Finding Mommy

Santa Claus in April??

So, it's April, and the girls are already talking about Santa Claus. I tried to explain that Santa won't be coming until December which is 8 months away.  For a 2-year old and 4-year old, this is difficult to grasp.

I love the idea of Santa Claus!  The idea that no matter what, every child has a good heart and deserves a gift at Christmas time.  Every child deserves to be thought of and loved, every day, but especially at Christmas.  And to me, that's what Santa represents.  I did a ton of volunteering in high school and our church always did a Giving Tree.  You took a paper ornament off of the Christmas tree and bought one of the gifts listed for a child whose parent(s) couldn't afford it.  One year, I helped deliver those gifts and the look on the kids' faces, the sheer happiness, was something I will always remember.

I want my children to believe in this idea too and for them that's represented in Santa Claus.  It's something they can "see" which is much easier for a child to understand.  Princess asks a ton, A TON of questions every year at Christmas (well, really all year long, but especially about Santa).  

One year we bought toys to donate and she just didn't understand why we would need to buy toys for other kids since Santa brings them.  It was this year that we instituted the "Santa brings one toy" rule in our home. As in, I've told our child that there are so many kids in the world, and since every child gets a toy, Santa can only bring one toy to every child, so that's what we're going to do. And then I went on to tell her, that not all parents can afford to buy toys for their kids and wouldn't it be nice if they each got two toys, so sometimes other parents help to buy those toys.  

Next up, the mall Santas.  Princess noticed that there were two different Santas at two different malls. I didn't feel right about telling her that one was fake and one was real, so we went with they're all fake. Because obviously Santa is too busy making toys for all of the boys and girls that he can't really go to every mall.  So these "friends" of Santa's dressed up like him, came to the malls for pictures, and then took their wishes back to Santa so they would get what they wanted for Christmas. One day, I'm sure all of this will backfire on us. 

Today was a close one.  I was totally thrown when she asked why elves are short and how do they grow bigger. Um, they don't???  They're just like that, they're short? Hopefully she'll let that one slide and not ask again. Ha! Then we again talked about Santa's friends at the mall and she said "maybe that's why that old guy was smelly because he had rubber on him.  You know because he was dressed up as Santa!" That one made me giggle.  Mouse chimed in by informing us all that Santa will be bringing her a Princess towel (Tanta Caus bing pincess towel).  And no, she does not want one when/if we go to Disney World, Santa will be bringing it!

 

Monthly dinners - March

As part of my attempt to get a little more creative with Christmas gifts this past Christmas, we gave my inlaws a gift certificate for 12 meals (once a month) at our home. Each month I give them a menu of meals and dates to chose from. They loved it and it's a great way for us to get together each month. I also get to be a little more creative with meals on these days since my kiddos and husband can be a bit picky. Tonight we hosted our monthly dinner and it was yummy!  You can find a copy of the March menu here. My inlaws chose Warm Marinated Olives, Chicken and Green Chiles Enchiladas, and Irish Creme Brulee.  

Warm Marinated Olives (modified from Martha Stewart Living magazine, March 2011)

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 chiles de arbol
• 1 rosemary sprig, broken into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
• 1/4 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 cup of Spanish queen olives, rinsed and patted dry
• 1 cup of kalamata olives, rinsed and patted dry

Directions:

• Heat the oil, chiles, rosemary, fennel and coriander in a saucepan over medium heat about 2 minutes.
• Add the olives and toss.  Heat until the olives are warm, about 10 minutes.

I was given a subscription to Martha Stewart Living for Christmas and I love it! The recipes I've tried so far have been great!

Chicken and Green Chiles Enchiladas

Ingredients:

• 1 lb skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 1 4 oz can of diced mild green chiles
• 1 8 oz brick of cream cheese, softened
• 6 flour tortillas (soft taco size)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray
• Combine chicken, chiles and cream cheese.
• Divide equally into tortillas and roll them up.  Place seam side down in pan.
• Cook, covered, at 350 for 20 minutes.
• Remove cover and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.
• Serve with sour cream and salsa.

