I haven't posted in a while because my parents were actually here last weekend! We pulled off a surprise birthday party for my sister who just turned 40 last week. She had no idea about the party at all!

Anyway, this week, I have been trying out some new recipes. I found out about this website (if you go to this site, you can download some of the sample books!) from this blog (this blog has some great recipes and tips). Now I have to admit, I have never thought about cooking large amounts of food and freezing it before. But our schedule gets a little busy sometimes and I hate the thought of not eating a good meal at home. So Monday, I prepared Make Ahead Chimichangas. I was able to make enough for dinner that night, plus enough for 4 more meals for the freezer. Tuesday night, I make BBQ Chicken. I bought enough chicken on sale to prepare dinner for that night, plus 2 more dinners for the freezer. Then this afternoon, I prepared Breakfast Burritos. Kev has been eating a modified South Beach diet, so I prepared his with whole grain tortillas and low fat cheese. I was able to put about 24 burritos in the freezer!! I still need to do the French Toast Sticks.

There is great satisfaction in actually completing projects as a homeschooling mom. So much of the things we do get undone so quickly. The dishes always need to be done, laundry always needs to be done, toliets need to be scrubbed, carpets need to be vacuumed, etc.

I like to do many different types of crafts. Here is a sampling of what has been completed recently:

A pillowcase bag - you can find the directions at Martha Stewart

May Day Flowers - we secretly hung these on our neighbor's doors! :o)

Two new skirts for me - the pattern is found here.

There are always uncompleted projects around this house! Here are a couple currently in progress:

This quilt is for Matthew for the Civil War Re-enactments. I figured since he will be sleeping in the dog tents, he might like something to keep him nice and warm! :o) I still need to finish quilting it. I will be hand tying the quilt. I am hoping to take a quilting class this summer, if it fits into the schedule! :o)

We have another project we have been working on since 1999!! We started collecting the state quarters back then and have every quarter except for five. We are missing one from last year and the four more due to come out this year. If anyone comes across the Wyoming quarter, we would love to get one from you!! :o)

I did actually finish my 1997 album tonight. I am so glad that it is finally finished!! I will try to post some of my favorite page layouts soon.

What could be better than spending some time with some good friends in the foothills on an absolutely gorgeous Northern California day?? I think the pictures tell it best!!

In the refrigerator, I had these ingredients:

Frozen meatballs, leftover spaghetti and some grated mozarella cheese turned into this:

I put it in the oven on 350 degrees for about 35 minutes and we ended up with this for dinner:

...Sacramento!!

It is hard to believe that there was a time that I thought I wanted to be the first woman president of the United States! But ever since that American Government class in Junior High, I have always been fascinated with the American Government. I probably had enough credits in college to get a minor in Political Science, but I never looked into what exactly I needed.

Anyway, today, we were able to go to the state capitol building in Sacramento. I have been there many times before. However, this was the FIRST time I was able to see the Assembly and Senate IN SESSION! I thought it was so very cool indeed!! I think the kids were even a little in awe!!

If we have your snail mail address, be sure to be looking for a couple of Kelsey's Flat Friends to be arriving in your mailbox soon, especially if you live out of state!

We just read the book Flat Stanley about a boy who is flattened. While he is flattened, he is able to go visit some friends by way of the US Postal Service. We did a little poking around on the internet and found a Yahoo group for homeschoolers who participate in Flat Travellers. This could be a fun way to get pictures of different places around the country and the world!

If you are interested in hosting one of Kelsey's Flat Friends, please be sure to send us an e-mail at: kymk99ATyahooDOTcom. You can also send us an e-mail if you have any Flat Friends that you would like to send to us for a visit!

Can you believe these are new Jelly Belly flavors?? You would think this was an April Fool's joke, but I can honestly tell you that it is not!

We went to the Jelly Belly factory today for a tour. We have been many times before, but we like to go because it is a free tour and you get a free bag of Jelly Belly's at the end of the tour! Out in the lobby, you can sample new Jelly Belly flavors. Well, Matthew decided to taste Pencil Shavings and here is his reaction to how they tasted:

When we got home, Matthew asked Kev if he liked Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly's. He said he liked them, so Matthew gave him one that he had saved for him. He started to eat it and realized it wasn't a Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly...it was really a Rotten Egg Jelly Belly! Poor Kev!

These new beans are called Bean Boozled. They look like good flavored Jelly Belly's, but have really disgusting flavors. I will settle for my Very Cherry and Toasted Marshmallow Jelly Belly's, thank you very much!

We spent our first weekend as official reenactors!! I may have mentioned that we joined up with the 20th Maine. For the last two weeks, my sewing machine has been humming! Not only did I make a new dress for Kelsey for Easter, but I made her a dress and an apron to wear for this weekend, made myself a dress to wear, took apart the FREE pants we received for Matthew and sewed them back together again, AND sewed myself a petticoat. I did so much hand stitching that my ring finger hurt! I think it was all worth it though. We had a great time and are looking forward to many more weekends together...but now I am anxious to make more dresses!

Since we did two full days of 'school' this weekend, we took today off to kind of recuperate and get some things done around the house because we have another field trip tomorrow!

It has been a while since I posted a video of Kelsey playing the violin, so here she is:

I know I have quite a few comments to catch up on, but I have been working on a few sewing projects the last couple of weeks and we have a very busy couple of weekends coming up. I hope some time next week to visit and say 'hi' to my blogging friends very soon! :o)

Since my parents live out of state, they are not able to 'see' us on a day to day basis. My blog helps them be able to 'check-in' on us and 'see' some of the things we have been doing.

Yesterday morning, we were able to take a picture of the four of us (using the tri-pod and self-timer, just love those!):

Then today, I was able to pick up my nieces and take them with us to play miniature golf:

Hope you enjoy the pictures!