"That was the best dinner ever Mom!"

Who made the "best dinner ever" this Mom right here :)
Lily started a round of gratitude from my children, everyone professed their love and adoration for not only my cooking but for me as the "bestest" Mom ever! Even Jericho added his two cents with a quick "tank ooh" translation...thank you.
What was this amazing dinner you are probably wondering...why Banana split french toast of course.

You need:

Texas Toast- 1 loaf

Peanut Butter

Bananas, peeled and sliced- 2 or 3

Strawberries, sliced- 1 pint

Chocolate Chips- 2 cups

Eggs or Egg Beaters, beaten in shallow dish- 1/2 dozen

Canola Oil (*I didn't use)

Cinnamon, dash

Vanilla, dash

                                                                          How to:

Instructions

1. Heat canola oil in non-stick skillet over medium-high heat * Didn't do this, warmed up the griddle.
2. Spread peanut butter on two slices of bread, top side only
3. On one bread slice, arrange banana slices, strawberries and chocolate chips on top of peanut butter
4. Place second slice of bread on top, and while holding sandwich together dip both sides into egg, cinnamon and  vanilla batter.
5. Cook sandwich in oil- flipping once- until crispy brown on both sides *Didn't make ours this way. I just made them on my griddle like a grilled cheese, turned out fine.
6. Slice sandwich in half, serve and enjoy!

They were dang good! Mmm need to do dinner for breakfast more often.

Finger lickin' chicken.

I can't believe I have never posted this recipe before. Crispy Ranch Chicken!  Quick, easy, delicious...win-win! It has been a long time favorite, the kids even LOVE it!, I somehow forgot to add to my list of dishes we like up above on my What's cookin', Good lookin' page. So here ya go...

You need:

2 cups of rice crispy cereal

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 packet of ranch dressing mix

2 egg whites

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Combine the cereal, parmesan and ranch packet in a large bowl, mix.

In a medium bowl beat the two egg whites.

Dip each piece of chicken in the egg whites and then in the cereal mix, coat well and evenly.

Place on baking sheet and bake until done...usually 20-25 minutes. 1 thigh sets you back about 200 calories and 9 grams of fat.

 

Ready to cook.

Mmm this is so yummy, you will thank me :)

My little Bug lost her second tooth! Of course Haddie is all upset all over again that none of her teeth are falling out.

Looks like the Tooth Fairy will be by with another sparkly dollar :)

Now that vacation and the house remodel are both behind us I get to look forward to moving and getting the triplets FIFTH (what, when, how??) birthday planned.

Speaking of parties, what is the deal with RSVPing? Is it really that hard to call, text or email...heck even a message on Facebook?
Do people know how much planning, work and stress go into a kids birthday party...I mean they must since most often you are inviting your kids friends, so obviously their parents must be in the know, right?
For the love of God RSVP people.
The party hosts would like to know they have enough room for everyone, they would like to know they have enough food to feed your child, they would like to know they have enough goodie bags for everyone so your child isn't left out because you couldn't take 2 minutes to respectfully RSVP.
I am not writing this so much for my parties, I am very lucky and our friends and family do quite well with RSVPing, but I have seen this mess first hand at more that one kids party. It is never good when a little one is crying because they were a goodie bag or a cupcake short.

Another day, another Princess party!

Our little friend Kenzie had her own Rapunzel party today...my girls are in Princess Heaven LOL.
We spent a fun couple of hours playing and enjoying a yummy meal, I even tried sushi for the first time...and it was good :)
It has been raining, practically nonstop, since we got home from vacation, so the kids have been cooped up a lot. It was awesome getting them out and letting them burn some energy and play.

We had a little dress up fun!

Princess Lily :)

Xander and Jericho got to do a little dressing up too LOL.

I'm not sure if he did this to himself or if his sisters put him in the skirt...either way he didn't take it off until it was time to go :)

Princess Haddie.

After party at Kenzie's house...the kiddos were tired and went right to bed when we got home, score!

Pretty Princess party.

We have been home a couple days, and I am still tired LOL. We have already been asked when we are going back to Disneyland...and back to Auntie Allies :)

The kiddos got to go to their friend Bella's birthday party today. They adore Bella, and boy does she always have a great shin dig!

Little funny tid bit first. Jason and I were having an, um, enthusiastic discussion on the way to the party. I tend to get a little loud, hey I'm 1/4 Italian...it is just what we do.  From the back seat Xan pipes up and says "that hurts my ears." The Haddie says "that hurts my mouth." Then, like almost on cue, I kid you not Lily says "that hurts my eyes." Jason and I looked at each other and I said did they really just do the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil thing...and we busted up laughing? I have no idea where that came from but it was hilarious, and got their Dad off the hook...good one guys.

The birthday princess!

It was a Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder kinda day...so fun!

Xander was so very impressed with the Prince.

Jericho napped in the car...he is like where are we? LOL

Face painting!

Butterfly and Lady Bug...of course.

Then Xander was ready for his Spider man face paint.

Story time with Rapunzel.

Lunch and cake Mmmm.

The girls asked her if she remembered them from Disney LOL.

We tried something new for dinner tonight. It was pretty good.

Cheeseburger casserole.
We doubled this.

1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped dill pickles
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup
1 - 1.5 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cups Cheddar cheese, sliced or grated (more if you want)
1 can 8 oz can Crescent Roll
1 Tbsp Milk
1 - 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
-Brown meat and onion.
-Add 1/4 of garlic dill pickle, dice, 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1/2 cup water and 1 to 1.5 Tbsp mustard. Stir together.
-Pour it all into a casserole dish.
-Next, you'll need an 8 oz tube of crescent rolls, enough cheese to fit in a layer in the casserole, about a Tbsp of milk, and sesame seeds. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of cheese, I didn't really think it needed that much. If you were grating cheese, this is about 3/4 cup. Layer the cheese over top of the beef mixture.
-Then lay the crescent rolls out on top, brush milk on the top, and add the sesame seeds. 
-Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Disneyland in just ONE day!

