The 2009 Fabulous Food Network Magazine Challenge – Resurrected

Last summer we started a challenge where we were going to make every recipe in the June /July 2009 Edition of the Food Network Magazine. There are a total of 67 recipes listed in the index and we made it to 25.

We got a bit sidetracked by two family surgeries, one on Trevor to correct a broken nose born of a gymnastics vault where he decided to land on his face instead of his feet, and one for me to correct a knee born of, well, a life not lived sitting on the sidelines.

In talking to the kids about our plans for this summer more than one asked about “that food thing we did last year”. Unanimously we’ve all agreed to resurrect the challenge for this summer, to finish what we had started.

So even though it’s 2010 we are going to complete The 2009 Fabulous Food Network Magazine Challenge.

2009 June/July Food Network Magazine

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Summer vacation begins in 3, 2, …

Today is the last day of school for my high-schoolers. Tomorrow is the last day of school for my middle, upper elementary, and elementary aged schoolers.

And just like that another school year is over.

We have one child becoming a high school senior, one very gladly leaving Freshman year, one becoming the top dog at middle school and two leaving their current schools to go to new ones in the fall.

The sixth one? Oh he’s still sleeping home for the summer from college.

Lazy summer days coming

I have about 43 hours left to myself and then with the bang of the summer vacation gun, we are off.

What Is There To Do? Help For Having A Thrifty (and fun) School Vacation

Make a Thrifty To-do list for School Vacations

School Spring vacation is coming up here in New Hampshire. It signals the end of our long hard winters and the beginning of weather nice enough so that we can finally get outside.

No sooner does the vacation seem to start however, when the invariable “what is there to dos?” start coming out of the kids mouths as sure as those red breasted robins come to our lawns. Kids need something to do to replace the structure of their days at school

Many families choose this time to take travel vacations. Invariably my kids will come home with a long list of their friends who are going to Disney World or some other exciting spot. But with the cost of 6 kids, that’s just not an option for my husband and me.

For me, the challenge as a mom is always to create a vacation that is exciting enough so that the kids will be happy but without me spending a lot of money. Just how do you make a stay at home vacation fun and exciting when you have kids?