Weekend Rundown

Did you have a good weekend? Did you do anything exciting, or enjoy a relaxing weekend at home?


Friday night I went to a bachelorette party for Chris's cousin's future wife. It was fun catching up with family, but I'm not much of a drinker so it was a pretty early night for me. That's where I received the compliment that made me squirm and blush. When I got home I watched Bridesmaids. I thought parts were super funny and some were over the top and difficult to watch (trying on dresses in the bridal shop! OMG!). But overall it made me sad! I felt so sorry for the main character, Annie. Everything was going so terribly wrong for her, sometimes it wasn't funny - it was depressing. But overall, I liked the movie and I'd recommend it.

Since we're trying to eat healthy and everything, I made yummylicious monkey bread for breakfast on Saturday. Okay, sooooo not healthy (although I did use organic butter, sugar and brown sugar!), but really delicious! I try to cook breakfast for the kids at least once a week, and monkey bread is one of their favorites. It's a little time consuming but very easy to make. Connor offered his assistance. It's definitely a good recipe to get the kids involved in the kitchen. The directions I use are printed on the four pack of Pillsbury Biscuits. 




Monkey Bread

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 4 cans (7.5 oz each) Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1. Grease or spray 12-cup Bundt cake pan. (I don't have one, so I use a round sponge cake pan, but it really doesn't have to be round - two loaf pans would work too, or something else with higher sides).
2. Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in 1-gallon bag (I just use a bowl). Cut each uncooked biscuit into quarters, coat each piece in the cinnamon sugar mixture, and place in pan. (Coating the pieces and putting them in the pan is the job I assign to my kid helper). Mix butter and brown sugar on low heat until melted, and pour over the biscuit pieces. 
3. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Turn upside down onto a plate. Serve warm.

If you've never made monkey bread before, you have to try it! You won't be disappointed, and neither will your kids!

The kids made an obstacle course out of Legos for our pet toad, Jumper. He hopped through it like a good little sport... 

...even climbing the stairs, sort of...

...I hope he wasn't too freaked out by the creepy Lego guys...

It made me feel warm and fuzzy to see the kids all working together on something, and Jumper was probably happy to have something to do besides sit on a rock all day long. Or maybe he was really ticked off about it. I guess we'll never know. But it was fun for the humans, and that has to count for something, right?

On Saturday I also happened to have an epiphany. I'm not sure how this has escaped my notice all these years, but I realized that Connor's eyes are the exact same color as his hair. Being that he's a red-head, this strikes me as slightly unusual. No, he doesn't have demon eyes - more amber colored. See?

Later on we went to church with my mom. The kids were really good, even though Mathilda started loudly asking if it was "almost over now" toward the end of mass. Our church is really close, right in our neighborhood, so we can walk, which is nice; especially on beautiful autumn days like this was. When we got home the kids played outside for awhile and Bethany had a friend come over to spend the night. I received a package with a cool new toy to review on Saturday too, so the kids spent some time playing with that and testing it out. I'll post more about that soon, but it was a Tonka Ricochet Tricksters R/C, and it was way fun!

I went through my closet trying to find something to wear to Chris's cousin's wedding next weekend, and am pleased to report that one of my top choices still fits me (thank you Jesus). I couldn't zip my first pick, but I'm just not going to dwell on that. 


On Sunday Bethany went to the mall with her friend to get her ears double pierced while I went to Appleby's for lunch with my mother-in-law. We chatted and ate, then dropped the leftovers off at my house and picked up Bethany to do a little shoe shopping. Our purpose was to find shoes to match the dress my mother-in-law is wearing to the wedding, and we unfortunately did not succeed in our mission. However, I found shoes to go with my dress, and Bethany got some new shoes too. 

I love sparkly, shiny things...

For dinner I made the kids Hootenanny, a recipe that Shannon from Life After I Dew pinned on Pinterest and was appealing because of it's simplicity. It's basically a big oven pancake, and delicious sprinkled with a little powder sugar and drizzled with syrup. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner once in awhile?

It may not look pretty, but it's good!

• Blend together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, 6 eggs, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
• Poor batter into a greased 9x13 pan. 
• Top with 1/2 stick melted butter - but don't mix the butter into the batter.
• Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes

Now I'm off to do some Sunday night laundry, read some of my book, and call it a night. I hope everyone has a great week!