Oatmeal

The kids and I have been enjoying home-made oatmeal lately and I thought I would share the recipe. Oatmeal is surprisingly quick and easy to make from scratch and in my opinion, tastes WAY better than the packaged stuff. This is a recipe from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, and all the recipes in the book have a hidden vegetable! I think it's a great idea to get more vegetables into your kids, especially when you can't taste it! They had Sloppy Joes last night and I put carrots, acorn squash, sweet potato, celery, onion and tomatoes in there. There was just enough room to squeeze in some ground beef and they loved it! Anyways, here's the recipe:

1 cup nonfat milk
1/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar (I put half that amount in this morning and didn't notice a difference)
1/4 cup canned pumpkin or sween potato puree
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 tsp peanut butter (optional) (I usually leave this out, it gets kind of goopy if you put it in)
Dried fruit and nuts - optional - Aidan loves raisins and coconut on his
Pure maple syrup, for serving - I think this is a little much. I pour milk over the oatmeal and serve it and the kids don't complain.

In a small saucepan, combine milk, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and spice. Bring to a gentle boil and stir in the oatmeal. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until the oatmeal is soft and creamy. Stir in peanut butter, if using. Spoon the oatmeal into bowls, sprinkle with dried fruit and nuts, if you like, and serve warm with maple syrup.

It's an excellent nutritous and filling breakfast!

More Easter Eggs

I was just transferring the pictures from the camera to the computer when I came across a couple pictures that should have gone in the Easter Egg post below.

I came across a craft on the nickjr website for using dyed easter eggs and decorating them to look like Brobee and Foofa. There wasn't anything for Plex, Toodee or Muno, but I figured it wouldn't be too hard to improvise, and I thought I'd use those plastic eggs you put candy in, instead of real eggs.

I didn't have a red egg and I left it too late to go hunt for one around town, so Muno is missing.

After making these for Keira, I had to make some for Aidan but I was kind of out of ideas (and egg colors) so his were way less cool.

He had no idea who they all were and kept asking if they were aliens, which was kind of funny. So, from left to right is Yoda from Star Wars, B.O.B. from Monsters vs. Aliens, Olivia the Pig and a Stormtrooper from Star Wars. Yes, he should be white, but I only had one large egg left and it was purple...so he became a purple stormtrooper.

I got Keira the smallest hollow rabbit I could find, and I think I paid more for it than the 1lb solid chocolate bunnies! What's up with that? She thoroughly enjoyed it anyways and I was surprised how well she listened when I told her to take one last bite and put it back in the box.

And lastly, here's a picture of Keira looking adorable (in my completely unbiased opinion). She always does that closed lip smile when she's trying not to giggle and 9 times out of 10 she bursts out giggling anyways.

New Projects

I guess it all started way back when I was at Fabricland and saw a sample Baby Rag-Time Quilt hanging from one of the shelves of fabric with the instructions pinned to it. I took a closer look and discovered that it looked relatively easy to make. So easy, in fact, that I might be able to make it! So I asked for a copy of the instructions and purchased some super cute bug material, similar to some receiving blankets my mom had made for Aidan, intending to make a blanket for Hagatha (she wasn't born yet, so she was still Hagatha). Only when the blanket was done did I realize that I had forgotten to sew the seams so that they were outside the blanket instead of inside, but it turned out fine and is now Keira's special blanket.

I improved my technique over time and experiemented with different patterns and colors.

And when I received a blanket as a gift for Keira, changed the backing of my blanket from one big piece of fabric (which was held in place by ties at the corner of each square) to many squares. It made more work at the cutting stage, but was much easier when it came to sewing everything up.

This is the latest blanket I made for a little baby girl in my church. By now I think I have made 8 or 9 of these blankets - and am in the middle of another one with 3 more planned :) I've decided that it would be easier to keep making blankets so I have a few that are already made, instead of realizing that I need a blanket in 2 days and running out to buy fabric and sewing like crazy day and night.

A few weeks ago I saw a quilting magazine, and partly because it had a pattern for a handbag on the cover, I bought it. It has so many great ideas for quilts inside and got me all excited to make something. I've decided that I want to make a blanket (and I'm calling them blankets because calling them quilts makes the project seem more daunting) for each of the kids for their birthdays. I'm glad I've started to think about it now because even just finding the right pattern is a lot harder than I initially thought!

For Aidan's, I'm planning on using a Spiderman sheet I found at Value Village. It's a flat sheet, probably twin or double size and has a medium blue background with large Spiderman figures holding onto black rope type things. Since the design is large and most quilt patterns use small bits of fabric, I found a block pattern that I'm going to modify and use as the design for the whole blanket.I'm going to put the Spiderman fabric into the 1 blocks and since Aidan likes dark colors, I'll probably use black in the 2 or 3 blocks but I'm not sure what other colors to use. Any suggestions?

