Rainy Day Fun

After a rainy day last week, I suggested we go outside and splash in puddles.  You can imagine how much resistance I got.  

We didn't have as many options as I thought we would, but the road and ditch worked well enough.  I kept them out of the neighbors ditch though, it was at least a foot deep over there.  Much more fun obviously, but the water was still pretty cold.

Needless to say, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. :)

Our Acey-boy was glad to play outside with us too.
Side story:  I've always always called Ace, "Baby Ace" and Mackenzie would always call him that too, but lately, it's been switched to Acey-boy.  One day, Rylan was singing this song,

"You are my Acey-boy, my only Acey-boy.

You make me happy, when skies are gray.

You'll never know dear, how much I love you.

Please don't take my Acey-boy away."

It was the sweetest little song and now we've been calling him Acey-boy all the time.  

You can see the boots did a lot of good.

Goof balls!

I asked them to check if their tummies were dirty too.  They weren't, and I got a great photo!

Recent Recipes

I haven't tried any new Pinterest recipes lately, we've been sticking with some of our favorites, but I did find some new recipes elsewhere.  One day last week I knew I needed to cook up some chicken that had been thawing in our fridge, but I didn't know exactly what I was going to make.  My first thought was chicken and creamy rice.  But after checking the panty, no cream-of-anything soups.  So I started scoping out what we did have.  It was then that I came across the Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs container that had a chicken parmesan recipe on the back.  A quick ingredient check confirmed that we had everything we needed.  I've never made chicken parmesan before because Nick isn't a real big tomato fan.  But that night, he was going to have to try it.  And I'm so glad I did, because we both loved it!  Here it is:
(Oh, and I halved it, because I only had 2 chicken breasts and 1 small can of tomatoes.)

Skillet Chicken Parmigiana
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes (I used Italian style diced tomatoes)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup Italian style dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. In a 3-qt. saucepan, heat 2 T. of the oil over medium heat.  Cook onions and garlic in oil for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper.  Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally.

2. Between sheets of wax paper, flatten chicken breasts to 1/4-inch thickness. (I didn't do that.) In shallow dish, mix bread crumbs and 1/3 cup parmesan cheese. Dip chicken into egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture.

3. In 12-inch skillet, heat remaining oil over medium heat.  Cook chicken in oil 10-15 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink in center.  Pour tomato sauce around chicken in skillet.  Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over chicken; cover and heat until melted.  Sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese before serving.

There you go, easy and delicious!



Also this past week I had to make some bars for a church function.  I wanted to try something new, because my go-to favorites have already all been to church.  So I started flipping through a church cookbook.  Now I love Pinterest, but I might have to go back to searching for new recipes in my church cookbooks.  Seriously, I've never had a bad meal at church and these numerous cookbooks I have are full of all the best recipes from some of the best cooks around - church ladies!!!!  I knew I couldn't go wrong.  And I was right!  I was flipping through the bars/cookies section and nothing was really appealing to me until I hit the Sour Cream Raisin Bars.  Sour cream raisin is my favorite kind of pie, so I knew the bars would be good.  However, I'd never made them, and I was in a bit of a time crunch to get them done and delivered.  Church lady Esther did not let me down, these bars are FANTASTIC!  If you've never had these or heard of these, then you're probably thinking it sounds like the worst combo in a bar ever, but it's delicious.  There is a oatmealish crust, then a pudding-like layer with raisins in it, then more crust crumbled on top.  Here it is:

Sour Cream Raisin Bars
1 3/4 cup oatmeal
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup margarine

Mix above ingredients for crust.  Put half of mixture in 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Filling:
2 cups raisins
1/2 cup water
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Cook raisins in water until tender.  Add remaining ingredients.  Cook until thick. (I stirred constantly to prevent any burning) Pour over crust.  Sprinkle remaining half of crust on top.  Bake another 20 minutes.

These were actually pretty easy as well.  You do need to wait for them to cool a bit before serving or the filling is pretty gooey, but they taste delicious warm or cold.  It was nice to bring the majority of them away on a platter, but I still got to keep a few!  Thanks Esther for the recipe!  And what's not to love about a cookbook with separate categories for the following?
-Bars and Cookies
-Cakes and Frostings
-Desserts and Pies
-Candies

Awesome!

Zoo!

When we were visiting my parents, we also went to a local zoo.  They had a temporary dinosaur exhibit and the kids loved it.  The pictures don't do it justice because all the dinosaurs were robotic so they moved and made noises, it was pretty cool.  

We let Rylan call this one T-Rex, even though it really wasn't.  T-Rex was much bigger, I'm not sure what this one was called.  

Mackenzie loves babies, so of course she loved all these little dinosaurs popping out of their eggs.

I'm not really sure what they were talking about, but I love her look of awe in this one.

She got brave enough to stick her hand out, but when it got just a little closer, she yanked her hand back.

