deceptively delicious part one

The other day at Costco I picked up the 2.5 pound bag of spinach. The bag is huge but my thinking is if I'm going to cook and puree food ahead of time it's going to be in big batches. This morning I steamed the spinach (without removing the stems like the book said) and pureed with my hand blender and it turned out just fine. Aiden was mildly curious to what I was doing and was a little grossed out by the green slime. I don't think he will be helping with these recipes if I want him to eat them. 2.5 pounds of spinach made 8- 1/2 cup freezer bags so I'm glad I went the Costco route. Otherwise too much work for a small amount of ingredient. It would be great if you had a group of " deceptively delicious" cooks that cooked and pureed one vegetable and then you swapped!
On the subject of Costco. The other day I felt mildly smug when my total came to $251 at the check out ( I have $250 goal). Then I remembered I had already made a Costco run this month. Our grocery bill seems to get higher each month. Everyone says Haggen's is expensive so I might try another grocery store and see if it makes a difference.

cute headbands

Some late night surfing found me buying Amelia an adorable headband set. She will probably be sporting her first ponytail for the 2010 Olympics so in the meantime I can play with these! Found on Etsy via Becky Higgins blog. I can't wait for the package to arrive in the mail.

clip it up

Saturday I purchased the ultimate scrap booking organizational tool! I love it. You clip all your embellishments, rub ons and stickers on it and it rotates. That way everything is in plain sight while your scrap booking. I have tried to put everything away neatly and organized before but then I forget what I have. And the best part about this tool -I got to use my label maker to label the dividers!

sank sue

That's how Amelia says thank you and I would like to say "sank sue" to Amelia for sleeping for 12 hours last night!

old phone book

Today we received our new phone book (thrown in the middle of our driveway, nice). My plan is to put our old phonebook underneath the driver's seat. This way if I'm out and about and need a phone number I can look it up with my "car phone book". And that's my organizing tip for today and about all I can muster on 4 hours sleep!

lil miss ear infection part IV

I am a little suprised that she has another ear infection. Both ears are draining fluid and we've already been and gone from the docotr's office this morning. The plan is to check her ears after this round of antibiotics and decide about tubes from there. Poor baby.

blah, blah, blah

Aiden had his 5 year check up Friday afternoon. He weighed in at 47 pounds and 46 inches! (only 2 more inches for the pool slide). He got his immunizations and did great. I think it helped that I told him Amelia got them last month.
I went out with the girls on Friday night. So glad I did. I had a headache and feeling blah was going to cancel but dragged myself out and had a good time. Dale went snowboarding on Saturday and I hung out with the kids. It was another beautiful day so we headed to the park. I think we went to a park everyday this week. Which is probably why Amelia has another runny nose and fever this morning! When I'm not looking she licks stuff. I'm sure we'll be seeing the doctor later this week for the fifth week in a row!
Yesterday, we headed up to Canada and visited Kyla's new baby. Nicholas is 8 weeks old and very cute! In the car back to my parents house Aiden said " Saint Nicholas threw up..." When I asked him to repeat he said the same thing. Apparently, all Nicholas's have saint status.
I also got Amelia's one year pictures taken yesterday. So much harder now that she's on the move. She wouldn't stand still and when we brought out the chair she just wanted to stand on it! She licked the floor at the photo studio a few times too. I think we got a few good pictures though.
Here's a pic of Amelia brushing her hair. She does that a lot now that she has so much hair (not really).

rock stars

Tonight I came home to the sound of our house rockin'. Dale and Marty were playing Rock Band and having a blast. I guess it's everyone's secret desire to be a rock star. The name of their band is DAM as in Dale And Marty. Clever aren't they? Gotta go, the DAM band is calling my name!

sleeping beauty

This week we took Amelia's pacifier away. She has adjusted pretty well. There is a little wimpering when you first put her down but she's doing great. Yesterday I had to wake her up from her nap to pick Aiden up from school. Rarely do I get to watch her sleep. Most times when you open the door she pops up like a meerkat. I love how she sleeps on her tummy with her arms tucked under her. Usually her little bum is in the air and she's backed herself into a corner. There's nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!

deceptively delicious

There was a book fair at Aiden's school today and I picked up the "Deceptivley Delicious" cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. When it first came out I wasn't too interested in the concept. Hiding vegetables in food sounded like too much work when your kid will eat most vegetables and fruit. Aiden is a great eater, his sister is proving to be much pickier. I read the book tonight and I think I will try a few ideas but I'm not a 100% sold on cooking and pureeing vegetables ahead of time and remembering to defrost before preparing a meal. I'll keep you posted!

a sign that...

maybe Aiden has watched a bit too much HGTV in his lifetime. We were buiding a fort in the playroom yesterday, he found a bin of mega blocks and said excitedly "I'm going to put a tile backsplash in my fort with these!"

pollo supremo

this recipe is an adaptation from the restaurant I worked at in college.

