My dear Geek Adonis asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day! He gave me everything I wanted and more. He started out my day with some oh so yummy Lemon Blueberry Pancakes and BACON! (cause if you do not know yet, I have an affinity for bacon) I am afraid I do not have a picture of the pancakes, but I can give you the recipe to try. The sweetness of the blueberries and maple syrup together with the tangyness of the lemon was just sublime.

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup Cake Flour
1 Tablespoon (additional) Cake Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (more if needed)
1 Whole Lemon (more if needed)
1 Whole Large Egg
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
Zest from 1 Lemon
1 cup Heaping Blueberries
Extra Butter
Maple or Pancake Syrup

Preparation Instructions

Heat heavy skillet or grill over medium low heat. In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix evaporated milk, juice of 1 lemon (more if lemon isn’t very juicy), and lemon zest. Allow to sit for five minutes, then add egg,
vanilla, and melted butter. Mix to combine.
Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine. Splash in more evaporated milk if mixture is overly thick. Stir in blueberries. Again, check to make sure mixture isn’t overly thick.
Melt butter in heated skillet. Drop batter by 1/4 cup measures and fry pancakes on both sides until golden.
Serve with softened butter and warm syrup.

Get ready to lick your plate!

Next,

We went to Stones River National Battlefield and spent the day picnicking and frolicking. It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day outside and we found a perfect place to lay out our blanket under some huge sweetgum trees.

We enjoyed a yummy lunch of salami, cheeses, olives, nuts, salad, pimiento cheese sandwiches, pretzels w/ mustard, and a small smorgasboard of drinks.

After our picnic…

We threw gliders, and…

sisters stood at the ready to throw gliders at us unbeknownst to us…

no worries though the glider plummeted and all brothers got to stand proud that day. After the small dog fight, we…

rested and came in and refilled with root beer and ginger ale. (Notice, mommy and young smiley all the while have been resting on the blanket). Refreshed, we are off to climb…

cannons, and…

rocks. As with all picnic’s there were an abundance of bugs…

including cicada exoskeleton’s. Meanwhile, back at the blanket…

Geek Adonis and Smiley called Nana to wish her Happy Mother’s Day too! After a glorious day at the battlefield Daddy decided we all needed one more treat.

Oh my, I must tell you this is one of my favorites places to go now! If you have never been to a Sweet CeCe’s I am so so sorry. They have a variety of frozen yogurts that you first choose from and then, you get to pick from crazy topping like captain crunch and gum balls to chunks of cheese cake or fresh strawberries. Oh, and speaking of the gum balls, that was one of the topping Miss Sugar Plum Fairy chose, so be careful of this happening …

This was the end of my perfect Mother’s Day! My sweet husband gave me just the experience with my family that I wanted. Thank you my love! I hope all of you other mamas out there had a wonderful mother’s day as well.

I so needed to weed my flower garden and the kids wanted to help but they kept trying to pull my good plants instead of the weeds. So, I needed something quick, cheap and easy, that they would enjoy while mommy was weeding.

This worked so well and I can reuse this corrugated board again and again. If you do not have a large piece of corrugation, then you can use any old box and cut it open. The cereal box, old diaper boxes, etc.

Materials – watercolor paints, old plastic cup, two small paintbrushes, water, and cut open corrugated box.

I have been inspired by “The Ultimate Blog Party”, to do a small giveaway. This will be my first giveaway and I am a little excited and nervous. I am giving away – a duo kids cape & apron. It is 100% cotton and hand dyed. I am giving away three of them and whoever wins them, if you want me to, I will hand paint your son/daughter name or initials on it. My precious models decided to pose for me, so that you could see what you are winning.

He had a blast showing me just how the cape works!

Never having actually cooked on the stove before, she was a little disappointed that this was only a photo shoot.

To win, please leave a comment on my blog and the winning contestants will be chosen at random. (I will post the winners on 4/9/11)

(These are the colors of the cape/apron’s that you can choose from)

My husband made a good point, so I wanted to make sure everyone else understands too! I am giving away three cape/apron’s to three different people, not all three of them are going to the same person.

This is a our current favorite paper airplane. It is really simple to make and my four and two year old love flying them around the house. You start out with a regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.

Then, fold it in half.

Open it back up and fold down a right and left corner to the middle of the piece of paper, where you made the crease from folding it in half.

Next, take that and fold it down to where the point from the top of the paper is almost reaching the bottom. Leave about an inch between the bottom of the paper and the point.

