Gingerbread Fun

I'm about cookied out.  I haven't counted how many dozen I've baked for neighbors and friends (and us).  And I don't care if I see another mixer or baking sheet for a month - or three.

But we couldn't let Christmas pass without making some Gingerbread cut-outs.

So yesterday we baked these Gingerbread Bears.  No Gingerbread Men because we don't happen to have the right cookie cutter for that.  But the bears worked out just fine.

Boo-Boo and Mr. Blue-Eyes had fun helping to dress them.



an early gift

Since learning of the dangers of cooking with non-stick cookware, I've been wanting to ditch mine.

This month, we finally replaced it, and I am so excited!

I spent a good bit of time researching different types of cookware and the best buys.  I knew I wanted stainless steel, and I really liked this from Cuisinart, but the pan sizes just weren't ideal (too small).

So we kept looking.  And Stephen insisted that we check with America's Test Kitchen (our favorite cooking show) to see what they recommend.

After their extensive testing process, they admitted that All-Clad has the best built cookware.  But it's mega-expensive, and they were looking for a more affordable option for us regular folks.

They found it in Tramontina TriPly Clad cookware. It's a fantastic price (only available at Wal-Mart), and ATK found it to be comparable to All-Clad in their testing.  The pan sizes were great for our needs.  Stephen was convinced

(by ATK's recommendation - not mine - I'm sure!),

so we ordered it.

A huge box arrived on Tuesday evening, and I am enjoying trying out the various pieces already.  I can't wait to use it for Christmas dinner!

We did order one additional piece not included in this set,

a 5 Qt. covered casserole shown at the right side of the picture.  It is from the Cuisinart Multiclad cookware that I was interested in originally. 

It will come in handy for big dinners (which keep getting bigger as these boys of ours grow bigger). 

  

Elsa Sings to Herself

She's been singing this almost nonstop since we went to a birthday party more than a week ago.  But she particularly enjoyed singing it to herself over the weekend.

Watch for the 'fortissimo' towards the middle of her rendition.

A Little Princess

She turned TWO yesterday.

It seems hardly possible that time has flown so fast, but somehow Miss Cupcake is no longer a baby.

She's grown into a baby-loving little girl, and she loves practicing to be a mommy someday.

She can juggle the baby, the diaper bag, and her "purse"...

...and she packs a great lunch in her new TinkerBell lunch box.

But she'll always be my little princess.

A freebie...

Right now (until Jan 31) if you post a photo card project from Shutterfly on your blog, you can earn a $25 gift certificate to Shutterfly.com.

Since I don't have any more recent projects, I'm posting our Christmas card from last year.  Does that mean that I don't have to make a card for this year?  

Solid Stroke Brown Christmas

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

The boys haven't changed much, but that little girly sure has a lot more hair now!!

In the car

You may have seen this commercial.

Even if you haven't seen it, you probably have memories of getting slammed in the shoulder by your brother as he spied a "red one!"

Mr. Blue-Eyes and Boo-Boo find the commercial hysterical and have now taken to playing this game in the car. We've made up our own rules, and since Boo-Boo still isn't too quick on the draw, it's mostly Mom and Mr. Blue-Eyes with an eye out for Vee-dubs.

But we now have a new player.  Just yesterday Cupcake joined in yelling, "White one! Points!!"

Looks like she wants in on the competition, too!

S'more, please!

She got her first taste of s'mores last night.

Here's a glimpse:

Trying to figure out what's sticky.

Not sure about this yet.

Wetting her whistle!

"Is that mine, too, Mom?"

Licking it works best if you just want the chocolate. And she does.

"Hey, don't tell all of my secrets, Mom!"

"I'll get it somehow!"

Getting desperate, I think.

I'm still envious of those lashes. 

"Really, Mom. Get over it."

"Wait, you mean my brothers get some too?"

"It's all right.  But they're not gettin' mine!"

