Happy Birthday, Ella!

Today was a special day at our house!  We celebrated Ella’s 3rd birthday! 

Ryan made a card for Ella this morning and was anxious to give it to her.  He knows she likes My Little Pony, so he drew her a picture of a pony and wrote her name.   It’s pretty special, for someone who doesn’t love to air his creative side.

…Well, until his sister gets an art easel for her birthday…then he’s interested.   Ha!

 

We had a fun day.  Both kids are taking swimming lessons, so after breakfast and presents, we did the swimming thing and then went out for lunch after.  It was a hot one here today, close to 90, so we came home and the kids splashed in the kiddie pool in the back yard. 

…as you can see, Ella hated it.   Nooooo…of course she didn’t!  She LOVES the water!

I made cake pops for her birthday (though I didn’t actually get a picture of them in all their cute glory), and it was cute to see her get a little embarrassed when we sang Happy Birthday to her! 

It was a good day.  I am thankful for this sweet girl and her big personality.  It is my prayer for her that she will use her energy, along with her loving spirit, for God’s glory,  He has truly blessed us with this little red head, and we have loved watching her grow.  

We love you, birthday girl! 

Tee-Ball

We signed Ryan up for tee-ball this spring.  Due to all of the rain we have had this season, we haven't been able to get many games in, but Ryan has had fun with the few that he has played. 

Each child gets a chance to bat twice, and play in the field twice in one game.  Everyone plays and everyone wins.  I don't think most of them really know what is going on, but at this age, it is just an introduction to the sport.

Here are a few pics I took tonight at his game:

I can still get a grin when I call his name. I realize this will not always be the case.

Ella gets a wave!

Going for the ball

It's funny when there is a friend on the opposing team!

Ella--his number one fan

Ryan takes a turn at bat

Ha!  Connor, a friend on the opposing team, hugged Ryan when he got to first base.

A boy needs a water break after all that hard work!



Girl's Weekend 2011

There is just something so wonderful about old friends.  Not old as in age, mind you,  we're not ready to admit that just yet. 

I was able to get together with 3 of my best friends from college this past weekend.  In the years directly after college, we usually saw each other once a year for either weddings or baby showers.  The past 3 years, those things have kind of slowed down a bit, so we chose to make a real effort to try and get together one weekend out of the year, if for nothing else, just to celebrate our friendship and have some much needed girl time!  It is always a welcome break from the day to day grind, and really does offer a chance for renewing our friendships.

Me and Jenn...former college roomies

This year, we went to Bridgette's house in Ohio. We try to get together at the house of the person with the youngest baby, as the Mom of a newborn is a little more tied down than the rest. Baby Bria (Bridgette's 3rd child) is 6 months old, and for many of us, it was the first time meeting her. Such a cutie!

4 of the 6 of us that made up the "six pack"

We did all of the things that we don't normally get to do...shopping, dinner out without kids, a movie, and pedicures. It. Was. Wonderful. There may or may not have been a rowdy game of some sort where Bridgette's husband Don was bitten by Tara (I said may or may not...it's a little fuzzy...it was late). We missed our friends Marcie and Melissa, but hopefully they will be able to join us next time.

 

Bridgette's husband Don, and their middle son Aidian, waving us a big hello (or telling us to shoo?)

Ahh...now to pack for our NC vacation.  Let the laundry begin! 

Greek Isle Pizza...Kate's Way

I found a recipe for "Greek Isle Pizza" in a Taste of Home magazine that I received in the mail (if anyone out there paid for this subscription for me...thanks...I have no idea why I get it sent to me!?).  It looked delicious in the photos, so I decided to give it a try.  While our family is not COMPLETELY organic, or processed food free, I really do try to limit the amount of processed foods we eat.  If I can make it from scratch without spending my whole life in the kitchen...I will. 

The recipe called for a prebaked pizza crust.  I prefer my homemade crust ANY day, so I went with that instead.  It is delicious, and really doesn't take that long to make.  Here's the recipe for the crust:

Crust
1 pkg (0.25 oz) rapid rise yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose (or whole wheat) flour (I have used half of each before...yum)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 425 F

In a mixing bowl, combine 1 pkg yeast, 1 cup warm water, and 1 tsp sugar.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.

