Warm Me Up Snack

In Texas we like to pretend it's fall or winter. And we have had a lot of rain lately (finally) and the temps were down so this was our after school snack. The girls were thrilled! Hot cocoa and chocolate chips mixed up in warm popcorn.

Play Doh Play

We had a play date today where we just got out our mega play doh set to use with our friends. JM made this starfish, but this is the star fish after she destroyed it and re-made it quickly for a picture. :-) She and her friend J also made a tower. They played for so long in the playroom together working on "stuff." Thank goodness. Some days the play room gets little use so its nice when friends come over to show them how to use those toys!! :-)

The blue plate is dinner I made last week. All JCs favorites - kiwi, cucumber, tomato, and veggie rice. In fact when JM saw it she said "Yuck!" Who ate NONE of it - JC! Who ate ALL of it - JM! It makes no sense! Yes, I am aware this a boring dinner and no that's not what I had! :-)

Now the green bowl is a fruit bowl my mom gave me. It has a little colander insert so you can put freshly washed fruit in the bowl and it won't be sitting in water drips. JM loves this bowl and is always taking it out of my cabinet. Today we had to run an errand to pick up some furniture from someone and she whipped up her own snack bowl. Inside is Veggie Booty, juice pouch, and pudding with spoon! She had it all thought out! Of course I let her take it on our little trip!

Watermelon, Watermelon, Watermelon..and a Chile

My little JC LOVES watermelon. So much so that it's a meal. She's an odd bird when it comes to food. She could sit down and have ONE thing for dinner. Watermelon, blueberries, tomatoes, or cantelope to name a few favorites. Or Cheetos of course! This is exactly what the pediatrician says not to do. Don't let her fill up on one thing even if it is healthy. A balanced plate and no seconds and thirds on the favorite thing. This is so difficult with this child. Plus she's so thin its not like obesity is on the horizon. And she seems to like water packed fruit! NOT filling. We also call her our carnivore too. I am sure you can guess why.

Speaking of favorite foods...YUM. I have season tickets to broadway shows that play in Austin. I go with a group of ladies and what is my favorite part? Going out to eat first. Sunday was my FAVORITE we've ever eaten in the 2 years we've gone out together. El Chile! I judge Mexican food based on if I would take my husband or my dad or no one at all of course. This was definitely a place I would take my hubby. The jury is out on Dad. It's not pure Tex Mex like Dad would like, but it was so good I can't imagine him not liking it. This is a picture of the Shrimp tacos and this is the natural color of the dish, no photo enhancements! It was so good. If you like Mexican at all, this is a must try. It's near the UT campus on Manor Road.

What show did we see? Rent. It was ok. I had a couple favorite songs, but there was something about the acoustics that made some of it difficult to hear. Our last show is in August - Wicked - very excited about that one.

What? MTM again?

Hubby got to experience Muffin Tin Monday this week since we did it for dinner instead of lunch. He didn't eat out of the muffin tins though! We had turkey spaghetti with some spinach/basil pasta, crescents, blueberries, asparagus, grapes. Crescents were the favorite in this one..sigh...

And a thank you note to Mia who sent us some magnet bears that you dress up for Valentine's! The girls love them. JM especially can stand at the fridge for an hour pretending. It's so funny to hear all of her little conversations.

Muffin Tin Monday

Yup back to Muffn Tin Monday.. the kids were happily surprised. It actually does help them know the days of the week. JM knew instantly it must be Monday! Whole wheat crackers, organic cheese ravioli, strawberries, more ravioli, grapes and real cheddar cheeto-wannabes! My kids aren't into pasta, so I was hoping the muffin tins would make it better. :-) JM ate EVERYTHING, JC ate NOTHING.. augh.. I ended up having to give her blueberries.

