Gorton's Skillet Crisp Tilapia Review

Gorton's now offers a delicious, lightly battered frozen Tilapia filet that cooks up quickly... and CRISPY... in just minutes!  I usually get frozen tilapia filets and either cook them with just a little lemon pepper sprinkled on or create my own crust with bread crumbs.  I'm a BzzAgent and they sent me a coupon for a free package of this new creation from Gorton's and I was definitely interested in giving it a try. 

Garlic & Herb sounded so good!

As soon as I opened the box, I could smell the yummy garlic and herb aroma... mmm!  And as it sizzled in the pan, it smelled so good.  I was worried it might not REALLY come out crispy, BUT... it actually did.  Honestly, it came out better than when I do the batter myself - 'cause oftentimes the fish ends up sticking or just getting too soft. 

And it smelled delicious in the pan!

Yummy dinner!!!

The fish was delicious, and even my young boys liked it!  I liked that it was lightly coated so that it didn't overpower the filet and yes, there was a crunch to it.   I definitely recommend this new product from Gorton's when you need a quick, healthy, tasteful meal on the table!  And I will certainly be purchasing this again, a great thing to have on hand when you have one of those days you don't want to spend much time or energy in the kitchen!

[I was given a coupon for a free package of Gorton's Skillet Crisp Tilapia, but have not been otherwise compensated.  The review posted above is my own, honest opinion.  "I got it free from BzzAgent."]

Fisher-Price House Party!

I love being part of House Party, y'all, and this morning I hosted the best House Party yet!  I was excited to be accepted for the Fisher-Price new toys campaign, but I had no idea what I would be receiving until a 57-pound box landed on my door step a few weeks ago!  

Can we open it? Now? Can we? Huh? Please?

FIFTY-SEVEN POUNDS of toys, and actually... more than that, because a second box followed a few days later with even more things for the goody bags!  Crazy!

A few days after that giant box arrived, we couldn't take it anymore and just had to open it and at least peek at what was inside!

Just a peek, boys.

Um, ok, maybe more than a peek!

Wowzers.  We didn't take anything out of it's packaging, but boy did we drool over these fun toys!  

And finally, last night, we pulled the box out again and started unloading the stuff.  The first thing we put together was the Fisher-Price Little People Disney Princess Songs Palace.  Wow, say that three times fast, eh?  Let me tell you something, it's cute, but my gosh, it was a booger to put together!  We tried about seven different screw drivers to find one that was thin enough to get down these little tubes yet big enough to catch the cross of the screws.  I finally got everything put together only to discover that it required 3 AAA batteries, and all we were sent was AA.  So, my sweet husband had to run to the store for us so we'd be ready for our morning party!  Thank you, husband!  Anyway, the castle came with Cinderella and Snow White Little People, but we also received two 2-packs: Cinderella (in a wedding dress) with Prince Charming and Ariel with Aurora.  I didn't figure my boys would care much for this one, but Callen proved me wrong.  He enjoyed playing with the princesses... he liked shoving them out of the castle windows.  Not even kidding.  He's 2, he knows how to play with girl stuff.  Ha!

My husband then stepped in and put together the Fisher-Price Wheelies Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park.  He did it super fast, super easy.  Figures.

Next I put together all of the Fisher-Price Servin' Surprises sets... the Barbeque Set, the Birthday Set, the Tea Party set, the Highchair set, the Ice Cream Party set, and then finally the entire Kitchen & Table, which went together quite easily with the two of us working together. 

When the boys woke up the next morning and came into the living room, it looked like Christmas morning had come early.  Nope, sorry kiddos, it's just the first day of Fall!

Santa came early! 

Finally, guests began to arrive and the party could start.  The kids dove right in... slightly unsure of what to play with first! Parents stood around amazed at all the fun stuff I got sent... FOR FREE!  Lol.  Yep, House Party is awesome!!!

The girls especially enjoyed the Palace.

Feeding the baby... monkey.  I have boys, we don't have dolls.

Servin' up pizza and birthday cake!

The older boys playing with the roller coaster!

Who wants ice cream?!

Having fun!!

Chaos, kids and toys everywhere!

Everything is just so much fun!

Even the littlest one is enjoying himself.

The Loops 'n' Swoops was a hit!

The Kitchen & Table was a hit too!

Of course, it wasn't long till sheer chaos ensued, but the kids had an absolute blast. It was really difficult to tell which toy was the winner out of the bunch, because they honestly ALL played with it ALL.  Thankfully there was very little issues with sharing, and they all got to play with everything in turn or together, and they just all seemed to love each thing.  The kids ranged from one-year to 6-years-old.  And, yes, even the 5 and 6-year-olds had fun with this stuff, of course!  I enjoyed showing my friends how the Servin' Surprise Kitchen & Table switched from, well, kitchen to table and back, and also how all the other Servin' Surprise accessories worked separately or with the table.  Many of the parents were VERY interested in these toys for their kids, so I'd say they were a big hit with EVERYONE!  In addition to the play time, each guests left with a great goody bag filled with a Fisher-Price Little People coloring book, CD, DVD, coupons, playing tip cards, a Wheelies Car and more!

Yay, fun stuff to take home!

Thank you, Fisher-Price and House Party, for this great time had by all!!!

For the record, my favorite items were the Ice Cream Party set and the Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park.  But, seriously, it was all a lot of fun to play with!

[I was not compensated by Fisher-Price or House Party to give a review of these items. I  was provided with the toys listed above in exchange for hosting a party to show them off, nothing more.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own.  This post does contain Amazon affiliate links.  By clicking these links and purchasing an item, I would receive a small compensation.]

Homeschool Recap, July 20th (Week 2)...

