Category: Blogging

Great Way to Start the Day
One of the excellent benefits of homeschooling is being able to provide my boys with a healthy, homemade breakfast. My oldest did attend a private school for Preschool and Kindergarten and honestly, he never received a warm, homemade breakfast during those years. It would be cereal or most days it was toast and or a banana in the car during the mad rush of the morning.

Now breakfast is a meal that I cherish. I can make my boys a warm, nutritious meal and we can all enjoy eating around the table and talking. It is a fantastic way to start the day!

Being intentional about what our kids eat is very important to my husband and I. We like to get fresh ingredients from summertime farmers markets and our local outdoor market during other seasons.

We like bringing the farm to the table so to speak. Not only are the health benefits of eating fresh, non-modified food endless but it all taste’s so good too!

My son is a Cub Scout this year and they learned about food groups and portion control. We incorporate his learning into family learning. Preston gets to help choose what we will eat and he knows how to weigh food or use the fist method. He is super interested in what nutritional values, who would have guessed? So I have been looking this information up and providing to him. My middle son always wants to know what is the healthiest item on his plate. Love it.

Nowadays breakfast in our humble little home, consists of something from each food group. No artificial anything. Just pure, fresh food and drinks. For protein, most days comes in the form of an egg. My children like them prepared many ways, so they never tire of them. I serve them with spinach, which oddly enough my kids love. I love having fresh bread on hand, I try to make 2 loaves a week, a slice with butter (yes REAL butter) is delicious. As far as fruit goes, they get a double dose. Fresh berries, peaches and or pineapples for us. My kids favorite part, by far, is the Tropicana Orange Juice they get with breakfast. See, my kids drink only water throughout the day and they get milk for dinner. So when it is breakfast time they know it is ORANGE JUICE time!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

That is why I make sure we give the best we can.

Did you know:
- Tropicana Pure Premium is 100% Pure Florida Orange Juice
- The different microclimates and soil types mean that fruit reaches peak maturity at different times, allowing Tropicana to harvest ripe fruit throughout the entire growing season.
- The two major orange types in Tropicana Pure Premium are Valencia and Hamlin. Valencias typically have more intense color and flavor, while Hamlins can be sweeter. They each add unique characteristics to the TPP blend.
Without Tropicana breakfast is not complete, in our house!

A huge bonus – Tropicana is having a Sweepstakes, right now!

Enter the Tropicana sweepstakes for a chance to win 100 Florida prizes, including one-year-supplies of Tropicana and a trip to Florida to visit an orange grove.

Ninety-nine winners will get a one-year supply of orange juice

One winner will get a trip to a Florida orange grove and invite three (3) guests for: Round-trip airfare for four (4) to Florida, three (3) night stay at a Florida hotel.The winner will have an exclusive experience at experience at a Florida orange grove. For official rules and regulations, visit the “sweeps” tab on Tropicana’s Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Tropicana

Visit Tropicana on Facebook!

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“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Tropicana blogging program, to earn My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic, click here.” (make sure you link to http://tropicanapurepremium.socialmoms.com)
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April 3, 2012
Mission: Lego Store

If you ask my kids they will tell the bestest place to go in the whole world is the Lego Store. They are in a state of bliss every time we go there. This last time we went we were actually headed up to the mountains when we encountered a massive dust storm coming over the hills. We hightailed it to a great mall near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The boys were so excited I think that helped them get over the fact we were not heading up to the mountains.

I used to dread going in to the Lego Store, it was always crowded and there was merchandise everywhere. Ugh. Much to my surprise, they remodeled it. Let me tell you that it is so cool now! What a great experience. The Lego Store at Colorado Mills remodeled and it looks much better.

See all the merchandise on the side walls, LOVE IT, no more scattered in the middle.

They have these supercool display cubes all over the store.

Lego Batman

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE! This is the new line for girls, I would have LOVED these when I was a girl.

Wouldn’t this be cool in a dream home? Lego Wall for all!

Beautiful!

OK so now onto the coolest thing, ever! A 3D interactive display for a preview of products. You pick out a specially marked box and hold it up to a TV screen/camera. They tv displays a 3D video of that product in action! It was really neat.

You can’t really see it that well, you must see it person, it is cool!

March 26, 2012
A Yummy Breakfast – Huge Hit with the Kids

**sidenote – I was looking through old drafts and found this post, love finding posts!**

Cinnamon Oatmeal, Toast Circles, Fruit Kebob

Breakfast is usually pretty casual, most mornings it is oatmeal or cereal, also yogurt and toast. One morning a week I make eggs, pancakes or waffles. One thing I love about homeschooling is giving them a good breakfast and not having to be in a hurry out the door. We can sit and chat, it is a great start to the day.

