Fun Family Day

We actually have a lot of family days, but today I remembered to take some pictures!  After church, we decided to spend some time with each of our daughters separately.  So Tom and Kailey played a few hands of "I Spy Go Fish" while Natalie and I baked my favorite chocolate cookie recipe (which you can find the recipe in an earlier blog post).  I love cooking with my kids because we are teaching them about following directions, patience, math, and the importance of spending quality time together.  Also, although not today, we learn that making a mess can be funny and interesting!  

Natalie and I finished our cookies about the same time that Tom and Kailey were on their fourth game of "I Spy Go Fish."  Tom was very excited that he won the last hand as he never wins when we all play together.  It's become his mission in life to win at this game!  I love this version of "Go Fish" because it's got fun pictures.  We love the "I Spy" books from the library.  

Sadly, spring has brought more snow.  We are supposed to be getting a storm this week :(  I'm ready for my spring and summer bulbs to bloom and I'm seriously considering planting a raspberry bush by the shed.  I was told recently that one used to grow there and the Christmas Tree store has them for $8.  Not a bad price but then again, I've never bought berry plants so I really don't know what a good price is.  But under $10 seems good to me!

Enjoy the pictures of our family day :)

                                                                               

                                                 Natalie was quite proud of our cookies :)  

We added heart sprinkles but sadly they were falling off when we moved them to the cooling rack

Tom basking in his win at "I Spy Go Fish"

Hmm...to play another game or not to play another game????

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I adapted a recipe from food network that is really yummy!  The only thing I did differently was cut the chicken breasts into chunks for nugget sized bites.  It's so good! 

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 cup buttermilk
Italian seasoned bread crumbs (or any bread crumbs you prefer)
1 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil
parchment paper to line baking sheet

Place cut chicken breasts into a bowl with a lid.  Pour the buttermilk over the chicken and stir until all chicken is coated.  Cover with lid and place in fridge for 15 - 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. 

Pour the bread crumbs into a pie plate for dredging.  Place the buttermilk-coated chicken nuggets into the breadcrumbs and turn over until completely coated.  Place the nuggets onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  *I sprayed the parchment paper as well with non-stick cooking spray*

Drizzle olive oil over the nuggets and bake for 12 minutes or until cooked through, occasionally turning the nuggets.  

This recipe is super yummy and goes great with garlic and cheese biscuits!

Christmas Lights and Snow!!!

Last Sunday we received our first snow of the season!  The Weather Channel predicted a sprinkle of snow but we ended up getting 8 inches!  The kids and I were able to sleep in on Monday morning as we had a two hour school delay.  The temps were extremely cold during the week, with my favorite of 17 degrees :(  Crossing guard is not fun in the cold!  Thankful for layers of clothing and hot tea :)  Enjoy the pictures!

Pumpkin Patch

Our family had a great time at the Embry's Pumpkin Patch last weekend.  We love this farm and their country store is awesome!  They make the best homemade pies, in fact so good that I ordered a blueberry pie for Thanksgiving.  I love blueberry pie, almost as much as apple :) 

We have been keeping busy with school, work and soccer.  Kailey and Natalie are keeping their grades up and we are very proud of their work ethic with assignments.  I remember homework and how tough it can be, especially after a long day at school.  We keep them in a routine and I think that helps. 

I'm taking a Mommy's Retreat in a few weeks to Ithaca, New York.  Yep, I'm invading the Perry household :)  Look out!  I look forward to spending some time with Alysia, Christian and Sienna.  I'm hoping that the fall colors will still be hanging around up there, but Alysia said the leaves are falling fast so we'll see.  It was so beautiful in the summer and I can't wait to see the fall in Ithaca. 

Tom surprised me with tickets to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular next month for a date night!!!!  Woo hoo!!!!  We are going to stay with his Aunt and Uncle who live about thirty minutes from the city, and they are watching the girls for us.  We were able to get the tickets half off due to the show being on Sunday morning.  Tom did a lot of research and it paid off.  Yea Tom!

Well, time to go swap the laundry around.  I can't wait to snuggle into my clean sheets.  I love the smell of clean laundry ;)

A Fun Recipe

The recipe below is one of our family's favorite cookies!  Tom is a huge fan and tends to ask for them when he has a craving for something sweet :)  Kailey and Natalie love to help me decorate the cookies with the sprinkles, or confetti, as we call them!  This recipe has been passed down to me from my Mom, although I'm not sure where she adapted it from.  I remember making this cookie when I was learning how to bake.  The first cookie I remember making with my Mom were snickerdoodles, which are my absolute favorite to this day!  After Tom and I were married, my Mom gave me one of the best wedding gifts; a recipe box with family recipes, including this one.  I'm thankful that I'm able to pass down my love of baking and cooking to our children. 

My Mom and I decided to start working on a cookbook of our family recipes.  My Dad's side of the family put one together for our family reunion a few years ago, so now it's my Mom's turn.  We are working on a title, but I think it's going to be "Passing It Down Recipes." 

