Easy Elegant Cheesecake

Tonight, I tried one of E-Mealz dessert recipes which is included with the subscription.  It was really good!  I used Smart Source butter combination instead of pure butter and I accidentally used 1 stick of butter instead of 1/2 stick of butter.  However, it cooked well and was a hit for the entire family including my 5 year old who tends to not eat cheesecake!

Easy Elegant Cheesecake (E-Mealz Recipe)
8 oz cream cheese, softened but not melted
1/2 stick of butter, melted (I accidently used 1 stick of butter and it still was really good!)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar combined with 1 tsp cinnamon
2 cans crescent rolls (if you can find the croissant pastry sheet, it is PERFECT for this dish, and you will need 2 sheets.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13 pan and line with 1 can crescent (or croissant) rolls.  In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, 3/4 cup of sugar, vanilla and blend until smooth.  Pour over the crescent (or croissant) lined pan.  Top with the remaining crescent rolls (pinch them together at the seams so there is no filling coming through the holes.)  Pour melted butter over the top and sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture over the butter.  Bake at 350 degrees until brown (like cinnamon toast would look.)

Lucky...

This week's song challenge over at Scrap It With a Song is "Lucky" by Pat Boone.  The lyrics are up on the blog. You can take whatever inspires you from this song, the words, the title or the overall theme of the song. Upload your creations onto the Scrap It With A Song blog by Sunday and you could be this week's winner. 


Jakob's 4th birthday party was at Going Bonkers with his friends. Jakob had such a great time with his friends and playing.  One of the neatest things at Jakob's 3rd and 4th birthday party was getting all of the kids together for a group picture.  Out of all of the pictures, these are always my favorite!






My inspiration for this layout comes from The Scrappiest Sketch #88 and paper from Coordinates Collections.

Scrapbook Goal - Need 8 More Layouts!!

At the beginning of 2010, I set my scrapbook goal of 50 layouts.  I have made 42 layouts so far this year and only need 8 more to reach my goal!!  I have finished most of the 2008 photos, only a few remaining pictures that I cannot decide how I want to scrap.  I have been able to focus most of my attention to scrapping the 2009 photos and they are slowly getting scrapped and put away!

Kindergarten Stories: Week of Nov. 15th - 19th

I am a little behind on this post due to the holidays.  This is what Jakob and his classmates learned about the week before Thanksgiving.

This week we will be...

• Reviewing all letters and sounds
• Handwriting, beginning and ending sounds
• Learning Sight Words: will, pretty, me, make, am
• Reviewing Sight Words: a, and, are, big, can, cat, dog, do, here, I, like, little, not, play, run, see, to, the,we, want, you
• Introduce ordinal numbers 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  Count, make, and write numbers 10 -16
• Learning about the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, Native Americans, and Thanksgiving traditions.

Upcoming Events:

• Field Trip Money Due - Nov. 19th
• Thanksgiving Feast - Nov. 19th at our normal lunch times (10:54-11:22)
• Thanksgiving Break - Nov. 22nd - 26th - NO SCHOOL
• Tree Lighting and Family Literacy Night - Dec. 3rd
• Field Trip to Casa Manana - Dec. 8th

Here are a few pages from the week before Thanksgiving.  

A color by number - Turkey.

Connect the dots turkey.  It sure is neat to see how neat Jakob is coloring now.

This was a puzzle.  Jakob actually did not get to finish it at school and colored it at home for me!

They were working on comparing numbers to 5.  If there was a shape drawn outside of the boxes, then you know it was more than.  If there were not as many filled in, it is less than 5.

Menu Planning 11/28-12/04

This evening, I decided to restart my E-Mealz subscription plan.  I found a discount code and it took off $2.50 for this current subscription.  (Enter Dave as the coupon code.)  I ordered the Any-Store Plan to try out for the next three months. I'm still using random recipes from the Kroger and the Points Plan from week to week.

Sunday: Sausage and Rice, Corn
Monday: Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce
Tuesday: Pecan Chicken (E-Mealz recipe), Green Beans, Potatoes
Wednesday: Dining Out
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Dining Out
Saturday: Hot Dogs, Chips


 
Pecan Chicken (Kroger Meal Plan)
1 lb chicken breast
(2 T honey)
(2 T Dijon mustard)
2 T finely chopped pecans
-Use meat mallet or rolling pin to flatten chicken breast to 1/4 inch thickness.  Combine honey and mustard; spread on both sides of chicken and dredge in pecans.  Place in lightly greased baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving

We were all able to get together in Abilene, TX for Thanksgiving.  On Friday, 11/26, we took a picture of all of us.  However, we are missing Brett. :(
The above picture from left to right:
Standing: Daniel, Dawn, Billy, Gerry, Gregg, Lana, Cherokee, Lisa, Jeff, Roland
Front Row: Hannah, Jakob
Yellow Labs: Bella, Tahoe, Yukon, Jeep

We also got some really great pictures of Lana and Gregg together with the three dogs, Yukon, Jeep, and Tahoe.

