny was thrilled.  I was thrilled.  It felt good to do so many of our favorite things over break.

Now onto good things in 2025 with a fresh start to the year!  We're all going to head to bed early tonight after our first day back to school this year.