Then the below picture was dinner. Yup got on a roll. Actually wanted to document my first attempt at homemade fish sticks. I used Japanese Panko bread crumbs with Egg Beaters and put them on the George Foreman Grill. I used Basa fish which was on SALE! The girls love fish. Also whenever I make fish or chicken they love using our kid-friendly chop sticks. We got them at a children's toy store in Arizona and it makes eating so much fun! Great for motor skills too, JM's is is a toucan and JC's is a duck. They connect at the top for easy pick up. Why is JM eating left-handed?? I could tell it was awkward for her but I think she didn't want to let go of that yummy bread!

An Apple a Day...

The girls love fruit, but have never enjoyed apples. They don't even like much apple sauce or apple juice. I've always thought it was odd. Isn't that a kid staple?? When they have eaten apple it's sliced AND peeled. Well Saturday as we were packing up to head to Longview JC asks for an apple. Of course I want to roll my eyes at her. She'll take an apple and take a mouse bite and throw it away!!! But I wanted to encourage as she hasn't done that in a while and you know she ate that thing! Nearly the whole apple like a crunching machine! YAY! I am so excited.

So we headed toward Longview - sort of. I drove the kids near Mesquite. My parents picked them up to take them to Longview and I drove on to Carrollton to visit school friends. I didn't take any pictures!! I truly have the best friends ever. Known them since 6th grade or longer in some cases. We did the same type of stuff we did in middle school and high school... What's that?? Watch movies, play Monolopoly, play Wii (well that was a change!) cook together, eat together... etc etc. I pray my children are lucky enough to find friends like this as youngsters that have so much integrity, don't push you to be something you are not, don't push you to do something you shouldn't, and have a love for having innocent fun. I want my children to be children. With my friends I always got to be that. Usually a craft was involved too. No crafts this time! Although last time we visited we made some painted art for K's wall! :-)

So we stayed at sweet K's house! Oh how I love her guest bed. Good grief. Honestly you search for good sleep after kids.. This was the best. Comfy bed and 2 Benadryl (allergies this week) and I got awesome rest and even slept late!

It was just me, K and C. We missed S. Her babies were sick this weekend. I hope next time you guys are heading to Austin!

Ornament Making Part I

We cook a lot over here. I really don't know why. It's certainly not anything I excel at, but the kids think it's fun and we always do counting to take turns and attempt to look at fractions when we measure. Our friend J and her girls got us these super cute apron sets for birthdays. Oh how we love them. Anytime someone comes over they have to try the hat on as S is doing in this picture with JM.

So, speaking of S, we had her and her mommy and siblings over in an effort to make our own cinnamon scented star ornaments, pictured lowered left. I will not share the recipe as I didn't like it! They smell great, but unfortunately are not as hard as I think an ornament should be! I will place them high for scent, but no hands can touch and crumble! I have one more recipe that I have the ingredients for that I will try next. Cross your fingers! If you have a great recipe - send it my way!

In the far right picture JC is making our lunch. :-) Actually she AND N made us this pizza, but my memory card was full and I think I accidentally dumped the picture of N. Pizza is so fun/easy to make! This time we used that Boboli crust and it was good!

Cheetos

No this post is not really all about Cheetos - sort of! The kids did some cooking at Mom J's house. The Pottery Barn Outlet Queen BTW. She totally gets into all the super cute holiday decorating. We read a Halloween book and did some Halloween food decorating.

The girls of course ate all of the available Cheetos they possibly could!! Jumping tables to get to them practically! haha Poor things! We NEVER eat Cheetos because we ALL love them and I would hear begging for Cheetos 24/7 if they were in teh house. SO, they make great treats and great bribery! :-) Umm, yup that happens on occasion! So yes, huge treat today - Cheetos! J could have had only that and the girls would have been totally happy.

These are some owl face cheese sandwiches they made. JC's expression about her owl face pretty much sums up how she thought it tasted too. It's one of JC's patented expressions. :-) But hey Cheetos went with it so..great meal!

Here is where they hit the sugar jackpot! Pretzels dipped in orange or green white chocolate and then covered in sprinkles and candy! The girls both napped today! I think there was a sugar crash involved!

Absolutely wonderful! We are so glad to have our fun play group of creative moms willing to put this stuff together!!

