A New Product!

It's new product review time here on my blog!

I was shopping for a stick of pepperoni to cut up for my Antipasto Pasta Salad and came across this awesome find! I thought it was such a clever idea that I knew you all would be interested in it too.

Hormel has come out with mini pepperoni slices! I know! Great idea!

I usually hand slice a stick of pepperoni and then cut each slice into quarters for my salad. Have you ever cut a pepperoni stick by hand? It takes some time. These mini slices are a PERFECT alternative and saved so much time! The slices seem a little thicker than the pre-sliced pepperoni that you buy in a package so they worked oh so well in my salad! They would be the perfect size for a kid size homemade pizza too!

Don't they look cute swimming in the sea of pasta?

This product definitely is a two thumbs up from me!

Also. If you are interested in my Antipasto Pasta Salad recipe, you can find it on my cooking blog...click here to go to it.

Have Fun!

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Cousins Week 2009!

In June I invited my niece (Mya who is 4 days younger than Allison) and nephew (Derek who is 6 which is 2 years younger than the girls) to come and stay with us for a week. We all had a great time! I hope you enjoy our week in pictures.

The girls went to Vacation Bible School at our church for three hours a day while Derek hung out with me. Derek and I went back for the last 1/2 hour every day to watch the daily closing program.

They got to try a lot of new (to them) foods this week. They both liked the raw baby carrots. We won't talk about Mya and the bite of cucumber!
They got to help Aunt Cindi do some cooking. They really enjoyed this as they have never done this before.
There were lots off kitty bonding.
Hmm...Nintendo DS...what would they do without them? They even taught me how to Pictochat...I hope I spelled that correctly!
They loved playing on the computer and Simba loved the attention.

Our big, beautiful "Kid's Zone Playground" was a big thumbs up for them.

Derek especially liked the rock wall.

They all liked this thing that they had to hold onto and we pushed them back and forth.

Mya did really well on it.

Even Uncle Curtis got into the fun.

Allison liked scooting up the poles.

Sibling love...or was he trying to pull her down?

Did you know my daughter had frog-like legs?

Mya took a different view of the world!

How many people does it take to help one little girl grab the handles?

There were many trips to Rita's Italian Ice.

Yum!

Silly kids!

We took a field trip to Build-a-Bear and here they are with their un-stuffed new friends.

Filling them with stuff!

Dressing them in their new outfits!

Picking their names...

and registering them for their birth certificates.

Derek with his black lab, Nick.

Mya with her snow leopard, Spotty.

Allison with her snazzy kitty, Diamond.

I had planned a night to cookout with the kids but Curtis had a different idea of a cookout.

He wanted to take us to his parents' property and cook out there. So I packed up everything and off we went.

We walked through the woods to the edge where there is a clearing in the middle of nowhere. They call it "Allison's Wonderland" since Allison loves to hike through the woods to there.

Here the girls are helping carry everything from the van.

Derek helped Uncle Curtis gather wood.

Uncle Curtis got the fire started with just one match. I think the kids were impressed...so was I. :)

Don't they look excited and proud?

Derek helping to add wood to the fire.

Yeah! Fire!

Allison made roasted me the most perfect marshmallow for my s'more!

Having a little fun with Uncle Curtis.

Derek loved his time in the woods!

Mommy and daughter!

Gal pals!

Grandma met us in the woods for our cookout.

While we were up in the woods one of his parents' neighbor stopped by to check the temperature and wind conditions. He and his son have these one man flying machines. They use Grandma and Pa Pa's clearing as a starting and stopping point. Fortunately for us the conditions were favorable so he went and got his son and we had our own private show.

Here is his son with this huge metal circle on his back trying to get a running start. His leg muscles must be rock hard to be able to do this! At least once he's in the air he gets a break because it has a little motor on it that powers him in the sky.

Here he is almost directly above us...

...and here he is coming in for a landing.

We enjoyed lunch in the park.

I also planned some crafts for them. Here they are anxious to paint their shirts.

They all did so great with their designs.

So proud with their finished projects.

The girls had a camp out on the living room floor because that 6 year old boy snored!

They had a balloon fight to keep cool!

Another craft they did was to paint and decorate the first letter of their name.

Another great way to keep cool was water boats!

Here they are on the last day wearing their finsihed shirts and...

...holding their finished letters. They loved that they spelled "MAD!"

One last craft they did was picture frames. They got to pick a picture from the week and then painted and decorated the frame to acompliment the picture.

I can say that we all enjoyed the week and hopefully my schedule will allow us to do it again next year!

Have Fun!

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