Wordless Wednesday - Mother's Day Tea

Mimi and her friends sang a beautiful Mother's Day song and also chose to sing A Tuti Ta (not sure if this is the real name or spelling of the song). Thumbs up, arms back, knees together, bottoms up, tongues out.....So funny!

Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts HERE or HERE.

Are You Kidding Me?? - addition on May 15

I am to blame. I willing went to McDonald's. Mark was out of town for a game, we had a crazy day, and I wanted to treat the girls to Happy Meals. No excuses, this all could have been prevented but in a moment of weakness I tried to take the easy way out. I could fill a post with the ridiculousness of the messed up order and the two times we waited in the drive through line to fix it but that is not even the worst of it. Stay with me.


Trying to keep calm after my second time through the line I popped in the Kidz Bop CD that came with the meals. The first song is Photograph, happily sung by little voices. The original is sung by Nickelback which should be the first clue it may not be good for my 6 year old. So without further ado here are the lyrics to songs that they give out to their patrons 4 years of age and over (they do have toys for kids 3 and under if you choose)....


"Photograph"


Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red
And what the hell is on Joey's head (they changed this to heck)


And this is where I grew up
I think the present owner fixed it up
I never knew we'd ever went without
The second floor is hard for sneaking out

And this is where I went to school
Most of the time had better things to do
Criminal record says I broke in twice (they changed criminal to school, not sure how that makes it better)
I must have done it half a dozen times


I wonder if it's too late
Should i go back and try to graduate
Life's better now than it was back then
If I was them I wouldn't let me in


Oh, oh, oh Oh, god, I
Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.


Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hangin' out
They say somebody went and burned it down


We used to listen to the radio
And sing along with every song we know
We said someday we'd find out how it feels
To sing to more than just the steering wheel


Kim's the first girl I kissed
I was so nervous that I nearly missed
She's had a couple of kids since then
I haven't seen her since god knows when


Chorus and some other stuff...


The next song "Hanging On" starts out like this....


I've had a bad day
And nothing ever seems to go my way
I've got a heartache
Don't wanna think about it
And every time I try to smile, I cry,
so I'll just hide my face
Get out of my way
Don't wanna talk about it

Can we save the teen angst until they are actually teens?


I'm not a letter writing kind of person but I AM going to write a letter to McDonald's. What kind of people do they have choosing Happy Meal toys? Do other parents actually listen to this stuff before giving it to their kids? What is wrong with this picture? Me overreacting? I guess I just stash these CDs with the tattooed Barbies and thong wearing Bratz dolls. Seriously people, this is just wrong.

May 15, 2009 addition:

I guess they got much response about this promotion....
McDonald's Kidz Bop CD Pulled for Kid-Unfriendly Language
by Brett Singer May 15th 2009 6:00AM

Mother's Day Gift With Things You Already Have

Hey Mom - **Spoiler Alert** Do not read this. Your gift is in the mail :)

I had to make Mother's Day and Teacher's Appreciation gifts this weekend. I looked all over the Internet for your good ideas. I decided on rice heat therapy wrap and cooling eye pillow sets. If you are a sewer, you probably have everything you need to make these. I looked at patterns HERE at Sew, Mama, Sew and HERE at Amy Butler Designs but really did my own thing. My tutorial isn't very thorough (but the links above are - or if you have questions I would more than happy to answer them).

To make the rice insert all you do is sew a sleeve (sew three sides of your rectangle - however big you want it), flip it right side out, fill it 3/4 full with rice, and sew it closed. I used a cotton scrap material I had. So the rice evened out a bit, for the longer pillow I sewed a line down the center after flipping to the right side but before filling both sides 3/4 full of rice. You can mix an essential oil such as lavender with the rice for a nice, relaxing scent. You could even add some dried lavender flowers with the rice.

To make the covers, again you make a sleeve about an inch and a half longer than your rice insert (I embellished mine a little by sewing a few different colored fabrics to the front), flip it right side out, fold it over the added inch and a half and sew it on the sides (shown above). Open it up to insert the rice insert. The heating wrap and the cooling eye pillow are made the same, just different sizes.

As a SUPER NICE BONUS, Sew, Mama, Sew had a pdf file for nice gift instruction tags. They look very put together.

Honestly, if you are able to sew straight lines, you could make a set of these in a half hour. If you were to have to buy the fabric ($2.00), rice ($2.00) and thread ($1.00) you still can make a nice looking gift for $5.00. This frugal, yet practical gift works for me!

Join Tonya on her Penny Pinching Parade to see more frugal tips! Or We Are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday ideas (the frugal addition!).

Tempt My Tummy - Tortilla Soup

I had a ton of different recipes for tortilla soup. Only wanting to put one in my recipe box, I combined the best of each and came up with this easy recipe....and threw all the others away - good-bye clutter! Everybody in the family enjoyed it.