Today was no different, just wanted to share. The boys like the presentation, my nephew said, “ooo this looks good to eat”, it was so cute.

March 21, 2012
Homemade Puffy Paint

Have I told you I love Pinterest? Of course I have! My most recent inspiration came from a Microwave Puffy Paint Pin, which led me here: Mom’s Crafty Place. She posted really great pictures, my kids and I were sold. We did it right there and then. We loved it and used every last bit, will do this again!

Thanks to Mom’s Crafty Space for the inspiration!

March 11, 2012
All Systems Go – A Space Odyssey Adventure

We recently spent an afternoon at the Space Odyssey Exhibit at our local Museum. The boys took some day long workshops and then they spent 2 hours taking in the Space Odyssey. It was a treat for me and my husband to watch their enthusiasm soar.

Preston learning about telescopes

Sam explores the exhibits

Learning how water affects the earth

Playing with light

Experimenting with a heat sensing (Thermographic) camera

Adam and Earth

Oliver watch the changes on the model planet

Oliver’s favorite exhibit

Preston with Mars

SuperSam in space

Sam with some astronaut friends

We will definitely go back again and again! I found some online printables from the Museum that you can use to learn every more during your visit. Can’t wait to try them out!

March 4, 2012
Green Chile “Smothered” Burritos

This is a meal that has always been a tradition in our house when I was growing up. Here in Colorado we eat a kind of green chile that you don’t find in many other parts of the country. It is a pork green chile and it comes from “New Mexican” food. My Mothers family is from Southern Colorado and before that from Northern New Mexico and Spain prior to that. This type of cuisine is a hybrid of deliciousness. The base for most of the foods are green chiles, like Hatch, Anaheim and Pueblos. I prefer Pueblos, then Hatch, then Anaheim. In Colorado you will find Chile Roasters on almost every street corner from late August to mid-October. Read here for our tradition of picking up bushels for the year!!

The list of delicious food you can make is endless. I will start sharing more recipes as I continue to go through our family cookbook. This time I made classic Smothered Burritos. We call them smothered because they are covered in Pork Green Chile, yum.

This is the recipe we use in my family, however, in this particular recipe I have modified and updated it.

Ingredients

Chile Base

Browning the flour, most important step! See the brown, carmely color starting to develop? That is perfect!

Add diced pork, brown

Brown the pork

Blend Chile base, add to pan with browned pork

Inside: homemade refried beans, sour cream, cheese

This is the Green Chile looks like when done

Smothered Burritos

Recipe:

Lobato Family Green Chile, modified by Mrs. O

1.5 lbs Pork Tenderloin, diced

4 cups Chicken Broth

2 cans Rotel (medium)

1 large can of Green Chiles

1/2 small can of Jalepenos

2 tbsp Vegetable Oil

3 tbsp Flour

1 tsp Garlic Salt

1 tsp Onion Salt

1 tsp Salt

Dice pork, heat oil in pan, add flour, stir until brown. Add diced pork, cook until brown. In blender mix: 1 can chicken broth, Rotel, Jalepenos, Green Chiles, Salt, Garlic Salt, Onion, BLEND.

When pork and flour have browned add the blended ingredients, last can of broth and the water. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for at least 1 hour. I let mine cook for around 2 hours. It is even better the next day!

For burritos, construct burritos with refried beans, sour cream and cheese. When chile is done, pour over burritos add cheese, cover and bake for 2o minutes at 350. After 20 minutes, remove cover and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until cheese bubbles.

February 20, 2012
Fun with Kitchen Science
Being a homeschooling Mom I am always on the look out for fun, hands on projects to do with my boys. They are in 2nd Grade, Kindergarten and Preschool they especially love science projects. They love to experiment. My kindergartner and 2nd Grader keep science journals. They keep track of supplies used, what they think will happen and then they record what actually happens. These are usually accompanied with pictures, it is a perfect way to track their learning adventures.

I have found some Homeschool websites that offer great suggestions on fun experiments. One website that I recently discovered is from Clorox. It is called Clorox Recipes for Fun, it is a great resource for all things fun to do with your kids. Not only is there a Wacky Science page there is also recipes for Kiddie Cooking, Arts and Crafts, and Creative Cooking. There are so many fun ideas. I can not wait to get cracking at all the fun projects we found.

You can also submit your own recipes.

They have a contest running now through March 27th, you could win $10,000. If you sign up you get entered, if you share a recipe you get an additional 10 entries!

