Saving Money: Movie Night In...Meatballs Anyone?

LaLa does not like any sauce, and our favorite meatball recipe is really saucy so I tried a new recipe.

The recipe was from Kraft. If you email me, I'll be glad to send it!

It was delicious. I included a variety of sauces for dipping.

I haven't posted one of our weekly movie nights lately so I thought there was no time like the present! Our most recent movie night was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Let me just tell you...my husband and I loved it. Our children did their usual routine of watching for a few minutes then run around like crazy little people. It did keep their attention more than most movies. At one point, Robert and I were the only ones watching it, and we were completely laughing out loud. I don't know if it was just cute or if we were just tired by the end of the week! The poor character is an inventor that works and works to make a grand invention, yet he fails time after time. Finally, he prevails and creates (on accident) a food machine for his desperate little town. Food begins falling from the sky! He finds out what happens when you're greedy, what it means to be yourself and to truly accept others, to be a hero to yourself first, to be a friend, and to never give up. This mama does recommend it though for any age!

Poor Little Bit was suffering from a cold during our snow week.

She was so serious about placing those cotton balls on her cloud, and she learned to say cloud!

Who would have thought this focused 17 month old would be licking the glue off the cloud in a few minutes?

We enjoyed meatballs for dinner to go with the theme of the movie. The girls and I also created clouds with paper cut out in cloud shapes and cotton balls. My Little Bit even participated in the craft. She did great on her first cloud. She placed each cotton ball on each glue dot. However, when I gave her a second cloud to do, she immediately licked the glue. Oh well! At least the glue is non toxic! We hung the clouds from our chandelier in our breakfast room, cuddled up under blankets, and enjoyed the movie. For dessert we had Cinnamon Pretzels from Kim and Scott's Gourmet Pretzels....mmmm...good! They were next to nothing a few weeks ago with a coupon at Publix! They were perfect for movie night!

LaLa, of course, loves any craft involving glue. I always put glue on a paper

plate and let her manipulate the glue with a Qtip...less mess!

This kept her occupied while I made dinner! LaLa and Little Bit did get in

a cotton ball snow fight when they finished their craft, but it was fun.

I think all of the snow outside inspired them!

It amazes me week after week how excited my family gets over movie night. I really do not do anything "extra" aside from putting a little extra thought into a "theme" to go with the movie. I realized a long time ago that I go out of my way to serve company and make everything special when we have dinner guests, yet I rarely did anything off routine for my own family. They deserve it to! It definitely makes a fun evening, lots of memories, and uses very little money!

Save Time! Creative Ideas to Get Your Children to Eat...Sneaky Mama!

Our 2010 New Year Pancakes

Do you know that you can stick just about anything into pancake and waffle mix? No, I am serious! I will often keep organic fruity baby food around (especially when it's on sale and I have a coupon) just to add an extra serving of healthy into my children's food!

Recently, I was caught secretly sliding in some pureed veggies (cauliflower) into mac and cheese. I tried telling LaLa that I was putting some wonderful Tinkerbell Fairy Dust into it to make it yummy, but she had totally caught me. I gave in, and I just told her that I was sneaking in some healthy food into our lunch. She said, "Okay, don't put any of that into mine. Put it into daddy's mac & cheese. It will be so funny! We won't even tell him." She thought it was absolutely hilarious! We all still had the sneaky, healthy veggies in our mac and cheese! Fortunately, I can still outsmart the three year old...well, barely!

Save time...and a battle. It can take a great deal of our time to battle with a toddler or a preschooler about eating their food. Try to avoid these time TRAPS and see if any of these ideas will work for your family!

First of all, if you make the food on their plate look fun, they will usually eat it! Tuna fish, PB&J, chicken salad, grilled cheese or any other sandwich will look mighty tasty if it comes out as a cookie cutted (is that a word?) animal! I even tempt mine by adding M&M eyes. You eat the food...you get the eyeballs. Grose, yes, but it amuses a three year old! So, manipulate the food to look like a happy face or something fun! Also, fun and different spoons or eating utensils also help! Even a new color of a plastic fork can be exciting enough to encourage a few bites!

