Preschool Games

ABC Move and Match Game

Jack Sprat - Healthy Food Game

Jack Be Nimble - Candlestick Game

Fisher-Price Preschool Games

Kate's First Swear Words

Ever wonder what it sounds like to get cussed out by a baby? Check this out! (For the record, I am a good mom and picked her up after the video ends...)

She is about 5 1/2 months old here, taken in October 2010.  I am just posting this here now because I know eventually I will be wondering when this was, like I always am with the "That's Not My Name" post of Christopher. :-)

Real Simple Meal Finder

This is a cool little tool that my sister sent me.  It is called "Dinner in 15 Minutes Flat" and you choose your main meal component (beef, chicken, pasta, etc.) and then the type of dish you want (no cook, soups/salads, surprise me, etc.) and then it generates a list of ideas.

Silliman Swim Center

This morning Christopher and I went to the Silliman Swim Center in Newark. It was about half an hour from San Ramon, off of the same exit as Fry's Electronics. We went for the Mini-Recreation Swim, where they just open the "small" activity pool. The funny thing is that this pool was HUGE, probably 40' wide by 80' long, with half of it being 2.5' deep, or 3' at the max, and the other half was probably 12-15" deep with an awesome play structure with two slides and water shooters and ropes to climb. One side has a beach entry and the other side has steps, and they had tons of water rings and kick boards for people to use. The facility was very clean, there were family changing rooms complete with a shower and enough room that you could comfortably get ready. Oh, I forgot- it is very reasonably priced: $7.50 for adults and $4.50 for kids ages 3 - 5th grade! There are other prices in between there if your kid is older but it felt like a miniature water park, except it was indoors and the water was heated! Speaking of that- I like my water a touch warmer than this water was- but it was definitely swim-able. Christopher and I swam around for almost the entire two hours. Definitely a worthy family trip if you get a chance. I am not sure how busy it is on the weekends and during the summer months but there was plenty of room for everyone today. Oh, there are lifeguards on duty too, and they have life vests free for anyone (kids) to use too. Check it out if you get a chance!

Disneyland 2010

We just got home today from our trip to Disneyland! We went on Monday and had a fabulous time. It was Christopher's first visit and I think for Jason and me, our favorite visit so far. We got there right around 10 AM and even though it looked really busy when we were walking in, the lines all day were not long at all and we were even able to just walk on to a bunch of rides! The first ride we went on was the one where you go into the whale's mouth, I think it is called the Storybook Land Canal Boats. After that we went to do the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, which was really cute, and of course, Christopher loved. Anything where you get to drive around in a car and shoot at "bad guys" has my boy hooked. After Buzz, we did the Astro Orbitor planes that fly around in a circle way up high. It wouldn't be possible to fit three people comfortably in those tiny planes so me and Christopher went alone. I just have to say that those planes fly HIGH and FAST!!! I let Christopher control everything and it was fun, but I was glad that it was a short ride.

We were standing right next to Star Tours and Jason was remembering how fun of a ride it was, so him and Christopher gave it a try. Unfortunately I was not allowed to ride Star Tours being pregnant and all, so I waited outside and worried a little about Christopher enjoying it. Turns out it was one of his favorite rides of the day! Waiting in line, some random robot talked to Christopher, which he loved. When they finally went on the ride, in the beginning when you turn to go down through the doors and the ride says "Stop! Do not enter!" Christopher shouted out "No Daddy!" and Jason just snuggled him close and told him it was just pretend and that everything was OK, and that was it- they had a blast for the rest of the time. I was so proud of my boy, and he had a great time. After that we did Autopia, the driving ride, which I was also not allowed on.

It was almost time for the Jedi Training Academy to start, so we got a seat on the ground and waited. When the people came out, we all took turns shouting "Jedi!" as loud as we could and then finally a Jedi Master came out, did some cool Light Saber tricks and then called up kids to be part of the show. Christopher jumped up and down and raised his hand and was selected! He was front and center on the main stage, right next to the Jedi Master. Jason and I were smiling so big for the entire show- it was definitely the highlight of the whole day. I even teared up with pride a few times- it was so crazy seeing my boy up on stage, following directions and "activating" and "deactivating" his light saber with all the big kids. He even got to fight the "real" Darth Vader! I can't even tell you how cool that was.

