Peanut Butter Cookies

We were low on ingredients the other day, but still were in the mood for something sweet. A quick google search resulted in a few recipes we had ingredients for, but the Peanut Butter Cookie won out. For the life of me, I can't find the recipe we used anymore, but, it was the first time I let Big N do her own tray all by herself. I was so proud of how well she did. She rolled the dough, put it on the tray and flattened all by herself. I think she was pretty proud when she saw me put it in the oven without adjusting anything.

Have you Noticed?

That sometimes I disappear for a week and then give you a ton of blog posts all at once. That's because I live with two children, which means many days after I get them both to bed, I'm just too exhausted to turn on my computer. So, make sure when you see a new post, you check underneath, as it probably means I blogged about an entire week in the period of one night.

Stencil Painting

Big N got a sponge painting set after the birthday party we had on the weekend for ALL the kids. We put it to use the next day. There were four stencils in the set, so we practiced our painting skills with stencils. This has given me a few ideas on stencil painting, so we'll see if over the next few weeks we get some more stencil painting done.

Lion

We've been on a zoo kick. Can you tell? We were at the park the other day, and one of the fathers there made some comment about making masks with his daughter (who was 6). I thought that was a great idea so Big N and I immediately came home and started our project. We used a paper plate for the face, then made the lion out of construction paper. Big N coloured in his face and the end result was beautiful!

It was a good activity to have done because just a few minutes later, Dada came home and started an all out boys against girls ball war, and our masks gave us protection so we could fight back better.

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but Big N is, so for her birthday I wanted to make something that we all could enjoy. Now, I really love banana muffins, so when I stumbled across a recipe for Banana Chocolate cupcakes, I thought I had found the best of both worlds. Now, I ended up making 24 cupcakes, which was overkill for our party of three, but they are super delicious, so I'll throw them in the freezer for treats to use as needed.

I did alter the recipe slightly to fit our family needs, and some alterations, weren't on purpose, but the end result turned out pretty delicious.

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated white sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour or scoop the batter into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full, and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

The original recipe suggested using a Chocolate Ganache Frosting, but I didn't have the ingredients on hand. So we used a basic buttercream icing recipe and dyed in purple to match our decorations.

Happy Birthday Big N!

Today my baby girl turned two. It's amazing how fast time passes when you start having children. Two years ago today, was one of the most amazing days in my life. The immense joy that comes with the birth of the first child is astounding. Today, I was a bit sad to see her turn two, because it means she isn't really my baby anymore. She is growing into a full fledged independent little girl. I put decorations up for Big N to enjoy this morning when she woke, although I'm not sure she was too impressed to begin with. She walked into the playroom with the immediate response of "out, wall" meaning, get the stuff off the wall. At least it seems my lectures about drawing on the wall are paying off.

We went to the park for a couple hours this morning and then took a trip to the local burger joint for a special birthday lunch. I must say, having two kids at the restaurant wasn't near as horrible as I thought it might have been. Thankfully, the food was quick, and the kids were entertained with the diner atmosphere.

We came home for a quick nap followed by some cupcake making. I'll post the recipe under a separate heading as they turned out quite delicious. We had a lasagna dinner, had some cupcakes, FaceTimed the relatives, and opened some gifts. All in all, I'd say Big N had a pretty fabulous day.

Happy Birthday Big N! Mama loves you very much!

Zebra

I would hate to post about Little B's picture, and not Little M's. Since both pictures are going in the same room, we did the background canvas the same. This time though, we drew a picture of a zebra (there's a zoo animal theme going on in the kids room). If you look closely, you can see exactly which part of the zebra Big N did herself. I thought about starting fresh, but since it was a gift from her, the little imperfection made it that much better. Zebra maybe had a few too many cocktails last night?!?

We framed the pictures exactly the same, and all in all, I think we have one pretty finished product. Now, to get some ambition to get Big N to do something for her own room.

Hopefully Little M likes it!

Elephant

I wanted to wait to post pictures of the artwork we made for my niece and nephew for their first birthdays as I know my sister has a tendency to frequent my blog. But, since the birthday party got postponed, and we aren't sure when we will reschedule, I thought I'd show off our creation.

I had Big N paint an 8x10 canvas using a variety of green tones. And since she is a toddler, it magically morphed into something that was usable. We got her to put large brush strokes up the canvas to resemble grass. And yes, of course that was my plan when we started, and I didn't think that's what it looked like after we were done ;-)

I drew a picture of an elephant using a clip art online as my guide as again, I am no artist, but if I have something to look off of, I can definitely draw it.

