Cupcakes!!

Well today I spent most of the afternoon baking ice cream cone cupcakes for Abby to take to school tommorrow. In Abby's kindergarten class each child gets a week to be the "Lucky Duck". Each day Abby brought a toy to share and talk about with her class and then tommorrow she will bring cupcakes and her family(including all four grandparents) will come as well. I was trying to think of something fun and a little different to bring and I thought of the cupcakes my mom used to bake for our elementary bake sales. I remember being so excited for the bake sale and I would always buy the ice cream cone cupcakes my mom made. Actually making the cupcakes was not too hard, I was a little paranoid about them overflowing but that didn't happen, actually some of them were not full enough. The biggest problem I had was figuring out how to transport them. Luckily I found my plastic marinade container which has a super tall lid and was able to sqeeze 20 cupcakes in it with only minor damage to one cupcake. I have heard there is a special carrier out there so I will research this option because after sampling my efforts this afternoon, these things are awesome. I will post info about how tommorrow goes as Abby and the family are also going to teach the class our favorite game called "Colored Eggs".
On a side note, Abby found out today that she has moved up to level 3 reading. She came screaming, running , jumping off the bus "I made it to level 3!!!". She was not certain she would make it to the next level by the end of the school year but I knew she could. So Monday I will get to see what a level 3 book looks like, according to Abby they are taller and they have a yellow stripe vs the orange level 2 and the red level 1. We are very proud of Abby and her progress in kindergarten, she is truly growing up in so many ways yet still remains my sweet little girl.

Chicken Tenders

Well tonight I made my own breaded chicken tenders and am pretty proud of myself. I don't mind cooking but can think of a million other things I would rather do at 5pm each day then prepare a homemade meal. Tonight I decided to make chicken fajitas. I knew the kids did not really enjoy the seasoning for fajitas nor the peppers so I was torn what to do. I wanted us to sit together and eat as a family, I want them to learn to eat what we eat, but I am also realistic that sometimes kids just don't care for things. I decided that using the same chicken I use for fajitas I would bread and pan fry my own chicken tenders. To many this is a no brainer, no big feat, but my kids eat nuggets from McDonalds, Wendy's or Banquet frozen nuggets. So I coated the chicken in egg, flour and cornflakes and pan fried them with a little olive oil in the skillet. Meanwhile cooking the chicken/peppers/seasoning for the fajitas in another skillet. So I felt that this was a good compromise, we all had chicken, just seasoned a little different. This may seem like a silly post but sometimes it is the simplest things that make us happy. I am grateful that God allows us these simple pleasures. I didn't save a life today, I didn't do anything extra ordinary but I did try something out of my comfort zone and that's always a good thing. God's preparing me in little ways to step out of my comfort zone and do his kingdom work. I am excited to see what homemade chicken tenders leads too.