Pinterest Challenge Day 10 and 11 (sort of)

Yesterday I ended up overachieving and doing two things from Pinterest.  So I am going to count one of them towards today.

Yesterday I was making lunch for the boys and two of them requested mac and cheese.  I was out of the boxed stuff so I went to the pantry to try to find some easy mac.  Of course, there was only one in there.  Then I remembered that I had pinned something about making easy mac without all of the fake cheese in the Kraft stuff.  Perfect!  I even had everything on hand.  Even more perfect!

So I made one thing of easy mac for Makai and set out to make the "real easy mac" for Tanner.

*Special Note: Yes, I am a professional photographer.  However, I do not specialize in product or food photographs.  I am also a busy, working mom of three and I don't have time or energy to make these pictures look amazing.  You might call it laziness, I like to call it "Keepin it Real".  Some days I feel lucky to even get the challenge done and pictures taken.  So sorry if they are not perfect.  Rest assured I am good at taking pictures of PEOPLE not necessarily things.


So I added the water to the noodles and started to microwave.  They said it should take 4-6 minutes.  Easy mac takes 3 in my microwave, so I started with 3 minutes.  I pulled it out and they were still rock hard.  I added 2 more minutes.  Still hard.  2 more minutes.  Still pretty hard.  Now I am up to 7 minutes.  I decided to add the cheese and milk.  Then I did it for another minute (now up to 8 minutes) as they suggested to warm the mix and have the cheese melt.  I pulled it out and stirred for quite some time to get it to smooth (as they said it would get (and had to add another minute in the microwave making it 9 minutes of cooking time and several more minutes of prep and stirring).  From these first two pictures, it looks pretty good.

 And then you see these......

Despite my vigorous stirring, the cheese never really mixed in.  It formed a gelatinous glob similar to silly putty.  I drained the excess water out and then took the silly putty out, added some salt and gave it to Tanner.  Luckily he is my least picky child and didn't say a word about it tasting funny.  He said it was pretty good.

The verdict:  This was NOT easy mac.  There was nothing "easy" about it.  I would have been better off cooking the noodles on the stove (for 7 minutes) and adding some cheese and milk.  It probably would have turned out better than this strange concoction.

Day 11 (really part two of day 10 but who's counting):

My glue gun is getting a workout....and I love it!

In the midst of the "Easy Mac Incident" (as I like to call it) I was working on this project.

Do any of you have a problem known in my house as "the cups spilleth over"?  My kids use about 3 cups a day.  My poor dishwasher is constantly filled with transformers, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Avenger....and every other boy character known to man.  They get a cup out, take two sips....and leave it abandoned on the kitchen table (or other places throughout the house).  Then an hour later, they are thirsty so they repeat the process.   My kids usually only drink water so luckily there isn't gross milk or juice in cups all over the house, but it is still annoying!

So I found this project on Pinterest and I was super excited to get going on it!

Note this is not the one I pinned (it is a similar picture from the same website) but I can't find it on my boards.  Don't you hate that!  It is from danamadeit.com if you want to check it out.

I went to several different stores looking for plastic cups to use, but I had a hard time finding ones that I liked.  I finally settled on these from the dollar store.  They only came in 3 colors, but luckily, they were in the 3 favorite colors of the boys.

For this project you will also need magnets (From Hobby Lobby) and a glue gun.

All you do it glue the magnets (I used two per cup) to one side of the cup and stick it on the fridge.  Easy peasy!

The boys were pretty excited about this.  But mom was even more excited!  We will see if the dishwasher misses its daily washing of all of his friends, but I will surely not miss loading and unloading those guys from the dishwasher.

Note: Tanner filled his up with water, took a drink and then put it on the fridge.  The magnets are not strong enough to hold the cup and water!  So it fell to its demise.  As always, if anything bad is going to happen....it is to the middle child.  Is there such a thing as the middle child curse?  Do you notice this in your house?  If they all get the same toy, the middle one breaks first....etc.  Poor thing, he always gets the shaft.  It is true in my sister's house too.  Just an observation.

