What's for Breakfast?

I don't know about you other moms out there, but one of my most dreaded questions of the day is, "Mom, what's for breakfast?"

I want to look back at his sweet little face and say, "I dunno... what are you making?"

But I don't.

Instead, I slowly make my way over to the fridge, look at the coffee creamer wishing that was what I was reaching for, open up both the fridge and the freezer and hope for something to magically jump out and appear on the boys' plates.

This doesn't happen.

So, it's usually one of a four options:

1. Frozen waffles/French Toast/French Toast Sticks/Anything else Eggo's makes that can be warmed up quickly in the toaster oven.

2. Egg in a Basket

3. Homemade sausage & cheese biscuit

4. Bagel with cream cheese

Sadly, Payton won't eat cereal with milk, so that's not an option in our house. I would love to say that he always has a super nutritious well-balanced breakfast every morning, but he doesn't like fruit either, so really if I don't make eggs, he basically survives on carbs and processed meat until lunchtime. (See, I'm not really as much of a "Martha Stewart" as you thought I was).

Parker on the other hand, will eat just about anything I put in front of him.
Eggs, yep!
Fruit, you betcha!
Protein shake, loves it!
An egg white sandwich on whole wheat english muffin with salsa and avocado... he steals it from my plate every time I make it! (At least one child is eating healthy).

So in my quest to create some sort of healthy options for my picky eater, and find things that can be prepared quickly (I mean, come on, no one wants to make a huge breakfast at 6:30 a.m.) here is what I've come up with...

Egg in a Basket

Many of you are familiar with this, but I did not start eating this until I had kids myself.

You start with a piece of bread (whole grain preferably) and butter one side of it. Then cut a whole in the middle of the bread a little bigger than a half-dollar. Remove this cut-out circle.

Place your pan on the stove and put a small pat of butter in the pan and let it melt. Place the piece of bread BUTTERED SIDE UP in the pan on the melted butter (now both sides of the bread are buttered). I also place the little cut-out circle in the pan too and cook it along side the slice of bread.

Crack an egg inside the cut-out circle of the bread. Then I break the yolk with a fork so that it will cook more evenly.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

When you hear a crackling/popping sound, flip the bread and cook the other side.

Once cooked through, you're done! Serve it with some bacon, if you're Payton, or with fruit, if you're Parker. :)

Homemade Sausage Cheese Biscuit

I started making these out of desperation because very casually one day, Payton said, "Oh I don't care what we have for breakfast because when I get to school I always go to the cafeteria and get a sausage and egg biscuit."

I'm not knocking the cafeteria staff or their food preparation skills, but I am pretty sure it's about the most processed thing you could eat for breakfast at school. And to think he was eating it on a regular basis made me a little sick to my stomach.

So, I went to Publix, got a package of buttermilk biscuits (I didn't make them folks. I go for simplicity sometimes), a package of sliced cheese and a box of the healthiest option I could find of turkey sausage.

I created a little assembly line and made a dozen sausage and cheese biscuits.

Then I wrapped each one in foil so I could simply remove them from the freezer and put it right into the toaster oven.

And then I put them all in a labeled Ziploc bag...

...and then put them in my labeled freezer.

Okay, maybe I do have a tinsy, tiny bit of Martha in me afterall. :)

It took a few minutes of preparation, but it's so simple now to serve one for breakfast.

I'm always looking for new breakfast ideas for my picky little second grader. Especially during the school year when I don't have a lot of time to cook.

I'd love to hear some of your favorite "go-to" breakfast solutions.

Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Weekending

Sorry I've been a little MIA on the blog lately.
Seems life has been chock-full of fun activities that are keeping me very busy and away from the computer.

Plus, I am in the middle of planning a baby shower for a dear friend of mine, so any "free time" I have while Parker is napping, has been spent doing research, ordering invitations, etc.

Okay, enough excuses. I am hoping to do some fun posts in the next few weeks, but we'll see how many actually get written. :)

Here's what kept us busy over the weekend...

Friday night was date night! YAHOO! I love me some date night!

We went out with our neighbors to this great restaurant that is part of a marina. It was only about a 20-minute drive from our house, but it felt like we were on vacation.

This was the view from our table:

Plus there was live music and a very lively crowd, which always makes people watching very fun.

Our cute companions for the evening:

We kept the water-theme going the following day and headed out to our favorite beach.

The boys had a ball, as usual.

