Reminder

Don't let Pat watch the kids because he'll fall asleep while they're playing with power tools.

Good Times

Every once in awhile Paige and Owen hang out together. Here are some things they do.

Go for rides in laundry baskets

Laugh at funny jokes while they watch Pat use the snowblower

steal each other's snacks

and hang out in fun pajamas.

Paige Talks

No big deal. Paige can say "birthday."

The Actual Day

Owen's birthday was actually on Monday so we had to do even more celebrating that day, despite the festivities over the weekend. He got to take some brownies to his preschool and Pat came home early from work which was probably his most favorite part of the whole day.

It all began with a blueberry pancake breakfast...


...and he requested Jimmy John's for his birthday dinner!


Then he played with a new toy after he opened a couple presents and had another cupcake!

More Party!

This was my favorite picture of Owen from his party. He was super excited about that cupcake! He chose all the frosting and cake flavors and was very specific about having rainbow sprinkles.

This is my only picture of all the kids (minus Paige)! They were checking out Owen's "model train" he got from Santa.

Watching Owen open presents.

Just hanging out while Owen checked out his new maze book.

Party Elements

We had a small party for Owen's birthday and we surprised him with a train theme. We put up some "tracks" using painters tape (upstairs) and masking tape (basement) while he was sleeping. When he woke up the look on his face was priceless! He wandered around for a bit taking it all in, then stopped, looked at us and whispered, "This is awesome!" He had fun at the party too and spent most of his time running around and grabbing fruit (and later, cookies) from the kitchen. Here are just a few pictures, I'll put up some more tomorrow of the actual people that were here!

Tracks in Owen's room


Living room


The kid's treat bags. The adults got oreo cookie bark but I didn't get a good picture of it.

Other parts of the train theme not pictured: turned loaf pans into train cars to hold food, choo choo wheel pasta salad, train cars for the kids with them and their favorite character.

4!

Owen is 4 today! Hooray! He had a big year. He started preschool, played on his first (and second) soccer team, and became a big brother! Here's how he's grown...
(also, look at year one, year two and year three if you want!)
February 2010

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January!

Owen's Pictures

I finally got around to getting the pictures off of Owen's camera and there were about 600 of them! There were a lot of pictures of the tv and computer and a bunch that were just all black or all white. Here are just a couple. I'll put up the other 598 tomorrow.

Paige Attacks!

Fish and Chips!

Lisa and Alex had us over for some fish and chips a couple weekends ago and the food was soooo good! I think Pat was a bit disappointed with the food we had for the rest of the week since nothing we made came close to the deliciousness of that meal. Well, except maybe the leftovers we brought home.

Swimming!

Paige and Owen started swim lessons last week. One of them really loved it and the other was a little upset about being in water instead of at home napping...

Scalloped Tomatoes

Owen was desperate to watch tv and I was desperate to not watch another kids show so we agreed to watch the Food Network. Ina Garten was making this recipe and we had everything it called for. It was soooo good. The name sounds gross so if I hadn't seen her make it I probably would never have tried it but I'm so glad I did. I had to change a few things around but I don't think it's enough to call it my recipe.




Click here for Ina's Recipe

My Recipe
Ingredients
olive oil
2 tomatoes, diced
2-3 cups 1/2" cubed sourdough bread
1 tsp minced garlic
salt, sugar, pepper, dried basil
grated parmesan

1. Put some olive oil in 12" saute pan
2. Saute bread cubes 5 minutes or until toasted
3. Add tomatoes, saute until bread has soaked up tomato juice
4. Add garlic and a sprinkling of sugar, salt, pepper and basil
5. Remove from heat, put in ovenproof dish
6. Sprinkle parmesan cheese and a bit of olive oil on top
7. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees

Foods 2010

I picked my favorite food from each month of 2010! Some have been posted on the blog but some are new.

January - Peanut Butter Brownies - made for Owen's birthday party

February - Baked Pastina Casserole

March - Black Forest Cake - Pat's birthday cake

April - Magic Blondies - made for Owen's music class

May - Banana Ice Cream - still amazed that it only has one ingredient!

June - Sourdough Sandwich

July - Pineapple Carrot Bars

August - Jambalaya - definitely doesn't look as good as it tasted!

September - Apricot Slow Cooker Oatmeal

October - Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies

November - Grape Chicken

December - Apricot Oatmeal Nutmeg and Coriander Orange Scented Scones

Busy Girl

Paige has been pretty busy lately...

Eating and crawling! Such a good multitasker!

Learning new instruments!

Having tea parties!