I'm not tired!!

It's whats for dinner

A few of my friends have started posting their dinner ideas and sharing recipes so I thought I would join in. I had plans to make chicken cacciatore tonight which meant I needed to go to the grocery store. I planned to go the grocery store after Riley had his piano lesson but alas, Ella had a potty accident while we were waiting so we had to return home. This left me scouring the pantry for something for dinner. I also wanted to use up some hamburger buns. I always have ground beef on hand so I decided on Sloppy Joes.

Now this recipe is actually called Spicy Joe's and I found it several years ago on the back of a Maull's BBQ Sauce bottle. It's super simple.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 cup barbeque sauce
• 1 tablespoon worchestershire
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 6 ounces lemon lime soda
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• salt and pepper to taste

According to the instructions you are simply supposed to throw everything into one big skillet, mix well. Cover and cook over medium heat for at least 30 minutes. Uncover and then simmer until thickened. I however don't like the thought of the fat from the ground beef draining into the rest of the food so I prepare it as follows which also takes a lot less time. I brown the ground beef and then drain the fat. I add in all the other ingredients, but since certain members of my household (I won't name names but they are both male) don't like onion, I use onion powder. Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until thickened. Takes about 15 minutes from start to finish! Add a side of mac and cheese, or like we did tonight Au Gratin potatoes and dinner is served. The recipe says it serves 4, which it does if no one wants seconds.

I'm no food stylist, but I promise it tastes yummy
Even my self proclaimed little vegetarian will eat this!

And if like most of us you are feeling a little budget conscious these days. This meal cost about $6.50 for our family of five (which includes one toddler who eats little tiny portions about eight times a day!)

What's for dinner at your house?

Tiny Seamstress ?!

I was roaming around all the blogs I love to visit today when I came across a new one that I loved instantly. This adorable little mama sews these really cute purses that she will customize according to colors that you like. Check out her blog Tiny Seamstress

This one is my favorite - I love this color combination!

Best part of my post today? Head on over to Make it and Love it for details on how you can win a $30 gift certificate good towards anything found over at the Tiny Seamstress.

And if you win, I expect a really cute purse for my birthday in November!
Good Luck!!

The bitter taste of defeat!

Last week Riley was voted Student Council Representative for the 5th grade. He was quite excited! They had an early morning meeting before school and he was dressed and ready to head out the door about an hour before the meeting started.

He came home that day and told me he would like to run for Student Council Vice President. I was excited that he was willing to take on the responsibility. So he wrote a speech which he had to present in front of the school and than they had a little election.

His teacher called me and invited me to go to the school so I could see him give his speech. I was so proud of him. He really spoke clearly and looked at his audience. When he went up to the podium he got a huge cheer from the crowds and kids were clapping for him.

This is his speech:

Hello (School name) Students, my name is Riley Jordan. I am in the fifth grade in Mrs (Teachers name) class and I have been attending (School name) since Kindergarten. Today I would like to talk to you about why I think I would be a good choice for Vice President.

Since this is my first year in Student Council, I don't think I'm ready to be President but I think I could be a great help as Vice President. I have maintained straight A's while being involved in other activities such as Probe, Orchestra and Baseball. So, as you can see, I can multi task! I am a great listener and would listen to your ideas. You see the President isn't always going to be here all the time so when he or she isn't available, I'm Open!

I can't wait to help plan some fun activities for (school name) Students. I would like to see more Spirit days such as Twin Day, Sports Day and many more. I think it would be fun to have some contests too and get all of our students involved.

Thank you for listening to my ideas. Please vote for me, Riley Jordan, for (school name) Student Council Vice President.

So at 3:30 I started watching for the kids to come up the path and along came Riley hanging his head down. He did not win the Vice President position and was super disapointed.

His dad and I are super proud of him for trying and hope that he will try again next year!

P.S. Would I come across as crazy if I demanded a recount?

Cookie Cutters Galore!

Today I was working on Dog Biscuit packaging for Dog Academy and thought it would be cute to add a cookie cutter with the mix. I remembered a company that I had ordered some bone shaped cookie cutters from last year and decided to see what they had available.

