Ethan and his science project...

Ethan has been pretty excited to be doing his science project this year. Last year they did group assignments and this year all on his own. I have to say while I was uploading the photos for his display board I was amazed at what a neat little experiment it is! I had researched a few ideas for him online and then a fellow mom from the adoption board I go to suggested this (and she was doing it with her whole 1st grade class and now I see why!).

Here are the photos we took (tomorrow we will finish putting the display board together and then we will have final shots to show! The big science fair is on Friday!

He is doing a RUBBER EGG . . .

1. Egg goes into a glass

2. Pour vinegar over the egg and let it sit for a few days

3. His comparison of the original egg (raw) and the egg after it has sat (this one actually 2 weeks) but it is only necessary for a few days

Oh my gosh don't you just LOVE the contrast of colors! We couldn't believe how much the color changed and it is still RAW!

4. It is RUBBERY now

Photos have been printed and tomorrow we finish gluing to the display board and writing up his description/story of his experiment!

Easter . . .

We had a very nice and laid back Easter. We spent some time with hubby's side of the family on Saturday (maybe pics soon) and then Sunday morning we went to Mass and then came home to make some breakfast and simply hang out. Nothing fancy, but nice. Believe it or not the kids didn't go real fancy on Easter clothes and Ethan was changed out of his outfit minutes after being home. So no great photos, only a few snapshots. I think these few happen to be my favorite (I still need to edit a few of the other ones).

Ethan bless his heart continues to amaze and surprise us! Since we didn't even color eggs this year, when it came time to hide the plastic eggs, we told the kids to go upstairs to their room. I figured they were together in Bella's room listening to a CD. I couldn't have been more wrong. Bella was pouting ... she thought she was in trouble when we told her to go to her room and Ethan was quietly sitting on his bed. I could hear his music and was very much surprised when I looked a little closer and noticed something in his hand. He was PRAYING THE ROSARY. We didn't ask him to, we hadn't even been talking about it. All on his own. One of those little moments that you realize he isn't a baby anymore and what a good young man he is SLOWLY turning into. (Bless his heart he didn't even flinch or get upset when I "snuck" in to snap a few pictures).

Bella can't be left out either. We do give the kids Easter baskets, but try not to go too crazy with them. Always something religious and a little bit of chocolate and a couple small toys. I or we were very excited to give Ethan his first real Bible. I happened across this Adventure Bible the other day of all places Walmart. Matter of fact I would love to see these a requirement for school or something.... Well Bella got a new CD call Cat Chat...both of the kids LOVE it and have tons of it already memorized! She also got some little religious figurines....Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus! I can't find a link or remember the name brand of the figurines (they have lots of other religious figures too), but well here you can see the 3 of them in action!

I hope everyone else had a blessed Easter Holiday!

P.S... Almost forgot to add that at school all the first graders colored crosses and wrote down their Lenten promise. In typical 7 year old fashion, Ethan promised to give up COOKIES. He did sooo good, even when mom forgot and brought him surprise cookies and left them in his locker for lunch time, he still didn't eat them! Ahh our good little Catholic boy!

Decorating...

Again it has been a couple weeks since I have updated the blog...

I started my running class yesterday and am thankful it starts slow. I had taken the past couple weeks off from running; my shins had been hurting soo bad (to even walk) and I didn't want to be sore when I started my running class. It is an all girls class and well lets face it, it is super nice to be out of the house for a bit all by myself! =) Ahh so the next 11 weeks are for me on Tuesday nights!

I've got some girlfriends and we are always discussing something, from our husbands/boyfriend (just the one of us not all of us have the boyfriends LOL), we walk about adoption (we have all adopted at least twice), to house painting color (inside and out), to decorating; which is our newest hot topic!  Anjali is awesome with soo many ideas in her own house or with other websites and blogs. Okay so there was a little background....

