Our weekend consisted of birthday festivities for Nathan and he turned 8 years old on Saturday! Oh my! Really… OH MY GOODNESS, where does time go? I can vividly remember him being a baby… all of the baby fat rolls he had (yes, believe it or not he was a chubby baby!), my Gymboree obsession for cute (yes, they had them!) boy clothes and his love for wheels… But, now he is an 8 year old… 8 years away from having a (gulp) drivers license. He is into video games, go-karts and he still loves his Hot Wheels… my boy has grown up. It makes me want to cry big crocodile tears… seriously. I love the boy he has turned into, but why does time fly by so quickly? We had a really terrific weekend celebrating his birthday and we even got a 5k in (me and Brian) and kid races at the Zoo on Sunday! Autumn also had a dance rehearsal for her upcoming recital… these weekends before school gets out are always CRAZY town! The kids have ONE more week of school and then… I will be a stay at home mom of two kiddos on summer vacation!!! WOWZERS. But, don’t worry… we have a lot of fun things planned so stay tuned for our awesome summer bucket list… But, for now… before I share this weeks meal plan with you, I have some photos from Nathan’s birthday party from this weekend!
The night before Nathan turned 8… my sweet boy sleeping one last time as a 7 year old. Sigh…
We did a DINOSAUR party for Nathan and this is the table… minus the food… OOPS. We had Domino’s pizza (Nathan’s fave), a fruit and veggie tray from my Mom and of course McArthurs cake. We didn’t do a ‘friends’ party this year, because we have decided to do one every other year.
I did make Nathan and Autumn little dinosaur favor buckets for fun. They were really simple and did the trick.
Nathan eating his pizza… he can chow done this pizza big time.
My Mom got a pretty decent photo of all of us before we started opening gifts.
My Mom got Nathan this pretty cool go-kart, he really wanted a go-kart for his birthday, because one of the neighbor kids has a REAL one. This one is not a real go-kart (they are pretty dang pricey!), but it was on clearance at ToysRUs and it will ride on the grass even… not bad, I’d say!
Every birthday I let the kids buy for their sibling… Autumn bought Nathan a water slide… gee, that will be fun for mom to set up 😉 
Nathan’s big gift from us was a new game system, we decided upon the Playstation 4 (PS4) and got him two games for it. We have a wii from 2008, so it was time for a new game system. We got him Skylanders Swap Force and Need for Speed.
Autumn also got a little gift… she LOVES Barbies right now and well… Barbie has a doggy that goes poopy… it was a big hit.
Nathan taking his go-kart for a spin… we are lucky, there is a huge parking lot space a couple of houses down from us… it is really their driveway, but it is a pretty big area and they don’t mind if Nathan drives his car in it. They also have a basketball hoop, which is nice, too! 🙂
Autumn taking a spin… it was nice of her brother to share 🙂
I got this pinata at the party store and it was almost as tall as Autumn! Here is Nathan posing by it before he gave it a swing.
Autumn giving the pinata a wack with the bat.
There’s a hole! Nathan is peaking in to see what I filled the pinata with!
This photo is from my phone, but here is Nathan hitting the pinata and all of the candy pouring out of it. I took this JUST at the right time. Sweet.
Getting their candy… 
I thought this was a cute photo I took of Nathan laying in the grass with his broken pinata, spinning a spinner toy that he confiscated from it.
Nathan’s cake from McArthurs… I let him pick it out this year. Some years Brian and I feel like making and decorating his cakes, some years we just want to buy it! This was a year where we just wanted to buy it and not deal with the extra hassle. 🙂
Blowing out his candles. I am so honored to be this sweet boys momma. I love him dearly and it was yet another wonderful birthday celebration with him!
Sorry, that was a little bit of a photo overload, but I always take way too many photos on their birthdays! Are you ready for this weeks meal plan???
Menu Plan for Week of May 18, 2014:
Sunday – Frozen Pizza
We will be running around like crazy on Sunday, with a 5K in the morning, the kids racing after us and then Autumn has her dance rehearsal that afternoon. Frozen pizza is always tasty and easy for those days filled with way too many activities.
Monday – Bourbon Chicken with White Rice, recipe HERE
Recently, I have been rotating this dish with tacos every other week, because the kids LOOOOVE it. I must admit, it is one of my favorite meals I make around here… the sauce is to DIE for and I just leave out the red pepper flakes on the kids plates.
Tuesday – BLT’s with chips
Brian and I had BLT’s with chips a few weeks ago for dinner and it was actually really easy and pretty darn tasty. We have been craving them ever since we had them last, so since the kids won’t be around for dinner this night, we are going to enjoy some BLT’s with chips! The kids have never had BLT’s, but I really don’t think they’d like them… just a hunch.
Wednesday – Mini Meatloaves with Mashed Potatoes, recipe HERE
These delicious freeze ahead mini meatloaves were my last Monthly Freezer Meal blog post! I haven’t made them for the kids yet, but I am sure they are going to love them, because they enjoyed the meatloaf we had at the YMCA Trout Lodge last time we were there. Both of my kids love mashed potatoes, so I will be serving them with the taters as a side.
Thursday – Cheesy Potatoes with Smoked Sausage, recipe HERE
Easy and DELICIOUS! Who can resist cheesy hash browns with sausage mixed in? Who? NO ONE!
Friday – Leftovers
We will have some leftovers from the cheesy hash brown sausage bake, so that is what we will be having for dinner on Friday night! It is also the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, so I wanted to do something fun with the kids after school… so, no time to waste on prepping dinner, right?!
Saturday – Dinner Out
Brian and I are planning a little date night, not sure where we will go to dinner at yet. And, it doesn’t matter where we go, because just his company is enough to make anything grand!
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