This was genius and super easy.  I would highly recommend it.  It took less time than the "Not so Easy Mac".  Seriously, I did this while the easy mac was cooking and I finished this before the easy mac was done.

This is from my ?????? board.  I couldn't find it (even with the new (it's about time) search method of your own pins).  I am not sure what I labeled it, so I couldn't find it.  It is probably in my Summa Time, Good Ideas, or Chanchos Board.  Kudos to the person who can find it for me!

Pinterest Challenge Day 8 & 9

Day 8:

I am going to combine two days.  I know….slacker.  I have taken on some ordering and shipping work from a photography company that takes pictures at the big bicycle races all over Colorado.  So yesterday was spent in front of a computer screen.  Lame.  It won’t be as lame when I get the paycheck, but for now it was lame.  Now I am trying to play catch up!

Yesterday (in the midst of data entry) I ran out to do a photo shoot.  Ding Ding.  A chance to get my Pinterest Challenge done for the day.

I was taking pictures for a couple that I have known since High School.  I was in youth group with their daughter.  They are an amazing family and she wanted some pictures to document their 40^th anniversary.  Awesome, right?

So I went onto my “Couples” board and bingo…I found a shot that I wanted to get.  I loved this shot of this couple dancing from Brian Powers Photography.

You can find this picture on my "couples" board.

 I thought it would make for a great shot that is very natural looking and produces easy smiles.  It is easy to give directions for also.  Many people, especially men tend to be uncomfortable in front of the camera and you really have to show them what you want.  It is too hard to describe….better to just actually show them how you want them to pose. 

So when we were about halfway through our session I had them to go into the field and then told them to start dancing.  They laughed!  Apparently she doesn’t ever dance (even with his prodding at weddings and such).  I forced them to anyway and I loved how it turned out.  Don’t they look carefree and happy!  I know it is far away, but their kids don’t know they did this shoot, so I was trying to keep it from being too close up.  But stayed tuned….there are some amazing shots of these two to come!

I am kicking myself that I didn't get a little closer to get their facial expressions, but I didn't want to make her even more self conscious (I did get some that were a little closer than this one, but not as close as the one on Pinterest)!  

I will defineatly be trying this again in the future.  It just loosens them up and gets them smiling and laughing.

Day 9:

Today it was finally time to do something with the boys.  In the past, I have shyed away from doing crafting projects with the boys.  For those of you with all girls...I am about to rock your world.  My boys VERY RARELY sit still long enough to do crafty things.   I have TONS of coloring books.  No one ever colors in them.  When I pick up JJ from Sunday school I see all of these beautifully colored sheets.....from the girls.  My son's has one color (usually green because that is his favorite color) and maybe 2-3 scribbles.  Boys just don't sit still long enough to do those kinds of things.  This used to be distrubing to me.  I used to spend HOURS coloring.  I kept buying coloring books to entice them to color, but it NEVER happens.  

Therefore, I am always skeptical of doing crafty projects with them.  I think the tide is turning.  They sat for a good 20 minutes at the table today working on our challenge.  It gave me warm fuzzies.  Especially because the reason I picked this particular project was that it would be quick and easy.  I thought it would be 5 minutes or less.  WRONG.  They loved it and were so much more creative than I gave them credit for!

Here is what we did today.:

I thought that with Tanner still working on reading, this would be a good one.  I also thought it might entice them to do some more reading this summer.

Here is what we started with:

I bought these at Hobby Lobby.

I decided to pull out some other leftover craft items from other projects including more eyes, pom poms and pipe cleaners.

 Then you get this:

Don't you think he looks like Christopher Lloyd as the bad guy in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

JJ decided the monocle look was more for him.

 Here are our finished products.  Don't you think they turned out way more fun than the one on Pinterest?

Stitch is helping to showcase JJ's final product.

Don't you think that Makai looks like the bad guy from Rocky and Bullwinkle?
 

