Congratulations P&D!!!

Today, is a very big day. P&D are getting hitched! Which, in itself is a great event, what makes today even more spectacular is that R and I are attending the evening wedding, wait for it......ALONE!!! That's right after two and a half years having only been away from Big N for the one night we were in the hospital giving birth to Little N, we will be spending the night in a HOTEL in one big bed, just to us. This is a big day for us. We'd like to thank P&D for getting married in order to give us this opportunity. We'd also like to thank my wonderful parents, Granny and Grandpa, who may not quite realize what they have gotten themselves into, with children who aren't necessarily the greatest sleepers. But, LET'S PARTY!!!

Book Review - 75 Ways to Save Gas

I downloaded this book by Jim Davidson from the library thinking it would have some great insights as to how to save gas. After skimming through the initial chapters about how I should use a bike, take transportation, etc. (things that really aren't applicable to our family situation where we only own one car and one of us is always taking transportation and we travel over 100km per day to get to and from work), there were some good tips. Most of the time, I read the tip but if I didn't find it applicable, I didn't bother to read the description. We're most guilty of leaving our car idling, especially if one of the adults and the kids are still inside. As you got deeper into the book there were some good suggestions, but if I gave them all away you wouldn't read the book, so feel free to check it out for yourself (at the library).

Apple Art

I needed an activity to keep the kids entertained for a few more minutes one evening while we were waiting for R to get home from work since he was stuck in traffic. So, we cut out apples from construction paper and glued them in our construction paper baskets. We pretended they were falling from our tree.

It was a quick activity, but at least something to get the kids from loosing their schmidt before dinner.

Nectarine Oatmeal

This was another delicious oatmeal made during my not getting groceries quest. The caramelized nectarines on the top were definitely what made this recipe fantabulous! The original recipe can be found here.

I did make a few substitutions based on what was in the house, so here's what our recipe looked like.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup milk
1 nectarine
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Caramelized Nectarines

Five slices of nectarine
1 tsp. butter
1/8 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Mix all oatmeal ingredients in a small pan on medium-high heat, stir frequently until you get a thicker consistency or whatever your personal preference is. Place oatmeal in bowl and rinse out the small pan and reuse for caramelizing. Put butter in pan and spread around the entire flat surface, place slices down and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Flip over after 1-2 minutes and sprinkle some more cinnamon on them, cook until tender then place on oatmeal.

Painted Paper Bag Pumpkins

We did it! We officially started decorating for Halloween. Up to now I've never really been a big Halloween fan, but having two little kids, one of whom was born three days prior to the big day, it gets me a little more excited for the event.

We filled paper bags with crumbled paper, got out the orange paint and went to town. If I were doing this craft without a toddler, I probably wouldn't have stuffed prior to painting, but I needed Big N to be interested, so the stuffing part got her away from the computer (side note, my 2.5 year old knows how to run Netflix on the iPhone, the PS3, and the computer now, all in all we're doomed for getting her to stay away from the television). After the paint was dry, we cut out faces with construction paper and glued them on. Big N was super excited to see her pumpkin all finished, I don't think she quite understood what we were doing until the face went on. Little N thought they were pretty cute too, and was very excited to get his hands in the paint (I'm not sure the carpet appreciated our adventure, but oh well).

Monday Meal - Ground Turkey Zucchini Boats

We first starting using this recipe after a visit with my parents and watching Steven and Chris. We've made numerous changes since seeing the original thought on the show and the meal has now been added to the monthly rotation.

Ingredients:
2 large zucchini
1 carrot, grated
1 pepper (any colour)
1 clove of garlic
1 onion
1 lb ground turkey
spinach
cheese

Directions:
In a frying pan cook ground turkey with garlic and onion. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop a good portion of the center out. Add remaining vegetables including some of the scooped zucchini (or any others you have on hand) and cook until just tender. Add the mixture to the scooped out zucchini, top with cheese and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

We do so many variations on this meal based on what is in the fridge and we've never had a bad experience. So, get using those zucchini, it's delicious!

Leaf Tree

While we were deciding what route to go with our September wall this month (I might have been getting a little over zealous and thinking pumpkins), we decided to make a tree. I cut branches out of construction paper and then the kids and I went to the backyard to find leaves. We found all sorts of types of leaves, and I being the great mother I am, could only identify the maple leaves, so I made up names for the rest, hoping that my two year old will not remember the names I created and tell all her friends.

The plan was to trace the leaves and then place them on our tree, but it seems that all the leaves we gathered were much too big for our tree, so we created our own leaves. I'm constantly amazed at how fast Big N is growing, she's now able to glue all the leaves on wherever she wants them to grow.

I think our tree looks pretty cute, and Big N had a great time putting it all together. Little N had a great time trying to eat construction paper. All in all a good craft for everyone.

