A surprise Superbowl party

This year we are having a Superbowl party.  But it is a secret.  Yeah kinda weird.  A secret for my non football watching husband.  And a family time celebration  for all of us.  The kids are in on it and they are so happy.  They just eat up the time they get to spend with both mom and dad, all 7 of us having fun.

This year the Seattle Seahawks are in the Superbowl, Washington state is where my husband was born, where we meet.  I don't know where he has lived most of his life, there or other place but that is where he went to grade school and high school.  I even managed to knock out 6 years over there, in college and after.  Hence to say we both have fond memories of Seattle, although none of which have to do with football.

But still with Seattle going to the Superbowl he has become a bit...homesick.  I think he wishes he could be over there in the hype, the celebrating, and with his brothers.  He feels a weird attachment to the team not because he could even name one player but because 3000 miles away something is proving to be good from Washington, at least momentarily. [ Stupid pot smokers, you know I can say that because they will not even remember where they read this from!  Not that I would care if they did.  We really want complete disassociation with such a liberal backwards state.  Nothing against our families over there his and mine, nothing against the beauty because on those few non rainy days each year it is a majestically beautiful place, but we pretty much disagree on everything that is happening over there.]





With politics aside we are going to maybe somewhat watch the Superbowl.  No one in our home cares at all about football.  It truly falls below the dirt on our feet.  Honestly, we get pissed when the kids drag mud into the car or someone does not stomp the snow off their feet BEFORE entering the house.  UGH.  And the Superbowl we had to google it a few times to find out the other team and the date.  But because he mummered a few words of  "I think I will watch the Superbowl" I ran with it.  Actually I waited till he repeated that phrase a few times in different occasions.  Because I would rather do anything else.

So we are going to have a Superbowl party.   Now we LOVE Superbowl food.  So that was a no brainier.  I got together a list of so much more food than we could ever eat in a day/week and will cook it.


(Ignore the "frump" it was one of my lab days, no glam there.)

I  found a few super cute party ideas on pinterest.  I love parties!  So with both ideas I headed out to collect stuff.


Smiley helping me plan.

You would not believe how difficult this task would become.  I searched so many store and nothing!.  Yes, nothing! 3 sports stores to find outfits...nothing.  One of which was even called Olympia Outfitters.  And for those of you who do not know why that is ironic Olympia is the capital of Washington State.  No Seattle, no Superbowl anything.  I checked 5 general store that have  a bit of everything, you know the Target walmat store and such and they were empty.  They carried nothing mostly.  Except in a weird craft birthday corner spot in 1 of the Walmart there were these



my biggest score!  I can't believe how happy I was to find them and the lady at the store when I asked her if there was anything else said it was probably a mistake those were even here.  I don't care, there mistake my miracle.  How perfect.  Trust me I then started checking every craft, dollar and teacher store to find anything else for decoration.  I finally settled on scrapbook stuff and some ideas that will hopeful look as good in reality as in my mind.  Nothing spectacular though.  Again it is okay we will probably switch the channel to Duck Dynasty or anything else during this boring life sucking game.  But the point is we will all be happy to watch anything else together.

Anyways it is a surprise for Jay.  Something I hope makes him smile, even if we do watch it or don't.  We will hopefully have a few couple hours of fun.  Clean fun, as we won't be watching the half time show or commercials.  And yes of course I will be posting the recipes and what happened, the kid games I have planed and did we watch it or not????

So now lets clean and get ready for our Surprise Superbowl Party!

Queen of the couch

Sitting pretty all happy with her bears.



Until her brother realized I was paying attention to her not him.



So long queeny.

Underwear

Smiley got underwear for Christmas from my mom.  I don't know why she relates Christmas to underwear but as kids I seem to remember her getting it for my brother and I for Christmas.   I do remember my dad usually getting it, and I certainly remember her teasing us that she would give us just underwear and socks.  But this year she gave some to Smiley, and he loved it.



It was the funniest hat a 4 year old could get.

or a two year old



And of course if your big brother and sister are wearing underwear on their heads the your 1 year old self has to also.



