Chunk N Chiez

My kiddos and I went on a play date last week to Chuck E. Cheese.  Eli loved it.  Kate was indifferent, but I think she liked all of the noises, lights, and such.  She was sitting in her Baby Bjorn, so she won't be pictured.  It's really tricky to get a picture of a little one who's strapped to me without being in the picture myself...  Anyway, it was a really fun trip.

Eli was rather fond of the Dino Dash.  There were two buttons:  run and jump.  He played well and thought it was really funny when the dino tripped over the stump...

Then he sat in the monster truck, which he was really excited about...until he was up on it.

As this child eats, breathes, and lives all that is Cars, the race car game was an obvious hit.  However, as he is two, it was a little tricky for him to reach the pedals or the steering wheel.  He liked it anyway.

Who doesn't like Ski Ball?  He was SO excited every time the ball went all the way up the slope and would "disappear."

This is the ABC version of Whack a Mole.  It was quite fun.

Bob the Builder took Eli for a ride on his backhoe...about five times.

Train + Barney = Really Cool

This was a really fun social outing.  It was the perfect rainy day play place.  Eli's been asking to go back to "Chunk N Chiez" at least once a day.  He has leftover tokens.  I don't see why not...

Lingering thought of the day:  Today I hemmed a bridesmaid's dress for a friend.  It was unexpectedly therapeutic.  I love to sit and have girl talk.  I love to sew.  That made for a really relaxing, yet productive, afternoon.

Mmmmmm, bread!

Today I will share with you one of the greatest frugal practices of all time.  Obviously, I will not be short winded about it...  Anyway, I LOVE to cook, and I love to acquire new recipes, cookbooks, and the likes.  However, to buy all of the cookbooks I want would be ridiculously expensive--not an option.  So I discovered (many moons ago) that if I check them out at the public library, before buying, I can weed some out of my want list AND acquire new recipes at the same time. 

Here's my rule.  If there are fewer than ten recipes in a particular cookbook that I simply can't live without, I copy them down onto index cards and file them into my recipe box.  If there are more than ten, I must buy the book.  Of course the book can only be purchased after looking for it in about thirty-five places and finding the most affordable copy possible--usually Amazon. 

Now that I've conquered every freezer cookbook known to man, I'm now moving onto bread, soup, and salad cookbooks.  I go on tangents, then I move on...but that's a whole different matter.  The newest recipe I've tried is out of Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club.  It's a recipe for french bread; I'm not going to share it, as I don't have permission from them.  BUT it is worth trying.  Here are my pictures:

It was delicious!  I'll have to make it again.  Here's the hugest flipper known to man.  Yes, I know that's not the technical term, but those aren't nearly as much fun as making up one's own. 

I learned a big lesson the first time I made this bread.  Don't kill the yeast.  I couldn't figure out why it didn't work the first time.  Then I chatted it out with a pal who is one of my go-to gals for all that is domestic.  If your warm water reaches the point of hot, it'll kill the yeast.  That's bad.  Don't kill your yeast.  If you do, you'll be out about two hours and still won't have bread.  Now that, my friends, is a bummer. 

I couldn't resist showing you these chubby little cheeks.  Are they not the cutest little things ever?

Lingering thought of the day:  If I play outside with my little ones like I did today, I'll be down thirty pounds by the end of the week...I'm a dreamer, but we did have fun in the sun!

Stolen Content

I stole this from another blogger.  And now I want you to steal it from me.

GO!

A. Age: Twenty-Seven

B. Bed size: KING.

C. Chore you dislike: I HATE taking out the trash.  I'm also not fond of general tidying.  I am ok with deep cleaning, scrubbing, and other "real cleaning," I just don't like to tidy.  It's a shame though, because that makes me a "messy."

D. Dogs: I just gave a pug away and don't care to have another pet until my children are potty trained, feeding themselves, and sleeping through the night.  I do, however, prefer them to cats.

E. Essential start to your day: chai tea, baby snuggles x2, big stretch, figure out a game plan for the day

F. Favorite color: There are many categories for this.  My favorite color to wear is blue.  When asked, it's pink.  On a wall, it's gray.  So on and so forth... 
G. Gold or silver: Gold.

H. Height: 5' 2 1/4"

I. Instruments you play(ed): Piano, saxophone, recorder...the term played should be used quite loosely here. :)
J. Job title: Stay At Home Mama

K. Kids: Eli (2), Kate (2 months)
L. Live: everyday to the fullest OR Lexington, KY

M. Mom’s name: Mom, Mama, Noni
N. Nicknames: Stac, Staci Beth, Staci Bug, toots, butt face, da sweetness
O. Overnight hospital stays: Oh mercy, there have been a few.  I stayed a few nights when I duked it out with a vehicle and lost.  I stayed another couple of nights when I had Eli.  Then another couple nights were spent when I had Kate. 
P. Pet peeves: I have many.  Cars without blinkers, snarky customer service representatives, $680 electric bills, copy cats...anyone catching the irony in the last one (as this is stolen)?
Q. Quote from a movie: "Your brain's the one with the shell on it."

S. Siblings: two little brothers, though neither of them are little

T. Time you wake up: whenever my little alarm clocks wake up
U. Underwear:  I keep them in the top drawer of my dresser and under my pants.
V. Vegetables you don’t like: peppers, onion, avacado

W. What makes you run late: traffic, laundry that isn't dry, losing track of time
X. X-rays you’ve had: teeth and various lower body x-rays after being clobbered by a moving vehicle
Y. Yummy food you make: I LOVE to cook, and most of it turns out well. 
Z. Zoo animal favorites: Somalian wild ass, penguins, sea lions

Playin' in da dirt

If one were to ask Eli what we did today, he'd tell them, "Played in da dirt."  This is true.  We did play in the dirt today, and we had fun.  But there was more to it than that--we started our garden today.  Katelyn and I decided awhile back that we were going to have a garden this summer, an organic garden.  Today we did our first round of prep work.  These seeds came in the mail today.  The rest are on back order.