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup choppped sun dried tomatoes
1 1/2 cup cooked diced chicken
1 tbsp tarragon
alfredo sauce (homemade or storebought)
parmesan cheese
cooked pasta of your choice

* for alfredo sauce I melt 1 tbsp butter, then add 1 tbsp flour, salt and pepper, Cook for 1 minute, slowly add 2 cups milk. Cook until thickened approx 10 minutes add a dash of nutmeg and 1/4 cup parmesan.

1)Cook chicken, add red onions, cook 2 minutes remove from heat

2) make alfredo sauce or open a jar and pour in saucepan, cook until heated, add sun dried tomatoes, tarragon and chicken and onion mixture, keep warm

3) cook favorite pasta, drain and combine sauce and pasta, enjoy!

* I will not be taking any pictures of the meals I make because I find my pictures make the food look inedible!

elizabeth park

I saved these pictures from yesterday because I knew we would be waking up to rain today. I love the sunshine we get here in the winter. It makes all the dreary days a wee bit more tolerable. Amelia is just starting to discover the playground! The swing has been a favorite for a while but now the slide is super fun too! She automatically turns around to slide back wards. Monday she was bopping around the school playground and each time she fell she would have a new layer of bark mulch attatched to her outfit. By the time we left she looked like a porquepine (?sp). Wish I had gotten some pictures of that. Speaking of pictures I think it's time for a new camera. I want to believe it's the camera and not me.

drinking and driving

too bad she only knows how to drive in reverse and that's before she's had a sippy cup of milk!

bag lady

Today I took my mondo Costco shopping bags into Haggens. Correction: I forgot them in the car and didn't realize until I had dropped Aiden off at the kid place. I quickly ran out to get them with Amelia terrified the whole time that they would announce my name over the loudspeaker "you are NOT allowed to leave the store!" But I was fast. All in the name of greener living. A weeks worth of groceries fit into 2 bags and it felt much easier unloading the groceries from the car to the house to the fridge ( usually my least favorite part of grocery shopping). It made me so happy that I decided to clean out my fridge because it is on the February housekeeping list. Forgive my domestic dorkiness but most of you expect it by now!

hemming jeans

I had no idea how to do this! It looks so easy I might need to go out and buy a new pair of jeans just to try this out! Short women rejoice! (click on the title of the post)

photo gallery

This week end I completed a project I have wanted to do for a long time. I saw the idea last October in my friend Rebecca's home. It's so easy but looks so good! You paint the edges of a 12x12 canvas with black paint and attatch a black and white 12x12 photo (from Costco) with modge podge! I only took one of these photo's the rest are from my personal photographer Rebecca! Can you guess which one I took?

spidey's back!

Yesterday Aiden finally started to feel better. It started a few weeks ago with the stomach crud, then a cold and he just never seemed to be 100%. On Friday I took him into see the doctor and he has a sinus and ear infection. A few days on antibiotics and I'm starting to see my little dude return. Welcome back we've missed you!

neptune beach

Today we headed out to Neptune Beach to enjoy the sunshine! The sunny weather tricked us because it was still very cold and windy. Here are a few pictures from the 18 minutes we spent at the beach.

Miss Melers

Here's a few pictures for Grandma!

tutu tee's

I made my version of the tutu tee's yesterday. They were quick to make and look pretty cute. These ones are gifts but I think Miss Amelia will be sporting one soon!

great idea

Today when I was at Costco I discovered they were selling the "green" shopping bags. A 3 pack for under $4. The bags are huge and I love that I don't have to make multiple trips from the car to the house. I gave up their cardboard boxes awhile ago because they were so hard to break down for recycling. All my purchases fit in one bag and I'm thinking a weeks worth of groceries would fit in just one as well! What's proper bag etiquette? Can I bring a Costco bag into Haggen's?

v day

We celebrated Valentines the way 97% of this town did. With a heart shaped pizza fom Papa Murphy's ( judging from the line up and wait time). It was cute to look at the little valentines Aiden brought home from school. Driving around today it was neat to see people with balloons and flowers but I still just can't get too into the holiday. Overpriced flowers and chocolates just don't go with my sensible (frugal) personality. Did you hear Fountain Galleria is closing in a few weeks? Sale starts Saturday. I'm pretty bummed.

