It's a PAC Night!

Cub Scout Pack Night? Nope--no cub scouts in this family for awhile. Heading to the Performing Arts Center??? No, not that either. This P-A-C stands for Pick A Can!!! This is what I resort to when life gets overwhelming, or in this case, when half the family is away and my choice is clearly NOT to fix dinner. We all head to the pantry and the kids know anything goes (well, within reason...)!
Hormel Chili is a common choice. Fruit is also popular, although not exactly a "dinner." Often two kids will collaborate and each take half a can of fruit and half a can of chili... or whatever...
Easy prep. Easy clean-up. Ecstatic children, because they don't get these "luxuries" very often. And a happy mama who enjoys the break.
Just passing along a little survival tip! =)

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

So, have you ever played air hockey with pretzels and salt shakers? Me neither... but when it's hot outside and kids start looking for things to do indoors, they can get quite creative! =)


We also played Twister today, in spite of the fact that [Chase informed us], "our spinner thing that goes 'Bhoonk' went 'Dhoonk'!" With the help of hand signals (the "Bhoonk" being the flipping of the spinner and the "Dhoonk" being the spinner falling off), we understood this to mean that our spinner was broken. =) So, again, creativity came into action. Blake hopped online and found a virtual spinner! (Oh, the amazing Internet!) If that hadn't worked, we also had a plan for using dice.



While we were playing Twister, Chase was of course our additional entertainment. Several times as the directions were called out, he would realize the difficulty of the move he was gonna have to make and declare, "You're killin' me, Smalls!"


He and Spencer were the last two going for quite awhile. At one point he commented on the new position they were in, "We're like lilyfrogs!" Somehow he must have had frogs and lilypads in mind... and he knew they went together...??? =)

The boys also built a fort (and we all know a summer is just not complete without a fort!) They were kind enough to let the girls come in for a look around, but of course when it comes time to sleep in it tonight it will officially be declared, "Boys Only!"


Last but not least, summer just isn't summer without sweet, juicy, messy-as-can-be peaches!!! Yummmmmmmm!!!





So we officially declare our summer off to a great start!