Coordinates Collections Fab Find!

I found out this morning, one of my layouts was selected as a Fab Find at Coordinates Collections!  This layout is from Jakob's 3rd birthday.  I had a few pictures remaining from Jakob's 3rd birthday party I wanted to scrapbook.  I wanted to capture a few of him opening his presents.  The top right photo shows a small yukalaylee that he received from my brother.  Randy was stationed in Hawaii when he visited for Jakob's 3rd birthday and he brought this for him.  It's really neat and it has Hawaii on it too.  This layout was created for Scrap it With a Song's challenge.

2010 Family Portraits

Jeff and I have not done family pictures in three years, and knew it was time! 

Jakob (5 years old) and Roland (13 years old).  Roland is about to have his 14th birthday on December 1st and Jakob will be 6 years old on February 1st.

I really like this one of Roland and Jakob.  Both boys are growing like weeds, but seeing the height differences is really cool.

This was one of the last pictures and Jakob was wearing out.  Our photographer was great and kept Jakob just laughing and saying funny things.  Jakob was adding his own comments, but he couldn't have had more fun!

Santa Claus Pictures

Today, Jakob and I went to visit Santa Claus.  After getting home, it was too hard not to look back at the other pictures and see how much everyone has grown.

2006
Roland (9 years old) and Jakob (10 months old). Our neighbor, Sarah (6 years old), joined the boys this year and had her picture with us too.

2007
Jakob (almost 2 years old)
I love this picture and remember right after he took it I was so sad because Jakob was so sad.  I had debated about buying it, but then knew I would want to have it to look back on.  It's now one of my favorites as he was surely thinking, "Mom why are you leaving me with him?"  He has a slight tear on his cheek and he toughed it out for a picture.

2008
Roland (11 years old) and Jakob (almost 3 years old)
After this picture was finished, I realized what Jakob was upset about.  Around this time period, Jakob started carrying a bunny rabbit all over the place and he wanted it from the stroller!

2008
Jakob (almost 4 years old)
This was the year I decided to schedule last minute pictures of Roland and Jakob on the day before Thanksgiving!  It was a crazy idea and sure learned my lesson, but was so impressed how good both boys did that day and talk about some great pictures!

2009
Jakob (almost 5 years old)

2010
Jakob (almost 6 years old)
Now comparing all the years, it sure is hard to believe how much Jakob has grown.  Santa looks the same each year (except in year 2008).  He was quite proud to see Santa this year and read the letter to Santa that he wrote to Santa.  Santa said to put it under the Christmas tree so he would know what to leave.

Winter Wonderland

This week's song challenge over at Scrap It With a Song is "Winter Wonderland" by Pat Boone.  The lyrics are up on the blog. You can take whatever inspires you from this song, the words, the title or the overall theme of the song. Upload your creations onto the Scrap It With A Song blog by Sunday and you could be this week's winner.  This week is sponsored by The Stamping Boutique.  I used the Candy Land Winter Tag in my layout above from The Stamping Boutique.


We hit a record breaking snow fall in one day in the North Texas area! The official report was 11.2 inches at midnight and the previous snowfall in one day was 32 years ago with 7.8 inches in one day! However, according to the news, the snow continued to fall and at 4AM, there was 12.5 inches of snow on the ground! It sure has been fun to play in the snow!!  We built a snowman, Jakob made a few snow angels, and threw snow at each other!  I never expected to get this much snow in Texas, and it sure has been fun.  It will be slowly melting today since the temperature is above freezing.

View more pictures at my original blog post here.



My inspiration for this layout comes from Sketchy Thursdays 11.4 sketch and paper from Coordinates Collections.

Jakob - Speech Update 11/10

Jakob is currently in speech while in Kindergarten and has mastered all of his objectives he had when he was first started at 3.  His new objectives focus on many blend sounds. He attends speech for 90 minutes every 2 weeks (approximately 3-4 visits every 2 weeks).  Below is his progress ending for the 2nd Six Weeks.

1.1 Correctly produce /s/, /z/, /ch/, /sh/, /s blends/, and /l blends/ phoneme in initial, medial, and final position:

• /ch/ - syllables-80%; words-40% Initial
• /s/ - syllables-70%; words-60% Initial
• /l/ blends - syllables-70%; words-60%

2.1 Correctly use pronouns /he, she, they/ correctly in structured sentences.

• 50% - Progressing at expected rate.

