Kids Food

Today I’m playing with the new toys I got for Christmas. I received some fun bento cutters to make cute shapes out of veggies, etc to add to my kids’ lunches (or bananas to my husband’s breakfast, like this morning). Previously I had tried to make my own shapes with just a knife, but these cutters are so much easier to use.

It will be fun to see all the things I can come up with. I have some inspiration on my Pinterest board to keep me going. 

Thanksgiving

Danny’s family came into town for Thanksgiving. He has three brothers who all live in different time zones, so we always try to cram as many activities into the time we have together as we can. 

It is always fun, but a bit tiring. Danny laughs at me when my “social quotient” gets filled up. That’s when I head to the bath with a book.

But Danny and my kids never seem to tire of family activities. Although there were a few meltdowns after long days filled with sugar. The kids got spoiled with lunch at McDonalds, playing at the park, building Lego’s with cousins, overload on electronic devices, etc. You know, all the fun things uncles and grandparents do for the kids.

The adult kids have a tradition of going to Old Chicago for drinks. I was so happy to be able to go this time…for several years in a row I have been pregnant or nursing or sleep deprived. It was a fun time to catch up with the brothers (and sister-in-law), and this year we got to meet a girlfriend. Then another night we went out to Jack Quinn’s. On Friday night we had a birthday party for our niece, then the boys went out again on Saturday night (that is the night I stayed in like a hermit). We also visited a few coffee shops and restaurants for lunches. We watched football, played games, and ate more food.

Whew. Like I said, lots of activity.

So, let's do it again next year!

early Thanksgiving

This weekend we had an early Thanksgiving get together with my family since we can’t all be together for Thanksgiving. It was nice to spend this time together. And we didn’t eat turkey – there will be enough of that this week. 

My family likes to play games…my husband does not, but he’s a good sport and will humor me for special occasions. Gage has not had much exposure to games yet, but he had great fun on Saturday. For him it is not about playing the games; it is about the cool pieces that go to the games. At one point, while we left him unattended, he got ALL the games out and ALL the pieces out. It was an epic mess in our living room. But with many hands working, we got it all put back together quickly. 

So that he could start dismembering everything again.

Gage with Uncle Ben

Our Italian menu: homemade spaghetti and ravioli (I make the pasta dough…Danny runs it through the machine. There is less fighting that way.) Antipasti was provided by my sister and her husband. It was so tasty and we snacked so much that we weren’t really hungry for lunch. But in true thanksgiving fashion we went ahead and filled our bellies to bursting. 

I even tried to get fancy with the name tags. 

Then we had spiced cider and pumpkin pie. That's when we all had to undo the top button on our pants. Good thing I wore legging with elastic.
Gage didn't remember having pumpkin pie before, so he was excited to try it.

success!

M&M was also a fan

 A good time was had by all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gage turned 3

April 4, 2012 - Birthday Boy

My little Boy is growing up – we rarely even call him the Blobster any more. It doesn’t seem an appropriate nickname for such a big boy. Mostly we call him Gage-a-rooni; don’t ask me how we came up with that, I’m sure it had something to do with making up a song to make him laugh. I will keep you informed of any new nicknames that come up, which is inevitable.

We had a family party for Gage this year. I wanted to do a vintage rocket theme, but it didn’t turn out as grand as my Pinterest board seemed. (It turns out I’m not Martha Stewart after all) But I had fun getting everything ready to make the day special for my baby (who is no longer a baby, as we have already established). And Gage was so excited, hopping around and asking me all day if he could eat his cake. Birthdays pretty much equate to cake for him. Which I guess never really changes.

My first attempt at making/icing a cake. It looks ok if you don't look too closely. But it was tasty!
Thanks to Michelle for some basic tips. 

Rockets - mini 'pinatas' Gage helped me make them, and had fun pulling the strings to make them explode 

I felt very crafty making the table settings

Farmers Market

The leaves are turning yellow and we have traded the 90 degree weather for 60 degrees and freak snow flurries. Fall is here and it is my favorite time of year. But there are still a lot of things that I love about summer (that I haven’t blogged about yet).

For the last 2 years I have been going to the local Farmers Market on Monday mornings. I get on my bike, put the kids in the bike trailer and head out. Really it’s only 4 blocks away, but it sounds more romantic if I can say we went on a bike excursion.

There are lots of booths, and it is fun to walk around and see what people are offering. One of our (i.e. the Blobster’s) favorite stops is for kettle corn. The man who makes it is legit – he has the biggest copper kettle I’ve ever seen.

