Planes!!

Friday night, Robbie closed, and Mama went out of town. William and I are not fans of staying in the house for all day and all night if we can help it, so I decided to take us to see Planes! We were super excited when Courtney and Davis decided to join us! We met them at Chick Fil A for a quick dinner, then headed to the theater. The boys were SOOOO cute! Courtney made me laugh so hard when she said that Davis wanted to dress like William - and they were dressed alike, haha! As soon as we pulled up to the theater, William started saying, "Nana, Nana!" He is so used to her taking him to the movies.

Selfie with the sweetest boy!

William and I went and got our tickets before dinner, and he was so excited to see the poster!

He was so pumped!

Davis was so nice to share his truck!

So sweet!

William had zero interest in eating! LOL

They did pretty well in the theater. Courtney and Davis ended up leaving a few minutes before it was over, but overall they were too sweet. They looked so cute sitting in their seats with their little bowls of popcorn!! Planes was a super cute movie, with a sweet little message about following your dreams, no matter how out of reach they seem. I loved it!! ;)

Cheeeeeeeeeese

So sweet!!!

Ready to go!

How old are they?!

Paying attention!

So funny!

Thanks for joining us, Courtney and Davis! It was so great to see y'all and catch up!!

Slides and Cupcakes!

Thursday afternoon, William and I took a quick trip over to the park in our neighborhood. We had been stuck in the house all day, and wanted to get out before Dada got home! We were seriously only there for maybe 25 minutes, and we were so stinkin' hot we had to go home. William had the reddest face he's ever had!! I didn't realize it was so HOT! The nice thing was, he was the only one on the playground, so he just played and played!! He was dying to get to the pool, poor thing! I kept promising him we would go to it soon. He loves to repeat, "Pool, pool!!" It just needs to cool down a little bit, and we can enjoy being outside more!!

He loves a wheel!!

LOVE!!!

Coming down the BIG slide!

At the bottom of the twisty slide - his hair cracks me up! And he kept saying, "Whoa! Whoa!"

So big!!!

On the way to dinner, all of our neighbors were outside celebrating Christie's birthday!! William ran right over and wanted to play! Of course, he had a cupcake - that's right, before dinner. Ahhh, to be a toddler! ;) Anyway, after that fun little appetizer, he has a NEW word, Cupcake!!! LOL. Every time that we pull in the driveway, he points to Christie's house and says cupcake! Ha!!

Aldi Update!

So, I thought I'd do a quick Aldi update! We have been using the products for a couple weeks now, and love them! For myself as much as people reading, I figured it could help me remember what we like to buy!

As we all know, Aldi isn't really a brand name type of store. I am not a brand name snob with everything, but I always have been about peas. I was raised on Le Sueur peas, and they are my favorite! Can I get an amen from my fellow La Sueur lovers?? Yes, they are THE most expensive canned vegetable on the aisle....but they are the best tasting peas, so they were worth the $2.00 price tag. However, at Aldi, I picked up their version of LS peas. They were in the silver label, not the regular ones in the green label. And wouldn't you know? They are seriously almost as good as my beloved Le Sueur!! So, for now they have been replaced. These are only .99 a can, so I am sure we will use Aldi, except with Harris Teeter or someone runs a $1 special on the "real" ones!! ;)

More canned goodies! We tried the green beans this week. Ehh, they weren't my favorite. But at .49 a can,  I can doctor them up next time to have a little more flavor. We also used the CoM soup. I can't remember how much it was, but I do know that it was el cheapo. We couldn't tell the difference!

Cereal! We got Kid's Krunch (Cap'n Crunch), Honey Nut Crispy Oats (Honey Nut Cheerios), and Marshmallows and Stars (Lucky Charms). We haven't tried the Marshmallows and Stars, but the other two taste really similar! And at only 1.69 a box, that is a significant savings!!

I swear, I think these cheese crackers are better than Cheez-Its! And a ton cheaper. I think they were around a $1.49, and Cheez Its are hardly EVER on sale that low, if ever!

William loves these fruit snacks. He really doesn't miss his other ones, and gobbles these right on up. So they are definitely worth the savings!

William could eat his weight in raisins, seriously. Although they're not super expensive in a regular store, they were cheaper at Aldi, so I grabbed a box to see what he thought. He is still eating them as fast as we put them on the plate, so they seem to be a winner!

Chips! We don't eat chips very often, and one reason is because they are sooo expensive! Shew. But the chips at Aldi are very reasonably priced! I think they're around $1.49 a bag!!! We picked up Sour Cream n Onion, Vegetable Straws, tortilla chips, "Goldfish", and pita chips. They are all awesome! The pita chips are my fave and already gone (hence the missing picture). They have Sea Salt and Garlic and Parmesan Herb. I got the garlic/parmesan, and they are so good! William doesn't mind the Penguins, which are fake Goldfish. They definitely aren't as good as real Goldfish, but William doesn't notice! It's so nice to have some variety to our lunches now!

