Weekend Review

Here are just a few pics from this weekend. Friday night we went to cheer on the Chiefs. Davis and Wilson were all psyched because they had their own football jerseys. Davis and his friends played football on the sidelines during the game. Wilson mainly just ran around with his football pretending he was playing with the bigger boys. I don't even think I watched any of the actual football game because I was too busy chasing them around. I do think we won though.

Acting silly

Davis is a pro at the cheesy smile.

Wilson has the football player smile down.

Saturday, we went to the pool for what was probably the last time for the summer unless we make it this weekend.

Fun in the pool with one of his best buds

Wilson is all about snacks at the pool. He could care less about swimming.

I don't know if you can tell but Wilson has a sour punch straw dangling from his mouth.

Sunday for church, I argued with Davis about what he was going to wear. He wanted to wear his suit and tie that he wore last summer when he was in a wedding. He loves to dress up like his daddy. I kept telling him it was going to be too small, but he ignored me and put the shirt, jacket, and tie on anyway. It was too cute and too funny not to let him wear it. I did make him change into the matching pants, even though they were high waters.

He was so proud of himself.

I had to get a close-up of the tie that he put on all by himself.

Sunday after church, Ben cooked us an awesome Greek meal. He chefed up some chicken shawarma, hummus with pita, greek salad, and bulgar wheat. It's one of my favorite meals he cooks for me. It really does taste like the food from our favorite Greek restaurant in Baton Rouge. I will post recipes later, but too tired at the moment.

Yummy Chicken Shawarma!

Greek Salad

Davis took some leftovers for lunch today. I heard he wouldn't share his chicken. He must take after me, because I have a hard time parting with good food too.

Paint Party

It's 5:30 in the morning, but I was so excited I had something to blog about that I couldn't wait until I made it home from work this afternoon. Lately, I have felt too boring and uninspired to blog, and frankly, starting back to school has kicked my butt! It usually takes we about two weeks to adjust from summer to school so I'm hoping by next week I will have my motivation back, but I'm not very optimistic.

Last night I attended a paint party instructed by our cute and talented little art teacher at Tensas Academy. Leslie has been such an asset to our school, as well as our parish. We painted a cotton field. Sadly, I'm afraid that there won't be much cotton around here in the future, so I painted mine in the soon to be memory of cotton. Ben said next time we should paint a soybean field, but I don't think it would be near as pretty. The painting shown below is my finished product; I'm pretty happy with it. Ben wants me to let him put it in his office, but I think it needs to be in our home to be admired and enjoyed by the whole family. And besides, I just gave him a cotton painting a couple of weeks ago, so I don't know why he needs another.

It's amazing how well everyone's painting turned out. Who knew I was an artist?

"White Gold" ... or maybe I should call it "Guthrie Gold"

Artwork by Davis

I'm having a little trouble with blogger's block this week so I thought I would share some artwork by Davis. He drew this today in art class at school. His art teacher ,Ms. Leslie, asked the class to draw a picture of themselves for the cover of their portfolio folder, but sometimes in art Davis has a bit of a problem following directions. I like to think of him as being free-spirited rather than disobedient. He did indeed draw himself, he just added a few more details to his picture. He told Leslie it was a picture of his daddy catching a snake and himself looking at the snake. Oh yeah, and he threw in some clouds and rain, I guess since it has been raining here for the last two days. Silly me, I thought the rain clouds were jellyfish.

That would be Ben's head in the rain and the snake is below him. Davis drew himself under the snake. I'm not quite sure what is to the left of Davis unless it the rest of Ben's body. He draws his people detached, so I'm guessing that is what it is.

First Day of School

Davis started kindergarten today. He was so excited! He jumped out of bed before 6:00 am, dressed himself, and was raring to go. He said his first day was great. From what I gathered, after being read The Gingerbread Man, the class went on a hunt for the gingerbread man lead by clues left all over the school. They never found him, but while they were searching that wily little man left gingerbread cookies in their classroom. I think he was still running about the campus at 3:00 pm. Davis told me his favorite part of the day was centers, and he was also stoked that they only had to do one paper.

Here he his walking into his building, so confident and so excited.

Ms. Traci let them choose their seats the first day. I seriously doubt he will be sitting with these two tomorrow.

The first day, the whole school gathers around the flag pole for the pledge and prayer.

I really wish I would have taken more pictures, but it was my first day back at work as well so I was a little preoccupied with my new class. I am truly blessed to be working at the same school my child attends... I guess from a mother's standpoint it would be the second best thing to being a stay at home mom.

Monkey Muffins

Now, I know that monkey bread is no new concept, but monkey muffins? I thought it was genius! My favorite part of the monkey bread is the outside. It is the best part because it has this crunchy, gooeyness to it. So what usually happens is all of the outside of the bread is eaten and then the inside is left to harden and then be thrown away. What a waste! I suspected that these monkey muffins would have this crunchy gooeyness with every bite, and I was elated to find my suspicions were confirmed. Since they are smaller, every piece is an outside piece! Absolutely Genius! For those of you who aren't familiar with monkey bread, it is usually baked in a large tube or bundt pan and served by pulling off a "lump"of bread at a time.

I found this recipe in Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood. Go ahead and make fun, but this is a darn good cookbook! And no, I'm not a crazy Trisha Yearwood fan who collects all of her memorabilia. I just happened to come upon it one day as I was browsing the book section at Sam's. I am however an avid collector of good cookbooks and would like to think I know a good one when I see it, and I might also be a bit of an impulse buyer. But, nonetheless I don't regret buying it. So I'm posting the recipe for anyone who cares to try them.



