Spontaneous Family Dates

Liz asked if we could make cupcakes and I usually have a busy schedule so Cupcakes are not something I slow down and enjoy making.  I like to buy them at the store with the kids.  So today I said, "Sure why not!"

We got out all the ingredients and we shared the pouring into the bowl.  She poured the water, I poured the oil, I cracked the eggs and she poured the mix into the bowl.  Liz then stirred the mix until it got to hard for her to stir. Liz was so happy that she got to help me make the mix. I finished the two minute stir and then poured the mix into the six cupcake holders pan.  We had left overs and poured the rest of the mix into a round cake pan.  We had set the temperature on the oven to 350 degrees and put the cupcakes in to bake.

They were cooked fairly quickly and then we used a cooling rake to let them cool before we frosted them.  Here are a few pictures of the process.

It was a huge hit with the family and all the cupcakes are now in our tummys and the happy completion of our Sweet cupcakes is complete!


As I write these last sentences on this post I have an incredible happiness as I completed 20 Spontaneous Family Dates with my family!  Over this time I have seen how important it has been for me and my family to enjoy time together.  They bring sunshine into my life and I know with each special date from this moment forward will be the sunshine of my life!

To Sunshine Today and Special Spontaneous Dates!

Love,
Nicole

Normally I serve cereal or let the kids get there own breakfast but this morning my son asked me for a hot breakfast.  I suggested pancakes and eggs and he said that he didn't want to eat that.  I started cracking the eggs and then I asked if he'd like French Toast.  He said sure!

I cracked six eggs and added milk, stirred the mix and then dunked the bread in the mix.  Since I'm at Jim's parents house I don't have my normal grill so I cooked each French toast one by one.  Nathan got the first French Toast and said it was super good.  He came back for the second one and ate that just as quickly. 

Jake had the next two French Toast and said, "Those are the best French Toast I've ever had!"  So sweet! 

I then asked Jim if he'd like French Toast and he said sure.  I made him some and he had seconds too. 

It was a nice breakfast that each of my boys Enjoyed and were so sweet in their praise of the French Toast.

So I hope you can have such a fun French Toast Date with your family as I truly enjoyed the give and take of making breakfast for my family!

Love you Family!
Nicole

Here is a Sweet Version of French Toast Video from Youtube...

I went to the grocery store the other day and bought a few presents for the family. I bought a Red rose for Jake, a bottle stopper flower for Liz that fits on her MonaVie juice bottle and some facemasks for the family.

The Spa masks was something fun to do but I wasn't sure when we would fit it in our plans. So last night when we came home from the beach and Jim was relaxing on the bed I asked him if he would like a Facemask Spa. He said sure. So I rolled it out and put it on his face. While he relaxed with the mask, I asked Nathan if he'd like one. He said,"No way" I told him someday he'll love one. I then asked Jake if he'd like one and he said, "Sure." So I set him up with a Mask. I then got my facemask on and we relaxed with the Spearmint and herbs mask and asked Nathan to take our picture.

I would post the picture but Jim was in bed resting so I'll keep those for our family to enjoy. I will share with you that after I did my Mask, Liz wanted one and so I put it on her. The mask makes us look a bit like Monsters but it was amazingly refreshing. Here is a picture of Liz.

You see her big smile!  She was super happy to have it on and be joining in the Spa Facemask party!  It looks pretty funny but sometimes in life it's a great joy to be Silly!

We had a super Silly Day!!!

We went to the Holiday Inn after the beach as my brother and his family were staying the night there.  They had a nice room right on the beachfront.  At the Holiday Inn they have a really nice Shuffleboard set up and we passed by the game board.

We were going to have dinner at Pinchers and found my family at the back of the hotel on the deck as you can enjoy dining as a big group there.  I put my things down and then my husband Jim and the our kids headed over to the shuffleboard game.  I decided to join them and have some fun.

We played a few rounds of sliding the disk back and forth and Liz learned how to push the disk instead of trying to pick it up.  It was so much fun that I'd like to see if we can make one at our house when we get our home finalized within this next month.

I did a research online on google and found several sources for shuffleboards.  My son Jake and I thought it would be a great idea for some family fun time. Here is a funny Shuffleboard video, Enjoy!