I've started Ethan's room. Everything has shown up and now just need to paint the curtain rod, touch up the inside of the window frame and then a few accessories. I thought about getting a football holder (rubber kicking tee I think is the more formal name) and a few other things to put on his headboard etc... I would love to move out a bunch of the toys that are still in his room and move them into the playroom.

Thanks to the girlfriends I am already thinking ahead to other rooms and I'm sure the husband will love it. We've lived in our house since 2001 and many many of the walls are still really bare! So with all that said I was checking out one of the blogs/websites that Anjali suggested and DAD check out this picture that I saw. You think you can convince Mom to let you do that?  =)

Well I'm off to scope out some inspirational rooms for myself . . .

P.S.  I think my weight loss would go just a little bit better if I didn't eat this for dessert tonight! I had went to a Demarle cooking party (Brooke was a great consultant that I've used) and got this great Fluted Bundt Mold "pan" and was just itching to make something in it... 

So here was dessert for tonight (and the next few nights)

Lots more to share and some fun pictures to share too... More tomorrow? =)

Been a couple weeks & lots of links!

It has been a quick couple weeks since I've posted... Lots of stuff to post.

Weight Loss
Well I'm still down about 10-12 pounds...it fluctuates from day to day, but I have taken a "break" after 20 straight days hooping. I need to pick it back up and get busy. Doing it everyday wasn't hard, but after taking a couple days off it makes it a lot easier to not do it the following day =) Add that to my shins have been killing me (mainly my left one) so now I also haven't ran this past week (or walked). Planning on going Wednesday or Thursday to the running store to hopefully get nice new shoes. Shoes are supposed to really make a difference in shin splints! Crossing my fingers. A couple weeks ago Todd also found out that he has tendonitis in his left knee so he has been limping around for a couple weeks now and also not running or walking.

I have been eyeing some new treadmills. I have these two on "my list". The Sole F80 or the Sole F83. I've been saving for an IKEA trip for the Trofast storage system.So it has quickly made me rethink how much storage stuff we need LOL. I want to get a treadmill soon, while the weather is still on the bad side so I can keep walking and more often with it.

So first and foremost I just need to keep with it, back to doing what I have been doing and what I know how to do!

Decorating
Isn't decorating always an ongoing project? Above I talked about the trofast storage system for our "playroom" which used to be our dining room, which was NEVER used. Well the kids rooms have always been decorated, but never to the full extent. So a few years ago we painted Ethan's room black and gold (go COUGARS aka high school mascot) and we had a construction theme... yeah you guessed it, it was never done to the full potential. Bella recently got new Barbie Bedding from Pottery Barn (of course it is like 50% off now, thankfully I bought a piece here and a piece there) so E has been asking to have new stuff too... Sure bud, what do you want? His reply Pittsburg Steelers football theme! I jump for joy... guess what colors they are? Yup you are right, Black and Gold. This week I plan to buy the sheet/comforter set. E hasn't seen it, but I'm sure he will love it. Then I remembered FatHead website that does up to lifesize wall clings! They have a whole section for the Steelers! I am getting a Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu and their logo (the logo itself is 3'4" x 3'4" and the players are over 6' tall)! Ethan is going to freak out when he sees it all together. I think I might just have to surprise him with all of it.... hmmmm something to think about. Too bad I couldn't find any Barbie ones for Bella's room.


I do have some pink "lantern" type balls to hang, a few bugs my mom gave me years ago and we hung her recent ballet recital picture up. I just would love to get a new frame, actually two. Then she can have her 2 recital pictures in it. (She will have a spring recital).


I love this framing headboard that my friend Anjali (scroll down just a bit) posted. Now you can't really beat $2.99 picture frames (at IKEA). Not sure where for sure I would want to use it at, but love the concept.

I hope you find my links "fun" like I do LOL, but can't really have a post with out pictures right?

The other day at daycare I started snapping pictures of the baby and then ended up taking pictures of almost all of the daycare kids...Can't really post their photos (some turned out great), but will post a few of Bella (Ethan wasn't there that day)...She is such a ham, it just cracks me up sometimes!