We had just one day to spend at Disneyland, I know we missed a lot but even spending 13 hours there you can only do so much in one day. This was the first time our kiddos got to enjoy the magic of this place...and, as we suspected, it was a HUGE hit with everyone! It was a spendy day, Jericho was free since he is 2, but paying the way for 5 to get in was painful LOL. We for sure won't be back for quite a while. It was totally worth it, and at 2 1/2 and almost 5 the kids were at such a great age to go. So many wonderful memories were made today....and many many pictures were taken Hahaha. I took about 600, so consider yourself lucky that I am only posting about 115 of those ;)

We started off with the character breakfast. It was great to get a good meal in the kids before we spent the whole day walking around...bonus lots of Disney friends came to us for hugs and autographs. We brought a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly (tip bring plastic jars...glass is not allowed in) and a loaf of bread for lunch...trying to keep the costs down a little. We also brought snacks...that is where they get you LOL.

Chip was the first friend we met.

Aww Xan and Chip :)

Lily was on excitement overload a lot today, so a number of my pics of her have the shoulder shrug "Oh my gosh I can't stand it!" thing going on LOL.

Captain Hook...he was funny.

Tigger!

Jericho loved all the characters, I didn't think he would be scared...but you never know.

The kids loved getting autographs.

Tigger doing some bouncing.

High fives :)

The girls almost had a conniption when they saw Minnie. They showed her their dresses...Minnie seemed to approve :)
The kids outfits were a big hit all over the park today actually...nice job Grandma!

Big hugs!

From little man too.

Nice pose Minnie :)

Blowing some goodbye kisses.

After breakfast we were off.

There was so much to see, Jericho wandered off on us one time...little turd.

I wish this picture wasn't so blurry...it is not every day that I capture such a huge smile on Haddie...she usually smirks for the camera LOL.

We had to stand in line to meet Rapunzel. This was new for me...I remember waiting in lines for rides, not so much to meet the characters. But then it has been probably 15 years since I was here last. We were hoping that going on a mid May weekday it wouldn't be too packed. I can't really say what is packed or not, but we never waited more that 30 min or so for any ride, so I'm guessing we picked a good day.

So cute...there go Lily's shoulders again Hahaha.

Time for their first "ride." We took it slow and started off with the Teacups...we were not too sure if we would have ride lovers or ride leavers LOL.

Jericho did a really good job waiting in lines for the most part...thankfully Dad could put Jericho up on his shoulders when he was getting too antsy.

The teacups were a hit, I think we have ride lovers!

Yeehaw!!!

Such fun!

Next up we went to what we guessed would be one of Lily's favorite spots...Pixie Hollow!

A little shoulder time...how handsome are they?! :)

The bigs were being entertained by the line keepers...he took them off to spy on the fairies through the gigantic grass. They were running back screaming because they got spotted :)

It is our turn...flying off to meet Tink and Rosetta!

Eeekkk!

The boys were little mac daddies...Rosetta especially was a gonner LOL.

Look at Jericho's smile...awww!

The girls loved meeting Tinkerbell and Rosetta, a highlight for sure :)

So cute!

Poor Rosetta, she didn't stand a chance Hehehe.

My sister Kim and two of her boys spent all day with us. We don't get to see them near enough so it was super special getting a whole 13 hours together! The extra eyes and hands were awesome too ;)
Brayden getting ready to ride the Dumbo ride with us.

Woohoo!

Carousel ride.

We bumped into Pluto in Toon Town.

Autographs are tough when you're a dog.

Goofy was in Toon Town too! He is taller than he looks on TV :)

Does this thing order food?! Hehehe.

The sunscreen was flowing...the only person that came home a little pink was yours truly, of course.

Xander went on his first solo ride...he loved it, such a brave boy!

Then we hit the farm for a bit, this guy was gorgeous.

Next up goat petting.

The kids were really nice and gentle.

I want a goat :)

Jericho loved the goats...a little too much.

He kept trying to grab their faces/noses and give them a kiss LOL, the goats did not appreciate it so much.

Sisters Wub!

Why howdy Jessie!

We did a couple more small kid rides, Pooh, Alice, Snow White....then they were ready to get serious :)

First we took a little boat ride.

The kids zeroed in on this momma and her babies.

Lily and Jericho both took short naps. Good thing we rented the strollers, even if everyone plays musical strollers there like crazy.

The big kids checked out Star Tours with Mom and Dad and their cousins, while Auntie Kimmie and Jericho hung out together :)

They make this look good  8-)

Little Toy Story laser tag ride...the kids shot pretty good for 4 1/2 year olds

Back in another line...keeping Jericho busy.

Finding Nemo sub ride.

Me and Lily on Space Mountain, she was stuck to me like glue all day today. Jason rode with Hayden and Xander went with Christian. Kimmie was nice enough to entertain Jericho for us once more.

Das Auto...have license will crash drive LOL.

Lily was not a good driver Hahaha! The others fared no better.

We let the kiddos each pick one souvneir. Jericho picked this Goofy, and had a death grip on him the rest of the night.

Xander picked a baby Simba, Lily picked a baby Rapunzel and Hayden picked a Minnie Mouse. I still have my stuffed Tramp that I got on my very first Disney trip...back when I was like 10.

Silly family pic. Such a spectacular day...wish we could spend more time here, and with our Vegas/Cali family, but it is back home tomorrow :( Oh well, back to reality...it was really great while it lasted. Something tells me I am going to need a vacation to recoup from my vacation LOL.

Peace, Love and Disney everyone :)