kids in the kitchen - mini pizzas

Recently I have been reliving the days of when the kids were pre-schoolers and I remember all those fun times in the kitchen, making snacks or lunch or whatever! (I have been going through some "my babies are not babies anymore" moments lately!!)

I have a lot of documented time in the kitchen with Mikayla (her little brother wasn't quite the age to be in the kitchen as a helper!) like when we made Homemade Waffles, Banana Muffins, or Cool Whip Sandwiches. Seriously...click on some of those links and your heart will melt with that sweet little baby face who is now almost 7 years old!!

Well, I thought today it would be little brother's turn to be my kitchen helper. We've done plenty of this over the last couple of years (and especially recently), but today I picked up the camera to document him making one of his favorite lunches. Right now Austin goes to preschool (Jr. Kindergarten) 4 mornings a week, but he is home in time for lunch, so we get to enjoy the afternoon together. We try to do some fun things together just him and I right when he gets home and cooking in the kitchen usually happens once a week!

Mini Pizzas

• English muffins
• pizza squeeze (we love the Contadina pizza squeeze)
• shredded cheese
• toppings ~ our favorites are turkey pepperoni and olives

Step One:

Squeeze the pizza sauce onto the English muffins.

Step Two:

Using the back of a spoon, spread the pizza sauce over the English muffins.

Step Three:

Sprinkle on the cheese.

Step Four:

Add your toppings. And, in true Austin-fashion he decided to make pizza faces.

Pizza faces ready for the toaster oven.

Step 5:

Carefully walk them to the toaster oven (yes, I did say to him carefully)...

...and then this happened!

{Let me just pause for a moment to say that had this been 2 or 3 years ago, I may have just freaked out a little and thought this was a major catastrophe. But, guess what? Not anymore! I've learned that life's too short to cry over spilt milk...or in this case pizza on the floor. We just scooped it up, turned it over, added a little more cheese, put the face back together, and into the toaster oven it went.}

Step 6:
Let the cheese melt in the toaster oven until nice and crisp.

Step 7:
Put a smile on  your face and enjoy!

And before I could get the apples cut and on the plate, Austin had already snatched the olives and gobbled them up!

{And, in browsing my blog to reminisce of the days when my kids were little, I found THIS POST where the kids made muffin pizza faces back in 2009. So precious!!}

I am joining in the link up for Kids in the Kitchen...a new weekly series I just found at the blog Sensibly Sara. Come join in the fun (click on the picture below).

 

dusting off the cobwebs...I'm back!

I'm not even sure where to start. It's been 6 months since I have posted on this blog, but lately I've been feeling like it's time to dust off the cobwebs and come on back! I have been doing a lot of regular posting at my Stuck on Stampin' blog for my Stampin' Up! business, but I have really missed posting about my sweet family! This little blog is such a great record keeper for so many special memories, and although now I feel like there's a big gap from things I have missed, I am not going to let this stop me. It's time to just pick up where I left off!! I'm definitely not making any promises on how often I plan to blog, but I do know that I am excited to be back!

One of the biggest things that has changed is in relation to the title of my blog ~ Blue Eyed Blessings. One of my little blessings no longer has her blue eyes! Mikayla's light blue eyes she was born with have slowly turned to hazel over the years...just like her mama's!

{Mikayla - 2 months shy of 7 years old}

But my little boy still has his baby blues...just like his daddy!

{Austin - 5 years old}

 

 One thing I know for sure...I am BLESSED!!

gingerbread houses and gingerbread men!

A couple of weeks ago before school got out the kids both had parties in their classroom on the same day! Austin's class was making gingerbread houses and Mikayla was having her Kindergarten holiday party. I really wanted to do both and thank goodness Ms. Michelle planned to do the gingerbread houses right away which meant I could buzz over to Mikayla's school in time for her party! I have the pleasure of being the Room Coordinator for Mikayla's classroom so I knew it was important for me to be there to help direct the moms in where and what they needed to help out with.

Austin & his Gingerbread House!

It was so sweet to watch him have so much concentration and careful planning of where he wanted the candies to go. Maybe that's why he was one of the last ones to be finished!

For Mikayla's class party, we had decided on a Gingerbread Man theme...

The next day, Mikayla's class got to have a PJ day and watch a movie. I just so happened to be volunteering that morning and had grabbed my camera on the way out the door!

Mikayla and her "twin" Hannah...
they both got a kick out of showing up in matching PJs!

Mrs. Derry & Mikayla

{sweet faces}

{silly faces}

I am really enjoying not having to do drop off or pick up during this 2-week vacation from school. Oh, and did I mention the sleeping in part? Such bliss!!

pre-school party fun!

