Quick Looks

I figured it was time to haul out the big camera/lens and take snapshots of the kids.

Too bad they will NOT.STAY.STILL.

Argh.

Here's the best we could do in the 5 minutes I attempted:

Grammie, we got TONS of compliments on the wild tights you gave Miss C!!!   ;-)

Poppin' Gourmet

Yes, this is the third food-related post in a row.  That's how we roll.....and roll we do after all this eating!  ;-)

Christy gave me some super fancy microwave popcorn for my birthday.  Check it out-- it even has PACKETS!

Yes, indeedy.  You pop the the corn and then pour in the "expeller-pressed" canola oil and shake shake shake.  Then you sprinkle on the parmesan rosemary topping and shake shake shake.

And then you shake shake shake your head in delight at how tasty it is!

The really funny thing was that I made the first batch (the box included 2 sets of "materials") directly after talking on the phone with Lindsay the other week.  In that convo, she'd told me about a friend who was accosted at a restaurant by a stranger who was displeased that she was feeding her child Cheerios which "are full of GMOs."   (Side note:  STEP OFF, STRANGERS!)

So I had to giggle when this is the first thing I saw on the popcorn box label:

Toasty

We went out for dinner Sunday night and when Grandma heard that B's beloved Cosi had a make-your-own-S'mores dessert option, she just had to treat us all!   As you can see, toasting marshmallows is VERY serious business!

Grandma and Papa head back to Texas today.  I'm pretty sure my children are going to be in mourning over the loss of their playmates.  I am many things, but an entertaining playtime buddy is, sadly, NOT one of them!   Now, if you need to know some celebrity gossip, on the other hand.......!!!  ;-)

Reliving The Goodness

Grandma and Papa arrived from Austin on Friday evening and held down the fort Saturday night so we could escape.  We decided to do it up BIG TIME (at least for us) and head into the city where 56 Up was showing.  Have any of you seen the films in this series?   Geoff told us about them more than 6 years ago and we promptly came home and Netflixed the first 7 installments.  At the time, we could not IMAGINE waiting until 2013 to see the next one.  How crazy that it's now been that long!

Once we decided we were going on our big cinematic adventure, I narrowed our dinner choices to nearby restaurants with reservations available on opentable.com.  (I adore Open Table-- the internet at its finest!)  I must've considered about 8 different places but finally decided it would be fun to try a Latin/Asian fusion place.

Oh.My.Goodness.   I don't know what it was (perhaps the sublime Mango Mojito and Prickly Pear Margarita?), but it was like every bite I put into my mouth was the TASTIEST THING EVER.

Since I didn't take any food pics, you'll have to settle for text descriptions of our mouth-watering selections:

vegetariano sushi roll
asparagus-scallion tempura / avocado / sambal aioli /soy paper

achiote hoisin pork arepas 
corn masa / avocado / crema fresca

fried rice
shrimp / duck / pork / egg / snow pea / carrot

tagalog style churrasco steak 
calamansi citrus-soy marinade / grilled onion /lemongrass mojo / green herb chimichurri /sweet potato tostones

Oh, actually, I did take a pic.  I snapped a lovely self-portrait to send to Anne to show her the earrings she'd helped me select from a friend's online jewelry fundraiser sale!

 

I see that, while I managed to remember my fun new earrings, I forgot my ring.  Oops.   ;-)

THIS JUST IN!!!!

Despite what she included in her comment about #1 not being chosen for the celebration of 1500 posts, it's Susan's LUCKY DAY!!

I will email you a $15 Amazon gift card ASAP!!   Spend it wisely!!!  ;-)

Thanks to all you loyal readers who made me feel loved and appreciated with your comments!!   I can't promise I'm going to keep up daily writing forever (especially since it's now clear to me that a lot of you only check in periodically...and/or are allergic to leaving comments) but as long as I'm enjoying the challenge, I'll do my best!!