Not So Classic

Not So Classic Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

• 3 cups wheat bran
• 2 cup light buttermilk
• 2/3 cup apple sauce
  
• 1/2 cup substitute egg product
  
• 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup flaxmeal
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. (I spray the flour baking spray in silicone muffin pans and it's GREAT)
   
2. Mix it all up and then add in chocolate chips slowly and gently.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!

Ms. J made this recipe from a website for her cooking group with the kids. But, she changed it a lot to make it healthier, and then I changed it some more, so it really doesn't resemble the original recipe at all. We made them today and the kids love them! Despite the health factor she added chocolate chips to make them yum! Raisins could be substituted.

It made 12 regular size muffins and 24 mini-muffins. You can half this recipe and leave out flaxmeal if you like.

B is for Butter

Once again something I did with my two year old class and came home and did with the girls! Heavy cream and some salt - shake shake shake! They put our super yummy butter on a pancake for an afternoon snack.

Hot Potato

JM LOVES baked potatoes! I got one of those value menu ones at Wendy's once and she wanted to try it over her chicken nuggets. That started her love of the potato! What is even more amazing to me is she eats it all! Even long after there is no sour cream, cheese or butter to be seen she still digs in and eats the skin too! I rarely do that!

Last night we had a veggie meal with baked potatoes, boiled okra, and mixed steamed veggies. I think the only thing she didn't eat was the asparagus that was in the mixed veggies. When she was done she came after my potato skins! Wow.

Mashed Bananas

So, if you can get about 7 pounds of really ripe bananas for $.99 what should you do? Make LOTS of banana muffins!

First we used a random recipe for banana muffins and decided it was good! Then, we made a healthier version! It was still good! Yay!! The girls are eating these for breakfast and look forward to me putting them in their lunch tomorrow! Sort of funny because they don't like bananas much, but they like these! I may try all whole wheat flour next time and additional flaxmeal, but here is what we have so far-

Here is the Bananas Muffin recipe, our healthier alternative is in the parenthesis:

1/2 c room temp. butter
1 c sugar
1 1/2 c flour (We used 1/2 of this as whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
1 c mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 c sour cream (fat free)
1 tsp vanilla
(2 TBS flaxmeal)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, eggs. Add dry ingredients. Blend well. Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix. Pour into muffin pan. You can put in muffin cups, or spraying a silicone muffin pan with oil/flour baking spray works great too. (They pop right out.) Bake about 30 minutes, maybe a little less. I did this with mini-muffins and regular size muffins. One batch filled 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins! This was a great one for the kids to help with too!

Barton Springs Pool

Barton Springs Pool, located in Zilker Park, is just one of those Austin places I felt I needed to take the kids to! We've been before but it was cold and rainy outside or we've gone when we were visiting the nearby mini train or park. Also we have done some hiking in the area, but we've never tried this pool. So, off we go to the pool before the weather gets too cool - WHY?? This is some ICY water!

Once we got in, I thought it felt good, but JC is not much on cold water so she didn't stay submerged long.

Good family time. The girls enjoyed using some new floater things we got them. JM especially likes it because it helps her stay a bit more horizontal as she learns to swim.

Oh and we went to Freebirds for lunch afterwards..burritos. Geez, my girls are total burrito lovers! I think they could have each eaten their own half bird instead of sharing one! Pretty soon they are opening a Feebirds a bit closer to where we live which will be nice, but boy I wish they had a drive thru!

It's All Gouda!

Suddenly JC doesn't like cheese! Used to be sort of a staple and now not so much. But, the other day I bought some gouda and JC can't get enough. She says "Mom, I want the good cheese!"

And since I mention food we tried to make some homemade ice cream this week. We were trying a low fat, but not artificial sugar recipe..which I actually couldn't find low-fat that wasn't also using an artificial sweetner so I improvised. Basically we made REALLY cold ic cream soup! It was still good!

Melting...

We went to a play date for 2 year old Science today. Attendance was light...It was just JC and this cutie pie S! It's unfortunate that there were so few people though because we had a blast swimming!

