Lovin' the Life

Lovin' the Life

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Easter Eggs

Okay, I finally got out of my comfort zone.  I hunted down the camera cable and hooked it up to the camera and the Imac and to my utter astonishment, I was actually able to download the pictures from the camera onto this computer.  Yay me!  Later I will look into the photo program so I can get rid of the red eye.  But for now.... you can check out pix of our Easter Egg coloring.

Callie really liked the stickers.  She wanted them on every egg.  And lots of 'em!

Marian missed the coloring part, but she was happy to apply stickers and didn't seem upset about not getting to do the coloring.

Delaney LOVED everything about it.  The cocoa mugs were the problem, as she kept wanting to spoon the colored liquid into her mouth, if there was no egg on the spoon.  She managed to get a mouthful of blue and that was it for her.  I ended the egg coloring and emptied the cups after that. 

Delaney didn't take it well.  She was most irate and cried for her cocoa.


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Mentionables

I have a hard time getting motivated to blog when I can't post pictures.  We are still having issues with getting wireless Internet, so only one computer at a time gets the Internet.  Dan prefers the Apple to have the Internet and its too much hassle for me to switch it over.  That is my excuse for not being a more frequent blogger and not having pictures today.  That means I must talk about something, so you know I am still here and still care that you came to visit us here!

So, what is happening at our house lately?  If you ask Joshua, he will proudly announce that he threw up 7 times, and he had diarrhea!  Yep, I'm the mom of a boy who doesn't know how much info is too much!  He really was sick of Friday, but it was a quick bug and he was fine by dinnertime.  He did actually make the above announcement to his friend though.

We colored Easter Eggs on Saturday. I wasn't enthusiastic about it because, well, its dye and children, and a liquid.  I'm sure anyone can see the potential for disaster in that combination.  Plus I had 500 other things I needed to do.  Still, I figured it was for the children.  I strategically did not call Marian and Joshua in to help.  I just sat down with Callie and Delaney.  I made a grave error though.  I made the dye in our cocoa mugs.  Delaney kept referring to it as "cocoa", and wanted to drink it.  I have a wonderful picture of her crying after she spooned some into her mouth and I took it away from her.  She was very angry that I didn't let her drink her "cocoa"! 

Delaney ate waaay too much Sunday night.  She started with her Easter candy and then snacked her way through the tasty snacks we had out for company that evening.  She puked it all up about 10pm that night.  Such a vast quantity that I was truly amazed.  I probably should have anticipated such an event when I saw her spooning the last of the veggie dip right into her mouth.  Poor thing.  Dan had her sheets off and her into the bath before I even knew she'd tossed her cookies.  She went right back to sleep though and was fine after that.  I imagine she must have had quite the tummy ache!

Dan is off to New Orleans this week.  I only have to make it to Saturday, because Miranda and her Dan will be coming to visit me!  I am so excited about that!  So are the kids.  Miranda has cultivated her image as Favorite and Fun Aunt Miranda, and Dan doesn't seem to need to work at all to be the favored Uncle.  Although Uncle Monkey gives him a run for the title.  So, I am having a good week, possibly on the mere anticipation of the weekend!

And the last item possibly worth mentioning is that I exercised this week!  Yes, I did.  I quit running and everything, cold turkey, about 6-8 weeks ago because I was not going to stress about vomiting on the way.  Now that "morning sickness" seems to be over, I have decided it is time to do something about the vast quantities of food I am now consuming.  So I made friends with our elliptical machine again.  We spent some quality time together yesterday and again this morning.  I love how much better it makes me feel!  When it stops being icky outside, I'll toss the girls in the stroller and we'll reacquaint ourselves with the park.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Flat Stanley

Marian's class read the book Flat Stanley at school. They then made their own Flat Stanley's, which they brought home for Spring Break. Their homework was to take him with them for the week and report back on the adventures they had with Stanley. I decided it would be so much more fun if we took pictures! Granted, we did not do much in the way of exciting adventures, but it was still fun to document everything we did this week. (I will develop the pix and we'll make a book for her to take to school on Monday. ) So, here are some shots of what we have done this week with Marian and her Flat Stanley .

I took the kids to a park on base that I've never stopped at before. They always beg when we drive by it, but I'm always in a hurry to get somewhere. So this time we went, and it was a beautiful day. They played for all of 20 minutes and then were bored. Well, not Marian. She loves the monkey bars, and she's very self entertaining.