Ready For Her Close-Up

First of all, several of you have indicated that you thought you'd missed the window for entering a comment for the chance to win a $15 Amazon gift certificate (mentioned on Wednesday's post).  NOOOO.  I will not choose a winning number until Sunday so I really hope some more of you come out of the woodwork and leave a comment on the post celebrating 1500 blog entries!!!

In other news, how can you NOT want to kiss this face??   The black bean mustache/goatee combination is really quite something!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

This Lovely Lady...

...celebrates a birthday today!!!    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHEILSIE/GRAMMIE!!!

(In case you didn't know, "Grammie" is not only a grandmother-name but is also short for "Grammarian."   She can help you with your grammar needs....for a small fee which, I, her publicist, will keep! HA HA!  But seriously, she's a proofreading queen and a friend to all!!!)

And also--in case you were wondering whose delightfully cute little hand that is on her shoulder, here's the whole picture!

I was supposed to be born on her birthday, which also would have been her father's 60th birthday.  I decided, however, that I wanted to be twins with Carrie so I came 10 days before that.  February birthdays RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1500.

Seriously.  This blog post is the 1500th one.  An average of 300 posts/year for 5 years?  Sure didn't know this blogging thing was gonna stick like that!!  It's not quite the gossip column that was always suggested to me as a career path, but it's kinda close!

To celebrate, I think I shall throw a $15 (that's 1500 pennies!) Amazon credit in the direction of one lucky reader.  Sometime after Friday, I'll harness the power of the internet's math brain and have a number chosen by a random integer generator.  Whichever of you left the comment in that numerical position will WWWWIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!!!

I do so hope you'll play along.  As you can probably imagine, being ever-vigilant about the crafting of posts every weekday takes a lot of time and effort.  (Many thanks to my family for humoring my "I need a pic for the blog!" antics.)  It all feels worth it when I find comments waiting for me.   For this particular electronic party, your comment can be as random as you want!!   As long as it makes me chuckle out loud for at least 10 seconds, I'll let it stay.  

JUST KIDDING!!    I truly love creating this little corner of the blog world, and I thank those of you who have stuck around.  Plenty of people have wandered away over the years due to increasingly busy lives (or boring content-- could go either way!) and I appreciate that YOU, dear reader, are still here.

So go on!  Leave some sort of comment!  Tell me something interesting or boring, funny or sad, heart-warming or.....nah, let's leave out anything anger-inducing!    And if you're one of our parents and think, "She shouldn't spend $15 on me so I won't leave a comment"......THAT IS NO BUENO!  :-)

Here's to another 1500. 

Or at least 15. 

Scenes From The Weekend

Always good to have the Big Guy around:

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner Saturday night prepared by this lovely lady, aka Karen I:

The B-man was a VERY happy camper because he got to make cookies with Uncle Ian:

And this girl needs to find some new places to hang out!  :-)

(Linds, do you see that I left your fab birthday printable up on the fridge??!  LOVE IT!  :-)

Celebrate!

It's a day off for the BG!!

Oh, also, it's the theme of the plate I painted at the pottery place last Sunday:

I'm really pleased with it!  Too bad we just celebrated 3/4ths of the family birthdays in the last month.  Guess the BG will christen it in August....or maybe someone will do something CELEBRATION-WORTHY before then!   :-)

Not For Two-Year-Olds

What a delightfully strange size on this tag.  23 months??!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

LOVIES

I decided to go bargainista this year for B's class valentines rather than Pinterest-creative like last year.  When I saw that Vistaprint was offering 10 free valentines--but that there were actually 3 separate greetings per "valentine," I knew I couldn't turn that down!!

We opted for the rocket-ship theme because I liked the colors and wording the best.  Since he's in the Bears class, I included a message on the back that said "I can BEAR-ly contain my excitement that you are my friend!"  Many days later, it suddenly dawned on me that Gummi Bears would be the appropriate addition and, thanks to the absolute wonders of Amazon Prime, I had the gummies in hand the very next day.  (Seriously-- that shipping speed is crazy.)

