Spring, Cheerios and French Toast

Spring is right around the corner.  Can you feel it?  It is hard for me with the temperatures outside below freezing but it is nice to start thinking ahead.  When I think of spring I think of: cleaning, flowers, picnics, kites, and so much more.  With spring on the brain, it was a great time to pull out my Christmas present from David, an herb garden.

 

Here is the kit I received.

The kids and I went straight to work.  Here we are mixing water with the pellets to create dirt.  It was actually a fun experiment.

 

A filling in her pots with soil.

And then, her seeds.

 

C sprinkling his seeds.

And of course, B too!

The finished Herb garden.

Hopefully in a few short weeks our basil, parsley, cilantro, chives, spearmint and oregano will have started to grow.

I was recently asked to create a breakfast experience using original cheerios.  I must admit that my first attempt failed miserably (note: Cheerios are *not* a substitute for flour!) but if at first you don't succeed try, try again and that I did!

So, my family made French Toast Casserole with Cheerio Streusel Topping.

What you will need.

Cut the Texas toast into four triangles.

 A did about 75% of the cutting.  I love including the kids in cooking.

Neatly arrange in the bottom of a deep baking dish.

Cut the bread however you like - we did triangles because we thought it was fun.  C arranged the slices above creating a puzzle.

C with his finished two layer bread puzzle.

 D climbed up into the booster seat and started helping by trying out the bread.  Quality control is important and she verified that our bread was indeed fresh.

The remaining ingredients (except the topping).

 

We always have lots of helpers when we need to crack eggs.  And believe it or not, my children can usually crack eggs better than I can.

Daddy helping out.  Notice C getting in on the quality control :)

Layer the liquid mixture onto the toast.

Cover the dish with foil and refrigerate overnight!  Easy peasy.

Now on to the cheerio streusel topping.

 

First we crushed enough cheerios in our food processor to make 1/4 cup.

Then we mixed the remaining ingredients into the food processor.  Add the crumbled topping to the casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes!

The finished product.

I ate mine with a little syrup and powdered sugar.

And the big question, how did D like it?  She loves it :)

David liked it, too; but he says it's not as good as Mema's legendary french toast.  And there you have a breakfast option with a spin on cheerios!  Enjoy!!  Feel free to let me know your thoughts, I would love to hear them.

Our Winter Wonderland

Living in Texas it does not snow very often; it is a rare occurrence.  But yesterday it did!  

 Our front yard in the morning.

 And our back deck, isn't the snow awesome?

The kids had so much fun playing in the snow and building a snowman, which later turned out to be a snowwoman when we named her Sasha.  David had the day off and we just has so much fun as a family being silly and enjoying the unpredictable weather.  David jokes that Texas has two kinds of weather: hot and really hot.

D, C and B.  Not sure why B's coat is unzipped.

A and B posing with Sasha.

B, C and I walked to HEB to get a few groceries yesterday and to check out the neighborhood filled with snow.  It was such a fun time of exploring.

 B on the way to HEB.

C with his awesome football gloves.  He is ready for Sunday!

Yesterday afternoon a neighbor's house also caught on fire!  I have never been so close to a live fire.  The house is going to be a total loss.  The firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading too much.  The house next door has minimal roof damage but it could have been worse.  It got me thinking, what would I take if our house was on fire and we had to get out.  Of course, my family comes first but after that.  And the only thing that kept coming to my mind were pictures.  Pictures hold so many memories to me and they mean a lot so that is what I would want to salvage.  In the end, everything is just stuff.  There is an old bumper sticker that says you can't take it with you to heaven - and yesterday was a reminder of that to me.

My First Giveaway: $20 cash!

I have been wanting to host a giveaway for awhile now it seems.  I have been so blessed in winning other bloggy giveaways that I wanted to host my own.  What is up for grabs??  $20!  This giveaway is pretty easy.  All I ask is that you follow my blog via google friend (see my sidebar).  Leave a comment that you follow on this post and that is pretty much it!  Sorry, I cannot ship internationally.  This giveaway will close at midnight on February 14th!  The winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be picked.  Good luck :)

Painting Party Success

We celebrated A's 7th birthday over the weekend (even though she is not officially 7 till the 22nd).  She wanted a painting party and we had so much fun letting everyone paint.

 A posing for me!

 

The set up - what fun!

 

Some of the artists...

Concentrating...

 

Smile :)

 

More artists... 

 

Even more artists...we had a lot of talent! 

Even D got in on the fun.

 

And of course, David's amazing cake!!

 

 Happy Birthday A!!

I Lost A Few Pounds Last Night

Or at least it feels like it, in hair that is!  Yes, I donated my hair to the Locks of Love program again.  Yeah, my 5th time in my 9.5 years of marriage.

 

 B and I right before I cut my hair

(if you look closely you will see C!)

The first time I took the plunge was on my honeymoon in England!!  So, I donated 15 inches and a few more were cut off to make my style so I am ~ 16-17 inches shorter and my head feels much lighter.  So my grand total of donated hair to date is (13+14+16+15+15) a whopping 73 inches!!

 D and I right afterwards!

Book Review #1: God Gave Us So Much

I am so excited to do my first book review for the blogging for books program!!!  Woohoo, I received a free copy of God Gave Us So Much: A Limited-edition three-book treasury by Lisa Tawn Bergren and the art was by Laura J. Bryant.

The three stories within this book are God Gave Us The World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven.

Each of these are written as a conversation with the child polar bear, Little Cub.  I really like that Bergren includes scripture into the text; she is clearly building on a strong Biblical foundation.  The conversational format is sometimes choppy, especially in God Gave Us Heaven where the question-and-answer dialog doesn't always have a natural continuity.  In several places in these stories, the response, or answer is so conclusive that my kids thought the story was over.
 
In God Gave Us the World, Little Cub is interacting with her mama.  It is basically one conversation discussing  topics like God's creativity and taking care of the world.  Little cub learns about the different bears in the world and that she is unique and special.  It is doctrinally sound.  I love that it has scripture embedded into it - God made the world and everything in it!

In God Gave Us Love, Little Cub is interacting with her grandpa.  This story discusses the different ways we can love one another: the love between mamas and papas, friends, family, and others.  We may not always want to show love to others but God always gives us love to show.  It is great illustration for kids in being nice.

In God Gave Us Heaven, Little Cub is interacting with her papa.  It is set up as question and answer format and dicusses the possibilities of heaven.
 
I think the artwork is great and these books are engaging to children!  I would recommend this book!!

What is a Hypothesis Anyway?

We had a fun little science experiment yesterday.  B got some grow bug capsules for Christmas.  So, I decided that we should hypothesize and guess what each one was going to turn into.  After explaining what a hypothesis was (note: this is not the first time we have talked about it but it has been awhile) I asked the kids, "What is a hypothesis?"  All three were convinced it was some sort of bug!  After the second and third explanations they got it!

 The present.  They loved watching these turn into insects.

 

The set up.

 

 B helping it along.  These capsules were pretty fast as it only took them a few minutes to reveal what was inside.  I think the trick is to have pretty warm/hot water.

C enjoying guessing!

The girls getting ready.

 Some of the results.

 C's first round.

More results.