Falafel Sliders!

Sigh. Another recipe that only I appreciated! Pat wasn't home for this dinner but hasn't been brave enough to try the leftovers and the kids were not interested at all. Owen initially said it was good but I noticed at the end of dinner that he had basically mushed it all up to make it appear as if he'd eaten it:) Paige and her friend did not even pretend to enjoy it:) Luckily there was plenty of hummus, veggies, pretzels and apples to go around!

Recipe details-I chose not to make the avocado hummus because I knew it would be wasted so I just bought an avocado and used slices of it (Paige ended up eating a lot of it too, just plain). I did make the tahini sauce and it was good but it made way too much, especially since I was the only one using it! If people start liking falafel and I make this again, I'd probably make 1/4 of the sauce.

Birthday!

Owen's birthday finally arrived and he was treated to sprinkle pancakes to start off the day! The poor kid had to endure a day of school before we could celebrate but he did say that his homeroom sang happy birthday to him which was super awkward:) Pat came home early and we met at Jimmy John's before we split up so I could get Paige to dance and Pat could get Owen to soccer. We met back at the house afterward for ice cream and presents! Paige gifted Owen with some soft pillows so he would stop stealing hers and Owen's favorite gift from us was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe so we stayed up a little later than we should have to play it!

Look at this handsome guy!!

Jimmy John's! 

It's hard to put more than one candle in a cup of ice cream!

Pillows!

Surprise! Mario Kart 8! :)

Slime

Owen went to a friend's house and I decided to take a nap (unusual but awesome!). When I woke up, Paige and Pat had gone on a quest to pick up some slime ingredients! They had to go to a few stores and look up a few different recipes before they came home with the right products but then they had a great time making fluffy slime!

Family Party!

Owen's birthday was on a Wednesday so we celebrated a few days beforehand with family! In the past, I would always pick a theme and surprise him with it on party day or his birthday but now that he's a little older, I wanted to get it approved:) He chose Chelsea (his favorite soccer team) as the theme and even though he's had soccer as his theme a couple times already, I thought it was perfect! We kept the food pretty simple and ordered pizzas. Owen didn't want a cake but wanted a bunch of smaller desserts instead and everyone brought something to share! We had a fusball tournament and payed Apples to Apples too! 

Some of the food. More cookies arrived with the guests!

11!

Sibling picture

Owen's dessert plate, I think he was too distracted to actually eat it all though!

Fusball!

Owen was given Splatoon!

11 balloons!

Quick picture with Paige!

11!

10 was a big year but 11 is starting to seem really old! I love watching Owen grow and seeing what an amazing kid he is! Smart, handsome, kind...I could go on and on! Happy Birthday Owen!!

Orchestra

Owen had his first orchestra concert last week! He didn't practice much leading up to the day and they missed a few important practices because of snow days and whatnot but I thought the concert was great for being a bunch of kids who have only been playing for 4 or 5 months! The concert only lasted about 25 minutes and then afterwards we went to get some ice cream!

Birthday Twins!

My nieces turned 3! They are adorable and awesome and I can't believe they're already 3 years old!

Stromboli!

I've definitely eaten Stromboli before but I don't think I've ever made it until now! Turns out, you basically make a pizza and then roll it instead of sticking it straight in the oven. I bought a pre-made dough to speed up the process even more and put sauce, cheese, pepperoni and spinach on it. Owen and Paige weren't huge fans of it but Paige's friend was over and loved it! I thought it was good too but I'll probably just keep it as pizza next time so the kids will enjoy it more. Just in case, here's the recipe.

Soup and Snow Days

So many snow days!! The kids have had four snow days at this point and it's making the transition back to school really difficult! They've gotten used to a life filled with free time, snacks, board games, reading and video games. At some point we pushed the couches together to make a cozy spot for reading and it stayed that way for almost a week. Even I miss it! 

Also, soup. This soup made it's first appearance on the blog in December 2014 and I haven't made it since. I missed my window to make it in the slow cooker so I converted the recipe for the stovetop and it came out pretty well, although the pictures make me think it came out much thicker this time!

Corn and Red Pepper Chowder!

Carmen SanDiego and some snacks!

One of my favorite snow day moments-Owen invited Paige to come race all the hot wheel cars to see which was the fastest!

Jump!

After winter break ended, the kids were very disappointed to head back to school last Wednesday. Then they got snow days on Thursday and Friday and their spirits lifted and they ended up with a four day weekend and they recovered from that disappointment:) We went with some friends to a local jump/trampoline place for the kids to let out some excess energy and they had a blast. Although I'd say that an hour and a half would have been plenty of time versus the two hours we signed up for.

Science Center

Owen's friend invited him to a Robotics camp at the science center on the last day of break and even though the boys said they didn't enjoy it very much (except for lunch!), Paige and I had a chance to enjoy ourselves while we waited for them to finish up. We got through a large portion of the exhibits but spent the most time in the hands-on area. We even ran into a couple of friends while we were there: an old neighbor, and an old dance friend.