Week 28: French Bread Pizzas!

Life has returned to summer speed.  Meaning, we aren't traveling.  We aren't over-planning.  Well, I'm trying not to at least.  Mostly, we're just trying to enjoy the simple things that summer has to offer us.  And that includes the meals I've been planning.  With us home for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I've really had to get creative with what we're eating.  And so, I've gone back to the basics.  Things like homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch, grilled cheese sandwiches, taco salad, homemade spaghettio's (I'll post this one soon!) and even french bread pizzas!

I'm always one to check out the clearance section of the bakery at Kroger each week.  Sometimes they have bread that I can turn into bread bowls for soup for less than a dollar each.  Other times they have a delicious looking coffee cake that we can eat for breakfast.  And almost every week I'm able to pick up sub buns, loaves of french bread, or even dinner rolls on clearance.  Thank God we have another freezer in the basement.  It's filled with Costco portions of meat and bread from Kroger.

So it's simple:

2 loaves of french bread
Pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Toppings!

Since this was made in an effort to do some freezer/fridge/pantry clean outs, we didn't have a ton of fresh produce for toppings so we stuck with pepperoni.  You can't go wrong with just cheese and pepperoni!

Baked at 350 until the cheese was melted and then put under broil for a few minutes for the pizza to brown.  Yum!  We cut it into pizza strips for Sean so that he could dip them in ranch.  Look at the habit Scott started with him...ranch on everything.  At least we had some fresh fruit we could serve with it.

This was one of our lunches last week.  Which was much needed since the boys were at daycare on Tuesday and Scott was under the weather.  And by under the weather, I mean he actually chose to drive himself to urgent care to get antibiotics.  Poor thing had strep throat.  Luckily, Nana was able to pick up the boys from daycare and take them home with her so they would be out of the house for the next 24 hours while Scott's meds kicked in.  Considering the boys seem to come down with everything under the sun illness-wise, I thought it would be best they stayed clear of this germ.

Wednesday I was busy making toddler food like apple turkey loaf and broccoli patties, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and making some important phone calls.  We're in the process of selling Scott's Dodge Charger so that we can lease a Chrysler Town and Country mini-van.  Yup, it's time.  In case birthing two children wasn't validation enough, a mini-van will officially seal the, "I'm a mom" deal.  And what better time than to consider shopping around for new auto insurance.  I'm hoping we'll have this all arranged by the time the new school year starts.  And full-time daycare starts back up again...

Thursday, Scott was feeling better and the kids had been back home since the night before.  We started our morning off by going to the Rec Center to take the boys swimming, but we didn't read the calendar right.  The pool was being used for swim classes and it was a little chilly out so the splash pad wasn't an option either.  We were able to take them to the "tree fort" at the Rec Center.  Even Evan was able to do some climbing up the tree fort and exploring.  After their afternoon naps, I figured I needed to redeem myself so, I took the boys outside to play in the pool for a while.  While it wasn't exactly the Rec Center's pools, our little whale tub did just fine.

Friday, my mom came out to go to Art in the Park in downtown Plymouth in the afternoon.  We let Sean nap at home with Scott and took Evan in the stroller.  It was fun!  I got the boys an autographed copy of the book, "M is for Mitten" (an alphabet book about Michigan) and I got the cutest sign for the hallway upstairs that I'll have to post about it when I get it hung with some pictures.  My mom took us all out to eat at Hermann's and took Sean home with her for a sleep over.

Saturday, all the fun festivities began!  My best friend, Trisha, was turning the big 30 on Sunday.  Her husband had planned a surprise birthday party for her on Sunday at their house so he put me up to the challenge of taking her out Saturday night so they could set up and keeping her out of the house all the way through Sunday at 1pm.  Considering she's 7 months pregnant, going to the bars weren't an option.  So, I convinced her to spend the night and we made a whole girl's night out of it.

We went to dinner at Chili's (bottomless chips and salsa with their strawberry lemonade, yes please!) and then went to the last video store standing: Family Video.  We rented Safe Haven, ate some chocolate, and gossiped until close to midnight (late for us mothers).  We woke up Sunday morning, headed over to Big Boy's for the breakfast buffet, and over to Wondernails in Livonia for a pedicure.  I had to stall on the way back to her house at Kroger since we would have gotten there about 15 minutes early.  She never seemed like she suspected anything, but she had to know something was up.  By the time we pulled in her driveway and she spotted the 20 cars parked in the street, she was in full-blown panic mode.  Surprises aren't quite her thing.  But, boy did her husband, MG, have quite the surprise planned for her.

He worked with a friend of his and made, from scratch, a bedroom set for their 19 month old daughter, Reese, AND a bedroom set for Trisha and MG's bedroom.  Unbelievable!  He had a whole slideshow put together showing her the process of making the pieces and then unveiled the bedrooms to her.  It was so special!

I really enjoyed spending the time with Trisha this past weekend, as it's so hard to find quality, uninterrupted time like that once we both had kids.  I think we both reminisced about high school and college and commented on how nice it was to just feel young again.  It definitely reminded us both of the importance of kid-free time!  Happy 30th birthday, Trisha!!

I couldn't wait to scoop up Evan from my mom's house and get back home to my boys.  We're off to another week filled with 4 play dates at all kinds of local spots like Greenfield Village, the zoo, the aquatic center, and the hands on museum in Ann Arbor.  So much for keeping it low key and enjoying "summer speed", right?  :)