Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Burger Bowls

I made burger sliders for dinner Sunday night and I couldn't wait to eat the leftovers for burger bowl lunches.  I love the fresh sliders you can buy from Sams for under $15.  They easily serve one big dinner and several lunches.  They aren't cheap, but they are SO much cheaper than going out with your whole family for burgers.

For dinner, I gave the options of a Hawaiian roll bun or a small tortilla shell or plain.  We all picked a different way to enjoy our sliders.  It was my favorite meal of the week and it brought me so much joy to have it for lunches 3 days this week.


Burger Bowl must haves:

2 slider patties cut into bite sized pieces

sharp cheddar cheese

bacon

dill pickles

lettuce

purple onion

tomatoes

sliced up tortilla shell

ketchup, mustard & fry sauce

*grilled onions & A1 were also family favorite toppings


I love fixing a big dinner and having leftovers to enjoy at lunch all week long.

Would your family enjoy these burger bowls?

Monday, November 11, 2024

Quality Time 5 Different Ways

I have been working hard to spend quality time with every member of my family.  

This was easier when I was a stay at home mom.  I had much more free time to devote to taking care of everyone.  Now that I'm teaching full time it is trickier.  I have to be very intentional to notice what is important to each person in my family and then make it a priority to make them feel loved and special when we are together.  That means doing things when I'm tired.  Making after work to do lists and packing my weekend with quality time opportunities.  Not getting as much sleep as I should and asking for help when I need it.


Here are a few examples of quality time with my crew:

1. Bedtime chats and snuggles

2. Stocking the pantry with their favorite foods

3. Quality time together running errands - sometimes my errands and sometimes theirs

4. Errands to pick up favorite treats

5. Snuggles while we watch their favorite show

6. Having mom nearby

7. Fixing their favorite meals

8. Date nights

9. Keeping up with laundry so they have all the clothing options

10. Reading a book together

11. Paying attention to the Amazon links they send me and their shopping needs

12. Keeping close tabs on their school calendars to make sure we don't miss anything

13. Helping organize their bedrooms

14. Picking out their clothes for the week so that there is no thought required each morning

15. Helping out in my classroom

16. Strolling around the mall

17. One on one time with me

18. Bike rides

19. Cooking together

20. Saying YES to spontaneous requests - sleep overs, play dates, outings and plans.









It has been a fun challenge to figure out what each person in my family loves and needs in this season of having two busy working parents and kids ages 11, 8 and 4.  I challenge you to do the same!

Friday, November 8, 2024

Friday Faves

Happy Friday, friends!  What a week it's been.  I caught a cold, lost my voice most days by the end of the day, loved all the excitement from Election Day, have Friendsgiving + an early dismissal day at school today and am thrilled to make it to the weekend.  

The best parts of the week were:

1. Kindergarteners are the cutest.  One of my little guys asked me how to spell a few words and then delivered this sweet note to me with my favorite color included.  5 and 6 year olds are so fun to teach.  They are so excited about everything we do.


2. We had a little Election night treat board to enjoy with the kids as the results started rolling in.  They loved the USA treats and loved the election results.  I am excited and optimistic for the days ahead.  I said I wasn't going to stay up late on a work night, but I got FOMO and didn't want to miss a thing.  We stayed up very late for the past couple presidential elections and I'm glad I did the same this time.  Teaching all day on 4 hours of sleep isn't something I'd like to do again though.


3. Mr. Mittens couldn't figure out why we were up so late, but he stayed up to see his first presidential election play out.  He's also become a bougie cat and only wants to rest on my prettiest pillows.

4. Olive is doing so well in 6th grade.  I'm so thankful that 6th grade is still elementary school at her school.  She's thriving with all of the projects, writing and responsibilities that have come her way.  She had a huge presentation due this week.  She wrote the whole thing, did slides to correspond and then wrote a narrative with a set amount of words.  It was fun to see her edit and improve her writing.  Her teachers have always said she's an excellent writer so it's fun to see her SHINE.  I am in disbelief that we are starting to tour junior highs to check out her options for next year.

5. I love seeing this guy at school!  We had a special Veteran's Day chapel service on Election Day and I'm always thrilled to see this guy in his element.  He knows all the songs, all the motions and comes home to give me a report on his day - anyone who got in trouble, any funny things that happened and he loves telling me what he's learned about calendar, letters and the playground happenings.

6. I took the big kids to our high school's murder mystery play last weekend.  The play was fun and it was cool for the kids to get a sneak peek at what high schoolers are doing at our school.  We wished we would have brought more snacks and are already looking forward to going to the spring musical together.

7. Wax Museum time!  Fletcher's class did an author study wax museum and he was Roz from The Wild Robot.  I read the entire series out loud to the kids years ago.  We are OG Wild Robot fans.  It's become very popular lately thanks to the new Wild Robot movie.  We had so much fun making his trifold board and coming up with his robot costume.  He memorized his lines like a pro and had a huge cheering section of grandparents and parents.  I'm so thankful to be at his school so I could just run down to see him in action.



8. Hanging out with Mimi & Papaw.  The kids always have a good time at my parent's house.

9. Off for Election Day!  Olive had the whole day off for Election Day and none of the rest of the family did.  Thankfully, Mimi and Papaw hung out with her for the day.  She got donuts, hung out at their house, got carmel corn making lessons and lunch out.  What a day!  Having 9 other cousins means that she rarely gets one on one time with my parents so I know she loved this special day.  The boys were JEALOUS :)



Mimi's carmel corn is legendary.  It's so good and I really should have her teach me how to make it.

