Easter Activites

 Easter is only a few weeks away and each year I always want to do fun activities with the kiddos but then it gets too late and next thing you know Easter has passed and we just barely colored eggs! So I have compiled a list of activities for us to do from Pinterest this year. This is in no special order but will probably save the more difficult ones for the evenings we don't have any sports or for the weekends. 

1. Free Egg Decorating Coloring Pages - I found these coloring pages that we will start off doing first! Love that all my kids will like doing this!

2. Easter Bingo - We definitely will be playing bingo and will be using jelly beans as the markers. The kiddos love bingo and it will be good for family game night!

3. Peep Playdough - I love peeps and it wouldn't be Easter with out them! This will be a fun activity for the weekend! I feel like this will be the kiddos favorite activity. 

4. Easter Peep Houses - We tried these a couple of years ago but it was a fail so we will give it a try again. A little hack that I started doing with our gingerbread houses is using hot glue instead of icing! So we will try that hack on these houses!

5. Easter Eggs - Ok this fun way of dying Easter eggs is more for Hudson but the girls will love it too. I'm sure this will make a big mess and hopefully we can do it on a day that is not too cold outside! 

6. Easter Cards - I found this cute template for Easter cards. It is usually the girls that enjoy making Easter cards for everyone but I kind let them do their own thing but will give them this option! I might try to find a different one too so that they are not giving duplicate cards to family! 

I'm looking forward to all of these activities and I know the kiddos will love them all. Now I just need to put them in my planner for when we are going to do them. 

Now that I got all the Easter activities planned out I need to figure out what to bring to Easter dinner at my sister's. I said I would bring my cornbread casserole along with an appetizer and dessert! Back to Pinterest I go. 

xoxo, 
Erika

Weekly Meal Plan

 Another week has gone by and that means it is time for my weekly meal plan! I did my grocery shopping on Saturday. I was able to get our grocery bill under $300 this week. I think I spent $284. It definitely helps when you meal plan to save on your grocery bill! I will have to go to the grocery store on Thursday to get some more fruit/veggies and milk! So here is my meal plan for the week. 

Saturday - Tacos 
Sunday - Roasted Chicken with roasted potatoes and asparagus
Monday - Crockpot steak tips with mashed potatoes and green beans
Tuesday - Hamburgers with French Fries 
Wednesday - Pork Tenderloin with rice and green beans
Thursday - Make your own sandwiches - Everyone is pretty much on their own this night for dinner since both girls have practices and I have a work meeting! 
Friday - Pizza night 
Saturday - Butter chicken with mashed potatoes
Sunday - Breakfast - we will be away for the day in Nantucket for Harper's lacrosse game!

I'm looking forward to the warmer weather when we can start grilling! Summer meal planning is my favorite. I'm getting sick of comfort food! 

xoxo, 
Erika 

Weekend Review!

 Good morning! Happy Monday. It is going to be another busy week ahead. This past weekend was a busy one for sure! It started on Friday when the kiddos had a half day. I got them from school and we headed home for lunch. I ended up getting a huge migraine so we didn't do much in the afternoon. Brett came home and we had dinner. I made butter chicken with rice! While I was cooking the kiddos went outside to play on the trampoline for a bit. After dinner we went to Target. Crazy Friday night over here. We then grabbed ice cream on the way home. We were all in bed by 9. 

Saturday was the busy day. I got up and went to the grocery store around 7 am. Came home and put everything away and Harper got ready for lacrosse practice. After I dropped Harper off I came back and folded laundry and picked up around the house! After Harper's practice we went to the playground. Hudson had his friend their which was fun! My mom and sister came too. After about an hour or so we had to leave to drop off Hudson at home and bring Harper to a birthday party at a trampoline place. I stayed with her there. Mollie went off with my mom and sister. They had lunch and went shopping!! She came home with a new nail polish and pop-its for Harper and Hudson. When Harper and I got home from her party we crashed!! Brett went to bed since he was working at midnight. We had tacos for dinner and then went to my sister's house to hang for a bit! We came home and once again everyone was in bed around 9. 

Sunday wasn't as busy but the kiddos had fun. We did our weekly clean up of the house. The girls both had friends over and we headed to the playground. The girls rode their bike around town which was their first time with out a parent! They did a great job. The girls had a pizza party at Nick's for their basketball team. After that we all crashed again until dinner time. I roasted a chicken for dinner along with potatoes and asparagus. We watched Peter Rabbit 2 since we are close to Easter! Everyone was in bed around 8 since it was a school night. 