My cutie pie fireman celebrated Halloween with his pre-school classmates on the Thursday before Halloween. We started out talking about dressing up as a doggy...then a fireman...then a construction worker...and then he woke up the morning of the party saying he wanted to be superman. Thankfully he was OK to walk out the door in his fireman costume and what a cute little fireman he turned out to be...

{listening quietly to a "spooky" story}
{ready to play a game}
{he was such a good sport...and followed the rules - no hands!}

{so close!}

Austin and his classmates all dressed up
October 27, 2011
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A month later...

My sweet boy at his Friendship Feast
November 22, 2011

{singing songs with his classmates}

{all the kids sharing what they are thankful for...Austin said bees?!?!?!?!}

The Friendship Feast!
...and one happy boy with a plate full of food!

It has been fun to be a part of Austin's pre-school activities. Ms. Michelle is such a super sweet teacher and perfect for Austin! I am loving watching him grow and become more and more independent...even though he is my baby!!

field trip to the pumpkin patch!

At the beginning of October, Austin and his pre-school class went on a field trip to Lee Farms and headed out to the pumpkin patch. I was so glad that it was earlier in the month than later, so we wouldn't have to miss it with our 10-day trip to California in mid-October (shhhh...don't tell Mikayla she missed her class pumpkin patch field trip while we were gone! I still don't think she knows!)

Field Trip to Lee Farms
October 4, 2011

{climbing the hay bales with his friend Sofie}
{mmmm...apple cider!}

{it's so heavy, Mom!}
{two pumpkins ready to take home}
{hay ride}
I love being able to accompany Austin on these little outings! It gives me joy to be a part of these special moments with him.

birthday celebration with family

You're not tired of Austin's birthday yet, are you?? ;) I took a little break from party posts, but I have so many fun Halloween things to share that I figured I should probably finish up and move on...especially since his family birthday party was a month ago! The Sunday after his birthday, we had family over to finish off Austin's birthday week. We kept with the Disney Cars theme (as with the party with friends) and since it was after lunch and before dinner, we opted to keep it simple with some snacks and dessert!

Even though I only needed to make invitations for 5 families, I still wanted to put some effort and energy into coming up with a cute invite (that's half the fun, right?). The image of Lightning McQueen I found online and the gingham checked paper I found at a local scrapbooking store. Everything else is Stampin' Up! (cardstock, punches, and brads). I even found a Disney font on my computer!

If you pull up where the star is, the invitation part is revealed...

I can't say enough how much I love my kitchen island...
it's so perfect for parties!

Snacks included apples and homemade caramel dip (with toffee bits), carrots and dip, kettlecorn, M & M's...
...Cars Cheez-Its,
and Cars-shaped graham bites!
I picked up these two snacks pretty close to when Cars 2 had hit the theaters. I found Cars themed things everywhere...even juice boxes!


Mikayla made little checkered flags for everyone...that's my girl!

We had Austin's Cars GeoTrax set out for everyone to play with (a Christmas gift from the grandparents last year).

And Cars coloring sheets to keep little hands busy!

I didn't organize many activities, but we did do a couple of fun things as a group. One of them involved each of the kids racing against the clock on a jumping Cars ball. It was so fun to watch each of them take a turn...many, many giggles were had! Look at these smiles!


Then we did some dancing to the "Life is a Highway" song from the Cars soundtrack. Austin broke out his break dancing moves apparently!
PRESENTS!!
{I just love Austin's expressions!}
Thanks cousin Hailey, Noah & Jacob!
Thanks cousin Hunter (& Hannah...not pictured)
Thanks cousin Parker & Riley!
The Cousin Line-Up
...with their silly faces on!
Time for a cake!

This is my first year of actually making a cake...I usually decorate cupcakes! When I saw this idea online I knew I just had to make it! It is made out of two round cakes (one white, one chocolate). I then frosted it and painstakingly covered every inch as best I could (because I'm a perfectionist!!) with finely crushed Oreo cookies. To make the green grass, I cut out a piece of tinfoil and laid it on top before covering with the Oreo cookies. I carefully peeled it off and then doused it with green sprinkles. I used white frosting to make the lines in the road and added some miniature Cars I had found at the store.


Just one more candle to get...
It's delicious, Mom!
Treat Bags for all of the cousins!
Birthday Celebration #4 complete!!

And, only one more year until he turns FIVE. If it's anything like this last year, it will go way too fast!!

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And because of the theme of this blog post, I just thought it would be fun to share one of the pictures that we took while on our vacation to Disneyland...

Doesn't Austin look like he knows exactly what he's doing?
I love it!!