In my life this week...
Getting my recap post up a bit late.  Friday got away from me, as did most of Saturday.  Friday, after we finished school, we met with a friend from our home school group and the kids played at the indoor playground at McDonald's.  Yay for getting some energy out INDOORS when it's 100+ degrees outside!  Today was at least 105, I believe.  Yuck!  Today I had a booth at a Mom's Only Homeschool Boot Camp in Granbury, put on by Heather Mac.  It was a small event, but was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed getting to meet fellow homeschool moms... and of course, show off our awesome Usborne Books, haha.

My Usborne display at the conference!

I got to meet Connie from Smockity Frocks (whom I've blog and twitter stalked for a few years now) and ran into Tina from Shema Homeschooler, who lives around the corner from me... and yet, I had no idea was speaking at this event.  Lol! 


In our Homeschool this week...
Our second week went a bit smoother, as we didn't have nearly as much going on to distract us from school.  And we're getting into our new groove.  Emperor's New Groove fans say it with me, "beware of the groove!"... um, nevermind.

Peek into my prep work.

Because I'm not letting Preston write in a few of our curriculum books, I'm copying down some of the info/problems into a notebook for him to use.  This creates a bit more prep work for me than is really necessary.  However, it's going to save me in printing costs and from having to buy books again when it's Callen's turn.  We do a lot of writing on a sheet protector with a dry-erase marker too.  So, just a peek at what my table looks like on Sunday night after the kids go to bed.  Fun, huh?

Tot School: This week, with Callen, we did more Dry-Erase activities, but he also decided since he liked the Dry-Erase Crayons, he would use the regular crayons more too... so that was nice (and less messy).  I have to tell you, after praising the Dry-Erase Crayons... they still do make a giant mess on your kid and surrounding areas, BUT... it is SO much easier to clean up.  So, still worth it!  IMHO.  Anyway, I realized that he was holding his crayons PERFECTLY!  I didn't teach him, or specifically show him how to hold it, so I was really proud to see him coloring like this:

Perfect grip!

We also continued using the Mama Jenn Education Cubes Alphabet Movements. We read several books suggsted for Callen's age in Honey for a Child's Heart, like The Bremen Town Band, Christina Katerina and the Box and Brown Bear, Bear, What Do You See?

Bible: We started our first Name of Jesus this week, our little cut our says "Jesus - The Lord Saves" and we added it to our Advent Tree.  I decided instead of a poster board, we would use that.  Mostly because... we don't have any space on our kitchen wall for another poster board, ha! We talked about what that meant and looked up some Old Testiment verses in The Discoverer's Bible that spoke on the name "Jesus" and how he came to "save" us.  Preston loved being able to look up real verses in his new Bible! We read the beautifully illustrated book Jesus by Brian Wildsmith.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Again, the words are super easy, BUT I didn't catch Preston not adding the extra "l" on a few words, like "bill" and "bell" so there was something we needed to work on!  Continued just practicing our letters, c-j this week.

History:  This week we dove into Columbus!  Added to our History Notebook and Timeline.  We read from Story of America and American Pioneers and Patriots that come with MFW.  We also read A Picture Book of Columbus by David Adler, I, Columbus: My Journal edited by Roop and Pedro's Journal: A Voyage with Christopher Columbus by Pam Conrad.  We used some of our bath boats to show how wind helps sail a boat.  The boys thought this was great fun... making waves and wind for the boats as they tried to get from one end of the bath tub to the other. 

The boats sail from Spain to The New World.

Math: Finished up the first chapter of our Math Mammoth workbook and did the review. He's doing really well with starting to memorize some of the math facts so that he doesn't have to figure them out each time.  Yay!  Preston will have his first quiz on the material on Monday!  I'm interested to see how he handles it!

Science:  Did a few pages of Science with Air this week, just talking about how air is everywhere.  We had a paper race.  We put a couple of sheets of paper on the floor, then used some cardboard to fan air at them to get them to move.  I won.  Ha!

Music/Art: We continued the My Very First Art Book, this time drawing animals out of basic shapes.  Preston drew a fine monkey.  We also did a page in the My Very First Art Coloring Book where it was a page full of random lines and marks and Preston created a scene from that.

Spanish: Preston and Callen both enjoyed the next two episodes of Salsa, which continues the story of Goldilocks & The Three Bears.  We reviewed words having to do with "La Cocina" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  Callen was sitting in his chair coloring while we were doing this and every once in a while would pronounce a Spanish word along with us, so fun!  I am so pumped, because at the conference I was at on Saturday there was a full Spanish curriculum, La Clase Divertida!, on the "free" table.  Someone recently told me about this particular curriculum and I meant to look it up, and then there it was FREEEEE!  Thank you, Jesus, for that blessing!  I brought it home and it fits in perfectly with what we already have planned... so we'll be doing a little more Spanish that I first anticipated, but I think it's going to be great!  Woo hoo!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.

[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Cow Appreciation Day 2012

We take our cow days seriously...

Moo, y'all!

Yay for FREE food!

By the way, would you vote for the Clark "Herd"?  Lol.  It does require you to use a "Facebook app" but you can always delete it later.  Thanks!  https://apps.facebook.com/cow-appreciation-day/gallery/photo/838

Free Gratitude Journal...

source: Mandi Ehman

I ran across this beautiful Gratitude Journal printable today and just had to share. I love the images (lovely Fall scenes, you know how those make me giddy!) and the entire idea behind it. Too often, we forget to be grateful for the blessings in our lives... what a wonderful way to put them down in writing and pore over them often!  This journal would also make a nice gift for someone - you could fill it out and give it to them, or leave it blank!

You can get the free printable here, from Mandi at motherhood.yourway.net.