Since I included his name on the cards but couldn't do the names of the other kids individually, I decreed that he needed to write all their names.  Unfortunately, there was very little room on each card for a still-shaky writer but we got through it!

Also, she sends her love!

First Books...Then PLAY!

One of the downsides of our new abode relative to the former one is our distance from a library branch.  We can get to a branch within 12-15 minutes both east and west (versus 5 minutes previously) but, once we get to either of them, we are reminded that this county's individual locations just aren't quite as robust as they were in the other county. 

It's okay, though, because of the wonder of the online catalog and reserve system!   I'm the Class Librarian for B's preschool class, which means I am in charge of gathering books each month to match the themes (this month:  groundhogs, love/friendship/kindness,  Presidents, First Ladies, and American Sign Language)!   I alternate between the two branches for pick-up locations when I put books on hold which is not a perfect system and involves us making library visits often.  But no one in this family complains about that!

ANYWAY.  We had to go the easterly branch yesterday and, on the way back home, decided to investigate whether the park whose sign we've passed regularly for months now actually has a playground.   Indeed, it did (B-man:  "We should stay here FOREVER!") and the kiddies had a fab time enjoying the freakishly warm day!

Can you see her eyes closed in glee??!!  She was likely in the process of yelling "Wheeeee!", too!

I just don't know what to do with her hair.  I could cut those rogue pieces in the front but they actually look okay when brushed to the side.  Let's just be real about how often that happens, though!!  ;-)

I'm still mad at Winter for being a non-event for 3 years in a row, but I am getting excited to think about all the new playground adventures we can have this spring!  

Dear Apple,

I was SO excited to upgrade my phone recently so I could finally join the world of FLASH-aided camera phone photography.

But, Apple, your flash is just way too bright for my wee tykes.  I mean, look at this!  They can't even keep their eyes open!  :-)

And while we're on the subject of family antics in the big bed, here's a not-very-well-shot video that makes me smile nonetheless!   After months of worrying that the little miss was never going to talk, her speech exploded right before she turned 2.  We marvel daily that she who once refused to repeat any word you asked her to now names pretty much everything in sight.  Her daddy's current favorite expression involves her giving him a particular order.  Behold:


PS:  THANKS for all the birthday comments, emails, texts, phone calls, and FB messages!  I had such a fun day "managing" all my communication!   :-)

Refreshed

I can't imagine what my life would be like if I weren't at home with the kids.  That being said, however, I am the first to admit that there are times--especially with the BG's ceaselessly busy schedule--that I just need to get away for awhile and have some solo adventure time.   (I'd actually love to enjoy this getaway time with the BG but that's much more difficult to arrange!)

I reached one of those points Saturday and decided all things would be made better by a little escape.  So I left the house before 10 AM yesterday and came back after 3 PM, and you know what?  I was SO excited to spend time with my little family at that point!

I didn't do anything thrilling but it was good for the soul:  hit the thrift store that has a Sunday sale, grocery-shopped at Wegmans and then had the most delightful lunch date there with former neighbor bestie Jen who came to meet me, and then finished it out with some painting at a local pottery place.

Upon returning home, it was probably 5 minutes before the B-man proceeded to tell me about how they'd gone to Target to buy me birthday presents and had also named several of them.  So much for 5-year olds and secret-keeping!  At that point, the BG just decided to give me the prezzie since there wasn't much point in holding out!

I love it!

(And yes, those are donut pans!  I have a donut mix from King Arthur Flour all ready to put in 'em!)

Since it was such a sunny day and we were all together, I decided to move up my birthday milkshake plan from today to yesterday so the BG could come, too:

FYI-- flavors chosen were Neopolitan (split by kids), Black and White Cherry Amaretto (me), and Blueberry Cheesecake (BG).    YUM.

