A Jumpin' Good Time

Last week we went to Jump Zone for the first time and the kids had a fantastic time. Four of their little friends were there too, which made the day extra special fun.

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today is Daddy's birthday but we celebrated it early last week at Nana & Grandpa's house since they were going to be gone today. Be happy you're getting older Daddy, birthdays are about the only thing you'll be given in your life that comes to you without effort. Plus, really if you think about it, birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest. We love you so much Daddy, here's a funny thought to make you smile today:

“You’re getting old when the only thing you want for your birthday is not to be reminded of it.”

Priority Mail

While I was working on the computer this morning, my kids were trying to get my attention so I glanced over and this is what I saw:
I asked if they wanted to be sent to Aunti's house and although the thought seemed momentarily appealing, they must have decided it would be too traumatic because after some deliberation, they vetoed my idea.

What to make

Last night I was craving something for dessert that was warm since we've been having so much snow lately. I remembered a recipe for cobbler that I had seen in a magazine this month and looked it up. Unfortunately it required apples, of which I had none. Also, it required about an hour of cooking time and I wanted something faster, like FIVE minutes. So here's what I did instead:

Mixed quick oats, smashed ginger snaps, margarine and a little coconut until it was fine crumbs. In a pot I mixed a can of peaches, dried blueberries, some brown sugar and cornstarch and heated it until it boiled and thickened. At the same time I heated the oats mixture in a skillet, stirring constantly. I then spooned the peaches mixture into bowls and topped it with the oats mixture. Voila! Peach cobbler in five minutes! The only bad things in it were the ginger snaps and brown sugar and I didn't use much of either so really, I wasn't too guilt-ridden about finishing my share. It was rather good too and so quick that I'll definitely make this again.

Good as New

My best friend from high school made the most adorable dress for her first daughter when she was three (ahem, TEN years ago...but who's counting). The dress then passed down to my eldest niece, who is somewhat smaller than the original owner but almost the same age. From there the dress progressed down to my second niece, the originator's little sister and finally to my youngest niece. Can you believe that after all that, when my daughter inherited the dress last winter, all that was needed to make it good as new was to mend a small tear where the skirt meets the bodice? She was, of course, very excited to add it to her wardrobe when I mended the tear and added a sash. After all, a girl can never have too many pretty dancing dresses.

My Valentine

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

It's Snowing Outside but we have Merryweather Inside

in 2003, my sister made the cutest costumes for her girls. They were the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty, Flora, Fauna and Merriweather. Last winter, when we were visiting, my little sweetheart was the happy recipient of the (albeit rather worn) Merriweather costume. This morning mommy repaired the skirt and my little girl spent the whole rest of her day until nap time dancing in the living room and twirling in her new "princess dress". Of course, her little brother couldn't help but join in and even the dog got extra loving. Even though we're at the beginning of a nasty snowstorm outside, I always have Merry-weather with my little sweeties around me.

Sick Kids = Spoiled Kids

Now that the kids are recovering from being sick for the last week, they're having a hard transition back to our daily routine. It's hard for them to accept that they don't get to climb in bed with Mommy at any hour of the night, aren't held the majority of the day, don't watch cartoons (except Sesame Street during breakfast), and are, for the most part, restricted to one bath per day. Oh the hardships one must endure to learn to entertain one's self.

My laundry multiplies like rabbits

I am sure that my little girl has GOT to be stuffing the hamper with clean clothes when I'm not looking because how else could I possibly be having to do a load of laundry a day? I guess they're kids, so they're clothes are usually dirty. Plus, I HAVE kids, so my clothes too, are usually dirty. Now that I think of it, Daddy IS a contractor so more often than not, he's dirty too....with all this dirty business plus having three of us sick all last week (translate: snot on EVERYTHING), the poor washing machine is on more often than off.

What to make

I made these desserts in separate little cups for the Superbowl but the recipe I had calls for it all to be made in one big bowl then divided. I also altered the recipe from coffee to cocoa, from vanilla pudding to white chocolate pudding and from plain cream cheese/whipped cream to strawberry flavored. The other way it was supposed to resemble tirimisu. Either way it's delicious.

Start by mixing together 2 cups of strawberry whipped cream, a package of strawberry cream cheese, 2 small boxes of white chocolate pudding and 2 cups of milk. Make a layer of vanilla wafer cookies on the bottom of the bowl (I crushed mine up since my cups were small). Drizzle some cold cocoa over the wafers. Top that with the pink mixture and layer some grated chocolate on next. Repeat the layers until the bowl/cups are full. Finish each cup with a spoonful of whipped cream from the tub and garnish with grated chocolate and a strawberry. Allow to set in the refrigerator for 2 hours and serve. These were so cute and just as fun to eat as they were to look at.

