May Fun!

Wow, it seems like the months are just flying by around here! I could have sworn we just celebrated Christmas, but here we are in June already!

So, May was an extremely busy month for us!

We signed Zavion up for t-ball this year, so two to three days a week were dedicated to that all month. It took some adjusting, but we all got into a pretty good routine quickly (and it gave me a chance to start up our Crockpot meals again...yay!). And, how did the boy like t-ball? He enjoyed the team aspect of it, and loved being cheered for. And, of course he was very proud of himself when he hit the ball far or made a good stop. But, it was a little slow for him and he did get bored pretty quickly. He has a brain a lot like his mama's, and it doesn't ever really turn off. He's constantly thinking, planning, calculating and a lot of the game is spent just waiting...waiting to hit, waiting to run, waiting for a ball to come your way. He does seem to be en enjoying it more and more, and is improving everyday too. I'd love to see him stick with it, but of course would never push him.

Running to first...Look at his proud little face!


Coming into home plate & getting five from his coach.


Getting a fist bump from his coach after an important play.


May was also the month for the Awesome 3000; a local race sponsored by the school district. Kids in all grades come out to run against each other, and while times are recorded, everyone receives a medal for finishing. I ran in it every year I was a kid, and I think it was the beginning of my love of running when I was younger. When I saw that Z was old enough to run this year (even though he's not yet in kindergarten) I was pretty excited. I asked him about doing it, not sure the reaction I would get, and he was so excited! Then, when I went to pick up his packet, I was told a parent had to run with him. This was the day before the race. Colin was in the throes of a nasty cold and I had pulled my neck pretty badly. But, I decided to suck it up, and agreed to do the run with him. I decided we should 'practice' when we got home from getting our packet (didn't want to embarrass my boy, haha), even though we would only be running 300 meters (basically around the track). However, rain was in the forecast for the morning of the race, and Z doesn't do well in situations he can't control. So, control-freak that I am, I told him we needed to practice running in the rain, so we'd be prepared for the race the next day. And, guess what? No rain! In fact, it was pretty clear and even a little sun poked through!
And, we did pretty well, despite Z getting mowed over by a very overzealous Mommy, who seemed very intent on getting her and her kid to the front of the pack. :o/ But, my guy didn't sweat it; he just picked himself up and ran even harder to make up for lost time! And, no whining, crying or complaining from him like many of the other kiddos his age were prone too. I was just so proud of how he handled himself! And, he immediately asked when he could do it again! He might just be a runner like Mommy!

Z and Mommy getting ready for our run.


Proud boy with his medal!


We also decided to attend The Ag Fest at our local fairgrounds. Living in the state's capitol means easy access to the fairgrounds and all the fairs and things held there. We had never been to the Ag Fest before, so weren't really sure what to expect, but it seemed like a good activity for the day. And, the weather was perfect too (which is rare in May in Oregon). The kiddos got to ride horsies (Avalee was in heaven!), pet lots of adorable animals, and, of course, eat a delicious ice cream cone. They also came away with a bunch of plants they got to plant themselves for free. It was a fun day!

I know, she looks thrilled, right? She did love riding "her" horsie, despite her under-enthusiastic expression here!


Yep, in case you were wondering, Zavion is undercover here!


Miss Avalee planting away here!


And, of course Mother's Day! My awesome family let me sleep in, then showered me with gifts; a new Kindle from the hubby and candy from the kids. Wonderful! And, I was served not one, but two breakfast in bed! Zavion presented me with an apple and banana, complete with a bow and candle (leftover from Grandma's birthday a few days earlier) and Colin brought me my favorite Jack In the Box breakfast sandwich. Everyone came over and we had a nice BBQ and some yummy pie! It was a super-fun day with all my favorite people!

My little guy presented me with a lovely breakfast!


The best pic I could get of my with my kiddos, lol!


