MIA

Sorry folks, I have been missing in action for a bit.  I see its been almost 2 weeks since I have done a post!  Our family has had a very unplanned and busy week and a half away from our home.  Mike's Grandma peacefully passed away last Wednesday morning in her home in Ohio, with family surrounding her, just as she wished.  Once we got the word that she was not doing well, we packed up the van and left for the 5 hour drive south and stayed with family until yesterday, 11 days total, so I am just getting in the swing of things today back at home.  Laundry.Dishes.Laundry.Vacuum.Grocery Shop.Laundry.Clean old milk out of fridge.Laundry.Sort mail.Pay bills. Laundry.Clean toilets and did I mention LAUNDRY?

Anyway...On the day we were coming home I decided to get our family pictures taken, so check them out.

 The four of us and Mike's Mom.  It was her mom that passed away.

             

Which picture is your favorite?  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the picture of the two kids standing back to back! Too cute for words!

GOOOOO NUTS!

Lansing Lugnuts that is!!  What were you thinking? 

Go Nuts! is what Nick shouts out at every baseball game that he watches, whether it's a Tiger's game, a random adult softball game or a kids little league game that we stop at while at the park, no matter the players he is love'n the game and shows his support to the players by yelling, "Dough Nuts!" (Go Nuts) over and over!  It really is the cutest thing ever!  The other fans get a kick out of it too.

One of our favorite summer past times is going to the Lansing Lugnuts minor league baseball games.  The stadium is beautiful and CLEAN, the tickets are reasonable $$, it's extremely family friendly and the food is cheap ($1) on Tuesday games.

(This was at one of the first games of the year.  It was rainy and chilly, hence all the people sitting behind us, LOL!)

Nick is a big baseball fan and loves getting up close and personal with the players.

 Like Father, Like Son

Kate enjoys the games too.

The kids should be excited when they find out that we are going to tomorrow's game along with a few of the other families on the fire department, so Nick will get a chance to scream out Go Nuts!!!! and it will be the right team!

Cheese buns and Fruit Salad

One of my most favorite-est meals growing up was made by my Grandma H.  When our family would make our Friday night visits to their house we would either buy pizza or make cheese buns and fruit salad.  It was a very simple and inexpensive meal to make, but by far the BEST!!! 


For whatever reason I had a craving for cheese buns and fruit salad today, so after church I made a quick stop to Kroger and bought all of the supplies.

1 container of Bacon

American Cheese slices

Hamburger buns

2 cans of fruit cocktail (with extra cherries)

1 container of heavy whipping cream

Then got to cook'n...and it was just as I remember it to be!

 I used 2 cans of fruit cocktail.

 Made real whipping cream!  It tastes so much better then cool whip.

And mixed the fruit cocktail with the whipped cream. Then refrigerated.

Simple & delicious!

Then on to making the cheese buns (BEWARE it's a tough one!)

First I cut up the bacon with scissors into about 1 inch square pieces and cooked them in the frying pan. (sorry no pic.)

 Lay out the hamburger buns.

 Put a piece of cheese on each hamburger bun.

 Add a little cooked bacon on top.

 Put in the oven on broil, watch carefully to avoid burning.

 TaDaaaa!  Done!

 And it was delicious!

Nick loved every bite, and asked for seconds on the fruit salad.

 Kate gobbled it up too!

 Nick especially loved picking off the bacon.  (Notice his figure nails are painted thx to big sis Kate. One hand is pink the other is a shinny silver, LOL!)

...and the cookie pan is empty.  Mike enjoyed them too!

Kate at 5. (This is my 3rd post today, so be sure to read the previous 2 also)

she can run. loves to ride her bike. says, "mom" at least 946,000 times a day. can write her name. is starting to learn how to read. very lovable. extremely caring. has a front tooth that is brown. loves to cook in the kitchen. silly. scores baseball with her daddy. has a large vocabulary. loves to sneak into my bed when daddy goes to work in the morning. loves school. thinks that she starts kindergarten tomorrow, cuz now she is 5. is a great teacher to Nick. likes to make the rules of the house. doesn't like to take naps anymore. is fully potty-trained. likes to have her back scratched. swims like a fish. thinks that unloading the dishwasher is, "so not fabulous". is nervous to try new things. is photogenic. is petite for her age. can set the table. cries at the drop of a hat. can manipulate my phone better then I. loves all things princess. says she is gonna be a soccer player when she grows up. has an interest in gardening. has to be told 3 times before she does what I ask (very annoying). likes to wear mommy's make-up. attracts mosquitoes (hence the 25 bug bites). caring. a dancing queen. enjoys watching Martha Stewart with me. can make her bed. has a scraped right knee from falling off her bike. shoulder length hair. 35 pounds.  still makes a little grunting sound when she is tired. energetic. loves to play games. likes to always be between Mommy and Daddy no matter where we are. loving. can color in the lines. likes to have her finger and toe nails painted. can't wait to get the mail everyday.likes having laundry on her chore list. says,"bless you."