These are really simple and very delicious. I boiled the chicken for about 20 minutes. If you're like me and almost always not prepared, you could place frozen chicken breasts in a crockpot with a cup of water for 8 hours. The chicken is really tender and shreds so nicely this way. I would've done that for this recipe, but my crockpot was being utilized for the refried beans :)

Irish Creme Brulee (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur
• superfine sugar as needed

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300.  
• Stir together cream and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Cook until very hot and sugar is dissolved.
• Whisk together egg yolks, vanilla and Irish creme until well blended.  Slowly whisk in half of the cream mixture a couple of tbsps at a time.  
• Whisk in the remaining cream mixture.
• Pour into 6 ramekins, place in a roasting pan and fill the pan with boiling water to halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
• Bake at 300 for 50-60 minutes, until set.
• Remove from pan and set on a wire rack to cool at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or until ready to serve.
• Unwrap ramekins and sprinkle with 1 tsp superfine sugar.  Gently shake the custards to spread the sugar around.
• Broil for 5 minutes until sugar has melted and slightly browned.

This recipe was phenomenal.  I'm salivating just thinking of it.  In fact, I may make some for dessert later!  The top was nice and crisp and the custard was melt-in-your-mouth.  I'm not one who would typically order a non-chocolate dessert, but I can see myself making this over and over again!  Very simple and extremely tasty!

 

It's not there!

I'm amazed at how quickly these little ones pick up everything!  Princess is trying her hand at various phrases these days...some cute and some not so much.  

Here are a couple of my favorites:

When she doesn't like something I have to say or ask her to do, she'll tell me "It's not there!" instead of "It's not fair!"  I try really hard not to giggle every time she says it, but really, it's cute!

She's also been dressing herself in the morning.  Almost every morning, she'll sit in front of her row of dresses and say "Meanie, meanie, miney, moe. Bite a bite a bite a toe. Meanie, meanie, miney, mo." I've tried correcting her, but she's insistent that I am wrong.

My not-so favorites:

"I'm not your best friend anymore!" when she gets a time out or occasionally when mommy says no. Although she has gotten better about not using this phrase after I explained that we don't use our friendship to get what we want.

"Just leave me alone!" She tells her sister this a lot and it's always in a sassy tone. Drives me nuts!

Mouse's language skills have also advanced tremendously over the last couple of months. She mimics pretty much anything you say to her. And it's all so cute in that little 2-year old voice!  She's want us to say choo-choo phrases when we feed her lately. And yes, we feed her. She refuses to eat anything (including ice cream) unless we "help." So we have to say "chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo" followed by a phrase of her choosing, such as Mickey Prince, Minnie Masquerade, and my favorite, Goofy find a shoe.

There is never a dull moment in this house (or quiet for that matter), but I love every minute of it!

 

My new laminator

My life is an oxymoron really.  I'm fanatical about germs, but our house is messy.  I have list after list of things to do, buy, create, but again our house is a disorganized mess.  (And half of the time I can't find the lists I took time to create!)  So I've been doing a bit of research and have come up with a few ideas to create some organization in our house and schedule.  So, of course, I first had to buy a laminator, because really no new idea of mine is complete without some sort of purchase.  

Don't worry "control my spending" is on a list somewhere too ;)  Well I finally found time and space to set up my new laminator and here's what I did with it:

Checklists:  As I mentioned before, I love lists of any sort, but checklists in particular.  I also thought it would be great to put together a few checklists for Princess so she could get ready more independently.  I made a morning routine and bedtime routine checklist a while ago and she loved it!  Before I had the laminator, I would print one out, have her mark it for a couple of days and then print a new one.  Now I've laminated one copy and she uses a dry erase marker to make her check marks.  And it has helped tremendously in getting her ready for the day (and night)!

