Peas & Carrots for our outdoor kitchen

We collected small stones that were the perfect size to paint up some peas & carrots for outside play.  I had no idea what a great time consumption this would be, it kept the kids busy for a nice chunk of time.  They took the job pretty serious and seemed to enjoy having something other than a paper to paint on.

Our first home made I Spy books

The kids had fun with this activity, it was only because I ran out of contact paper that we didn't do more pages.  I spent a lot of time scouring weekly sales flyers and clipping pictures that the kids could relate to, ladders, fruits, vegetables, wheelbarrows, tents, flowers and the list goes on.

   
 
Clear contact paper from the Dollar store that I cut into little book sizes worked perfect as I knew sticking the pictures to the sticky paper would be easy for the kids.  Also, using contact paper avoided any glue mess.  I taped the pages to the table sticky side, put the clippings in reach of the three kids and added kids! 
During nap time, I covered each page with another sheet of contact paper and added color backs with double sided tape.  The kids love their 'I spy' books!  We'll continue to add more pages as time goes on but for now everyone is happy with their two page books because they made them all by themselves.

Spot Like - eMeals

I can't save enough about eMeals, it saves me time, money and my marriage!  What is eMeals?  It is an online meal planning resource.  If you are  a savvy a cook and have time then it is probably not for you.  I am not a cook and I have had little time to learn with the arrival of our triplets 2.5yrs ago.  This website offers weekly MENUS and a SHOPPING LIST and it gets better....they scour the sales flyers at a number of stores so the plan you pick is based on the weeks CURRENT SALES!

The meals are easy to prep and after you have been a regular customer as myself, you learn how to move the menus around for more variety and what ingredients to have on hand when you do find a good deal or if you belong to one of the wholesale stores.  It only costs $5 per month if you buy the 12 month plan for someone to tell you what to cook and what you need to buy!

My husband was pretty unimpressed with my cooking prior to this discovery so when I became a stay at home mom I figured it was the least I could do to provide a nice warm meal for him.  I feel like an amazing chef now days and have stashed away some of my favorite meals for future dinner parties.  My husband is also very happy about having a wife that cooks!

Love, love, love eMeals!

eMeals Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Making colored pastas, pass or fail?

This blogger made some really pretty colored pasta, so I thought fantastic, I'll give it a go.  Thank goodness my kids are forgiving as mine did not turn out as pretty.

We try the best we can to do things with as little impact on earth as possible so I decided to use a glass pasta jar instead of a plastic bag to do the dyeing.  I figured red would be a good solid color to do the test run with. After a half day of dyeing this was the result using vinegar & food coloring in a glass jar, shaking it variously and letting the kids shake it up as well.

I added more food coloring and let the noodles soak but honestly things didn't change much so I had to dig up a plastic bag.  As you can see by the picture above the results were well, disappointing.  Too much vinegar?  Glass jar not a suffocating enough seal?

I poured out the liquid and started with a lot less vinegar and more food coloring now in a plastic bag.

I'm not sure what happens when I get excited about little projects like this but here are the results and they are for me a bit of a let down -

I know it is very hard to tell but from left to right, Green, Red, Turquoise, attempt at Purple that came out Black and in spot #5 Orange.....  The beauty of being a mom of 2.5 yr olds is that they think these noodles are super! They love them and have had the best time sorting the colors and stringing them but their favorite activity is to pour them from cup to cup.

I would say for the finished product mom failed, I won't be selling my pasta jewelry any time soon.
From the triplets perspective it is a pass, they have no idea what they are suppose to look like and they are entertained, double bonus!

Super quick, super yummy mini quiche

ok, so I felt like a gourmet chef when I pulled off these mini quiches recently.  I found some mini pastry shells in the freezer that were leftover from making mini pumpkin tarts for Thanksgiving, yes that old.  The pack was unopened so I figured they couldn't be that bad.  I happened upon this Martha Stewart recipe which I used for inspiration.  What I took from it was that all I needed to do was prep eggs like I was going to make an omelet.  I whisked together 6 eggs, some milk & cheddar cheese, meanwhile I steamed broccoli in the microwave for 6min.  After mixing the broccoli with the eggs I spooned the mixture into the tarts, sprinkled w/more cheddar cheese and topped w/a cherry tomato cut in half since I had them  it gave them a finished look (pre-baked pictured, I forgot to take the fully baked shot).  The MS recipe called for baking for 400 degrees for 12-15min.  I found that I needed to bake them for a lot longer, closer to 30min.

Anyone can do this and they were delicious!  just mix up your favorite omelet, put them in mini pastry shells and throw them in the oven.  I foresee pulling off mini quiches for many future events, they really are perfect for brunches, baby showers, mother's day and for us it made for a really fun dinner that night.
 

The Gear. On the go with triplets! Part II

For their first birthday the triplets received a collapsible wagon.  Admittedly I didn't feel that we needed to keep this wagon since I was already on the wait list with Step2 to purchase the choo choo wagon.  But it seemed it was destined to stay in the family.  I can't believe that I actually didn't want to keep this wagon.  I suddenly had a way to transport the wee three quickly and efficiently from the car to the park or to a class.  This wagon also takes up very little room and is light weight.

I'm not sure how exactly my sister-in-law found this wagon but it arrived from a company called Defender.  When I looked it up it turned out to be a marine supply company and they sale it as a 'Deluxe Folding Red Wagon' and refer to it as a dock cart.

LOVE it.  We also get asked all the time where we got it from.  As the kids have gotten older I find it perfect to take along on walks, they love to push and or pull it and if there is a tired child so much easier then risking how to carry 3 kids back to the car.  We are definitely not ready to retire this wagon.