Easter

Easter morning 2010 started off bright and early (for Danny and I--Isaac slept in), with chocolate:

  This picture of Danny cracks me up--he looks like a half-awake pirate!

Isaac woke up and joined the festivities. Unlike Danny, who wandered around for a good 15 minutes before spotting the Easter baskets, Isaac zoned in on them immediately and beelined for the kitchen table.

This is what I call Isaac's "sugar zombie" mode. The focus and concentration this kid will put into opening up a foil wrapped chocolate...it's amazing.

Danny was really confused how the Easter bunny had gotten the baskets into the house. I was really confused how Danny even knows the Easter bunny. I never mentioned him; I get tired of lying to my kids about all of these fake creatures for every holiday and tooth loss, and making up these huge elaborate explanations and stories. But Danny knew, I guess probably from his friends? So I was just like, "Oh, well, Daddy must have seen them on the porch before he went to bed and brought them in." And lied anyhow, just like that. And keep lying every time I mention the cups or books that "the Easter bunny brought."

This was the first holiday where I've just let the kids go to town with the candy. Usually, I let them have a few pieces, interspersed with healthy meals and snacks. Easter this year was a free for all. Of course they were stoked; I'm still cringing a little. I'm not sure if this will be the rule in the future, we'll see. 

My sister, brother-in-law and niece came over, followed shortly by my mom. My mom was wonderful enough to bring books as Easter presents, sans candy (big, big bonus points, Mom!).

While my sis, mom and I cooked brunch (eggs benedict, roasted asparagus, fruit salad, rhubarb creme brulee), Chris and Tom supervised Easter egg dying:

After we ate, Mom and I hid the eggs outside. We somehow managed to sneak the Easter egg hunt in between rain showers and wind gusts. There were some plastic eggs filled with candy (from the baskets my dad had given us--sorry, Dad, but they did enjoy it; Chris and I enjoyed the chocolate baskets!), one for each kid with money, and then half of the eggs the kids had dyed. Danny also demanded to know why "Mama and Nana hid the eggs, and how come the Easter bunny didn't." Slacking Easter bunny, I better have a talk with him before next year.

Alive!

Amazingly, I haven't completely forgotten about this blog. Between first trimester pregnancy ickies and our absolutely insane month of March, I think I was lucky to keep the day-to-day running of our house up--I didn't even manage that every day. Such is life though, and I didn't let it bug me. Some things had to be let go for a while, and this blog was one of them.

I'm hoping now to be more regular again, if for nothing else than to keep something of a journal going!

So what happened to make life so crazy...

Being pregnant. Since we absolutely know that this will be the very last baby, I've tried very hard to enjoy it all. But let's face it--extreme fatigue and nausea suck, no matter how you slice or dice it. I don't think either Danny or Isaac's pregnancies left me feeling as tired in the first trimester as this one did. I also had about two weeks of very bad sleep--you'd think as tired as I was, sleep would have come easy. I all but quit working out for a month; we ate eggs for dinner more times than I now care to remember; naps (for me) started happening almost every day; and you can guess what the house looked like. And how unfair is it that coffee made me gag?

Chris' 30th birthday (March 13th), which I absolutely had to throw a party for--in Chris' defense, he asked me to call it off multiple times, but I HAD to throw him a party. By this point I was feeling  much more energetic, but it took a bit of time to plan and coordinate. I'm glad I did it though, b/c we had a fabulous party and would you believe I took next to no pictures? Bad, bad, wifey. Couple that with my birthday only two days later, my grandparents in town, multiple birthday dates (absolutely NOT complaining!), and...

Isaac's surgery (March 17th). This was over and done with pretty quickly, but I think the emotional stress leading up to it took a bit of a toll on Chris and I--I was getting headaches, I think related to tension and stress! And it was a very minor surgery. I don't know how parents handle serious health issues. I suppose being pregnant didn't help, but I am very glad this is now in the past!

Between birthdays and Isaac's surgery, Chris had two full weeks off in the middle of the month (he termed it his "staycation"). I honestly can't remember a lot of what we did, but we were busy and had a lot of fun. There were many good walks, a few trips to Portland, too much eating out, some good yard work...we were very sad to see him go back to work, but alas, vacation pay kind of sucks and there's only so much accumulated vacation time. Now he has to start saving back up for the birth of the baby :)

In a nutshell, that's about it. I'm sure as I start sorting through and uploading pics, I'll remember more and I know I have some good pictures to post.