Second, make it a game. Place a sticker on the plate under the peas...eat the peas to see what is there. Make a big deal out of....oooh, I can almost see the fish hiding under there! We have these plates I found at target for a dollar that are divided and have a different picture on each section. They work perfectly! Another game is to race them. My husband does this...and it used to annoy me, but I figured out that it works. Every mama knows you don't mess with what works if no one is getting harmed! You each take a bite and chew, chew, chew in a race to finish! One more game idea...mix the vegies together and have them sort them...or eat all the carrots first, then the peas, etc. Learning and nutrition mixed in one!

Last of all, sneak it! Put veggies in your spaghetti! Put a little bit into whatever you cook. Be creative and experiment! The baby food basics like apples, bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, etc. are great to have to "sneak" into your food!I do this to my husband and children! It's my job to make sure they get all the veggies and fruits in their diet! Sometimes the best way to save time is to be sneaky and avoid it altogether!

Create Cornucopias...

While searching the web, I had a difficult time finding cute stuff for thanksgiving theme. I couldn't believe that thanksgiving had fewer ideas surrounding fun food ideas than halloween and Christmas! Most of thanksgiving involves...food! I did come across one idea of using a sugar cone for mini cornucopias. I'm sad to say that my final pictures didn't come out! Note to self: make sure to push the camera card all the way into the slot before taking pictures! It was super easy...once I figured it out! So, let me save you some trouble and share what I was doing wrong!

This is the link where I started with my ideas. I wrapped some tan raffia around these and put veggies in them for LaLa's preschool feast. I plan on using them as place cards for our family's thanksgiving dinner. I will use the raffia again and write names on them with icing. Someone suggested placing runts candy inside of them! I'm a big fan of runts...so I think I may try that route, if I don't eat all the goodies before family gets to see the end result!

First, you need to steam the sugar cones. Now, in the instructions that I found online, it said to hold the cone over boiling water to let the steam do its magic. Let me point out that I tried that...and it resulted in much frustration. Avoid that! Use a steamer basket above your pot of boiling water. I cheated. My steamer basket was in the dishwasher...I simply used a colander and placed it over my boiling water. Let the sugar cone sit in the basket for several minutes until the cone becomes soft...not gooey. Soft and gooey are great technical terms! You'll know what I mean though!

Next, carefully tilt the end of the sugar cone up to look like a cornucopia. Make sure to sit the soft cones on wax paper or somewhere where they will not stick to the surface. They will harden quickly.

This is where I would add my wonderful final picture...if I had it! You could add all kinds of yummy items inside. It would be cute for a kid's table this thanksgiving too. My Little Bit and LaLa enjoyed eating the two that I broke before I realized that the steamer basket made the BIG difference! The raffia looked really cute too! Also, just so you know...the cones will be very hot when you are bending the ends. My kids just stood there giving me funny looks as I was manipulating these hot cones! At least it was entertaining to them!

Mama Drama Rule #76: Saying THANKS is so simple...yet so often forgotten! Remember to say thanks...especially to those that do so much and so often get forgotten!

Planning Thanksgiving Activities for Little Ones!

Are you getting ready for Thanksgiving Dinner and Parties for your family? We are also hosting Thanksgiving at our house so we are trying to think of some creative ideas to keep the little ones busy and build lots of memories! Right now, we are getting ready for LaLa's Preschool Party at school. Her school seems to celebrate big, which is a great deal of fun! Here are some ideas that we are working on for the preschool party. As we work on our items over the next week, I will add pictures, but hopefully, this will give you some ideas and some inspiration if you have your own parties coming up!