My goal had been to hit about 4 parks this week. We only made it to 2. This is the park that's about 3 miles down the road. The kids had a great time, despite the fact that it was blustering wind and I was freezing!

Flat Stanley got to come with us out to lunch at Chevy's. I love, love, love their floutas! Yummy in my tummy. The children were all very well behaved and we got a bunch of free kid's meal passes on the way out! Yay!

You can't really tell, but Delaney pulled off his left arm just before we got to Home Depot. I do not like the HD here. I cannot find anything! Hauling all 4 children up and down every single aisle to find what I need was pretty rotten. And no, they did not have anyone helpful in there. I was grumpy. (And yes, we were able to tape the arm back on, good as new!)


We were going to go to the Zoo on this day, but it was raining. It looked beautiful until about 10am, and then the drizzle started. Then it continued all day long. Very dreary. The kids had a picnic in the living room and enjoyed that.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Heaven in my mouth!

I was telling my baby brother about this fabulous recipe I have. I made this Carbonara for dinner last night. It is so yummy and easy to make. Since I had to track it down for him, I decided that all my friends should share in my good fortune, so I am posting it for your enjoyment today. Or tomorrow, or whenever you manage ro run to the store and stock up on bacon.

I must thank my friend Jessica for this recipe. She passed it on to me and I adore it. I love it! I would totally marry it! It brings me such joy and happiness. And then I eat waaaay too much of it and have a tummy ache, and still, I am happy. Currently there are leftovers in my fridge, calling my name, but I have already overindulged this evening.

Dang it. Now I am thinking about it and I may have to eat the leftovers anyway.

Thank you Jessica, I will always remember you because of this recipe and I shall think fond thoughts of you as I gorge myself on this fantastically delicious food.

Pasta Carbonara

Spaghetti or pasta of choice (16 oz., will feed 6-8 people)
1 sm. onion, chopped and sautéed in butter
2 eggs, beaten
parsley
1 lb. bacon, crumbled or 1 cup (or more) cooked ham chunks
A package of Sargento Parmesan cheese (the real stuff) or 1-2 Cup Kraft Parmesan cheese (the powdered stuff)
2 Tbls. butter
Salt

Cook spaghetti according to package directions in salted water. While pasta is cooking combine cheese, eggs, parsley and onion in a bowl. After pasta cooks, drain it. Then add the butter, bacon and cheese mixture and stir vigorously to distribute all the yummy goodness. Add salt to taste.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Who LOVES clothes?!

Today we are going to talk about Delaney and her obsession with clothes. The kid LOVES to change her clothes. And now she has an opinion on what she wears, so it can be a trial to get her ready to go in the morning if she can't find something SHE likes and wants to wear. I wanted to document her fixation, and even more so, her multiple changes during the day.

This is her first outfit of the day. She is wearing Callie's Jammies, that Callie has barely outgrown and Delaney barely fits into. Delaney loves them. They are one of her favorite things to wear. I think she like the pink. She is showing her belly for some reason.


Then she spots her most favorite outfit and off come the jammies. She, of course will not immediately put on the clothes, she must wander around naked for a while, and drag the outfit with her. You can see the flowery pink pants behind her.

Ahhhh, finally she has put it in and I have helped with her "butties", (as she calls the buttons). She adores this outfit. It is size 24 months and is getting a bit small. I love it because I always know I can get her dressed if I have this in hand.

Uh-oh, she saw Marian's jumper from Sunday and had to put it on!



Well, everyone knows the zipper HAS to go in front! How else could she get it on?!

After her nap, Delaney saw Callie's spare clothes which I had just brought in from the car. She just HAD to put them on.... even the Dora underpants!

And she did it all by herself! She does NOT want help when she is dressing.

And then, its Off With the Clothes and they get heaped in a pile on the floor. Note that she has also become angry about something and pulled out her pony-tails.

And she is back into PJs. These are a 24 month size and you can see they are a bit snug. She had a little trouble getting them over her diaper. No worries, they won't last long!

Nope, it was back to the Jumper. She likes dresses a lot now. She likes to put on a "cuke dess" these days if she can find one. Watch her zip this up all by herself. I told you she liked to do it without assistance.

And she did it.
Its nearly bedtime, so she'll need to put on something else for bed.
Dan had to go off to YM that night, so I got to put the kids to bed by myself. That's why I didn't get a picture of Delaney in her last outfit of the day. I was busy and she was probably uncooperative till the last minute. Still, I think the rest of the pictures demonstrate the proper level of her obsession with clothing!