Tuesday April 30, 2013 (Kids games)

Pumpkin Progress

So today I honestly didn't do a whole lot. I unfortunately woke up with a migraine and between that and running Connor too and from school I didn't get a whole lot else done besides laundry, but nobody wants to read a blog about laundry. So the one thing I did do today is I replanted my little pumpkin plants. I gave 5 to my parents, so hopefully they will get a couple of pumpkins out of them. I have 11 more that I will divide up between myself, friends and family. I think they are looking pretty good so far, hopefully the extra room will let them keep on growing!

Munchkin Stuff

I wanted to share with all my fellow parents of preschoolers a game that my Aunt and Uncle got the boys for Christmas this past year it's called 

Snug as a Bug in a Rug. 

The munchkins love it and it helps them with their colors, shapes, counting and all sorts of other learning without them realizing it. I love it because it teaches them how to take turns, practice their shapes, colors etc. and when I don't feel well it's easy to set up on the floor and lay down near them to supervise. 

Monday April 29, 2013 (Cornhole bags)

Making a Corn hole bag

So In addition to building the Corn hole boards, I needed to get some Corn hole bags for the game as well. The hubby wanted these to be regulation as well, but at $22-$28 for a set of 8 I figured I could save some more money and make these too.

You really only need a few things to make a Corn hole bag; Duck fabric, Feed Corn, thread and time (a sewing machine is optional, but highly recommended)

So the first thing I had to do was make the trip to JoAnns to get some Duck fabric, you can also get it at Walmart and Hobby Lobby, but seeing as I had a coupon for 1/2 off I figured I'd save a little money. I HATE bringing the boys with me to craft stores, it makes them miserable which in turn makes ME miserable. So if I can I try to leave them home with daddy and go on my own.

When I asked what colors he wanted for the bean bags I got told 'Bold manly colors that you can see in the grass.' Well that doesn't narrow it down too much, but luckily they have picture messaging and these are the colors that he ended up choosing. I got 9" of each color, but because the edges were so crooked on the end of the fabric the nice lady at the cut table gave me a little extra.

The next thing that I had to hunt down was the feed corn. There was only one place I could think of to get it and that was Murdochs, luckily they opened one in Westminster so I didn't have to drive all the way to Longmont to get it. I really only needed 8lbs of feed corn for the bags since each bags uses 16oz. The smallest bags of corn they had were in the bird food aisle and they were $4.99 for 4lbs. But a nice employee showed me this bag in the livestock aisle, it's 50lbs of feed corn, but it was also only $13.49. When I asked her what the difference was she told me they wash the bird food one more... So I had to decide, should I pay the $1.25 a pound and just get what I needed or should I be frugal and spend the couple of extra bucks for the ginormous bag of corn which was like $0.27 a pound. Needless to say I lugged home 50lbs of feed corn... I really should of thought about how I was going to get it up the stairs, but somehow I managed to do it without any assistance. What will I do with all that extra corn? I'll probably just make some extra bags in case of busted seams and lost bags. I think I may also make some smaller lighter ones for the munchkins to use since the Rooster complained that the bags were too heavy. 

So first things first the fabric needs to be cut into 7" squares. I used a self healing mat, rotary blade and quilting ruler. These have gotten a lot of use for many of my projects, but you could just as easily use a pair of scissors. You need to have 2 squares per bag so a total of 8 squares for a set of 4 bags.

The next step is to sew three sides of the bag completely shut. I also sewed part of the fourth side shut to make closing it a little easier. Also cutting off the corners will allow your bag to have sharper corners. 

Flip the bags inside out using the opening and then push the corners out. I used a chopstick to get the corners as sharp as possible. 

After the bags are flipped inside out it's time to fill them. Regulation bags are supposed to be 14-16oz. Since the hubby wanted these as accurate as possible I used a cheap kitchen scale to measure them. I made them closer to the 16oz mark because as you throw them the corn gets broken up and dust comes out so over time the bags get lighter. I also cheated and used the top of a 2 liter pop bottle because the regular funnel I had was too narrow for the corn to go down easily. If you don't have a scale or just don't care about exact weight I found that 16oz is roughly 2.25cups of corn.