Baked Banana Oatmeal

In my quest to put off going to the grocery store, we've been eating a lot of whole foods this week, i.e. no cheerios. I'm not a huge oatmeal fan, but this was one of two recipes that were surprisingly delicious that we tried this week. I found the recipe here, but had to make a few variations based on the ingredients in our house.

Ingredients:

2 bananas
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 egg, beaten
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup milk
1 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slightly grease a 8 inch baking dish. Slice one banana on the bottom of baking dish. Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the remaining ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the mixture to the baking dish and cover with the remaining sliced banana. Bake for approximately 26 minutes and then sprinkle with brown sugar. Broil for approximately three minutes.

I think the caramelized brown sugar on the top really did it for me, so DO NOT skip that step!

August Wall of Fame

Have you wondered why you haven't seen our August wall yet, because this is what it looked like.

Yes, it was very, very sad. Thankfully we were on vacation for some of August, and we did a lot of crafts that couldn't be put on the wall. Now just to make sure September doesn't look so sad.

Water Bottle Bracelets

We've been drinking a ton of plastic bottled water, bad for the environment yes, but it gets us drinking water, so it's a plus for us. So, looking at all these bottles in the recycling bin, I wanted to see if there was something the kids and I could put together for craft time one day. I came across a blog post somewhere along the line that used plastic water bottles as bracelets, so off we went to give it a try.

We cut rings out of our plastic water bottles, the one for my wrist had to have a cut down it in order to get it to fit. Then we covered the entire bracelets in paper mache. The plan was to paint the bracelets and add some funky stuff to them, however, we haven't gotten that far yet, and have since moved on to different crafts.

Meal Planning

I'm not much of a meal planner, more of an it's 4pm and dinner needs to get ready what the heck should we have type of person. But, in order to start the prepping for my return to work and to make sure we can get to next Saturday without having to go to the grocery store, I've attempted to put together a meal plan for the week. It's nothing too fancy, but hopefully it works out. Wish us luck! If there's any good recipes we try, I'll be sure to put them up.

Monday Meal - Mushroom, Spinach, Lentil, and Quinoa Salad

I came across this blog post one day while I was searching for a spinach side dish to serve with our chicken dinner. It seemed simple enough, and the biggest selling points, I had enough of the ingredients on hand to make it work. I had to make a few changes from the original post, so here's what we had.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup lentils
1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups of spinach
1 clove garlic
1/2 small onion
1/2 cup chicken broth
olive oil
salt
pepper

Directions:
Add oil to pan and brown mushrooms. Remove mushrooms, add garlic and onion. Cook for two minutes. Add lentils, quinoa and chicken broth and let simmer for about ten minutes. Add spinach and mushrooms back to pan and cook for another couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

This was a pretty delicious side salad for a mushroom lover (R), I found it not to bad considering I'm not a huge mushroom fan. Both the kids picked at the salad and ate a bit of it. All in all, we'll add it into our repitoire.

It's Official..

I emailed work today and started the prep for my return on the first of November. The past year just flew by. I'll be sure to share my thoughts about the entire year after the next month when it's officially over. But for now, help me pray to the walking gods that Little N stays on his hands and knees just a little bit longer; walking means a whole lot more tormenting of Big N.

Welcome to Nova Scotia....

Not many people say to themselves, lets spend at least 24 hours in a car driving with a 2.5 year old and a 10 month old, but we're that family. You know, the family that pretends we can all get along for two days trapped inside of a vehicle, and I'm happy to report, with each trip we make to Nova Scotia we get one step closer to becoming a really good travelling family. Aside from a major meltdown ten minutes from our hotel after 12 hours on the road, we did really great. Big N is finally old enough to understand why we are making her sit in the car for so long and Little N is still little enough that we can put him into a drowsy milk state.
We had a great time visiting family and waking up to a beautiful view of the Bras d'or lake. We ate well, and spent a ton of time outside enjoying what turned out to be the best two weeks of summer.

Little N received his very first hair cut during our visit, and yes, those are pictures of my kids at the salon. Can you take a guess who their awesome hairdresser is?

I'll have to get some more pictures sent to me. It appears I was too busy having fun to document our vacation.

We're Home!!

After spending the last two weeks on the east coast, it is a great feeling to walk into your own home. I love my family, but two weeks in a trailer is more than enough for my liking. I was amazed at how great it felt to just sit down at the kitchen table and let the kids be free, since our house is child proof and I know exactly what every sound means, what area they are in, what they are pulling down and what they could break. I missed that feeling for the past two weeks. We had a great vacation and got to spend lots of time outside with our extended family. I'll post some pictures this week, but for now, I'm going to veg on the computer for another half hour and then go to bed, my own glorious queen size bed.