When Hunter puts himself to bed...

After we finished the movie last night, when we walked into the living room and found Hunter on the floor. The best part was that he had put his Pooh Bear to bed before he fell asleep!

Celebrating the aniversary of my 29th birthday

Happy Birthday to me!! We're watching Mars Needs Moms and about to have my favorite - Dairy Queen ice cream cake. My husband had them make it all blue (my favorite color). I can't wait to see the mouths of some very happy children smeared with blue frosting!

Later, the older children, Bryan, and I will watch Soul Surfer. I've been wanting to see it for months. Redbox is awsome!

I have to sing the praises of my oldest boy for a moment, was able to connect my netbook to the Switched-On Schoolhouse to the main database. That's something we haven't been able to do since we bought a new router 6 months ago. We were even planning to call a "geek" to get it fixes. Our own "geek" saved us some cash!

Quick & Easy Mani-Pedi

It am NOT into nail polish. Way to high maintenance for me. I can't stand it if it doesn't look good. And in my world that happens about 30 seconds after it's applied.

So how excited was I to learn about a quick way to have super fun nails? Have you seen these babies while cruising your local drug store?

Sally Hansen Salon Effects are real nail polish strips (they even smell like nail polish) that go on quick and require no dry time. My fingers stayed decent looking for about a week, my toes for over 2! The patterns are so fun, I'm stockpiling. The older girls and I can't wait to put on our next pattern for our vacation!

I watched a YouTube clip on how to apply them easily. That really helped! They retail for around $10, but I've bought all mine off ebay for about $6.50 including shipping!

Menu Plan Monday - August 29, 2011

Here's a tasty recipe that tastes like fall. We love pumpkin so much that I buy a case or two each fall when it's cheap and eat it all year. This pumpkin dessert is an easy alternative to traditional pumpkin pie and great if you want to feed a crowd!

Pumpkin Pie Squares
1 can (29 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 package (18-1/2 ounces) butter recipe golden cake mix
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans
Whipped topping, optional


In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; beat on medium speed until smooth. Pour into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Sprinkle with cake mix, then drizzle butter over top. Sprinkle with pecans.


Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 1 hour on a wire rack. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving. Cut into squares and garnish each serving with whipped topping. Yield: 12-16.

Monday - Korean Beef in Lettuce Leaves, Rice

Tuesday - Homemade Pizza

Wednesday (AWANA) - Frozen Burritos, Corn Casserole

Thursday (Karate) - Franks & Beans, Ho Cakes

Friday - BBQ Meatball Sandwiches, Sauteed Green Beans

Saturday - Tamale Pie, Fresh Fruit

Our menus for past years can be found at our website. Breakfast menu is here; lunch menu is here.

Find more menus at:

Fit for a princess (or two)

Last time I mentioned my sewing energies were focused on making princess sundresses for our little girlies to wear in the Magic Kingdom. I wanted them to feel like princesses minus the itchy, scratchy, and sweaty from polyester costume dresses. I got the dresses done and they were pretty excited to model them.

I'll be making some t-shirt shrugs following this cute tutorial because there's a lot of white shoulders here that don't need to see the Florida sun.

Heidi as Rapunzel

What the girls don't know is that we bought glitter hair spray, hair paint, wands, and tiaras to complete their princess transformation. We'll surprise them the morning they're going to wear the dresses.

Brigitta as Belle

In case you're interested, I adapted the dresses from The Juliet Dress pattern.

Menu Plan Monday - August 21, 2011

No time to ramble on tonight. I need to get in some sewing time. I'm making princess sundresses for the little girlies to wear at Disney World. It's our economical alternative to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique which would run us a couple apiece for the full treatment. Brigitta wanted to be Belle. Heidi is Rapunzel. The dresses are coming along as quickly as gathering that much material can!

The Stumpf pantry is starting to look like Old Mother Hubbard's with 2.5 weeks to go. Meals could get interesting over the next couple weeks...


Monday - Pinto Bean Casserole, Salad

Tuesday - Chocolate Waffles, Strawberry Syrup, Cool Whip, Sausage (This is our new favorite "brinner" meal. You'd be amazed at what I can hide in a chocolate waffle!)

Wednesday (AWANA?, Bryan's Birthday!!) - Corn Dogs, Chips

Thursday (Karate) - Black Beans & Smoked Sausage over Rice, Peas

Friday - Bible Study

Saturday - Hamburgers, Potato Wedges

Our menus for past years can be found at our website. Breakfast menu is here; lunch menu is here.

Find more menus at:

School Stuff – Buddy School Table Time

One of the highlights of the preschoolers’ day is the 30 minutes of Buddy School that comes right after room time. The four oldest rotate through as “teacher” with each taking one day except for Emelie who handles both Monday and Friday. Buddy School frees me up to work one-on-one with one of the other children, and is great for growing patience in the buddy teachers.

I’ve created a schedule (shocker!) so that the teacher can look up what activity falls on their day. The activities repeat about twice per month.

This year we’ve added the Preschool Activity Cards from My Father’s World to give the teachers some ideas on how to build skills while playing with some of our Lauri products. Since I already owned most of the needed materials, this has been a fun way engage the littles.

Other popular Buddy School activities are:

• Do-A-Dot
• Dry Erase Boards & Markers (check out Miller Pads and Paper for durable, economical boards)
• Bubbles on the front porch
• Play Foam
• Fruit Loop Sorting (they sort the colors into muffin tins
• Stickers (bought in bulk from the dollar store)

It is important to keep these activities out of reach when not in use so they remain exciting. The teacher and little buddies are also responsible to clean up any mess before they go on to their next activity – 30 minutes of TV time!