On to the experiment-Where will ice cream melt faster? metal pan, glass dish, hot concrete, plastic bowl? Our two 4 year olds - guessed right - hot concrete!

We also made home made ice cream in plastic bags! We had to shake, shake, shake!! And when I say "we" I mean ME, and the other Momma! My girls didn't last too long, but the big girls tried to do some jumping to shake it up. I can't blame them for quitting - it was COLD! Mom C brought towels to hold the bags with but it was tricky. But in the end, it was some tasty ice cream!

Kids Don't Eat Peanut Butter Anymore?

My kids can't take peanut butter to the gym childcare area when I exercise due to the growing number of kids allergic to peanut products. My kids, especially JC require mega- snacks though. So, in my desire to try and send healthy/easy snacks I have switched to soy butter at the gym.

This morning the kids wanted a whole wheat English muffin with Peanut Butter on it... I get the peanut butter out and they say "no, not that one.. the soy butter!!" They prefer soy butter??? I grew up with regular old peanut butter and think soy butter tastes sort of weird...times are changing...

But they both at their high fiber muffin with soy butter and I have to say I was super pleased! They liked it better than when I put all-fruit jam on it! It was a good quick breakfast. Our other quick breakfast is whole wheat pancakes (apple cinnamon, sweet potato, blueberry, or berry buckwheat) which they also love and are also high in fiber. And our mid-morning snack was Popsicles made of 100% fruit and vegetable juice and the afternoon snack was Mandarin oranges and whole wheat crackers with MORE soy butter! YAY, they are on their way to healthy eating. Of course JC passed by the vending machine at the Y today and saw those Cheetos calling her name for sure! We rarely buy them which is great because when necessary they make the ULTIMATE bribery food!! :-) (I am recording this info just so the kids know what they ate as children)

I guess I should mention we also had pizza and cupcakes today so we don't all think we are perfect about what we feed the kids over here! It's JC's birthday though, so cupcakes ARE allowed!!! Oh and JC's all time favorite food?? Tomatoes!!!! She's the only one in the house who likes them! I think she ate her weight in them over the weekend. Suddenly today she wouldn't eat one though. I think she went a bit over board this weekend. Her love of tomatoes would also explain why she REALLY likes salsa too! :-) Gotta love a tot who loves salsa! JM likes the creamy jalapeño sauce at Chuy's though, so she's hip too!

Things To Do in Flagstaff...

A spelunking we will go! This was probably the most unusual thing we did, not that it's actually THAT unusual. Hubby, my brother, his wife and I went to a cave. This cave was pretty cool..literally. 30 something degrees in there - year round! Coming from HOT Texas we thought this was FABULOUS! This is us looking up to the entrance/exit. I think that silhouette might be my brother since these are all his wife's pictures.

This is hubby and I in a low part of the cave. It was roughly a mile and a half through it, pitch black and cold. We each had 2 flashlights and extra batteries and believe it or not we tested all of it out including new batteries to get the brightest light. It was DARK. The cave height was anywhere from 3 feet to 30 feet. It was created by lava, which explains the name - Lava River Cave.

I obviously was taking this photo with Y's camera. I wouldn't risk throwing mine down on some rocks! Parts of it were slippery and all of it was an uneven surface to walk on. Y thought I walked pretty quickly through it, but honestly I just had my pace going and couldn't make myself go at any other pace. My ankles were sort of achey after this jaunt. I say hubby is a little climbing elf in this picture. He enjoys skedaddling up rocks. :-)

Mom, Hubby and I headed to the Riordan Mansion. The Riordan's were some wealthy movers and shakers in their day. Very interesting tour and home. Not kid-friendly so we left the kids with the locals who could go anytime and Poppy.

Walking the streets of beautiful downtown Flagstaff and supporting the economy one hat at a time! We are hat folks.

Ok, so food ALWAYS has to be involved when discussing things to do! Old Town Creperie was Yum! The only bad part is there is ONE girl who can only make 2 crepes at a time. 6 adults and 4 kids..it took a while. She also took the order, took the payment, and took orders for anyone else who walked in, so - the poor people who had to wait after US!