(Yes, she knows that word pretty well now.)



And just a word of warning -

You too may turn into a wild woman overnight if you eat too many s'mores!

Ten and a Half Years Later...

My husband has always enjoyed chicken pot pie.  Not the Pennsylvania Dutch kind, which is what I grew up on.  He likes the kind that is baked in a pie pan.

MCCPP (Marie Callendar Chicken Pot Pie) was a standard on our shopping list for many years, and it was so easy to pull one out of the freezer for a quick meal on a night that I wasn't up for cooking.

Well, we've been working at eating better over the years, and I've been trying my hand at cooking from scratch a lot more.

So I finally gave it a go and made my very own, all-scratch-including-the-crust chicken pot pie.

It only took me ten and a half years

to get up the gumption to try it.

I don't make any claims about raising the chicken or growing the veggies or churning the butter myself, but, for this pastry-challenged girl, it was quite a feat.

The verdict was a thumbs-up (although, everyone agreed that it could've used a little more seasoning than the recipe called for).

I would like to point out, though, after all of the wrestling I did with the pastry dough, it came out quite well.  If you look closely at the picture, you can even see the flaky layers in the crust!!  That was enough to satisfy me.

Time Together

Time with Dad is hard to come by as of late.  His work load has made more hours in the office a necessity, even on Saturdays.

As desperate times call for desperate measures, we resorted to sending Mr. Blue-Eyes to the office with Dad today in order to allow them to spend some one-on-one time together.

Looks like it's working out pretty well for Mr. Blue-Eyes.

Maybe he'll even have a job waiting for him when we graduate him.



A Glimpse of the Glasses

I finally had to resort to glasses in recent months.  My vision isn't terrible, but it's slowly getting worse.  It has been an adjustment for me - like for anyone.  But I'm finally getting used to wearing them...and to seeing myself in the mirror with something on my face.

So far this is the best picture of me with them on.  And it sure doesn't hurt to have a cute little girlie in the picture with me!

Mount Vernon

Today we visited the home of our first President, George Washington.  We had been there once before, nearly four years ago... 

 

Mr. Blue-Eyes was a little guy, and Boo-Boo had just celebrated his first birthday.





Needless to say, they didn't really remember anything that we had seen last time, so it was all new. Going with friends on a special Homeschoolers' Day made it extra fun.

 

It was nearly impossible to get a shot of them all looking at the camera due to the sun shining in their eyes.

 




Cupcake got down and dirty just like the big kids!





I'm utterly convinced that it's impossible for boys

(and girls?) to refrain from throwing rocks into any

available body of water.

A First

Chuck E. Cheese

Those words are enough to put fear into the heart of any mom, but on Halloween when much of the rest of our community is out trick-or-treating the place is practically empty. 

Some friends - who also don't celebrate Halloween - have a fun family tradition of spending the evening at Chuck E. Cheese.  So at their invitation, our kids had their first Chuck E. Cheese experience.  They had never been there, and it has probably been 20 years since Stephen or I had been there either (remember GBS Fine Arts days, anyone?). 

Strangely enough, not much has changed in all those years.

Here is Cupcake donning her shades on the ride over to see the big gray mouse. Or is it a rat?

She loved the carousel...

 

...as well as the horse and cart.

 Here's Stephen showing the boys how to play air hockey.

Mr. Blue-Eyes was really getting into it. 

 And I just love seeing the pure joy on Boo-Boo's face in this shot...although, it's the only one I have of him in which he didn't have his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he concentrated on his game.

And, of course, there was way too much candy handed out at the end.  It will last a long time!

DIY Saturday

For a while I have wanted a new kitchen sink and faucet.

Here's the old one:

It was the standard sink and faucet installed when the house was built.  And it was too shallow, especially when it was full of dishes and I needed to fill a large pot with water.

So I used my birthday money to purchase a new faucet, and we decided to splurge a little for a new sink too.

