The Search for Miss Direction: Checkered Perfection

Spring Break rules! I will admit that at the start of this week a good piece of me was overwhelmed by all the things on the agenda but somehow everything has fallen in to place with minimal stress/anxiety on my part. I am not the best at deviating from the norm and the fact that it is Thursday and this week has been about as far from normal as possible and I have a huge grin on my face makes me feel like I might be making some progress on that front. I may be the Mama but I am still learning, too.

Anyway, after a whirlwind morning of last minute cleaning of the house and a super quick trip to the library (Thing 1 and Thing 2 were a huge help on both of these fronts) we headed over to OLS for a meeting with Mrs. Porto about Mikayla and her school year. She got an overall positive report - she's doing all the right things! I'm proud of my Bean :)

We then rushed over here just in time to meet up with a whole bunch of our MOPS friends. I had quite the houseful this morning and enjoyed every second of it. These ladies mean a great deal to me and if I can do something as simple as offer a place for all of us to hang out and drink coffee and let all the kids run around - perfect! The decision about this being 'the house' was made just for times like these.

Once everyone went their separate ways and the kiddos helped me clean up a bit they decided they wanted to brave lunch outside. The temperature here today is nearly 70 but with quite the winds. They made it through their yogurt tubes and then decided that perhaps it was time to come back in...

My office has been having some technical difficulties and I've been unable to log in for very long, so after recharging with mini naps I got the kiddos up for a quick loop around the neighborhood while the sun was still shining. We almost blew away but it was nice to get outside for awhile The clouds threatened most of the afternoon but as of right now we've only gotten a few on and off sprinkles Silly forecasters...

We came back for a snack and for them to work on their state maps this afternoon. My two haven't been overwhelmed by the Hooiser State like they were with Idaho and Illinois (though the discussion at dinner last night about the Amish people made Kayla state she wanted to go there and ride the horse and buggy so she'd be like Cinderella) so I wasn't exactly sure what they'd come up with. You'll have to let them explain below in their picture...

We had hoped they would be able to headed out to play again when Grant got home for a little bit, but we were in one of those sprinkling periods, so while I slaved away (hehe) in the kitchen, they got a few chapters of "The Wizard of Oz" in. Tonight I made Traditional Indiana Breaded Tenderloin Sandwiches. Of all the research I did into the culinary side of Indiana this one kept coming up again and again. The sandwich is said to have originated in Huntington, (near Fort Wayne) at a place called Nick's Kitchen. It was super easy and I knew it would be a good one with everyone here. I paired it with an Indiana Potato Salad. I came across this recipe and knew we'd have to try it out this week as it is something my whole crew would be on board with. (Um, potatoes, bacon and cheese - duh!) This is a hot potato salad and I will admit that I actually only made 1/4 of the recipe and I added in about 2 tbsp of sour cream for a little more tang as well. Needless to say, there is none left.

In order to have a treat at our gathering this morning I made up tonight's dessert last night. Everyone that tried them really liked the Hoosier Chocolate Chip and Peanut Bars. Alright, everyone but me - I wasn't a huge fan of the brown sugar mierengue part and found them a little too messy to be consider a typical 'cookie bar.' But what do I know ;-) Between MOPS and dessert tonight there is less than 1/3 of a 13x9 pan left so I'd say I was in the minority this time.

After dinner we split the kiddos up - one in the tub and one making this week's Indiana project - checkered flags! How could we NOT give a nod to the Indianapolis 500 with this week's craft? I (patiently) cut out the squares last night so the kiddos would just have to do the assembly. (Kristi's side note that she learned from doing this - start in a corner and work on a diagonal if you're going to do anything with a checkered pattern) The flags came out really cute and y kitchen is now almost complete overrun with state projects - I've got everything from hot air balloons, to alligators to sunflowers to license plates already and now these adorable flags, too.

Tomorrow should be more fun - hoping to catch up with Jen and Noah's friend Jonathan tomorrow as he's out of school at the same time as Noah for once! Then tomorrow night is game night with the wonderful Janoch family. Also on the agenda - did you know Indiana had it's own kind of spaghetti? And thanks to Mr. Reddenbacher we might have to try some gourmet popping corn :) So until then...

Indiana Fun Fact of the Day: Deep below the earth in Southern Indiana is a sea of limestone that is one of the richest deposits of top-quality limestone found anywhere on earth. New York City's Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center as well as the Pentagon, the U.S. Treasury, a dozen other government buildings in Washington D.C. as well as 14 state capitols around the nation are built from this sturdy, beautiful Indiana limestone.