The party was great. The cakes turned out awesome, the kids had a great time and the adults all visited. I’ve been tired for a couple of hours already and I am SO glad we ordered pizza and I didn’t have to cook!

Be back tomorrow with pictures!

Both of the kids have had birthdays and both of them say they don’t feel older and ask when will they feel their age. Alice is wondering when she will feel six, I told her she’ll wake up one day and just will. I don’t feel 29, what is 29 supposed to feel like? I don’t worry about age though, so maybe that’s it.

Jake had a great day – he’s such a happy, easy going, good natured kid. He and Chris worked out a plan of what we were supposed to do today: watch a movie, play video games, eat at Chick Fil A so he and Alice could play in the play area. Once we got the pictures (JCPenney’s this time and WOW the girl was awesome, the prices were much better then Sears and I walked away very happy) taken, we ate then went to the craft store. Jake picked out a few things and when we checked out he asked to have his things in his own bag and told the checker we were headed to Target where he was going to “buy whatever he wanted” because it was his birthday. haha, love that.

We met Chris at Chick Fil A and the kids played in the play area, walking out completely sweaty and having made five or six new friends. We chatted with the Dad of three of them until they left – Jake asked if the dad knew it was Jake’s birthday and that he is four now. When we left a woman who works for Chick Fil A gave him a balloon and a little cow (you know CFA right? They have cows in their ads talking about how chicken tastes better, etc.) – he was so happy! He smiled at her so big and softly said thank you. When she walked by me I thanked her and she said just to see a smile like that over a balloon made her day. My Mom called this evening and Jake was so busy playing video games, he listened to her sing and talked for just a minute before getting off the phone.

Now we have a birthday party to plan for! Anyone think it is crazy to change from an at home party with a taco bar to a bowling party and ordering pizza? I’m just not in the mood to clean. Hahaha

How about a combo post for the Encyclopedia of Me me started at Bella Dia.

Something I enjoy the most about being able to stay home with my kids is being able to cook whatever food I want, whenever I want. And I am so taking advantage of it!

A couple of days ago I wanted chocolate chip cookies – and waited until last night to whip up a batch. I love bar cookies more then regular cookies and Chris said maybe it’s because I don’t like the edges of cookies. No idea if that is true, but mmm they are so good!

There have been a handful of times over the past few weeks when I’ve had a quick “oh that sounds good!” moment and jumped up to make it. I tried a batch of scones (didn’t come out at all!) and a fruit salad. We have a grocery store five minutes away and have only had to quick run over there once or twice, otherwise I’ve been lucky to have all the ingredients here. Last night I found a box of baking soda that I didn’t even realize I had! Thank goodness because I just wasn’t in the mood to run out.

I’ve tried to be mindful of what I am eating, of course I will gain weight but it doesn’t have to be potato chip weight! Okay, or cookie weight either. I am starting to write our meals out each week in hopes I won’t wake up and wonder what will be for dinner or have to cook half frozen meat. We are still rotating through the same ten or twelve meals, but that’s fine with me.

I did just find a recipe for skillet goulash that took minutes to prepare and then just about twenty minutes to cook. Here is the recipe if you’d like to try it! I did modify quite a bit – I left out onions, celery, a few spices they wanted me to add. I did find the recipe online but when I looked I had ten (or more!) tabs open and didn’t save the page.

Cook one pound of ground beef until it’s brown, drain. Add a can of tomatoes, 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 (or 1/2?) teaspoon of pepper, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, spices (I used italian spices) and 1 1/2 cups uncooked pasta. Once all the ingredients are in, let cook for 20-30 minutes, checking on it so you can add more water if necessary. We added parm cheese on top and oh my gosh, delicious! The kids loved it and I’m making it again this week.

I’m not going to talk about how I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday. I will say that tomorrow is another birthday here! We have pictures, lunch and no idea what else. Jake turns four and as is tradition, he gets to pick where we eat and what we do! He’s excited, it’s as if he doesn’t dictate life as it is.

Today was full of making gift bags for the birthday party (almost done so I’ll get pictures later) and cleaning up the house. It seems whenever we clean downstairs, the upstairs gets messy. At least downstairs still looks decent. We are having dinner guests in a couple of days because they can’t make the party this weekend so I also have to figure what to make for that.

I did get two new paperbacks at the bookstore last week (yay for the clearance section!) and found out that there is a used bookstore not too far away that also does trade-ins! I’m excited about that, I already have two stacks of books that I held of taking to Goodwill in the hopes that I would someday find just such a bookstore. It’s probably a good time to go through my bookcase, just in case there is something I’m willing to part with. There probably isn’t.