This time, they buried each others feet in the sand. It was pretty amusing.

Brian was a good sport and took the boys in the chilly water several times.

We saw a family of dolphins swim by, which was amazing.

I wish I had grabbed my phone to take a picture, but I was totally caught up in the moment.

Then we went up to the beach pavilion for lunch.

You definitely pay for the convenience, but the views are worth it!

That evening, we went to a friend's house for dinner. Their son is about the same age as Parker so after dinner, the two of them saddled up on the couch to watch a movie. 

This is how we found them:

So cute!

After a wonderful morning of helping to lead the Worship music at church, I took Payton to a skating birthday party. It was the first time I'd been in a skating rink since a date function in college.

Nothing has changed.

Payton brought his own rollerblades and skated for almost 4 hours straight!

Of course, he did take time out for a little laser tag too.

Sunday evening, Brian grilled out a delicious dinner for all of us and then we collapsed into bed at 8:45 p.m.

It was a fun-filled weekend to say the least!

Day Out: Ballast Pointe Park

For those of you in the Tampa area, I have to share my adventures to Ballast Pointe Park this week.

I highly recommend this awesome park if you have kids, love fishing, or just want a simple lunch in a beautiful water-front setting.

Parker and I ventured down to this park with two of my girlfriends and their two little boys who happen to all be very close in age. Ballast Pointe Park is located in South Tampa where Bayshore Drive dead ends. Literally.

When you pull into the parking lot, you will first see the fun water splash park area. This kept the kiddos happy for quite a while!

Of course my son found a mud puddle and decided it was much more fun to fill his bucket with water from the shower and then make mud with it.

"Is there something on my face?"

Hopefully the dirt will come out from under his nails by next week.

But then, once the boys' gazes went beyond the water, they realized there was a huge park right behind them. And then they immediately went running for the slides, swings and massive playground equipment.

Parker's friend Nathaniel (with Parker photo-bombing in the background)

All of that running around really built up their appetites so we sat down at the cute kid-sized picnic benches and had some lunch.

And then they were off again!

After a couple hours, we decided to take a break from the park and walk down the LONG fishing pier to look at the pelicans and gaze at the amazing bay views.

 

Why yes, that is an Easter egg in his hand. It was filled with M&M's.

My beautiful friend Claudia and her son, Nathaniel.

Me & the peanut.

On our way back, we checked out the little waterfront cafe where they serve amazing-smelling lobster bisque and lobster rolls. I'm definitely going to have to grab a bite to eat there next time we come. Oh, and I'm bringing some fishing poles too!

Let's just say that by the time we pulled out of the parking lot, this is what the backseat looked like:

 A great time was had by all!

Weekending...a day late

Hello peeps!

I had some "catch up" work to do on my Bible study yesterday so I didn't have time to upload and edit all my weekend pics. Thus the post about helpful parenting tips. Anyhow, here's a brief re-cap of our weekend.

(Again, if you follow me on Instagram, this is going to be a major snooze since you've seen most of these pics, but for my family members out there who don't subscribe to Instagram, I wanted to share them here).

We kicked off the weekend in true Florida style... swimming in the sunshine!

Thanks to our awesome neighbors who have an amazing pool, we are able to go swimming a lot more than we probably would if we had to go up to one of our community pools.

It was amazing weather. The sunset was beautiful. And Parker swam for a good hour without me having to get in the pool once! Thank God for swim vests. ;)

Parker hanging with our neighbor. She's sooo good with him!

This new pool raft was a major hit!

On Saturday, we headed out to the ball fields.

Not to watch our kids play, but to watch several of Payton's friends play baseball.

I was curious to see if being back at the fields would rekindle some interest in the game for Payton.

It didn't.

This is what he was doing while anyone other than his friend Max was up to bat...

Payton playing chess with Max's little brother.

And this is what Parker was doing...

Parker playing in the batting cages with Max's little sister.

I must admit, I was a little disappointed that Payton wasn't more excited about the game when we left. I miss watching him play a sport. But I've heard from so many parents that it's vitally important not to push your kids into sports. If they find something they like, great! If not, keep trying new sports, but don't insist on them playing something just to play something.

It was really fun to watch several of Payton's friends play though!

On Sunday I put the boys in their new matching shorts for church.

Aren't they so handsome??

(Wonder how long Payton will let me get away with this?)

After naps and rest time we all headed back over to our neighbors for some more swimming and a few rounds of cornhole. It was a perfect way to end a fun weekend.

