Siblings on Sunday

Earlier this year, I started taking pictures of the kids right before we head into church.  We don't have church until 1pm.  So it's a long morning.  I thought it would be a fun tradition and all the grandparents look forward to it every week now!

Easter Edition

Silly Faces

What?  We all look nice?

No matter how I tried, little Strawberry right there was in no mood for picture taking!  And it is clearly Minnie's nap time.

Hermione with a little 'tude.

More silly faces.

I don't know where she learned it, but 75% of the time I take Minnie's picture she must do her "silly face."  Aye, aye aye!

Just missing one kiddo who was spending the weekend with grandparents.

Grandparent Edition

It had actually just started to rain in this one!

Pumpkin French Toast and Homemade Syrup

See, told you we've been cooking with pumpkin!  Yum-o.  The boys are on a road trip this weekend, so to lift up the spirits of those of us left behind, I made pumpkin French Toast for breakfast.  Made with Great Harvest Cinnamon Burst Bread...it's pretty much a breakfast fit for 3 little princesses.

Pumpkin French Toast

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin (I just use canned)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Any bread you have lying around the house

Whisk together eggs, milk, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.  Soak pieces of bread in mixture and cook on a medium-hot griddle 1-2 minutes per side.  Top with butter and warm homemade syrup.

I grew up on store bought syrup and I actually preferred it until a few years ago.  I've reluctantly been making syrup since I married a syrup snob (who I adore) 12 years ago who hates the store bought corn syrupy deliciousness.  He finally won me over when I realized it was so much cheaper to make your own.  Plus, it's insanely easy to make.  Who knew?  Now I actually prefer it!

Homemade Maple Syrup

2 cups white sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar

Bring to boil for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in:

1 tsp Mapleine
1/2 cup corn syrup (Optional.  It just makes the syrup have a thicker consistency.)

Oila!  You have warm maple syrup to top your Pumpkin French Toast, or pancakes or waffles or whatever your syrup needs are.  Plus, it impresses guests.  :)

Melt in Your Mouth Pumpkin Bars

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm so ready for fall!  I am so done with the heat, mosquitos and flies.  Fortunately, Utah has finally cooled down just this week thanks to some awesome rain.  We pulled out our fall decorations a couple days ago and have been cooking with pumpkin ever since.  My daughter had to take a treat to a church activity last night and she requested pumpkin cookies.  While I was flipping through my cookbook for the recipe, I stumbled across a pumpkin bar recipe I copied down years ago from a Better Homes and Garden cookbook I'd checked out at the library.  I decided to resurrect this gem of a recipe and with a few modifications, they turned out divine.  The secret is the orange or lemon zest in the frosting.  Ah. Maz. Ing.

Melt in Your Mouth Pumpkin Bars

Bars:

1/4 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp milk
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 320 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients and set aside.  Cream coconut oil and sugar, then add milk, eggs and pumpkin.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Bake in preheated oven 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean in the center.  Allow to cool completely then frost with Cream Cheese Frosting

Frosting:

1/4 cup cream cheese
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp grated lemon or orange zest

Combine the cream cheese and 1 cup of the powdered sugar.  Beat with a mixer until creamy.  Add vanilla and zest and mix.  Finally, gradually beat in the remainder 3/4 cup of powdered sugar. Spread over prepared cake and enjoy!

The Flour Game

When I was growing up, the "Flour Game" was an all-time family favorite.  I have since introduced it to my own kids and it has been one of the best games we play with them.  No fighting and crying, just giggling, suspense and pure silliness!

You start by filling a small bowl or measuring cup with flour all the way to the top. Pack it down firmly and then place a plate over the bowl/cup.  Ever so carefully turn it over so that the plate is right side up and the bowl or cup is upside down.  Now with fingers like fairies lift the bowl/cup off of the flour and pray that it stays in a nice, packed dome on top of the plate.  (Think sand castle.) Sometimes it takes a few tries.  Then place either a small coin or candy in the very center of the flour and set on a table where all players can reach.  Take a knife (plastic or butter is great for little kids) and take turns slicing a small section off the flour.  Whoever makes the flour totally crumble has to fish the coin or candy out with his or her teeth.

