Note to Self: Guard the Cupboards!

Note to Self:

Remember to be suspicious of a suddenly quiet two year old.  Unless you are sure he is napping, as there may be trouble in the works!

Mr. Four is loving his naps and his time in his new walker, so I have a free arm a bit more nowadays.  Earlier yesterday, I was having one of those "wow, I am getting lots done today" moments.  I had Mr. Two and Mr. Three help me clean out the fridge (they actually like this chore) and empty the dishwasher.  After a quick dash to pick up Mr. One from school (it was a half day), we were back to work.  I was finally making a dent in the piles that have accumulated around my house as a result of too much sewing and various Halloween activities.  I was feeling really good, so I decided to make homemade rolls and soup.  (Never mind that it is still about 90 degrees outside here still.  It is fall and I wanted to make soup!)

I had Mr. Three in the kitchen with me as I mixed up the bread seasoning for our cheesy rolls.  A spoonful of garlic powder, a dash of basil, a cup of Parmesan cheese...  I popped it in the fridge and left the rising dough on the kitchen counter to tackle the next project:  the laundry.

As I was folding and sorting away, with my little Mr.'s happily playing together, it got really quiet.  I should have been leery of this change in noise level.

After a while, I decided to check in on the boys.  Mr. One and Mr. Two were building Lego Heroes, Mr. Four was still dozing in his crib, and Mr. Three was happily playing in the kitchen.

Wait, Mr. Three is in the kitchen.
With a step stool.
In the spice cupboard.
And it smells kinda funny in there.  Sort of aromatic, and not in a good way...

Well, Mr. Three, being the curious and smart toddler that he is, decided to make his own spice blend in the kitchen.  I will share his recipe, just in case you want to pin it.

Mr. Three's Secret Spice Blend

1 entire jar of ground Cumin

1/2 jar of marjoram

1/2 bottle of oregano

a good helping of chipotle chili powder

a pinch of rubbed sage and basil

whatever else floats your boat

Mix with a clean spoon in a dirty Tupperware container, then sprinkle amongst the family's water cups and counter for good measure.

In all honesty, I was equal parts stunned, angry and amused, so I think he got off pretty lightly with a stern talking-to from a mommy who was stifling a laugh.

I called Mike to tell him about the mess, and to question why it is that our children only go for ruining the more expensive spices.  I declared that Mr. Three is a new kind of two year old.  The other boys didn't do things like this.

Then Mike reminded me of the time Mr. One dumped an entire bottle of powdered ginger in the living room rug.

And the time when I chased Mr. Two around the house, as he giggled and screamed with delight, while he poured a large bottle of baby powder all over the house.

Or the time that the boys decided to play in a newly opened bag of flour...

So this is not a new thing.  I thought I would be more savvy these types of antics by now.

It's a good thing Mr. Four can't reach the cupboards with the "fun stuff" in them.  Yet.

Halloween 2012

Here are snapshots of our Halloween this year.

 Mr. One and Mr. Two are very much obsessed with Star Wars right now.  I attempted to get them excited about a different theme this year, but Mr. One was adamant about wanting to be Luke Skywalker.  I was not too thrilled with this idea, especially considering that my children had not even seen the movies.  Then the idea started to grow on me.  I found several tutorials online and lots of images through Google image searches (thank you internet!), found lots of materials at thrift stores and on sale at fabric stores, and got really excited about the whole project.  After a few weeks of wading through yards of polyester and jersey knit sheets, we had a Star Wars family!

 May the force be with you!  In case you couldn't tell, Mike is Han Solo, I am Princess Leia, Mr. One is Luke Skywalker, Mr. Two is Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi, Mr. Three is the cutest Yoda I've ever seen, and Mr. Four is R2-D2.

Here is another close up of R2.  Mike hand stenciled and painted his onsie and hat.  Oh yeah, I am super lucky to have a creative husband!

Here's Mike's sketch and the carved pumpkin.

Darth Pumpkin was quite the scary site on Halloween.  Again, Mike is our talented pumpkin carver. He loves doing this each year, which is good, because I really dislike carving pumpkins, but the kids love it. 

While I was at Time Out for Women this Saturday with my Mom, Aunt and sisters, they also worked on Sharkie and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".  Mike even roasted some sweet and savory pumpkin seeds.  Aren't the teeth so fantastic?!

After all the women came back from Time Out, we watched Star Wars episode IV at my parent's house on their big flat screen TV with surround sound.  The boys were totally mesmerized and loved it all.  Mr. Three kept shouting out our names when the characters we dressed as came on screen.  Thank goodness he wasn't disappointed that Yoda didn't make it into the first movie.  Now I am going to hear about Star Wars non-stop for a while now...

