Rusty Filling in for Mom

Hello and greetings from me, Rusty, the head of Homeland Security for the state of….well, for this household. Mom is feeling a bit under the weather today so she asked me to do a blog post for her. (Ok, you’re right, she has no idea I’m doing this.) Typing on a computer with paws is no easy feat, let me tell you!

I have to say I am looking pretty dapper in my handkerchief, don’t you think? So as I was saying, I’m in charge of all the security here and I must say I do an amazing job. All visitors to the property must first pass my inspection or I sound the red alert. Mom says I sound the alert before I know what’s there, but she doesn’t have my keen sense of hearing. I don’t want you to think we security folks don’t have a soft side too and this brings me to my post today. I had a rather rough day…it all started when Mom found my friend, Piggy, and decided that piggy was very dirty and stinky. (I thought he smelled lovely.)

“Ewww! It’s time we wash this toy, Rusty!”, she said. Toy?? That is my dear friend and…where are you taking him??! 😦

And just like that poor Piggy was getting scrubbed.

Do you know how hard it is to be without your best friend?! I did my best to keep a close eye on the proceedings and offer Piggy some moral support.

Finally the washing was done and I thought I would soon have my friend back when Mom said Piggy also needed surgery.

SURGERY??? Oh, my word, this is getting serious! I was at least allowed in the operating room, I’m thankful to say.

I was able to offer a few licks and words of encouragement. I am so proud of Piggy for the way he went through the entire surgery and never cried at all. I will confess to a few whimpers myself, but it’s always harder on the one waiting, isn’t it?

The surgery was successful, but then Piggy had to go to the recovery room for a while. Piggy reported that the sunshine was lovely, but it was very hard for me to let him rest without me. (Yes, if you really must know, I got myself banned from the recovery room…)

After many, many hours…ok, maybe not many, but it was a looooong time…Piggy was released from the hospital! I was so relieved to be back with my buddy! He did smell a bit weird, but I gave him some licks and I’m sure he will be back in good smelling order soon.

So as you can see, even we brave security guys, who aren’t afraid of anything, have soft hearts for those we love.

Wait, what was that?! Sound the alarm! ARRROOOOO! Hold on there…was that thunder? Gotta run folks! There’s a place under the desk in the back bedroom that needs me to check it out urgently….

Easy Cheesy Bread Snack

Is your belly grumbling for something tasty to eat? Is your mouth tired of eating the same things all the time? Let’s try a fun but simple way to liven up some bread! We’ll call it Easy Cheesy Bread! Doesn’t this look delicious? 🙂

Let’s start out with some Italian bread, though feel free to try whatever bread you have on hand. I found this little loaf of Italian bread at our local grocery store and it seemed the perfect size for 2 people.

This snack only needs some butter, grated parmesan cheese and maybe garlic powder in addition to the bread. Another item that will make it extra tasty is some pasta sauce…but I’m getting ahead of myself! First cut the bread into slices and place them on a cookie sheet with some parchment paper covering the pan for easy clean up.

Spread some softened butter on each slice of bread.

If you like garlic flavor, sprinkle some garlic powder on each piece of bread next. The Easy Cheesy Bread is still yummy without the garlic powder if garlic is not your thing.

Sprinkle a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese onto each slice of bread.

Pop the tray of bread slices into the oven on broil. Keep a close eye on the bread so it doesn’t burn! The time needed to toast the bread will depend on the broil temperature you use and what type of oven you have. Just watch the bread till it starts to turn brown and smells delicious! It only took a few minutes when I made these.

You can eat the Easy Cheesy Bread just like it is or for an added bonus, heat up some pasta sauce in a cup and dip your bread in it. MMmmm! So tasty!

That’s how simple it is to make Easy Cheesy Bread! Try some and make your mouth AND your stomach happy! 😉

Riddle Time!

Wow, life has sure been getting in the way of my time to post to this blog! We are in the middle of remodeling our house and if your luck is anything like ours, you know how these projects go…you start a SIMPLE project and it turns into many more steps than you planned on! Whew! But while my hubby is staining some trim pieces, I’m jumping on here to say hello! Let’s look at some riddles today and give ourselves a giggle break, ok? 🙂

#1.) How do frogs make breakfast?

