The Search for Miss Direction: Painting by Kool-Aid and Cheese Frenchees!

As I mentioned last night, I wasn't exactly sure what today had on tap, but I was sure it was going to involve kool-aid and glue. Well, after giving it some more thought, I amended my original plan just a tad and instead decided to give painting with kool-aid a go. We had our faves the Janoch's down to join us in our adventure. Trust me, this was NOT any less messy than the glue would have been :-p It was fortunately nice enough to set up outside this morning and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves (considering mine each painted five different pictures I'd say that is a pretty safe assumption!) Even more fun - it smelled awesome!

The foursome then spent the morning and early afternoon running around here and playing together. I think it's a pretty safe bet to say everyone had fun. It makes me smile seeing them all together. We are so blessed to have such great friends living just three doors down.

Later in the afternoon my twosome got out their coloring pages and did their Nebraska maps. It was no surprise to me that kool-aid showed up on both of their pictures, but the rest of what they came up with might surprise you. (Noah has aims to become the next Warren Buffet he says. I'm not sure how I feel about that one...) Pictures of what they came up with are below, like usual.

I've been looking forward to making tonight's dinner since I came across the recipe. Apparently, in the 60's, there was a chain of restaurants called Kings Food Host (it no longer exists) and they made an incredible Nebraska treat known as the Nebraska Cheese Frenchee. (If you google it you will find endless amounts of people wistfully recalling fond memories of having this sandwich) And honestly, how can you go wrong with this? Gooey on the inside, deep fried and crunchy on the outside - artery clogging goodness, right? I knew my crew would (literally) eat these up. And thanks to my handy little deep fryer they were easy to whip up. Alright, easy may be a stretch as they are a bit of a mess, the batter itself was much thicker than I had expected. After a bit of research I ended up prepping them up ahead of time and made plenty extra which I plan on saving and using for lunches or whenever. I paired this with a recipe for Skillet Creamed Corn in honor of Nebraska's corn production and the fact that the recipe comes from Parkay, a ConAgra company.

Speaking of ConAgra, they also played a role in tonight's dessert. Containing Reddi-Wip, Crunch and Munch AND butterscotch pudding from a Hunt's Snack Pack (all from ConAgra) I made Caramel Apple Pudding Parfaits. Another easy recipe to put together and the kids loved it.

My kids look forward to tomorrow all year long as 7/11 = Free Slurpees! (This is very possibly due to the fact that when I was pregnant with both of them I CRAVED slurpees. Grant even considered investing in 7/11 stock for awhile....) Seriously, I got an email reminder about it the other day and mentioned it to them and every morning when they have been announcing how many more days until Friday. They have been planning on what flavor they want and Noah has even suggested we could go to multiple 7/11's and have multiple free slurpees (the kid is always one step ahead...) perhaps. So consider this your own notice my dear blog readers - from 11am-7pm at participating 7/11's you can get a free 12oz slurpee tomorrow! If nothing else go have one and think of Noah and the Bean as your slurp.

Besides that, TV dinners are set to make an appearance around here tomorrow and another kool-aid inspired dessert as well. Get excited ;-) And until then...

Nebraska Fun Fact of the Day: In 1937, Nebraska became the only state in the Union to have a unicameral (one-house) legislature. Members are elected to it without party designation.

Getting ready to paint

They mixed up all our colors

And were off! (Please note that Mikayla is wearing a princess crown to paint....)

Noah's stripes

Hard at work

One of the Bean's creations

After it dried (this is the one we hung up in the kitchen to represent Nebraska)

Noah's choice

Working on the cheese frenchees

Noah's Nebraska (the middle picture is him husking the corn and below it is an overhead view of a Cornhusker's football game)

He makes me smile

Kayla's Nebraska (She asked Noah for help and under the state that is her sitting in a chair getting her hair colored red with kool-aid - have I mentioned that I adore Noah? And the Bean too)