I can't really leave Ethan out of the pictures. He has been reading The Lightning Thief. I am soo proud of him. This will be the biggest book he has ever read (and way above what he should be reading). The book just came out in the movie theaters this past weekend, but he hasn't quite finished it yet (and he left it at school over the long weekend) so hoping that he is able to finish it up this weekend and we are able to take him to see the movie! I was so very upset for him though today...he told me that a kid at school told him who the "thief" is... Ummm hello, that is telling him what the end of the book is! Might just have to remind that kid when someone says NO I DON'T WANT TO KNOW... it means NO! Argh. Ethan was upset by it, but not traumatized LOL so I think we are okay! =)  This photo was taken the other morning BEFORE school. He asked for his cereal TO GO aka in a sandwich baggy and I finished getting ready to leave the house and came downstairs to find him like this!

Tomorrow is Wednesday I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

My Baby Girl + Running

Some time ago we chopped off Bella's hair because she wouldn't leave it pulled up in a pony or with barrettes or with headbands....Now she is all about hair accessories and so I am loving the fact that now I can start buying the cute, fun hair stuff for her! Friday I mentioned something about shopping at an Etsy store called BriarClaire, well at daycare after Bella threw a fit over the fact that she couldn't just take a couple barrettes that were left on the "shoe rack"...so I caved and told her about the new hair stuff I had ordered. So all weekend she wanted to know if her surprise had come in the mail yet, she just couldn't understand why it took so long! Thankfully Monday it arrived (SUPER FAST DELIVERY) and she has been wearing the headband (no picture yet) and the hats ever since! She really posed it up for me last night when I wanted to snap a few pictures! She just cracks me up...when she wants to be a ham she can be!

Now onto me... LOL

I did buy the Nike + iPod sensor thing for my shoes. I HIGHLY recommend this if you are doing ANY walking or running or a combination. It tracks everything and is well just neat! =). I played around with the Nike plus website a little and here are some of the goodies!  Of course you get to make yourself a little Mii character! Aren't I cute?

Every run/walk etc is "graphed" .... Here is mine from my run on Tuesday . . .(the huge dip down in the middle of my run is me stopping to tie my shoe during a walking period! 

I look forward to seeing the graphs as I continue to run. I have signed up for a running class at a local fitness/running store (Starts March 2nd) and I was doing the math tonight and I'm NOT going to be done with my C25K program....So I need to do some more research on the groups and make sure I'm in the right group and then decide if I will step up the C25K days and try and finish it or just continue and cross my fingers that I'm ready come class time! =)

I did set a goal for running in 2010 . . . 

Yes that is right run/walk 500  miles in 2010. I figure it is doable. If I run/walk 3 miles three times a week that is 9 miles a week and 468 miles a year. Figure in extra days during the week, small and big walks and our vacation (lots of walking and biking) I think it is doable, but I am about 36 miles behind since I just started counting (I guess I could backtrack a little, but this just adds a little to it) LOL.

So now it is in writing . . . maybe a little more accountable.

P.S.   I just finished up night# 13 in hooping tonight (Wednesday).

It is working...

So unfortunately the blog seems to be taken over with talk all about me (about time LOL). Hard to believe that tonight will be day# 8 of hooping. (I need to work at getting some of my favorite NEW links up on the side!) Last night (# 7) wasn't too hard. It is amazing how two weeks ago I couldn't even keep it going around and now doing 20-30 minutes is no big deal. I've done pretty good with my eating all week, very little extra snacking and I was down 4 pounds when I weighed in this morning. A total of 7 pounds (in 20 days... I was up a couple last week.

