Thanksgiving

seems i've been a little neglectful of blogging recently. i think it's a combination of being really busy and not having anything interesting to report. today was Thanksgiving and it went by without any real consciousness of what today represents. we did have a really great time hanging out with Chris's side of the family. and now this house is buzzing with the anticipation of the Christmas decorating/celebrating we'll be doing tomorrow thru Dec 25th. here are some pictures from today.

Wordless Wednesday

my PopPop & his peppers

Wordless Wednesday

a lot of bloggers do this on Wednesday... so i'm going to start this week! (sorry for all the words :o)

just a little bit of Christmas

i tried to stop them, but Father Christmas turned our sweet 3 year old into his little elf. together they convinced me it would be a good idea to put up a little Christmas tree in Mayden's bedroom early. i am normally very avid that we do not start celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving. maybe it was the way her eyes lit up or all the jumping that accompanied the begging... i donno, but i lost all reason and agreed to it. looking at her sleeping in the glow of the lit tree tonight i can't help but think she has the prettiest bedroom of all and she has the best daddy around!

below is a mini video of Cameron discovering the Christmas tree. he just stands in front of it screaming little shreaks of joy, then oooooh(ing) and ahhhhh(ing) at the balls.

food photo contest

there is a "fun with food" photo contest going on at 5 minutes for mom. along with Prego they are giving away $500 worth of groceries (which we could really use w/ the looming lay-off). i chose this one of Mayden in the summer of 07. the girl loves her watermelon!

the great smoothie search- #2

nothing beats matching your smoothie! last night i made smoothie #2. i found the recipe here

ingredients- 1 banana, 2 cups chopped kale, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1-2 tbsp flaxseed and 1/2 cup brown rice milk

make- i needed to substitute one of the ingredients i didn't have on hand. i exchanged brown rice milk for regular cows milk. so only one hard to find item... although it's not that hard to find in a health food store. this recipe only made 3/4 of a glass so i would definitely double or triple the recipe next time so i don't have to make it everyday.

look- wow what a bright green! this smoothie looked MUCH more appetizing than #1.

taste- this is where it gets tricky. the texture was great! the milk in this one (instead of the water in #1) helped make it have more of a milkshake consistency. however the aftertaste was pretty strong and definitely tasted like i had just eaten grass (if i knew what grass tasted like). using the brown rice milk instead of cows milk might help with the taste so next time i'll use the rice milk. maybe i will also try backing off of the kale next time and work my way up slowly to the full 2 cups. the "colder is better" rule also applied to this smoothie and despite the grass taste i was strangely addicted to this smoothie.

kids- neither kid would go near it. Cameron took a good long look at it and backed away slowly while shaking his head and even added a little "noooo!". this may be because i asked them if they wanted to try it instead of waiting for them to think it was their idea... strange kids. it's a no-go if they won't drink it.

verdict- with a little tweaking i think we may have a winner!

mohawk hats

i found this great little book called Crafty Mama and in it are really cool things to make. i made these mohawk hats this weekend and i love them... the kids look so funny in them but their also really cute! i'm going to tweak the pattern a little and try to make them better but overall these are great.

the great smoothie search- #1

on our short trip to visit my grandparents in PA last week (i'll post more about that later) my pop-pop gave me a blender & 2 huge bags of Kale freshly picked from his organic garden! now i have no more excuses...

so i'm on the search for a great "green smoothie" that our family can incorporate into our eating habits. if i can find one that meets all the criteria i think it could be a really easy way to get more healthy.

criteria:
must include Kale (or another very dark leafy green)
must include some form of Omega 3 (flax, fish, egg etc)
must be drinkable (this is especially important for the kids)

tonight i made the one in the video that i posted a few weeks ago.

ingredients- 1 banana, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1-2 tbs flaxseed, pinch of Dulce, 2 cups kale, 20oz water

make- simple recipe, mostly easy to get ingredients and overall very cheap to make, the blueberries probably cost the most. this made over two glasses full so i was able to save some for the next day. not having to make this everyday is a big plus! i did skip the Dulce as i was having a hard time finding it anywhere!

look- it looked completely unappetising but i'm not sure there is any getting around that with these kind of smoothies. greenish purple in color w/ little bits of kale & blueberries floating around. (this could probably be remedied if i had a better ($400) blender like the guy in the video has)

taste- it didn't taste as great as i thought it might. i don't know why i was expecting great taste when it looked like that. the bits of kale and blueberries made it a little "chewy" and weird to swallow. using a straw & eating something in between sips helped a lot. the glass i saved in the fridge for the next day tasted MUCH better so i think the smoothie being very cold is key. thankfully the banana was good at covering up the kale taste.

kids- i was sure the kids wouldn't go for it. Camo went to bed before i made this so he hasn't tried it yet. i made a point not to ask Mayden to try this (or she would surly say "NO") so i waited until she asked me about it. she did.... she took one sip thru the straw and said she liked it but when i asked her if she wanted more she said no. the next morning she took another sip w/o being asked so i think there might be hope in getting her to drink some daily.

verdict- not bad, probably worth revisiting however i am looking forward to trying others... i think there is better out there!

a historic moment

Rosa sat so Martin could walk.

Martin walked so Obama could run.

Obama ran so our children could fly.

Mayden says...

Chris: who do you like better Obama or McCain?
Mayden: i like McCain because i like candy canes!

not too sure we'll be following the logic of a 3 year old, but it's good to know where she stands :o)

halloween, halloween; trick-or-treat... our costumes can't be beat!

we had a great Halloween this year! weather makes all the difference, warm & dry works wonders. Mayden decided she wanted to be a princess (much to my dismay) and i am really into themed costumes for the kids so we made Cameron her Frog Prince! they turned out to be a very cute duo... oh and Shawn is Anakin from Star Wars :o)

a few months ago i read something somewhere (maybe a parenting magazine) that said it was better to do an overkill on Halloween candy for one day than to stretch it out over many days or weeks. better for your teeth and better for your body. so today we did something we normally would never do. we gave Mayden complete control over all her candy. she could eat whatever she wanted whenever she wanted... in fact her first "real food" didn't get into her body until 6PM!!! she had about 1/4 of a PB&J (surprise, surprise) sandwich and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese... all other food today was candy! it was hard to sit back and watch this, but stuck to my promise. this was a one day deal and we made sure she knew it so what's left of the candy (which isn't much) is up and away now. i'm hoping she'll be relieved to eat real food again tomorrow.