I had forgotten just how many cookie cutters they had available. Check out this one

Check out what Jill from Homemade by Jill made from this adorable onesie cookie cutter:

Don't you just love these?

Halloween is right around the corner - don't you want to bake some delicious Halloween themed cookies. You do? Well they have a cookie cutter for that too.

So if you are looking for cookie cutters for any occasion, head on over to
American Tradition Cookie Cutters

If you have a question or are looking for something specific shoot them an email and if your experience is anything like mine, one of their awesome customer service reps will respond before you even hit send. (Okay, maybe it was more like 10 mins but that's still pretty fast right?)

It's a milk jug! It's a lunch box! It's a trophy?

So we went to Open House at the Probe Center with the kids. Because the kids that attend Probe come from all different schools around the district, they actually had the open house a few weeks after school already started. While we were sitting there, fairly relaxed (hey we are pro's at these Open House things now!) the director announces that "Recycling projects" are due the following Tuesday.

Recycling project? I think to myself as I look at Riley and Ciara quizzically. Seems neither one of them bothered to mention that they had a project due in four days!!. Now you might be thinking, "You have four whole days to complete two little projects" but we had a weekend that was jam packed full of activity.

So it turns out that the projects weren't mandatory; they wouldn't get graded on it, but they do earn points for each project that they turn in. So Monday evening we sat down to do their projects. The idea was to recycle something that we no longer needed into something new. We started on Ciara's project first. We took an old t-shirt that she had outgrown and cut off the sleeves and part of the neck.

Then Ciara turned the t-shirt inside out and sewed the bottom of the t-shirt shut.

At this point the sewing machine decided to stop working.
So I had to help her whipstitch the edges of the sleeves and the neck.

And she ended up with this:
A cute little reusable t-shirt bag!

Next, it was Riley's turn. For his project he took a gallon milk jug and cut around three sides of it about 4 inches from the bottom. The fourth side he cut all the way up to the handle and rounded the edge. (I'm sure that my description makes no sense)


I helped him score the now cut milk jug about halfway up so that it could fold. So first the three sides that are the same fold down and then the longer flap folds down to make a lid. We used a small piece of adhesive velcro to keep the flap shut.

And the finished project was this - A Sandwich box!

From a gallon milk jug in the recycling bin to a
sandwich box that can be reused.

So because of the short notice, we were just tying to complete a project to satisfy the requirement and get the points. Boy were we surprised when Riley came home with a trophy! His recycling invention took first place! Yea recycling!

Lions, Tigers and Stingrays......Oh my!

Today, we made an impromptu visit to the Zoo, one of our favorite places in St Louis. There is a Sting Ray exhibit that isn't permanent and it leaves in September and we really didn't want to miss it. Not to mention the fact that it was a beautiful summer day - too nice to stay indoors.

We went to see the Sting Rays first. If you haven't seen them and are in the St Louis area, they are definitely worth the trip. They charge a $1.50 for zoo members or $3 if you are not, but they only take in a small group at a time and give you plenty of time to interact with them. Well worth the money. (I may be wrong, but I think on the weekdays if you get there before 10am its free to get in.)


Sting rays of all shapes, sizes and colors swim around this pool. You can put your hands in and they swim right up to you and you can touch them. They feel slightly slimy but soft and apparently they do not sting. A small one they were weighing, weighed a surprising 19 pounds! The zoo keeper explained that they are made up almost entirely of muscle.

Next we headed over to the penguins, Ella's favorite animals at the zoo. They have adorable penguins and puffins that live in a very cold exhibit. The penguins seem to play to their audience and they come right up the glass or sometimes to the surface and you would almost swear that they are splashing people on purpose.

Ella and Aunt Charlotte get splashed by the penguins!

Check out this adorable little bear. Based on its size, you might think its a baby bear however, its actually full grown. We happened upon them during feeding time. They were given a variety of fruit: apples, mango, bananas and oranges. It was fascinating to watch them peel the fruit before eating. Especially considering the huge claws they have.