And, for one of our last adventures in May (and Spring!) we took a trip back to Ankeny Hill Wildlife Refuge (remember last year when I blogged about this place). We didn't see much wildlife, but it was the perfect day to get out and explore! The highlight of our hike was stumbling across a little waterfall tucked way back behind some out of the way trails, and seeing a flyover of two fighter jets on the way out (it was Memorial Day).

One of our 'wildlife' spottings; giant slug! ;o)


The kids checking out a wildflower. Love the curiosity on their little faces!


They decided to just plop down in this field for snacks...and conversation. Love these two! :o)


Such a fun, and busy month and I look forward to Summer and more fun times ahead!

Mommy Playdates

I belong to an awesome mom's group that allows for frequent get-together of kiddos to play, craft, run around, etc. My kids really appreciate having other kids their age to play with, and I appreciate a break from hearing “I'm boooored!” and “But, I don't want to play with my sister/brother anymore!”

But, what I also love about my mom's group, are the mom's night out (MNO). We usually get together at least once a month for bingo, bunco and even the occasional fondue night or movie night. I can restore my sanity, if only for a few hours, and be free to eat with both hands. I'd love to say the conversation is more grownup too, but we often fall into the routine of talking about our kids' most of the night anyway. Oh well, just being able to get out more then two words of a sentence before being interrupted to untangle the fork from your daughter's hair, get the shoe out of the toilet or remove the banana peel from the dryer is pretty much heaven.

One of my favorite aspects of our MNO, is the food. Some of the moms really go all out and bring some truly nummy (yea, I said nummy...see I do need to get out more) dishes!

I myself decided I wanted to do something different then the usual cookies or rice krispy treats (though don't get me wrong; I could very well live on chocolate chip cookies and rice krispy treats alone), so came up with a couple fun foods...

This first one is something I've been wanting to do for awhile; brownie balls. My little guy and I fell in love with these after trying them from our local bakery. We'd make up any excuse we could to have occasion to go get them, Unfortunately, the bakery recently went out of business and took our beloved brownie balls with them. After sulking and pouting for a couple weeks, I decided they seemed like something we could make ourselves. As with most new recipes I want to try, I headed for the internet. I found a few recipes for 'brownie balls' but they were mostly disappointing to me. Most recipes called for adding frosting to the cooked brownies. While that's a standard practice for cake balls, it just seemed to me that brownies are already rich enough. So, I decided to just do it myself.

Brownie Balls

Ingredients:
Brownie mix (you can go with homemade brownies here, but the boxed Hershey's never let me down)
Six squares Bakers Chocolate, semi-sweet (these are pretty rich, so if you use another chocolate, still stick with semi-sweet)

Optional:
Sprinkles, cookie crumbs, nonpareils
Sucker sticks

Directions:
Mix brownies according to directions, but cook about five minutes less then recommended time (make sure they are done, but still soft)
Cool completely
Turn out brownies onto surface, and trim edges off (use pizza cutter to speed this up and please, save those scraps...perfect for hot fudge sundaes)



Begin scooping brownies, shaping into about two inch balls (use a cookie scoop for the perfect size) and set on parchment (or Silpat) lined baking tray.
Put finished balls into freezer (if you want pops, insert lollipop sticks now) for about 10 minutes
*And, if you are worried about this task becoming monotonous, make sure you have a five year old who is very eager to discuss with you all aspects of Dinosaur Train.



Taking out a few at a time, dip balls into melted chocolate and put on another baking sheet. If desired, add sprinkles, cookie crumbs etc.
Place back into freezer for 10 more minutes until chocolate has set.



And, that's it! Simple, yummy, and fun enough to take to your next outing!