Almost forgot yesterday I did Week# 2 Day# 1 (W2D1). I took the car in for an oil change at the dealership and when he said it would be 45-1hr.. (really that long?) I didn't even hesitate to ask if I could change my clothes first (and put my stuff back in the trunk before they took the car away. That isn't normal for me. I normally would have waited in the waiting room and read a magazine or watched their tv. Off I went and I was very surprised at the fact that yes by the end of the 90 seconds of running/jogging that I was ready to walk again, but I was ready to keep going. I wasn't ready for it to be done...  I am really looking forward to the longer runs and the running class I signed up for at the local athletic/running store. Excited that it is an all woman's class and that it is for beginners and long time runners too... A spot for all of us.  Right now I've really only got one real sore spot. On my left leg on the right of my shin. Hmm I need to read up on how to keep the shins from hurting.

I bought a bunch of magazines yesterday at the grocery store, was looking for a running magazine. (Can you tell I'm completely fascinated with everything that has to do with it right now? Which I personally think is a good thing.) So Andrea if you are reading, would love to hear what some of your favorite magazines are right now.

My parents called this week and asked if they could come play with the kids this weekend and we could go do whatever we wanted. I'm very excited about this.... Ethan has been quite the handful this past week (and more) so looking forward to a little bit of alone time on Saturday. We talked about doing dinner and a movie, but  I think we might head to IKEA. I've been saving money for months now to go buy the storage system I've been eyeing (the trofast system). Then I get to start saving for the new treadmill I want.  =)

Oops no new pictures uploaded right now.... More this weekend. Cross your fingers that we are able to get the new organization system all put together and the toys sorted. My goal is for everything to have a home and that it will be a lot easier to pick up.

Oh I do have a picture to show you... Last night I bought Bella a couple new hats and a headband from this etsy site:  BriarClaire.
Bella is slowly keeping ponytails and headbands in so I thought now might be the time. So here is a picture of one of the hats I got her.

Hope you guys have a great weekend.

Chaos and Fascination . . .

I am seriously thinking our mornings can't get any more chaotic than they were today. E threw one of his all out tantrums this morning because the couldn't find a particular fleece! NICE... I just hate starting our mornings like that. Nothing seems to help it and it just upsets everyone. I think most of the time he is tired, plus once he "gets to that spot" I don't think he really knows how to stop it, how to calm himself down and well I'm not sure how to teach him that lesson either! So hoping we wake up to a happy go lucky boy in the morning!

On a more positive note - - My baby girl got an award at Mass today. She was given the Peacemaker award from her pre-school teacher. She was soo excited for her award; not so excited about the mass part of it. We are working on that. We don't get too much of a fight on Sunday mornings, but she sure likes to complain about Wednesday school mass. Says she doesn't like it and it lasts too long! =) Sorry honey .... it is a part of your school week! Try to enjoy it! I so wish the one picture wasn't soo blurry. . . can you see the smile on her face?

We are really good friends with her teacher... Bella was going in to kiss her on the cheek! =)

     

Talking about me now... Tonight I finished day# 6 of hula hooping. I was able to get 30 minutes in. I did get my "run" in on Tuesday (yesterday) and I am seriously really enjoying myself. I have never been a jogger or runner of any kind, but really proud of myself for setting this goal (running a 5k) and really feeling like I can accomplish my goal. Matter of fact I know I can accomplish it. Isn't that the positive attitude you are supposed to have! I ended up at our local riverfront park and there were only a few people around and a little foggy. It was actually quite pretty jogging along side the river and being able to look out across the water!

Tomorrow (Thursday) is supposed to be the start of Week 2. Todd started one "day" after me, so trying to decide if I will try W2D1 (Week 2 Day 1) or just repeat W1D3 again. I barely felt "comfortable" in the 60second jog (boy does that sound like soo little time) but I'm very anxious to keep moving forward.

It almost sounds pretty silly to say since I haven't only been doing this a little over a week, but this morning I could totally see how people look forward to working out or how they enjoy it. I am very much an emotional eater, depressed, sad, happy, mad, bored....any emotion! Yet on the way to drop off the kids at school this morning I actually thought about how nice it would be to go for a nice run/walk right now. Instead of running thru a drive thru, it was like too bad I can't just drop them off and head to the park! I am really hoping this is a trend that continues and that I can stick with it!