Riley was our Junior docent and made sure we knew the correct name for each animal, how many are left on the planet, what they eat.....you get the drift.

Next on our list: Monkeys!


My least favorite exhibit - the reptile house.
I am really afraid of snakes. A trait apparently I did not pass along to my daughter.


We ended our visit with some nice tame giraffes.

Watching that mama giraffe feed her baby reminds us that we are starving!
Off we go to Chee Burger Chee Burger!

Ella starts preschool!!

As I mentioned before, Ella gets to go to preschool this year for two mornings a week. Tuesday was her first day. We got to the classroom and she went straight to the play kitchen. I said "I'm going to the grocery store, see you in a little while!" She replies "Okay, bye" and turns her attention back to the play kitchen.

I left, relieved that she seemed so happy. But as I was walking to the car, and realized that my youngest child was now in school, I started hyperventilating slightly. I called Chris to let him know how it went. He thought I should just be happy to have a few hours of peace and quiet, so I hung up with him and called my friend E. She was much more understanding and commiserated with me over the phone while I shopped without a little child tugging at my leg or throwing things in my cart.


I have to share a little story that cracked me up. In the previous years when my kids attended preschool they never used backpacks but this year the teacher said they needed one. So on Monday, the day before school, I showed her a gently used old backpack of Ciara's and suggested to her that she might like to use this backpack for school. (Saving me a trip to the store and the expense of a new one) "No! That's sissy's backpack! I want a purple one!" She says this as she looks at me as if I am insane. Not wanting to dull the excitement of going to school I headed off to Target in search of a purple backpack. The only ones I could find were soo big I could have carried her to school in it, so we settled on a Ni Hao Kai Lan backpack. Who knew 3 year olds could be so passionate about backpacks and school supplies?!

Day two of preschool

I love seeing the preschoolers wearing their backpacks.
They are almost as big as the kids!

Cardinals vs. Padres

We love going to the Cardinals games but we rarely go as a family. Of course there is the expense to consider. You have to take out a 2nd mortgage on your house to buy a soda. Parking cost more than your actual car payment. Then you have to consider the girls attention spans. After their first glimpse of Fred Bird and once they've finished their snack, they are pretty much ready to go home.

So last Friday, decked out in our Cardinals gear, off we went. The weather was pretty nice for August - a little hot when we first got there but cooled down as the night went on. Ella kept saying "I want to go see that Woodpecker" Finally after much pointing at the various pictures of Cardinals I realized she wanted to see Fred Bird. Chris took her and Riley but Ella was afraid to go up to him when it was her turn.

Usually when I go to a game, the Cardinals lose. Some of my friends have even suggested during key games, that I should just "take one for the team" and stay home. But perhaps my streak is over cause the Cards beat the Padres with no problem whatsoever. Chris wanted to leave during the 7th inning but Riley (a serious Cards fan) would not have it so we stayed for all nine innings.

It was a great outing family outing and kind of a last summer hoorah now that school is back in.

The best part of the ballgame for Ella - snack time!

Look how cute they are when they aren't fighting!!

Round two of snacking!
This is Ella's "funny face"

Riley and I took one of those silly pictures where you hold out the camera at arm's length without really knowing what you are taking a picture of. Not bad huh?

Ciara took this picture of Chris and I.

Riley and Fred Bird

Mother's Day comes twice a year!

One of my friends from church sent me a message via facebook wishing me a Happy Mothers Day. She said Mother's Day comes twice a year: The traditional holiday in May and the day that the kids go back to school. Some might even consider it Independence Day.

Back to school is a big deal in our house as I'm sure it is for many of you with kids. A couple of weeks beforehand there is the dreaded school supply list. Teachers can be very specific in what they want. For instance, Riley's list had on it "blue highlighters." Nobody sells blue highlighters individually so I bought a box with a rainbow of colors in it and extracted one for him to take to school. Anybody need a pink, orange or green highlighter?

