It’s hard keeping track of all the Goosebumps books my 9yr old has read over the years. Seems like each week he’s reading 4 or 5 of them, and it’s amazing he hasn’t run out yet. Somehow, though, he always seems to find ones he hasn’t read. This week from his stack he’s picked out The Ghost Next Door, which is about girl named Hannah who finds herself with a very interesting new neighbor – a ghost boy! He disappears and reappears with little warning, making hardly any noises. The house he lives in is all but deserted and he’s so pale. He’s got to be a ghost, right? As with all the Goosebumps books, this is an excellent read and keeps you interested clear up until the end. Comes highly recommended from 9yr old Chase! You can see more Goosebumps books as well as other books from R.L. Stine...
What a combination, eh? Well, it just so happens this is what’s sitting in our fridge right now and needs to be used.I feel like we’re in an episode of Chopped, and I’m totally caught off guard. How we ended up with such a mismatched selection of foods I’ll never know. I guess this is what happens when you let the kids influence what you buy. Hey, at least they were asking for nutritious foods and not junk, right? Not to fear though, I have a plan. Last week I picked up some frozen hamburger patties (hurray for being lazy), which will go well with the blue cheese and mushrooms. Actually, I’m going to make a sauce of sorts out of the blue cheese and slightly tweek this recipe here. Maybe substitute mushrooms for onions or something like that. Either way the blue cheese and mushrooms are going together, and on...
Don’t get me wrong, of course I love my family. It’s an internal law in my head that says I must, and I know should I lose them, they would be missed. However, we all have those days where we’re just climbing the walls and need OUT, if only for an hour or two without someone demanding something or feeling like we’re trapped in a mad house. This is a topic I think a lot about, especially now since they boy is currently being homeschooled and the girl has nothing but me for a parent (a very long, sad, twisted story that I’d rather not make public). For years I couldn’t leave her even with relatives else she’s completely freak out, so for 7 years it’s been just me and her on the weekends. And now it’s just me and the boy every day until the girl comes home from school. Yes I have made the...
Wii Cheer 2 Review Average Score: 4.71 out of 5 (Read more about our scoring system) The first We Cheer has always been one of our favorites. When the second one came out, we couldnt waite to get our hands on it. It did not disappoint, and is even better than the first. New songs, new moves, better levels, and new characters. This has become a fast addiction! Buy We Cheer 2 at Amazon Fun Factor – 5 out 5 As if the first one wasn’t fun enough, this one is even better. There’s some new moves and lots of new songs (quite a few that mom is in love with, actually). It’s even more addicting than the first one, that’s for sure. Family/Group Factor – 4 out of 5 An improvement to the first We Cheer is they added boys to the squad. Even though my 9yr old son still isn’t quite interested in it, some boys might...
Dolores Claiborne I’m sure there aren’t many who have heard of Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne. It was a pretty big hit and made into a movie in the late 90s which stared Kathy Bates. I have a tendency of watching the movie before I read the book, which seems to work well for me. If you have seen the movie, you’ll know it’s about a woman (Dolores Claiborne), telling the story of how she plotted to have her husband killed, and the reasons why. While most movies from books don’t even come close to doing the book justice, this one wasn’t too bad. The series of events and specific lines even were kept in tact so you still got whole story. However, this IS a Stephen King book we’re talking about here. The book is ALWAYS worth a read. What stands out in particular about the book Dolores Claiborne...
My best friend loves to talk about sales and coupons. What’s more, she absolutely loves to share all the great deals she finds. It was only a matter of time before she started a website about it! Since I’m so proud of her and excited she finally got this going, I just had to share. While it’s mostly geared towards deals and special in central Iowa, you might still find this site useful for your local area (such as deals from Target and Walgreens). Highly recommend you check out her site ASAP! See: IowaCouponChic.com Read More →
It was a week or so in the making, but we did it. Right down to the starter itself, we made it! The starter wasn’t nearly as complicated as I would have thought. Just a cup of flour and a cup of water in a plastic container, and we were set. After that it just needed to be “fed” every day for the next few days. (This site has some excellent details on how to start your sourdough starter, how to feed it, and what to do with it later on). I did cheat a bit and used a different bread recipe, one a little less complicated from where we got our starter instructions from. One that just said “use a starter”, which we had. I pulled the recipes from this site, which had more than just bread. Here’s the one we used, in the bread machine, and baked: 1 1/2 cups sourdough starter, room temperature 1/2 cup plus 3 Tablespoons...
Another one of 9-yr-old Chase’s favorite series within a series is the Monster Blood books. It’s about just what you’d think it would be – monster blood! There’s 4 books in the original series, plus another added in the Horrorland series just recently. You can find the books as follows at Amazon: Monster Blood (Classic Goosebumps) Monster Blood II Monster Blood III Monster Blood IV Monster Blood for Breakfast! (Goosebumps HorrorLand) The five books above are sure to keep young readers that need a good spooky book interested for awhile. Even several months later, Chase can still tell you what the whole series was about and how awesome the ending was. Most Goosebumps books also have snips of the next book in the back, making them want to go out and seek the next in the series. Be watching for more of our favorite...
We Cheer Review Average Score: 4.29 out of 5 (Read more about our scoring system here) An adorable game for little girls packed full of fun and an awesome addition to your Wii game collection! We couldn’t wait to open this game up and play it, and were very pleased with the amount of engergy it takes to play We Cheer. If you are looking for a game that gets your girls up and moving, this is the game without a doubt! Buy “We Cheer” at Amazon Fun Factor 5 out 5 Fun Factor – 5 out of 5 The adorable girls on the TV and the great music is super fun to do the routines to. You can’t help but have a blast dancing to the music! Because of the variety in the moves and songs on We Cheer, you don’t get bored easily. Family/Group Factor – 3 out of 5 Unless you have four remotes and an all girl family, this game...
It’s about that time of year again when we have to start planning our gardens and figuring just what we plan to plant. Instead of re-hashing what we covered last year, we figured we’d just give you a few links to our 2009 gardening series. It covered all the main topics and ideas for planting flowers, herbs, and vegetables both from seeds and bulbs/plants. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to request a free catalog from Nature Hills. Sometimes the best ideas for what to plant come from just browsing a catalog! Plus of course they have some really interesting plants and seeds for sale, so do check them out after you request a catalog. To start the series, we started with the obvious – planting seeds inside. This included flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Generally on spring break is when we start planning our garden,...
