Sidewalk chalk paint and how I am going to keep my sanity this summer

My friend R and I decided to do a kid swap every week to break up the summer, save our sanity and to allow us to be able to run errands and get out of the house without the kids. So one day a week she will have the kids then the next week I will have the kids for the whole day, like 9am-5pm and we do arts and crafts and let the kids play and have fun. Last week she had the kids, I went to the commissary alone, the NEX (kinda like the base version of a tiny walmart) alone and cleaned house ALONE, it was nice! Today is my day with the kids and one of the activities I chose to do with them was sidewalk chalk painting. Somewhere online I saw a recipe for sidewalk chalk paint, its equal parts cornstarch and water and then you divide it into cups and mix with food coloring. Easy peasy and its pretty entertaining. The sidewalk here was already hot at 10:30am and so it made the paint dry quickly.

our "paint" all mixed up and ready to go

Elijah's masterpiece

a mama and Emmy collaboration

silly girl painting

Tuesday night market in Agat

So it's 2 weeks after school ended and we are finally getting into the swing of things. It has been crazy here! The kids aren't used to being together 24/7 and are constantly fighting and trying to make me crazy, so in an effort to get out of the house and do pretty much anything to pass the time we went to the Tuesday Night Market in Agat. I found out about this on facebook through some local pages that I like, and they posted a link to this bbq on guam blog that has pictures of yummy local food and I was sold! We tried new food and had a good time and got out of the house, win/ win situation.

fried oreos

pork kabob (also came in chicken) all 4 of us loved these

yum!

chicken empanadas? filled with chicken and cream of chicken and other stuff then fried, not sure exactly  what else is in there but it was really yum!

Then we come across a "Fruit Fry Ice" cart, it was DELICIOUS!!! So, the lady pours the strawberry juice stuff into this pan that instantly starts to freeze it, she scrapes and scrapes and it starts to look more slushy than liquid and she adds our choice of fruit, raspberries and strawberries and scrapes some more then puts it in a pretty little cup with some spoons and a straw, it was great!

step one, pour the juice then scrape

part two, mix in our fruit choices

almost done

ready to eat, yum!

back home we call these bunuelos, these were pretty close to how you get them in San Antonio, crispy and covered in cinnamon and sugar

We are planning on going back sometime soon, it was fun.

Today in the Beach House

Today is the last day of school for Elijah!! Emily has a booster seat now. Elijah lost his top front tooth. Today is payday and the base has been scaring me with all their typhoon preparation exercises so I'm going to start building a typhoon locker. I know it sounds scary but hopefully we will end up fully prepared for a storm and nothing will happen.

my sweet boy's last day of kindergarten :(

really loose tooth

not 2 minutes later, no tooth!

my big girl in her new booster seat (on the couch)

Elijah's field trip to the NBG Fire Station

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go on a field trip with Elijah to the fire station. It was really cool learning about everything that firemen do. Elijah loved having me there, he's such a cutie. Since the last slideshow was such a hit, I made another one for all the fire station pictures. Enjoy!
(NBG = Naval Base Guam)

Make your own digital slideshow

Blog Challenge: Day 30

30. Three wishes/ goals for my family.

pic from google images

OUR GOALS/ WISHES

1. For both Emily and Elijah to have an awesome school year 2011-2012. Emily will be in Kindergarten and Elijah will be in 1st grade.
2. For our family to get off base and explore Guam more. We always seem to be busy but we rarely go off the base for anything (yes this base is great!)
3. For our family to save more money. No explanation needed, we need to save money.

Side note: While this is the last day of the blog challenge, it is not the end of the blog. I will continue to post as often as I can, maybe not everyday but at least several times a week. If I get behind send me a message and tell me to get back to work on the blog.

Blog Challenge: Day 29

29. Pictures of the grandparents

We are very fortunate to have so many grandparents still with us in our family and the only way that I can think of to put them all on here is to make a list.  This list is in no particular order, please take no offense to the order.

1. Sofia/ Nana
2. Laurie / Grandma 
3. Todd / Pa Todd
4. Jr / Grandpa Buddy
5. Ganny B.
6. Grandma Kitty
7. Grandpa Bert
8. Arnold
9. Renee
10. Mike
11. Grandma Minnie
12. Grandpa Jesse

These are the only pics I have on this (newish) laptop...



