James Standing By Things

While in Hawaii, I snapped a few pictures of my hubby…

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The hilarious thing  is that in  every picture is James standing by something.

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James by the Hotel sign.

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James standing by the Pacific Ocean.

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There were plenty of statues for James to stand by too.

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They seemed to be everywhere we looked.

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Sneaky statues…

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There was also plenty of Art…

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Art to stand by.

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Art to contemplate…

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Occasionally I can get him to stand by me, which I think is super-cute.

What’s Cooking in Nico’s Kitchen

I pretty much live in the kitchen… You know I love to bake some tasty goodies. I thought it might be fun to recap some of the dishes that I make through the month. Here’s what was going on in the kitchen in May.

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I tried my hand at homemade Croissants, and it took three days but the results were so delicious. A few friends and I catered the final breakfast for MOPS, and I got to make these delicious pastries one more time. Dylan is hooked on them, so it looks like I’ll be making Croissants more often.

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I needed a quick breakfast before school one day, so I got out my Pioneer Woman cookbook, and made a batch of her French Breakfast Puffs. They were amazing. I shared the batch with my hubby’s co-workers too.

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We had guest speakers at our church, and although I couldn’t make it to hear them speak, I wanted to help out with the desserts. I made a batch of Chocolate Ganache Topped Brownies, and a few batches of cookies too. James suggested the Candy Bar cookies, and I thought that White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies would go great too.

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You’ll remember these Blueberry Muffins, they were from my container of blueberries that Thade really though that we needed. I’ve been enjoying them with my morning coffee.

I hope to try out a few new recipes in June.

Super-Fun Dinner Night

Every once in a while my hubby has to be away for meetings. To keep the kiddos happy, we’ve started making super-fun dinner night. We usually hit up Redbox and rent a movie for the night, and the kiddos get to pick whatever they want for dinner. A few of the favorites have been Chocolate overload dinner, we had Cocoa Pebbles and Chocolate Milk, and School-lunch dinner… I do my best to recreate a dish off of the school lunch menu. One  school lunch  was Little Smokies and Macaroni and Cheese, the kiddos loved that meal.

This week we have decided to make a meal that iCarly would approve of. My boys are really big fans of the show, and I though it would be really fun to make a meal based on some of the dishes that I have seen on the show.  I’m serving  Groovy  Strawberry Splat Smoothies and I’m also making Spaghetti Tacos, just like Spencer would serve Carly and her friends. The kids are really looking forward to the meal.

It looks super simple too, and I used everything that I had on hand.

For the Spaghetti Tacos you’ll need:

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  • Spaghetti Noodles
  • Spaghetti Sauce
  • Taco Shells

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Then you simply prepare the Spaghetti just like you always would, and stuff it into the Taco Shells.

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I’m also making Strawberry Splat Smoothies. I’m using Strawberries that I chopped and froze in the freezer, a little bit of sugar, and milk too. I was out of yogurt, and it was way too hot to take the kiddos to the store, so the milk will work.

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The frozen strawberries gave the smoothies a icy texture.

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I love the super bright pink color of the finished strawberry splat smoothies!

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Let’s see what the kids think…

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Dylan liked the spaghetti tacos, but he is a spaghetti fan anyway…

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Thade loved them! He usually turns his nose up at the sight of spaghetti, but even he ate a taco and a half. I thought the spaghetti tacos were pretty tasty too. Both kiddos finished off their strawberry smoothies in record time too. This dinner is definitely a keeper.