Then there is the debate. Who needs a new backpack, lunch box etc. We decided backpacks from last year were in good shape. Lunchboxes were too, but a certain little girl insisted she needed a new one and decided to buy an "ICarly" one with her own money. Another little girl decided she was not going to be left out and picked out a "Ni Hao Kai Lan" lunchbox.

So the momentous day finally arrived. The kids got up early, got dressed, ate breakfast yada yada yada. As is customary in our family we measured them to see how much they had grown from the previous year and took way more pictures than was necessary. Chris even takes the day off so we can walk them to school. I announce that it is 8:35 and time to leave. The kids grab their backpacks, lunchboxes, boxes of kleenex etc and we head out the door.

We made it about six feet and Ciara turns to us and says "Where are you going?" "We're walking you to school!" we reply. (Duh!) "What for?" (She asks this as if walking her to school was the most ridiculous thing we could possibly do) "It's the first day of school!!" we excitedly reply. "So what, we walked to school all last year by ourselves" she retorts. I guess at the ripe old age of 7, she doesn't need us anymore. (At least to escort her the half a block from our house to her classroom)

Anyway, they both had a great first day with their wonderful teachers, Ms D for Ciara, and Mrs O for Riley. We finished off our day with dinner at Red Robin - Yum!

5th grade and 2nd grade here we come!
( I love how they are standing there together like they actually get along!)


Ciara reluctantly lets us take a picture of her in her classroom


A much more cooperative Riley in his classroom

Fun Day at the Magic House

I absolutely love the Saint Louis Magic House. It is one of my favorite places to take the kids and they never seem tired of going. And since we like to use every single last pass of our season membership (which happened to run out at the end of August) we decided to run on over there for some good Magic House fun. They recently added on to the museum, doubling it in size and we hadn't seen the new stuff yet either.

Chris couldn't come because he had to work, so that left us with three extra passes so we invited some friends along. All the kids had a fabulous time!

Waiting for our friends to arrive

(I love pictures of all three of my children together)

Ella painting with Ciara's help in the art room


There's no escaping Riley's love of Legos.
He and his friend E. decided to see how tall of a tower they could build.


Ella, K and Ciara sitting on the musical chair.
Each chair adds in a different section such as winds, strings etc.


One of the new additions showcases our government.
On that podium is a karoke machine - my friend E bribed all the children with a dollar
each to get up there and sing Yankee Doodle. It was great fun to watch!

Cheeburger, cheeburger, fries!

Tonight we went out with our friends A and E. We decided to try out a new restaurant called Cheeburger, Cheeburger out in Chesterfield. It's a cute place that kinda looks like an old fashioned diner. They serve all kinds of burgers, in a variety of sizes. You can top them with about 10 different kinds of cheeses. You can also top your burger with about 30 different toppings - pretty much anything you can think of putting on top of your burger.

At Cheeburger they serve a huge 20 oz burger. If you finish the burger they take your picture with a giant hamburger toy and your picture goes onto their wall of fame.

Our friend E, decided to try the 20 ounce burger. It arrived at our table and immediately drew the attention of the diners at the table next to us. The husband at the table had apparently wanted to order one and his wife had dissuaded him. He was most dissapointed that he was not going to get the chance to prove himself. E quickly made it through the first half of his burger.

We continued to cheer him on as did the guy at the table next to us. E wasn't even breaking a sweat and finished the burger before A and I finished our puny ones.

So if you ever are in Chesterfield, head over to Cheeburger, Cheeburger and don't be afraid of the Pounder! (Please don't ask me why the pounder weighs 20 ounces - I don't pretend to understand the logic of any of this!)

Day 6 of my confinement!

So little Ella started to be very cranky on Friday. This is definitely not typical behavior for my happy little girl. That night she was pretty congested and woke up several times during the night. Saturday day, she was extremely cranky and took herself to bed for a nap. Our weekend was taking a turn for the worse. Chris worked the entire weekend due to a small crisis at work. We were supposed to join his family at the racetrack for his dad's birthday celebration but I had to stay home. Not only was Ella not well, but I was starting to feel icky too.