This recipe calls for combining maple syrup with the butter. This is the first monkey recipe I have seen that does this and you could definitely make them without it. Real maple syrup isn't the easiest ingredient to come by, at least in these parts, but fortunately I had some, thanks to Billy and P.C.'s trip to Canada. For that matter, you could use any monkey bread recipe to make these muffins. This monkey is flexible.

A great recipe to get your kids involved in the kitchen! Davis had fun helping quarter the biscuits. I tried to get Wilson to help, but he was too busy shooting me with his invisible fire laser.

My monkey muffins

Monkey Bread Muffins

1 12 oz. can biscuits (10 in each can)

3 T Hot Maple Syrup

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

2/3 cup sugar

1 T ground cinnamon

1/2 cup freshly chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in 12 muffin cups. With kitchen shears, cut each biscuit into 4 pieces. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans. Dip each biscuit piece into the maple butter, and roll in the sugar mixture. Place 3 or 4 coated pieces in each muffin cup, pressing to compact. Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks. Serve warm.

Sweet Boys

I took this picture Sunday evening, I think. I left Ben with the boys reading Cat in the Hat to go take a shower and when I returned all three of them were sacked out and it was still daylight. The boys hadn't had a nap that day and Ben was just warn out having worked late previous nights harvesting. This NEVER happens(the little boys that is...the big boy does it quite often).Most nights bedtime is a drawn out procrastination of chasing the kids around the house or of "Mom, I need to tell you something" or "Mom, I want some water" or "Mom, can you read another story". So needless to say it was a quiet, enjoyable evening.

Happy Birthday to My Best Friend!

Yesterday was Ben's birthday. He had to spend his birthday working (which I think everyone should have a birthday holiday), so the boys and I took breakfast and his present over to his office. We gave him a painting of the boys walking through the cotton. I would like to say I painted it, but it was actually done by Maggie Ethridge . I had taken a picture of the boys last fall in the cotton and all I did was email it to Maggie. The painting turned out awesome! I'm seriously thinking about having her do another for our home.

Opening his present

the boys and the birthday boy

"Walkin' in High Cotton"

Opening his cards. Wilson was still in his pjs with bedhead.

The boys also drew pictures for Ben.

A picture of Ben, Davis , and Wilson holding hands drawn by Davis.

This is a Venus Flytrap with a fly inside. I think this was drawn by Davis and Wilson.

The boys decorating Ben's cake

The finished product! Notice the icing on their faces.

Meet Bubba

This isn't Bubba...
This is Bubba. Bubba is a rooster that belongs to my parents. For Easter, Gammie and PawPaw (my parents)bought some chicks for the boys to play with and have since adopted and given each one a name. They have Bubba, Pete, Boss, Flo, Bea, Buck, and Patty and I'm sure I'm leaving someone out.

Here we have Bubba pictured with Flo and Bea. Probably not, but there are too many for me to keep up with. I'm sure my children could tell me because they know each one by name.

Last night, the boys stayed with my parents so Ben and I could go to a party. So while they were there, they were able to get a little education on raising chickens.
Here is Bubba crowing. Mom said Davis would crow then Bubba would crow. I guess he felt threatened in his roosterdom. (Don't think that is a word) Below is a picture of Davis battling with Bubba.
Recently their chickens have started laying eggs. So it was excitement for the boys to be able to retrieve them from the coop. Here is Wilson with evidence of breakfast still on his face about to snatch an egg from the nest.

And here is Davis with his two prize eggs.

Please notice Wilson's outfit in this picture. This is the result of me asking Ben to pack their bags because I was running late as usual. Mom said there wasn't even underwear in the bag, so either they are going commando or they're wearing dirty undies. I guess I will know better next time. That's what I get for asking a daddy to do a momma's work.

Fun in the Soybeans

Thursday it finally rained in St. Joseph; we didn't get much in Newellton but it caused the temp to drop from 109 to 76. We took advantage of the cooler weather and took the boys to play in the soybean truck.

Monkey!

Making soybean angels

I am planning to use this picture for our school's football program ad. (but not sideways)

It is going to say "No Beans About It...Chiefs are the Best!"

Corny I know, but that is the best I could come up with. So make fun if you will.



Yesterday, the boys and I rode the combine with Ben. Well excuse me, the boys told me I was riding, but they were working. Ben was driving, so it was a nice treat for me, because I got to go too.

Ben driving the combine.

Working men

Movie and Fun at the Dentist

I haven't been able to get on the internet all week at our house. Last Saturday our a/c went out so we had to move out to the camp for a few nights. Finally they fixed it late Tuesday, and I swear it took about three days for it to finally cool off completely. It literally has felt like the threshhold to Hell in Louisiana. To quote one of my facebook friends, "It has been hotter than two rats humpin in a wool sock behind a clothes dryer in North Africa." I kid you not. Anyway, the internet is out at our house so I came over to Ben's office to share a few pictures from our week.

Wednesday I took the boys to the doctor, dentist (check-ups only), and a movie in between. We saw Despicable Me in 3D ,which I didn't have high hopes for, but it turned out to be really cute.

Here are the boys in the movie theater trying to look around me while I'm taking their photo.

After the movie we had a dental check-up. It was Wilson's first trip to the dentist so he was a little apprehensive. The hygienist couldn't get Wilson to lean back in the chair so she setttled for what you see in the photo. They left with a bag full of junk and toothbrushes and Hooray for No Cavities!

They played dentist while they were waiting for Dr. Joey to check their teeth.

I love this picture. It looks like they are in a staredown.

You can see how tense Wilson was by looking at his hands.

Dr. Joey is so good with kids.