So it was a pretty busy weekend and I didn't take any pictures! My goal for this week is to take more pictures through out the week! So let's see how that goes! Looking forward to next weekend when we start games. 

Have a great week! 
xoxo,
Erika 

Weekly Meal Plan!

 Ok so I know grocery prices have gone up and I'm really struggling to get our grocery amount down each week. As a family of five we spend about $300 each week. I know I can get it lower than that but I'm going to have to get creative. I'm going to post our meal plan each week. I was hoping to get this post up earlier this week but life happens! Our meals are not set in stone that it has to be a specific night. It really all depends on what is going on and what meal will be the easiest for that night. I do the majority of the cooking so I do the meal planning! 

Saturday- Beef Stroganoff with noodles and peas
Sunday - Leftovers - we actually went out to dinner this night with my parents for Chinese. So much better than leftovers!
Monday - Pot roast in the crockpot! This is super easy and I just add brown rice and green beans. Tuesday - Breakfast - eggs, bacon and toast.
Wednesday - Butter Chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans.
Thursday - Hamburgers and fries
Friday - Take-out 

By Friday I'm exhausted and totally over cooking so we usually get pizza and do movie night if everyone is home! I try to do my grocery shopping on Saturdays for the upcoming week. I do have to usually stop at the grocery store on Tuesday/Wednesday for more milk, fruit and veggies. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get our grocery bill down! Wish me luck. 

xoxo,
Erika 

Weekend Recap

 Good morning! Once again the weekend went by so fast! It was quite which was nice. Just a few more weeks and the weekends will be filled with sports. Mollie is playing travel soccer, Harper is playing lacrosse and Hudson is doing t-ball. So we will be all over the place. I love it though and it keeps the kiddos busy! 

Our weekend started on Friday after school. Mollie had friends over after school. Harper was suppose to but her friend was sick! After Mollie's friends left we got pizza and then we all crashed and I think everyone was in bed by 9. By Friday everyone is so tired from the week! 

Saturday morning I woke up around 7ish and no one was up yet. Harper is usually my earlier riser but she slept in. I made myself a cup of coffee and turned on Housewives of OC (don't judge) and enjoyed the quite time while reading my book (multitasking!). 

One by one everyone woke up and I made breakfast for the kiddos. Once Brett was awake I headed to the grocery store. I went to Super Walmart. It was a rookie mistake to go on a Saturday. I usually don't go to Walmart but with grocery prices being so high I was trying to see if I could save money by going to Walmart. That didn't work though because I ended up spending more money! It is what it is! After I got home I put away the groceries, which is the worst part. We then headed to my parents house to visit for a while. The kiddos played outside with their cousin and we all had lunch together!

After we left my parents we went to Home Goods in search for a salt shaker. We found one along with these two Easter mugs! I love them and luckily I didn't have any Easter mugs. More mugs to add to the collection. 

It was a rainy afternoon so you know what that means? It was a perfect afternoon for a nap. I took a nap which I haven't done in a long time in my bed! It was glorious. Brett and I were a bit lazy the rest of the afternoon. I think it was about 6 when I decided to get up and make dinner. In my defense we did have a late lunch so Brett and I weren't that hungry and the kiddos had snacked a lot! 

I made beef stroganoff for dinner which has been on our weekly meal plan a lot lately. It is weight watchers friendly which I have been doing for the last month. Done 15 pounds! After dinner, we cleaned up and got ready for movie night! The kiddos watched the new Cheaper by the Dozen on Disney+. I made popcorn for them. I showered and then finished watching the movie with them! Brett was watching basketball. After the movie it was bed time!! 

Sunday morning I was up a bit earlier than Saturday! Watched another few episodes of RHOC and then one by one everyone woke up again. Everyone was on their own for breakfast and I headed out for a walk. It was so foggy but felt good to get out there! 

After I got back from my walk we went to get the pitch back from my parents for Harper to practice lacrosse with! While the kiddos and Brett were outside I folded laundry and needed some caffeine! 

We then had lunch and I made English muffin pizzas in the air fryer. They were really good and everyone loved them!

After lunch we all had some rest time before Mollie's last soccer game. We headed to the game around 3 and unfortunately they lost but it was a great indoor season and she loved it! After the game we went to dinner with my parents! We got Chinese and it was so good. We had a nice time with my parents!! We got home around 645ish and Harper and Hudson went outside to play a bit. After that everyone came in and took showers. The kiddos went to bed around 8 and just like that the weekend was over!! 

xoxo, Erika