Year of Dates - March

Can I just say I love this Christmas present idea. Its been so awesome to spend time with the kids and see their anticipation and excitement.

Mster and I kicked of our weekend of dates by heading to the House of Bounce. She saw how much fun Kster and I had and she decided to try it out.

Mster was determined to do EVERYTHING she could possibly do there. We spend a lot of time on this slide. What the picture doesn't show is that this is a very very tall slide we probably did it over a dozen times.  Kster was too scared to try it out so I didn't have to climb the crazy steps but I did it and loved it.

This is a velcro sticky wall. Its not so sticky. But she still loved jumping and sticking and slowly peeling off.

Here is us at the bottom of the really big slide.

I guess even the 8 yr old needed a little break. She headed over to where all the toys for sale were to check them out but got stung by a stealth wasp. This is her texting Cster to tell him all about the pain and anguish.

Kster and I headed out the next day to go play some Glogolf. Kster's done it before but couldn't remember a thing. He was a little peeved that we weren't going to the bounce house (especially when he saw the pictures of Mster the night before) but as soon as we got there he was in golfing heaven.

He proudly posed for this shot. He was still going at this point. We were on our second round of 18 holes.

Kster was most excited about checking out the hole before hitting the ball to make sure it was a real hole and not a fake one that would take his ball to some other location.

After Glogolf we headed to the Food Court and got Kster one of his favorite things in the whole world. !!!!TREATS!!!!

After we headed home, Cster and Lster headed of to Chuck E. Cheeses to play some arcade games. They were a little disappointed in the lack of actual video games but Lster seemed over the moon excited by the obtaining of tickets and the prizes to be found. I love that he came home and shared all his candy prizes with his brother and sister. 

Lster and Cster then headed off for some sushi. Lster loves to eat fish and Cster is always looking to eat sushi so it seemed a match made in date heaven. Other than the fact that Lster hates avocado he downed a ton of sushi.

Hawaiian Man

Last night Kster asked for the Hawaiian Man son when we were putting him to bed. Both Cster and I looked puzzled at each other.

Then Kster elaborated. "You know Hawaiian man built his house on a rock"

Ohhhhhh...that Hawaiian man.

Babies are Cute

And if one is going to spend some time dumping a month of stuff into blog posts, one must definitely reserve a blog post for cute babies.

Preschool

This is Kster on his first day of preschool. He is still so young for anything formal but so desperate to go to school like his big brother and sister so when a friend suggested we do a little coop, Kster and I jumped at the idea.

He LOVES it! He LOVES LOVES LOVES it! Every day he asks me if he has school. He is so excited.

And, dude, look at those curls.

Lettuce Wraps

This is one of my family's favorite meal. Lettuce Wraps! I made a ton of it this week. I was pretty sure we would have leftovers. In the end, Lster decided to eat half of it (7 lettuce wraps) and Cster left the table hungry. I guess the boys eating us out of house and home has begun.

Here is the recipe. I got it off the web over a year ago and don't know the source. I've tweaked it a bit too.

PF Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps

3 tablespoons oil

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup water chestnut (I don't always add this)

²⁄₃; cup mushroom (I don't add this)

Any amount of cut up vegetables (ie: carrots, celery, bell peppers)

3 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Cooked rice

iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce

¼ cup sugar

½ cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¹⁄₈; teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hot mustard (I actually use french's regular)

2 teaspoons water

1 -2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions:

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done. Remove chicken from the pan and cool. (I cut up the chicken and just cook it cut up as I never think ahead to make the chicken and cool it before needing it for dinner) Keep oil in the pan, keep hot. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas as well as all your other vegetables.

Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl. When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are cooking. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups". I add cooked rice to the mix at the end to make it more filling and more of a meal than an appetizer. Top with "Special Sauce". You won’t need all the sauce.

Somebody loves Soccer Buddies

Thusday was Ksters last day of Soccer Buddies. Coach Bosco has been his coach since his first day many years ago. He loves loves soccer and loves loves his coach.

We are taking a break again this year as the older ones have started city soccer and there is only so much soccer this mom can chauffeur. 

Valentine's Envelopes

I organized Lster's Valentine's Party for his Kindergarten Class. This is what I cam up with for containers to put their Valentines. I got the general idea from this crazy thing called google search. 

Year of Dates - February

We definitely had our dates in February but just took a little time getting the pictures.

Mster and Cster went out to dinner to Red Robins and then went to the movies. She LOVED Wreck it Ralph. Apparently, the toilet humor is just enough to make a 8 yr old squeal with delight.

Kster and Cster had a marathon date. Kster was determined to play Wii Lego Star Wars that it took a lot of  convincing to have him change his mind. The two started out at an arcade type place, moved on to Five Guys and then headed to Grandma and Grandpas for a sleepover. The highlight of the whole date, I'm sure, is that Kster got to ride in his Dad's car. This is the most coveted activity in the family and I think if Cster offered to drive the kids around for an hour they would think that is the Awesomest. Idea. Ever!

LSter and I took off to go bowling. The games go surprisingly fast when there are just 2 people in a lane so after 2 games we moved to the little arcade area and did a little DDR, air hockey and duck punching.