Christopher vs. Darth Vader

We took our Jedi to Mickey's Toontown, which was really cute. We got to meet Mickey and tour through the houses. The Chip n' Dale Treehouse was a big hit for Christopher and he had fun taking me through the house and showing me "his house." After that, we stopped in a shop and picked up a sword that Christopher played with for the rest of the day. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and Christopher waved to all of the animals that we saw. He snuggled close to Jason again but enjoyed it.



Next stop was for ice cream, and that was the longest line of the day at about 15 minutes. We went back to the Buzz Lightyear ride again and then after that, Christopher wanted to buy the Star Wars gun that he had seen earlier in the day and go home. So that's what we did! Jason did stop for a corn dog, which was one of the best he has ever had. We headed home at about 5:15, just in time for rush hour- but luckily we didn't have too much traffic and made it home in good time, with a happy tired boy snoring loudly in the back seat. It was a fantastic trip and I am so glad that we went.

Barbara's Recipes - Table of Contents / Master Plan

You may have guessed that some of my New Years goals revolve around meal planning. If you've guessed that, you are right!!!

So this seems like the best way to save and update my list so that I can be organized and know what my plan is. It will of course be a work in progress and this post will be edited a lot, especially now as I am super motivated to get these all compiled in one place! An "x" before the recipe means that it is already posted on this site.


Appetizers
Strawberry Bruschetta
Pizza Bites
Fondue
Lasagna Roll Ups


Main Dishes, Ground Turkey (Beef)
Taco Salad
Tacos
Taco Ring
Taco Casserole
Stuffed Peppers
Taco Soup
Spaghetti Pie
Mini Meat Loaf
Enchillada Casserole
Baked Ziti - (I use turkey sausage)
Manicotti - (I use turkey sausage)

Main Dishes, Chicken
Roasted Orange Chicken
Salsa Chicken
Chicken Fajitas
Honey Chicken
Chicken Taco Soup (Slow Cooker)

Main Dishes, Leftover Chicken
BBQ Chicken Pizza
Chicken Enchilladas
Chicken Enchillada Casserole
Bowties and Broccoli
Chicken Pot Pies w/ Biscuits on top

Main Dishes, Pork
BBQ Pulled Pork with Sweet Rolls
Pork Loin Medallions with Apples
Pork Chops with Apricot Dijon glaze (sounds fancy but even Jason loves it)
Oven Fried (Breaded) Pork Chops

Main Dishes, Vegetarian
Black Bean and Salsa Soup
Easy Chimichangas
Minestrone Soup
Potato Soup
Nacho Bread Pizzas
Fett. Alfredo
Santa Fe Rice and Beans
Macaroni and Cheese Casserole
Cheesy Baked Tortellini
x Mediterranean Pasta

Main Dishes, Beef
Grandma's Pot Roast
Machaca Beef

Main Dishes, Fish
Salmon

Salad Options
Taco Salad (above)
-Lettuce, Avacado, Dried Cranberries, Crumbled Blue Cheese, Sliced Red Onions, Tomatoes, Sunflower Seeds (or other nuts) with Raspberry Vin. dressing

Sides
Spanish Rice
Cocounut Rice
Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans
Broiled Zucchini (Kids love this)
Scallopped Potatoes
Oven Steak Fries

Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast Casserole
Hash Brown Casserole
French Toast Casserole
Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes (RR)
Apple Oven Cake (Ducth Baby Pancake Style)
Biscuits and Gravy (Jason's specialty)
Pancakes, eggs, french toast (these are mostly for meal planning purposes...)

Desserts
Apple Crisp
Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pumpkin Dessert Squares (WS)
x Popcorn Balls
Molasses Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie
Puppy Chow
Chocolate Cheese Cake Pie
x Chocolate Caramel Toffee Brownies
Nestle Toll House Cookies
Cool Caramel
3 Layer Chocolate Pie
Kat's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Tuxedo Cookies
Eskimo Cookies
White Chocolate Cherry Cookies
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Seven Layer Magic Bars (Eagle)
Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
Rice Crispy Treats
Baked Apples

Misc. Holiday Stuff
Halloween - Witches Brew (Slow Cooker)
April Fools Day Ideas
Holidays - Mulled Wine (Slow Cooker)

Wise Women and The Plan

So my mom sent me this card last week and I thought it was adorable- very cute, don't you think?

Also I am now planning on posting all of my favorite tried and true recipes here on this site- mostly so that I have them all saved somewhere other than in my e-mail box and also so that I can easily share them. And hopefully edit as necessary.