Halloween Odds and Ends

Between the costume sewing, baking, helping with my sister's wedding, and general busyness of life, I have not posted much since, well, since Mr. Four was born.  I have tried to do some fun Halloween and fall activities with my little Mr.'s, and I've even managed to sneak in a few crafts of my own.  Here's a brief rundown of some of them.

I love the way my yarn wreath turned out.  I wasn't sure if it would end up a success or a huge craft fail, but I love the colors and the clean look of it.  Now I want to do more for other seasons.

My boys had a great time making these spiders.  They are just the right touch of bright and mildly creepy for our decor.

We made candy corn sugar cookies.  Mr. One and his friend cut the triangles, and sprinkled the cookies.  It was a fun treat to do together.  The tutorial is from Our Best Bites, using their sugar cookie dough with almond extract.  They were very yummy!

I made up this simple sensory tub activity for the boys, found here.  They had lots of fun searching for the ghosts and shouting, "Boo!  I found you!"

I can't wait for tomorrow's fun and trick or treating!  Luckily the force was with me in making our family's costumes this year (wink).  Pictures here in a few days. 

Dinos on the Brain

 

I had quite a bit of peanut butter cookie dough left after the kiss cookie incident, so I decided to do something fun with the kids in order to use it.  I let them take some clean plastic dinos and make footprints in the cookies. 

 

They loved it.

They turned out great, although I would probably use a peanut butter cookie dough that was meant to be baked and eaten without the kisses, as this dough is much better paired with some chocolate.  My little dinosaurs loved them just the same though. 

The boys had a great time playing with my container of dinosaurs, making them roar and stomp around the house.

They had so much fun playing with the dinos, I started looking up some other dinosaur-themed activities for my boys to enjoy.

I found these great dino preschool pack from 3Dinosaurs and kindergarten pack from Royal Baloo.

We have had lots of fun excavating plastic dinosaurs from eggs in the past.  My kids love smashing the soil eggs with a hammer to find the dinosaur inside.  Luckily, we have done this activity at story time and at a museum activity, so I haven't had to make them myself.  However, here is a link for how to make your own.

*These are all great ideas, but, to be honest, we didn't really do any of these additional activities.  Ideas saved for another time!*

We did do some dino reading, because you can never read enough good books. :)

Here are some of my favorite dinosaur books:

We have two dinosaur books by Aliki, Dinosaur Bones and Digging up Dinosaurs.  Both non-fiction books contain information on dinosaur history, how they were discovered, how scientists find and put together the skeletons we see in museums, etc.  Both use easy to understand wording and illustrations to help children better understand the science of dinosaur fossils.

Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish is an older early reader.  Although some of the science of the dinosaurs in the book may be outdated, it is a great easy to read book for the dino loving child. 

Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland is a toddler favorite at our house.  It is a rhyming book of dino opposites.  With simple text and cartoon-ish dinosaurs, my two year old especially likes this one.

The How Do Dinosaurs... series by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague are also favorites at our house.  They feature great detailed dinosaur illustrations, who behave (or often misbehave) like some of the children that may or may not be in your own home or neighborhood...  Humorous and warm, with simple rhyming text.

Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff was a personal favorite of Mike's and one I remember reading as a young child as well.  A dinosaur lives in a museum until one day, he wakes up and goes on an adventure with a young boy, Danny.  What little boy (or girl) hasn't imagined what it would be like to have their own dinosaur adventure?  Another easy to read book with an inventive story.

I have a feeling we will be having more dinosaur fun in the future, but for now, we are immersed Halloween activities.  More on that to come...

Peanut Butter Kisses

We spent Labor Day weekend in New Mexico with my brother's family and my aunt's family for my sweet niece's blessing.  It was a nice, lazy weekend full of family and food (I know this is a theme with my side of the family) and a trip to the breathtaking Canyon de Shelly. 

For our Sunday picnic, I decided to make cookies to share.  Late Friday night (we left Saturday morning), I began mixing cookie dough, in between the laundry and cleaning and packing.  Mr. Three, as usual, was wide awake and wanting to assist in all the tasks at hand.  Oh how I wish that kid would learn to sleep at normal child times...

In order to keep his little hands busy, and out of a bit of desperation on my part to get things done, I thought to have him help unwrap Hershey's Kisses for the cookies.  As I mixed the peanut butter and sugar, eggs and baking soda, he unwrapped.  I was making good progress with the dough, and Mr. Three was happily at work.  I had him on a chair right next to me, so I felt I was supervising him adeaquately.  Mike was in the other room working on packing.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the bowl of kisses getting larger.

"Good,"  I thought, "he's not eating all of them."

As the dough came together and my attention turned towards forming the cookies and adding the kisses, I noticed Mr. Three spitting into the garbage can, and I could see a kiss or two entering his mouth.  Then, I started to pay more attention to my little helper.