                       

Flip books:  I made these today.  For Princess, I made a "fill-in-the-blank" flip book.  On all of the pictures, the first letter is missing and she can use a dry erase marker to fill in the missing letter.  It's pretty simple, but I thought it would be appropriate for a 4-year old.  Turns out, not so much.  She ran through the book in a matter of seconds and knew every one of them.  Guess it's back to the drawing board!  I think I'll experiment with longer words or missing vowels, etc.  For Mouse, I put together a colors book and a shapes book.  I made all of the pages small enough that I could fit 4 in one 9x11 laminating pouch.

I'm planning to make some additional flip books, writing pages, and other learning resources for the kiddos.  I'll post those as I finish them.  Have an idea of other projects I can make with my laminator??  Please leave a comment.

Beef stew

Princess has been super emotional lately and two days ago, told me, nearly in tears..."I want stew and you only ever made it one time."  So I complied and made beef stew today (the last time I made lamb stew).  The girls definitely like this version better.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1lb beef stew meat
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 3 cups of water
• 1 packet of Lipton onion soup mix
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 potatoes, cut into 1-inch squares
• 1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of green beans, drained

Directions:

• Mix salt and flour in a large plastic baggy.  Add stew meat and toss to coat.
• Brown the stew meat in butter in a large skillet.
• Place browned stew meat in crock pot.  Add in water, soup mix, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and green beans.
• Cook on high for 3-4 hours.
• Serve over steamed rice.

In additon to the rice, we had homemade French bread too.  Yum!  We all really enjoyed this and I hope you do too!

Chicken tortilla soup

I made chicken tortilla soup last night and just had to share this recipe!  I loved it, even if no one else in the family appreciated it.

Modified from Allrecipes:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenders (or breasts)
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans of chicken stock (I used homemade)
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup frozen chopped onions
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 cup Tostitos restaurant style salsa
• corn tortilla chips
• shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Brown chicken tenders in olive oil.
• Cut into small pieces, then mix in garlic powder and cumin.
• Combine chicken, stock, corn, onions, chili powder, and salsa in a pot and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
• Place a handful of chips in serving bowl, add soup and sprinkle with cheese.  I also put a dollop of sour cream in mine.

I think this is my new favorite soup.  Hope you enjoy it too!

Chili cheese dip

Tomorrow we will be celebrating Valentine's Day with our playgroup. I'm planning to make a not-so-good-for-you, but oh-so-yummy chili cheese dip. My kids LOVE this! I found the recipe on Glee's (love that show) party planner page. It was a recipe submitted by Matthew Morrison and it's super simple!  

You'll need one 15 oz can of turkey chili and one 8 oz block of cream cheese. Combine the two in a slow cooker on low, stirring occasionally until heated through. Serve with tortilla chips.

My slow cooker was occupied at the time I made this, so I heated it in a small pot on the stovetop instead.  It was SO good!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We've been very busy getting ready for Valentine's day tomorrow.  As usual, we waited until the last minute to get going, so our ideas may not be of much help to you for this Valentine's day.  Maybe next year or for another holiday!  Today Princess and I spent quite a bit of time preparing Valentine's for her class.  We started the "cards" a couple of weeks ago, but just finished them today.  As I've done in the past, I like to focus on a skill Princess is interested in learning and gear projects toward that.  She's very interested in learning to sew right now, so I came up with a lacing project that she could make for her classmates.

It looks a bit wrinkled because there's candy inside already.  Sorry!  I made a heart template and then cut shapes out of scrapbook paper that Princess chose.  I then punched holes around my heart shape but left an opening at the top, so it would form a pouch.  Princess did some of the lacing and I helped her finish them up.  We started the lacing in the middle of one side, so we ended up with a cute little bow when we were finished.  I made sure to tie knots at both ends of the opening and at the bow location so that the pouch (or purse as Princess refers to it) does not fall apart.

