Pinterest!!! Jalapeño popper dip!

I have tired this recipe before and loved it, not sure why I didn't blog about it back them.

This is a must try recipe, let is cool a little bit before eating it. It is also super simple for those OMG I need to bring something for the pot luck moments. It takes about 30 minutes start to finish

Full recipe and directions can be found here
Recipe:

1 jar of jalapenos drained and rinsed and chopped.
1 brick of cream cheese soft
1 cup of sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup of shredded parm cheese (I didn't have this so I used mozzarella just as good!)

Topping:
4 table spoons butter (melted)
1 cup bread crumbs (I used seasoned because that is what I happened to have on hand)
1 cup shredded parm cheese (I didn't have this so I used the stuff in the can you put on pasta)

Simple directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all 5 top ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Spread in a 9*13 casserole dish (I used my round one because it was what I had right there)

Mix the next 3 ingredients in a bowl and until crumbled. Spread over the top of the dip.

Place in oven for 15-20 mins

Let cool

Enjoy!!!

Week 4 tired!

Week 4 started out as planned but didn't really stay there and it finished out on a strong note.

Monday went as planned we did school and went to tumble class, he loves it there and fits in very well with the other home schooled children.

Tuesday we did our school as planned but he refused to go to book club, I am thinking 6-730 is too late for him but we will try again. We also made our thankful tree where each day he picks something he is thankful for and we add a leaf to the tree. He had a blast helping me make it.

Wednesday we got school work done, we went to the EarlyOn centre at the college to learn and play with the items there and he went to Grandpas for pizza

Thursday we didn't make it to skating but we did go to Micheals and he "helped" me work on orders.
He loves his thankful tree and loves coming up with things to put on it. I think so far it is one of his favourite activities! We also made bird feeders for the front tree, he had a blast and loves watching the birds and squirrels eat the seeds.

Friday Forest school was a 1 hour hike, looking at different types of trees, building teepees and making leaf crafts. Blaine loves the being outdoors part but the information part he couldn't careless about. I did learn some things and helped him build a teepee.
Right after forest school we went to home school chat and play at the park. We only stayed 1 out of the 2 hours because it started to rain and he hates getting wet.
We attempted school work when we got home but only got through a couple of things before he had enough. It was a long day anyway.

We do not have the sight word "and" down pat at all but we are going to do some more work with it over the weekend and see where we are at Monday, Yes we do school Monday-Friday holiday or not.


I don't know if its the weather, change in season or just me but this week I have been beyond tired.

Construction Party "tools"

January is when I start planning Blaines birthday party and it falls in August. This years theme is construction, so like any good mom I consulted Pinterest for some great party ideas. I try and do as much as possible myself to save on cost and of course make it more memorable and fun.

Like any birthday party the plastic cutlery is tossed on the table to everyone grabs what they need well not this year!!! This year your “tools” are all neatly put together in a napkin.

I found a great deal at Party City on yellow cutlery it was buy 2 get one free so I got the cutlery, 70 cups and 70 plates there. Normally I get these things at the dollar store but it was a great price for 70 forks, 70 spoons, and 70 knifes.

The napkins and ribbon I got at Dollar Tree.

I printed on yellow card stock that I got at Micheals with my black and white laser printer that I got at Digital Friends Inc.

What you need:
Card stock
Printer
Ribbon
Napkins
Cutlery

Scissors
Hole punch

I used this template for the tool labels. I of course can't find the original link for the page so I will just include a jpeg of what I used.

Print the labels and cut them all apart. Punch holes in the one corner of each label. I printed them on card stock so if it was damp out they wouldn't curl.

I used a hole punch for this because it was easiest and I have one on hand but you can use anything you have on hand to make a hole, such as, a pen.
Make a hole center top of the tool labels.

Cut all the ribbon the length you need. I did about 12” each.

Fold one corner of your napkin over 

 Place your cutlery center on the the folded corner. 

Fold the bottom corner of the napkin over the bottom of your cutlery. 

Roll them up

Wrap the ribbon around the napkin, tie, wrap it again and tie. String the tools label onto the ribbon. Tie once more to secure it. Curl your ribbon ends!