A handful of blogs that I follow do this WORDLESS WEDNESDAY. I definitely am not wordless today or most days either, but thought I would share one more picture! Bella got too close to brother the other night while he was playing his DS and we think he pushed her back when she wouldn't move on her own. One of them most had one of the DS stylus in their hand because it left two little "cuts" on her cheek! So Monday she came home from school with a bandaid across her face! She really wanted to just keep wearing it. How cute is she!!!

Okay way too much to read today ...Sorry folks!

Day 4 (1-25-10)

Last night I finished day 4 of hula hooping. Very excited to be doing it. I mean I don't hate it, it doesn't bother me to stand there and do it and watch my shows on TV. This morning I even got up and did it, but lets just say it is a little harder to do first thing in the morning. I kept dropping it, but did get about another 15 minutes in total . . . Tonight I will be doing Night 5 while watching The Biggest Loser.

At some point today I need to do another day of my C25K and get the oil changed in the car! Still lucking out and haven't had to do it in the pouring rain. Even showed Todd how to run my iPod last night so he can still do it this morning too!

So nothing amazing this morning, but did find this nice little treat on one of the blogs I read. So if you are a digital scrapper this is a great little template. It can be found (and downloaded) HERE at the SSD  blog.

Well that is it for this morning off to get myself and the kids ready for the day!

Where to start?

So again I have abandoned my blog.... seems like life speeds up and it gets forgotten (Plus it is super easy to put tiny updates on Facebook)! I'm hoping to at least be able to update a couple times a week. I love reading everyone else's, but so not sure how Melissa keeps up with her blog so well! Since it has been so long I'm hoping it doesn't get too long tonight. Just hoping to touch on a few things!

So over time I will add a few good holiday and favorites from the last couple months. Lets' see it is mid January... Thanksgiving and Christmas and Ethan's birthday have all passed. OMG my first born is 7! Guess what... We are bad parents. He has talked about a a birthday party, but hasn't gone on and on about it so well we haven't planned one. It is just so hard right after Christmas and well I like to procrastinate. He hasn't brought in up at all this past week so I think I am going to push for a 1/2 birthday party in late spring or first thing after school gets out! He didn't really want to go out somewhere and have it and well the idea of having a bunch of boys (plus some girls and most likely some parents too) running around our house... just didn't sound that great!

I did get two pages scrapbooked the other night. It has literally been months since I had done any scrapping. (It really hasn't stopped my digital scrapping though). I did just buy this great HUGE KIT called ONE LOVE to benefit Haiti. I think I might have bought it for the premade pages alone. They look great!

I guess Boys will always be Boys... I want to be better about setting up the tripod and getting more family pictures. I got a few of all the grandkids with my parents, but not everyone that was at my parents house (that will be the next step) I did manage to get one at the in-laws...I tell myself it was because there were "lots" more people at my parents house LOL... it was just us four and the in-laws =) See now it is my written goal! Okay enough jabber onto the layout. Both of the boys had to "show off" and flash their mugs right in front of the camera!

Credits: Janet Phillips Collection# 10, LO# 2, Lauren Grier Shawna Clingerman Own It

Yeah for me it is still January and I got my first layout of 2010 done!! I sure love this boy, but man the last month or two he has been in super fine form and the temper flares and the crying and tantrums come! Slowly ever so slowly we are working through them. Trying to keep our cool and trying to "hold" him as much as possible. Enough of that... Here is my boy on his birthday in his new Tony Hawk hat (his newest fascination--Tony Hawk that is!)  

credits: Janet Phillips Keep it Simple 1-1, Melissa Bennett Love Actually, Font: DJB Gimme SPace