For her teachers, Princess and I made pretzel treats.  I've made these a few times.  They're super easy and we all love them!  I've done them with both milk chocolate Hershey's kisses and Hugs in the past.  You'll need waffle-shaped pretzels (I've also used the mini pretzels), Hershey's kisses or Hugs, and M&M's (you can switch the colors up for each holiday - we used the Valentine's day bag).  Preheat your oven to 170.  Line a baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper.  Spread pretzels out in a single layer.  Place one unwrapped Hershey's kiss on each pretzel and then bake for approximately 5 minutes.  Press an M&M into the center of each kiss and then pop them into the frigde to harden.  This usually takes mine a half an hour or so.  Yum!

At the last minute, I decided we needed something to "wrap" the treats in and came up with these paper boxes.  These were a bit time consuming to make (or at least it seemed that way with two excited children waiting on me), but relatively easy.  The boxes turned out great and the girls had so much fun decorating them.  Princess wanted to make several boxes for her little sister.  So sweet!  But I only had time to make one before starting dinner.  Mouse is obsessed with stickers and went a little crazy on the box she made for her big sister.  I'm glad they enjoyed it so much.  I'll have to make a few more to have around "just in case" so they won't have to wait on me!

Made by Princess for Mouse

Made by Mouse for Princess

You can find the instructions for the boxes here.  I used a piece of cardstock 8.5" x 8.5" for the top of the box and a piece 8" x 8" for the bottom.  The instructions are very flexible so you can make different sized boxes.  Our finished product was a 3" x 3" box, 1.5" deep.  The instructions are for making one half of the box using one sheet of cardstock.  You just repeat the process for the second sheet of cardstock to make the other half.

Our last project for the day, was this cute little hair clip.  The 3/4" snap clips were purchased from JoAnn fabrics and I had felt left over from previous projects.  I made two heart templates and then cut the shapes out of felt.  I used two large red hearts, one smaller pink heart and two strands of embroidery floss.  I first sewed the pink heart onto one of the red hearts.  Then I cut a slit in the red heart I was using for the back (the one without the pink heart attached) for the back of the barrette to poke out.  Lastly, I sewed the two red hearts together with the top of the clip sandwiched between them.  Pretty simple and all hand-sewn.  I apologize for the lack of pictures for each step, but here's one of the finished project.

Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day and enjoy spending time with your loved ones.  We're planning a day of pink and heart-shaped foods and activities!

 

 

PE flip book

It's the dead of winter and the girls have so much energy!  I desperately needed some ideas for things we can do at home to help.  I've been doing a bit of research on schooling options (I'll get in to that in a later post) and came across a blog (Homegrown Mom) with this nifty little PE flip book.  I'm currently putting our own version together and planning to try it out next week with the girls.  I think they'll love it!  I used some of the ideas from the Homegrown Mom blog and added in some of my own.  The activities I've included are:

Wii sports (this should be interesting with little ones, but worth a try)

Dance party (they love to dance!)

Bubble party (blow bubbles with music on and let the girls run around popping them)

Soccer

Balloons (blow up some latex balloons and let the girls toss them and kick them around)

Go to the park

Go for a walk

Practice gymnastics (hey, I used to be a coach, I should be able to teach them something)

Play catch

Animal parade (we walk around the house and act like different animals)

Yoga (don't worry, I have a DVD for this and Princess loves it)

Open gym (at our local gymnastics club...an hour of trampolines, what could be better??)

Go swimming

Go for a bike ride

I think I'll have to get a bit creative with a few of these since it's been well below zero here the last week or so.  Maybe let them ride their tricycles around the house, go to the mall for walks, and hit up an indoor playground.  Sounds fun and I can't wait to see what the girls think!

Offline for a bit

We have been super busy preparing for the holidays. I've been trying to make quite a few homemade gifts this year. I'll have to post about those later. As for now, it will be even longer between posts since my laptop officially died. My wonderful hubby was able to recover all of my files, but I have no computer to use. Hopefully we'll sort out a solution soon!