Lunch Time

Today after I picked up Parker from preschool, I had to run a few errands. He saw McDonalds and of course wanted to go and have chicken nuggets. Well we haven't eaten out for about a month, so I gave in to his suggestion. Then I don't have to make them lunch when we get home! Well he wanted to go inside to eat and to play on the toy. But as luck would have it was snowing here today and too cold to play on the outdoor play equipment. (secretly I was glad. I didn't really want to sit out there while they played for an hour. I wasn't in that kind of mood today) So we ordered them each a kids meal with fries and a chocolate milk (I know, not the best of choices. That little kids meal is over 600 calories!!!) They both sat at the booth and proceeded to eat all of their lunch!! (Paige didn' quite eat it all, but pretty close!) How this happened I don't know. Parker is the worst eater ever!! He hardly ever eats all his meals. And most of the time he is forced to eat with the threat of early bed or time out. We hate meal time at our house. It is a constant battle to get him to eat and some days it takes him and hour to eat. So I was very surprised today when he ate all of his lunch without me getting after him over and over. I was very grateful not to have to argue with him in public. So today that is what I am grateful for. I will take a good day like this any time. And after we were on our way home, he thanked me for lunch!! He never does that!! I was feeling good! I think today he thinks I am a good mom!! Love it!!

Bed Problem

We have a new sleeping problem here at our house and it involves Paige. Up until now she has been a really good sleeper. She slept well when she was a baby and started sleeping through the night fairly soon. I love that about her! Since she has turned "2" she isn't doing as well. One day I thought maybe she was big enough to sleep in a bed instead of a crib. So I changed her crib into a toddler bed and she played on it all day. When it came to nighttime, she would not stay in it. So I waited until she fell asleep and then put her in the bed. A few hours later I heard her bedroom door open (this is about midnight) and in she walks and climbs into our bed. Being the person that I am (and Matt as well) we let her sleep there. Both waking up with aches and pains. We don't want that to happen again. I was thinking it would take 3 nights for her to get used to the new situation. Well after the 2nd night being like the first I gave up and put the rail back on the crib and she slept in the crib the entire night the 3rd night. So maybe she isn't ready for a bed. Well that was about 3 weeks ago. She has slept good since, almost all night every night and I think that is great. Well a few days ago, in the middle of the night I once again heard her door open and wondered what was going on. In she walks and climbs into our bed. That little stinker climbed out of her crib!!!! How did she do that? Matt and I were both in shock! The next day during the day I was in her room and put her in the crib and said, "show me how you get out." She proceeded to throw her leg over the rail and then pull her other leg over until she touched the mattress from the other side. Then she dropped the last foot onto the ground. I couldn't believe it!! She can get out with hurting herself and she isn't afraid to do it in the pitch black of the night. So what do I do about this?? I DO NOT like her in our bed, we just got Parker out of there for Pete's sake, I DO NOT want another kid in there during the night. How do I get her to stay in there all night and not climb out? Anyone, please help!

Zoo Time

On the 17th my mom decided it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo. So we loaded everything up and made our way there. As we got there is started raining a little bit and neither my mom or I had brought jackets (what were we thinking?) Luckily I had jackets in the car for the kids and I happened to have a hooded sweatchirt in their too. So we decided we would wrap the kids in blankets and jackets and hope the weather would soon cooperate. Then is started really raining and I (having no coat or sweater) decided that maybe we should come back another day. Well Parker did not like that idea at all, so we decided to stay and within about 10 minutes the rain had stopped and we were in line to get into the zoo. It warmed up and the kids had a great time seeing the animals that were out. There were a lot of animals that were still being kept inside until it warmed up, so there were things that we didn't get to see. There were even some new baby animals to look at a baby zebra, and I think a baby goat. The kids really liked looking at them. We walked around for about and hour and took a few pictures and decided that we had seen it all. We will have to go back later this summer when all the animals are out to see. I know the kids would love to go again!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

This recipe is from Jessica Seinfled's book Deceptively Delicious. It is a book teaching how to incorporate fruits and vegetables into kids food without them knowing. This is one of my favorite recipes and is soooooo good. The bread is very moist and my kids gobble it right up. I don't feel bad about them eating a lot of it because it is low in sugar and has all the whole grain in it. Give it a try!! I love to be a little sneaky and to put things into the food I cook to give it a little more nutrition. Well I found these two cookbooks that teach how to do just that the one by Jessica Seinfeld and another on called The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine Both have great recipes and you and your family will never know the "extras" that are inside. This banana bread recipe in one of my favorites!!!


Whole Wheat Banana Bread

3/4 C. Whole wheat flour
½ C. All-purpose flour
½ tsp. Baking soda
1/4 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Cinnamon (optional)
½ C. Firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 C. Vegetable oil
2 egg whites
1 ½ C. Banana puree
½ C. Cauliflower puree
1 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9x5 inch loaf pan, or 2 mini pans with cooking spray.

In a bowl mix the flours with the baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (if using). Set aside. In a large mixing bowl mix the sugar and oil with a wooden spoon until well combined (or in a Kitchen Aid mixer) Mix in the eggs, purees, (if I don't have cauliflower I just add another 1/2 C. bananas) and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake until the center comes out clean, 55-60 minutes for the large loaf, 25-30 for the mini loafs. Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn bread out of the pan to cool before serving.

