Tea Party with Rachel

Nicholas, Rachel, and I spend so much time together during the day that most of our activities are geared towards something we can all do and that both kids will enjoy.

However, I love it when one of the children is in a summer camp or Stuart lets one tag along with him to run errands. It gives me quality one on one time with the other child. Even though they both get time with me all day, there is just something special about one on one time when they have my undivided attention all to themselves.

Rachel and I recently had some girl time together so we threw a little tea party for her baby doll and her Barbie Cinderella.

Rachel got all dressed up for the occasion.



I went to the dining room to get a little silver plate that belonged to my grandmother to make our party just a little bit more special. Rachel saw where I got it from and, of course, I caught her over their exploring for other treasures just a minute later.



She made sure that all of her guests were taken care of.



I just love how excited she looked as we finished setting up for the party.



We had a wonderful tea party complete with tea and hot chocolate, pastries, bread, and fresh fruit.



Rachel was the perfect hostess. She refilled all of our cups over and over and over again.

Baby Rachel

Rachel loves to pretend to be a baby. She will pretend to cry like a little baby and kick her feet up in the air like a baby.

And of course, she likes to crawl into her baby doll's crib.



It's almost a daily event for her to be in the doll's crib or the doll's stroller. I hardly ever see the doll in either of them anymore!

Free Child Labor!

I don't think Stuart could be more excited...

Nicholas wanted to learn how to mow the grass!

Hooray for free child labor!

It started out a little shaky. Notice that all of the tires are NOT touching the ground.



With Stuart's help they got that problem fixed. Notice the concentration (aka stress) on Stuart's face and the smile on Nicholas' face!



Stuart did have to help with the turns because the lawn mower is still kind of big for the little guy to maneuver.



Still a big smile on Nicholas' face and Stuart is finally looking a little more relaxed too.



Look! No hands! Big smile on Stuart's face but I think Nicholas was starting to get tired about now.



Nicholas didn't finish mowing the yard but he was quite proud of his newly found skill.



Now that he has shown interest in it, I think we might need to make this part of his regular weekend fun!

The Best Ways to Spend Summer

The best ways to spend summer....Sno cones and playing in our pool!

No Time To Cook Dinner?

We seem to get busier and busier each year. Now that Nicholas is 7 years old, he is involved in several different activities. I take him to hockey and swimming once a week and karate twice a week. Unfortunately, some of these classes don't start until 5:30 in the evening which creates a serious time crunch for getting home, cooking dinner, bathing the kids and getting them to bed. It has gotten really hard to come home and have time to cook a wholesome dinner for my family.

I've tried a few dinners in a crock pot. They are easy because you usually just throw the ingredients in the pot and turn it on. My problem is that I don't usually think about dinner in the morning so I often forget about the crock pot until later in the afternoon and then it is too late.

Our other option is to pick up food in a drive through on the way home from karate. It's nice having a hot meal as soon as we get home. However, we started looking at the budget and we are spending much more money on dining out than we should. Plus I hate to think of all those extra calories from french fries and burgers that we wouldn't consume if only I had time to cook at home.

But let me share my latest secret with you.

It's my life preserver when life gets too hectic to cook a good meal at home.

Shh...it's Marie Callender’s.

Yes, I fed my family a frozen meal for dinner

...and they LOVED it!

Just take a look at what we had for dinner.



This is Marie Callender's Turkey Breast with Stuffing. It comes with creamy mashed potatoes & gravy (my husband's favorite food in the world), and green beans and carrots.

It took me only 6 minutes in the microwave to cook this.

I added salad and some dinner rolls and dinner was DONE!

The meal was rich and flavorful. It could have easily passed for my own home cooking...except that no one in my family would believe me if I told them I cooked something this yummy!

No more crock pots or fast food runs for us on busy evenings!

Note: Marie Callender's provided me with a free meal for review purposes and compensated me for my time involved in the review. However, the comments and opinions are all my own. I would not promote a product that I didn't sincerely want to recommend to others.