My husband had recently told my boys about a science experiment he did when he was a little boy. He gave me the list of ingredients, we had everything we needed so I sent the boys on a treasure hunt in the kitchen to round up the ingredients on the list. They liked that part and it built up the anticipation of creating something cool.

The Superfizz Volcano Ingredients

Start with Vinegar, dishsoap and food coloring

I let the boys each pick their own colors.

Add baking soda, watch the smiles

Experimenting with more baking soda

My Pretty Yellow SuperFizz Volcano

Smiles all around!

Adam and his Green Machine SuperFizz

Sam joining the fun

This experiment was a huge hit! The boys did it 3 more times, using different colors and different amounts of the ingredients. They played with this experiment for over an hour. Will do this again, the boys were wondering if we could do it outside with an entire bottle of vinegar and box of baking soda, hmmm….

I wonder what kind of mess that might make?! We did have a bit of a mess, so be prepared with clean up materials. We use and LOVE Clorox Clean Up. I used it for clean up on this project and it cleaned up the food coloring with no problems!

Here is the recipe my husband shared:

Super Cool, Super Fizz Volcanoes

Clear Glass Cup

1 Cup Vinegar

2-3 Drops of Food Coloring

1 Tablspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon of dishsoap

(we quadrupled this recipe for all four boys)

The kids love it, do it and watch the joy bubble up as the experiment does, priceless!
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“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Clorox Clean-Up Recipes for Fun blogging program, for 8,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on this program, click here and see the Terms link.” (make sure you link to http://recipesforfun.socialmoms.com)
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February 18, 2012
Cheesy Lasagna

Lasagna, yum! Who could argue that? Now, I don’t have it very often, maybe once every few years . I had never made it. My husband has been asking me to make it since we got married, I decided it was time to try. I do love it, and making it very cheesy and delicious. It is one of those recipes I have felt intimidated to make though. I headed to Allrecipes.com and searched by ingredient. I did this because I wanted to make it with lowfat cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I came across this one, Cheese Lasagna. I modified it a bit…

Spaghetti Sauce, Green Chiles, Jalapenos, Cottage Cheese, Italian Seasoning

Sauce, blended

Making layers: noodles, sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan

Covered tight

Baked and delicious!

February 13, 2012
Easy Cheesy Pepperoni Rolls

Have I told you how much I love to read blogs of other Moms? There is one that I have learned so much from and had lots of inspiration from… It’s called Sam’s Noggin. She has homeschool tips, organization ideas and recipes, yum!

Recently she had a post titled “Cheater Pepperoni Rolls” it intrigued me and when I saw the pictures, I had a mission. She describes them as a delicious go-to snack out in her neck of the woods. Dough, Pepperonis and Cheese? Sounds good to me!

Rolled out the canned Croissants, added pepperoni’s and spicy Italian sausage

Next comes ooey, gooey mozzarella cheese

Roll em up, seal the sides of the dough

All done! Hot, greasy and delicious pepperoni and sausage rolls! These are the Combo Rolls.

Pepperoni Rolls all ready to eat!

Thank you Samantha!! As always, you are an inspiration. Keep up the excellent blogging!

February 6, 2012
Our Trip to The Shoppe

After our exciting field trip to the United States Mint we wanted to take the boys some place fun to eat. So that is what I googled “fun places to eat in Denver”. BINGO, one of the first results was for The Shoppe, a cupcake and cereal eatery! I have always wanted to go to a place that served cereal. Don’t think of those lil boxes that Dennys serves. This is more like a “Cereal Bar”. It is a fairly new trend, they stock a mind-boggling amount of cereal, you get to try any kind and can add extra toppings if you like.

Delicious Varieties!

This place has such fun decor too!

They have a massive game collection! Craig and Preston jumped at the chance to play Monopoly while Oliver and Adam played Chutes and Ladders. Samuel kept himself busy with Don’t Spill the Beans.

Our order, pretty huh?!

Oliver and his cupcake…

…it was Death by Chocolate

Sam ordered the Cookies n Cream, he gobbled up the Oreo that was on top before I could snap a pic. This was delicious, it was ice cream looking frosting on top, there was an Oreo inside too!

Craig and I shared a Salted Caramel Cupcake, this was amazing. The cake is to die for. Amazing.

My sweet Nephew and his huge bowl of Corn Pops

We had such a fun time hanging out, playing games, enjoying yummy food and great conversation.

Did I mention that you can write on the bathroom walls? Too cool, the entire bathroom is made of dry-erase walls and there is a big basket of colorful markers. Loved this idea!

Make time to go down and check this place out, your kids will LOVE it!

You will love the cupcakes!

February 2, 2012