Thirty Books: Part Two Cars 2 Movie

N read thirty more books. He looked at the list we created of rewards and chose to go to the Cars II movie. D and I decided to take him together and leave L at home with the sitter. After the movie we went to the restaurant of N's choice. N really seemed to enjoy the movie and supper. He loves it when he gets time alone when both D and I can give him our full attention.

I enjoyed the movie for it's witty humor, however, I don't think it's kid friendly. It's much more grown up than the last Cars. There are a lot of high speed chases, explosions, fire arm fights and talk of "killing" this guy or wishing that guy "was dead." I cringed each time those words were used in front of my preschooler. There were a couple scenes where the characters were caught by their opposition and threatened in some sort of physical manner. Mater is tied up for quite a while in one scene. In the same scene, two of the characters are tied up to a big gear and will be smashed if they aren't saved. There were a few occasions when a car or two fell off a cliff (or other high place of choice) and are either smashed or shown falling to their death. Evidence of the movie being too much for our preschooler just appeared. We heard him quietly sobbing in the hallway upstairs just now. I went up to see what was wrong and he mumbled something about a character from the movie named"Finn McMissile.' N tried several times to put together the words to tell me what was wrong, but it was clear to me he was half awake and half asleep and having a bad dream. Darn. I feel bad for keeping him at the movie. I probably should have chosen to leave the movie when I suspected the explosions and chases were too much. Tonight might be a long night if he has nightmares. Who knew, though? The first Cars movie was much more fun and lighthearted!

Peanut Butter Bars and Baked Chicken Recipe

I'm already tired of looking at that spider picture from the last post, aren't you? I needed to post something, anything to get that thing out of site. Ha.

I found two new yummy recipes this week.

The first one is a peanut butter breakfast bar recipe I found at a new website I love called "Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom." I wanted to try this for the gluten free purpose and for the purpose of feeding L. He is a super duper picky eater! He really enjoys the Larabars I eat every once in a while, but they're a little pricey, so I wanted to find something less expensive. He has eaten this twice and has liked it both times. Now, he could wake up tomorrow and spit the darn thing out, so I'm not getting my hopes up too far yet. I'll know for sure that he likes it when he eats it, oh, say, four or five times. I did not have the Chocolate Chex cereal on hand that the recipe calls for, so I used a combo of Honey Nut Chex and Cacao Pebbles to achieve the sweet and somewhat chocolaty flavor.

Chocolate Chex Power Sticks Breakfast Bars

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

3 Tbs. Honey

2/3 cup Crushed Chex or Cocoa Pebbles cereal

1/3 cup Nonfat Dry Milk Powder

Mix everything together in a bowl. Form into 6 sticks and wrap individually in wax paper.

I store mine in an airtight container in the freezer.

The other recipe I tried this week follows. It was a success. N even ate it and he's a picky eater when it comes to meat. So, two winner recipes in one week! Yay! I found this one on the Celiac disease message board. I did not have the cheese the recipe calls for, but the chicken was still tasty.

Gluten Free Parmesan Chicken
4-5 Boneless chicken breasts
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk
1 cup instant potato flakes
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. poultry seasoning or McCormick Original Chicken Seasoning
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. melted butter or margarine

* Preheat oven at 400. In a bowl, beat egg & milk.

In another bowl combine potato flakes, garlic salt, paprika, Parmesan cheese and poultry seasoning. Dip chicken breasts in egg mixture. Then roll chicken in the potato mixture and evenly coat all sides. Place chicken in baking pan.Sprinkle the melted butter on breaded chickenBake at 400 for about 20 mins.

Increase oven temp to 425 - cook for an additional 5-10 mins or until chicken is tender & juices run clear

Big Daddy

We got a ton of rain this evening and then this Big Daddy showed up in our basement.

Eeeeek!!

Thirty Books: Part One

I started a summer reading program with N a couple weeks ago. Little did I know, our public library had a summer reading program very similar to the one N and I started. I have a piece of paper taped to the fridge with the numbers one through thirty displayed. Each time N and I read a book, he puts an "X" over a number. When he reaches thirty he gets to pick a treat/prize from the list he and I created. This week we completed our first thirty books. N chose to go to the old fashioned candy store on the square and pick out some candy. We ate it on a park bench in front of the fountain together. So sweet (no pun intended). N found a big rock to climb on and jump off of. We made a game that went like this. He'd stand on the rock and I would say the following:

"Who oh who is on the rock? Thomas the train (I'd change this name each time) or a stinky sock?"

N would decide which thing he was then he'd jump off the rock. He loved the game so much that we continued it when we got home. Here are some pictures of our special little Mommy, Son date. We're going to read thirty more books. I think N's next choice will be to see the new Cars movie, but I'll let him decide.

Wonderful Day!

Got up. Ate breakfast.Went for the most wonderful, peaceful bike ride with both boys in tow. Stopped by the "pool park" on our way home. Got cleaned up. My parents came over. Ate lunch together. They watch L while N and I went to neighbor boy's Birthday party. Stopped at Target on the way home. N pleaded and said, "I cannot go to Target! I'm a Wal -Mart boy!" We went anyway. Got home, went out for dinner at fav pizza place. Drove around town to scout out tomorrow's garage sales. Let N stay up late to watch local festival's firework display (from our driveway). Saw our first fireflies of the season. :) Great day!