Fun Friday

Friday's are always busy for us, well actually they are busy for our kids who are involved in sports, and we are busy cheering them on . Football for us just came to an end, however our school didn't miss a beat. We immediately started with basketball. Our middle son, Eli, is a Senior in High School this year, and starts on the Varsity team. We won our first game, but not before Eli had to come out of the game complaining that his thumb hurt really bad. Eli fell and a child on the other team stepped on his hand, and ultimately broke his thumb. He's really in great spirits though and ready to discuss options with his doctor that will keep him playing. He's a very determined kid so I am sure he will get his way and be playing in the very next game.

This brings me to Fun Friday. Having five kids can get pretty expensive going anywhere, especially sports events where everyone wants a drink, nacho's and a candy. It adds up pretty quickly. When we have time, we like to eat diner before we go and take snacks with us that will keeps them away from the concession stand. This doesn't make it any easier though, you will still have to say 'no' fifty million times, but you can distract them by pulling out pre-made snacks that will keep them busy and hopefully save you a few bucks.

One of our favorite we call Monster Mash, because its a mixture of sorts similar to trail mix. We started it at Halloween, which is why we call it Monster Mash, and to make it fun we decided to rename all of the ingredients to be Halloween-ish to make it more fun.

You can add almost any dry snack to this and make it your own, just come up with fun or gross (if you have boys) things to call each item.

For our mix we like to use the following:

Popcorn (just microwave popped popcorn) (spider eggs)
Marshmallow's (ghost poop)
Pretzels (witch's broomsticks)
Peanut Butter M&M's (zombie poop)
Plain M&M's  (bat eyes)

All you have to do is pop the popcorn in the microwave, then mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and divvy it out into baggies. Pack a cooler with drinks and ice and you have your snacks! Most of the games we go to allow you to bring your own snacks- as in- they don't check your bags. We don't take a cooler into our games, just our drinks, and the only time we haven't been able to is when a school has a new gym and they don't allow food and drinks. However, they always allow you a certain area for snacks- so at halftime when the kids a whiny and want something from the concession stand, just show them how long the line is, run to the car and come back with snacks!