This next one is just something that seemed fun, and actually, it was one of those situations where I didn't want to drag my crew to the store, so used what I had on hand: marshmallows and chocolate. And, you know you can never go wrong with that combination!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows



Ingredients:
Marshmallows (I used two different flavors; vanilla and chocolate)
Chocolate (again, I used both milk and white chocolate & added some peppermint extract to some of the white to make it mint flavored)-melted
Pretzel sticks
Sprinkles, cookie crumbs, etc (optional)

Directions:
Melt your chocolate in batches in the microwave (and, yes, you can melt white chocolate in the microwave; just go a minute at a time and be prepared to keep re-heating as it hardens)
Insert pretzel stick into marshmallow and dip into chocolate, making sure to add some melted chocolate to the hole around pretzel stick
Sprinkle with cookie crumbs, sprinkles, etc
Refrigerate or freeze until hard



Simple, inexpensive and fast enough to throw together last minute!



Hopefully, there will be many more mommy playdates in the future, so I can create more fun food! :)

Day-Cation:Wildlife Safari

We are a family that likes to do, go, experience. We don't buy a lot of fancy things (not that the kids aren't spoiled...thanks Grandparents!), have only one car (hubby commutes to work by bicycle) and try to eat-in as much as possible. We save our money for little trips here and there. Living in the Great Northwest means ample places to visit, many of which can be done in one day. As a family of four, this suits us just fine.

One of our absolute favorite places to visit, is Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR. It's about an hour and a half to two hours (depending on potty breaks, traffic, etc) so pretty reasonable for a five and two year old. This was our second year in a row visiting this magnificent place, so we were all pretty excited!

As weekends there can be pretty crazy, we decided to go on a Monday (Colin had just returned from a four day trip to St Louis for work too, so this was just the family time we all needed). We happened to pick the perfect day too! The sun was shining the whole time we were there and it only rained just as we were leaving.

We started our first drive-thru (you get to go through twice) and almost immediately, Avalee started “oohing” and “aahing” and practically jumping out of her seat! Apparently, she saw a giraffe just ahead and then an elephant. She was about as excited as I've ever seen her! We eventually let both kiddos out of their car seats (you drive through at about 5mph, tops) so they could get the best views.

Grandma was in the backseat with them, and unfortunately I think she got quite a few flying elbows, knees and blocked views from a couple very excited kids...hahaha!

Zavion even brought along his constant companion and best friend, Leopard (his stuffed cheetah), who got to sit on then window for some pretty cool views of bears, lions and bison.

After we drove through, we stopped for lunch at the restaurant there and were treated to a fun show by the monkeys outside. We had a perfect view of their crazy antics, including climbing to the tip-top of a tall (telephone-like) pole and screeching very loudly. The kids loved it, and had to be reminded several times to finish their lunch so we could go see them in person.

After lunch, we headed straight for the monkeys who were still screeching and now swinging wildly from tree to tree. Avalee, however, couldn't care less about the monkeys; she was enthralled with the giant Koo fish that were in the moat around the monkey area. She would pint out fish after fish and squeal with delight when they started swimming around! After visiting with some flamingos, cheetahs and taking a little break on the playground, we were ready for a second drive through.

This time we were treated to feeding-time with the bears and even got stalled when some mountain goats decided to get into a tussle a few cars ahead of us, locking horns and pushing each other around for almost 15 minutes! We also got to see some baby cheetahs (and their very nervous mama, who was pacing back and forth behind them) and the lions giving each other a bath.

It was a fun, fun day and one that I know my whole family enjoyed! This was just one of our many day-cations I'm sure we'll go on this year, but this was definitely a great start!

The kiddos checking out the animals from the best view in the house.



During the walk-through; the kids check out the (very smelly!) flamingos



This little guy tried stealing Avalee's hotdog!



My little guy discovering the moonroof as a great vantage point

Back to blogging...after these messages

Wow, has it really been that long since I last blogged?? Nothing in April? Shame on me!

Well, it's not that I don't things to say, pictures to share news to report...I just haven't had the time to sit down and write anything up!

Between my grandma going into the hospital for open heart surgery the beginning of April to Zavion starting t-ball to all the holidays and birthdays; I'm all tapped out!

So, having said that, I do have some fabulous new posts to share with all of you soon, and I promise to have something new this week. Really.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this ridiculously adorable photo of my ridiculously adorable children.