10. It's still pumpkin season here!  I'm decorating for Thanksgiving this week.  I know.  Not many people are into turkey decorations and fall pumpkins, but it's my favorite.  November is my birthday month and I'm going to enjoy the pumpkins a while longer.  I made pumpkin shaped waffles for the kids last weekend.  We'll be making some pumpkin muffins this weekend.


I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
See you back here on Monday :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Appetizers for Dinner

My family loves when we have appetizers for dinner.  I make some homemade and buy some yummy frozen apps.  Everyone loves building their own plates of appetizer yumminess.


Appetizer spread:
Reheated pizza
Homemade pico & chips
Mini Tacos from Sams + toppings
Chips & Queso
Mozzerella sticks
Breadsticks
Fruit & veggies

A few other ideas:
Spinach artichoke dip
Meatballs
Pulled pork sliders
Taquitos
Quesadillas

All of these combos would be delicious!


This would be the perfect menu for game day or fun dinner for your family on a regular night!


What an election night!  Kevin and I stayed up way too late (just like we did in 2016) to enjoy the election highlights.  I'm heading to bed optimistic and so excited for the days ahead.

I put together a USA treat board for our Election Night watch party last night.  The kids were thrilled!


Tuesday, November 5, 2024

VOTE!

Happy Election Day!  I've never seen lines to vote like I've seen this election cycle.  We have been praying for our favorite candidates every day.  I waited an hour in line after work one day last week to make sure I got to vote.  Tons of people are voting.  Tons of people are caring and tons of people are praying for our country.

It's an exciting day.  We'll be glued to the TV tonight to watch the results come in and praying.

I grabbed a sticker for myself and a couple to show my class.  We're holding kindergarten cookie elections today with a special chapel service.


I've never seen people so excited to vote!

Dream big!  Our best days are ahead!

Monday, November 4, 2024

Halloween 2024 Recap

We had a happy Halloween!  The weather was kind of terrible all day and then it cleared up for a fun night of trick or treating.  The kids enjoyed their costumes, we had dinner with neighbors and we got to trick or treat with friends in the neighborhood.  Huge candy hauls were had by all.

Fletcher was a masked man.

Olive the penguin.

Leo the dragon.


Her BFF dressed up as a polar bear and they trick or treated together.

His original mask was light up and so fun.  It ended up being very difficult to see out of so he swapped it for this back up mask.  I was so happy that I thought to grab a back up mask just in case.

Leo the dragon.  He was the cutest little dragon.  He roared at everyone, smiled and grabbed candy as he ran from house to house with all the big kids this year.

Which made me very nostalgic for Halloween 2020 when we had Fletcher the dragon.  I don't feel super sentimental about their clothes anymore, but I'll be saving this dragon costume just in case their kid ever want to be the cutest green dragon.

One of our neighbors had THE COOLEST skeleton decoration.  It was HUGE and so fun.  I wouldn't want to store that skeleton all year, but the kids sure loved it.

Black and white buddies.

Epic post trick or treating candy hauls.  Fletcher's favorite was the house that gave out freeze dried candy.  He's been wanting to try it forever.

The full sized candy bars were Olive's favorite.  She trick or treated our neighborhood with a buddy and then went out one more time with her polar bear bestie.  She wore cute black cat ghost earrings and made sure to pick out a set of them so that we could match.

Perfect Halloween pumpkin cat and real cat.

We carved pupmkins - Leo, Fletcher & Olive.  They turned out so cute.  Leo was very specific about wanting an angry pumpkin face.


This was a yummy iced coffee treat!  The big kids and I both enjoyed it from Walmart.  It was about $2 with a coupon clipped and SO much cheaper than swinging through Starbucks for a coffee treat.

I hope you had a Happy Halloween!  Now on to my birthday and Thanksgiving in November!

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Happy 1st Halloween

Happy 1st Halloween, Mr. Mittens!

You're the sweetest guy and we've loved adding in some black cat decor to our Halloween stash.

Olive's vision of a Mr. Mittens pumpkin came true and he loved it.  


Handsome, tuxedo kitty.

However, he did not appreciate her grand plan of being put inside a pumpkin. Noted, Mr. Mittens.

Happy Halloween!  

I hope you have a fun day with your favorite people.  My crew can't wait to trick or treat tonight.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Aquavia Lumina Light Show

We found something new to try in Wisconsin!  We got to check out the newest attraction at Wilderness Resort - Aquavia Lumina.  It's a light show in the canyon right outside the resort.  We had heard a lot of hype about it since our visit last Summer and we all really enjoyed the show.

It's a little pricey - $25 per person - but it's about an hour of fun that the whole family enjoyed.  Kevin purchased our tickets in advance online and we just walked right in to wait for our start time/

We bundled up - 3 layers for each of us, fuzzy socks, hats, etc.

I packed snacks in my bag because I wasn't sure how Leo would do on the one mile walk through the canyon.  He loved it and the snacks were enjoyed by all of us.

There are really cozy campfires burning all around the waiting area and a staff member stationed to take group pictures for free.  I loved that little detail!





It was a gorgeous fall night and it wasn't very crowded at all.

There's a map of the journey you'll take through the canyon.  It's not stroller friendly.  It says jogger strollers are allowed, but I don't think it would be easy at all to push a stroller along the path.

It was a beautiful night.

You follow the show and the deer all through the canyon.


The kids loved these rock characters that appeared throughout the show.  This section allowed you to conduct the rocks.  You'd lean forward, conduct them and they'd all sing to you.  It was a big hit for our crew.


The show and music were really impressive.

Our favorite light section was the end.  The light show was so neat and so unique.



We'd 10/10 recommend the Aquavia Lumina light show at Wilderness Resort.  It's best for families with adults, big kids or wearable little kids. 

Let me know if you have any questions!