TADA!! your done its that simple, now repeat 70 times or for however many cutlery that you need done and enjoy!

What really happened in week 3

We got through all the worksheets I had planned out and every outing we did was amazing. I have had ABC Mouse  since he was about 2.5 he never really had an interest in it until about 6 months ago. This week I decided to add it to our home school work, this means instead of taking 15-30 mins to do school work it take about an hour because we do an ABC Mouse activity between each of the planned worksheet or activity. Doing this keeps his attention longer!!!

He had a ton of fun gluing to paper so we will be adding more of those as well go along. His tracing has come a long way its crazy! Still not picking a dominate hand makes things a little harder when helping him write. Sight word "THE" seems to be causing us a little bit of trouble which sucks but we will keep working at even with moving onto the next sight word.

This week was packed full of fun learning things to do as well. Tumble time at bluewater cheer was amazing, the instructor has the patience of a saint with the little ones whose attention span is that of a wet noodle. He had a blast it also helped that the other kids in the class are home schooled as well! He talked all week about how he followed the course and went over and under the things. I am just happy he didn't hide under my chair the whole time.

It rained Tuesday so the hike at rock glen was canceled.

Thursday we had Zekvelds with farmer John for pick and learn. It was amazing! Farmer John was so patience and kind with the children and very engaging! The kids learned a lot and I know I learned something new so I am sure the other home school parents did to! Blaine picked about 6 apples for our bag and we each got to eat one for free. He ate the whole apple skin and all (surprise). After we were all done at the apples we moved onto the pumpkin patch where farmer John taught us about pumpkins and even carved a face in one for the kids it was great, they loved it. Then the kids all got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home. He had a blast!!!

Like most Fridays we had the home school parent chat and play, thankfully it wasn't raining this week and we were able to meet at the park. It is great for the kids to get outdoors and play with each other and also for the parents to chat!


Sipkens put on their Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday all free activities for the kids. It was a lot of fun and things to see and do. I had never been in Sipkens before and WOW it is stunning in there, the staff are amazing and were great with the kids. Blaine loved the fish pond and seeing all the flowers and such inside. They had a mini petting zoo, make and take centre piece, colouring pages, information session, find the scarecrows and lots more.

All in all it was a busy week but we got almost everything I wanted done. We didn't go to skating or yoga this week but with so much going on its hard to fit everything in!

Week 4, the plan!

Can you believe it is week 4 already, a month into the school year, a month into our home school journey

. I can't, time has always gone bye fast but now it seems to be going by even faster. My time is filled up with planning for my son as well as the entire home school group in our area and of course business and life. There are days when I am not sure I can get it all done and there are days when I am not sure I can do this. In the end when I hear my son say "I don't go to school I do home school and then list off his friends" I feel proud. There is no bullying just acceptance no matter your childs skills, needs, levels etc.

Day 1:
Sight word "and", work book, STEAM 3 little pigs
Outing: Tumble time

I am horrible at keeping a list of where I find the worksheets it is either on google images or pinterest but this one is just tracing the word "and". I will include it below.

We are still working in the same workbooks as last week. I was hoping to have the Beaver book finished but that didn't happen so we will continue to use the Usborne Get ready for school first numbers sticker book and Beaver search and find stickers.

STEAM 3 little pigs I found on the pinterest website.

Tumble time is amazing and it is put on by Bluewater Cheer. 

Day2:
Sight word "and", workbook, Build an airplane, build a boat, build a car, Sort the animals
Outing: BookClub

Again with the flash cards. They simple to make and easy to do.

This is the build a car activity I found on pinterest but we will be using a foil balloon instead of a latex one.
Build a boat can be found here. We are doing the egg carton one.
Build an airplane is here.

All of these activities promote hands on learning about how things work.

Sort the animals is something I came up with all most of this weeks activities are going to teach Air, Water, Land

For this what I did was print a picture from google of the sky, water and a grass field. I then glued them on to card stock. I will be digging through his toy bins the night before to find ALL of his little animal toys so he can sort what lives here.