What to Make

Here's another of my crock pot favorites. Start by mixing spaghetti sauce, chicken, and buffalo wing sauce in a bowl. Put a big spoonful of it in the bottom of the crock pot. Then alternate layers of uncooked lasagna noodles, then ricotta cheese, then chopped bell peppers, then shredded mozzarella cheese, more meat sauce, more noodles, etc until it's all used. Top it with a little extra shredded mozzarella and some blue cheese crumbles. Top that with a cup of water then cook all it for 4 hours on high.

This recipe makes a lot but for anyone who likes buffalo wing sauce and/or blue cheese then it's sure to be a hit and especially good as leftovers.

Why Walmart isn't in Exile

After having experienced the frustration of Sunday (see below), I was adamant that I would not go willingly into a Walmart again. Fastforward to Monday. We had just left the doctor's office where my little girl insisted she did not need to use the restroom. Of course, when we arrived at Verizon where I was to merely pick up a phonebook, she urgently needed to pee. Much to my dismay, the only restroom in proximity was, of course, Walmart next door. We rushed in and in a moment of insanity, I decided to try for my box of paper again. This being a different, more rational Walmart, I was out of there with paper in hand in under 2 minutes. What was so different at this Walmart from the one across town the day before? Only the Walmart powers-that-be can know. For now, rather than being exiled from my shopping routine they are merely on probation. After all, who knows when I'm going to need a pacifier, tube of lipstick, dishtowels and 10W40 oil all in one stop again.

Walmart is on Probation

You should have seen me at about 1:20 on Sunday at Walmart. You'd have grabbed my arms and yelled at me "Don't do it! She's not worth it!" So here's how it all started:

First of all, if Walmart were a town, you'd lock your doors when you drove through. But that is neither here nor there. I still choose to shop there from time to time.

I needed three things; cream cheese, a box of printer paper, and glass dessert cups. Where, pray-tell do you think such things could all be obtained? Of course, Walmart. So the two kids and I trudged on over around noon, knowing that I had until 1:15 to pick up Daddy and grandpa from golf (Checking the times, you can begin to see my frustration, right?). As we walked in, one of my little sweethearts suggested we buy flowers for the pot they made me last year for mothers' day and some to share with Nana. Like Costco, you can't just buy what you are looking for in Walmart, you must buy at least 3 extra things, so we went to the garden department and picked a nice 6-pack of pansies to share with Nana. At 12:10 we walked past the clothes section and I remembered we're going to Cabo soon and I noticed a cute pair of shorts that would be perfect to bring along (Yes, I buy some clothes at Walmart, So does Taylor Swift, don't judge me). By 12:30 I had about 5 things in my cart but none of the three I had come in for orignially. We headed over to pick up the cream cheese and Daddy called to say he was about ready. I reminded him I had until 1:15 and he agreed that would be fine. Two isles away I found my dessert cups so all that was left was to buy my box of paper.......
.....by 1:00 I had found the place the paper was supposed to be, asked an associate who informed me I was in the wrong place, been relocated to the wrong place, relocated BACK to my original location and told it wasn't on the shelf (duh), and then led to the "area in the back" where they store the unstocked items. By 1:05 the associate had found me the unstocked item (I couldn't give up at that point, I was pot-committed). I rushed to the front to purchase my items and called Daddy to tell him we were running a little late.

After waiting for what seemed to be an eternity in line, I rang up all of my other items and all that was left was my box of paper. I scanned the barcode and was told "item not recognized" by the obviously-smarter-than-me computer. I deferred my intellect to an associate only to be shown the barcode and told to scan it [sigh]. I showed her what happens when you scan the barcode and she tried it herself (because she thought she was midas, obviously). By 1:20 she decided she would call her manager from the back. All I could imagine was the same worthless individual who led me on the wild goose chase for the box in the first place. She must have seen it in my face when she took a couple steps back. I told her I didn't have the time, left the box, and was 15 minutes late to pick up the guys.

My point here - Is the facillity of Walmart worth the hassle of the experience? Granted, there are some wonderful Walmarts, just not anywhere near me. In Texas they are an almost pleasurable experience. I think, given the option, I shall take Target any day of the week.

How do you keep kids busy for over an hour?

