Fun and Free

My spotlight for a fun and free place this week is "Treehouse Museum" in Ogden, UT. (http://www.treehousemuseum.org/visiting_treehouse.php) This is an amazing children's museum with a TON of fun things for the children to do. I took our little monkeys there last week. We spent almost 4 hours there and they weren't ready to leave. We had 1/2 price coupons so it wasn't too expensive. They are having a free day this coming Saturday (Aug. 18). (I think they have a free day each month during the summer.) I highly recommend trying this place out.

Just FYI - Next week (Aug. 19-23) is KUTV Viewer Appreciation Days at Lagoon. Mention it at the window and you will can buy one adult ticket, get one free. Unfortunately it doesn't count for children's tickets :(.
Also, Thanksgiving Point is doing their $2 Tuesdays this month. You can get in to any of their places (gardens, farm, and dinosaur museum) for just $2 on Tuesdays this month. Just be warned it is usually packed! But for $2 instead of $10/person, it is a GREAT deal!

Have a great week!

Fun and Free (or cheap)

I will admit that I am a sucker for a deal or freebie. I also hate to pay for something at full price. I have been able to find lots of fun places to go with our little monkeys without paying an arm and a leg :) Sometimes it is free or sometimes it is for a discounted price. I decided that there might be other people out there that would be interested in knowing about the deals that I have found. So I am going to share with you  some of our favorite places and adventures that we have been on.  I'll start off with two fun things that we did last week. I'll try to post about one place each week. Here it goes:

1. Hill Aerospace Museum: http://www.hill.af.mil/library/museum/  (Located in Roy at North end of Hill Air Force Base.)
    This is a fun museum that has full sized air force planes and helicopters both inside and out. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged. There are picnic tables outside underneath some of the huge airplanes. The monkeys and their cousins LOVED eating lunch there. They were amazed that the wheel was taller than any of them! They also enjoyed looking at the planes inside. If you have older kids, you could probably stop and read some of the info, but with my little monkeys right now, I just let them lead and will stop to read more as they get older. Another fun thing is the kid's area that they have. It is open Tuesday-Saturday. The monkeys love playing there. It has a dress up area, lego area, and lots of fun activities for the kids to do.

2. Elephant Rock Hike, Muellar Park, Bountiful UT (http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/mueller.htm) 
     We went on this trail last week with my friend and her two little ones. It is a great trail for younger children with a gentle climb and mostly shaded hike. The full hike is actually 3.5 miles one way, but it is nice because you can go as far as you want and then turn around. Watch out for bikers, hikers, and dogs. There is a picnic area close to the trail head that you can stop to eat lunch at, however it costs $5/person or $8/vehicle.  There is a small stream that is great for throwing rocks in or playing in for a few minutes.

I hope you enjoy trying these fun and free spots. Let me know how you how you like them and if you know of other fun and free (or cheap) activities for families!

Some fun sewing projects

One of my good friends had a baby in May. It is her first baby and I decided to make some blankets for him. I love how they turned out. I did one all cotton for the warmer months and two that are one side cotton and one side flannel for when it gets a little cooler. One is 36x36 and the other two are 40x40. I hope she like them. :)

 I also made a bag for me. I LOVE how it turned out. I have had the material for a long time (2+ years). I wanted to make me something, but I wasn't sure what I wanted. I finally found this pattern over at  fish sticks and fries.  I put pockets in the inside, but didn't move them up high enough. But I think they will still work. It is the first bag that I have made. I am going to make a cash system wallet next. 

I also decided to do an i spy quilt with the scraps that I had kicking around. My mom donated some scraps from her collection. I think I will add another row or two to make it a little wider. Once I get it a little bigger, I will put some flannel on the back and batting in the middle. I think we will use it in the basement when we need a blanket to snuggle with. It's my first pieced quilt. It was fun to figure it out  and have it come together. 

Spring Time!