Happy Pi Day!

Did you know there was a celebration of Pi??

For those who don't know Pi is is a mathematical constant approximately equal to 3.14159265.

So, March 14th (314) is the official Pi Day holiday.

And, of course, as with any holiday, it deserves celebration...don't you think??

Oh, by the way, hubby is a huge computer/math/science geek, and is slowly turning the five year old into another science geek (on the list for birthday #6; a mad scientist party). So, celebrating Pi Day makes sense for us. ;o)

Plus, it's a nice excuse to make (and therefor consume) fun, yummy stuff.

Like these Pie Pops.

I've seen these floating around the internet for years, and have been wanting to make them for sometime. I always thought I'd make them for Thanksgiving, but then they always get moved to the bottom of the list, after all the regular foods getting planned out.

These are really easy to make, super-duper cute and yummmmy!

The world's cutest two year old showing off how good these are to eat!



Ingredients:

Pastry dough (I just use the refrigerated stuff)
Pie Filling
Melted butter
Sanding sugar
6” Lollipop sticks
Cookie cutter
Water

Apple Pie Filling: (combine all ingredients below):
1 medium tart green apple, peeled and grated
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cold butter, grated


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat if desired.


Directions:

Cut out your shapes of choice (try to keep it 2” or under; too big and they'll slide off your stick, too small and you won't be able to put much filling in)-I used circles so they looked like little pies.

Spoon about 1-2 tsp filling to middle of shape (leave about 1/4” around edge to prevent seepage)

Add lollipop stick to middle of shape, place near top of 'pie.'

Dip your finger in water and run around edge of shape. Do the same for another shape, then place on top. Gently press around edges to seal.

Using a fork, crimp around edges, making sure to seal around lollipop stick.

Brush with butter and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Bake pies for 15-20 minutes until barely golden brown. Cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

We sprayed on some whipped cream too, and these were soo yummy!

We also had pizza pie-BBQ chicken.

Here is a super-yummy and easy recipe for BBQ chicken using your slow cooker!

Ingredients:
6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
¾ to 1 full (12 ounce) bottle barbecue sauce
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ red onion, sliced
¼ C cilantro, torn into pieces

Directions:
Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
Add sliced onions and cilantro to top.
Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 7 hours on Low.
Pull out chicken breasts, shred and return to slow cooker.
Continue cooking for another hour.

After it's cooked, you have so many options!

We like to make BBQ Chicken sandwiches with some ciabiatta bread and a smokey cheddar.

Or, we make BBQ Chicken quesadillas with lots of colby jack cheese.

But for Pi Day, we had to make a BBQ Chicken pizza pie.

So, this is my 'recipe' for the pizza. Ready? It's really hard. Here we go...

Ingredients:
Pizza dough (our local grocery store sells pizza dough for cheap-o, but you can make your own, of course)
BBQ Sauce (if you only used ¾ bottle of sauce for your chicken, the rest will be the perfect amount)
BBQ Chicken
Colby Jack cheese
Cilantro (optional)
Spread a think layer of sauce to crust than layer the rest of your ingredients.

Cook.
Eat.
Yum!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

“Today you are you! That is truer than true!
There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”


We love, love, love reading around here and Dr. Seuss is a favorite of all.

In fact, I read to both my kids in the womb often, and the first book I read both of them was 'Dr. Seuss' ABC.'

Both my kids have tons of Dr. Seuss books and I would say that between both kids, we read at least one Dr. Seuss book a day.

Last year, I kind of threw a quick celebration together, since finding out it was Dr. Seuss' birthday just a day earlier.
This year, I was pretty excited to be hosting a Dr Seuss playdate for my mom's group! Since, I knew I'd be planning some stuff anyway, it made it just a little less crazy that I was doing it in the name of a playdate this time. Haha!

So, I obsessed a little about activities for the kids and, of course, a fun Seuss-worthy food I could share.