Oh yeah, it was an underwear party.

Faith is growing up to fast despite that she still won't let go of her binkis.  I got her a new big girl carseat for Christmas.  It was pink and had Minnie Mouse, perfect and it fit her much.



But baby was jealous.  Her's is ....blue.



She would much rather have her sisters new pretty pink one.  Even if that means give Faithy the boot.  Look and devious but sweet face.  She daily cracks me up with her expressions, especially her eyes.



Success!!! hahaha
And Faith ran crying.

January happenings

Shortly after Christmas we went bow shooting.



The kids have really been enjoying it and they are not that bad.

Evan got a shot right between the eyes.  Although that is not where you want to shoot to kill it but I do not believe they would ever live through that either.





Even I have been joining the boys.  I am decent at this, but I have done it since I was a little older than Gregory.





We have not actually done much shooting the past couple weeks since it has been unbelievably cold.  And not the normal me whining about temperatures lower than 70 but truly very in the -20's FREEZING.



It was a polar vortex.  It was cold!  They shut schools down because the temps were single digits and under, for highs.  The kids have barley been too school this January.  They have had snow days, cold days, ice days a broken heater day, tomorrow is a holiday and Tuesday a teacher in service day.  And Thursday?  Guess What??  We are expecting a second polar vortex.  YAY.  Actually even with all these days off the kids are not that happy about it.  They would rather be at school.


Gregory

They certainly have kept me busy here and I am back at school for one of those super condensed super hard January classes.  A 15 week upper level biology class that has so much more chemistry in it I would have thought, all in in 15 days.  Yup a week a day and I should be studying.  But all those have once again left me to neglect this poor blog.  However, that class ends Friday and then back to the normal semester.  And hopefully back outside.

The little princess do go out and play for a few minutes.  But mostly they stay in.  They can not manage to keep their gloves and boots on, so they come in crying and cold.

Faithy dancing away



We are still watching the Nutcracker almost daily.  I bought her 3 different ones after Christmas.  One the real one with live people.  Gregory likes this one best he will sit and watch it with her most anytime.  She loves the Angelina Ballerina one.  Or at least she thinks she does.  She begs for it sings the songs loves watching them for a few minutes but then dances away.  Angelina's best friend in the shows, name is Gracie, too cute.  Lastly she got the wonderpets one.  I think that is the one the tiny team all loves the most.  They are all cute though.  And YES I did get a video of the kids all dancing the Nutcracker like I mentioned here.  I will get that uploaded to youtube sometime in the next month so I can show you.

And both of the girls have been playing with their baby dolls.



They are just such little girls and so much fun to have.  Completely different from the boys yet so much alike too.

New Years 2014

Happy New Years!!  Are you excited?  A new year is not that exciting to me especially when so far nothing has been going right.



I had lots of New Years plans.  Kid friendly ones because I have anything but a wild fun party life. It would however be nice to go out to a fun over the top adult New Years Party before my husband is in the nursing home.

But none of my plans worked out, none.  It was frustrating.

We did go to Burger King and got some ice cream.



I had to talk the kids into it.  The weather was so cold in the 20's and expecting winter storm Hercules tomorrow.  Ice cream was not the easiest sell but we had coupons and they expired that day so we had to go.





However once there in the very busy restaurant, the kids were happy for their ice cream.  And the lady who was so sweet and patient with my family and the 3 orders we had to split it up between to be able to use the coupons let me know they would except them past their expiration date.  Good to know.

We came home and still plans kept unfolding, nothing that I had planned was done, nothing.  I gave up.  The older 2 stayed up and watched the ball drop the tiny team went to bed and I fell asleep on the couch.

You can try to be the perfect pintrest mom planning fun things to do great food to eat and memories to make but when you live in the real world you kinda have to take the ups and downs and changes as they come and life rarely ever mimics the perfect ideal you want.  And I would not always believe the ideal you see of others online.  They put forward what they want you to know, not what is always constant.