BookClub is for 4-6 year olds and it is put on by the EarlyON centres. They mail you a book about the week before and this will be the book we are covering in the bookclub. I am excited we will see how he likes it!





Day 3:
Sight word "And", workbook, transportation sort.


Outing: Park

 And word colouring page that I found on a google search.

 Transportation sort I found here. Really you could you the pages you glued from the animal sort and just use different modes of transport that they have in their toy bins.

Day 4:
Sight word "and", workbook, sink or floatOuting: Skating

More flash cards for the sight word.

Sink or float is a really fun activity and really easy to do. Have you and your child go around and find things you think will sink or float have a bowl of water and test out your theories. I love this one!

Tot Skate is a blast and teaches a lot of physical skills such as balance, body awareness, etc



Day 5:
Sight word "and", workbook, garden
Outing: Forest school, home school parent chat and play

Just a work sheet I found on google for the sight word activity.

We are going to plant some bulbs so they can grow in the spring!


Forest school is an educational outing where you learn about all things nature.

Home school parent chat and play is where the kids get to play and the adults get to chat.

Week 3: The plan!

I am excited for this week because he starts home school tumble time!!!

Day 1:
Sight word "the", work book, dot to dot
Outing: Tumble group

Sight word "the" activity was a worksheet that I found on google. I will post it below.

We are still working our way through the Beaver books Search and Smile sticker book and the Usborne get ready for school first numbers sticker book. We should be finished the search and smile book this week but the Usborne one is going to take us a little longer, only because it is a far larger book.


Tumble class is for ages 3+ and it is held at the bluewater cheer centre.

Dot to Dot I will post below but I found it on google as well.

Day 2:
Sight word "the" workbook, car numbers

Outing: Story book Yoga, rock glen home school hike and picnic

Sight word "the" I did the card stock cards again. This time I used the words we have been learning from the weeks before "I" "Like" and this weeks word "The".

Car numbers is fun and I can't remember where I found it but I will include it on this page.

Story book yoga is put on the early years. and the home school hike is put on by us at embrace.

Day 3:
Sight word "the", workbook, dot to dot.
Outing:Planting Bulbs

Free worksheets you can print from the net are amazing and that is mainly what I use for now. "the" worksheet I found again on google.

Dot to dot I found on google.

Day 4:
Sight word "the", workbook, Train numbers
Outing: Apple orchard pick and learn

More card stock cards, this time they had short sentences with all the new words "I like the apple"
Train number I can't remember where I found that sheet but I will include in below.

We will be going to Zekveld's to learn about apples and other fall fruit and picking as well!This is being hosted by myself for the Embrace homeschool group.

Day 5:
Sight word "the", workbook, one fish two fish
Outing: Home school mom chat and play

Its a colouring page, he hates colouring so with the colouring pages I encourage him to put at least a little bit of colour on the page even if it is a dot!

One fish, two fish I found on pinterest and its a fun idea to match the numbers.

Chicken Alfredo

I normally pick a random Pinterest recipe when trying out a new recipe but this time I decided to wing it as I have followed so many pinterest ones before.

With winging it you are never really sure how it is going to turn out but this time i got lucky and it turned out AMAZING!!! Even my son loved it. This made enough for an army!

Ingredients:
Heavy Cream 497ml carton
Parmesan cheese 1.5 cups
Mozzarella shredded cheese 1.5 cups
Water or chicken broth 1 cup
Room temp Cream Cheese 1 brick
Sliced Mushrooms 1 cup
Cooked Shredded chicken 1lbs
Cooked cut Broccoli 1.5 cups
1 full package spiral noodles (or which ever ones you like best)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a heavy sauce pan (a pot that wont burn) put in the cream cheese and cream heat on low until the cream cheese and cream are blended.
Add the Parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
Stir until blended.
Slowly while stirring add the water/chicken broth. (Add as much or as little to thin out the sauce as needed)

Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a large pot mix cooked noodles, cooked chicken, sliced mushrooms, cooked broccoli and sauce, mix altogether!

Serve!

Super simple and super good!