For Keira's I want to incorporate the characters from Yo Gabba Gabba since as she gets older, she only gets more fascinated with the show. There are 5 characters, which doesn't lend itself to symmetry, and the characters are big, which doesn't really work with most of the quilt patterns I found. So here are three possibilites that I have found:

After looking through pages upon pages of quilt patterns, it occurred to me that maybe I wasn't the first person to think about making a Yo Gabba Gabba quilt. I did a google search, and came up with this result, something a grandma had made for her YGG obsessed 7month old grandson for Christmas. She used the print off iron on transfers from the nickjr website, but pieces together flannel to make the heads instead of ironing it onto fabric. I like that idea because it probably looks better and will last longer. I would probably change some of the colors but I really like this idea.

I think this one is super cute too. I'd have to modify it a bit because there are 8 snakes and only 5 characters. I couldn't get Adobe to work (probably not it's fault!) so I did this with MS Paint and although it doesn't look really great, it kind of gives you an idea of what I'm going for. I thought it might be a bit easier - and more quilt-y- than the first one.

I didn't bother messing around with Adobe for this one. I like all the different blocks, and I'd probably put the characters whole bodies into them. Toodee in the upper left hand corner, Foofa in the large block below, Brobee in the rectangle in the bottom left hand corner, Plex beside Brobee and then make a tall rectangle immediately above Plex for Muno. Then I would have the middle and right corner squares as well as 2 small squares in the middle that I'm not sure what I would do with. I could move Toodee beside Foofa and put Keira's name across the top, either in blocks or without, but that's my only other idea for using up the blocks.

So what do you think? Any suggestions? I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Beautiful U R - Deborah Cox

It's your life

Things may not always go right for you

In those times just leave it behind

'Cause sometimes you gotta play the game

Just to survive without losing yourself

It's a fight, it's true

It takes time, don't have all the answers

No matter how hard it gets

Hold on to what's inside

Don't never let nobody bring you down, girl

Don't never let nobody tear your world apart

Look in the mirror and see who you are

Beautiful U R

In the dark the paint chips have waited

Your heart so deep

Can't you see? See the light in the distance

Open up your eyes, look, look to the sky

And believe

There's much more to life when you're free

That's the key

And in time you will find all the answers

Don't have to lose your pride

Hold on to what's inside

Don't never let nobody bring you down, girl

Don't never let nobody tear your world apart

Look in the mirror and see who you are

Beautiful U R

Don't care what they say anymore

There's no time to be insecure

I'm leavin' it all on the door

She's staring at him in the face

She's taking it day by day

I'm finally on my way

Don't never let nobody bring you down, girl

Don't never let nobody tear your world apart

Look in the mirror and see who you are

Beautiful U R

Easter Eggs

Friday afternoon, while Keira was sleeping, Aidan and I decorated Easter Eggs. He had made one at school on Thursday, and then we each made 3. I covered the table with newspaper, with extra by his spot because I figured he would spill a lot, but I was the one who made the biggest mess! We had a great time and made some really pretty eggs.

Here's Aidan posing with the basket of eggs. He's on his way to take a picture of his egg...

He had his egg on the floor and for some reason it was rolling around everywhere. His camera takes about 6 seconds to focus and take the picture and the egg was not making it easy for him! So I put the egg on a blanket on the couch and Aidan spent about 15 minutes taking pictures from every angle imaginable. This is another reason why I think he needs a better quality camera.

April

I still do temp work for Mayfair occasionally, and I was booked for 2 days this month. When I first started I was fortunate enough to have my first assignment be at Alliance Pipeline as their second backup person. Since then I've had most of my Mayfair assignments there and it's a great place to work with great people. The kids don't always respond well to being in a dayhome for a couple days and this time was no exception. The morning of the first day was pretty rough for Aidan and I had to go have a chat with him during my lunch hour. Thankfully we worked out some incentives (slush on the way home, McDonalds on Thursday) that motivated him to try harder to behave. My second stop during lunch was to XS Cargo to return a faulty toaster oven and pick up a new one for our renters downstairs. The toaster ovens must have been on sale because there was a $35 discrepancy between the one I purchased in June and the cost of one now, so I had to quickly pick out a few things to make up the difference. One of the things I got was a super duper magnifying glass for Aidan:

He loves it and uses it constantly! I was glad to hear he had been good at the dayhome after I left him at lunch because then I could give it to him right away. Maybe he's just a curious 5 year old, but lately I've been seeing a bit of myself in him lately, especially when he asked for a microscope for his birthday! I remember when I was young I got a microscope for Christmas and it was the coolest thing ever! I loved science in highschool and am still hoping to pursue that someday...