Sweeping the sand away to find bones!

My monkey sitting on a monkey!

My big scary monkey sitting on a monkey!

Rylan getting eaten by a friendly hippo. (I think Mackenzie was pretending that it was her eating him.)

When they switched positions, I told Mackenzie to show me her scared face.  She gave me her scary face.  She's just daring that hippo to eat her.  He would regret it for sure!

Mackenzie was determined to touch this peacock.  After taking the picture, I had to chase her down because she wasn't listening to all the "stay back"s being yelled.  Little Miss has no fear!  Good thing the peacock decided it was easier to just jump the fence.

Cheese balls.

Love Grandma and Grandpa!

I can still hear the giggles.  Feeding the goats is so much fun, even if the price of goat food went up to $0.50.  It's such a rip off, but they know we'll all still pay it because of reactions like this.

Those goats are well-fed!

My favorite animal is the giraffe, it was so cool that they have 5 of them!  Such majestic animals!

We had a wonderful time at the zoo and can't wait to go back this summer!

Last Week vs. This Week

Last Saturday we played in the snow.  Today, we played outside with t-shirts and shorts.  Awesome!

Last week:

We went hiking in the woods on some of Nick's hunting land.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time.  First, Kenzie and I had to sit in the car while Nick and Rylan tried to call in some coyotes.  Apparently, us girls can't be quiet enough.  So we had a snack in the car.

No coyotes, so we went for a hike.  There was still plenty of snow and the kids had fun jumping into the drifts in the ravines.

Mackenzie took the safe way down.

This is where Rylan jumped in, leaned forward...

 ... and crumpled up at the bottom.  He thought it was pretty funny and probably would have just dove head first from the top if we hadn't told him not to.

Daddy has the best shoulders to ride on.

Nick needed a little break from the extra weight, so he set Mackenzie in a tree.

If you put one kid in a tree, the other one will want to sit in it as well. And chances are, you'll have to take pictures of both of them. 

Then it was easier for Daddy just to trudge through and make paths for everyone.  However, be aware that this picture was only taken after Mommy and Daddy had switched the duty of "path creator".  I shuffled through the snow making a suitable path for the 5 and under crowd for a good while too!

Yes, they did lots more sliding down that hill too.

Rylan decided he wanted to have a snowball fight.  He didn't realize Daddy was so good at throwing snowballs, so he quickly took shelter behind a tree.  Nick was pelting them pretty hard at that tree, never intending to actually hit Rylan, but the one time Rylan didn't duck back behind the tree, Nick had a wild throw and hit him right in the head.  See the snow on his hat on his right side?  Yep, smoked him right there.  Thankfully he didn't complain, he thought it was pretty funny.  He ducked behind the tree every other time though.

Then they needed a little break.  I think Rylan eventually made a snow angel here too.

After getting back out to the field, we had a little picnic with fish crackers and water.  Such a fun day!

This week:

We spent St. Patty's Day in t-shirts as it was 80 degrees.  (We weren't in the exact same location, I think it was actually 75 at that hiking spot in the woods, but it's pretty close.  And we couldn't have gone back to the woods anyway.  The field would have been too muddy to drive across.) 

We are spending the weekend with my parents so we headed to a local parade for St. Patrick's Day.  I'm not Irish, so I've never understood the big deal about St. Patrick's Day, nor do I really think I should.  I don't have anything against the celebration, but it seems weird to me to dress up and party if I'm not Irish.  So I did not wear green, or drink insane amounts of green beer, but we did enjoy the weather and the lively crowd at the parade.  We ended up going early to get something to eat downtown and it worked out perfectly to order take-out from a diner and eat it picnic style on the street waiting for the parade to start.  The food was awesome! Here are my wonderful parents and my stubborn girl who wouldn't look at the camera.  I can't blame her though, those fries were amazingly delicious!  

More waiting!

I don't think I've ever been to a St. Patrick's Day parade before, but I've never seen a crowd like this, ever, at any parade I've ever been too.  The amount of people was unreal.  Understandably there would be a huge crowd outside this Irish pub, but it was this crowded everywhere.  Obviously the weather played a part in attendance this year, but it was a fun time with all the people.

The kids wanted to get as close as possible, so Grandpa moved up with them a little. (yes, I did dress my kids up in green.  They have a little Irish in them from Nick, so I figured they could pull it off.  And it was fun for them to match everyone else.)

Parade was during regular nap/rest time, so they were willing to sit down a little, but they did great the whole day!

Grandpa's lap is the best!

Kenzie got a little more tired and had to lay down.

After the parade, we headed to a park so we could continue to enjoy the weather.  We had fun running/rolling down these terraces.  We thought Mackenzie was going to roll down, so that's why we took her glasses off.

Grandpa tried it first.

Then Kenzie

Then Rylan

Family photo

Goofy one!

Goofy again

What a day!