Tortilla Soup

1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans corn
2 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chicken broth (or water and bullion)
8 corn tortillas, cut into strips or 2 cups crushed tortilla chips - more if you want a thicker soup
1 cup shredded cheese (jack, cheddar, whatever)**
1 can evaporated milk (or one cup milk)**
chicken (optional, could use meat from rotisserie chicken)
garnish: sour cream, cheese, tortilla chips, avocado, cilantro, etc.

heat oil in large sauce pan and add chili powder, cumin, and garlic. Cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes, corn, beans, broth, and tortillas. Boil 10 minutes, stirring often, until the tortillas are fully incorporated. Add cheese, lower heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add milk and simmer 10 more minutes. If adding chicken, add at the end and cook only long enough to heat chicken. Garnish. Enjoy.

You could spice it up with a can of green chilies.

**I have made this without the cheese and milk and it's still fabulous, not as rich, and quicker.

Visit Blessed with Grace for more Tempt My Tummy recipes!

Not Me! Monday - It's back!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to My Charming Kids to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We had a frog in our house over the weekend. There is a family living by our front door and sometimes I think their little froggy buddies double dog dare each other. Mimi and I did NOT screamed like little girls (Mimi actually is, but I have no excuse) when he jumped on my foot. We did try to scare him back out the door with no luck. We let him hop away in hopes that daddy could find him later (he could not). The butter (which was uncovered because the dish was in the dishwasher) was a mess the next morning and was a mystery until I saw buttery frog prints all up the side of the refrigerator. Nice. Ever want to bleach everything in sight? By mid-morning froggy had shown himself again. I was not going to miss this opportunity so I covered him with an ice cream bucket and got my husband to excavate him. I am NOT that scared to touch a frog.

Last time a frog got in (they always come in when my husband is not home) I did NOT suit up in a winter coat and mittens and try to catch it. When I was unsuccessful, Mimi did NOT find said frog a few weeks later and bring us his dried up carcass.

Yesterday Mimi wanted to have a tea party with Bigs, which I just couldn't bring myself to make fancy little tea food. I did NOT let them consume an entire bag of sour cherry balls and water....with their tea set. Seriously, they couldn't care less what they have for their tea party if it's loads and loads of sugar.

Works-For-Me Art Display

I am reusing this post from December 2008 for Heidi's Monthly Craft Challenge over at Blue Eyed Blessings. This month's material is ribbon!

My girls produce art at an unprecedented rate. Every single day they bring tons of it home from school as well. There is not enough refrigerator space, wall space, bulletin boards space, etc. Also, because they get half of their genes from their father, are very sentimental and want to keep and display everything. What do you do with all of the birthday cards, thank you notes, good job letters from the teacher? My solution - recycle it - but that doesn't go over well (unless you hide it very well in the recycle bin under stuff they have no interest in - NOT all of the toy catalogs you have been getting each day in the mail - they want to dig those out). It's not that I'm completely void of sentiment (I do have boxes of "special" art work from each year), there is just no possible way to keep everything and even less room to display it. We barely have enough room for the three kids.

SO, to make everyone happy, I used the one flat surface that hadn't been utilized - their bedroom doors. Throw a wide piece of ribbon over the top long enough to touch the floor on both sides. Thumb tack it on the top to keep it in place. Buy a bag of clothes pins to hang everything on there (they like the colorful ones). With both sides of the door there is plenty of room for that week's art. There are usually papers on top of papers on top of papers but they don't seem to mind. It's displayed. Every so often I clean it off (late at night or when they are away at school). This year I'm sending a ton of it as filler in Christmas presents to my unsuspecting little sisters who do not yet have children. They would love it, right?!?!?

Check out Rocks In My Dryer for more Works-For-Me Wednesday ideas! (this link will no longer work)

Kid Friendly Friday - Cinco de Mayo Recipe

I love Cinco de Mayo because I love Mexican food. Any reason to make it...or no reason at all. I am sharing a fun recipe for the wee ones I found in a Kraft Foods advertisement a few years back. Taco bowls are like mini taco salads. Cute and fun to eat (a little messy).

Mini Taco Bowls

Original Recipe Provided By: Kraftfoods.com - modifications added
Ingredients

8 Small Flour Tortillas
1 pound ground beef
1 cup Salsa (or a packet of taco seasoning)
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese
2 cups chopped lettuce
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup Ranch Dressing or sour cream

Cooking Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Microwave tortillas on HIGH 30 sec. or until softened.

Press 1 tortilla into each of eight medium muffin cups to form a bowl. Carefully fold edges of tortilla back to keep an opening for the filling. Bake 10 min.

Meanwhile, brown meat in large skillet on medium heat; drain. Stir in salsa (or prepare meat with taco seasoning according to package directions); bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 10 min. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the meat mixture into each tortilla bowl.

Top evenly with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Drizzle with dressing or dollop of sour cream.

So what kinds of things will you do for Cinco de Mayo? Join us for Kid Friendly Friday by adding your information to Mr. Linky below. You may certainly use an old post. Anything kid friendly is fine - doesn't have to be Cinco de Mayo related! Keep checking back for more good ideas. Thanks for participating and have a joyous weekend~