A Cookie Cutter Diva's Life

Aidan had his 1st Guitar lessons today as part of his school lesson and we did lots of finger painting yesterday and painting today!! Lots to clean up after but lots of fun haha

trying a new recipe in the house tonight!



24 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 jar (26 oz) chunky tomato pasta sauce
1/4 cup water
1 container (8 oz) chive and onion cream cheese spread
1 1/2 cups shredded
6 cheese Italian cheese blend (6 oz)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, if desired


1 Heat oven to 350°F. Cook and drain pasta shells as directed on package.
2 In 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
3 In large bowl, mix pasta sauce and water. Pour 1 cup of the pasta sauce mixture in bottom of ungreased 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. In medium bowl, mix cheese spread, 1 cup of the Italian cheese, the Parmesan cheese, egg and cooked ground beef. Spoon heaping tablespoon mixture into each shell. Arrange stuffed shells over sauce in baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over top, covering shells completely. Cover with foil.
4 Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until bubbly and cheese filling is set. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Italian cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with parsley.

My youngest had her very first hair cut this afternoon! A little baby trim!

The kids had lots of fun going to the free military kids festival today! From face painting, balloon art, games, characters, snow cones and more!

This afternoon the hubby took the 2 oldest kids on a field trip with one of the local homeschool groups to visit the World War 1 Museum while I took the younger ones with another group for an indoor park day since I'm sure they wouldn't have appreciated the museum to much haha

The boys absolutely LOVED it and had so much fun and learned a lot!

We made a turtle suit out of a box and a long snake out of construction paper to go with our reptile lesson this week!

We found out that today was $.10 admission day to the Science Museum in Kansas City so we jumped in the car and declared it to be a field trip day haha!
The kids had so much fun! I always here "Once you've seen one science museum, you've seen them all" but I have yet to see that! They all seem so different and we've learned something new every time!
We will be going back for sure in the future!