A Spontaneous Pinterest Moment

Do you ever have those moments when looking at Pinterest when you have to do a project right then? I had one of those moments when I saw this pin. I (It might be that I had already been thinking about making hooded towels, but the cuteness of these were irresistible). I let each of the kids pick which pattern they liked best, and off to the store we went. The website where they originated from is here.

 The second half of this project was a place to hang them. While we were at the store I picked up some hooks. Then I went to the garage and grabbed a scrap of wood, sanded, painted, attached hooks, and hung it up. The hope is that now that they each have their own personal towel, I won't end up with miscellaneous towels all over the place that no one will claim ownership of and just end up cycling through the wash over and over and over and over.... 

Movie Night: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

 We like pirates around here (in case you hadn't noticed) so when I saw that the public library was having a pirate party (dressing up encouraged) we had to go. That is, after we had a good swim first of course. Do you like how the boat is as big as the pool?

At the library we made P is for Parrot letters and heard some pirate stories.

Then we came home to watch the movie The Pirates! Band of Misfits (I had planned on watching Rise of the Guardians, because I heard the Easter bunny was in it, but was vetoed in favor of a pirate movie).

For dinner, I made pizza breadsticks. Lousy picture, I know, but sometimes I can only find my phone and it is not the greatest. The breadsticks, however, are. In the interest of preserving favorite family recipes, I shall share. When I make pizza or breadsticks, I always start with the same base- a breadstick recipe from one of those ward cookbooks that I have adapted slightly. I like it because I don't have to wait for it to rise. Yay for quick and easy!

Breadsticks:

1 T yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

2 T sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3+ C flour

Preheat oven to 415F-425F (depending on how hot your oven runs) Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Mix in the flour until it is only slightly sticky and rollable(add flour slowly- it is better the less flour you are able to use, but generally ends up taking closer to 4 or 5 cups). If I am making pizza, I roll out the dough in a circle and top with my favorite toppings (generally ranch dressing, mozzarella cheese, chicken, bacon bits, onions if I have them, and more mozzarella- I like a thick crust extra cheesy pizza). For breadsticks, I roll the dough out in a rectangle (about the size of a large cookie sheet). I spread the surface with garlic butter. Thinking back to elementary school when they were teaching paper folding- mentally divide the dough the hotdog way and put lots and lots of mozzarella cheese on the bottom half (you can add slices of pepperoni or other pizza toppings at this point if you would like- pepperonis are in the ones pictured above). Fold the top half over. Use your pizza cutter to cut strips about 1-1.5". Twist them as you lay them on a greased cookie sheet. Cover with more cheese (did I mention that I like mozzarella?) Bake. I'm not sure on the exact time, because I have a tendency to just put the pizza or breadsticks in the oven and pull them out when they are nice and golden brown. It is probably around 20 minutes.

 Since it was almost Easter, I jazzed up the popcorn a little bit. I made it up as I went along.

 First I popped some corn with my air popper. Then I laid it out on a couple of cookie sheets and drizzled with the most Easter-esque candy melts I had (the red looked a little more pink in real life, but not as much as it should have). I added Mini Whopper Robin Eggs and drizzled more candy melts. After a stint in the fridge to harden, I broke it up and put it in bags. It was tasty enough.

I might try it again with Kettle corn as the base, although that might make it too sweet. The kids all liked it- much better than the movie. Once was enough of that one. We should have gone with the Rise of the Guardians- we watched that one the next night and like it better.

Movie Night: Wreck-It Ralph

About a month ago, my husband decided that he was interested in getting a projector (to be perfectly honest, it might have had something to do with his scouts coming over to watch a movie that he wanted to show outside- no complaints here). We were able to find a used one on a good deal and thus began the Friday Fun Family Movie Night. The first movie we chose was Wreck-It Ralph. Having never seen the movie before, I did some online research and found this fun website where I found some printables and crafts.

placemats

I used my circle punch to cut out the movie logo from the printable sheets for extra decor

 I used a plastic tablecloth I already had, and added some black circles purely for more visual interest

 My children had fun playing with the playset while they were waiting for their pizzas to cook (we made individual homemade pizza for dinner)

 A few websites I found showed pictures of blue heart cookies, so I made some for a movie snack- to go with the popcorn of course.

We had a fun time. Everyone loved the movie. My loving husband did politely ask if I planned to go overboard every week, and where I planned to store everything. :) I did refrain- do you know how hard it was not to have a Sugar Rush candy bar? I shall try harder to refrain more next time.