Family Pretzel Making (see pics at end!!!)

Many of you are aware that I have a deals blog called Ah...Deals...Beckee's Deals. Over the past year and a half since I started it, it has really grown. I have lots of followers (about 100 total on all the different sites), and I have had the excellent opportunity to review and giveaway a lot of different products. I love reviews because I get the whole family involved and we make it a huge fun family activity! One of the first I did was for a pretzel making kit last November. Below is the original post from my Deals blog, and I will add some additional pics of the kids at the end:

I told you all here that I am going to be reviewing something from the CSN Store websites. And I told you all here that I ordered a couple things: a Sassafras Kid's Pretzel Making Kit, and a Sassafras Kid's Pizza Party Baking Kit. And guess what?! Just because I needed them, and because the CSN Store websites have just about everything, I also added a set of 4 Mr Clean Magic Erasers that I needed!

Well, last night my family had a family night activity and made the Pretzels. Before I tell you about the item itself, let me tell you a couple things about the CSN Store. First, ordering was quick and easy. Second, the items came QUICKLY! I was really impressed by that! My Mr Clean Magic Erasers were here the 2nd day after ordering, and the 2 kits were here the next day. It was so quick! I was very happy with the ease of ordering and the quick delivery!

That being said, let me tell you about the Sassafras Kid's Pretzel Making Kit. It is not an overstatement to say my kids LOVED it and I thought it was a ton of fun! What a great activity to do as a family! We were able to make our own "homemade" pretzels in a quick easy way thanks to this awesome kit.  There are a few things you have to have at home (like butter, water, baking soda and a mixing bowl), but other than those few things, everything else in in the kit. It made organizing this fun activity SOOO easy and we loved working on it together! ( I should mention that my husband and I did this with all four of our kids ages 2, 4, 6, and 7) Check out our adventure through pictures:

First, look at all the great stuff that came in the package:

In case you cannot see what is all there, it has nutrition facts, directions to make pretzels, measuring cup, wooden spoon, cookie sheet, pretzel mix, salt, frosting mix, cheese sauce, yeast, and the fought over apron. Look how cute that thing was:

We let the kids do the mixing:

Then I helped with the messy hand kneading:

After rising for a half hour we made balls of the dough and rolled them into long "snakes" to make shapes out of:

Each kid made their own pretzel snakes then shaped their pretzel however they wanted it on their own (ok actually I helped the 2 year old make her pretzel shaped pretzel after she rolled out the snake...)

The shapes above include 2 pretzel shaped pretzels, a W for Wes (my husband) and a B for Beckee (me).

And the shapes in that one are the ones the kids made.  A for Army, a heart for E Dawg, a moon shape for Sugar pup, and a pretzel for Cat.  While they cooked we made the chocolate frosting and opened up the cheese sauce:

When they came out they smelled SOOOO good.  And they looked pretty good too:

Are you hungry yet?  I know I was and boy did I enjoy my pretzel!!  See:

So, are you wondering what the kids thought? This should tell you:

Overall, we thought this was a fun project as a family and we loved having a treat at the end!! I highly recommend this product and I getting it through the CSN Store website was quick and easy! You should check it out here! We cannot wait to try out our pizza party making kit!!!

***Here are some additional pics for our famliy and friends that were not included in my review:

Hope you liked those pics!

Home Surgery...

During the football season last year, Ender had a head injury. Check it out:

You may think from the pictures that it was a football injury, but it was not. He actually ran into a bar at the playground when he was not paying attention. This injury led to one of the more interesting and more talked of doctor daddy related stories in our family thus far. Wes and I were not excited to go to the ER with him as it costs a ton and we were paying out the wazoo already for Wes's Turkey bowl injury related follow up from January, and my pregnancy. Wes said he could actually easily deal with the head injury with some of the glue they use in the er. We had some, so we proceeded to do what the kids now call "home surgery". Wes wanted to make darn sure it was clean so he bought 2 contact solutions bottles (the big ones) and squirted them on the wound to clean it out as I held a screaming Ender down for what felt like an eternity.

THEN we had to put on the glue-it was a struggle with an irrational 6 year old at that point, but we did it and Wes and I felt like it was done well and worked out...but now Ender brings it up often and he will say things like "Don't run around-you'll get hurt and you will have to get HOME SURGERY!" (That Home surgery part is said in a very foreboding voice...)

I would have forgotten to include this story in this mass catch up, but Ender found the pics and INSISTED I write about it...

Soccer and Football LAST year

Well, as we are about to begin a new fall season of sports ina couple of weeks, I thought I better get the pictures from LAST year up here. How did it get a YEAR behind?! (Hey at least I did get huge events like Solace's baptism and Everest's birth in here)

Anyway, Armour played soccer and Ender opted for flag football for the first time last year. Solace was also going to play soccer but here team was cancelled due to a lack of a coach.

So, first about Armour's soccer...Armour is our natural athlete, and he is ubercompetative. He was on a team with his friend from church, Romey, and she is equally competative. They were playing against each other more than against the other teams most of the time-each of them trying to keep the ball to themselves. Armour was a great player and got lots of goals through the season and had one game where he got 10 goals. Here are a few pictures:

Now about Ender...that kids is a goofball, but he is also very talented. The very first practice was hot and he was in a mood. He kept trying to leave practice and was having major breakdowns. I kept making him go back in over and over and ignored his fit. It got MUCH better after that and he was a star quarterback on the team by the end of the season. He says he got 3 touchdowns on one game (I do not remember, but I think he did not actually run those td's in...he passed them to the guys that did). Wes was on a rotation where he could not attend many games and he could not go to any practices, so I had to take the kids on my own.

Here's a little story about football...One of the techs that Wes was working with at the time had a son on Ender's team. I never thought I would be a yeller mom on the sidelines, but as it turns out, I have a lot to say to the refs adn coaches already-high school should be interesting...

Anyway-after the first practice and first game, Wes was going to be able to come to the 2nd game. So, Wes asked the Tech, Peter, about how it had been going (before he went to the game). Peter said "Oh man-there is a mom that is so awesome-she was making her kids get back in the game and did not put up with any crap from him, the refs or the coach. I will have to point her out to you at the game." Of course at the game Peter came over to Wes who was obviously with me and said "um...I guess the lady is your wife." HAHAHA I am SOOO "THAT" mom...

Here are some of the pictures of football:

And here is a bonus pic of Wes and Kindle on the sidelines:

The boys had a lot of fun and will be returning to the sports they each played last year. This year we will add in a third sport with Solace playing Volleyball for the first time! That will be fun and busy! :)