(Sometimes I add nuts or 1/2 c. chocolate chips, makes it even better)

It's finally warm!

We have had a few nice days lately and the kids are really enjoying playing outside. We even went to the zoo last Saturday and had a great time. (More about that later). Today I even let Parker convince me to let him play in the water. We turned on the sprinkler and he loved running all around getting himself cooled off. It didn't last for very long, about a half hour, but I get the feeling we are going to be outside quite a bit this summer and I can't wait for all the fun that comes with the good weather. So please mother nature let the nice warm weather stay for a long long time!!

Paige's Birthday Celebration

My sister stopped by the day before Paige's birthday to drop off a gift because she wasn't going to be able to make it. She got her a little girls set of nail polish, lip gloss, and lip stick with a bag to put it in. She also got a cute little pink, orange and yellow dress with a yellow jacket. And a blue short romper (we both wore these when we were younger and it brought back memories) Paige loves the makeup and has been busy polishing her nails lately. Thanks Charyn!

After completing the cake I went to work getting everything else ready for Paige's party. We invited just grandparents this year. I don't think my kids need a big party every year. When they do have a party on birthdays 1, 8, and 16 I want them to be special so we won't be doing big parties every year at our house. I hadn't really thought about decorations since we weren't doing a big party, but decided at the last minute that she needed some balloons to celebrate with. I ran to the store and picked up some balloons and a few other things, and hurried back to finish last minute things. I decorated the table with the balloons and her gifts and put out a special place setting for her to eat at. She also had a little tiara to wear that said "Birthday Girl." She had fallen asleep on the way home from the store so all the decorations and balloons were a surprise when she woke up. My parents and Matt's parents made it over for dinner which consisted of Italian Chicken in the crock pot, with Strawberry Toss Salad and Fruit and Yogurt Salad as well. Paige usually devours Italian Chicken when I make it, but as she was sitting at the table she noticed some play jewelry and makeup and had to open that up and try it out. Then she wanted to open more gifts. So we all ate dinner while Paige entertained us by opening gifts. She was quite the character and made faces and noised after every gift. She even had to try on ever outfit she got as she opened them. As she would put them on she would say "ta da" and hold out her arms to show what she was wearing. She was spoiled rotten and got a bunch of fun new stuff. Grandpa and Grandma C. got her a cute little stuffed puppy, pink sand box toys,a wooden doll with interchangeable felt outfits, and a new outfit with cupcakes on it and it says "one of a kind." Grandpa and Grandma Yancey got her and new bedspread (for when she is in a big girl bed) with curtains, a strawberry shortcake doll, strawberry shortcake coloring book, 3 strawberry shortcake reading books, a strawberry shortcake book with magnets, and a crayola stamp set. Matt and I kind of went over board and got more than we were going to. I couldn't help myself in the store and kept adding to my cart. I found this cute little cat the meows when you pet it and I knew she would love that. We also got her a ZhuZhu pet, some princess dolls that you can change their clothes, new jammies, new socks, a dress, a swimsuit, 2 summer outfits, a Princess and the frog purse, the movie The Princess and the Frog, lip gloss, a play phone, new flip flops, and some pretend makeup. Ya I know it got carried away!! She had a ton of fun opening gifts and playing with each one as she opened. I don't think she really ate much of anything, even her cake, she was busy playing with her new stuff. She did love blowing out the candles and dancing in her chair as we sang Happy Birthday to her. A little while late Matt's Mom came and brought Paige a darling little pink and white dress with a pink jacket and a stuffed bunny rabbit. Little Sister had to model the dress for us! Thank you so much to all that came and spoiled our little girl. It is obvious how much she is loved!!
"Ta Da"

With Aunt Charyn

With Uncle Mike

Birthday Table

Opening Princess and the Frog

Princess and the Frog purse

Princess Dolls!
The Meowing Kitty Kat...She was really excited!
Her new Beadspread is in the big box.

Blowing out the candles!
All the stuff she got!

Her new Pink Polka Dot Dress

Grandma Linda and Little Sister

Paige's Birthday Cake

We celebrated Paige's Birthday on Monday with Grandparents. Since Paige has been interested in cats lately I decided to make her a cat cake. I looked all over online and didn't really find anything that I loved. Then about a week before her birthday I got a magazine in the mail and it had ideas for different birthday parties. In those ideas was a picture and directions for a kitty cat cake. I loved it!! I knew it was meant to be. I decided to alter it a little bit because the picture was a blue cat and I wanted to make a pink one for her. After I got baking and assembling the cake I realized that the directions were not very good. The directions said to bake the cake in an oven proof bowl. But it did not say what size of bowl. I didn't think much about this until after I had baked the cake and was about to put the snowballs on for the cheeks and realized that the snowballs were huge compared to the rest of the cake. I didn't know what to do because I needed to finish the cake, but I was afraid it wouldn't work out. Well I went ahead and finished and it turned out alright. It ended up looking a little more animated than the original picture, but she loved it. Next time, if there is a next time, I would bake the cake in a bigger bowl so the face is more proportioned! Paige was excited about it and kept saying "meow, meow". I think it was a success!