So have you made your news year resolutions? Well I finally did . . . yes the standard lose weight and get in better shape. It is something that I have been thinking about for a while. Love my parents and they were super  generous and bought me an iPod Touch for Christmas and lets just say I am loving it! So last week I finally put it to "real" use (I've been using it like crazy, already read a few books on it, played with my email and facebook on it.... just need to see about getting wi-fi at home =), but finally used it for the music part of it. Over the last couple of weeks I bought some new "workout" clothes, bought an arm bad for the ipod, downloaded a Couch to 5k (c25k) program. Here is the "actual" program: Couch to 5K and here is the download I am using right now. I might look into a different one, where I can use my own music. His music is okay and pretty upbeat...plus I do like right now how he is like YOU ARE DOING GOOD, 20 more seconds LOL....  =)

So this C25K program is only 9 weeks, but I think I will end up stretching it out a little bit longer. Actually I did some looking back through my pictures and realized that the 5k my family (my parents, older sister and her oldest daughter) walked last year I am thinking I will have to run it this year.... Thankfully it is in June, so I have plenty of time to be ready.... I remember last year we walked it and pretty much came in next to last...Not this year! Plus I think I have the hubby involved too (I think he is even borrowing the iPod on Tuesday so he can run and stay w/ the program too!)

So right now trying to eat healthier, making myself stick to my C25K program and after reading an online friend talk about her weighted hula-hoop ... I bought myself one too. Andrea said she lost INCHES after a short period of time! I bought it a couple months ago and just this past week I finally GOT IT... meaning I can finally keep the hula hoop moving with out dropping. Earlier last week it was 3 minutes, then Saturday night I got it going for 7 minutes a couple times and then just tonight I had it going for 21 minutes with out dropping it to the ground! So very excited about that! I could definitely tell that I did it for 20 minutes. I wasn't sure what to really expect at first. It did hurt at first (never any bruising though) ... it no longer hurts to physically do it, but I can feel the leg and stomach muscles working as I'm doing it though. My goal is to do it for 20 minutes a day thru February (if not for longer)!

Speaking of Andrea...I know her from the adoption message board I frequent and then from facebook. Lets just say she is a HUGE inspiration to anyone trying to get healthier and lose weight. Oh and she is beyond brave... check out her blog... start back at the "end" so you can read her whole story! ANDREA'S BLOG!
So be warned.... there might be a lot of life style change posts, excercise updates and fun goodies like that! Now I don't think I am as brave as Andrea and don't worry... no pictures! Heck I don't even know if I am brave enough to post my weight yet... Just know there is LOTS to lose!

I think this got long enough for a new updated post!

All about Bella

Seems these days it has been all about Bella. Actually maybe not all about her, but I've got some great pictures of her lately. Love this series of pictures of her. My parents brought back this "dress" from Cabo on one of their annual trips. She can now wear it with her jeans! I love this look...now to keep convincing her that she can wear jeans; that every outfit that she wears does NOT have to be a dress!

So this past week Bella said she wanted her ears pierced! Well I heard it and ran with it! I wasn't going to let it pass me by this time. Friday after she got out of preschool we headed to the mall. We (the Claire's employee and I) decided that it would be best to do both ears at the same time so we had a little time to kill before the other employee showed up. I had wore my heels and my feet were killing me. (I spent my morning taking photos of all the kids at school (well 85% of them, another mom took some too). Here are the ones I took of E and Bella.

Okay back to the ear piercing. So we were killing time and since my feet were killing me I sat down on a bench in the mall and this is what Bella did.....I guess every girl dreams! Bella is just starting early!

So once the other Claire's employee showed up we got the show on the road. She did GREAT until they actually pierced her ears. Even then the tears welled up and a few might have escaped, but there was NO screaming and no real crying. Just saddness!

So here is Bella right before the piercing...she doesn't even realize what is coming and YES we did tell her it was going to hurt...only for a minute though!

As they get ready to count to 3 for the actual piercing.

See the hand coming up... the piercing has started!

The aftermath....As soon as they were done and out of the way, she was in my arms with tears in her eyes, never a real cry, but the poor baby....it hurt her! I took her to look at her ears and well she just wanted her comforts...her thumb and blanky!

