My own creation - Chocolate Chex Mix

I had a couple of box of Rice Chex given to us. I am personally not a big fun of as a cold cereal, nor my kids.

So, I tried to make a good use of these poor boxes of Chex.

I coated the plain rice chex with caramel (butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and a bit of water).

It was pretty tasty!

I mixed the caramel-flavored chex with alphabet-shape pretzels (yes, it's from the same bag that J discovered a fun with letter E), teddy graham crackers, and M&M's.

Kids ate M&M's first, of course... (Who won't pick them!?)

Then moved to teddies....

Maybe some pretzels...

But NO Mama's special caramel chex!

But, I didn't want to give up on those just plain Chex.

So, I tried a chocolate flavored one (butter, sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and a bit of water)!

This time I mixed multi-grain cheerios trying to make it somewhat nutritious snack.

Doesn't it look good?

My DH ate almost half of the chocolate covered chex while it was on a wax paper to cool and dry.

I had a hope, I thought.

Result:

How many missing pieces in the second picture???

Where is Bertie???

"Mama, where is Bertie???", my beloved son J.

Mama: "I don't know, where did you leave?"

J: "I don't know. Will you find it for me?"

Mama: "If you don't know where you left, then how would I know???"

After a few distractions, he forgot about his little friend Bertie.

Later that day, my bedtime came. Since my kids messed up our bed with many pillows, toys, and miscellaneous items earlier the day, I was trying to make a space for me to actually sleep on.

Then, I hear "Kaboom!" on the hardwood floor, around 11:58 pm to be precise.
Of course kids and our dog were sound sleep.

Aha! I found his Bertie!

My DH in basement studying heard that loud noise.

DH: "What happened?"
He sounded worrysome.

Mama: "It was J's Bertie. He was looking for it and couldn't find it. It was in our bed."

Mama: "You know, it must be some genetic thing that you guys go,
'Mama, where is ####???'
all the time. "

DH: "Well... good night!"

Did I mention that I have 4 kids? A 4 year old boy, a 2 year old girl, a 5 year old dog, and a 30 year old boy (a.k.a. my DH).

They all make me laugh, smile, and happy.
(yes, I have my own share of those not-so-happy moments too, but I will not mention here.)

E for Entertaining

My almost-4-year-old son J was eating alphabet shape pretzels. He was very fascinated by the fact he can create many letters out of one letter E.

"Mama, look! See, when I eat this part....*crunch*....it becomes letter F!"

"Mama, now look! When I eat this part....*crunch*....it becomes letter L!"

"And then...okay, Mama, look! *crunch*...See, it becomes letter I!"

What a discover!!

ANPANMAN

If you have heard a Japanese kids cartoon character "ANPANMAN". Here is the picture of the real one.

ANPANMAN is a cartoon hero for Japanese kids (young ones). His head is made out of bread filled with sweet bean paste.

I couldn't find any better place than this in English to explain this yummy guy.

Kids love it not just the look of it, but also the taste too. It was fun making it.

My happiness Journal entry started from a gift from my dear friend for my birthday. Ever since, I try to find happy moments in my crazy life.

Things make me happy or smile will be posted here. They might be just small things, but big enough to help me look at positive sides of my life.

Hope it can make you happy or smile too.

Today's happy moments:

I read many books this summer for my kids and we earned many free coupons to our local ice cream shop. After dinner, we enjoyed our tasty local soft serve, the best one in town!