Again, we're really fortunate to have such great neighbors! (Thanks DeAngelos!!!)

A couple more cute random photos I captured...

Every morning, Parker runs into the bathroom to join Payton when he brushes his teeth.

He has started insisting that he now uses Payton's toothpaste as well.

This child copies every single thing his brother does.

Just look at how he watches Payton while brushing his teeth. So much admiration there.

And yesterday, I treated Parker to a doughnut after he completed his final swim class.

We went to a drive-thru Dunkin Donuts so he was eating it in the car on the way home.

I looked back and he had his finger sticking through the center of the doughnut eating the icing all the way around the top.

I started laughing and said, "What are you doing silly boy?"

He said, "Bubba do it like that."

And I thought, yep... he's right. That's exactly how Payton likes to eat his doughnuts.

Incredible.

Oh... and it looks like someone took a little self-portrait with my camera phone again.

Total ham.

Happy "Hump Day" everyone!

Have you started making your weekend plans yet? Hope it's something fun!

Some Helpful Tips

What parent couldn't use a few helpful tips every now and then? I know I surely can!

Pinterest is probably my favorite place to get great tips, but I have also found very useful ideas in parenting magazines. The only problem is, that I usually dog-ear the page, or "pin" the idea, and then forget to actually implement them. Dangit.

Here are a couple super-easy ideas that I thought I'd pass along. Now it's your responsibility to actually do them. :)

Finish All Your Meds
Any doctor will tell you that the "Golden Rule" when it comes to antibiotics is to FINISH the entire prescribed amount. Don't just stop taking your meds when you start to feel better.

So, to help me remember if/when I've taken my meds, or if I've given meds to the kiddos, I write down the days of the week along the top of the bottle, starting with the first day that I start the medicine and ending with the last day that I am supposed to take it.
Then each day after I give/take the medicine, I cross off that day of the week.
No more guessing about how many more days, or if you've remembered that day. Easy, peasy!


Mark What Is Yours
Summer is just around the corner, which means lots of days splashing around at the pool.
Whether you have a community pool, or you're going to the beach, the best way to keep track of your toys/goggles, etc. is to write your name on them.
Sounds so simple, right?

But sometimes it's the simplest things that make the most sense.
Now, when we go to the pool, I won't have to wonder if the rocket toy that the random kid is playing with belongs to us. I can just say, "Honey, can I see that rocket for a second?" And if it has "HECKMAN" written on the side of it, I know immediately that it's ours.

I also do this with goggle straps, towel tags, buckets and shovels and anything else that I've spent money on and would like to get at least one season's worth of play out of it. :)


Getting Clean After The Beach
I have a friend who always teases me saying, "I bet when you get home from the beach, you don't drag one bit of sand inside your house."

Well, I don't know about "one bit of sand" but I've gotten it down to where you certainly wouldn't know I had 2 kids and 2 adults playing in the sand all day. Here are my tips:

1. Obviously, if there's a shower at the beach, use it before you get in the car. At least to rinse off feet and legs.

2. If there's not a shower, I will often carry a gallon of water in the trunk and use it to rinse off feet before climbing back in the car.

3. When Parker was a baby, I used the baby powder trick where you simply dust their feet and legs with baby powder and the sand miraculously comes right off! It's quite amazing.

4. When we get home, both kids strip down in the garage (or in the laundry room) and immediately put their bathing suits in washing machine. I then load in all the beach towels and any other sandy clothing and start a load of wash.

5. We empty out the car and immediately vacuum it out with our Dustbuster.

Just a few simple steps that will eliminate a lot of clean-up work after a long day at the beach.

Corralling Art Supplies

This can apply to all areas of your household, but for this post, I'm going to show how I corral our art supplies.

I find it to be so helpful when I contain "like" items together in one space using similar storage bins.

I have all of the kid's craft supplies in the laundry room cabinet. This allows me quick and easy access to things when the creative mood strikes!

By grouping them all together in one place, and then separating them out into bins to organize "like" items together (e.g. all the crayons and markers in one bin, all the painting supplies in another bin, etc.) helps me find what I want very quickly and easily and helps everything look clean and organized.

It also allows me to only grab one bin when we want to color, or one bin when we want to paint, rather than having one giant "craft" container.

I hope these tips were helpful. I'd love to hear some your favorite household hints as well.

Have a great Tuesday!