Answer: The use a toad-ster!

#2.) What do you call an elephant in a tiny car?

Answer: Stuck!

#3.) What does it mean when you find a horseshoe?

Answer: That some poor horse is walking around in his socks!

#4.) What is it called when a snowman has a temper tantrum?

Answer: A melt-down!

#5.) What do you get when you drop a pumpkin from the 10th floor?

Answer: Squash!

#6.) What did Obi-Wan Kenobi say at the restaurant?

Answer: “Use the fork, Luke!”

#7.) Why are frogs always so happy?

Answer: They eat whatever bugs them!

#8.) What do you call a train carrying bubble gum?

Answer: A chew-chew train!

#9.) When do ducks get up each day?

Answer: At the quack of dawn!

#10.) What was the kitten’s favorite subject in school?

Answer: Mew-sic!

I hope these brought a smile to your face and a giggle in your belly! 🙂

Let’s Make a Leprechaun for St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 🙂 Did you remember to wear green? I hope nobody pinches you if you forgot! Today’s post is about making a leprechaun out of a paper plate! Sound fun? Let’s get started!

You will need a small paper plate that is blank on the back, some orange yarn (I couldn’t find solid orange yarn), glue, scissors, a peach or tan crayon, a black marker, green construction paper, a set of large wiggly eyes (or draw your own eyes) and some scraps of black, yellow and orange construction paper.

You will create your leprechaun on the BACK of the plate. Depending on how you look at the pictures, you might think we used the front, but we didn’t. 😉 Use the peach or tan crayon to color the back of the plate. It’s rather hard to see in the picture because the color is so light, sorry.

It’s time to make the leprechaun’s hat. Using the green construction paper, cut out a simple hat.

Use a strip of black paper to add a band to the hat.

Now we’ll make the buckle for the hat. Cut a square from the yellow paper that is a little bit larger than the height of the black band. Cut a small square from the black paper that is smaller than the yellow square. Glue the black square in the center of the yellow square.

Glue the buckle in the center of the black band on the hat.

To glue the hat onto the leprechaun’s face, apply glue to the top portion of the plate where the hat will touch.

Press the hat onto the plate.

Next cut 2 eyebrow shapes from the scrap of orange paper. Glue them on just below the bottom of the hat.

Glue on the wiggly eyes or draw on some eyes with the black marker.

Now draw on a bit of a nose and a mouth.

Cut a bunch of yarn pieces around 3 1/2 – 4″ long. You will need a lot of them! Lol This bunch is just a start. 😉 I used 102 pieces of yarn.

Put a small line of glue on the plate where the leprechaun’s chin would be. Lay the ends of the pieces of yarn on the glue, lining them up evenly.

Continue adding pieces of yarn until the leprechaun’s beard is as full as you want it to be.

And you’re finished! Great job! Your leprechaun is now ready for St. Patrick’s Day! Better keep an eye on him because leprechauns can be pretty sneaky and they love to play tricks on people! 😉 Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 🙂

Easy No-Bake Snack for Valentine’s Day

Hello again! Hope you are “enjoying” winter (does anyone enjoy winter?!) and are staying healthy! We have been busy busy bees here! We tore up the old carpet in our living room and hallway and hope to lay down a new floor soon! As most remodeling projects go, we keep running into snags and things that have to be fixed first and the days have been flying by without me getting to chat with you. I am determined to change that today! 🙂 So how about an easy snack idea for Valentine’s Day that you probably have the ingredients for and makes up pretty quickly? It’s called Peanut Butter Energy Bites. There are many ways to make these and I have a couple of suggestions that depend on the age of your children. Here we go!

If your kids are a little older, you can make these with uncooked oatmeal. If your kids are pretty young yet, I would go with crushed graham crackers. The oatmeal makes them more chewy, but blending the oatmeal in a food processor or blender helps with that some. My favorite way is using graham crackers.

