Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

Yes, you read correctly, Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes!  or you could just call them Mini Chicken Pot Pies.  Whatever you decide to call them you absolutely M-U-S-T make these little babies and eat up!They are scrum-diddly-umtious!!  Not sure if that's a word or not but it seems to fit. 

Here's whatcha need:

2 cans of Refrigerated Biscuits
2 cups of cooked and diced chicken (breast or thighs)
2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 cups of Frozen Mixed Veggies
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt
1 Tbsp Rosemary
1 Tbsp Thyme

Preheat to 350 degrees. 

Lightly grease muffin tin/s.  Flatten biscuit in your hand and then place inside of the muffin tin, press down in the bottom and up the sides.  Make like a little bowl inside the muffin tin and set aside.

Mix all other ingredients.  Scoop mixture into the well of bisuits. Bake until biscuits are a light golden brown, about 15 minutes or so. 

ENJOY!

Weekly Wrap Up - The week we studied Knights

This past week we finally learned about castles, cathedrals, knights and the code of chivalry.  We have been meaning to read about them for the last two weeks but for one reason or another we had not gotten to them. 

  

We read a great little picture about knights called Knights in Shinning Armor by Gail Gibbons.  The kids really enjoyed it.  I thought it gave a pretty detailed picture of the life of a knight.  During the reading of the book all the got dubbed a knight and had the title Sir added to their names.  They must have really enjoyed this because they continued it even when the neighbor kids came over the play later in the day. 

After reading the book the kids decided to make their own swords and shields from all of the Stampin' Up! card stock rotting away in my craft room : )

Today they are going to mount their horse (bikes) and practice jousting with lances (pool noodles of course!).  They really looking forward to this, I am just going to be praying that they are no casualties. 

This week we also read in Story of the World 2 about the code of chivalry, which I thought was pretty interesting.  Then in Medieval World, we read more on castles and cathedrals.  We had read a little about castles last week and we were blessed with some huge boxes which the kids used to build a castle, draw bridge and all.  Thanks again Erica!

This is kinda the only shield that survived the battle long enough to have it's picture taken.

As we read this week, the kids colored print outs from a medieval times coloring book for their history notebook.  We also did oral narration and discussion. 
The kids watched the cartoon Robin Hood.  We discussed the stealing that Robin and his men did and whether it was pleasing to the Lord.  I was happy to hear them say that even though giving to the poor is a good thing, stealing it not.  Yay! 

We also got back into our Apologia Astronomy book, we finished up lesson 1 and did most of lesson 2.  We just started this not to long ago and I plan to continue this in the summer.  If you have ever done the Apologia Astronomy, then you know that lesson one has you use balloons to make the planets to hang from your ceiling.  Yeah, that didn't work out so well for us - me lovely kids used up all the balloons for a water fight so I resorted to paper planets.  Such is life I guess.

The girls had their last book club on Wednesday evening, they just finished reading Treasures of the Snow.  Their WONDERFUL book club teacher invited a couple from our church that had lived in Switzerland AND knew Patricia St. John (the author).  From what I hear, they also knew
Corrie Ten Boom, a favorite of my girls, so that was an added bonus. 

Last but definitely not least, we started a new read a loud called Mr. Pipes.  I am diggin' this book!  We are reading the first one in the series (there are 4).  It is a historical fiction, with a good story line, that teaches about hymns and where they originated.  It is put out by Christian Liberty Press.  So far so good!

We also managed to accomplish math, phonics and grammar!  Praise God for a productive week.

Grammar Songs We Sing!

Did you know that there is a song for everything!  Well, almost everything. 

 

Computer Girl and I were learning about helping verbs and came across these two songs that we found helpful....

• The Helping Verbs Song
• The Helping Verb Blues
 

 

Some other helpful Grammar Songs we found are...

• Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar - Unpack Your Adjectives
• Verb Song
• Adjective Song
• Schoolhouse Rock - Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here
• Schoolhouse Rock - Nouns
• Schoolhouse Rock - Prepositions
• Preposition Song - to the Tune of Yankee Doodle

 

Do you have any songs that you recommend to help with memorizing?

 

Safe in the Arms of Jesus

by Franny Crosby

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels, borne in a song to me.
Over the fields of glory, over the jasper sea.

Refrain

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast
There by His love o’ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations, sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow, free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials, only a few more tears!

Refrain

Jesus, my heart’s dear refuge, Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages, ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience, wait till the night is over;
Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore.

Refrain

You can listen to the tune to this beautiful song here.

Special Day for the Kids

Somewhere in my inbox a week or two ago I read a post about giving kids a special day each week.  Once I read this I knew I had to incorporate it into our world. 

This past week, I did just that.  On Monday morning I explained to the kids that they would each be getting a "Special Day," each week.  I then explained that they would have special privileges on that day.  Now brace yourselves for some of these privileges, I am warning you up front some of them are pretty lame.  They are however things that are important to my kids. : )

Here's the low down on their special privileges:

• Help Mom with dinner
• Sit next to Dad during dinner
• Be 1st - in the car, to get dessert, to whatever.  I told them they could also be 1st to go to sleep but they weren't real thrilled about that one.
• To go with Mom or Dad.  If one of us runs out somewhere and we decide to take a child with us then the child who's "Special Day" it is can come and can also choose one sibling to come along if they wish.
• I am debating on adding in that they can stay up from an extra 20-30 minutes to spend one on one time with Mom or Dad.  My thought is to play a quick game of Chutes & Ladders, Uno or just chat.

I imagine that we will add a few more things to this as we go along if this "Special Day" thing sticks.  We aren't the only family that try stuff for a week or two and then it's out the window, are we??

My desire is that two wonderful things will come out of the "Special Day."  First, I am hoping to add in some extra one on one time with Mom/Dad and the kids.  The other thought is that having a "Special Day" will alleviate the kids fussing over who gets to what e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e. d.a.y!!  Yes, I admit it, my kids fuss.

So far so good, each of our little people got their "Special Day" this week.  The kids really enjoyed being first, helping with dinner or making dinner and sitting next to their Daddy-o during dinner.  The only problem that I really had was explain to Little Bits that his "Special Day" did NOT last all week long. 

Do you do anything special like this with your kids?  I would love to hear your ideas!