washing the washing machine

It seems like one day I will put a load of laundry in the machine and notice how disgustingly dirty it is inside. I've heard about all the gross bacteria that lives inside washing machines but I don't think about it until I can see the "sludge". I've figured out a way to hopefully keep this from happening. Each time I open a new container of laundry detergent I will know it's time to clean the machine. Here's how I clean it (I have an old school top loading so I don't know if this works for the fancier models):
1) select the largest load and use the hottest setting
2) add 1 cup of bleach ( I love the smell of bleach)
3) let the machine fill and turn off for an hour (or 6 like I did yesterday)
4) turn the machine back on and let it run through the cycle
5) when the machine empties of water, scrub the plastic agitater and sides the machine with a scrub brush, wipe all the grooves with a wash cloth
6) run through one more cycle with no bleach and your washing machine will be fresh as a daisy!

an interview with a five year old

Now that we have a big five year old in our house I thought I would sit down and ask him a few questions:

me: what's the best thing about being a five year old?
Aiden: that I'm older than a four year old.

me: favorite food?
Aiden: oatmeal. (what he was eating)

me: favorite restaurant?
Aiden: Red Robin.

me: favorite game?
Aiden: Candyland.

me: best place to play?
Aiden: the McDonald's play place that I've never been to.

me: favorite thing about Amelia?
Aiden: when she smiles and giggles.

me: favorite movie?
Aiden: both Ice Age movies.

me: favorite toy?
Aiden: spiderman lego set.

me: favorite color?
Aiden: spiderman colors.

me: who should be the next president of the United States?
Aiden: me.

me: what do you want to be when you grow up?
Aiden: I can't renember ... oh, an astronaut.

me: what do you think about global warming?
Aiden: what global warming? Oh you mean like on Ice Age?

ziggy

Remember Ziggy? The cartoon/ greeting card guy from the 80's. That is exactly what Amelia reminds me of when she peeks over Aiden's door. Dale started doing this when she was around 3 months old. I will be reading a bedtime story to Aiden in his bed and all of a sudden Amelia will peek over the top the door. ( Dale is holding her up). It makes all 4 of us giggle.

happy birthday big guy!

Today Aiden turned 5 years old. This was the first time I really felt like my baby isn't my baby anymore. He had preschool today and got to wear a birthday crown and they sang to him. When I picked him up, two of the little girls in his class gave him hugs. It was so sweet. This afternoon a fun package arrived from the Connecticut aunties. Spiderman jammies were the favorite. Aiden is still battling whatever virus he's had and we almost cancelled our dinner out to Red Robin but we went and I'm glad. "Red Robin" wasn't there tonight but I think Aiden forgot all about that when they brought him an ice cream sundae and sang Happy Birthday!

Aiden is five!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

lava hearts

I'm not a big Valentine's person. I'm just not a mushy gushy love person. Since Aiden's birthday is just 2 days beforehand I usually don't even think about it until 2 days before. I was trying to get Aiden involved in a little Valentine project last week and he seems to share my disinterest in the holiday. I had already dragged all the supplies so we WERE going to do it. I couldn't get him interested until I started calling them "lava hearts". We used bits of old crayons (red, white, yellow and pink) placed them on one side of piece of folded wax paper, folded the wax paper over, sealed the sides by folding edges and covered with kraft paper. Then came the fun part, making the crayons into molten lava. We would peek every few seconds to see the crayons being melted by the warm iron. We peeled off the kraft paper and waited a few minutes before we cut out the hearts and hung them by thread!

spiderman birthday

Yesterday Aiden celebrated his fifth birthday with family and friends. For the past 6 months Aiden has been planning, talking about, obsessed about his birthday. He chose a spiderman theme before Christmas and has talked about it non stop. Part of a spiderman birthday is being dressed up as spiderman. I had ordered a costume last week but it didn't arrive in time! Saturday night in a panic I called Heather to find out where she had bought a spiderman costume and she replied " We have two!" Answered prayers because I was thinking of all the future therapy bills Dale and I would be paying because " when I was five I had spiderman birthday and everyone was dressed up as spiderman and I had to be superman. " Yesterday morning Aiden got up and found the costume in the family room and promptly tried it on. Dale woke up to spiderman's heavy breathing standing beside him. The party was too cute watching all these mini spidermen running about. Musical spiderwebs was the party favorite and it was so cute to see these little guys hugging onto to each other so they wouldn't fall off the web!

amelia's friend

Meet Amelia's new friend - Dina the dinosaur. She carries her almost everywhere, clutched in her chubby little fist. She sqeals when she sees the dinosaur on the floor, toddles over and picks her up with a big grin on her face. Sometimes she's nice to Dina and kisses her but other times she bites her arm and legs and pulls quite viciously. Notice the missing tip on Dina's tail. An unfortunate accident, I'm sure. We have two of these pink dinosaurs in our house (sorry Griffin you did leave her here but Amelia has staked her claim)! Both dinosaurs have matching injuries.

more pics from the party

I noticed some of my favorite parts of some pictures are cut off by the slideshow. Can anyone really tire of more pictures of my children? Aren't Carson and Amelia the cutest one year olds! Carson isn't mine but he's still cute!