You will need 1 Cup oatmeal OR crushed graham crackers, 1/2 Cup peanut butter or your favorite nut butter, 1/3 Cup honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, a dash of salt and 1/2 Cup mini chocolate chips. To make these a little fancier for Valentine’s Day you might also want to have some sprinkles on hand.

Put all the ingredients into a medium sized bowl.

Mix well. It will be a stiff dough. Take a couple of minutes to make sure all the dry ingredients are completely mixed in. The dough will look different depending on which ingredients you chose. Here’s with the oatmeal…

Here’s with the graham crackers…

Using rounded teaspoon sized portions of dough, make the dough into balls. Place on a cookie sheet on a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper.

To make them pretty for Valentine’s Day, roll them in some sprinkles. Pop them in the refrigerator to make them more firm and easier to handle. No baking required! I also stored mine in the refrigerator.

Whether you choose to use oatmeal…

Or crushed graham crackers…

I think you will find these little snack balls to be very addicting! (We won’t mention how many I may have eaten today!) 😉 You can switch these up by trying different ingredients. Use a nut butter in place of the peanut butter or instead of chocolate chips add raisins, cranberries, white chocolate chips, chopped peanuts, coconut flakes, cinnamon, etc…the sky’s the limit! 🙂 Enjoy!

Cold & Snowy Jokes Time

Oh my goodness, it is COLD outside!! Are you freezing where you live? (If you are warm, can I come visit you?!) It’s January weather in Ohio and this morning it was -14 degrees with a windchill of -26 degrees! Yes, those are minus signs in front of the numbers! Yikes!! And we have plenty of snow…it seems to snow more almost every day. It’s beautiful to look at…from inside a warm house! 😉

I thought it would be fun to share some wintertime jokes with you. Maybe laughing can make us feel warmer? It’s worth a try, right? 🙂

#1.) What did the icy road say to the car?

Answer: “Do you want to go for a spin?”

#2.) What do you call a snowman in the summer?

Answer: A puddle!

#3.) What do you get when you cross a vampire with a snowman?

Answer: Frostbite!

#4.) What do snowmen eat for breakfast?

Answer: Frosted Flakes and Ice Krispies!

#5.) What did one snowman say to the other snowman?

Answer: “Do you smell carrots?”

#6.) What kind of ball doesn’t bounce?

Answer: A snowball!

#7.) What falls but never gets hurt?

Answer: Snow!

#8.) What do snowmen call their kids?

Answer: Their chill-dren!

#9.) What do you get if you cross a wizard and a blizzard?

Answer: A cold spell!

#10.) What did the snow say to the road?

Answer: “I’ve got you covered!”

I hope these jokes cheered you up and made your insides warm! 😉 Grab a blanket and some hot chocolate and stay warm!

Bluey for Breakfast!

Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by! Raise your hand if you love Bluey! Ok, now how would you like to have Bluey for breakfast? 😉 If you don’t know who Bluey is, here is a picture of Bluey that I took at our local store.

We have a couple of grandkids that love Bluey! A sweet friend of mine shared the following picture with me. (Thanks, Carolyn!)

(Sorry I don’t know who originally posted this, but it’s awesome!) After seeing this picture I decided to have a go at making a Bluey for breakfast at our house. Here’s how I did mine:

I started out with 2 pieces of bread. The first slice of bread I added peanut butter to the top portion, a little strip of butter to make it look white and then I used blueberry cream cheese on the bottom to make it blue. (A blue or purple jelly would work as a substitute for the cream cheese.)

Using the second slice of bread, I cut 2 triangles to use for ears. I put peanut butter on them too.

Next I used a slice of orange cheese to make 2 small triangles for the inside part of the ears.

I then placed these items on a plate with the ears at the top.

A white or whitish slice of cheese came next. I used a k-cup to cut around and made 2 circles in the cheese.

Yep, you guessed it, these are part of Bluey’s eyes.

I cut a banana into 1-2″ pieces and used the straightest piece for the nose.

2 small slices of banana cut in half provided Bluey with eyebrows.