Saturday was the day that Stephen played plumber.  He did a fantastic job, even if his expertise lies in other areas like assembling aircraft and prosecuting trademarks.

He does not, however, appreciate being the subject of my photography, so I apologize for the glare of the flashlight in the photo below.

You may notice that it grew dark in the time elapsed from the photo above to the photo below.  But I will point out that in the middle of the sink project, my handy husband also replaced the broken spring on the garage door (with a little help from a neighbor).

Having never done a project like this one before, I was very thankful that it was done in just one day...even if it did mean shoving frozen pizza at crying children an hour past dinnertime so that we could keep working.

But it works! 

And it's lovely.

 Happy birthday to me!

  

Reformed Yankees

We are NOT Yankees fans here. Never have been.  At least, not when it comes to baseball.  And as of late, not when it comes to history either.

We took a break from school last week and made a trip to Pennsylvania.  We nearly had to cancel due to a vehicle trapped inside of a broken garage door, but in the end we escaped from the garage and made the drive.

About halfway between home and my parents' house is a little town called Gettysburg which achieved great fame in 1863. 

As the boys are interested in

battles and weaponry

of all kinds, I thought we'd make a stop there at the museum.

Good call, Mom.

They were thrilled to have their picture taken with President Lincoln outside of the museum...

...which brings me back to the Yankees reference. 

Growing up north of the Mason-Dixon line, our study of American history certainly had a Yankee bent to it.  I was a Yankee to the core

(again, NOT in reference to baseball!).

I suppose my allegiance probably started to sway when we gave our oldest son the middle name Jackson after Stonewall.

And it isn't living in a Southern state that has caused me to come around to the Rebel way of thinking...just understanding that the war wasn't about slavery as is so commonly taught.

Someone commented recently when we were visiting the Manassas battlefield that in the North it is taught that the war was over slavery and in the South it is taught that the war was about states' rights.  Good point.

And since I'm on the side of states' rights 

- after all, it's in the Constitution! -

I guess that makes me a Southerner, a true Virginian.  And not a big fan of Lincoln who seemingly trampled on the Constitution when he sent troops to invade the Confederate states.

So I let them have their picture next to Mr. Lincoln, but they may change their tune about it in a few years when we start studying American history and they get the Rebel version of history.

Wookies

This post has nothing to do with big, hairy

creatures from Star Wars. 

Or towns across the pond. 

Or video games.

Just freshly baked, chocolate chip wookies.  Miss Cupcake is really enjoying them! And since they're egg-free, she can have as many "wookies" as she...er, Mom...wants.

Just hoping she doesn't turn into a Cookie Monster like her brother!

PS - They're pretty yummy for being egg- and milk-free!

School Days

It may seem funny that our school doesn't start until 1:30pm.  That's getting close to the time when many kids are waiting for the final bell to ring.  And everytime I walk into a store in the morning hours with all three kids in tow, I just wait for someone to ask me if there's no school today.

Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet this year.  Surprising, given how tall my second grader is getting to be.  I'm not so sure they would buy the fact that my four year old isn't old enough for school yet either since he's a pretty big boy too.

But afternoon school is working well for us this year.  With an almost-two-year-old who gets into everything (ie...grabs pencils, scissors, etc) and doesn't take a morning nap anymore, doing school in the morning is a challenge I'm not taking on right now.

Her afternoon naps give us about two or three hours of good, solid school time.  And the only interruptions I have to deal with are snack-time and the phone.  I'm learning to ignore the phone if I know it's not going to be a quick call.  And as far as snack-time goes, well, some days I can hardly wait for three o'clock to roll around!   

Yes, my children stand on kitchen chairs.  No, he's not pretending to be the teacher.  He's just threatening to eat all of my Twix before I can hide it from him.

 

Don't worry - we do get down to business eventually.

 

And to be honest, I am learning so much, right along with them.  What a joy it is to learn together!