Sunday morning came, Chris headed back to work and I moved from the bed to the couch. Thank goodness Riley and Ciara were feeling cooperative that day and were mostly able to fend for themselves. Monday morning came around and I was definitely down for the count. I couldn't stand for more than a few minutes and could barely swallow my own saliva. Ella had cried most of the night. A trip to the doctor was definitely in order for both of us, so Chris stayed home and took us lest I crashed the van in my woozy state.

So turns out Ella has Strepp and an ear infection. I of course had been sleeping with Ella to comfort her - so Strepp for me, ear infection, migraine and mild dehydration. Today is day six of us being stuck in the house. My older two kids really have been troopers, attempting to entertain themselves and help around the house. Ella seems to be fighting her germs off and of course like most children only seems uncomfortable at night. I on the other hand feel like someone beat me up and poured glass down my throat.

So go away Strepp throat, I want to enjoy the few weeks of summer that I have left with the kids!!

Preparing for PreSchool

Believe it or not, our little Ella Bella will be starting preschool in late August. She barely makes the July 31st cutoff. Yesterday we went to the school for a screening, which basically consisted of a teacher showing Ella something such as a car, asking her what it is, and what color it is. Ella would answer and look at her with a quizzical look on her face. As if she was wondering why the teacher didn't know her shapes and colors. Eventually she got tired of answering silly questions and refused to participate any more. Thankfully, at this point it was clear to the teacher that Ella is indeed ready for preschool.

I promised Ella that we could go visit the preschool playground when we were done. Both Riley and Ciara attended the same preschool when they were little but they have of course made some changes over the years. They have a bicycle trail with little stop signs, a gas pump and a house. There are some interesting displays that make music. There is a weather station and a garden. Then of course there is a traditional playground with swings and slides and such. It was fun for Riley and Ciara to revisit their old stomping grounds, and for Ella to see what she had to look forward to.

Yes, I admit it. I am a reality TV junkie.

Much to my husband's disappointment I am a reality TV junkie. As I type this I am watching Tori and Dean on Oxygen. I love this show. Tori Spelling is just so darn cute. Maybe I like her so much cause she was on one of my favorite shows growing up: 90210. I love the fact that she takes her kids everywhere with her. (Yes, I know she has a nanny and tons of help, but she could just as easily leave them behind.) I like her honesty, her openess (is that even a word?) and I love that she shows whatever emotion she is feeling.

I usually like most everything on Bravo TV, however yesterday I actually had to turn the TV off. In a few moments of sheer boredom, I turned on a show called NYC Prep. Apparently the show is supposed to follow these high school age kids who are filthy rich. These kids were terrible! They are driven around town in limos making fun of other kids that they believe don't share their station in life. They go shopping and drop thousands of their parents money without batting an eye. They have casual sex and seem to be proud of it. They appear to be catty and two faced.

I decided that if wealth and privilege raises these kind of children, I'm glad to be raising my kids in a middle class Midwestern family. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

I know that "reality" shows are usually nowhere near reality. Perhaps they are fun because they help us escape our own reality for a little while. Plus, compared to their crazy insane life's, maybe things around here are normal after all!

Happy 3rd Birthday Ella!

Every time one of my children has a birthday I'm shocked a little. How can my first born be 10? My beautiful Ciara is 7?! How can our baby girl possibly be 3?!

Yep three years old today. She hardly acts like a baby either. She can carry on a conversation with an adult. She is soo witty. (Much like her father and brother) She is sweet and kind and fun loving. She always has a hug or a kiss ready for anyone ready to accept one.

She has been sort of oblivious about her birthday. She kept saying "It's sissy's birthday" Probably since Ciara celebrated the last birthday. On friday some cards arrived for her from England. She saw the number three on them and all of a sudden it dawned on her, that it really was her birthday! She started to get pretty excited.

Ella loves animals so we decided to take her to the zoo. It was an amazing summer day here in St Louis and unfortunately it seems like everyone else had decided that visisiting the zoo would be a great idea. After spending approximately an hour stuck in traffic, right in sight of the zoo we decided to leave the zoo for another day and head over to Toys R Us.