We put the elephant on the canvas and TA DA. I decided to frame all the birthday pictures to give it a little more polished look.

I hope Little B is impressed with his new picture.

To My Grandma,

My grandmother passed away tonight.

I make this post, in honour of her. She was the mother of 5, grandmother to 13, and currently standing at great-grandmother to 14. Right there, you can tell her life was full of many fun times. Death gives us a time to reminisce, which is exactly what I've been doing, and it's funny what comes back.

For instance, my parents went on vacation when I was in grade 5, and my grandparents came over to watch us. I had a test in geology that week, and did poorly. My grandma had to sign my test and then took me aside and told me about how she thought I could probably do better. That was a defining moment in my education, as I knew I hadn't tried on that test, and I COULD do better.

My grandparents sat behind us at church without fail every single Sunday. When we wanted a treat, we always went over to their pew where we could usually find some form of mint or sugar free candy.

My grandparents lived with us for a few months while they were waiting for our condo to be built. Without a doubt, when grandma was missing, she was sitting in the garage enjoying a Coke. Why she had to drink in the garage I'll never know.

I also gained a new respect for my grandma after having children. For staying sane with five kids of her own, she did one heck of a job!

Anyways, grandma, this post is for you. To tell you how much I love you, and how much we will all miss you. I wish you had gotten the chance to meet Little N, you would have loved him as much as you loved seeing all your great-grand babies.

Love always,

ME

xoxoxox

Wrapping Paper

With so many birthdays coming up, we have lots of gifts to wrap. Now, in general, I find wrapping paper to be a waste, but the kids love it, so I thought we should find a way to make it more fun and enjoyable for more people, before it gets tossed in the trash.
I bought a couple of rolls of brown packaging paper from the dollar store, and over the course of three days, Big N, Little N, Granny, Grandpa, Dada, and myself have all had the opportunity to do some drawing, painting, and all out colouring of our beautiful wrapping paper.

Now if you do plan to do this activity with paint and dollar store paper, I strongly suggest making sure there is scrap paper EVERYWHERE under the roll of paper, as the amount of paint a toddler uses does have a tendency to seep through the paper.

Carrot Zucchini Muffins

When Big N was in daycare, we had muffins almost every morning for breakfast since they were so quick and easy. Over the past couple of months we had switched our muffin baking into cookies, but, since muffins MAY be just a little bit healthier we thought we'd get back into the swing of things (that and we had absolutely nothing to eat for breakfast).

In general I'm a huge fan of carrot zucchini muffins, however, these ones weren't quite as good as they could have been, so instead of posting an okay recipe, I'll tweak it a bit over the next few weeks and post the BEST recipe. I found these ones were just a bit dry (unusual for such a veggie filled muffin), and I would have really liked some raisins in there too.

Fun with Granny and Grandpa

Big N and Little N had a great time spending some quality time with Granny and Grandpa. They went for walks, painted, coloured, baked, did some tower building, all in all, had a grand ole time together. Here's some of their artwork to show how much fun they had. Thanks again Ma and Pa for all your help last week so I could study. We really appreciate it!

As a side note, Granny and Grandpa brought their dog down for the visit, and Big N now makes her pretend dog do tricks so he can get a treat. It's too cute!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Early last week we decided to stray from our run of the mill chocolate chip cookie in favour of an oatmeal raisin cookie, mostly due to the fact that Granny and Grandpa were coming for a visit and Grandpa really likes them. Despite making them only the afternoon before they were set to arrive only 1 of the 3 dozen cookies we made lasted the night. We used this Oatmeal Cookie Recipe from Canadian Living as our basis, but made a few changes along the way. Most notable, omitting the salt (if you haven't noticed, I don't bake with salt, I try to limit the amount of excess salt we consume in our diets, now sugar is a totally different story).


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup all-purpose
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup softened butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. In bowl, whisk together oats, flour, baking powder and baking soda.
2. In separate large bowl, beat softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture. Stir in raisins.
3. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake in centre of 375°F (190°C) oven for 10 minutes or until golden. Let cool on pans on racks for about 2 minutes. Transfer to racks; let cool completely.

Be Right Back.

Exam on Saturday, lots to post after that. Wish me luck!

Monkey Love

I posted earlier with the pink painting Big N and I had created for her Big Cousin's birthday. We have since finished the project, and as much as I wanted to keep it a surprise until the party, I'm too excited not to share (I don't think my bro reads this blog anyways, so it will probably still be a surprise).