Now, take the left and right corners again and fold them to the middle crease just like you did earlier.

Next, there should be the small point under your folds facing down toward the bottom of the paper. Take that point and fold it up and over your previous folds. This makes those previous folded corners stay down.

Now, flip it over and fold it in half.

You can leave it like this or you can fold the corners down one more time.

And, your finished airplane looks like this.

The kids loved our family breakfast tea. I highly recommend doing this with your children. Its super easy and they just love it, plus it is absolutely adorable watching them eat and drink from their little tea cups and plates.

This time we had aunts and uncles to share our tea with. (Sugar plum fairy with her Uncle)

And cousins! (My little old man with his cousin)

Did you notice the tiny feet in the last picture? Our youngest (we’ll call him smiley, cause seriously that’s all he does) finally made it into a post.

Has anyone ever heard of these guys; Thread Up, and whether or not they are reputable. I am curious, just because I do have quite a few clothes that I would love to swap or sell.

Our first tea party!

Well, the kids actually drank juice!

I was so excited when I finally found a tea set for me and the kids. I have looked for a while now and all I could find was the cheapy plastic sets at Toys R Us or really expensive nice ones that I would always be afraid to use. Another blog steered me towards One King’s Lane. I would look on there from time to time and one day I just happened to notice they had china tea sets with extra plates and totally within my budget. I was super excited. I bought it without thinking twice. My little old man, loves them and asks all the time when are we having our next tea party. What he doesn’t know is that I am making scones this weekend for our next tea party. I cannot wait.

So, last night at my Mom’s Night Out, I found out about Homeschool Work Boxes. I am so excited about trying this technic. My oldest I think would love this. He asks me every morning, “Mom, what are we doing after breakfast?”, “And, after that”, “and, after that”, etc. If I used this system he would know what he is doing for the entire day. I love it. I googled homeschool box system and it brought up all kinds of mom blogs with pics and ideas for this system. If you have a child that needs order or a list of what to do for practically every minute of every day then I highly recommend this. I hope once I am set up with mine then i will post pics.

Okay, when my first son was born we decided to play classical music every night via CD every time he went to bed. My daughter, she couldn’t stand anything playing and it would only keep her awake. For some odd reason for our new baby we picked to put Cinderella the movie on loop to play all night (audio only). So, whenever he gets up to nurse at night I hear Cinderella and I have heard it so much now that I have started analyzing it. This is when you know that you have heard way too much Cinderella. I have done this long enough that I even brought up aspects of it to my husband one night. I definitely think it might be time to switch movies, or at least put a CD of some such on.

So, what do you use if anything for your children?

Thoughts on Cinderella – If Anastasia knew that Cinderella talked to the mice, then she would have no doubt to think that Cinderella put Gus Gus in her tea cup, right?

This post was right up my alley. Being a new mom (well, not new new, I already had two kiddos, but now I recently added another one) this cracked me up! I don’t technically agree with every one of them, but some of us really do get tired of other people’s parenting advice from time to time.

1. Boys invariably smell vaguely of pee and sunshine. Heavy on the pee. Stock up on Febreze.

2. Your boobs, when engorged (this is for the first-timer) will look like something out of a fetish video. Your husband will be intrigued: Practice saying, “If you touch my nipples I will be wearing your scrotum as decorative jewelry.”

3. That fun “period” you get after you give birth? Don’t worry, that’s not your liver in the toilet.

4. When people ask if your baby is on a schedule, tell them the little monkey won’t listen and you’re wondering if it’s too soon to start spanking.

5. With each subsequent child, you will look nine months pregnant for at least two weeks longer after giving birth.

6. Watching reruns of The Sopranos in the middle of the night helps bring down your milk. So does a good gin and tonic.

7. Your older children might be jealous of the attention given to the new baby. This is natural. Just tell them they’re not as special anymore, and would they please move, daddy is trying to take a picture of the little princess.

8. Other moms are really, really competitive. Make stuff up. Tell them your baby started muttering the phrase “Einstein was wrong” while thrashing in the crib at night.

9. Only you know when it’s time to wean your baby. If you want to nurse until the kids beg you to stop, that’s your prerogative.

10. Older people are really judgmental when it comes to things like co-sleeping. Don’t get irritated at their antiquated advice. Just smile and tell them you really find that co-sleeping works for you. You just wish little junior would yell louder when you accidentally roll over on him.

Thank you ~ Parents Connect & Jennifer Magnuson