What's for Supper Saturday...

Easy Peasy Chicken and Rice Bake. Super easy AND yummmy! I've made this several times as part of a meal for new parents, always a hit. You'll need:
One whole cut-up chicken (or you can use breasts)
2 C minute rice
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cans of water
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
melted butter

Pour 2 cups of the minute/instant rice in the bottom of the casserole dish. Sprinkle the dry onion soup over top. Mix the 2 soups and 2 cans of water together and GENTLY pour over the rice. Lay your chicken pieces on top of this (I skin the big pieces first) and then brush them with a little melted butter.
Cover with foil and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours, removing the foil for the last 30-60 minutes (I take it off for the last 30, but if you leave the skin on, you'll want to take it off for the last 60 minutes)

Trick or Treating at HOME

Arielle came around the corner last night before T or T started and found Paxton stuffing candy in all of his pockets. Completely moot, by the way, because he is not much of a candy-eater. Made for some cute pictures anyway....

Pre-school Halloween Party

Our city's rec department has some Saturday workshops geared just for the pre-school age and today's was, of course, a Halloween party. Now usually all of my posts are about what ANGELS my children are (HA!), but this one would be a total LIE if I put that spin on it. Beckett wore his pirate costume (unwillingly, at first), but that was the last cooperative thing he did. Coloring a picture was tolerable, but sitting nicely for a story or standing in line to play a game was beyond him today. I finally put the kabosh on the festivities for him about 30 minutes into it. That explains why you only get to see 2 (questionably) crappy pictures of him at his event.
They have other Saturday fun days scheduled, but I'm not sure we'll even attempt another one at this point =(

4 year old Dr's visit

We're only a few weeks behind! Today Beckett saw our family physician for his yearly exam--knock on wood, we RARELY have to take the kids out for anything BUT this delightful appointment! No innoculations today, so Mom did very well while there as well =) He was an awfully good boy and only balked at walking on his toes. When I pointed to my toes to illustrated the idea, he stepped on MY toes! HA!
Beckett came in at 36.8 pounds and 41 inches tall. He's doing everything for his age appropriately or above, which we'd suspected! They've started a new program within the last few months to encourage kids to develop a love of books/reading and every child who is there for a well-child checkup from ages 6 mos to 6 years goes home with a new book and Beckett will be adding "If you give a mouse a cookie" to his library. (Already a favorite selection here!) I tried to get him to show me his book and a smile, but all he wanted to do was push door buttons and start the car!

Mom's Night Out!

A couple of months ago, one of my friends thought it'd be fun to have a monthly "Mom's Night Out". This month Jessie and Tabby thought that maybe a small wine-tasting event would be a fun change--and it was!! They talked with Brent at Wine Down on Main, our local wine specialty shop here in town. Between them, they chose a few bottles that might be good to sample and after hearing about them from Brent, we decided which ones to open and sample. Of course there were munchies to "cleanse our palates" with in between wines and lots of talking--with no kids!! I personally found a couple that I absolutely would buy and plan to do so in the next couple of weeks!
As you look at the pictures you'll see: Tabby, Angie, Janelle, Jessie, Me, Melissa and Jessica. Janelle blogs--I'm going to start following her blog, she reviews lots of children's toys and books and has a really cool post with a baseball guys set up, AND she does TONS of giveaways! If you can't wait for me to get her link in my sidebar, you'll find her at www.brimfulcuriosities.com
PS: Brent was our photographer, THAT'S why you are forced to see an actual picture of me on my own blog--I KNOW, the HORROR! I guess it IS Halloween time...

Trick or Treat on campus

Every year, one of the residence halls on campus does a trick or treat/Halloween party event for the local children. We got there a few minutes early, which gave Beckett ample time to attempt to knock as many leaves of off an innocent bush while we waited in line.
Once inside the dorm, they have simple games in the lower level to keep the kids occupied while they wait to be led in smaller groups through the halls that are decorated in different themes and collect a smattering of candy. It was a much smaller scaled event than previous years, and I'm not sure we'll return next year, but the boys said they enjoyed it so that makes it worthwhile.
Getting them to look at me was next to impossible, so you'll have to take in the view from behind--like Parker and I did! They plan to go to Grandma's on Saturday night and "throw candy at the kids who knock on the door". Apparently he is combining parade-like activities with trick or treating....

Getting the pumpkins carved

The day after the adventure of picking out our Halloween pumpkins, it was time to turn them into Jack o'lanterns. A process in which the little boys had no interest. Kurt, Parker and I worked on gutting the orange buggers while they watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and wrote letters to the Great Pumpkin. Parker insisted we save every single seed (HA! good luck with that) so I could make him roasted seeds later on--which I did!
The finished products are in the breezeway until Saturday night--too big of a temptation for college kids to smash if we put them out early =(