Elijah and Grandpa Buddy grilling some tasty ribs



Grandma and Emily making yummy cake balls

Nana and Pa Todd at the park

dear Ganny, dont beat me up for posting this picture

Blog Challenge: Day 28

28. Favorite kid's snacks

I really do try not to let the kids have too much junk in their diet, and while they do like candy they also like fruit, and some veggies. Their favorite snacks lately are babybel cheese, laughing cow cheese, wheat thins, string cheese, baby carrots with or without ranch, pretzel sticks, that kind of stuff. They will eat just a little of each but they love when I give them a small selection of several things to munch on. They are usually pretty easy to please.

pics from google images

Blog Challenge: Day 27

27. Favorite birthday party

 

 

pic from google images

 

Every year the kids get pretty good birthday parties but the most memorable party in my mind was for Chris. It was his 25th birthday and I told him that nothing was planned but secretly I had an awesome night all set to go. I sent him to wal-mart to get a new battery for our car and when he got back there was a bunch of his friends hanging out on the yard drinking beers. He said he thought something was gonna happen when I insisted he go get the battery right then but he had no idea that his friends would be there for a party. For several weeks leading up to the party I had gotten drinks little by little and kept them in rubbermaid tubs in the garage. All in all it was an awesome time that he will never forget, now I just have to do better this year for his 30th birthday :)

Blog Challenge: Day 26

26. Favorite Trip or Vacation

Last year Chris was at A-school and C school and all other kinds of schools for the Navy. He was gone for January and February, home for March then gone from April to Sept. Being the strong independent woman that I am I packed up the kids, called for a backseat driver (my mom) and went to California to be with Chris for a while. My mom flew to Maine on a Friday in June, we loaded the truck and drove to TX. We stayed in TX for about 2 weeks then since my brother Buddy was getting ready to Graduate from D.I. school my mom, dad, Ganny, Kat and my sister-in-law Candace (she came to town for Kat's recital) all drove to San Diego. When we had to leave San Diego I drove back to TX with my brother Matt. We were in TX for about a month then the kids and I drove to Missouri to see Chris' parents, we were there for about 3 weeks then Laurie and Jr drove with us to Maine, but we took a detour and went to Niagara Falls first, it was amazing. Round trip it was a quick 3 months but it was an experience that I will never forget, we made about a million memories and took a billion pictures, and if we had that time to do things over I  wouldn't change a thing. I put together this slideshow of some of my favorite pics and memories, enjoy!

Free slideshow design customized with Smilebox

Blog Challenge: Day 25

25. Family's ipod playlist top 5

Our Family's top 5 in no particular order, the kids know all the words to these songs. (yes we listen to alot of country music, it cant be helped and its better than whats on the radio here) (I hope all these videos work for you, youtube doesn't always work right here on Guam. If its not working please let me know.)

Trailerhood by Toby Keith

Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band

You belong with me by Taylor Swift

Something like that by Tim Mc Graw

Chili Down from the Labyrinth

Blog Challenge: Day 24

24. Favorite dessert or sweet recipe

In the last year or so my go to quick and easy dessert is a peach crunch cake from bakerella . It is so easy, the only difference between bakerella's recipe and mine is that she uses walnuts and I prefer pecans.

 First preheat the oven to 350.



pour a 24.5 oz jar of sliced peaches in light syrup into a 9x13 pan
then cut them into smaller pieces



sprinkle a box of yellow cake mix on top, try to make it even

cut a stick of butter into little pieces, arrange them like so






sprinkle with 1 cup brown sugar then 1/2 cup chopped pecans



bake for 40 min. serve with icecream and enjoy!



Blog Challenge: Day 23

23. Favorite local restaurant

 

 

 

bad pic from flickr

So far here on Guam, our favorite restaurant is JanZ's by the sea. The guys that Chris works with first introduced him to it, then one weekend we went for breakfast and now we all love it. Its pretty much a hole in the wall place with a marina view but its delicious. I always get a breakfast sandwich, its 3 sausage patties, cheddar cheese, 1-2 fried eggs, with a side of hash browns. Its yummy but way too much food. The kids eat a la carte, they get scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage and share everything. Chris gets a "hobo", that's scrambled eggs mixed with shredded hash browns, chopped up sausage, ham, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, bacon and cheddar cheese. The food is delicious and filling and the view is beautiful, can't wait to go back again.

 

 



stack of 3 giant pancakes, pic from google images



Go to this site if you want to see more pictures of JanZ's.

Blog Challenge: Day 22

22. Worst kitchen catastrophe

 

Before Chris and I got married  I ruined the easiest dinner ever, and I still hear crap about it to this very day. It started pretty simple, with a box of Hamburger Helper....

.....then some how somewhere things got really messed up. The finished product looked right, just like the picture on the box, but it smelled burned and tasted terrible. I took one bite and broke down into tears. I cried and called my mom to tell her how I had ruined dinner and to talk about what could have gone wrong. Chris just smiled and told me it was totally fine and he ate it! It was AWEFUL and he ate it (he is awesome!). He tried to convince me that it was good but I wouldnt eat any of it, it was really bad. Looking back now its kind of funny, but not really. :)

Blog Challenge: Day 21

21. Whats in your "kid" bag or diaper bag

Since we don't have babies in the house anymore I don't need a diaper bag so I normally just toss whatever I need into my purse as we are headed out the door.

Things I normally have in my bag are:
wipees (come in handy for wiping faces and hands)
fruit snacks
pens, markers, crayons (at least a few)
small notebooks (for the kids to color in if they get antsy)
hair ties, clips ( I always notice Emmy's crazy hair after we leave the house)
tic tacs (for bribing kids to do what I want)
tissues
the camera!

Thats about it :)

Have a great day!