Hansen Family Movie Night

For the first night in a quite a few weeks we didn't have anything in particular planned. So we decided make it a Hansen Family Movie Night. We laid out a picnic blanket, ordered pizza and even broke out our special High School Musical plates (thanks Gramma Hansen) for the occassion. "Chill Out Scooby Doo" was premiering on cartoon network so after the pizza we snuggled up for the feature presentation. Apparently Jason and I were tired though because we both fell asleep during the show. After we put the kids to bed at 8:15 we lasted for about another 1/2 hour until we decided to go to sleep to. We are getting old!

Snack gone bad

Sometimes the forces are conspiring against me I swear! So, I was trying to get some errands done before the kids got out of school and we had to get to the grocery store. Ava and I were really hungry though so I stopped at Smoothie King and picked up a 32 oz strawberry yogurt delight. Ava never drinks a lot but insits of her own cup so usually they give me a small cup that I can pour some into. So today I pulled around to pay and asked for a cup. They told me that they couldn't give me a cup anymore. What? So I said, "Can I buy a cup please." "Um, no we aren't doing that anymore either", the cashier replied. Seriously folks. What kind of establishment needs to make that a policy? No extra cups? Anyway, I wasn't going to let that get to me, I thought I'll be flexible. I decided to give Ava my drink until she tired of it and then I could drink the rest. So I strap her into the cart with the tub o' smoothie in her little hands and lap. She's drinking happily as we begin shopping in the produce department. While choosing some strawberries I hear, "Oh, no...mess Mommy". I turn around to see the entire smoothie on Ava's lap, legs, shoes and dripping through the cart. Nice!
Gratefully, there was a kind employee who grabbed me a roll of paper towels to clean Ava up. That was hilarious. I stripped her down to her diaper and bagged up the mess. Then I used an entire roll of paper towels wiping down everything and finally put her back in the cart. As long as we were there I was going to get my shopping done so I continued through the store with many a strange look from other shoppers as they stared at my 2 year old sporting only her huggies. The judgements were nearly audible but we got our shopping done and are all cleaned up. Good Times! :)

New Favorite Meals

So all of you probably make each and every one of your meals from scratch :) but I am one of those that often needs to rely on a quick meal or else go hungry. I recently tried this Kashi meal as well as a Southwestern Chicken and Chicken Pomodoro. They were all great! The fact that they are relatively healthy (as far as frozen dinners go) is a plus too!

Book Reviews

While on vacation I was able to read quite a few books and I enjoyed each and every one of them. Here are a few thoughts.

On the recommendation of my friend Emily, I started this series. I really enjoyed Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin so I grabbed the next 2 to take with me on vacation. Just the kind of fun quick reads that I needed. They are not a series but each book has the same characters in it, just one of them is spotlighted as the main character. Each of them are at different stages of their lives and I just loved them all for different reasons.

Ummm, LOVED it! (No surprise there). It was easily as captivating and overall wonderful as Twilight and New Moon. These are a series, so if you happen to be of the few people that haven't read them you really must, just start at the beginning.

So I was kind of skeptical when I began this book but after a few hundred pages I was into it. I am amazed that she was able to put out 7 books with equally intriguing twists and turns. Quite a fun read.

While I don't think I would have chose this book based on it's description, I had to read it for book club and really enjoyed it. It is a fantasy book in which 2 boys struggle with being pushed out of their childhoods too early. Gives you something to consider about our humanity and was a nice deviation from the above mentioned reads.

This was such a great book that was recommended to me by my niece, Lauren. I did fall in love with the characters and thoroughly enjoyed the writing. I am looking forward to reading more books by Shannon Hale.

Summer Cold

Those two words are definitely a contradiction in terms and yet I still have a HORRIBLE summer cold. It is kicking my butt! My only friends for the last week have been these two little items:

I have so many things to do and this is really putting a cramp in my style. I have been trying to will myself better but to no avail. Well until then my laundry, dishes and dust bunnies will wait.

First Day of School

So before I get into the vacation blogs, I thought I'd begin with the present day. Today Jackson started the 2nd grade and Kate began Kindergarten. Despite going to bed at midnight, they were all smiles and eager to get out the door for their first day. Our cute idea of pancakes and pictures were lost on them though. They couldn't wait to meet their teachers!

I have found that Jackson is most ready to talk about his day when he's going to sleep. Just before nodding off tonight he told me that his teacher called him something he'd never heard before. He giggled and said, "She called me "Mr. Talks-a-lot" and then she laughed". Let's hope that Mrs. Roseberry is still laughing in a week and that Jackson is talking less in class.

Kate is lucky to have Mrs. Law for kindergarten (the same teacher that Jackson had). Kate came home today with her "Super Kid" star and was so proud of her first day at school. Jackson and Kate saw each other in the hall and stopped to give each other a hug. How cute is that? I can't believe that I had 2 children in elementary school. Like Jackson said tonight, "it won't be long before we're going to be in college". I almost cried...

I'm Back!

Wow, that was quite a vacation! As soon as I can unearth my camera from the mountain of dirty laundry I'll get to blogging...