Cabin Fever Cured. Day 31

Let me start this off by saying I absolutely love my kids.  Each and every one of them.  We have a great time together most days, do lots of fun things and overall I just know how dull my life would be without them.  With that being said…When will the roads be clear enough for school to start back?  This snow storm hits just after the kids being out 3 days last week for MLK day and teacher workdays.  This week, we’re on day 4 of canceled school.

We’ve had plenty of time to spend together.  But, there comes a time when everybody starts getting a little restless.  Brothers and sisters start bickering over the tiniest things.  Kids start tattling every time another kid moves.  Mommy starts feeling the need to go hide in the closet with a carton of chocolate ice cream and a bottle  glass of wine.  Today is hopefully our last day out of school.  Roads seem clear enough and hopefully no more rain in the forecast for a few days, so we should be set for a while.

I decided to embrace our time together today.  We decided to have a game day / movie night.  Complete with pizza.  It really never takes much to entertain kids.  They really don’t ask much at this age.  A little bit of time and attention goes such a long way.  Keeping them busy is the best plan for days when the cabin fever starts setting in.  If they are busy and having a good time, they tend to forget about the problems which equals no tattling and no fighting.  Yay for mommy!  Here are a few shots of us making the most of this (hopefully) last snow day…

Ivy’s Style. Day 30

I don’t remember really caring about what I was wearing until I was in school.  Heck, I don’t think I really cared until 4th grade.  For some reason though, this 2 year old little chic just loves to accessorize.  Stick on earrings, sunglasses, jewelry.  She loves to “dress up”.  Maybe because she has a super stylish big sister to follow around and look up to?  Probably.  I just got such a big kick out of how she decided to dress up for this cold weather….

Cold, Fluffy, White Stuff. Day 29

It’s not every day that we get to see snow here in Lexington, NC.  Actually, it is extremely rare.  When we do, it’s usually just a light dusting of snow that barely covers the ground which never really equals up to enough to play in (or how I remember playing in the snow anyway).  The kids were released at 10:30 today from school because of snow that had been forecast to arrive at 3:00pm.  A little hasty in my opinion, but the kids loved it nonetheless.  Around 2:00pm the snow started falling.  The kids were thrilled.  It just kept coming.  Around 3:30, there was just enough snow to go check it out for a few minutes.  Ian and Eve love the snow and love playing in it, but this was pretty much Ivy’s first experience with it.  She didn’t really want to play with it, but thought it was funny when she poked her finger in it.  She just kept giggling every time she would touch it.  We weren’t really equipped for playing in the snow (no gloves), so eventually the thrill wore off and she wanted to go inside.  Maybe we’ll try and head back out for a bit today before the snow melts.  This picture is technically from yesterday, but since yesterday was my cooking day, I decided to save the pictures for today cause well…It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to. 😛

Tasty (or Not) Tuesday. Day 28

My kids have been on a serious avocado kick lately.  All of them (even Ivy) loves them, so I thought it might be fun this week to find a very kid friendly recipe with avocado.  Also, with this cold weather one of my go-to cold weather dinners came to mind…grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.  Can’t beat it for a cozy winter dinner, am I right?  Well, I found this fancy twist on a grilled cheese sandwich on Two Peas & Their Pod in which they incorporated none other than…avocado (or guacamole).  The guacamole is basically avocado with just a few other special ingredients mixed in.  I knew the kids would love it!

Here’s the skinny on making this yummy sandwich:

Guacamole Grilled Cheese Sandwich

To Make the Guacamole:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small jalapeño, stems and seeds removed, minced (I left this out of my recipe to make it more kid-friendly)
  
• 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice (left this out as well in an effort to cut costs since I didn’t have it on hand)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• A dash of freshly grated black pepper
• 1 Roma tomato, chopped

Other Ingredients:

• 4 slices crusty white bread (Recipe Here)
  
• 4 slices Cheddar cheese (substituted for muenster cause we just like it better)
• Butter, for buttering bread

To make the guacamole, cut avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avacado from the peel, put in a large bowl. Using a fork, mash the avocado. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeño, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. Add the chopped tomato and stir.

Heat a pan or griddle to medium-high heat. Spread desired amount of guacamole on both slices of bread then top with cheese. Butter outer slices of bread and grill on one side for about 2 minutes or until golden and crispy. Flip the sandwich and grill until golden brown. Make the other sandwich the same way and serve warm.

Was it easy?  Yes. Really just preparing the guacamole was the toughest part and it was pretty darn easy.  Was it quick?  Kinda average.  Of course I was cooking for 5 (My mom joined us for dinner) and I don’t have a griddle, so I could only do one sandwich at a time, but still overall very quick.  Was it tasty?  Absolutely delicious and not too heavy on the tummy either.  This recipe would be great in the summer time as well.  But enough about what I think.  Let’s see what the taste testers had to say…

This might be one of my favorite recipes yet.  So easy, yummy and light.  A nice new twist on an old favorite of ours!  Oh, and remember how I said it was perfect for cold weather?  Look what we got today…

SNOW!!!