We are going to enjoy a feast! Yum. I know a lot of little ones do not eat some of these traditional foods, but it gives them a variety and an opportunity to try new things! I have tried to brainstorm ideas for fun ways to present the food...maybe in a different way from what they are used to, but it seems that most people SKIP right over Thanksgiving to Christmas! The only idea that I have came up with is "turkey kabobs" and putting the veggies in mini cornucopias!

Ideas for decorating: Indian corn, leaves (cut outs and real), pumpkins, gourds, cornucopias, pine cones, turkeys (of course), corn stalks, scarecrows, etc.

The kids can dress up like pilgrims or Indians. Our little class is dressing like Indians. LaLa's teacher "tea" dyed shirts. Have you ever heard of that? I had in my head "tie dyed" shirts, but no, it's not the same. She literally took boys undershirts (they come in a 5 pack for a few dollars) and dyed them a tan color using tea bags! We learn something every day in preschool...even this mama! Then, we are cutting the edges in fringes and threading beads on them.

Game Ideas: Turkey, turkey, stuffing (duck, duck, goose), BINGO (using Thanksgiving items and candy corn or acorns as markers), TURKEY says (I found the cutest turkey at Michael's for 6 dollars! I used my coupon and got it 50% off!), pin the wattle on the turkey,

Craft Ideas: Create a Pilgrim hat, Make an Indian headdress, build a turkey using a pumpkin, gourd, or large squash. making Indian jewrly using pasta (teaching opportunity for patterns!)

Table Setting: Make Placemats using kids' handprint as a turkey, make napkin rings,

Fun "Gift" ideas for your guests or your host(ess): The dollar tree actually has cute aprons right now. They also have matching rolling pins, whisks, serving plates, etc. What a cute opportunity to make a little basket! I collected a couple aprons to put an initial on them! Plus, they have cute packages of chef gear for little ones. It includes a chef hat and small apron! If you have "little helpers" on Thanksgiving, what a great, inexpensive way to make them feel special! I love the idea of my girls helping me in the kitchen creating dinner for our family, friends, and extended family; then, years and years later when they have their own families, I would love to continue that tradition! Of course, there is a great deal to do when preparing thanksgiving dinner (I usually cook 2-3 turkeys). Even the most creative mama can only get so much accomplished in the kitchen with two little girls! I plan on having some "special" crafts to keep them busy when I need my space in the kitchen. I am sure that the extra family and company will also keep them very busy!

Mama Drama Rule #72: A thankful heart and thankful actions are more important than thankful words!

Check back this weekend for our Movie Night REVIEW! The movie UP! came out this week on dvd! Our fun and our night was two thumps UP!

Super Cook...not this mama!

I have discovered an awesome website! The other day, I was trying to think of something to cook that involved random ingredients that I had in my house. I thought, surely, there is a recipe somewhere that involves these ingredients! I was desperate...so, what does every mama do when they are desperate and need answers?! They GOOGLE it, of course! Upon investigating several sites, I finally found one that was perfect. It has become one of favorite places to visit now, and it is genuinely helpful in utilizing the ingredients that I have without running out for a last minute item or desperately trying to change up our normal menu!

I also really like the layout. I primarily play on the left side of the page. I will input what ingredients I have in the search box. Then, as I see other items that I may have pop up, I click on those. On the right side, it will begin to compile a list of recipes that you can make with your ingredients. It even provides quick verses crockpot.

Try it out! I have already added it to my favorites! It's www. supercook.com.

Good luck trying something new & using those items in your freezer and your pantry that you thought you would never use!

Mama Drama Rule #68: When you don't know where to turn for information, there is always the GOOGLE option!

I am working on several gobble and turkey shirts for embroidery orders! LaLa told me today that she really thinks my embroidery machine is tired, and we should let it rest! I think she's right! My machine and this mama are very tired! I keep looking at the clock today thinking...surely, it's almost time to get ready for bed! Time change has messed with all of us this week! I will post them soon...