Now she was all smiles when we walked out of the mall with in 10 minutes of "it happening"  ....

Now the poor thing, we have to clean her ears at least 2 times a day (the directions say 3, but I can't subject her to that). I was cleaning them the Saturday night and she says to me betweens cries and tears, "This is NOT the best part!" Bless her heart. She just has to get past this and it will become another obsession for her....Earrings of every kind!

A close up of her earrings for the next at least 6 to 8 weeks! I can't wait until she can change them and put all of the Disney princesses in and tiny circles as she calls them.... Soon enough!

Wish me luck... I'm off to clean her ears! Nothing like starting her morning off on a bad note!

Face Crash# 2

So it is never a good thing when the school calls you. I was walking through Target today and my cell phone starts ringing! So Ethan had his second run in between his face and the pavement! The pavement won this round too. Maybe I'm a softy, but as his teacher got him out of music class so I could see him (I said I would stop by since I was out n about), he walked out of the music room with a iced sponge held up to his head. It looked soo sad and I was squatting down to see him when he came out and he walked right into my arms, laid his head on my shoulder and just said how bad it hurt. I asked him if he was OK and got a mumbled yeah, but he said he wanted to come home....so what was I to do? Call me a softy...I brought him home with me!

Not sure if you can really see it here.... but it scraped up his forward pretty good and his nose too (our right side). Check out those eyes... he is soo tired!

Here is Ethan from the first pavement fight:

After this one I did take him to the Dr. to have him looked over (and he did get a pretty thorough once over), but the Dr. said with the front of the head it is pretty tough and to watch him for the first 24-48 hours... Watch for odd behavior (way out of the norm), vomiting etc.... Thankfully then and now there has been none of that!

Snack Mix

Ethan has his moments of anger and frustrations, but part of the real Ethan loves to be helpful, loves to be close to us and loves when he has a sense of accomplishment! I have been looking at some cookbooks and those little 5"x8" themed cookbooks. I found a bunch of snack mix recipes and thought this one would be perfect for Ethan

It is technically called Santa's Snack Mix, but um well it is pretty perfect for anytime. Here is the recipe:

2C Honey Nut Cheerios
2C Chow Mein Noodles
1C Honey Roasted Peanuts
1/2C Raisens
1/2C M&M's (we added another 1/4C or 1/2C, not sure which one Ethan put in)
1/2C Peanut Butter Chips
1/2C Vanilla or White Chocolate Chips (we used white Chocolate Chips)
1/2C Chocolate Chips
-----and Mix all together.

Here are a couple pictures of Ethan making the mix

and the snack mix (before Ethan stirred it all up)

Here is what the picture looked like in the cookbook (and pretty much what it looked like once Ethan stirred it all up!)

Ethan was pretty excited to set some aside in a bag for his snack at school tomorrow and some for his teacher! Guess what Ethan will be making for the holidays LOL (okay maybe we will pick a new one to bring for the holidays!)

Bella and Ronan...

So little Miss Bella has a new friend in preschool, his name is Ronan! Adorable little boy and soo full of spunk! A week or so ago when we went to the School Open House and well they happen to be in the preschool classroom the same time we were. Well Bella was playing somewhat bashful and wasn't talking to anyone and so Ronan gets right in her face and was like, "IT'S ME RONAN!" It was simply the cutest thing ever!

Bella had her first real School party... Halloween. I was able to sneak down there for 45min to an hour. Long enough to snap a class picture and a few of Bella (and her classmates. Take a look at these of Ronan and Bella. (from tidbits I've got from the teacher... they do quite a bit together! Hold hands, play kitchen, play dolls... and Bella is very quick to remind us that Ronan is allergic to peanuts! =)

I'm not sure why she is covering her eyes, but it was super cute to watch her follow him around the room.

Do you think Bella could get any closer to him?

Oh and every time I drop her off at school, if Ronan isn't already in class then Bella asks (multiple times) "Is Ronan coming today?"