Home Made Bread Recipe. Day 28 Extention.

Decided to make bread today to go along with the Avocado Grilled Cheese Sandwiches I’ll be making for dinner.  Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups water
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/3 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
• 4 cups flour

Directions:

On your lowest burner setting, warm up the water, butter, honey and salt until butter is completely melted.  While you are waiting on the butter to melt, in a large bowl combine two cups all purpose flour and the yeast.  After your liquid is heated, add it to the dry mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are moistened. 

Add  1/2 cup flour and mix in with wooden spoon until you have added 3 1/2 cups of flour.  The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Once dough pulls away, begin mixing in flour with your hands until it is all worked into the dough.  Add one more 1/2 cup of flour and work into dough mixture. 

After everything is mixed into a big dough ball, remove the dough from the bowl. Lightly grease the bowl.  Place the dough back in the bowl.  Cover bowl with a town and let rise for 90 minutes.  After 90 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size.

While dough is rising, prepare a lightly floured area.  After 90 minutes, move the dough to the floured area and press the air out of the dough while forming into a loaf.  Then place the dough into a lightly greased loaf pan.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let sit for another 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, remove plastic wrap and place in oven for 30 minutes.  Remove after 30 minutes and cover in aluminum foil.  Return to oven for 10 more minutes.  After 10 minutes, bread should be golden and warm.  Allow cooling before slicing.

Meet Millie. Day 27

It’s not every day you get picked up from preschool and surprised with the news that you get to go play with one of your very best friends.  That is what Ivy was surprised with today!  Meet Millie (or Miwwee as Ivy likes to call her).  A super sweet, very independent little cutie pie that just happens to be one of Ivy’s besties.  We haven’t got to hang out as much as we like here lately, so this play date was well overdue.  They cooked, read books, played ball, did puzzles and just had a blast.

Lazy Sunday. Day 26

Lazy Sunday afternoons?  Yes please.  I don’t think Ian minds them too much either.  Ever since he was old enough to know about video games he has loved them.  He works hard all through the week and when it’s time to wind down on the weekend, he doesn’t skip a beat and this is by far his favorite way to do it.  This is usually the position that I find him in on Sunday afternoons…

What’s on the line-up for today?  A little Jack Sparrow from Disney Infinity…

 

Morning Sunrise. Day 25

I was woken up this morning by a teeny, tiny voice saying “Mommy, is it time to get up?”.  I replied, “No, Ivy.  It’s night time.  Go back to sleep.”  We go through this routine every day that is a sleep in day.  Ivy wants up and I want just a few more minutes of precious, precious sleep.  She persisted though and I finally opened my eyes.  My room was filled with a pinkish orange glow.  I turned to my other side and looked out the window and there was one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen.  The sky was filled with pink, orange and yellow and looked so warm and cozy even though I knew that what was outside my window was anything but warm and cozy.  Ivy persisted and I finally caved because all I could think was “I have to catch this sunrise on my camera before it goes away.  This would be perfect for today’s blog post.”  So, as reluctant as I was to wake up at dawn on a Saturday I was equally as excited about catching this perfect sunrise for the blog.  I jumped up and told Ivy she could watch tv for a few minutes.  The next series of questions went something like this….

Ivy:  Mommy, can you cover me up?

Me:  Sure, Ivy.

Ivy:  Mommy, can you change it to Miffy?

Me:  Yes, Ivy.  Give me just a minute.

Ivy:  Mommy, can I wear my big girl panties?

Me:  Yes, Ivy.  Just a minute though, ok?  Let me finish finding Miffy.

      I help Ivy get on her big girl panties

Me:  Ivy, do you need to go potty before we watch tv?

Ivy:  No.

       I start getting my camera ready

Ivy:  Mommy, I have to go potty.

Me:  Ivy, why didn’t you tell me a minute ago when I asked?

As I was waiting on Ivy to go potty, I looked out the window and the sky was now a dismal gray color.  No bright pinks, no warm oranges and yellows.  Definitely not “picture of the day” worthy.  Oh well.  Not quite what I had in mind, but lucky for me, I have the sweetest little sunshine right in my own house to wake me up…

Oh, and all of the fun little faces of my sunshine (don’t mind the bed head…we were having fun so it doesn’t count)…

Besties. Day 24

This school year has come with lots of changes for the kids.  New teachers, new rules, new classrooms and new friends.  We’ve had our bumps in the road, but overall they’ve done very well adjusting.  For Eve, however, there is no replacing her bestie from her last school, Zoey.  She loves her to pieces and I truly think leaving her has been the hardest part or adjusting to a new school.  She asks me constantly when can we do a sleepover?  When can we do a playdate?  When can I call her?  She just misses her so much.  Well, tonight was a very special night.  She is actually going to have a sleepover with Zoey tonight.  I’m sure it will be a night full of super silly, girly fun.  I just wish I could be there to see it 🙂  I know they’re going to have a blast.

Short and Sweet. Day 23

It’s been very quiet around here today.  Pumped full of medicine trying to beat off this cold that’s trying to take over.  Thought I’d post something short and sweet today.