Take one babbling brook. Add two kids. Throw in some rocks and you have a sure fire way to burn at least an hour. I was amazed at how mesmerized the kids were with the simple act of throwing rocks into the water. Too bad we don't have a brook running on our property where I could watch them. They'd be there all the time.
NOTE: This little trick works on Daddy too.
Here's a shot of Daddy helping his little girl rinse off her hands :)

Watch where you're walking

Recently, Daddy got a cool book about the common vegetation on the west coast that are edible and medicinal. We'll spare the comments about his obsession with Survivorman and Man vs Wild that would naturally fit in here. Since buying this book, we've been looking forward to the weekend when we could test it out. This morning/afternoon we went for a hike in the woods to see what we could identify.We brought some plastic bags to collect specimen and our survival guide and of course, snacks. The kids had a great time filling up their bags with rocks and sticks and pine cones while we were busy observing the few plants that were not in hibernation. We found manzanita (to use in a sitz bath for bum troubles), ferns (good when new and curly), sage (to season dishes), parsley (to season dishes), miners' lettuce (good in salads), serviceberries (good in teas), stinging nettles (good for soup) and about 5 more plants yet to be identified by us. We plan to go out again sometime in April when things are in bloom and there should be a plethera of plants to choose from.
Our little girl's favorite part was finding the two sparkly rocks (Quartz) that she brought home with her and her little brother's favorite part was, of course, the snacks. We may not be able to live off the land, but it's a fun excuse to play outside. Plus, I'll definitely pay more attention to what I'm walking on next time we're hiking.

UPDATE: Upon further inspection, we realized that the sage was really rockcress and the Miner's Lettuce was really Amaranth. Oh, and the parsley was really sanicle...we're rookies, get off my back already.

Life's a beach

Last weekend Daddy went on a golf trip to La Parisma, so we packed up and tagged along so that we could enjoy the beach for the weekend. We spent most of the day Saturday there, collecting rocks, investigating seashells and starfish and then building sand castles. Then we headed inland to visit family. Both kids helped paint the rocks then put on eyes (my little girl insisted that most of them have 3 eyes rather than 2) and we now have a cute little herd of pet rocks. We decided we'll give them to really special friends/family to protect their gardens from yucky bugs. With a little extra daylight left, we rode tricycles down to the playground and ended the day with highly requested chicken soup.
Sunday we (the kids, their Aunt & I) spent trekking around, looking for local geocaches. Out of seven that we took the time to get to, we found five of them, couldn't get one open, another had been taken and only one we couldn't find at all. Pretty good for some amateurs, eh? We took nothing and left nothing, but it was worth the time for the exercise and time spent teaching the kids to "treasure hunt".

The beginning of the end

OF DIAPERS THAT IS!!! Yep folks, you guessed it...the little guy took his first attempt at the potty. All you non-moms/dads might not understand the excitement, but believe you me - Mommy was all aglow. He made his deposit in a big way and got loads of praise for a job well done. Granted, it took a little over a year from the time his sister started making attempts to the time she stopped wearing diapers, but I'll take what I can get. The light has begun to show at the end of the tunnel! Woo hoo!

Cousins

There are many benefits that our kids get from having a large family. One of the more obvious, is how much they are adored by their three cousins up North. Both kids look up to them with stars in their eyes and even take the time every night to kiss a picture of them before bed. When we visit, our kids take center stage with their cousins and are happily exhausted every night. Here's a couple examples of how great they are with each other. There's a clip of the youngest teaching them to build with their Mega Blocks and the other part is the middle cousin reading my little girl a story.

Caterpillar dancing

Ever since going to a production of the Nutcracker last December, we have a little prima ballerina on our hands. She absolutely ADORES dresses and dances to any music she hears whether it is on a radio, in the car, a tissue commercial on the television, or her own humming. Needless to say, since her brother idolizes her, he follows suit. One of her favorite sources of music is her toys. This Christmas, her brother got a cute caterpillar toy from one of their grandmas, who, although not technically related (she's my mom's best friend), might as well be.

He likes to push the feet on the caterpillar to make it say the alphabet and their sounds, but her favorite aspect of the toy is that it plays music. Daddy had the cutest little display of caterpillar dancing when he got home from work today, compliments of the caterpillar.

SDWAP

Last week we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park with Aunti since she is visiting for the week. Despite a nasty incident when we first arrived, the day turned out to be a great way to spend time in the 85 degree sunshine. Everyone had fun and we were all exhausted when the day was done.