Yesterday we were invited to join my family up in Ft. Myers and since Liz has a bit of a cold we didn't know if we would go. We finally made the decision and jumped in the car with the kids swimming suits and headed for the beach. My brother, his wife, and my nephew Austin have a Motorcoach and they found a RV park right on the beach.

When we arrived we all hopped out and the boys began playing volleyball with a huge ball with Grandma Sue & Uncle Erin. Aunt Tina was on a mission to get her TV to work in the Motorcoach. While she worked away her son Austin, Joseph and Liz headed for the ocean. I followed them and we kicked the beach ball in the water and played with two big inflatable turtles. I took several pictures. Here are a few to enjoy.

It was a beautiful sunset around the clouds and not to hot as there was a rain storm off in the distance.  Will be printing these pictures today and using my scrapbook to make a memory book for all of us.

Beautiful Evening!

Oh and by the way, Tina worked and worked on the TV and the guys had given up.  I entered the Motorcoach and got to working with Tina and we finished the task.  It was an Awesome feeling of a job well done!

Our 13th Family Date was playing Toilet Tag with two of my kids outside.
Ok, So here is a quick version of the game-
Toilet Tag-
Some Players are Taggers and others are Runners
The Taggers run after the Runners and once tagged the Runners turn into Toilets and stick one arm out.
Another Runner can run by and pull the arm down like flushing the toilet and the game continues.
Once you get all the Runners tagged than the game switches and Taggers become Runners vice versa.
The kids and I had a great time!

Try it with your friends and family. Great exercise and bonding time!

The 14th Date was going out to Pizza Dinner at El Primo. We got to sit as a family and enjoy the tasty Pizza and chicken wings. The food was great, they even had a special where you could get text messages from the company once a week and receive a free medium pizza. We signed up on Jim's phone and one of our pizza's was free tonight. It's nice to get out on a family dinner that was easy, fun, and all enjoyed.

The 15th Date was taking the kids to the park. For a while I have been promising them that I would take them to the park but we hadn't made it to the playground in a long time. This was a fulfilled promise for them and I got to enjoy watching them play on the swings, run around, slide and do the jungle gym. It was nice to see my Oldest Nathan push his sister on the swing. I also watched my Jungle Boy Jake climb like a monkey on the sides of the swing set and reach the top. I had to take a deep breath for him as I allowed him to continue to climb and then balance himself to get back down. Sometimes I want to save my kids but I'm learning more and more to watch and be present with them is the most important thing that I can offer. He returned safely back to the ground and ran off delighted that he had successfully achieved his goal.

It was a blessed Day today for me with my family!

We usually go, go, go and this last weekend we just chose to relax. I was at first feeling like I didn't do anything spontaneous with the family but after review with my Sweet Celeste I realized that taking a break was the perfect Spontaneous Date my family needed. We have moved out of our house entirely and now are in the middle of a process waiting for our new home. I'm believing we will be moving in within the next month. So this weekend we relaxed on the couch, watched some TV, enjoyed being with each other, reading books, and went for a few walks.

The nice thing about this weekend was that it was all together.

Being together is a beautiful thing!

Today we picked out of the envelope the Spontaneous Date idea and it was to learn something together and practice it throughout the day.  While I was reading the note I was also talking to my brother Hunter on the phone and he said we should learn the Moose Call.  I thought that would be funny and so we got our first lesson from my brother over the phone.  He is currently working on the Alaska Oil Rigs on the North Slope, so it was cool to get an idea from my Big Brother. 

He said to learn how to do the Moose call you have to hold your nose and say the word WHA.  You can draw out the letters, W  H A  ,   W  H A,  W  H  A  and eventually the Moose will hear the nose and think it's another Moose.

The kids and I laughed and started practicing.  We got the sound down and then went outside and pretended to call for the Moose.  My brother also said that we could learn more by watching videos on Youtube.  I found one and here is the video below...

My youngest is little Elizabeth and she has started Preschool this year and goes 1/2 days.  It was sad the first day to see her go but now she is so excited about her class that it is fun to share in her experience of learning and making new friends.  Today was Elizabeth's morning.

We took the boys to school early and then instead of staying up we crawled back to bed and cuddled and fell asleep for an hour.  She then woke up and had a delicious muffin and milk and we had breakfast together.

I got her ready for school and on our way to school I started a game with her called What I love about you!