JJ had to get in on the mustaches

And...so did Tanner

This was so much fun!  Thank you Pinterest for making a boring Tuesday afternoon tons of fun.  And making me realize that my kids might not sit for hours and color, but they can still be creative and have fun doing crafty things.

This was from my "Good Ideas" board.  And it delivered.  It was a good idea!

Pinterest Challenge: Day 7

I did it!  I made it through the first week.  One day, three to go!  It was kind of a crazy week, but it was really fun doing all of the things that I have been pinning!  Have you done any of your pins this week?

Today I took it easy on the challenge and didn't even take any pictures.   We went to church this morning, went to my parents for lunch and a James Bond movie and then came home.  I had some cleaning to do because we have a friend coming into town to stay with us and my house was pretty gross.  I used to be pretty anal in the cleaning department.  My house was always pretty clean.  But now I have 3 little people who thwart my efforts and I have learned to let a few things go and not stress so much about my house.  Blessing and a curse.

So today I decided to do something from my "Chores and Organization" board.

So many of the cleaning things on Pinterest are bunk.  I have tried a few and none of them have been spectacular.

Today was the exception to the rule.  I tried this little trick.....and it TOTALLY
 




worked like a charm.  Our upstairs fan is so dusty and dirty.  I hate cleaning it because it gets dust everywhere.  But when I used the pillowcase, it kept all of the dust bunnies inside and was quick and easy.

Success!  I had a few other pins that I wanted to try, but in the end.....this is all I had time to do.  So, the other ones will have to wait for another day.

You can find this pin on my "Organization and Chores" board.

Pinterest Challenge: Day 6

Yesterday comprised of swim meet and baseball game the first of which started at 7 am.  It is tough to get out the door in the morning by 6:45 with all of the stuff that you need for a day of sports (and three kids in tow).  I have mad respect for moms who have to get out the door that early every day for work with their kids in tow!

In the evening, we went over to a friends house to bring them dinner and to meet their new baby girl.  Enter Pinterest.  I have lots of pins on my "Newborn Photo Ideas" board so I decided to put some of those to good use.

I wanted to try this photo from blog.drewbphotography.com.
Here are my versions.  I think I like the black and white one better.

But overall, again I am finding it hard to replicate someone else's work.  I much prefer to have an "idea" of something in my head and let it morph from there.  I also wanted to try a few others, but it is tricky working with a 2 year old and try to get dinner prepped and have my own family there distracting me.  But rest assured we got TONS of other good shots (that are LiLo originals).

Be on the look out for more pictures of this little beauty (and her beautiful family).

You can see this picture on my "Newborn Photo Ideas" board.

Day 5 Challenge

Okay, so I am consistently a day behind. 

Yesterday I was an over achiever and did TWO new recipes.  I was short on time last night before I had to get T to baseball at 6.  Evening practices are so hard.  You are either eating really early dinners, or really late dinners.  I usually opt for the early dinners because my crew tends to get hangry (hungry+angry= hangry) and if they are hangry ain't nobody happy!

So at 4:45 I started to make dinner and I still was rushing around like a crazy woman and shoving food down throats (including my own) to get us out the door on time.  I didn't have a whole lot on hand, so I went with a recipe that I have been wanting to try and that sounded good.  The only meat that wasn't frozen was....bacon.  So I went with the Brinner (breakfast for dinner) theme.

For the adults, we had avocado with bacon and egg inside.

Sorry for the blurry pictures.  This is how it copied from Pinterest.

 This recipe was Delicious!  However, I had a few problems making it.  First of all, my avocados weren't quite ripe.  This made it difficult to scoop out the insides and create a large area for the egg.  Problem #2- the avocados are round (duh) and when I put them on the cookie sheet, they didn't lay flat and when I poured in the egg mixture half of it went onto the cookie sheet.  So, I cut a tiny bit off of the bottom of the avocado skin and they laid flat and filled nicely.  Thankfully I put down tin foil, so it wasn't too big of an issue.  I used 4 egg whites and 1 egg with the yolk.  Too many!  I think 3-4 eggs would have done the trick.  I just wanted to be a little healthier and use egg whites.  I also added some sea salt and pepper.  They were really good!  I would totally make them again.  They were pretty filling and super healthy!