Add 2 1/2 cups flour, olive oil and salt.  Mix well and let sit for 10 minutes.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll to desired thickness.  This makes a pretty thick crust, so if you would like it thinner, split the dough in half and roll into 2 pizza rounds.  I usually brush the crust with a mixture of olive oil, italian seasoning and garlic powder.  Add toppings (as desired) and bake for 10-12 minutes or until baked through.

**When using the recipe below, do not pre-bake the crust.  Once you have formed the dough into a pizza round, use the instruction below to assemble the pizza.** 

The Pizza

1/2 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
grated lemon peel (optional)...I didn't use it
2 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped
1 1/4 cups crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup greek olives, pitted and chopped (I didn't have greek olives, so I used black olives)
Shredded mozzarella cheese (the original recipe calls for 4 slices...shredded works just as well)

In a small skillet, saute onion in oil until tender.  Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.  Remove from heat; stir in the rosemary and pepper (if you choose to add lemon peel, do so with this step).  Spread over the prepared crust.  Top with spinach and tomatoes.  Sprinkle with feta cheese and olives; top with mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.  Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!!

Imagination Movers

OK...I'm really getting irritated with Blogger. Like, really. I have tried to edit this post a thousand times (give or take 995), and I just can't get it to look right. I mean, unless you LOVE run-on sentences. UGH!

The long and short of it is that we took the kids to see the Imagination Movers in Wilkes-Barre, PA on Saturday. The Movers are a group of guys that sing children's music, and they have a tv show on Disney Jr. Ryan has liked them for awhile now, and we listen to their CDs in our car...a lot. Choo Choo Soul (also on Disney Jr.) opened for the Movers. Ryan enjoyed the live show. Ella made it through quite a bit of the show, for being only 2 years old. She got a little grumpy about 45 minutes into the show, so I took her out into the lobby for a bit to 'regroup'.

We stopped for ice cream on our way home (our first ice cream stop of the season!), and as you can see the kids enjoyed that as well. I didn't realize that Coldstone HAD a kid sized dish (half of the "I like it" size, in case you're wondering), so both kids got a rather LARGE portion of ice cream. Ryan ate ALL of his. Ella didn't, but she had plenty!

So, NORMALLY, I would post the pictures within the text, but that isn't working for me. You can get the idea, anyway.

I think both kids were asleep within 10 minutes of getting back on the highway. They. were. wiped! It was a fun day!!

Boys will be Boys

Apparently, Ryan is not only left-handed, but he appears to also be left-kneed!  All 4 pair of these jeans were purchased between September and February (so they are not old), and as you can see, all 4 pair have a hole in the left knee! 

Ah, yes.  Boys will be boys!

You know you've wanted to say it, too...

