The Pinewood Derby car race is on or maybee not!!!!

We are very excited about January 23rd. This is the day we enter our car into the Pinewood Derby for the first time. We got our kit last night and it is not what I thought it would be. We literally got a block of wood with four wheels and four nails. the guys will have to literally carve the car out of this block of wood. This should be interesting!!!!!!!

These are some examples of what was carved out of that block of wood.  The chief is a modeler.  I think he can pull this off.  The Cisco Kid has not chosen what he wants his car to look like yet.  If I would guess I would say it will be a fire truck or a police car.  We will see.....I will post the progress of our Pinewood Derby car creation.

Working on renovating a room

I will be making up dated posst about my transformation of my guest bedroom to scrapbooking/craft/guest room.  Over the weekend we have made real progress towards completing the room.  We completed the installation of the wood floors. We also got a couple of book cases from target and they are so cute. Target calls them shabby bookcases. We also made a small work area for The Cisco kid. I needed a table that would fold down to save on space. His collapsible table came out really great.

The shelf brackets fold in so the table can be lowered. 

Shabby book shelves from Target.

I hope to be in the room by this up coming weekend so I could start catching up on my Scrapbooks.

Getting closer to getting the Tiger Cub badge.

The boys have made some real progress with all their achievements to receive their Tiger Cub badge. They have completed Making My family Special, Where I Live and Keeping Myself Healthy and safe Achievement requirements.
Right before the holidays we completed, Keeping Myself Healthy and safe. For the safety category I had them plain a fire drill and practice it at home. For the healthy category I made a gigantic nutrition pyramid so the boys would get a real sense of the nutritional value of each category. I brought in a bag of plastic fruits, vegetables, breads and plastic Mc Donald’s food. They picked something out of the bag and placed it in the category they thought it belonged. Oddly enough they all picked the junk food and they really knew that it went right on top with the oils. We discussed how those things were not healthy and we started throwing them off the pyramid and vowed to eat less of the junk foods and more healthy foods.

Last evening we played bingo and I thought it would be a great confidence builder to let the boys conduct the game. They did such a great job taking charge and taking turns at the wheel.  They were all winners and received a toy.

Their homework is to discuss with a parent about what to do if they should become lost or separated from their family in a strange place. All we have left is How I Tell It and Let’s Go Outdoors.

Orginizing kids crafts

My craft room is going to be used for multiple things. Guest room, scrapbooking room and craft room. I cant forget the fact that when I am scrapbooking or crafting my son loves to join in on the fun. Since my thing are either very sharp or very expensive for him to use. I decided that setting him up with a small cornier in my crafting room would be the best thing for the both of us. I have been looking at all kinds of organizing systems for kids and they are off the charts expensive. So I decided I needed to come up with something creative without breaking the bank. Since he has paints, crayons, pencils, stamps, Etc. I thought that hanging a Shoe organizer on the wall would let him have all his things handy and help him have an organized space in my room.

These keep him busy for a long time. He enjoyed organizing all his crafts. 

This was a very inexpensive storage solution. For $8.99 it really worked well. I just might have to do this for some of my things.

Because the shoe organizer was to long I cut off the last two rows. I will save them and try to put them to use once the room is done 

 My husband put some wall anchors in the wall so it would hold the weight of the bag. 

I'm going sugar Free

Sugar Free Sweet Spiced Nuts

 This is a new year and I'm going sugar free. Since diabetes runs in my family I decided to make a change in some of my deserts. I was speaking to my Aunt Rosemarie over the holidays and she told me how she makes her sugar coated nuts. I also have a recipe for sugar coated Spiced Nuts. Her nuts are coated with egg whites mixed with Splenda and mine are coated with butter mixed with brown sugar. Now, I do not see a down side to my Aunt’s nut recipe. It is loaded with protein and no sugar. There is a small difference. Mine has a crispy candy coating and hers has a nice nutty sweet flavor. This recipe is perfect for someone who wants to watch their sugar intake. My husband loves my spiced nuts. When the Chief came home he spotted the jar of nuts and dug right in. I asked him if he noticed anything different. He shook his head no, and said not really. I then told him they were sugar free. He was shocked and grabbed another hand full. Based on my husband’s response I could say they are a hit.  This was so good next week I'm going to substitute the nuts with a Granola mix.  

Ingredients:

1 bag 16 oz. pecan halves
8 oz of roasted salted cashews
6 oz of Macadamia nuts
3/4 cup of Brown Sugar Splenda
1/4 cup of Splenda
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla
4 egg whites

Directions:
Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Add the Splenda brown sugar, Splenda, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and vanilla to the egg whites. Beat with a fork until it is mixed well. Put all the nuts in a bowl and pour the egg white mixture in with the nuts and mix well. Cover a baking sheet with quick release aluminum foil. Spread nuts evenly on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes. Toss nuts and bake again for an additional ten minutes. Let cool and they become slightly crispy.