When you are done filling the bags sew the opening of the bag shut. I used a triple stitch on the bag which means that the bag has been stitched shut 3x so that it shouldn't pop open even with some pretty heavy abuse. Also even though the opening was only about 1/3 of the bag I opted to sew across the entire side for added strength.

I did do some tests with the beanbags to make sure they wouldn't pop open. I chucked them at the ground as hard as possible. I threw them from one end of the house to the other and then I let the munchkins have at them for a little. They threw them, sat on them and yes, they even jumped up and down on them, but there was no busted seams or leaking corn, there was however lots of giggling.

The entire project, once I had the supplies, took me about an hour and that was with the munchkins constantly asking "What are you doing? Can I help? Can I eat that? (the corn), Can I play with those?" They were VERY happy when I let them test the bean bags. But I also got begged for some of their own, so the next time I'm at JoAnns I'll get some more Duck fabric and use up some of the corn and make them their own. 

The finished products.

Pumpkin Watch

Today's count is 17 plants with the little flowers and mint finally making a true appearance. I'm going to try to replant some of the pumpkins this week to give them a little more room to grow.

Sunday April 28, 2013 (Cornhole)

Building a Game

Kiki is not a fan of car rides

So a while back the hubby played a game called Cornhole at a baby shower. He really enjoyed it so he thought it would be a good idea to get a set to have for the adults to play at the boys' yearly birthday party and other family get togethers. When he started looking into it I almost gagged when I saw the price tag on a regulation set, $100 minimum plus shipping!!! Are these people CRAZY?!?!? So I figured I'd bother my dad who has a gazillion tools and make one of our own for half the price (or less).

I found some online directions, downloadable in PDF format (YAY for iPads!) and loaded up the kids and dog to go visit my parents.

My Dad had the plywood already so all we needed was some 2x4s which my dad took me to get in his truck since 2x4s that are 8ft long do not fit in my car.

I did the measuring, but I let my dad do most of the cutting. I have a healthy respect for power tools and know when to stand back and let someone else who has more experience take over.

I do know how to use a drill so I did help screw the board onto the frame and mark where to cut the hole. I also helped drill the hole for the bolt to hold the legs on (which is the far right picture) but we didn't have any bolts long enough at my dad's house so he's going to bring some home from his shop and next time I head up there we will finish assembling it and then I get to paint it. In the mean time I'll make the bean bags for it.

Bailey

Star

These cute doggies are Bailey and Star, they are also my dogs, but unfortunately due to a lack of yard they can't live with us. My parents graciously allow them to stay with them since they have a big yard. It's always nice to visit them, but it's sad to leave them behind, especially Star because she mopes when I leave.

Pumpkin Progress

Wow these little guys grow fast! I count 12 plants out of the 19 so far. There is also some smaller sprouts coming up in the mint (right side of the picture) and the wildflowers (left side of the picture) but they are still really hard to see. Maybe my thumb is greener than I thought!

Saturday April 27, 2013

It's Spring!

It's Springtime in Colorado although you wouldn't know it with all the snow we have gotten this year. I've decided to test my thumbs this year and see if they are green or not, My husband believes that I kill any plant that I come near, but the cacti in my kitchen window beg to differ, yes I know anyone can grow a cactus. Anyways back to my testing, I've heard that pumpkins are fairly hardy plants and judging by the fields of them that pop up around Colorado every year I figure it can't be too difficult to grow one plant...

Since the growing season in Colorado is so short (our last frost is usually at the end of May) I figured I'd give the little plant a head start and start it inside. Then I started to worry. What if the little seed I planted didn't grow? So I decided I would plant an extra one, or two or... okay I'll admit I went a little overboard and I planted 19 seeds. What will I do if they all sprout you ask? Well luckily my parents have a big yard and I'm sure I will be able to pass a few off on them. If they all sprout then they are going to be getting passed out to anyone who will take them.

Anyways I planted the little seeds about a week ago and to my surprise when I checked this morning I saw this!

YAY!!!! I have a plant! Now assuming I don't somehow manage to kill it I may get to change my husband's mind about my being a plant killer. Wish me luck!

