Pat's Birthday!

Pat turned 34 last week! He celebrated by taking off of work, coming with me to a doctors appointment, running errands and preparing for Paige's party. Then we totally forgot to get a cheesecake at the store so we dug some ice cream out of the freezer and stuck a candle in it...sorry Pat! Ok, I think he really did have a good day despite all of that and we took him out to eat a couple days later where he finally had some cheesecake!

Birthday ice cream!

No one can say Owen wasn't singing with feeling. 

There's the cheesecake!

Out and About

I was under instructions not to drive for awhile after my surgery but I was finally ready to try after a week. Paige and I commemorated the occasion with a trip to the mall complete with soft pretzel purchase and a stop at the pet store. It was such a normal trip to make but it felt really special after all the stuff that's been going on around here lately. 

Daddy Daughter

I mentioned in the last post that Paige and Pat missed their daddy-daughter dance because I was in the hospital. Paige was such a trooper about it and didn't get upset at all. We had already picked up her corsage though (the dance was scheduled for Saturday night) and finally remembered to give it to her on Wednesday. She had no idea what the surprise we had for her was so it was a lot of fun to see her reaction to it.

Field Trip

I don't often take selfies but I felt the occasion called for it over the weekend. I was sick last week and I even almost posted a picture of my tea with Paige in the background watching a show because that's a lot of what we did last week. I drank tea and the kids enjoyed some extra screen time. Then we got later into the week and things got a little more serious. Saturday night I drove myself to the emergency room, found out I had appendicitis and had to have surgery pretty quickly. Surgery stinks. Being away from your family stinks. Knowing Paige and Pat had to miss a special dance because of it all stinks. So here's my selfie so we can all remember what a fun weekend this wasn't. Now I'm home and impatiently trying to encourage my body to heal. 

I like this picture. I look so hydrated and antibiotic-filled. 

Even More Dessert!

This recipe came from my favorite baking cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan but I also found the recipe online here. They have a ton of tasty stuff in them and are not healthy in any way. Walnuts, cranberries, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, coconut and a lot of sugar. This was another dessert I was going to be dropping off for teacher conferences so I didn't mess with the recipe because I didn't want to take any chances. They took a lot longer than the recommended time to finish baking and when I took them out they sank in the middle...so I initially thought I would have to scrap them but once they cooled off they were fine and I sent them off with some Trader Joe's cookies which I had bought as a backup. I did have to taste-test quite a few to make sure they would be ok:)

Babies!

We visited with some family over the weekend and got to enjoy some bonding time with our nieces/cousins. They're still super adorable and impressed us with their new tricks like maybe smiling? and also making awesome new noises! We had brought Owen and Paige's pajamas along for the car ride home so we had an impromptu pajama photo shoot with all the kids.

Ready for Camp!

The kids are doing soccer camp again this summer but their jerseys came in the mail last week. We are (along with everyone else) ready for some nicer weather! The good news-we've been getting in a lot of reading and library trips (check out the floor if you hadn't already noticed).

Fun with Dad

Pat took the kids to a Monster's game for a fun Dad/kids outing yesterday and they actually won! Figures! They had great seats and it was also dog day at the ice rink so they got to cheer on the team with some animals:)

Crafting/Experimenting with Paige

I came across a list of easy art techniques for kids and in it was this homemade puffy paint recipe. It's actually half art/half experiment. We mixed the "paint," (we ended up making our own self-rising flour because we didn't have any) applied it to cardstock and then heated it in the microwave (how long depends on how much paint is on the paper). It was fun and, bonus-not too messy. We liked watching the paint puff while it was being heated but that was also the point in the activity where I started worrying that maybe having our faces up against the microwave wasn't the best idea? I did a quick internet search just now and apparently we're ok and not full of radiation:)

Mixing the paint

Before putting it in the microwave

After the microwave

One more to go!

And...Cowgirl Paige!

Noodles and Cookies

Remember in the last post I said we also ate over the weekend? Here are a couple of the things we made!

Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Snow Peas-no recipe here because I just used a bottled sauce from EarthFare. Everyone but Paige enjoyed it but this picture is of her dinner because her chopsticks are adorable:)

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Flax Cookies- These cookies are great! I needed a dessert to drop off for teacher conferences and was trying to find a recipe I had the ingredients for so I came across these. They have a lot of healthy ingredients (whole wheat flour, flax, oats, coconut oil...) but they also have a lot of sugar from the chocolate, cranberries and brown sugar so it all balances out. I was worried the texture would be off or they wouldn't hold together because the mixture was a bit crumbly after I mixed it but they came out just right. 

The Weekend

These are all pictures of soccer because that's basically what we did all weekend. Play soccer and watch soccer. Also eat. Owen was in a soccer tournament and had a game with his travel team. Out of the four games he played they won two and lost two. When we were at home we were mostly playing soccer in the basement or playing electronics (which included watching a soccer game). It sounds like a lot of soccer but first thing this morning guess what Owen was asking to do:)