Of course, no February 11th is complete without giving a HUGE SHOUT-OUT to my dearest twin, Carrie!!     

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOMEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In The Olden Days

As I mentioned on FB Wednesday, I had to get a new license picture for the first time in over 10 years.   The photo taken that day back in the Fall of 2002 has been misleading for years-- I was plenty happy to get rid of my childlike chipmunk pose!  :-)

See?

In other flashback news, Opa made us all smile with these personalized initial pancakes for the kids one morning in Colorado:

He used to always make these special treats for friends when they would spend the night at our house-- that is, when he wasn't buying big boxes of Crystal City Donuts (right, Carrie?)!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

PS:  I'm late posting this because I got up early to watch last night's Scandal episode.  Who else out there watches it??  It is sooooo deliciously full of twists and turns!!

Fun Night Out

After getting home soooo early Tuesday morning, we pretty much stayed in our pajamas all day long.  We managed, however, to put on some festive black and orange gear to go meet the BG at a basketball game that night.

You gotta love the always-free-refills souvenir cup of popcorn!

And the (unplugged) Dance Dance Revolution, of course!   Look at that boy in motion!

Speaking of which...

Then and Now

We last gathered in Colorado with the younger Moores (to be clear, they are not younger than I am--HA HA HA--just younger than the parental Moores) in April 2010.   While on that trip, the B-man's identity as an Apothecary was cemented because of a pic taken in Grammie's fleece vest.  Ever a fan of comparison pics, we asked her to bring back the vest on this trip!!

(For another comparison, here is his sister at roughly the same age as he was in the first pic):

The other pic we wanted to be sure to get was the "stair one."  You think one of these days a certain BG might join us??!!   

We Made It!

Many thanks to the BG for picking us up at the airport very late last night (early this morning) even though he'd be getting up just a few hours later to go to work!! We walked in the door of the house at 1:30 AM and, as probably only one or two of you recognizes, I'm posting this after my 7:30 deadline because, well, I'm tired.

I promise to post a few pics in a little bit when I drag myself out of bed so you'll have to check back in if you're an early morning reader!!

----
 9 AM-- kids still not up and at 'em!

It didn't snow while we were there but there was plenty on the ground!  The B-man could've spent way longer out there than I let him...

Turns out that I forgot their snow bibs [that I might have purchased largely for this occasion] so it wasn't really the ideal situation for playing outside.  Oh, and it was really deep for Miss C:

Brrrrr!   (But thrilling!)

 So we managed to have plenty of indoor fun, too!

Along with all the other deeeelicious grub Opa and Grammie whipped up while we were there, Grammie and B made these ice cream cake cones!  She even let him crack the eggs, which makes her 87 times cooler than I am!

 There is always plenty of "Dalmayshie Hat Time":

And some gift-opening for these two parents-to-be:

Oh, and an hour before we got back to the Denver airport, there was SONIC!!

The Weekend

Well, we're already gearing up to head back home later today after a whirlwind weekend adventure.  Grammie and Opa generously made it possible for the kids and me to fly to Colorado Friday to congregate with all the Moores.  (And Geoff's Baylor friend, Jay, who flew in to be Geoff's ski buddy since Mama-to-be Nicki has to stay off the slopes!)

More to come but, for today, let's just think lots of happy thoughts that the return flight will be as wonderfully smooth as the one here was.  We are SO fortunate to have such fabulous travel buddies in our little people!

Friday Food Flash

My culinary adventure this past week featured the preparation of Baked Spaghetti Squash and Cheese.   I neglected to take a photo of it that night or at any of its leftovers-as-lunch reappearances, but the BG declared it "Cheesy Goodness" so I'd call it a hit.  I wouldn't say you'd confuse it with mac and cheese, but it's certainly a healthier way to do the same kind of thing!   (And we used peas instead of spinach, just FYI.)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!