Big Cousin recently got a room makeover and now has a pink/brown monkey theme. We ran with that theme and created this wonderful masterpiece out of cardstock.

We've only attached the monkey using stick tac, so if in the future, the room changes themes, we can easily change the picture on the front. I'm deciding weather or not to frame the canvas, or just leave it as is and add a 3M Velcro stick tab on the back to hang on her wall. We'll see how much I get done in the two weeks before the party.

Now, on to the rest of the birthday presents that need to get done in the next two weeks.

Girl

Guy has a girlfriend! Today we created Girl. Big N loves her.

She was made from the following supplies:

- a sour cream container

- a yogurt container

- a wooden dowel (cut in half)

- a wooden skewer (cut in half)

- construction paper

- tissue paper

Big N and I painted girl up so she could be beautiful. Big N even convinced her dad to help give Guy a makeover.

A match made in recycling.

Drawings

A great thing about toddlers is that they can't tell when you can't draw. The other day, I drew this picture. Big N right away told me it was Elmo. Whooohooo. I can draw.

But then, I started drawing what I was planning to be a monkey and she immediately called it a pig. So, there you go. I know how to draw a pig!

Unfortunately, I still want to draw a monkey, but after numerous attempts, Big N won out, and I ended up drawing more pigs. I was sly and got the monkey in when she wasn't paying attention, but she was not very happy that my pig picture had a monkey on it.

Sleep.

I have a confession. I CANNOT get through the day without at least a 20 minute nap. I NEED those 20 minutes to recharge, otherwise my patience level runs very very thin. I average about 7 broken hours of sleep a night; Little N wakes up about every 3-4 hours to nurse and I am in the habit of doing things around the house until at least 11 every night. Little N wakes for the day around 6, and Big N around 6:30. Most days we have already done laundry, dishes, breakfast, and an art activity before 9. These are the days I miss work, the days I think I could have been sitting resting while stuck in traffic somewhere. But, then Little N smiles at me, and Big N tugs at my pants wanting to do something crazy fun, so I am brought back to my reality. I love staying home with my kids, although I'm still not sure I have the energy to keep up with them most days. I don't think I would trade my year long maternity leave for anything in the world. THANK YOU CANADA!

Guy!

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. His name is Guy and he was created on March 4, 2011. He's become a well loved and valued member of our family.

Now, I know you are all anxious to see what Guy looks like, but first, lets see how he was created. First Mommy recycling bin and Daddy recycling bin got together, they whispered some sweet nothings into each others ears, then 9 months later, poof, Guy was created! Well, something like that.

After our tower building day, I decided what better way to have fun with recycling than to create a Robot. Little did I know at the time that our robot would have to take on people qualities (i.e. sitting at the table and having dinner with us) he's still a fun member to have around.

While digging through the recycling bin, we came across a cereal box and some wrapping paper roles that were just begging to be used for arts and crafts.

We cut holes into the box to fit the rolls in, and created arms, legs and a neck for Guy. We cut out his head, hands and feed from construction paper and taped them on to the rolls. If you'll notice, Big N and Guy seem to have exactly the same size hands. I wonder how that was done?

Next we painted Guy, using black, white and green poster paints. At this point we were painting on the cereal box itself, but I noticed the paint wasn't covering very nicely, so we decided to make Guy a shirt out of construction paper.

If I had an older toddler we probably would have continued to make Guy look even better, but that was the length of attention span my two year old has (~30 minutes), so we may work on him again and make him even more beautiful.

A Tribute to Montana

I don't deal well with death. I especially don't deal well with the death of pets. My brothers family is in the process of loosing one of their most beloved family members, so today, I will post a tribute to Montana. We love you buddy!

A shout out to Little N

I've been called out, that Little N does not get near enough attention on this blog. So, here's his shout out. Today, we painted with his feet. Such a cute little foot.

A few days ago we did hand prints. I must say these are two of the cutest hands I have ever seen.

Little N participates in most of our activities, he sits quietly (sometimes) to watch his mom and big sister craft, and anticipates getting bigger to join in the fun. We couldn't do our thing without such a great audience. Love you Little N.

Recycling Day

So, Big N disappeared into her room with the kitchen recycling bins. What was she doing you ask? Building a tower no doubt. A future architect??

This has given me a few ideas for future crafts. Now, to see if we actually get anything done that's worthwhile to share.

