More recipe fun!

Loving trying out the new recipes I've been finding at http://lunchfitforakid.blogspot.com
she has some great recipes! We have enjoyed all the one's we have tried! Yesterday, I made these yummy pop-tarts!(the recipe can be found here)
They were pretty easy to put together - Mr Man likes them but Miss Thing isn't too sure about them. I made a few different varieties - some blueberry preserves, some cherry butter and Apricot preserves. I'll definitely be making them again!

Tonight's dinner...

We had this for dinner tonight - chicken, broccoli, cheese roll! The kids loved it and it was SO easy to do!

We are now the proud owners of a MINIVAN!

This month we've been doing a bit of car shopping. My kids have friends, and it is fun to be able to pick their friends up and have them over for a play date. What is not so much fun is playing the game of who needs to be buckled in the car first so that everyone is buckled in safely(and my hand doesn't get squished, pinched or mangled!) I LOVE my Hyundai Santa Fe - and will be sad to see it go, but the time has come...

We did our due diligence and TONS of research to ensure we got the best deal possible on a safe, comfortable vehicle for us. We decided on the Kia Sedona - and are picking it up on Monday! The kids are beyond excited about having a minivan... they think it's so cool!

Today I took on the sad task of removing all our "stuff" from my car - tomorrow will be vacuuming up everything else that's left! Honestly, where does all this stuff come from? I will be making some fancy trash bags to hang from the arm rests in the new van in an attempt to keep the floor on the new car cleaner (note: I said cleaner - not clean, I know that with small people in and out of the car - it won't be perfect, but a girl can dream!) If anyone has any other ideas on maintaining some order in the car, I'd love to hear it! I was thinking perhaps some kind of bins/totes, etc might work, and maybe some "back of the seat" organizers could be made to help out a bit as well.

So that is our news for now - thanks for stopping by!

I have also done some sewing in an attempt to keep SOME of the messes contained in the new car: the kids each have a nice pad under their car seats to try and keep things from getting on them and they each have a little "trash" attached to the armrest - you can see Little man's selections of fabric in this one - at the time, Miss Thing's was not competed... she now has one with stripes of different colors - mostly pinks, greens, yellow. So far so good - they have been doing well with keeping things off the floor! We'll see how long it lasts!

Snacks and Lunches - My version of bento!

One thing I have been doing for the kids is packing them up great snacks and lunches for school. Little Miss opts to take fruit for snack most days and Chicken nuggets, a bagel or left overs for her lunch. Mr Man is a huge fan of fruit and vegetables alike - and since he is still in preschool, he only requires a snack for school. I have taken to doing some baking and the kids really seem to like my "rainbow bread" as well! I've made bagels for them too - they love it when they are still warm from the oven, and I love the way the house smells when things like that are cooking. I need to make another loaf of rainbow bread soon, perhaps it should be on the docket for tomorrow!

Here is a shot of the kids favorite snack "boxes" - it's our version of bento... they love it, they eat it, they know it's all good!
Mr Man's box is on the left - grape tomatoes and cucumbers, grapes, scooby snacks (graham crackers), rainbow bread slice and dried blueberries.
Miss Thing has strawberries and grapes, a few extra strawberry slices, rainbow bread and an individual cheese cut in quarters.

I love doing this for them! It does take some time but I know that they like it and hope it will be something they remember from their childhood when they are grown.

Here we go (again!)

This blog will likely be more about things that are important to me - I will keep my "OneWildMango" blog for my sewing craftiness... this will be about life in general - I welcome any and all comments. My plan is to try and capture the important things in my life, my family, my friends, even the mundane task of trying to maintain a house (which is a daily battle for me). I have the same issues as everyone else - my house is too small for all the "stuff" we have in it. Over the next few weeks, I will be trying to work on that - I am making this my new mission, I want my kids to have a fun place to work on their crafts and homework, I want to have a great space to be crafty, I want my home to be welcoming to all of our friends and family - and I want to know where things are without having to call in a search party! It is probably too much to hope that it will happen this Spring, but I'm going to do whatever I can to make it happen! So, as I said in the title - "Here we go!"