Sunday, January 29, 2012

Five years old!

Our eldest turned 5 this month.  It's been a little hard to believe that 5 years has gone by! On the other hand he sometimes seems like he's been around forever.
For his birthday dinner, the birthday boy chose:
Pigs in a Blanket
Jello with Fruit
Cheetos
and an under sea cake...
Which left me pouring over pictures online from other creative bakers.  There are some really fun and some very extravagant cakes out there! It is incredible what some of these artists can do.
I finally settled on a coral reef cake and instead of making everything from fondant, I picked up a tube of sea life from the craft store and got creative with some fruit leather. The tube also had a diver and treasure chest, which was the favorite!

Coral Reef Cake

Checking it out

So excited

 
A soccer ball from Wyatt

New Clothes!

Walkie-Talkies!

Goggles and Snorkel
Happy Birthday to my sweet, clever and smart boy!
MadCounty Mama

Monday, January 23, 2012

What's for Dinner?

Sunday - Baked Trout Saratoga, Roasted potatoes, applesauce and mixed vegs

Monday - Chicken Parmesan and Cesear salad

Tuesday - Beef Tips over Rice and green beans

Wednesday - Ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn

Thursday - Breakfast night!

Friday - Tacos & Spanish rice

Happy Monday!!

MadCounty Mama

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Dinner Menu Jan 15th - 21st

Over the weekend we celebrated our eldest sons' 5th birthday!!! We had a wonderful family dinner with my parents and some close family friends.  My mom, PreacherMan and I all shared our different accounts of our sons' birth.  It was an exciting yet terrifying time - I'll share that tale another time!
For now our menu this week:

Sunday - Birthday boy's choice; Pigs in a Blanket, Jello, Broc/Cauli Salad, Deviled Eggs, Cheetos and Birthday cake

Monday - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green salad

Tuesday - Bean Soup, Cornbread

Wednesday - Sweet & Sour Pork w/ Rice

Thursday - Breakfast Burritos

Friday - Chicken or Fish...not sure yet =)

Saturday - Gumbo

What's on your menu this week?

MadCounty Mama

Behind the Times?

Sometimes it is really worth it to be behind in "social media".  Being a busy mom and not wanting to spend any extra money, I end up waiting, for whatever new books/movies I think look interesting, to come to my local library.  Not only do my kids thoroughly enjoy our weekly trips to Storytime, I feel great about saving money by borrowing books and movies!
Back in August when the movie The Help came out, I told PreacherMan we should really go see it but alas we did not find the time.  And I kept seeing the book at Costco but told myself I was there for groceries, nothing else!
Finally in November I decided to splurge and buy myself an early Christmas present - the Kindle Fire. Now it's a fun little toy with all sorts of doo-dads to make my brain spin around but what I like the most is that I can find a book I want to read, send it to my Kindle and start reading in a matter of minutes. Sometimes convenience is everything!
One of the first books I read was:

 

A GREAT read, very enjoyable and highly recommended! And as an added bonus PreacherMan (aka Santa in our house) tucked the movie in my Christmas stocking.

And this started a pattern....
The next book I read was:


I'd read another book by this author and it was just ok. This one was much better, I enjoyed the storyline very much, however it did have some parts that were too graphic for me. Fair Warning! 
And the movie was quite good (borrowed from the library!) and did not contain the unwanted scenes.

Next I found:


at the library book sale - Hardcover for .50  and even though I had purposely avoided this book (b/c I just knew how it would end and I hate crying over books!) I could not resist the bargain.  
This book had me laughing out loud for pretty much the whole story and yes it made me cry. But it was well worth it! Great book and highly recommended!
I enjoyed the movie as well but thought the book was better.

Then I read another animal/heart tugging story:


Another Fantastic Read! I grew up with horses and have a special love for them.  Part of me did not want to read this book, just in case it ended sad but my curiosity won out (especially after seeing the previews for the movie that just came out!).  It was a quick read and well written.  It is from the horses' point of view, so not an easy one to pull off but the author did a very good job.  There were parts that left me with tears streaming down my face and just like with Marley, I didn't even care!
I have not saw this movie yet but am looking forward to it - it is still in theaters but I'll probably wait and borrow it from the library!
Once again highly recommended!

And lastly I began a series that many of my friends have told me about:
The Stephanie Plum series

 


One for the Money is the 1st book in this series.  It is a fun, light read that introduces a lot of quirky characters that are easy to like. I have learned a lot about Jersey in reading these books; now whether it is true or not doesn't matter to me b/c it's a new concept from many other books and helps makes these all the more interesting. I would rate these books at a PG-13 level with some language and sexual content.  With that said these books are an easy favorite of mine with enjoyable plot lines, characters and great one-liners!
Another bonus to this book is that there has been a movie made and it will be released January 27th! Staring a favorite of mine, Katherine Heigl - this is one movie I am planning to spend the money on seeing in theaters!!!

I'm always looking for new reading material - so leave a comment below and tell me some of your favorites!

Happy Reading!

MadCounty Mama