Need visuals?

Here ya go.

 First turn taking a slice of our flour "cake." (Don't worry, I washed the quarter with dish soap and extremely hot water twice!)

 Grandma helping Strawberry take a turn.

 Hermione's turn.

 And there it goes...I'm 95% sure he did it on purpose!

Flour face.

Family fun night.

Who's Excited for School?!?!

I am!!! 

They were actually pretty stoked about their first day as well. 

First Day Consensus: Thumbs up!

How to Survive Life in 1350 square feet with 4 Kids

I'm not going to lie. We need more space. Half of our stuff is in storage because we moved from a 2100 sq ft house to this condo. Major downsizing, my friends. My poor 10-year-old is sharing a room with her baby sister...who is still in a crib. Which starts off my small-space-large-family list with:

#1- If you have two kids in a room and bunk beds aren't an option, buy the cute curly room divider from IKEA. Gives them a sense of their own space in a tight space. We only put it up at night when Minnie goes to bed so she doesn't see Hermione.

#2- Speaking of small rooms, if possible, try putting a small dresser in a closet for clothes, it saves significant floor space.

#3- Staggered bedtimes. Little kids to bed early, older kids an hour later. It cuts bedtime chaos in half and gives the older kids some more one-on-one parent time.

#4- Make your bed in the mornings. This is kind of a funny one to me because prior to this move, I rarely bothered with bed-making. I just didn't see the point. However, our small space gets cluttered (okay, okay, cluttered is an understatement), ahem, destroyed in a matter of seconds. Being able to see my bed just down the hallway, nicely made, with throw pillows arranged just-so helps me keep my sanity. Just glancing at that small space of organization allows me to take deep breaths and relax just enough to tackle whatever is at hand. A made bed also provides a welcoming safe haven behind a locked door for a quick mommy time out. As a bonus, made beds allow for a safeway house for clean laundry to go in order to avoid trampling. Just make your bed already. It looks nice!

#5- Need a quick room clean-up? Tell everyone to freeze. Set a timer for 2 minutes and tell your munchkins to pick up 15 things each (or more depending on the severity of the mess). You'll have a clean living room in no time! If you're really wanting a clean look, bribe one of your kids to vacuum after your clean-up. I don't know about you, but vacuum lines make me happy!

#6- Clean out and donate or sell! I probably do this every few months or so. Outgrown clothes, broken books, forgotten toys. If it's not getting used, you don't need it. We just cleaned out some Barbies and dress-ups tonight. Yay! Less mess for me! If you have enough stuff, try and sell it. Our condo complex hosts an annual garage sale, it's awesome. Be proactive! Host one yourself! Multi-family garage sales are usually highly successful. Craig's List is also a great way to sell stuff, just beware of creepy buyers and don't invite them to your home.

#7- Get out of the house. A lot. You don't want to start going stir-crazy. You especially don't your kids to go stir-crazy. That can only result in bad news. We go to the library, to the pool, the park, sprinkler park, the dollar store, visit my two sisters, go on small hikes, go on bike rides, get a treat, visit dad at work, go to museums, occasionally we just head downstairs to the common area and kick a soccer ball around. Sometimes you just need to get out of the house!

Frugality

I'm rather frustrated with my situation right now...

• We make just enough money each month to make the bare minimum ends meet.  Like down to the last penny.  We have zero wiggle room.
• My husband is working a full time job and a part time evening job.  Bless his heart.
• We have young kids at home, so I can't go out really and get a job.
• I have a Bachelor's of Science degree in human development, which pretty much qualifies me for nothing without a master's degree.
• Our living space is too small to offer babysitting services (plus, I just flat out hate babysitting) or start up a new preschool (which I have done in the past and loved!).  