There were a few other things that we either haven't tried yet, or I just didn't take a picture of. Things like sauces, vinegar, etc, we have used and I can't tell a difference at all in them. And of course, Aldi actually had our favorite BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's - so we knew that was going to be a winner. We have tried their pork tenderloin, beef tips, and hamburger meat. All of the meat has been great quality so far. We bought frozen pizzas and frozen chicken tenderloins - neither of which we've tried.

We look forward to another Aldi trip, and continuing saving a little bit of money without sacrificing what we love!

Cheeseburger in....Paradise?!

A recipe for Cheeseburger in Paradise has been circulating Facebook for a couple weeks. It looked delish, and Mama had been begging me to make it! Last night, we got brave and tried it. It was really good! It had great flavor. The only issue is, the recipe called to make it in a pie plate. I hate pie plates! I am always afraid the ingredients will spill out, so I put it in a casserole dish. Well, like a dummy, I didn't even think about the mixture being thicker, requiring more cook time. I cooked it for what the recipe called for, and the fork was not coming out clean. So we ended up having to cook it another 20-30 minutes. Ha! Once it was done, we all liked it though!! And it was super easy to put together, which is always a plus!!

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Ingredients:
-1 lb hamburger meat
-1 onion, chopped
-1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
-1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
-Dash of Worcestershire sauce
-1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (I used some mozzarella too)
-1 cup of milk
-1/2 cup of Bisquick
-2 eggs

Directions:
-Heat oven to 400 degrees.
-Spray a pie plate with cooking spray.
-Cook beef and onion until done; drain.
-Stir in salt, garlic powder, and Worcestershire and pour into pie plate.
-Sprinkle the cheese on the beef.
-In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, and Bisquick mix, getting as many lumps out as possible.
-Pour over the beef/cheese in the pie plate.
-Bake in over for 25 minutes, or until fork comes out clean.

Finished!

Chicken Teriyaki!

 

 

Last night, we had chicken teriyaki, made in the crock pot! It was delicious and super easy! We served it with rice, peas (the only veggie W loves), and fresh steamed broccoli!

Chicken Teriyaki (Source)

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:
1. Combine chicken broth, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, and garlic in the crock pot.
2. Add chicken to the sauce, and turn a few times to coat.
3. Cook on low 4-6 hours.

First Trip To Marbles! (And Other Fun Weekend Happenings)

We had a busy, busy weekend!!! We usually never have plans, but this weekend, we were jam-packed every day! On Friday night, Laura, Caleb, and the girls came over. We went simple and had Pizza Hut delivered. So much fun as always with our good friends!!

Cozy in the Cozy Coupe!

Friday night, Shelley said she was coming up Saturday! Robbie was off Saturday, too, so we had plans to take William to the Marbles museum downtown. We had never been (ridiculous, I know!) and couldn't wait to try it out. We grabbed a quick lunch at Chick Fil A once Shelley got in town and then headed to Marbles! Conner and William LOVED it!! They had so much for them to do, and even stuff for bigger kids, that were way too advanced for them (hello, real saw and drill). After a while at Marbles, we had to take Robbie by his store to do something. The great news is, as we were pulling out of the parking lot, he came out and said he didn't have to do anything, so we took advantage of it and headed to Pullen Park. It was super hot, but we rode the carousel and the train, and then played on the swing set and slide! Conner and William loved the park! William is still going on about the choo choo! We had a great dinner at Outback, and some froyo at the place by our house, and then came on home. The boys had fun in the bath together, and both passed OUT from exhaustion as soon as they hit the bed! We had so much fun with Shelley and Conner, and can't wait until they come back!!

Reading EW, waiting for our company!

Slidin at CFA!

Even Dada went down!

Playing with Conner in the Marbles entryway!

Driving the ambulance

Roarrrr!

Playing in the vet office

Mowing! The lawnmower was a hot commodity and everyone wanted it!

Fixing lunch!

Choo chooooo!

Climbing to the top of the pirate ship!

This slide was William's favorite! He went up the steps, and down the slide about 10 times!

Hey Mama!

Peek a Boo!

Shelley and Conner on the carousel!

<3

Clapping when it was all over!

This picture is hilarious!!!

Riding the choo choo train!

Shelley and Conner on the train!

Sleepy boys on the way home!

Sunday morning, we got ready for church. William and Conner had their breakfast, and some train table playtime. William and I headed to church, and Shelley and Conner ran some errands before heading back home. After church, we met Erica and had lunch. Erica came up to return some baby stuff she borrowed for Jackson, and stocked up on clothes and new toys for him from William's closet! ;) We had a yummy pot roast dinner at home, and then Erica left us to head back to EC! We had such a busy couple of days, and it was so fun having people visit us and play!!