3 blueberries on the eyes and end of the nose supplied the finishing touch! And I present to you….Bluey for breakfast! 🙂

I think Bluey turned out very cute! This is a fun breakfast to make for your kids! And maybe even more fun if they help you make it! One last note, my husband thought Bluey tasted pretty yummy! 😉

New Lego Minifigures!

Yes, it’s true! There is another new series of Lego minifigures! Are we excited?! Yes, we are! 🙂 This one is Series 27.

They seem to be random characters but they are pretty cool! 🙂 Here’s all 12 in the series:

And now these are some closer up pictures with the name of each minifigure below the picture. I found these pictures on the Lego website.

You want to know if I bought any? Well, of course, I had to try them out for you! 😉 I bought 2 and these are the ones I got:

Cupid…how cute is this?!

And the Longboarder.

Now, which ones are you hoping to find? I think they are all pretty amazing, but if I had to pick just one I would like to have the Cat Lover…or maybe the Plush Toy Collector. 🙂

Happy hunting! 🙂

Kids Book Challenge 2025

Well, we are off and running with our new year! I have always felt that reading to or with children is very important in giving them a great start in life. I wanted to make reading a fun challenge for you and your kids and so I’ve come up with a book reading challenge for 2025. 🙂 I’ve compiled a list of types of books you can read. They are not specific titles but rather things like reading “A book with a red cover”. This way it can be adapted to the age of the children you are reading with. For instance, reading a book about a dragon could be a picture book or it could be a higher level chapter book. Please feel free to adapt the list to suit your family’s needs! First I’ll give you the challenge list and then I’ll share some examples of books that fit the different descriptions. Let’s see if we can challenge each other to read 25 books in 2025! Kudos to anyone that reads more! 🙂 Oh, one more thing…a book can only fulfill one spot in the challenge. 😉

Kids Book Challenge 2025

1.) A book with a dog character 23.) First book in a series

2.) A book with a red cover 24.) A book with magic

3.) A book about making a craft 25.) A book with a kid detective

4.) A book with a number in the title

5.) A book with a cat character

6.) A book recommended by a friend

7.) A book with an orange cover

8.) A book with rhyming words

9.) A children’s magazine

10.) A book about an unusual animal

11.) A joke or riddle book

12.) A book with a blue cover

13.) A book with chapters

14.) A book about a dragon

15.) A book that teaches you how to draw

16.) A book that has a mystery

17.) A book about a bird

18.) A coloring book

19.) A book about a monkey

20.) A book that is also a movie

21.) A book with a mouse character

22.) A book with a green cover

Kids Book Challenge 2025 Download

There’s the link for downloading the book challenge if you would like to print a copy.

Now for a few examples of books that might fit the descriptions.

This book could fit #3…a book about making a craft.

This book matches #21…book with a mouse character.

This one works for #9…a magazine

How about this book for #15…teaching you to draw.

Here’s a good book for #8 with rhyming words.

This book could be for a chapter book in #13 or #14 about a dragon. But it can only count for one! 😉 Oh, it also works for #24, a book with magic!

This one fits well for #1 about a dog or #7 a book with an orange cover.

Any Curious George book would work for #19 a book about a monkey.

Just one more example could be this book for #16 with a mystery, #23 first book in a series or #25 about a kid detective.

I hope these examples will give you some great ideas to get started on your book challenge! You can do the books in any order! Just see if you can get them all read in 2025!

Happy reading!! 🙂

Happy New Year 2025!

And just like that, 2024 is done and we’ve opened up a brand new year!

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? It could be a fun time to start some new habits with the kids. Maybe make up a chart with some boxes to check off each day when they complete a chore or activity. A chore could be making their bed or cleaning up their toys and an activity could be reading a book together or doing a simple craft. Some folks are really into making New Year’s resolutions and some folks think they are silly. To each his own! 🙂

Let’s start our new year together with a bit of silliness. Today I’m sharing some things that have made me grin or even laugh out loud when I saw them. I hope they will brighten your day! 🙂