We did eat other places, but this was unique.

The beautiful campus of Northern Arizona University where my brother is a professor.

Going to Flagstaff and NEED coffee? Try these places: Wicked Arizona, It's About Coffee, and Late for the Train

Between my multiple trips to try out coffee and my brother's never ending supply of Dr. Pepper in the fridge, I was well-caffeinated on this trip!

We also went to Lowell Observatory on this trip, but no one was up for me flashing my camera so as not to light up the sky as with my light pollution..and no one else was, so I restrained myself. JM thought this was a cool visit despite waiting a very long time to wait in line to see Saturn and a star cluster. For some reason she wanted to go back every night. JC fell asleep! This was a hard place to take young kids at night.

Reserve Me a Seat!

So on Day 2 of driving to Flagstaff we were going into some higher elevation and the road wasn't totally straight and I was sitting in the back of the van and really just needed to get out and walk a bit and we kept seeing signs for this cafe up ahead, so we decided that would be a good rest spot. Besides there was no where to pull over and absolutely NOTHING on this road at all! So here we are at The Adobe Cafe and Bakery. We walk in and the bakery goods look yum, but the menu looks really interesting too. So of course, even though we just ate a continental breakfast at our hotel we decided we had to try something! We ordered 2 Green Chili breakfast burritos.....from a child. She was home-schooled. We thought we'd share the food. Good grief - Thank goodness - they were huge and SOOOO good. They had a yummy creamy green chili sauce on them.

Ok, so we found some yummy food in the middle of nowhere... We are eating and the guy that was at the cash register gets up and starts fiddling with musical instruments. Then another guy gets up with a harmonica and they perform "Big Yellow Taxi." Huh?? Sunday at 11 AM and no one is there but us and the workers. Then they start another song and some guy shows up on a motor cycle and joins in on some bongos. Then a lady shows up in the next song and she too has some instrument, but at this point we've got to get back on the road. Apparently they get together and play on Sunday mornings for no one in particular. It was one of those right time/right place moments cuz it was just cool. Mom and I bought T-shirts, so watch out for our advertisements on our backs! And where was this place? Reserve, New Mexico! They also owned a hotel next door and I was very curious. Maybe next time!

http://www.theadobecafeandbakery.com/

At the time I write this they have a horrible website. It makes me wander why I think this place was so great. If you ever happen to need a stop near Reserve, New Mexico though this was a winner. Charming.

Dallas Farmer's Market

What a weekend away from my little girls and I go look at fruit and veggies??? Uhhhh...Yeah!

Well, technically I went to Dallas to visit these 3 gals! I left my girls in Longview with Mia and Poppy, and although I missed them dearly a getaway with these gals - who BTW are all now officially 30 - was FABULOUS!

We bought a few things at the Farmer's Market, but mostly just looked around. Some of those farmers really have learned to shine and stack in such a beautiful way.

This is C. The short history is we knew each other before we were born via our moms, but we've been friends since 6th grade.

This is S and K. I just found out S who is pregnant with her 2nd child will be having a boy! YAY! Her little girl is only a month or so younger than my JM. I always have this secret hope that one day they can be pen pals or something, but so far they seem to be only once a year play mates since we don't exactly live next door. I've known S since I was little bitty too. We twirled together I think, but reconnected in 6th grade too. And K, smart, sweet K, I met in 6th grade and we've been friends since.... Wow, officially been friends with these girls..I mean ladies, more than half my life!! :-)

Thanks for letting me visit you guys and letting me stay at your new home K!! So happy I know all of you and we've managed to keep in touch! I think to have friends like you all is such a blessing in a way I am sure some might think is weird - you make me feel youthful! To still be friends with people who were your best buds in the teen years is totally awesome!!! It's wonderful to reminisce about the fun parts of being teenagers together --we'll just forget about the un-fun parts of course! :-) You all are wonderful!