He had bit the tip off of his kiss and put the rest of it into the bowl.  "That's kind of funny.  Well, there goes one kiss," I thought.

Then I took a closer look into the bowl.

Every. Single. Hershey's Kiss had little tooth marks and no tip.

In his defense, I did tell him not to eat all of the chocolates.  And he didn't eat all of them.

Call it two year old quality control.

Needless to say, we weren't able to bring a whole batch of kiss cookies with us to New Mexico.  Luckily, there were lots of other sweet treats to share.

Now Mr. Three has his own bag of "special chocolates" that he will be eating from for a long time.

Good thing he's so kissably sweet himself and I can't get mad at this face for too long...

Kiss, kiss!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
48 chocolate kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream sugars, vanilla, shortening, peanut butter, egg and milk.  Add dry ingredients and mix well. Shape into small balls and roll in sugar.  Place on cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes, until slightly brown.  Place a kiss immediately in the center of each cookie after taking out of the oven.

Give someone you love a kiss or two today!

Love Is Picking Up the Broken Pieces

Earlier this summer, I had a case full of memories shatter before my very eyes.  Literally.

My dining room hutch displayed trinkets and treasures accumulated throughout my life.  Fragile miniature penguins, gifted by various loved ones (I had quite the collection), wedding momentos, a tiny ceramic tea set lovingly painted by my grandmother, antique dishes and framed wedding photos.  Crystal and porcelian, ceramics and glass.

Then I tripped and braced myself against the hutch and it all came tumbling down, in one earth-shattering crash.  I screamed.  The kids screamed.  Then I saw the horror of broken pieces of my past scattered all around my dining room floor.  It hurt my sentimental heart.  Then, I sobbed.  I sobbed and sobbed, and tried to keep my babies out of the wreckage.  When I thought I had myself collected enough to talk, I called Mike at work.  But as I tried to explain what had happened, I couldn't get the words out, and I bawled.  My poor husband thought something was seriously wrong with me or one of the kids.  I didn't even realize he was thinking something far worse than broken dishes was happening at home.  When I finally articulated the cause of my distress, he quickly got in his car and headed home.

He came in, made sure everyone was ok, then just held me as I cried for a bit.  I was a mess.  But, in those few moments, I felt at peace.  Then, he calmly went about bandaging Mr. Two's foot (who decided to walk through the glass after being told not to), and picking up the shattered bits.  He then made a catalog of what was lost, with the thin hope of replacing some of it at some future point.  He picked up the broken pieces when I could not.  He was my anchor when I felt adrift and stayed until I could function again.  As he left, I knew that all would be right.  That things are just things, no matter the sentiment and value attached.  Family.  Relationships.  Love.  Those are things that are most precious.  Those are the things we need to guard and protect.  My earthly treasures may have shattered that day, but I realized who my true treasures are.  At the top of my list?  A husband who is willing to sort through the mess and put his arm around me in the midst of the tumult.

Love is picking up the broken pieces.

Chocolate Waffles Two Ways

My Uncle Eddie was my dad's oldest brother.  He was a farmer and a great cook, besides an all around loving and kind man.  I remember a summer tractor ride up and down rows of melons, with him picking one and cutting it up right there for us to sample.  His watermelons were so delicious.  We loved jumping on his and Aunt Jean's trampoline, running around their yard with cousins, and sitting and listening to him and the other adults tell stories of their days growing up on a farm.  When we would be in the Gila Valley for a visit, we loved going over to his home, especially on Sundays.  Uncle Eddie started a yummy tradition of baking chocolate waffles, especially on Sunday evenings.  Nothing was better than those waffles, topped with a scoop of ice cream, except for his famous pizza, but that's another story.


These waffles are a perfect summer treat.  Warm, without having to use your oven, with a cold scoop of ice cream to cool everything down.

Uncle Eddie's Chocolate Waffles

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup buttermilk

Melt butter or margarine.  Add cocoa, sugar and anil.  Add buttermilk, flour, cream of tartar.  Blend.  Add eggs.  Mix.  Spray waffle iron with cooking spray and fill as directed.

These are extra yummy with a scoop of vanilla (or mint chocolate chip) ice cream on top.  Eat warm.

Now, my uncle's recipe really is the best, but I have also discovered an easy alternative if you are short on time or ingredients.  I kept seeing this idea on pinterest and I was skeptical, but I decided to give it a try.  I was happily surprised.

Just take a boxed cake mix and mix as directed with eggs water and oil.  Then, just pour batter into your waffle maker and bake like normal breakfast waffles.  Yummy and simple.  I will say that they spread and rise more than a typical waffle, so don't fill your iron too full or you'll end up with a chocolatey mess.  Take my word for it :) 

My boys had fun helping to make these, and you can freeze either version of these chocolate waffles to reheat and enjoy later.  Happy eating!