Over the next few days we did end up doing most of the things I had wanted and I made some of the wonderful meals I had planned.  If I can say one thing about this year so far is all the meals I have made (2)  (well two new ones, adult ones, I did feed everyone every meals plus some.  But one even my girls were the main eater of ) are over the top.  That is good news.  I go in swings with meals some weeks everything is awesome and others like the turkey lasagna are left 90% uneaten in the fridge until they start smelling bad.  So here is to the good ones why they are working out.  And not just good ones but GreaT ones that I copied from

Pioneer Woman
Chicken Parmigiana



this is the one the girls devoured wine, garlic, onions and all.  YES!!  I love when they eat the same things as us.  And you cook the alcohol in the wine out so no worries.

Half Baked Harvest
Crockpot Carnitas



Oh my heavenly goodness this was AMAZING!  We loved it, not for kids it is spicy, but we loved it!  It will be on the regular go to menu.  Yum.

I did doctor this one slightly.  Only by adding black beans and lime to the rice.  Monterrey Jack cheese instead of cheddar, chicken broth instead of beer because we just don't drink beer and it sucks when you walk into a bar and order just 1 beer to go, for cooking.  They laugh at you and to prove then you are not a sissy you have to stay for a real drink.  It is just so much easier to use chicken broth and it tasted great.  But I wonder what it would be like with the correct beer, maybe next time I will up stain the laughter and get the beer, I will let you know.  At least we are not sissy enough to buy the overpriced non alcoholic junk at the grocery stores, now that is for real wimps.  I mean really does anyone every buy that?  Oh and sour cream instead of guacamole.  I would have preferred the guac but I am allergic to it and I know without a doubt if you are not allergic to it go with the guac it would be better.  I wish I could...

And neither food picture are mine.  No plating was pretty enough nor lasted long enough for a picture.

Another great highlight for 2014 was I thought I started back to school on Thursday.  I could not sleep the night before and was up way to late laying there in bed staring at the clock.  Still I woke up to my sons stupid alarm playing what does the fox say so loud.  His room is down stairs mine is up and he slept through it.  I got up got ready and went to school.  I sat there by myself and waited, and waited.  No one came.  My school does not start till Monday, it was the boys were the ones who started back.  I did actually know that though and got them to school on time but only with the school sending us continually texts that they might not have school or close early because Hercules was getting closer.  And he sure did.  They did end up staying the day and luckily made it home before the worst came.



But school was canceled the next day.

Oh it was so cold the high was supposed to be 3.  Yup that is right.  And with windchill it stayed in the negatives.  I kept all the kids upstairs where it is the warmest and bunked them up together and with me to stay warm.  We do not have forced air, central heat.  We have a pellet stove and a propane fireplace.  Which is inefficient except for the 1 room it is in.  And wouldn't you know we are having trouble with both.  Most nights except for in these extreme cold temps we have no heat.  I turn everything off and we stay in bed under our blankets if we get cold we add another blanket or cuddled up in bed with someone else.  The house upstairs does not drop down past 60 because it was heated up all day so typically this works.  But just not when it it in the single digits or negatives then I leave the stove running all night as I did Thursday night.  But it was not working.  It kept cutting of and on repeatedly for nearly an hour.  I was very worried.  I prayed and prayed please don't let us have no heat on the coldest day of either year.  I went down stairs and monkeyed with it removing built up ash and seeing how high the flames were getting, not good.  It filled up with smoke and did not work.  I thought I would be gathering the kids and spending the next few days at my parents, where it is even colder but they have good heat, but have not been able to get up the driveway for the past week or so because of the snow.  I unplugged it let it power down and then started it back up, this seemed to work and thank God it has been working since.  Even though it runs and heats off pellets the augers are powered electronically so no power no heat.