Pizza Fridays

Yes, I know it's not Friday, but in order to participate in Pizza Friday, you should have the recipe a little bit early. Our family LOVES pizza. After years of getting takeout pizza at least once per weekend, we decided to embark on the pizza making adventure and found out it was actually quite easy and delicious. It took about three weeks to perfect our crust (it was a very important part of the puzzle), and we regularly change up the ingredients, but we try to keep it on the light and healthy side.

Making pizza dough with toddlers is a great activity. Big N LOVES helping knead the dough, and because I haven't found a big difference in the crust in regards to the length of time or amount of kneading that is required, I let her go to town on the dough until she gets bored of the activity.

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1 tbsp yeast

1 cup hot water

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp olive oil

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

Directions:

Combine yeast with the water and sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes. Stir in the olive oil and the flour. Knead for around 5 minutes. Cover and let rise for at least 90 minutes.

Instead of using a pizza sauce, we almost always use either a garlic/olive oil mix or a BBQ sauce. We find the olive oil mix enhances the flavour of the pizza toppings and the BBQ sauce is a nice change of pace. Our toppings usually include chicken, peppers, mushrooms and cheese.

We let Big N put the toppings on the pizza, and it usually looks a little something like this:

I ended up making a double batch of the dough last Friday, so we ended up using it today for our lunch. We had an Italian sausage, red pepper, spinach and mushroom pizza with an olive oil sauce. It made for a pretty delicious lunch if I do say so myself.

We roll our crusts THIN, so out of the dough recipe above we either get two pizzas that are the size of a cookie sheet, or one bigger pizza on our pizza stone.

Brown!

Big N and I decided to take down the painting that didn't quite seem complete on the wall and add to it. If you recall, this is how it started out.

We basically just started adding colours and magically we ended up making the chocolate brown colour I was looking for yesterday. Now, this would have been great had we realized that all the colours mixed together were going to be brown, but unfortunately the rest of the paintings that this one sits with are in the black family, so it will do for now, but eventually, we will probably try and make another picture with a little more black and a little less brown.

We always start our art projects with brushes, but in the end, it always turns into finger painting. In this picture if you look closely, you can see Big N's fingers, Little N's feet and my fingers. All in all, it was a good way to spend a half hour on another not quite spring day.

Pink Painting

Pink is a fun colour. It just happens to almost be Big Cousin's third birthday. So, Big N and I have been working on some artwork to put in her room. During our most recent visit, we found out that she had a new pink and brown monkey themed room, so, we're taking that into consideration in our artwork.

We made some pink paint (while trying to instill the fact that red and white mixed together makes pink, did she understand, no likely not, but I tried.) Then, came the tough part, trying to make chocolate brown paint from only primary colours. Since it's been a really long time since I took any form of art (like 15 years), I resorted to a good ole' google search. Supposedly, equal parts of red and green make brown. Well, maybe if you squint really hard or are colour blind, what I made might have been brown, but it was pretty much black. So, I tried again, this time adding yellow and red and green and blue and black and white, and guess what, it was almost brown. So, I had Big N start her painting.

Then after looking at it again and again, I decided our almost brown colour was really more olive green. So, I just kept telling Big N to use more pink, eventually taking away the "brown" option. We worked on what kind of designs we wanted to put into the art, and ended up with a circle pattern.



Now, I have a plan for this artwork, but I have to wait and give it a try before I reveal it. Just in case my art skills are really horrible, I would hate to disappoint the recipient before she even gets it.

Soap Crayons

Late last week Big N and I were bored (it happens a lot these days), so we embarked on an adventure making soap crayons. It's a super easy activity and doesn't require a lot of preparation, or unknown ingredients.

First we grated some bars of soap (the cheapest bars we had on hand, this time it was Lever 2000) while sitting on a big blanket so I didn't have to slip and fall on the floor once this activity was over.

We separated our grated soap pieces into three separate bowls and added a different colour of food colouring to each bowl. We added just a little water to each bowl, and then we mixed each bowl together until we had somewhat of a uniform colour and consistency.

After I convinced Big N that we were done having fun (about a half hour later), we put the three colours into a long ice cube tray. We let this sit for five days or so.

I just took the crayons out of the molds tonight, now they aren't that beautiful by any means, they still turned out. I'll have Big N try them out tomorrow in the tub to see how they work.

Now if we were to do this activity again, I would likely use the smaller grater on the soap pieces. As you can see, there are still pretty huge chunks of white soap pieces. I think with a smaller grater, it would have turned into a better hunk of soap.

You can see this and other great toddler activities over at My Delicious Ambiguity: Tot Tuesday

http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/2011/02/tot-tuesday-43.html