Danny's creations

Danny has been amazing me with his building skills lately. He's actually beginning to plan and strategize and it's so fun to watch the wheels turning in his little head.

The first is his railroad track. I moved the railroad tracks to a bin in the living room and it's amazing the surge in popularity we've seen! Both boys make their own tracks--Isaac's are pretty random, just whatever piece he grabs. Danny started making small circles, and then pulls this out:  

I was a little surprised. He was so proud of himself. And then Zeus broke it, though Danny took it very well.

 And then there's his own Lego house. Him and Isaac were awake very early this particular morning and quietly went out and played Lego's and let me sleep. They love me :) Danny finally came in to wake me up, and did so by saying, "Mama, mama, LOOK at my house!" It was such a nice thing to wake up to.

 

 

Zeus, again, getting in on the action. Maybe he's a little jealous that he lacks opposable thumbs?

I swear this kid will be some sort of engineer. He chooses to watch the likes of How It's Made or Heavy Metal Task Force over cartoons and he's obsessed with taking apart and rebuilding, figuring out how this wheel spins or what to do if it stops. Though he assures me he wants to be a policeman with Jack :) I'm ok, either way!

Daddy's boys

I  couldn't resist posting a few pictures, all taken the last four days, which Chris had off.

 

The next two pictures are Danny's Lego house, which Chris was building for him until at least 3:30 am. I woke up and heard him scrabbling around in the Lego bin. He's crazy. I guess it's better than playing on Facebook though.

  

 

And Chuck, sleeping with Chris. Yes, he's sitting. And yes, he's weird. He stayed like that long enough for me to run and get the camera and take FOUR pictures.

 

 

Chris did do a lot more than sleep during his days off :) Like trim up the pine tree in the backyard to give me more landscaping fun and the grass a little more light. Thanks, babe!

Outer space pancakes!

The last time I was at my grandma's house (about three weeks ago?), I was perusing a Williams-Sonoma catalog and happened to comment aloud about some outer space pancake molds ("Oh, how fun!").

If you know my grandma at all, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that on Thursday, a box from Williams-Sonoma showed up on my doorstep! I actually left it by the door forever, not able to figure out what I'd ordered, thinking maybe it was an early birthday present that I shouldn't open. After we returned from a Costco shopping trip that night, it dawned on me, so the boys and I ripped it open and found the outer space pancake molds. Danny and Isaac were VERY excited. So I promised pancakes in the morning.

Of course, they were a bit of a pain in the butt. And mine do not look nearly as pretty as the ones that Wiliams-Sonoma shows, but whatever. We loved them. And the recipe was absolutely delicious.

 

  

  

The last moon and planet got a little brown--there were a couple little boys who felt like fighting all morning and Mama got distracted.

Now for the delicious recipe:

Outer Space Pancakes

2 eggs, beaten until frothy (I think this was the secret)
 

2 C flour, sifted (I used all soft white wheat, of course)
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3 T sugar
1 t salt
 

21/2 C buttermilk (had none, so I used sour cream watered down slightly--wouldn't have ever known!)
4 T melted butter
1/2 t vanilla
 

Beat eggs, set aside.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Stir everything together, but just until it smooths out. Don't over beat. 

YUM! I think these could have been soaked, too, of course I'll plan on trying it in the future.

Cars and trucks and things that go!

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go! is a book, a very big book, by Richard Scarry. It is one of Danny, and now Isaac's, all-time favorite books. It has given me many hours of peace and quiet. I was brain storming preschool themes with Danny, and this book happened to be lying in eye sight, so I suggested it, and of course it was a winner.

For preschool each week, whichever family is hosting picks a theme, and most of our stations revolve around that theme.

For art this week, we had "painting" with cars: the kids drove a few various small cars through a shallow pan with some paint, then drove the cars onto the paper. I think Danny is waiting for a new piece of paper, here, and watching Grace work on hers. Painting seems to always be popular.

The sensory bin was our box filled with cornmeal, some black beans and some hard white wheat grains. We put in every small construction vehicle we could find, and the construction bin was born. Danny and Isaac played in this for several days prior to our preschool week, and are still playing with it a few weeks later.

 

Science on Tuesday was rolling different size cars down a ramp (not popular); on Friday it was building balloon-powered "cars" out of small cardboard milk jugs and lid wheels (very popular). The writing station had big pictures of various "things that go", with the words written underneath: "car", "bus", "airplane", "train", "motorcycle", and "van". This was not popular either, I think maybe because of me moving our table to a slightly lighter traffic area. Usually the kids really like writing. 