Rather than dwell on what I don't have (after a LOT of dwelling on what we don't have), I've come to the conclusion that I need to change my attitude and focus on what I DO have and make the best of it.   We started a cash system for groceries which is helping a ton!  I know there are far more practical and smart people who already do this, but we're just starting out and learning these kinds of tricks.  Actually handing over cash for the items you buy makes you a lot more accountable for it than simply swiping a card.  It also makes you scour those weekly grocery sale ads.  Tuesdays are quite exciting at our house now as we pour over grocery ads searching for the best deals.  I'm not a couponer.  I just don't get it.  I know it could save us a lot of money, but I just really don't have the time for it, nor the energy.  So grocery ads it is.  If there is a grocery coupon in the ad, I'll use it, but that's about it.  In the last few months here are four money saving tips I've learned about saving money.


1.  Wal-Mart is NOT always the cheapest store.  I loathe Wal-Mart.  Long lines, empty shelves, crazy people, unfortunately it's the most convenient store for us, so I unwillingly go there a lot.  Most of the time the sale items at grocery stores are a far better deal than anything you'll find at Wal-Mart.  For example, recently they had a display of Gatorade at the front listed at $1 each.  Now I know for a fact (with a swimmer and soccer player) that those Gatorades are always $1 each.  Also Oreos cookies which are a huge novelty at our house always have a "sale" price at Wal-Mart of $2.98.  That is not on sale.  My hubby found them on sale at a grocery store near his work for $1.89.  That is a sale price.  A real sale on produce is under a dollar...not $1.25 or more which most of Wal-Mart's produce is listed at.  I could go on and on about the evils of Wal-Mart, but you get the idea.  Buy your local grocery store's sale items, bottom line.

2.  The Dollar Tree has become part of our monthly shopping.  After reading positive reviews on Pinterest about dollar store items, I decided to give it a try.  I now buy toothbrushes there.  Toothbrushes can be insanely pricey!  Recently my sister who is a dental hygienist was at the dollar store with me, I asked her if it really mattered what kind of toothbrush you use and she said, generally electric toothbrushes are better, but of the regular ones it doesn't matter too much as long as you buy soft bristled.  Just floss once a day and brush twice!  I can get 4 adult sized toothbrushes for a dollar.  To get a 4-pack at Wal-Mart it would cost me at least $5.  Cuh-razy.  I also buy bandaids there because with 4 kids you go through a LOT of bandaids.  Nail polish, kids shampoo, hair spray, mousse for my 7-year-old, hand soap, pretzels and other snacks, spray bottles (for making your own house cleaners), scrub brushes, coloring books, construction paper, craft supplies, all great things to buy at the dollar store!

3.  Homemade cleaners.  I was a little skeptical about this one, but turns out, I'm hooked now!  I looked up dozens of recipes on Pinterest for homemade cleaners.  So far I've tried a granite cleaner, basic household disinfectant cleaner and shower cleaner.  The granite cleaner was great, all it is is: 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol, 8 drops Dawn dish soap and 2 cups warm water.  Combine in a spray bottle and be sure to shake well.  I also used the basic household cleaner today in my bathroom which was success.  You can find the recipe here.  The shower cleaner I wasn't impressed with, if I find a better recipe I'll share it.  I bought the stuff to try a homemade stain treatment, but I haven't tried that one out yet.  The amazing thing is that I had all the ingredients for most of these cleaners already and saved loads of money making them as compared to buying each type of cleaner at $2-$4 each.

4.  We had to cut way way back on eating out.  My husband and I are major foodies.  Eating out is one of our favorite things to do.  My hubby looks up tiny places all over and finds the most amazing restaurants.  Plus, with four kids somedays it's just so much easier to get take-out.  Unfortunately, we've had to cut down on this.  Actually this month we can't afford to eat out or do take-out once.  *sob  It's frustrating, but I know things will get better.  Last night we took the kids to play mini-golf because we got a killer deal on annual passes last Christmas and by the time we were done it was 6:45 and they were starving.  It would have been nice to just stop at McDonald's on the way home.  We were tired, the kids were tired, I just wanted to put them to bed once we made it home!  Those golden arches were SO tempting!  But we didn't stop.  Instead we got them home, made them mac and cheese, threw some blueberries on the side and called it a day.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?