Enjoy the cookie recipe and be sure to pour yourself a cold glass of milk! 


Chocolate Confetti Cookies

2 eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp. cocoa
1 cup mini chocolate chips (this ingredient is optional; I added this and the sprinkles to my Mom's original recipe)
fun sprinkles of your choice

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  In a standing mixer beat eggs.  Add vanilla, oil, sugar, and beat until combined. 

In a separate bowl, add flour, salt, soda, and cocoa.  Mix together.  Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, and blend until a thick dough forms.  Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Using a medium cookie scoop, place rounded cookie dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle the "confetti" on top of each cookie and bake for 8-11 minutes. 

Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes before devouring these heavenly and scrumptious cookies! 

Fall

Fall is one of our family's favorite seasons!  Kailey is a huge fan of fall due to her October birthday and pumpkins.  She has been a fan of pumpkins since she was a toddler.  I'll never forget when we took her and Natalie to their first pumpkin patch.  Although, at that time Kailey had trouble saying "pumpkin patch", so it came out as "punt da patch."  Ah, memories :)  Tom and I decided to put our time to good use the other day and explore the Christmas Tree Shop in Brick.  It's a wonderful store that is reasonably priced, and huge!  You can find anything from home decorations, candles, picture frames, furniture, and even food!  We love this store, but at the same time I'm thankful it's thirty minutes from our house so we aren't tempted to go there and spend money all the time :)  The store rotates their inventory frequently so every time we go there is always something new.  This week, we purchased some fall decorations, which are posted below.  Like I said, we love fall and love to decorate the house.  As I sit here looking at all the different pumpkins we have in the house, I think that when Kailey and Natalie leave the nest (which is a looooooooooong time from now thankfully) we need to send them with a care package of decorative pumpkins for their home!

Soccer is also in full swing.  We have games every weekend and practices three nights a week.  Two of the practices the team works with a trainer.  I've been told that most of the soccer teams these days hire a trainer.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  One, we pay a fee up front at registration for both kids, and the trainer is extra.  They split the fee up with all the players on the team, but we have two so it's double for us.  The parents don't have a say so in the hiring of a trainer.  Two, it's an extra night of practice for them and with school it is slowly becoming too much.  Kailey and Natalie love soccer and are having a great time.  So for now, we will enjoy it and do the best we can. 

I'm hunting for a good pumpkin bread recipe.  I've never made pumpkin bread so I want to pick a good one.  Of course, I won't know if it's superb until I taste it, but sometimes you tell how good a recipe will be from the ingredients.  I've always made blueberry bread and my family loves it.  Hopefully they will feel the same about pumpkin bread. 

I'm off to finish laundry and search for a recipe.  I'm hoping for some cool fall weather to go along with my baking and decorating.  Lately it's been humid and hot again :(  Enjoy the pictures!

 

I highly recommend this book!  I love how each page includes Bible verses to go along with the story. 

 

Some of our fall decorations from The Christmas Tree Shop. 

 

Gotta love the monogram pumpkin!

 

Kailey and Natalie warming up for their soccer game last weekend.

 

 

Another purchase from The Christmas Tree Shop.  Yankee Candle's can be pricey, but at this store they were so much cheaper.  This by far is my favorite fall scent :) 

 

I just had to include past pumpkin patch photo's!  Kailey was two in this picture and had so much fun picking out her pumpkin.

 

I'm not quite sure what Kailey is thinking about here :)  This was the last pumpkin patch in England before we moved back to the US.

 

I loved this picture of Kailey so much that I framed it. 

 

Kailey and Natalie love to paint the pumpkins as well!

Back to School

 

School has officially started for the 2013-2014 school year!  Kailey is a mighty fourth grader and has a big job this year....safety for the third grade hall!  She has to wear a yellow safety belt and loves her job!  She takes it very seriously :)  Natalie is in the third grade this year and hoped and prayed that her friend, Summer, would be in her class.  She came home from school so happy because Summer is in her class!  Both kids love their teachers and we are praying that this year will be filled with memories and joy for them.  We began a new sport back in August; soccer.  Kailey and Natalie love soccer and they are doing really well.  They won their game yesterday, which was a recreation game.  They didn't win the competitive game today, but as a team they played very well.  We will have busy weekends until November, but both Tom and I love being soccer parents and watching our kids learn something new and have fun doing it! 

Tom is busy at work and hoping to finish his degree soon.  I know he's ready to be finished!  I have begun my crossing guard job again and although the first day of school was hairy, I enjoy it.  Tomorrow is going to be a rough day at the gym for me.  I have been sickly with allergies and some kind of stomach bug lately, so I only worked out twice last week.  I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's workout, but I will get through it. 

I've decorated the house with our fall decorations, and we are looking forward to the cooler weather and leaves changing colors.  Some leaves have already begun to change and fall on our deck.  Hopefully the storms will stay away this year!