Some of these seeds went into starter packs to make baby plants to put in the ground.  Fortunately, Katelyn has a green thumb, because I am a plant murderer.  I am, however, going to give it my best go to help keep these little puppies healthy and flourishing...  They are currently residing at Katelyn's house.  Each little seed heaved a sigh of relief at this thought.

This garden is going to be fabulous on many levels, but I'm really excited about the learning experience that Eli will have.  It will be so neat for him to get a basic knowledge about how plants grow, where veggies come from, and whatever other little lessons may come from this.  We will see.

Eli helped Miss Katelyn break up the soil.  He was a bit hesitant at first, but with a little encouragement he jumped on it.  Quite literally, actually.

Then the soil had to be spread into the little starter pots.

Eli helped put the seeds in the holes.  He REALLY liked this part.  A happy dance followed each seed that he got to drop.  I failed to catch that on camera...sorry.

Off topic side note:  Eli picked out his outfit with very little guidance today.  He insisted on "ball clothes" and "boots."  This was the final product. 

I am so excited about having this garden this summer.  We are going to have so much fun and good food.  I cannot wait!  More will follow on this topic as we progress. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I would like to be a good southern woman.  Therefore, I must garden and wear a large hat while doing so.  There is a large hat on my "items to buy in the near future" list.  I'm kinda thinking of the Weezer look (think Steel Magnolias).

Inspiration BabyGap

The other day, I was roaming about BabyGap to see what there was to see.  I LOVE the clothes there.  Quite frankly, they tend to be fabulous.  I came across a piece that snagged my attention.  Here's as close as I could find online:

If memory serves, they also had this piece in shirt format.  Anyway, I liked the lacy look.  However, there were a few things about it that irked me:  the price ($26.95), the size of the lace, and the amount of lace used.  I found it all to be a bit of overkill.  But I really liked the overall concept.  SO I decided to try to make my own lacy creation.

I bought a basic t-shirt from Walmart and some lace from JoAnn Fabrics, grabbed my seam ripper, washed the shirt and lace (to prevent any shrinkage disasters), and started playing.

Here's the shirt before I got ahold of it:

Here's the final product:

It was so fun & easy!  I do believe this project took about 45 minutes.  It meets all of my criteria (to avoid overkill), has a fun lacy look, and was FUN to create.  Mission accomplished!

Lingering thought of the day:  I need to craft, sew, and play creatively far more often.  It's good for me.  Therefore, nap time is now a requirement of both children--at the same time for the same length of time (minimum 2 hours) every single day.  Ha!  I'm a dreamer and SO funny...  But I do love to get to partake in these creative endeavors.

Gnomeo & Juliet

A few weeks ago, the Eli man saw a preview for Gnomeo & Juliet.  He got all excited and told me he wanted to see the gnome movie.  I decided it was time for him to go to his first movie (other than the one he attended at one month, which doesn't count).  It FINALLY came to the movies last week, but I decided to go on Valentine's Day.  It is a classic romance, after all.  Kinda...

Anyway, for Eli's first real movie experience, I decided we needed to go all out.  So...I made shirts for the three of us (only three b/c Daddy was busy & wouldn't have gone for the matchy thing anyway):

I bought Eli a little gnome and gave it to him to take to the movie.

Of course, a photo shoot was in order.  My little snuggle bunnies wore their matching shirts.

Daddy Scott was home as we were heading out, so he took our picture at the door.

Eli was SO excited when we walked into the theater.  He said, "Oh Mommy, this is a HUGE movie!"  Then he climbed up into the seat.  We had to position him just right or the seat folded up with him in it...  Throughout the movie, I had to keep my leg across his seat to keep it held open.  The child LOVES popcorn!

Don't worry--these pictures were taken long before the movie started.  I do have great movie etiquette, if all else about me fails!  He was watching commercials here.  Even commercials are far more exciting on the big screen!

After the movie, Eli posed with the big poster.  He & the friend who came with him had a big modeling session here.  They were adorable--here and in the movie.  They chatted and chatted; they were so stinkin' cute.

Eli's first movie was a huge success!  He loved it.  And it was the most fun I've had at a movie in a long time.  It's so neat to see new things through the eyes of a child. 

Now I will unleash my inner English teacher:
I was pleasantly surprised by this version of Romeo & Juliet.  They followed the original far more closely than I thought possible in cartoon format.  I will not go into great detail to avoid giving too much away.    There were great vocabulary jokes throughout.  I loved it!  I'm not really unleashing me, but I felt something along those lines must be said.

Lingering thought of the day:  I LOVE my children...obviously.  Anyway, they never cease to amaze me.  I can take them both pretty much anywhere and expect it to go well.  They both just roll with whatever I may plan for each day.  We have to have a really, really off day to expect anything else.  This laidback, go with the flow disposition that they share makes my life so, well, easy.  They are both fabulous.  I am so, so very blessed to have them.

I la-la-love nap time!

A few days ago, we had our first coordinated nap time.  I was so excited about this that I took pictures and did a happy dance throughout the house...  There are no pictures of the happy dance; it would scare you, my beloved family & friends.  So you'll have to settle with Eli & Kate. :)

Kate conked out in my room on my bed and Eli said he wanted to nap where she was.  By some miracle, both of them slept in the same time and place for a solid two hours.  There might have been a very quiet, very musically bad rendition of the "Hallelujah Chorus" performed in our house...

Kate and Eli had a nice chat while the mama got things ready for our day. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I love our public library!  They have really fun story times for kids.  Outings that are fun and free cannot be beat!