**I just have to say...I have tried 3 times to break this down into paragraphs, but Blogger isn't letting me do it! Sorry for the jumbled mess of a post!** Turns out, my kids and story hour just don't mesh. Doesn't matter if the story hour is one where the kids can be a little loud, or one in which they are expected to be silent (pfft). I think the county library does an excellent job with their story hour. They have just the right amount of sitting and listening to stories, and in between the stories, they sing a couple of silly songs, with hand motions, just to get the kids moving (because you know they want to be moving). When we first moved here, Ryan was 2 1/2. I took him to the library for story hour, really more for myself to get out of the house than him. Ryan was a rather shy child at the age of 2 1/2, and he had absolutely NO interest in singing or clapping (even though he loved music and knew all the songs they were singing). He sat beside me with a grumpy look on his face the whole time. After the stories are read and songs are sung, they pull out a few bins of toys and let the kids have at them. Ryan loved that part. He played well with the other kids and had a great time. I thought, "This is great!" I went back a second time, and the only thing Ryan wanted to do was to play with the toys. He let everyone know it. I had to leave the story hour room because he was SCREAMING that he didn't want to listen to the story, he wanted to play with the TOYS! Wow. I thought it was perhaps a bad day or something, so I went back one more time. Same thing happened...again. Goodbye library story hour...we were never coming back. Barnes and Noble also has a story hour for the kids. At this story hour, they read 2 or 3 stories, have some *stretching* time in between, and maybe sing a song. They do, however, seem to be rather strict about kids being quiet (which, I understand that they want everyone to be able to hear, but a little whispering among two and three year old children is quite normal). I thought we would try that to see if it was any better. We made it through the first time, and rather than pulling out bins of toys...there was a Thomas train table to play with in the children's area. Ryan LOVED the train table. He couldn't SEE the train table from where the story hour was, so I thought we would go back. Guess what happened (I should have guessed what would happen, too...but I didn't). We sat down to listen to the stories and Ryan immediately asked about the trains. He got louder and louder until I could no longer justify sitting and ignoring his behavior. We got up, went over to the trains, and all was well. That was the end of the Barnes and Noble story hour for Ryan, though. No amount of Dr. Suess could compete with that train table. Fast forward a year and a half and it was Ella's turn to try out story hour. I started with the Barnes and Noble story hour with her. We dropped Ryan off at preschool at 9:00, and went to Barnes and Noble for the 9:30 start time. She sat still for about 0.2 seconds. She got up on the *stage* where the lady reads the books (which did not go over well with said lady). I believe she actually gave me the stink eye. It wasn't like I didn't go after her and get her down. Sheesh! So...we sat back down, for about another 0.2 seconds (maybe it was 0.3, I don't really remember), and Ella was up again...this time taking books off of the shelves. OK...point taken, lady with the stink eye. Goodbye Barnes and Noble story hour for Ella. She never even got to experience the train table. I didn't really want to bother with the library story hour, but I figured that perhaps if there were no other distractions (there isn't really anything IN the room at the library) that perhaps we could make it work. Besides, a good friend of mine was going there with her boys and I wanted to meet her there. Turns out, Ella did wonderfully. Her first time, her second time...and so on...until today. The library usually does about a 6 week session of their story hours and then they take a little break. We didn't go back right away after the break, so it had been awhile since we had gone. Ella sat through the stories, and she even played for a bit with the toys. It's hard to tell sometimes, because Ella is a tall girl, but based on their sizes and speaking abilities...Ella definitely seemed to be one of the oldest, today. I was watching a little 14 month old girl climb into one of the mini chairs, and was holding on to the chair for fear that she would flip it over (as her mother wasn't exactly rushing over to help...and I'm not judging...she just really didn't seem as concerned about it as I was). I sort of missed the whole interaction, but Ella came over to me with a ball and was being closely followed by another little girl and her mother. I had seen the little girl playing with the ball, so my guess was that Ella had taken it (the frown on her face kind of gave it away, too). At any rate...I took the ball from Ella and explained that it isn't nice to take toys from others, and I handed it back to the other little girl. Well, my little red-headed toddler stomped away from me and screamed at the top of her lungs, "You're the worstest, Mommy!" I didn't flinch, because I hear this often from her (she is 2 1/2). I realize, the behavior was not appropriate, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that ALL of the Moms in the room (and I think they are pretty much regulars there, as I have seen some of them before) stopped and stared at me. I calmly walked across the room to my daughter, who was standing in the corner of the room with her arms folded across her chest, and I got down on her level to tell her (quietly, but sternly) that she was not to talk to Mommy that way (just as I do EVERY time she does it). Still...the Moms are staring. We walked back across the room and picked up a few toys that she had been playing with and put them away, then we got her coat on and walked out the door. Goodbye, library story hour (perhaps not for good...but for right now). Really, though. I could have done without the staring Moms. ALL of them had either infants or children who appeared to be under the age of 2 (perhaps I was at the wrong story hour time? Nope. It is for ages 0-3). I *really* wanted to turn around on my way out of the door and say "Just wait...your time is coming." You know you have wanted to say it before, too. When your child is throwing a tantrum at Target, or in the middle of the grocery store, or at some other place when there are a lot of people to look around and judge your parenting. Mine just happen to do it at story hour...where it is especially quiet. Oy.