Party!

We had Owen's family birthday party before his actual birthday because the 24th was on a Tuesday this year. He requested a Pokemon theme so that's what you'll see here and next month when we have his friend party (stay tuned!). We had food! Presents! Fun times!

2 Balloons!!

These four kept the party moving!

Aww!!

Under the table is where it's at!

Uncle Alex taught us this fun party game!

I thought this was a slightly clever way to use the theme and Owen's age but after Pat complimented the work on the Pokeball, he asked why there was a black strip hanging next to it... 

Pokecake!

Owen requested Jimmy John's so that made everything pretty easy. The only thing I made besides the cake was the mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. It was great that day and not so great as leftovers...

Pokeapple party favors! These were a pain to make but ended up looking great!

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Day Off

I woke up early last Monday to a voicemail announcing there would be no school because of a power outage at the transportation department. I transport my own kids to school and I'm not sure why busses can't run during a power outage but no matter...these kids were ready to make the most of the day! They started off with a few rounds of ChronoBomb in which you try to crawl under or climb over strings in order to deactivate the "bomb" in a certain amount of time. The kids were pros. I tried it and got completely tangled. Luckily, I hadn't set it up correctly so the bomb didn't go off anyway! Then we spent a bunch of time building Legos until it was time to meet up with Pat for lunch! We had some Zoup and then went to his mini office to check out the whiteboard walls. More importantly, this was the moment we learned that Owen thought the lyrics to "The Sound of Silence" were "Hello darkness, smile friend." So awesome!!

Things got a little hairy in the middle there!

Paige crawled under everything which Owen deemed to be "salty."

Sometimes I tell them to hug each other for a picture and they do it!

Soup! at Zoup!

Pat has a fun contraption that allows him to work standing up. 

I don't know why Owen chose to write this down but I'm so glad he did. Now I find myself enjoying the song even more than I used to!

Meatball Soup

Another food post! I told you I was making better attempts at dinners! And Paige was actually a huge help on this Pork and Rice Meatball Soup. I found this recipe in a Real Simple magazine that had been sitting around our house for 2 YEARS. I ripped this recipe out and recycled the rest but through the magic of the internet, it's going to live on through that link a couple lines above. The main ingredients of the soup are meatballs, spinach and tomatoes but I had more leftover rice from Chipotle night so I added what I had left. I think it was a much needed addition. The soup would have been good on it's own but not as filling. Everyone enjoyed this meal!

Apple Cinnamon (Protein) Muffins

We're still sludging through that box of protein pancake/waffle mix...so I found another muffin recipe! These Apple Cinnamon Protein Muffins were gone in one breakfast!

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Chipooôôtlllle

I was struggling to decide on what to make for dinner and texted a friend. She said "make Chipotle," which I took to mean-make something similar to what you would get at Chipotle. I got right on it and made Cilantro-Lime rice, and this copycat chicken recipe (minus the ancho chiles and chipotle peppers). Then we put out cheese, lettuce and salsa and everyone assembled their own bowls. It was a big hit! Later I found out that my friend meant to "make" Chipotle, i.e. just go to Chipotle! This wasn't easier then driving to a restaurant but we still loved it:)

Owen had two bowls!

Paige regretted adding salsa but ate everything else!

10!

Owen is 10!! Time to celebrate double digits! Owen started off pretty great but I can't believe what a handsome, funny and smart kid he's turning into. We love you, Owen!!

Birthday Babies!

Happy 2nd Birthday Babies!! Ok, these two are definitely toddlers now but I still can't help calling them babies!

Hair!

Paige has been in the mood to experiment with some hairdos!

Lockdown

Pat and I went out with some friends last weekend to try a lockdown room. Basically, you get "locked" in a room (but not really, because that would be illegal and dangerous) and you have one hour to solve puzzles, find keys and get out of there! I knew it would be fun because we were with friends but wasn't sure how solving the puzzles would actually go. Turns out that there were so many things to solve and find that everybody got a chance to do stuff. We also beat the record by 20-30 seconds! If our record holds until February 6 we get a free visit and you'll see another post:)

Dance

We had a few minutes before dance class and the girls were gathering around these chairs. I asked if they wanted a picture and they actually said yes! They gathered the rest of their classmates (only one girl missed the picture) and organized themselves and this cuteness was the result!

Everything Cookies

Now that full-sized baking sheets fit in our oven, making cookies is a lot quicker and more enjoyable! Pat has been jokingly checking in on me during the day to see if I've made cookies yet so now he can stop asking!  These are called Everything Cookies and they do, indeed, have a lot of stuff in them. Cornflakes, coconut, chocolate chips, oats, lots and lots of sugar...So of course, they are very tasty!

Draw

I have tons of art supplies stored under our coffee table so that it's always readily available when inspiration strikes. The use of it ebbs and flows but the kids have been pretty into drawing for awhile now. We got new markers for Christmas and the kids each have their own sketch book too. They're learning not to be so hard on themselves when they make a "mistake" and also finding out that two people drawing the same thing never looks the same, even when you're following the same directions! For now, they really like following along with youtube videos (especially Art for Kids Hub) but they also branch out on their own too.

Muffins!

I accidentally bought some pancake/waffle mix with extra protein last time I was at Costco. It's probably extra healthy and great to have some extra protein in the morning but it was also extra...not tasty. And we had a lot of it. We tried a couple different recipes before we finally found one we all liked! Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

On the Way to Dance

We take Paige's friend to dance class twice a week and it's hilarious watching these two put on tights and leotards as fast as they can (on Friday's we also budget time for a bun!) so that they'll have maybe 10 minutes to play and eat a snack. They usually multi-task in the car too by eating and reading together:)

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Get Air!

I thought we would just relax and be lazy at home on the last day of Winter break but then one of Owen's friends invited us to go to Get Air, a new Skyzone-ish type place not too far from us. Owen was deep into his Percy Jackson book but I didn't have to do too much persuading. As expected, Owen and his friend spent 99% of their time in the dodgeball court. Paige, on the other hand, covered everything else!

Cookies

I was supposed to post this in December! These cookies are long gone! 

Paige and her friend helped me bake pizzelles during a sleepover. Mixing the sprinkles in made them extra festive!

Paige also assisted with these! These are one of my favorites and the ingredients make for good snacking while we're baking:)

Pinwheels

Pinwheels, pinwheels, spinning around! Sing that to yourself for a bit and come back....
I got a new Cookie cookbook (by Dorie Greenspan, my favorite baker!) and Paige asked if we could make something from it! We narrowed down the possibilities by flipping through the book until we came across one we had the ingredients for and settled on these Date Nut Pinwheels. I failed to realize that after you make the dough, you need to freeze it for an hour. After that, you need to spread the date-nut mixture, roll it up and refrigerate it some more. By the time we did all that, we had no time to bake them because it would have been way past bedtime! Luckily, it ended up working out fine because I left it in the fridge, cut the slices and baked them the next day! Perfecto!

New Year Hike!

Time for our 5th annual New Year's Day hike! Owen kept trying to insist that it wasn't a tradition because it didn't start when he was a baby so I checked back and found out we've been doing it for even longer than I thought! Pat found a really great trail for us to check out that I would love to visit again when the trees are green! Paige announced she needed a bathroom almost exactly halfway through our loop so we got back to the Nature Center as quick as we could only to find it was closed! We walked further until we got to a sort of latrine type place and as we approached it a family of five stepped up! It was kind of funny because the timing was so ridiculous but also...we needed them to hurry. I tried to help out by cleaning up the toilet before Paige sat down and I accidentally spun a roll of toilet paper into the latrine!! It was all very funny by the end!