I think Spring is my favorite time of year. I love the warmer days and the spring showers. I may be called crazy, but I actually like the variety of weather during the spring. In the past few weeks, we have had warm (70's) days, several rainy days, and even woke up to 4 inches of snow one morning! It has been fun!
I also love getting outside and letting my kids play outside more. I love our neighborhood and hearing all of the children playing outside after school. Often there are neighborhood children that come play or my children will go to their homes. I LOVE hearing happy children laughing and playing together.
One of my favorite things about Spring are also the flowers. I love daffodils. They remind me of England and that warmer weather is on it's way. This year we even have tulips. In the past two years, the deer have eaten them before they could bloom. But this year, I put deer repellent on them. It is so nice to see them in bloom right now. I also love dandelions. I know most people view them as weeds, but I love when my children bring me them and say "Here is a flower for you, Mom." Nothing is more sweeter to me!
I also love to get out and walk as the weather warms up. I started to walk to school with our Extraordinary Boy last fall. I missed about 2 months during the winter and I missed it a lot. Now as long as the weather is nice, we walk to school. It is all down hill on the way there. Then it is all up hill on the way back! When pushing a stroller with 1 or 2 children in it, coming back is quite the workout. I may not go very fast, but man, I'm sweating by the time I get home. I started walking just to help him get in the habit and also to be able to get out and enjoy the fresh air. I had quite a bit of weight to lose and thought, "This might help me lose it." To date, I have lost 30 lbs! That has been since September. I know that I could get out a little bit more often - either to the gym or walking to school - but I have to say that I am happy for the weight I have lost. It is nice to have my pants too big in stead of too small on me :) I still have some more weight to lose and it might not come off very fast, but at least it is coming off.

Truck for a little guy

March is a busy month for us. We have two birthdays within ten days. It is also a lot of fun. For our little guy's birthday I decided to make him a stuffed truck toy. I used the tutorial at Make it Love it but made a few changes. I decided to use fleece instead and turned it into a favorite tow truck that he LOVES. I think it turned out pretty cute. I did learn to not completely stuff it if you are sewing on the extra stuff - wheels, eyes, tow rope, etc. I would partially stuff it so you get an idea of where to put the stuff and then after you have done the hand sewing, finish stuffing it.

It's not perfect, but it makes our little guy happy!

A Step Forward

After almost 1 year of occupational therapy, our extraordinary boy gets to take a break for a few months! In speaking with his therapist, she was impressed with how well he has done at reaching the goals we have set for him. Yesterday she suggested that we take a few months off and see how he is doing. She said to check back with her towards the end of the school year to see if we have any more concerns or anything else has popped up that he needs help with! Here are some of the things he has done in the past year :
One year ago he couldn't hold onto a trapeze bar for more than 5 seconds - he can now hold on and swing for at least 30 seconds, often longer! He was scared to be picked up by someone - now he will let us pick him up  occasionally. He self talked his way through the activities he was doing, now he can do the same activities with minimal talking.  He was not forming any of his letters correctly - now he forms all of his upper and lower case letters correctly (starting and stopping in the correct spots). He would hold his arms down to his sides as he cut paper and had a hard time cutting anything more than straight lines. He now holds the paper up to cut and LOVES to cut out different shapes.  He was afraid to try anything new and wouldn't even try something without a lot of begging and sometimes forcing. Now he will see something new and try it. Sometimes he still gets scared, but it doesn't take as much coaxing to get him to do it. He is running, jumping, and swinging with much more confidence now.
I feel so blessed that he has had such great support from his therapist, teachers, and family. I know that he still has some way to go, but he has done so well over the past year. Some days it is hard to see his progress because I'm with him all of the time. Then I look at where he was a year ago and I see how well he is doing. I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to be his mom!

A dream with yummy results!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a dream. It was early Sunday morning and I dreamed that I made some chicken for dinner that day. I woke up after the dream and knew exactly what the recipe was for the chicken I had dreamed about. I know that is really weird, I don't dream of food often and have never "dreamed" up a new recipe.
After I got up that morning, I thought "Hmmm, maybe I should make the chicken that I dreamed about." I had planned on making pancakes. So I started to throw a little bit of this and that into the crock pot. I turned it on and let it cook for 6-8 hours. To my delight and pleasure, the chicken turned out delicious! My husband liked it too. It made quite a bit, so I froze it and pulled it out for Hawaiian Haystacks tonight. I don't know that I can ever go back to using regular chicken for haystacks again :)
I told my neighbor about it and she said "Did you write it down?" I had not, but will share it with you all tonight :)  I call it

 Paradise Chicken

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts - frozen or thawed
1/2 cup coconut milk - I used the thick canned stuff
1/4 cup shredded coconut
zest from one orange
1/2 cup of fresh orange juice  - I juiced the orange and then topped it off with some good store bought juice.
1/2 cup pineapple juice - I just used the juice from the canned pineapple
1/2 can of pineapple
1/2 - 1 tsp  ground cloves
1 -1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions -  Place chicken in crock pot, pour liquid over chicken, sprinkle pineapple and seasonings over chicken and juices. Cook for 6-8 hours. Enjoy!

We served it with this coconut rice. It was so yummy - light and fresh! Mmmm! For the haystacks, I just threw it in to the sauce and warmed  it through. I served it with regular white rice & quinoa, but had sprinkled a little ground cloves and cinnamon in it. I think that helped to bring out the taste of chicken more. We will make this one again!