2.2 Understand 'er' ending in words.

• Not yet addressed

2.3 Order pictures from largest to smallest - Not yet addressed

• Not yet addressed

You & Me

This week's song challenge over at Scrap It With a Song is "ABC 123" by Jackson 5.  The lyrics are up on the blog. You can take whatever inspires you from this song, the words, the title or the overall theme of the song. Upload your creations onto the Scrap It With A Song blog by Sunday and you could be this week's winner.

Jakob and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo in March 2009 with Roland and friends.  I was actually able to get some cute pictures of the two of us together!  He was still terrified of carousels last year, hints the facial expression!



The paper for this layout is from Coordinates Collections and my inspiration for the layout design is from The Scrappiest Sketch #89.

Jakob received a good note from school

I received a note from Jakob's teacher yesterday.  Jakob was so proud and commented he had a good note.  His note said, "Jakob is doing great with letter recognition and sounds now!  Looks like has all of them.  (Struggles with V and U.)  Thanks.  Mrs. Hauck."

Jakob's Kindergarten School Picture

Jakob's picture came home today that he took at school.  He took a great picture!  This is his Kindergarten picture for 2010-2011.

Kindergarten Stories: Week of Nov. 8th - 12th

Report cards came home this week for the 2nd six weeks!  Where has the time gone?  Only 7 more school days until the Thanksgiving break!  This week has been long since Jakob was sick on Monday and Tuesday, plus the time change.  Jakob has been exhausted in the evenings and ready for bed!

 3 - Meets Expectations (Consistently demonstrates proficient understanding and applies skills independently with minimal teacher support.)
2 - Making Progress (Demonstrates initial stages of understanding; applies skills but requires teacher intervention or reinforcement.)
1 - Insufficient Progress (Demonstrates a lack of understanding; difficulty accomplishing grade level tasks; reteaching consistently required.)

 Language Arts:

• Uses strategies to comprehend a variety of texts - 2
• Uses the writing process to compose a variety of texts - 2
• Listens attentively - 2
• Communicates ideas, experiences, and needs using academic language - 3

Early Literacy Intervention:
(Completed during Beginning of the Year)

• Letter Identification - 3
• Letter Sounds - 1
• Concepts about Print - 2
• Phonological Awareness - 1

Guided Reading Level:

• Student Guided Reading Level - A
• Student Uses Strategies to Comprehend Guided Reading Text - 2

Science:

• Observe and record properties of objects (able to identify size, mass, shape, color, texture) - 3

Social Studies:

• Explain why people have jobs - 2
• Identify purposes for having rules (including rules for order, security, and safety) - 2
• Identify authority figures in home, school, and community (able to identify school, home; not able to identify community) - 2

Mathematics:

• 2-D Geometric figures - 3
• Position and Location - 3
• 3-D Geometric figures (able to describe and compare; not able to identify shape) - 2
• Task 1: Counting Objects (Keeps track while counting accurately, remembers how many) - 2
• Task 2: Counting out a particular quantity (Counts up to a particular quantity) - 2

Teacher/Parent Comments:

• 11/9/10: Jakob works neatly and carefully on assignments.

This Weeks Sight Words: 

• make, will, am, me, pretty

Jakob is continuing to review his previous sight words and does well picking them out in books we read!  We have been working on reading Level A books at home using Reading A-Z.  I lucked into getting many of the books a few years ago while working on my degree.  They were running a special during Teacher Appreciation Week and was able to download many of the books!  Jakob enjoys reading them and the books are repetitious in manner with many of his sight words!

Other sight words we are working on:

• List 1 - 2: we, run, a, can, play, I 
• List 3 - 4: like, cat, to, and, dog
• List 5 - 6: the, not, you, do, want
• List 7 - 8: all, here, big, is, little
• List 9 - 10: she, with, are, he, funny
• List 11- 12: make, will, am, me, pretty

Jakob is currently doing Jump Rope for Heart.  He is raising money to support a great cause.  I think it's neat how I did Jump Rope for Heart when I was in school.  Jakob has talked about jump roping in school and how it's hard!  If he raises a minimum of $40, he will receive a water bottle, a jump rope, and t-shirt.  I can see him playing with the jump rope on the back patio!  Visit his page to make a donation.

Here are a few pages from last week.  

It looks like he forgot to do number 5 on the below sheet.

 Jakob colored this worksheet really nice and counted the teeth correctly.

I haven't asked Jakob about this page.  I suspect it is related to a book or something they did in class.

Jakob also brought home a picture that was from school of him and his decorated pumpkin!

Jakob is raising money for Jump Rope for Heart!!

I remember raising money for Jump Rope for Heart as a kid.  Jakob is now doing the same fundraiser and jump roping at school.  