...and that my friends is my BIG 5 year old, KATE!  We love her dearly and can't imagine life without her, she is the BEST!

Let's do the jive, cuz now I'm FIVE!

Kate turns 5 years old today!!

Kate has the unique birth date of 06-06-06, a little creepy, but easy to remember.

She was born at 10:41pm and weighed in at 6 pounds even and 18 inches long (a multiple of 6, 3times)

EEEEEEK Scary!

To read about her 5th birthday party that we had last night read here.

Birthday Party Time!

There is nothing I love more then throwing a party, well...except for throwing a themed party!!! Whoop-Whoop!!  I LOVELOVELOVE theme related parties, I love to go all out with them!

My Kate-Kate turns 5 years old tomorrow (Monday, June 6th), it is hard to believe, but true!  Soooooo, it was time to throw a paaartay!  Kate picked her theme months ago, then we rolled with it together, she has become quite the little party planner herself and comes up with some great ideas.  This year she wanted a "watermelon" birthday, so we went with that idea and added a "picnic" theme as well.

Welcome to Kate's 5th Birthday Party!  We normally just have birthday parties at our house.  We invite close family and friends, about 20 guests were in attendance.

(We missed you Aunt Julie, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Yvonne, Uncle Andy, Olivia, Aunt Maria and Uncle Bobby.)

I bought this Welcome sign for our front door a few months back at The Little Red School House.

The centerpiece display for the main table.  The front right has Kate's invitation framed, it was SUPER cute!  I also loved the sweet little ants who were snatching the picnic goodies.

THE cake, made by Grandma Andersen.

 It was delicious!

We did not use plates for dinner, but we did use them for cake and ice cream.  I found these adorable coordinating plates and napkins on-line for a very reasonable price.

Instead of plates we used little red baskets. 

Each basket included...

• A piece of tissue paper
• 1/3 of a subway sub
• A bag of chips
• individual cups of cubed watermelon with a fork
• a delicious apple
• Chocolate chip cookie with a watermelon sucker  tied with ribbon
• 1 water bottle
• Watermelon Bath and Body Works mini hand sanitizer
• a napkin

It was the perfect picnic treat!

These were the party favors that were included in the picnic baskets. 

For those who needed a bit more to drink, there was watermelon juice to enjoy.  To keep it nice and cold we cubed up watermelon and froze it, then placed the frozen cubes in the container.  It worked great to keep the juice cold and fresh full of flavor!

Of course Kate had a watermelon dress to wear, and I always try to dress to coordinate :)

...and some super cute watermelon earrings from Claires!

 We had to include a few balloon bouquets topped with a giant mylar watermelon helium balloon.

 The cookies and watermelon sucker for a little extra added dessert.  YUM!

 I like to make sure all the human senses are covered, so I had to include a Juicy Watermelon candle to fill the house with sweet scents.

 It was a beautiful sunny 80 degree day in Michigan today, so we were able to spend a lot of the party outside.  Here was a balloon centerpiece for the patio table.

 Outside we had 2, 6-foot tables set up with red and white checked linen and 2 beautiful centerpieces on each.  The centerpieces were made will Ball jars, sand, river rock, white field daisies and checked ribbon with ants on it.  WAY CUTE!!

 The 4 girls had their own kiddy table that they were able to sit at to eat their picnic.

 After we ate Kate got to unwrap her presents!  She could hardly wait a moment longer, she was soooooo super excited!  Barbies were the hot gift this year, and she loved everyone of them!

 Cake time was after gifts.  Here is Kate with her 3 girlfriends.  Kate said her favorite part of the day was when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her, I can't blame her.

 Then she made a wish and blew her candles out!  And that ended Kate's 5th Watermelon themed birthday.