Chocolate chip cookies

Okay Enough about the plants. Now onto another of my ventures for the day. Technically I had to start these cookies yesterday because the dough needs to chill for 24hours according to Pinterest (another addiction of mine) these are supposed to be some of the best chocolate chip cookies out there. 

Okay okay, I'm REALLY lazy and didn't feel like lugging the boys to the store to search for bittersweet chocolate. For those of you without kids, getting them in and out of the car can be a HUGE pain in the butt, not to mention how many times I would have to hear "Are we done yet?"

Anyways instead of 1.25 lbs of bittersweet chocolate I opted to use 2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a bar of dark chocolate. Asking me to wait for dough to chill is like torture... I'm one of those people who will suffer through the pain of burning my mouth because I was too anxious to wait for the cookie to cool down.

(To help ease the 'pain' of waiting on these cookies I made a batch of Reese's pieces cookies to tide myself and the boys over.)

After 24 hours of waiting I pulled the dough out of the fridge and it was pretty dang solid, I'm not talking rock, but definitely not scoopable (yes I am aware that is not a real word) I ended up slicing hunks of it off then pressing it into an ice cream scoop to make sure the cookies were all the same size. Yes I did say ice cream scoop, I honestly believe there is no such thing as too big of a cookie. I also believe that cookies taste better when they are bigger. After getting the first batch in the oven I realized about 6minutes in that I had forgotten to sprinkle them with sea salt (DUH) so I quick opened the oven and sprinkled some on. I honestly think it worked better because the salt just rolled off the batch of cookies that I sprinkled before putting in the oven.

Here are the resulting cookies. I'll admit they are pretty darn good, but not wait 24hours for them good. I think the best parts were that the grated dark chocolate gave an overall consistent chocolate flavor and the sea salt gave it a nice kick to offset the sweetness. 

Corn Dog Muffins

I'm sure these cookies are not easy on the waistline (so few are) so I'm going to make an apple pie smoothie for myself for dinner, while the boys are going to have corn dog muffins. Another Pinterest find I got the basic idea here but being lazy I opted to cheat and use store bought betty crocker corn bread muffin mix and since I don't have a mini muffin pan I'm just going to use a regular size muffin tin and make the hot dog pieces bigger. (If you can't tell already by my laziness with the chocolate in the cookies I'm a big fan of improvising if I think it will turn out well.)

Here are the the essentials. I greased the muffin tins and cut the hot dogs into thirds. As a side note it only took me one muffin before I realized it's a lot easier to fill the cups and then stick the hot dog in the middle than it is to fill around them, unless of course you were piping the cornbread mix in.

here's the corn dog muffins before they were cooked.

The finished product. Yes I chuckled when I realized these things totally look like little boobs. Oh well, the kids loved them and they will probably make it into our meal rotation because they were easy, fast and the boys liked them. Even the hubby approved of them.

Getting Started

Getting Started

   I may as well start by introducing myself. I'm am currently a stay at home mom to two mischievous little boys who enjoy pushing my buttons, making messes and in general being boys. I have a wonderful husband who despite all of my flaws, quirks whatever you want to call them puts up with me and all of my random hobbies. I also have two cats, three dogs and a couple of fish, if you can't tell I love animals, especially those of the furry variety. I do have an extreme aversion to birds though, I personally find them terrifying, except ducks. (Don't ask, because I honestly don't know why they are the exception.) I love reading, but admittedly haven't done much of it lately because I'm also one of those people who once I start a book have a REALLY hard time putting it down until it's done. I also have a slight crafting addiction. I'm not much of an artist, I'll be the first to admit I cannot draw or paint for anything, but I do love sewing, crocheting, and other various crafty things. Baking is another one of the things that I love to do. It's a rare occasion that we don't have some sort of cookie/brownie/cake or some other miscellaneous sweet hanging around in the kitchen, which my waistline will obviously tell you as well. I admit, I am not a cook, I don't enjoy it one bit, that's my husband's department. I will dabble once in a while, but it's no fun, at least until I get to sit down and eat it. Anyways, that's pretty much all you need to know about me, so let's get on to my adventures!