What I love about you Liz is your eyes,  What I love about you is your heart, What I love about you is your hug,  What I love about you is your toes.  I then asked her what she loved about her and she said nothing.  She was being silly and so I asked her what she loved about Mommy.  She said What I love about Mommy is her hair.  What I love about Mommy is her shoes,  What I love about Mommy is her eyes,  What I love about Mommy is her hugs.

We went back and forth on what we loved about each other and just before I let her off I told her What I love about Liz is the fun time I got to spend with her.  She laughed and said What I love about you Mommy is spending time with You!!!

Time with Each other is a Priceless piece of Life.

Love,
Mommy Nicole

Today Jake had a dentist appt at 1100 am so I told him I would pick him up from school around 10 am.  I picked him up and took my Mom with us to spend the day in town.  Before we left the school my friends at the PTO gave us a free cheese pizza and I told Jake he could eat that after the dentist.  We spent an hour at the dentist and my Mom read Think & Grow Rich to us while we waited.  Jake's appt went well and he had no cavities.  Yippie!  I then decided not to take him back to school but just keep him with us for a fun day with just Jake.  I took my mom downtown so she could sign the final documents for her house that she sold.  We met some great people at the title company and each of them said their hello's to Jake.  We took the stairs down three flights because Jake thought it would be fun.  He then wanted to jump off the bottom four steps but my parent insticts kicked in and I had to rein him in.  We even had a nice guy we met and he prayed for us as we shared our stories.  It was nice to see how truly friendly people can be in public. 

We then went and I got my mom scheduled for a hair cut at my friend CJ's and Marty's Salon Soho.  Mom wanted a nice Makeover and while Jake and I waited for her to get her hair cut Jake got a bunch of nice toys from Marty.  Playdoo, crackers and m&ms, and watermelon.  I've never been to a salon that caters so sweetly to kids.  He'll be coming back for a hair cut for sure:) 

After Grandma Sue was done we headed for Whole Foods and had to get some dark chocolate for Erin's creations.  While we shopped around Jake & I saw these beautiful looking cupcakes and he pleaded for one to eat.  I told him if he was on best behavior in the store than on the end of our trip he could have one.  He was so happy.  We found our items and went back to the bakery.  His eyes were fixed on the big chocolate delight.  We ordered it and bought our groceries and went to the cafeteria.  Jake said he would share his cupcake with me and his half he wanted to shove in his face cause it looked so good.  I said if that would make him happy he could have a blast with the cupcake.  He really enjoyed eating it and we took pictures which I'll update later and post them to the site.

We then left and went to my friend June's to complete the final documents for the sale of our house.  Jake sure was a super kid today.  So full of life and energy.  Sometimes he has times when he gets upset as most kids do but today he was so sweet. 

I loved my Jake Day and my Mom Day too.  It's nice to reflect on the great time we have had together and I know it's important to spend these individual quality time with each kid.  I'm happy I got to spend it today with Jake.

Love,
Nicole

We finally finished packing up our entire house and all the rooms were empty. The kids and I were waiting for the Walk thru from the Realtor. As we had nothing to do we created a game of Charades.

We had so much fun. We pretended to be bunny rabbits, monkeys, wrestlers, cops and robbers, break dancers, extreme stunt people, race car drivers, ballet dancers, starwars people, and swimmers.

When we started to play each of us acted by ourselves and took turns and then the boys and girls paired up. Finally it was the three kids doing a Charade together and I was the guesser.

It was a great game to play and super fun in the open space of our empty house. The kids were a bit sad to move out of our house we had lived in for 7 years but they said goodbye and we left for the open house night at their school. More fun and pizza at the school.

I had always liked the idea of having a family KFC bucket picnic but out of our 15 years married I think we have done it once. This time it was a spur of the moment idea and since we are moving our entire house a perfect dinner solution.

I went to KFC ordered the family bucket with corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits and coleslaw and didn't tell anyone my plans. Our kitchen is mostly packed up so we ate with misc. Tupperware containers, platic forks, and plastic cups.

Even though the night was full of moving boxes we got a spontaneous super meal with the family. The coleslaw was delicious, Liz and I loved it. All the biscuits were eaten and I have to say the meal was a huge success.

Together time was accomplished with this fun meal for sure.