Other than some kind of Leap Frog type item, I had no idea what to get her for her birthday, so we just set her loose. She had a great time running through the isles from one toy to another. In the end we picked out a Leapster (handheld video game made for little ones) and a game to go with it. She picked out some new bottles and a carseat for her babies, an umbrella with a monkey print on it (she LOVES monkeys), a pink Magna Doodle and a giant bottle of bubbles. She tore everything out of there boxes the moment we got home.

Today we went to church as usual. After dinner we had cake. Ella had requested a yellow cake. Our house is full of chocolate cake lovers so I was trying to think of a cake that would please Ella yet still be appealing to the rest of the family. I decided on Ice cream cake. I made a simple yellow cake layer, put a layer of strawberry topping, followed by some vanilla ice cream that I dyed yellow. It was very simple but yummy. Ella decided to start eating it while I was finding a cutting utensil. But hey, she's the birthday girl right.

Me too, me too!

I realized after I posted the last entry that I failed to include pictures of my sister's other two children. I'd hate for them to think that Aunt Clair doesnt think they are just as cute as their younger sibling.

Don't you just love this adorable smiling face? Too cute!




Donovan - The big brother

Viva Las Vegas

The last time I had seen my sister Danielle was when she and her family joined us here in St Louis last summer. So the birth of my new niece, the sweet little Mackenzie Avalyn was the perfect reason to jump on a plane and head out to Las Vegas for a visit.

Life at my sister's house is busy to say the least. She has two other children, she works full time and her hubby is a police officer. Their first born, the adorable Donovan will be three in december, beautiful little Meagan followed shortly after and turned one a few short days before Mackenzie made her arrival. Yep, that's three kids under the age of three! In her household there is always a diaper that needs to be changed and a mouth that needs to be fed. There's also always a little person that wants to give you a hug, a cuddle or a gorgeous smile. I had a wonderful time visiting them - I miss them soo much already. I am sad that I can't see them whenever I want and that I have to miss the "inbetween stuff" between visits.

Most of my time was just spent visiting with them in their fabulous new home, but thanks to Beau's mom and dad (Thanks Rod and Lyn!) we were able to duck out a couple of nights and have some fun.

The first night we went out to Bingo. Many of my friends gave me a hard time about this, but I have lived in Vegas before - I've played the slots, played the tables, been there done that. Danielle and I grew up with a grandmother that loved bingo. Our father worked in a bingo hall for a while and when we were kids we got to be the bingo checkers. Bingo seemed like a good choice.

Now let me tell you, Bingo is not for the feint of heart. We bought a package deal that included 12 games . For each game we had to mark 12 cards each. They do have an electronic version that you can play where this machine does everything for you and you just sit there. This seemed boring to me, so we opted for the old fashioned paper version that you mark with a bingo dobber. (We even found "Luck of the Irish" dobbers and being part Irish, we thought this was perfect) They started calling the first game. They would call one number, make an annoucement, call another number................seemed fairly easy. But then they started calling the numbers at an alarming rate. We no longer could keep up. The games started getting more complicated. It wasn't just regular bingo anymore. Now we had to make an X, or get a row of six, or double bingo, or five in a row without using the free space. We were trying really hard to keep up with all the numbers called while trying to keep an eye on our cards to see if we had actually won. We didn't win a single game. So we left the bingo hall and met Danielle's husband and went to watch Transformers. Much more relaxing. We did go back to the Bingo hall after the movie and played the electronic version. Not really that much fun but way less stress.

The second night we went out, we went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian Hotel. If you ever are in Las Vegas and have a chance to see this show, it is definitely worth it. The theatre, props and special effects were fantastic and we were lucky enough to have center seats about 8 rows from the stage. It was incredible - we both loved it. Next time we have to take our hubbies.

Really! I'm going to keep it up this time!

So, it's been a while since my last post. In my defense, I have been moderately successful at keeping up our family website. (You can peek at this at www.fivejordans.com) The company that hosts our site have been promising blogging software for a long time. It is available now, but I have not been successful in making it work. So here I am.