:-)
Happy 2010.

Start Cooking

The StartCooking.com website is a great website for beginner cooks like me. There are a ton of short (under three minute) videos where she shows you howto make different things. Tonight I am making pork chops, woo hoo! I like that it shows all of the important things, like what it is "supposed" to look like at several different stages. Check it out if you have a basic question, it is definitely easy to use!

Cruisin'

A couple of weeks ago we went on a cruise to Mexico! We did the 7-Day Mexican Riviera which departed from Long Beach and went to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta. We went with a group of 21, mostly neighbors and their kids and a few of their friends. It was A LOT of fun! Here is the run down:

The night before we left we went to Medieval Times in Buena Park. This is one of those theatrical dinner places, where they serve you a meal while you watch the sword fights and horses and falcons. This was one of the highlights for Christopher! We really enjoyed it too. The food was really good: tomato bisque soup, half of a roasted chicken, one spare rib, herbed potatoes, and then a pastry for dessert. Here’s the catch: NO UTENSILS!!! It was really fun and surprisingly not that messy. Christopher eats like that most of the time anyway but I think that this concept would be really fun for the older kids.

The sword fights were fun too, each section of the ring got its own “knight” and so we all cheered for our guy, who in my (and my sister Kat's) humble opinion happened to be the cutest one. We did end up buying a sword before we left- it was overpriced and made out of foam but it has still been funny seeing Jason get whacked with it when he’s not expecting it!

We kept the program and whenever Christopher and I are looking at it, he remembers who each knight “belonged” to within our family (Dad = Green, Mommy = Blue, he was the one that won, naturally) so it is fun. The only thing that is a little awkward is that when we were getting ready to leave, we went to see the horses at the stable and one of them was a little *excited.* So now, every time we see a picture of this one horse, Christopher reminds me that “that’s the horse who had his penis out!”

Moving on to the boat: we had a balcony room, which in my opinion is the best way to go. The only exception would be if you can afford two rooms and want to stick your kids in the second joining room. It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, and definitely livable for a week. The shower was tiny but it had one of those handheld sprayers so it was manageable. Our neighbors Steve and Elaine had our room decorated for us, since it was our very first cruise. These decorations turned into victims for Christopher’s new sword as the week wore on, but it was very much appreciated nonetheless!

Cruising itself is a lot of fun. I didn’t really feel the boat move too much, and definitely never was sick from it. There were a few times when I was at one end or the other where I could feel it more, but for anyone who has been pregnant, I would compare it to that feeling- just a baby swishing around in your tummy, except kind of felt the opposite of that. Of course, that analogy might have been in my head because my own period was LATE and kind of freaking me out! I was looking for an excuse for why I was a little puffy and eating A TON of food, but it was a false alarm. By the way, they don’t sell pregnancy tests on the ship.

Back to the food: that was one of my favorite parts of the whole experience! The Dining Room was fabulous. The food was delicious and you can order whatever you want, as much as you want, and no one looks at you funny. Towards the end of the trip they knew to bring Christopher a milk and buttered noodles as soon as we sat down, which was so helpful. Every night I had at least two appetizers and then a delicious gourmet meal and then of course, dessert. In fact on the last night, I ordered FOUR desserts. One of them was for Jason, but when I ordered them I told the waiter that two were for me and two were for him.

There was also a Johnny Rocket’s on the ship, which was a lot of fun. There is a cover charge to go in, but as soon as you are there, they bring you a plate of fries and onion rings and ranch and then you can order whatever you want. And every 30 minutes or so, all of the waiters do a choreographed line dance to "Stayin' Alive." It was really cute and added to the experience.


One night I went dancing with the ladies, which was fun too. We stayed out SO late, I think I crawled into bed after 3:00 in the morning. I haven’t been up at that hour since having a newborn!!! There were so many YOUNG people in this club!!! I am talking high school young. Maybe early college I suppose, but a lot of the people there didn’t look old enough to drink. I think the drinking age is 18 but I am not sure.

Jason went to the casino one night too, and another night him and the rest of the boys went to a karaoke bar on the ship. I heard that was a lot of fun, though I was home babysitting. Which is a good segue into the kids club!