I decided on having the kids make their own Cat In the Hat 'hats.'
I cut pieces of white construction paper, about two inches wide. Then I used a piece of red construction paper, and taped (double-sticky tape is THE best when doing kids crafts...no glue to deal with!) five strips per hat. The sixth strip was used as a headband, secured around the kids' heads with staples.
They turned out pretty cute, and were easy enough for the kids to make.








I also had some blank bookmarks, stickers and crayons so the kids could make their own bookmarks.
I bought a package of 12 bookmarks at Michaels for $.99, but you could easily make some yourself by cutting up some strips of cardstock. I also grabbed some adorable Dr. Seuss stickers at Michaels and put those with the stickers my mom got at Target (in the clearanced dollar section for only $.25!).





And, for the youngest of our guests, I just printed out some coloring sheets from Seussville.
I had these on a couple tables along with some crayons, so they could color away. :)

For my food contribution, I came up with the idea of 'Red Fish, Blue Fish' Jello jigglers. I was happy to find the perfect fish cookie cutter among my 'collection' (I have somewhere in the range of about 250 cookie cutters).
To make the jigglers, you have to use four boxes of each Jello (found this out the hard way when I only bought one each, and had to send my hubby back to the store...oops!) and only hot water.
Then after it sets (about four hours) you can cut it into fun shapes.
They turned out really cute, and all the kids seemed to love eating them!



We also had some other fun contributions to the snacks...

How cute are these??


And, I forgot to get a picture, but one of the moms made some yummy fruit salad with the most adorable hand-drawn picture of Truffula trees and a quote from 'Th Lorax.' So clever!


We also had lots and lots of Seuss books to read the kids. Of course, with everything else, we only got through a couple of them.



But it turned out to be a fun day, and I think we had some happy (and tired!) kiddos when it was all over!

“Today is gone, today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

Valentine's Day Fun!

Yea, I know, it's like two weeks past Valentine's Day, but my computer decided to quit on me, and all my photos were on it... Anyway, it's back, so I decided to finally get on my Valentine's post! Haha!

So, for breakfast on Valentine's Day, I presented the kiddos with their homemade pop-tarts (on new Valentine's themed plates bought especially for the day!)! They were a little confused at first (well, really just Z, since A has never had a pop-tart)...”huh, this doesn't look like a pop-tart...” But, after they tasted them, they were pretty happy (it also helped that we watched the Valentine's episode of Backyardigans while eating breakfast! I know...fancy, right??)!

After breakfast, the kids got to open their mailboxes and found a couple goodies (heart shaped Pez dispensers and heart shaped Etch A Sketches) plus Valentine's from Mom. :o)

At lunch, we cut out heart shapes from pizza dough and made our own heart shaped pizzas. I was so proud when the kids both asked if they could have 'leaves' on their pizzas (from the basil we have planted in a pot on the windowsill) too!

And, we had a surprise visit from not one, but both grandmas during lunch! The kiddos were so excited to have them here, and to give them the Valentine's they made them.

Dinner was a real treat for everyone, because I decided on brinner (breakfast for dinner), which is a favorite around here!

We had purchased a fun heart shaped pancake mold at Crate & Barrel a few days earlier, so put that to use (ooh, here's a tip on keeping your pancakes warm, if you're making a bunch; put your Crockpot on 'warm' and put your finished pancakes in there. They'll stay nice and toasty and be ready to melt your butter for as long as you need!) to make a big pile of pancakes for all.



I also made up some heart shaped individual hashbrowns (I just used a cookie cutter to kind of mold them, then slid them into my skillet from a cutting board) for everyone.




And, to drink, the kids got strawberry flavored milk!
To top it all off, we lit the "fancy" candle (as Z refers to it) to make it feel even more special.


And, of course, after dinner, the kids and I presented Colin with the homemade marshmallows. I'm not sure who was more excited about them; the kids or Dad! Haha!



So, all-in-all, it was a fun day full of lots of love (and super-duper cuteness)!