Love and Hugs

Nicole

I shared with the kids that at dinner time we were using the Spanish language words for fun.  At first my kids said no, that would be silly.  We don't know any Spanish words and we won't be able to speak anything.  On the way home from school I shared with them the few words that we would use.  Gracias - Thank you, Danada - Your welcome,  Si - Yes, En la Bibliotecca - In the Library (I'll explain about this one in a minute.),   Yo soy "our Name",   Amor- Love, Bueno - Good, No - NO. 

So those were our words that I shared with the kids and finally Jake started to say he would like to practice the words and asked me to ask him in English how his day was.  He replied Bueno.  He also asked me to say something so he could say thank you. I said to him he was a very handsome boy,  He said "Gracias."  I also told him I really appreciated his nice note he made to me about how much he loves me and he said "Danada".  At this point Lizzie yelled, "I want to speak Spanish too."  I practiced with her and she had fun saying the spanish words we chose to use.  And Nathan had at the beginning said no way but was laughing as we shared our process of learning how to pronouce the different language.

At dinner we had Macaroni and chicken.  I passed the plates out and they said Gracias.  I said Danada.  I shared with the kids that when I was in High School I had taken Spanish but the only thing I could really remember was En La Bibliotecca.  We all had a great laugh. 

These times that we are taking together to do things spontaneous have been a true blessing.  I am getting to be present and have fun with my kids and husband and they are getting great memories to support our love for each other.  It's a real Win Win!!! :)  Here is a video to enjoy on Introduction to Spanish words...

Today we had plans to go to the beach but the rain storms have been constant in our neck of the woods.  So I asked the kids if they'd like to have a beach party indoors.  The younger kids said sure and we quickly got changed in our bathing suits.  Nathan was slow to join in the fun but he said he would be the DJ and provide us some beach music.

We got sea shells and poured them on the floor and then jumped around and played.  We took beach photos and enjoy the shell shots and our silly faces.

The rain began to pour and since we were in our bathing suits I asked the kids if they wanted to get wet.  It would be like jumping in the ocean.  They were all for it.  We opened the door ran out got soaking wet and then ran back inside.  We got towels and layed them on the floor and it was like we were at the beach.  By this time Nathan my oldest was now full into the Beach Party and having loads of fun.  We opened up the back patio windows to listen to the heavy rains coming down.

We all said that this was one of our favorite beach days ever!  So fun to just PLAY!!!

I started our Sunday by waking up late at 1100 am and everyone in the house was asleep. I really wanted to wake the family and rush out of the house but when I started to encourage them to get ready for church the family chose that there wasn't enough time. I was reflecting on how I didn't set an alarm or prepare the family the night before for church. I realized if I truly want to attend church on time than I need to be prepared.

So since we didn't go to church I asked the family if they would like to have church at home. We all were in the living room and I found a church called Saddleback Church that had an iphone app and we were able to download the latest service. It was called, "When the Unthinkable Happens". The Pastor talked about how movies work off a script and to complete the script the cast has to do their lines. He related the script to the scripture from the Bible and God is the director and we are the cast. He shared stories on how sometimes in life the Unthinkable happens and when we have faith with God's support we can get through situations. He talked about how his father had died unexpectedly and he always thought he would have had his Dad to grow old with and have the butterscotch in his pocket. Since God is the director and he is the cast member he shared how the bible states it's Gods will not our own and if we follow this we will get through our troubled times.

The time that my family spent on this 45 minute broadcast from Saddleback Church was amazing as we all listened in on what the pastor was saying. The kids all crawled on our laps and sometimes asked when it was going to be over but for the most part laughed at his jokes and seemed to really enjoy the time we were spending as a family together.

The funny thing was later Sunday night, Jim had found a pair of pants from his Dad as we are in the process of moving and there was a butterscotch in the pocket.   It was true to the Pastors word that a Grandpa would have butterscotch in his pocket. Jim laughed and brought the butterscotch to show all of us.

Funny little sign :)

Yesterday I had an idea to dance with my daughter.  I just heard a song on the radio and it was a super cool dance song.  We bought the song on itunes and proceeded to dance together.



You can watch the video above of the Dynamite song.  We even got on the bed and jumped around together.  It was a freeing moment to spend this spontaneous time.  My kids had also recently bought this song on itunes called Just the Way you Are by Bruno Mars.  We sang the song to each other and meant every word.  You can watch the video below...



I am amazed how words in a song are so powerful!  Your Amazing Just the Way You Are!!!!!