The age for the kids club is 3+. But they also have to be out of diapers. So technically, Christopher wasn’t allowed in. We did try to sneak him in on the first formal dinner night, by putting his friends underwear on over his diaper, but they paged us within 20 minutes or so and asked us to come and get him. We didn’t try the kids club again after that. The older kids seemed to really like it though, and even the four-year old with our group loved it. I am still a first time mom (read: softie) when it comes to that stuff though, and it is hard for me to have a good time when I don’t think Christopher is, and then with the diaper thing added to it, I just didn’t feel right forcing him to cry it out there. I am sure that Baby #2 will not have the same luxury, but for this trip, that is how it worked out. And it is probably for the better, since just about every night towards the end of our delicious dinner, Christopher would climb under the table and start smelling pretty bad, if you know what I mean. That would’ve gotten us kicked out of the kids club officially, I am sure.

One of the other fun things we did was one night, everyone in our group dressed up like pirates! That was really fun, going around the ship and saying “Arghh!” and “Take me to your Captain!” People loved us for the most part, and some people even asked the guys to take pictures with them!

The stops were all amazing, but I don’t want to make this too long so I will talk about them later. There were a few other special things about our ship- we went ice skating one morning and miniature golfing another afternoon. The best thing I would say about the cruise was the service, it was really a nice pampering and relaxing vacation and I am so glad that we went. We will definitely go again.

We cruised with Royal Caribbean, on the Mariner of the Seas by the way.

More soon…

Gifts from Mother Nature

Tonight I got home from school around 8:30 or so. Jason had already put our boy to bed, but Christopher heard me come in the door so he ran down to greet me (precious!) and then excitedly tells me that he and Daddy got me a surprise, and let me show you where it is! So he walks me, while holding my hand, to the kitchen, where he retrieves a box from the counter that came in the mail. It is super lightweight and pastel pink and purple, and has NO return address. I am suspicious but Christopher is too excited for me to say no, so we go back to his bed and open "Mommy's surprise."

We finally get the box opened, and the first thing that falls out is a little red box with a gift tag on it. The tag says "Mother Nature's Monthly Gift." Uh oh. :-) So we open the box and three tampons fall out! Oh yeah, it is THAT kind of mailer.

There are also a few pads tucked in the "gift" for me, of all different sizes and absorbencies. So Christopher asks, "what is this?" and I just told him they are things that Mommy needs some times. Lucky for me, his repsonse was "OK." Every once in a blue moon, he is satisfied with an answer like that. Nine times out of ten he wants to know "why" to the 10th degree. Tonight I would have been screwed.

Family Picture

It has been a while since I sent out a family picture, so here is a newer one. We took this a couple of weeks ago at the Oakland Zoo.

Easy Donating

I am constantly trying to pare down what we have- clothes that no longer fit, toys that Christopher (or me or Jason) no longer play with, occasionally random pieces of furniture, you get the idea.

This is my favorite way to donate stuff. Rather than waiting for the bright yellow cards that come in the mail and tell you that some obscure date three weeks in the future is "your day," I just go to this website and generally my stuff is gone by the next business day. They leave a reciept and after you have donated this way once, they save your address and special notes (i.e. leave reciept in mail box) based on your phone number and last name.

It is very easy and a good way to recycle stuff!

http://www.4satruck.org/DSS/Index.asp

Easy Exfoliator

My good friend and neighbor told me how to make this easy exfoliator and I am so thrilled with it I want to post it here:

Equal parts
Olive Oil and
Sugar

So easy! The only trick is making sure you don't slip and fall in the shower after you use it.

Enjoy!

Couch

This last week, the "game" in our house has been for Christopher to lose the Litte Lightning McQueen and then substitute in the Big Lighting McQueen, then lose the big one as soon as he finds the small one, and on and on and on in this never ending cycle. Whichever one he has, he wants and is looking for and thus WE are looking for the other one!

This last week I have had the pleasure of looking under ALL of the couch cushions, under ALL of the furniture, you know, all of the places that a little match box car will hide so well. Oh. My. God. There was so much junk- random pieces of food including scrambled eggs, candy, candy canes, cheerios, chocolate chips, peas, you name it. All of this stuff is in our couch cushions.

