Bring on the 5 star food

Nikster has been fighting eating lately. Oftentimes she'll just yell at you while sitting in her chair. I know she's hungry but she won't eat.

Well last night we hit the jackpot of eating! Mster and Cster had their date (more info to come) and they cooked up a storm in the kitchen much to the delight of our baby foodie. She LOVED artichokes. She grabbed at the leaves and munched and munched away. We would take them away and she would lunge for the new leaf. The other surprise success was risotto. I've never seen a baby shovel food into her mouth so fast.

Guess I need to start expanding my cooking repertoire.

Sleepy

A few nights ago Kster declared in a defeated voice, "my body is sleepy."

I agree Kster. I'm working on making it not so sleepy but my body is pretty sleepy too.

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.

Recovering on a Snow Day

I sort of had to laugh because yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in the dentist chair and afterwards the assistant sat me down to tell me how horrible I would feel in recovery. She ended her long list of pain aids with, "wait. You don't have to go to work tomorrow, do you?" When I said no she gave me the biggest look of relief. I laughed to myself. Taking care of 4 children isn't work, right?

And then...

Finally. After waiting a very long time we got a legitimate snow day today.

So definitely not working today.

That being said, we are having a great day. Kids are still happy. Minimal fighting. Rooms are being cleaned. Snow cream and chocolate cake in a mug (recipes in a later post).

Not too bad of a recovery day.

Oh...and I've been cooking so new food posts coming soon. Maybe even today. :)

The Church Cycle of a 3yr Old

Kster really likes me. I mean, can you blame him? I'm awesome. But, oftentimes this means that he has this ultimate fear that he won't get to hang out with my awesomeness at all moments of his waking exsistence.  And Kster likes to know that we are close enough at all times that he can hug me within a moments desire.

Kster loves church. He loves his class. He especially loves that he's a big boy now and gets to go with big kids and his brother. But there is that darn factor that moms don't get to go to class with their kids.  Mom's get grown up classes. And so starting on Saturday night Kster decides he does not like church.  Last night he told he me "I can't go to church. Remember, I'm sick!" This church defiance will continue until 5 minutes into the kid part of church. When I pick him up from class he is all smiles and giggles. He's so happy. He shows me his artwork. He waves goodbye to his teacher, who previously he refused to even look at because if he doesn't see her maybe class is just all a figment of our imagination. And he proclaims, "I had FUN".

He will continue to tell everybody he sees for the rest of the week all about his class. He will tell them he is a big boy and goes to big boy class. He will smile and look so proud and then Saturday night will roll around again and the cycle will continue.

I like her

The light was horrible but I realized I hadn't taken any pics of the little one in awhile.

(This one screams "Clean me mom")

She is getting ready to start crawling. 

And she reaches and tries to hard to push herself up. If only she wasn't just 7 months and not strong enough. I hate it when my body won't do what I want it to. 

A Year of Dates - January

This past Christmas, Cster and I decided that we would not give toys as gifts.  Christmas morning the kids all opened their presents to find a binder full of 12 pages, sheet protected, that told them who whey were going on a date with, a place to write what fun things they did and a place to put a photo of their date.

The books kind of got tossed aside Christmas morning but not soon after they were talking about their dates.   When would we go? What would we do?

Kster and I were first. He was pretty upset. Why do I have to do something with JUST mom? Why isn't everyone coming with us? What? So confused. But I found this fun bouncy house place and the 2 of us had so much fun. They let the parents on everything but the velcro wall and so we climbed, slid and played. He could not stop smiling.

This was Ksters first play area. The cone blows air and the balls float for you to swing at them with the bat. This is the most perfect activity for my ball loving boy.

Our first attempt at having someone take our picture resulted in Kster being super shy and avoiding even looking at the person with our camera. 

(I borrowed my daughters hat and didn't realize how much it didn't fit.oops)

So we had to resort to taking the classic, how far away can I hold the camera away to take a pic of us both.

Date #2 was Cster and Lster. They discussed forever what they were going to do. Lster was unwaivering in his desire to play Wii Lego Star Wars. No dinner. No food. No treats. No going to the movies. 

Nothing but Wii. He loved every minute of saber fighting action. (And they did go to dinner too)

 Mster and I went out the next night and we decided to return to our roots and go ice skating. We were both very nervous but had SOO much fun. It didn't take long for her to race ahead of me and weave in and out of unsuspecting skaters. She's a natural. We talked about hot chocolate and I told her that I had never been to a skating rink without hot chocolate so we would just take a break and get a drink at the rink. Apparently hot chocolate is not so prevalent in Yankee rinks so we stopped off at Panera for some hot chocolate and Mster even got a complimentary Valentine's cookie. She also said, "Mom, you know what is better than this hot chocolate? You. And this hot chocolate is goooooood!"

The kids are already talking about their next date. They are so excited and I'm so glad that we chose to do this for gifts.

Mom, the Tyrant

We don't always see eye to eye but this morning Kster and I have been getting along well. Which is why I was a little surprised when he informed me that he did not want me to go to Grandma's house for Christmas because he wanted to have fun.

News flash buddy. Grandma's not going o let you go commando either.

A commentary on my parenting?

Yesterday, being Thursday, meant I got to go through my children's Thursday folders. They are full of important notices from school, past schoolwork, and other school related pages. To be honest, its usually pretty dull. But, not yesterday!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of finding this treasure in my sons folder.

When I asked him to tell me about it he told me that it was a picture of him, throwing zombies off a mountain.  

And, this gem was found in my daughters folder. Last Friday her class dissected an eyeball. Apparently, they were also supposed to do a little write up of their experience. 

I swear that I never told her any of my squeamishness before the dissection. This is all her. 

Homemade Ornaments

We made ornaments!

I took the recipe from this site. Its only, cornstarch, baking soda and water.

I think it was a success!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

How are you feeling today?

Kster drew a picture. Can you see the smile and frown?

Ignore the drool...if you can

Here is the happiest baby on the planet. I think her only competition might be the quadruplets that got caught on video laughing at their dad but she is seriously happy a lot.

And look! She's sitting. All.by.herself. And of course, she's happy about it. What the camera doesn't catch is the fact that moments before she was eagerly trying to get the toy in front of her. I called out her name to take a picture. She looked up at me, lifted herself up with some amazing abs, smiled, and then when I put the camera down went right back to work on getting that toy.