Now on to the fireplace.  Oh the room it is in get so very cold that room easily drops in to the 40's maybe lower.  (Our thermometer stops at 40 in there)  Each morning we have to warm up the room, them warm up the LCD tv we have in there before we can even use it.  And the fireplace that is in there too  has been acting horrible all winter.  I have nothing good to say about it.  It rarely starts and most of the time you have to do so by hand, it constantly smells like gas, and often makes a hissing sound that even my oldest now knows how to run and shut off.  That Friday after dealing with the stove through the night I had to deal with the fireplace in the morning.  I could not once again get it to start.  I went to the fireplace and bent down leaning towards it with my long hair you see in the first picture when suddenly it poofed put and started in big bellowing flames.  Imagine when you ignite your grill or have a flame up on it.  It is quick, hot, won't hurt you but is not good.  Well it singed my hair pretty good.  the ends were all burned, black, crispy, curly and it smelled horrible.  It got a little around my face but since I still have my eyebrows it was not that bad.  But I could not even brush my hair it was burned.  So an emergency trip to the beauty salon.

They cut...



They chopped...



They layered, and it is different lengths on each side..



And they curled it.  Not that I can ever duplicate this.



But even today with out there help it still looks real pretty.

But not according to my kids.  I came home and my oldest says "great you got the quintessential mom hair cut".  Ugh...brat.

I still like it well enough and it is long enough for me to pull back in my labs.  It will grow.  But please 2014 lets stop with the mishaps.

Today was no winner either, but at least without tragedy.  Tomorrow we are expecting an ice storm.  Monday everyone back at school.  January is tough in PA so is February and March.  The weather is bad the kids stay home and the bills keep coming.  Oh I don't want to mention my sweet hefty energy increase for having 4 trees.  OUCH!!  They had LCD lights I don't understand but it was just another lesson learned from 2014.  If I don't have a job don't spend and extra $100 on electricity.

So here is to tomorrow a new day and the hope it can only be better, please.

When life gives Faith lemons

She loves it.  She takes them from everyone's water and pops them right into her mouth.



Oh yes sucking all the sour juices right out.  And only then stopping to think...



Maybe I should not have done that?



But that though goes right out of her head as soon as it comes in.  She then pops the next lemon right in.  I have a feeling that I am going to be watching this one repeat many lessons over and over.

After the Christmas tea the tiny team and me went out to eat with mema and pepa.



 I gave the boys the option of coming with us but they would rather stay at school and have fun there.  That was fine with me I am glad they like it so much.



These three are hilarious and it is like dinner and a show when you are with them. And it is always nice to go out and taking off making at least 1 meal.

Faithy loved their tree!




Awe what sweet Christmas moments.  I did not really stock up after Christmas like I sometimes too.  I was just to burnt out and the prices have not been very good.  I got a few stocking stuffers that are going make an appearance in the kids Easter baskets if I can remember where I had them come Easter.



My parents



And me and my munchkins with mema.

Slow cooker leftover Turkey chili

I am so tired of left over turkey.  I bought a big bird thinking we could eat some freeze some but I am just tired of the Thanksgiving meal (which we had for Christmas this  year) and was ;looking for other venues to use up the turkey.  I had a huge miss with lasagna.  My favorite is the classic turkey sandwich or club both perfect for leftover and this new one came in a solid second.  But again it is out of three.  I had seen a similar recipe using uncooked chicken breast instead but I substituted that for the cooked turkey and changed it a little more to my taste.  It is a very easy recipe to change to your flavor but remember to change the cooking times too if you go back to uncooked chicken breast.


1 can black beans

1 can corn, undrained
1 can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
a handful of pepper diced, as many and what types you like depending on your preference 
1 package ranch dressing mix
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 8 oz package cream cheese
4 oz medium cheddar cheese 
4-6 cups leftover turkey meat, I went on the heavy 6 cup side

Drain and rinse black beans. Place turkey at bottom of pot, then pour whole can of corn , diced tomatoes, diced peppers and black beans. Top with seasonings and ranch mix. Stir together. Place cream cheese and cheddar cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 5 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili.  Stir together and serve with your favorite toppings of tortilla chips, extra shredded cheddar cheese, salsa brava, sour cream, cilantro would be Fantastic, anything you like and enjoy.  



I also froze 2 bowls I will let you know how freezer meals of it comes out.  And sorry about not the best food picture I was more interested in eating it.  It is good and very thick.  My husband actually though it was a dip.