Seriously, there was enough to have held us over for a few days in the event of a major emergency. Under the furniture I found 23 golf balls, five or six of my dog's tennis balls and more food. Oh, also dust bunnies that could probably take on my smaller cat. I have hardwood floors mostly throughout the house and I love them but the dust bunnies are out of control. The sucky part is that earlier in the week, when I disccovered all of this stuff, I didn't have time to do anything about it! So I had to leave it, and just know it was there. I was almost grossed out to sit on my couch. hee hee

Well finally this weekend I had the time to clean it all up, at least the couch. Still need to do battle with the bunnies in my bedroom, but I'll get to that later.

Gotta run.... I have some alone time- the boy is asleep, Jason just left for a couple hours and I need to catch up on Lipstick Jungle. :-)

Crissy Field

Last week for our beach visit we ended up going to Chrissy Field in San Francisco and it was perfect. Lots of dogs running around and not scary at all, big-wave wise. Christopher and all of us had a blast but Daisy more than anyone else. Of course it is three days later now and she is still limping around but she has a smile on her face and her tail is low but wagging, so I think she still thinks it was worth it. :-)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/crissy-field-san-francisco

If anyone hasn't been, I highly recommend it as a good spot to bring the kids (if they are not afraid of seeing dogs, that is- the dogs we met were well behaved and didnt tackle the boy) and spend a couple hours. You can bring your kids bikes too, there is a trail that goes around too. Oh there are some tide pools too. The person who recommended it to me said her kids were able to look at a jellyfish in the tidepool! I didnt see anything but it was still fun.

Enjoy!

Cardio Clean

I have been taking practice tests for teacher stuff and it hasn't been the most exciting, but Jason just left for class from 4-10 tonight and I am getting ready to go get my boy from school. So I had a few minutes of home alone time and decided to try something I haven't done in a LONG time! I like to call it the 15 Minute Cardio Clean. Here is how it goes:

Turn on your itunes (or back in the day it was the old fashioned CD/tape player, and I know it gets worse than that) and crank it up pretty loud. Have at least three or four songs that you like at the moment and TURN IT UP! Run around your house form room to room and pick up and put away whatever you see! Cats need more food? Fill up the bowl! Random toys in the dining room? Throw them in the toy bin in the playroom. Need to unload and load the dishwasher? Shut up and just do it!

Anyway, I only had two songs, both of which were influenced by the last Real World Brooklyn we watched (and both featuring some knuckle-head named "T-Pain," so much for me being mature) but I was able to make our little house look decent in just a few minutes, I felt my heart rate get up a little bit and I actually had a strange sort of fun doing it! I guess it reminded me of the old days, maybe that is the fun.

Just thought I would share in case any of you are looking for that motivation and trying to trick yourself into doing something you dont want to do. For me, knowing that when those songs are over, I am DONE and whatever doesnt get done in that time I will just walk away from motivates me to bust my booty and just do it!!!

OK Off to go get my boy. More later.

xoxo
Barbara

Early Morning Page

Today has been a bit unpredictable. I FINALLY went to bed early enough that I *could* get up and run with my neighbor, and at 6:30 as I was lacing up my running shoes, I heard Jason's pager go off! I was supposed to run at 6:45 and Christopher was still asleep. So I woke him up and with the help of Anna and her dog, Sophia, I was able to convince Christopher to get in his stroller while we went for a run. Got home and remembered that I had class this morning, and no childcare. Tried to text my other neighbor but it was early and her kids let her sleep in on the weekends, so I didn't want to call. So then I had this great idea that I would BRING Christopher to class with me, get him set up with a snack and a movie on his portable DVD player and no one would even realize he was there! I guess I momentarily forgot that he is three years old and that he definitely needs regular assistance, even if he is entertained, and also that while we did make arrangements to "be quiet" during Mommy's class, he still announced early on that he was "ready to go back home" several times before I did just that. Turns out that three-year olds are not quite ready for college yet. So my wonderful neighbors came to my rescue and let me drop him off for a few hours (thank you!!!) and he had a great time playing with his buddy, and I was able to make it back to class without missing too much. It is 3:40 and Jason is on his way home from the fire. Aah, the door just opened. Hooray- family time!

Family Blog

Hello! I am going to take a stab at a family blog site for us. I hope that it will help me keep everyone more updated with pictures and videos and the day to day happenings in our household. I am also trying to keep it a *little* anonymous, at least from a last name perspective. Hope you like it and please comment or feel free to e-mail, as always.
xoxo
Barbara, Jason & Christopher

That's Not My Name

So Jason was able to bribe Christopher in to singing the "That's Not My Name" song with some Cinnamon Altoids. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!!!