(http://amha.convio.net/site/TR/JumpforHeart/SCA-SouthCentralAffiliate?px=2219989&pg=personal&fr_id=1444)

• Each year nearly four times as many children die from congenital cardiovascular defects as from all forms of childhood cancers combined.
         -  About 36,000 children are born with a heart defect every year.

• Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is now regarded as the No. 1 health concern among parents in the U.S., topping drug abuse and smoking.
         -  Today, nearly 1 in 3 American kids and teens are overweight or obese.

Your donation will help protect today’s and future generations of children from the struggles of heart disease and poor health.  With your support the American Heart Association is tackling the issues of congenital heart defects, poor nutrition and lack of physical activity by investing in research, professional and public education, and community service programs.


Thanks for helping save lives with the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope For Heart!

{Friends}

This week's song challenge over at Scrap It With a Song is "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman.  The lyrics are up on the blog. You can take whatever inspires you from this song, the words, the title or the overall theme of the song. Upload your creations onto the Scrap It With A Song blog by Sunday and you could be this week's winner. 

This week is sponsored by Crop Chocolate.  They are offering the winner a $20 in crop certificates.  Every day several items will be posted – so act fast – a limited quantity will be sold at deeply discounted prices. No time to let it temper. Several times a day, items will be sold on CropChocolate.com at delicious prices. It may be an embellishment shelf with all the works, a scrapbook kit, scrapbook tools or an organizer with some added goodies. What ever it is you can count on this – you'll get great products at outstanding prices.

This is such a great song and many ways to use it for a layout.

This is a picture from last years Halloween.  It was so much fun to get together with friends and eat hamburgers/hot dogs before going out to trick or treat.  The kids together had a blast together.  We came back from trick or treating to continue with bobbing for apples and smashing a pinata.  It was a pretty tough pinata as the parents had to help get it started!  Jeff and I were saving for our new home, so we dressed using things at the house.  I'm supposed to be an 80s girl.  My hair was super curly with tons of hair spray, my shirt was tied, and my pants were rolled!  It was a fun evening to remember.



I used paper from Coordinates Collections to create the layout.

Boo

My goal this year was to create 50 scrapbook layouts.  I'm doing pretty good with 36 layouts completed so far.  The layout above is from last year's Halloween.  Jakob enjoyed his costume last year and went with Jeff to Southwest Airlines for their Halloween event.  The boys both carved pumpkins after visiting the Pumpkin Patch.

 

The layout was created using paper from Coordinates Collections.

Kindergarten Stories: Week of Nov. 1st - 5th

It is sure hard to believe we are already in November and on the last week of the 2nd Six Weeks already!  Where is the time going?

Kindgergarten Classroom News


This week we will be...

• Learning about the Letter Kk - Handwriting, Beginning Sounds and Ending Sounds
• Sight Words: she, with, are, he, funny
• Review Sight Words: a, all, and, can, cat, dog, do, here, I, is, like, little, not, play, run, see, to, the, we, want, you
• Learning about Fall: events that happen in the fall; sorting and graphing leaves; identifying animals that hibernate and migrate; patterns (AB, ABC, AABB, AABBCC)

Upcoming Events:

• November 1st - Disguise a Turkey Homework Assignment Goes Home
• November 5th - End of 2nd Six Weeks
• November 8th - Beginning of 3rd Six Weeks and Disguise a Turkey is Due
• November 11th  - PTA Meeting and Fiesta Math Night
• November 19th - Field Trip permission slips are due

Here's some of the school work Jakob brought home today.  The first one is a color by number worksheet.

Another math sheet.  Jakob traced the numbers and then had to color the corresponding number to items.

This worksheet focuses on the letter p.  He colored very neatly and followed directions on the page.  He wrote the letter p next to the items that started with the /p/ sound as the directions stated to do.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Jakob and his class mates went to the fire department on a field trip.  Here is an activity they did after the visit regarding fire safety.

This sheet is really cute to me.  He decorated a pumpkin for school for Halloween.  His idea was to decorate the pumpkin as Rafael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Jakob's picture below shows his pumpkin and his sentence underneath says, "My pumpkin is wroel (Rafael)."

Jakob continues to practice his sight words.  I noticed he wrote his letter s backwards on this page so tonight we focused on writing a few words in sentences including the letter s to focus on it correctly.  For some reason, there are letters that kids will write backwards until it 'clicks' for them that the correct way is the right way.

 Here is another math assignment focusing on three-dimensional shapes.

He brought home a pumpkin made from construction paper today too focusing on sequences of events.  It shows the order of planting a pumpkin.  I'm really impressed to see how neat he is coloring on his papers.