Keira loves to bring a book out to the living room and snuggle up with her special blankie and read it. This time though, she insisted that Aidan get a book and sit beside her so they could read together :)

We have a lot of trouble with Aidan trying to parent Keira and sometimes I wish he would just mind his own business! However, I thought it was really sweet of him to help her get her shoes and jacket on while we were getting ready to drop him off at school. She seemed to like it too and consented willingly to him helping her.

I finally had to break down and buy Keira some more soothers. She still uses them when she goes to sleep and I usually bring one along in case she has a meltdown when we're out. She chewed holes in 2 of her soothers and we were down to 1....she was very excited about new soothers and would not let me put the package in the cart, she had to hold it. Then when we opened them, she stuck both of them in her mouth!

Keira has been having quite a bit of trouble sleeping lately. I'm not sure what the problem is, but she goes to bed around 7, but only falls asleep between 9 and 9:30 with multiple re-tucks (what Michael calls it when he goes in and has to tuck her in a second, third or fourth time). She's been doing a little better this past week and hopefully will improve even more once Michael is home from Kitimat. She really misses him when he's gone.

Aidan's class had ANOTHER party, this one for Easter. Aidan decided that he wanted to bring fruit, so I started thinking about what we could bring. I like to bring something that's not too messy and kind of contained into single servings. Last time we brought little dixie cups with salad dressing in the bottom and carrots, celery and broccoli sticks in each one. I came up with the idea of Fruit Skewers which Aidan heartily approved. They looked so bright and yummy on the plate I had to take a picture of them. In case you're wondering, each end has half a marshmallow, then a strawberry piece, a pineapple chunk, a grape (2, when I ran out of pineapple) and the middle is an apple chunk, dipped in lime juice to prevent browning.

Keira's obessession with Yo Gabba Gabba continues, unabated. Since there are not too many YGG toys in the stores, and what there is is usually too expensive or too loud, I decided I would make something. The cardboard figures I made for our Christmas road trip were a HUGE hit, but were bent and ripped in no time, so I thought I would make some wood figures for her. I showed her just the outlines of the figures I traced on my piece of wood and she identified each one with no trouble at all: Boo! (Muno), Who-fa! (Foofa), Ba-eee! (Brobee), Gee! (Toodee) and Pep! (sometimes she says Pa! - Plex).

I have to be careful not to leave any of my supplies hanging around, because once she gets her hands on them, she gets VERY upset if I try to take them away.

Keira got crocs! Her feet are too fat for them, but since I can't find the receipt (I'm pretty sure I threw it away without thinking), I guess we're keeping them!

Here's Aidan's 'mad' face. He looks pretty happy, but he tells me he was trying to look 'mad'.

February and March

Here's what I missed blogging about in February and March. Definitely very exciting things that I wouldn't want any of you to miss out on :)

Aidan had a tournament out in Clairmont and while they were out there, he won a Storm gift basket! He was so excited! It had a jersey, 4 tickets to any regular season Storm game, a hockey stick signed by all the players, a Storm mug, a Storm shot glass, a junior sized glass Storm beer mug and I think there was also a puck in there. Aidan and Keira and I went to a game using the tickets and had a great time. Keira wasn't so sure about all the noise, especially after a home goal was scored, but she soon got used to it and clapped and cheered too.

For Valentines Day I made the kids cardboard hearts filled with candy. Next year I'll have to pick something a little easier and less frustrating to make! Here you can see Aidan's hockey touque and hoodie. I think it makes him look so much older than 5!

Also in February we hosted a Grey Cup party. Michael installed the projector in the living room and put our tv in the kitchen so he could watch the game while making wings for everyone. Sadly, BC was not playing, and the team he wanted to win lost, but he still had a great time. The kids also enjoyed all the excitement, especially the music during the halftime show. Jakob 'asked' Keira to dance, and although she wasn't sure about it at first...

...in the end she liked it and had a good time :)

March was less eventful than February, but sometimes it's nice to just stay home and relax...

...have pancakes with strawberries and hot chocolate for dinner...

...and attempt to make some casings for Keira's sausage legs :). I decided that making leggings for Keira might be less expensive than buying them, especially the ones with lace on the bottom that are so cute and like the ones I wore back in the 80s. Further, I thought that it wouldn't be that difficult to make a pattern...but the end result was not as I had imagined. They were skintight and very low, especially in the back. I had to laugh though, Keira looked so funny running around in them!

Aidan took this picture of me and Keira and I think he did a pretty good job! He got a Little Tikes digital camera for Christmas in 2007 and he loves it, but I think a better option would have been to get him a cheap low mega pixel regular camera. He loves taking pictures of anything and everything, so I'm trying to find a cheap one on eBay for him.

I took this one - I didn't think Keira should be trusted with the camera :)

Then I tried to get one with all of us, but since Yo Gabba Gabba was on, you can see why they were distracted!