Wordless Wednesday

Her new "surprised" look!

Such a happy girl!

Kids in the Kitchen/Try it Tuesday

I mentioned in my meal plan post that I intend to start a Try it Tuesday and also double this as my Kids in the Kitchen day. This a daring task for me, the kitchen is my space and I don't like people "messing" with things while I'm cooking!

For lunch we made homemade pizza, and of course I forgot to take pictures of the process and the end result, but here are the uncooked pizzas.

For supper we made baked potatoes, steamed mixed veggies, and mini meatloaves (I have honestly never made a meatloaf before!).

Rylan washed and "poked" the potatoes.

Alyssa helped me mix up the meatloaf.

The finished product, and boy were they good!

 

 

The recipe is one that I wrote down a long time ago from one of my Kraft "What's Cooking" magazines. It was something like this:
-1lb hamburger.
-1 pkg. stuffing mix.
-1/2c chopped onion.
-1 c. shredded marble cheese.
Combine and place in muffin tins.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, brush with:
-1 c. barbeque sauce (I used Kraft Garlic Barbeque sauce)
-1 tbsp brown sugar.

Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

So good!

Meal Plan Monday May 14th-20th

This isn't really a typical week for us, hubby is working nights and we have a date night and a girls night thrown in there, but I'm going to try and stick as close to this as I can!

I also decided that Tuesdays will be "Try a New Recipe Tuesday" and also "Kids in the Kitchen". This is a big step for me, my kitchen is my space! But, I'm starting to realize how much I can teach them this way!

Monday- Broccoli stuffed chicken, rice, and corn.
Tuesday- Mini meatloaves, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables.
Wednesday- Pork chops (probably just homemade shake 'n bake), baked potatoes, and corn on the cob.
Thursday- Italian Sausage Penne, Caesar salad, garlic toast.
Friday- Date night!
Saturday- Hubby's on his own, this is my girl's day out and we'll be leaving early. He will probably get pizza!
Sunday- If hubby didn't have pizza, I will probably make homemade pizza. Otherwise we'll barbeque hotdogs and hamburgers with a Caesar salad.

Catch them in the Act!

I've heard this a dozen times, but it never really hit home with me before, I've never really taken it to heart. The other day something on television (Dr. Phil perhaps?) caught my attention.

We have to catch our children in the act.

Not in the act of misbehaving, something even more important, we have to catch them behaving! Catch them sharing, listening, or trying hard. Too often we let these chances to praise go by without taking advantage, or even noticing, them. Yet we snap at the chance to scold or punish.

If we had only praised the good behavior that they showed moments ago, we might not find our selves scolding them now. If our children feel that we only notice their negative behaviors, they will start to feel as though it's pointless for them to act appropriately because Mommy and Daddy don't notice anyway! But children love praise, and if we praise a behavior we like in our children, we are more likely to see that behavior again and again.

And this doesn't look the same for all children. My oldest daughter is generally calm and collected, so I have to try hard to find things to praise with her, because I've come to expect those behaviors from her. My son on the other hand is a wild child, he's bouncing off the walls most of the time, so simple things like sitting still at the dinner table provide opportunities of praise for him.

All in all, I've found that children respond to positive praise better than negative punishment (and believe me, I've tried it all!). Now that isn't to say that discipline is never in order, but I've found that we don't need it as often since implementing this new tactic.

Review Week 6

This past week we spent Monday-Wednesday learning the letter J, and Thursday and Friday reviewing all of our letters so far. We also learned the number 9, and practiced counting to 15. Rylan finished up all of his shapes and knows them perfectly, he's still having a little trouble with the difference between black and brown, but I believe that's normal.

Our health lesson was manners, and our weekly study was all about fish. We also learned about David and Goliath.

We talked about where fish live, what they eat, how they breath, and their body parts. The kids made this pictures after pointing out all of their parts:

As a bonus, they got to practice their cutting and gluing skills!

Then we made our manners mini-books, the kids loved the idea of creating their very own book and were so excited to show Daddy when he came home from work! I printed the pages from this blog that I found when I googled "manners mini book".

After reading and talking about David and Goliath all week, we went "stone picking" for 5 small, smooth stones. Then we cut circles from felt, mommy punched some holes around the edges and the kiddos were able to "sew" a pouch for their stones.

And for good measure, a shot of all three of my babies spending some time playing together, I love catching moments like this!

Wordless Wednesday

Get a load of this brave little girl!

Meal Plan Monday May 7th-13th

Most of my meal plan for last week went unused, we were all sick and didn't feel like cooking, or eating, very much. So I still have most of the meat from last week,meaning my meal plan will be very similar.

Monday- Beef stew.
Tuesday- Mushroom chicken and broccoli and rice casserole.
Wednesday- Leftover Beef stew, we love it as leftovers!
Thursday- Breakfast for supper (bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast).
Friday- Pork loin (not sure what spices I'll use yet), steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.
Saturday- Barbeque (hot dogs and hamburgers, barbequed potatoes) and Caesar salad.
Sunday- Sausage penne and Caesar salad.

Week 6 Review

Well, there really isn't much to review this week! The sickies hit our house hard this week, all week! So there really wasn't much done, we're back at it again this week though!

Wordless Wednesday

The look on Rylan's face was priceless when he turned around and saw her there, she looked so proud!