Math had nothing to do with our theme, but I was excited to use these for preschool! Chris' mom bought the boys these magnetic triangles and squares, and they stick together to form 3-D forms. This was very popular; Danielle and Isaac played with them almost the entire first choice time. I've kept them out on the table and Danny and Isaac have been playing with them quite a bit. As a bonus, every time the cats or dog get close to any laying on the ground, they stick to their collars and...it's hilarious. So hilarious.

 

I think our last choice station was the role playing one; for that I had our car rug out in the living room, with the kids' parking garage. They didn't really play with that either. It's so funny, the things they like and dislike. Things that I think will be winners, flop. Things I'm not so wild about, they love. C'est la vie. I had actually come across an idea for playing "ice cream truck" for role playing, and I came up with all of these ideas to make fake ice cream and popsicles, to make the ice cream "truck", coins for "buying"...and I ran out of time and it just didn't happen. I think they would have loved it, so I'm kinda ticked with myself for not following through.

We played Red Light, Green Light several times throughout preschool this week. They loved it, and now Danny and Isaac and I are playing it fairly often. 

It was a fun preschool week though, aside from fighting over the Strider bikes (totally on Danny and Isaac's part) during outside time on Tuesday. Preschool has been very fun this year, I think Danny is going to be very sad to possibly lose some of his buddies to kindergarten : (

Sprouting lentils

I was cleaning out some nooks and crannies in the kitchen last week and found the sprouting screen I bought....last summer. I had made one (failed) attempt at sprouting immediately after buying it and gave up.

In case you're wondering: a sprouting screen is simply a piece of fine mesh-type material that fits perfectly over a Mason jar (a wide-mouth, in my case), under the screw band; they cost about $1-2.

My first sprouting attempt failed because I failed to pay close attention to the details. I soaked hard white wheat berries overnight, and then instead of rinsing and draining, I just kept filling the jar back up completely with water. No, no, no. After 4 days, they looked and smelled very gross and there was no sprouting happening.

What you're supposed to do: soak your grain/bean/seed, completely submerged in water, overnight. Very important to use filtered water, too. Chlorine is not conducive to life! The next morning, you drain, rinse, then set at a 45-degree angle to allow it to continue to drain. And you rinse as many times a day as you remember (ideally at least 4), and continue with the draining. This is why a sprouting screen is so handy--you keep the grain/bean/seed in the jar and just drain them through the screen.

I have what seem like millions of types of grains and beans around. I decided on lentils, just because they sounded good. I only have plain, old brown lentils; I've wanted to buy green French Puy lentils and the tiny black beluga lentils, but Azure doesn't carry either, and I forget to check every time I'm at Whole Foods. I'm at a loss for where else to look.

So...I filled up my Mason jar (a wide-mouth quart), approximately one-third full of lentils (probably about one cup), rinsed them a couple times, then filled the jar to the top and left them overnight.

Then, the draining and rinsing. To drain, I propped the jar at an angle in a cake pan, which turned out to be a bad idea, as the pan was metal. You'd think living in the Pacific NW, I would have a better grasp on what happens when metal is exposed to moisture continuously. My screw band, cake pan and sprouting screen were sporting rust within a couple days. So YOU should use a better contraption for draining, as I will next time :)

I started this on a Friday night, and the sprouts were about a half-inch long by Monday afternoon.

  

My jar was very full; next time I'll use a bit less lentils.

As it happened, the day after starting the sprouting, I checked 101cookbooks.com, one of my fave food blogs, and she had Palak Daal (an Indian lentil and spinach dish) posted as her newest recipe. I love daal. My lentils were sprouting. I had a huge tub of spinach from Costco. It was fate. 

This picture is the lentils right when cooking started. Apparently I forgot to take one of the finished product.

In addition to reaping the health benefits of sprouting, the recipe cooked in one-quarter of the time (a bonus to soaking grains, also). I also reduced the water to only 4 cups, as the lentils had already absorbed quite a bit, and it was perfect.  I didn't have the asafetida the recipe calls for; again, hard to find. We ate it with some homemade whole wheat flat breads (which I even managed to soak the flour for!) and yogurt, and I called it good for dinner. The recipe was really good, I'd recommend it, sprouting or not. 

And now, I am planning more sprouting adventures. Chia seeds from Azure are next, then some soft white wheat, I think.