After I bribe my son to be good with kettle corn, I chase after him as I try to make my way to the european artisan bread, and then I tug on him to follow me to get some fruit, and after excusing myself for grabbing my son who is running between people’s legs, we finish up at the veggie stand. It is great to pick out fresh veggies that are locally grown. It is so easy to go overboard and get way too much. (Really… they want me to buy a whole basket of onions?? What would I do with that many onions in a week? My husband doesn’t even like onions. But they are cheap. Humm)

Then once we have all our purchases we head over to the playground so the Blobster can let out some energy. It’s hard work for the boy to listen to mama, and stand in lines, and not touch things.

Then I get to decide what to make with what I bring home. This summer I feel like I made a wide range of dishes with fresh vegetables that I have never tried before and they all turned out really well. The Blobster even ate everything without complaint. I didn’t have a ton of leftover veggies that got thrown out either. So that’s a success, right?

One time this summer we were ‘blessed’ with a huge box of beets. It’s kind-of a long story, but in a round about way we got this box that someone didn’t pick up from their CSA share. I like beets, so I was excited at first, so I made beet puree baby food for the Sweet Pea, a ton of Borscht, beet salad, beet cole slaw, etc.  I started to give beets to my friends, my family, slipping them in people’s pockets if they got too close to me. We still had quite a few beets left when they started going bad and we had to throw some away. I think they were multiplying and having beet babies in the box while we weren’t looking. 

It's my birthday and I can cook if I want to

We celebrated my birthday on Saturday. It was awesome...a bunch of friends came and took over my kitchen, working feverishly on an amazing meal. I sat on the back porch, with those who weren't actively cooking, and drank a beautiful chardonnay. We ate: mini pizzas, shrimp, roasted fig and beet salad, garlic mashed potatos, brussels sprouts (on Sat I learned the correct spelling of that) with bacon, filet mignon, and the biggest crab legs you have ever seen! And to finish it all, we had homemade angelfood cake with strawberries. I'm truly blessed to have such wonderful friends who spent so much time, energy, and money to create the most wonderful birthday meal for me!
And did I get a picture of the fun night to share?? No, no I did not.

Did I mention we had crab legs? They were delicious.


My actual birthday was pretty low-key. It was the most beautiful fall day - clear blue sky and the leaves just starting to think about turning. It is a little warmer than it typically is, but at least it is not snowing yet. I decided I wanted to have a special treat so I drove to Starbucks for a cinnamon-dolce latte. I had to drive to the west side of town because I wanted to go through the drive through - it stinks trying to park and get 2 kids out of the car, stand in line with those kids, just to order a coffee and get back into the car.
I think all stores should have a drive-thru option for parents with small kids.

Then I took the kids to the park since it was so nice outside. It is always fun to watch my kids have fun.

 







I decided that for my birthday dinner I would make homemade ravioli. I really like to cook, so it was fun to work on something new.
I will definitely be making more ravioli in the future. The filling options are endless and I love fresh, homemade pasta.

Baby's first meal

This week the Sweet Pea had her first "solid food". (Incidentally I know several people who call it people food...as though otherwise babies are eating nonpeople food - what, like dog food?? who knows) Anyway...

I'm not sure she knew what to do with what I was putting in her mouth. Most of the food ended up on her face, bib, and washcloth. But it was kind of fun to try something new.

I have chosen to start my children with meat (specifically chicken) for their first food. My pediatrician pointed me in this direction and after some internet research I decided this would be a good approach for me. There are so many different ways to go when feeding babies, (fruits, veggies, cereal, meat...) and I don't think there is really a right or a wrong way, but many people get very passionate about it. There are LOTS of books about it. LOTS of websites. LOTS of experts weighing in with their opinions. But at the end of the day, babies all eat something and we all seem to be okay regardless of what it was. What did they do 200 years ago when there wasn't someone telling mothers what to do at each phase of their babies development??

I also make my own baby food. I have found it is so easy and a lot less expensive. I love having a freezer full of things for my baby to eat. I have already started to puree some things that she will eat later. Berries were on sale last week so I took advantage and did a batch of them. I'll do some zucchini from our garden soon. For my birthday, Goatee Man bought me a really nice food processor. It makes pureeing food sooo much faster. (I used my blender to make food for the Blobster). So I put in an hour of work and get enough baby food for a month or so. Easy.

Al Fresco

Last night we were eating al fresco. It cooled down nicely after a hot day. In the morning we cooked ourselves at the zoo, so it was so nice to be in our green backyard eating food that I made from our garden.
Here is what we ate.

Lemon basil penne with spinach and pork chops. The Blobster ate all of his and even said it was yummy.
Here is the view from our garden.

Here we are eating outside. It really was a great night.

And after dinner I had a lovely Avery IPA.

Such a nice night.
Makes me want to keep the kids up until the moon is out, but then we would have cranky kids on our hands. So I put the kids to bed and cleaned some lettuce for salad tonight.