Here are my pics:

Meet Whitey.  He is my egg white separator.

Don't you love how he spews out the egg whites without breaking the yolks?

This is the only way to make bacon if you are in a hurry.  425 for 15 minutes.  Be sure to line the pan with tin foil.  Easy clean up too!

See my mess? 

 Sadly, there is no "after" picture as I was 10 minutes late getting to baseball because these took longer than I thought to cook.  I ate mine in the car.  That is how I roll.  Better than eating french fries, but much more difficult.

For the boys, I decided to go with pancakes and bacon (since I had to cook it for our special dish anyway).  I knew I had a few pancake recipes on Pinterest so I picked on and went with it.

This one was nice because it doesn't have eggs in it which is nice for the 2 boys who are allergic to eggs.  Again, it was pretty easy to follow and turned out really well.  The boys could taste the banana in it, but the flavor wasn't too strong as I used one banana (and some applesauce) instead of 2 bananas.  I also added chocolate chips to entice the boys into eating them.  NO problems.  They gobbled them right up.  The only downside is that they are a little dense and the consistency isn't the same as quick and easy Bisquick, bot bad for a vegan recipe.  I also used Rice milk instead of almond or soy milk so that my dairy free boy .

I was skeptical of making it in the blender but it was easy!

They look normal, right?

Another great day of Pinterest!  You can find both of these on my "recipe" board.

Pinterest Challenge: Day Four

Today's Challenge came from my board "Just for Me".  I am pretty sure that I am not alone in the fact that I have been trying to lose a few pounds and slim down a little bit.  For me it is not about the number on the scale.  It is more about the muffin top that hangs out above my tight pants/shorts.  I HATE the feeling that my clothes are too tight!  So, I am trying really hard to watch what I am eating (and faithfully logging my calories in the "My Fitness Pal" app on my phone).

I have also been running/walking with my friend Erica for the last month (and tracking my calories burned on my app "map my run").  It is painful to get out of bed at 6 am three times a week in the summer time, but it is so worth it.  It is so nice to have an accountability partner and someone meeting me so that I make sure I get my crack out of the sack in the morning.  If you want to really get motivated to start exercising, you should get a workout buddy.  Plus you have someone to share parenting/marital struggles/joys with, discuss life's greatest questions, or just tell funny stories to!  I love my M/W/F's with you E!

Last night I went to a special prescreening of Superman with my Superman and my 3 Supermen in training.  I knew I wanted to have some popcorn at the movies, so I needed to have a "light" dinner.  I went to my handy dandy Pinterest board and found a recipe that I have been wanting to try.
 
So I mixed up a green smoothie for the Hubs and I.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but here is what I put in it.

Several handfuls of spinach, a banana, an apple (with skin but no core), some chia seeds, blueberries, about a cup of plain greek yogurt, and a little Sunny D (we didn't have any OJ).  I did as someone suggested and blended the spinach and liquid first until they were smooth and then I added the rest of the ingredients.  As you can see I wasn't very precise in my measurements.  The only thing I would change is that I would have blended it longer.  It was a little chunky.  I kind of liked that I could kind of chew it, that way it made it feel more like a meal than just a drink.

It made enough for each of us to have about 12 oz.  The Hubs downed his in about a minute (he has a gift for gulping things down) but it took me about 20 minutes to get the entire thing down.  It was pretty good.  Next time I would leave out the banana because that is just about all you can taste.  I like bananas but I didn't want the whole thing to taste like that.

I also forgot to take a picture of it with my "big camera" before we hurried out the door for the movie, so I had to resort to an iphone picture.

 Looks like runny guacamole, right?  Oh well, I still got a picture!

Here are my supermen getting ready to walk into the movie.

This last picture is an update from my Pinterest Challenge: Day Three.  It even worked with my iphone!  The kids love doing it!

Happy Friday everyone!