The past few nights...a disgrace in cooking!

Unfortunately due to my hectic schedule this week I have nothing of any real note to show for my cooking.  I did make some really yummy blueberry waffles Tuesday night which I will be blogging about, but other than that it has been leftovers or throw together meals of no real significance.  For example, I made some pasta using my frozen homemade sauce and frozen turkey meatballs on Monday night, but I don't think photos of defrosting things in a microwave would be all that helpful or interesting.  Here is a picture though!

Monday night's dinner.

Bowtie noodles with homemade sauce and turkey meatballs.

I also made some chili cheese fries for lunch on Tuesday.  I already blogged about the chili, but I can't take credit for the french fries (other than baking some frozen ones) or making the cheese.  They were delicious though!

Tonight's dinner will be plain old tacos so again there will be no photos or blog about this.  I will be attending a fancy schmancy dinner banquet with my husband so I won't have time to cook anything really good.  Honorable mention to my good friend who has stepped up to bravely take on the task of watching my 4 kids.  I'm glad she has had quite some notice of this event so she has had time to physically and mentally prepare herself.  Luckily her mom is in town to act as backup!  She'll need it (insert evil laugh here)!  So instead of a pictorial walk through of my dinner preparation, I offer to you pictures of my cute 2 year old doing one of the things he loves to do the most....COLOR.  Weapon of choice-colored pencils.  This kid loves to draw almost as much as I love to cook.

Spring is on the way...kind of!

It has come to my attention that some people think the only thing we do in my house is cook.  Although we do a lot of cooking, there are other things we do throughout the day.  Cooking is just something special that Brenna and I enjoy doing together.  Last Tuesday, before I got nasty sick on Wednesday I managed to drag myself out of the house to let the kids play for a bit.  It was a relatively nice spring day and I knew that the cold would be returning shortly (which it did) so we had better take advantage of the nice day.  It's amazing how stir crazy the kids get by the end of the winter...and nothing you suggest to do inside will do.  Art, painting, Play-Doh, even cooking or baking all get a big NO!  All they want to do is GO OUTSIDE!!  I can't blame them though.  I get a bit stir crazy myself after 3 or 4 months of cold, gloomy gray and snow.  I can't wait for the next few warm days because I'll be starting to clear the weeds out of the strawberry garden, preparing our new second garden for planting, working on some landscaping and restarting my worm composting (don't worry if you don't know what worm composting is.  I'll post about that another time.  The kids thinks it's pretty cool and worms are the easiest pets you'll ever own.).

As I was finishing up throwing the baked beans in the crockpot, I could hear Ethan starting to get pretty fussy on a blanket in the living room.  All of a sudden he got really quiet so I peeked around the couch and this is what I found...a rare moment of brotherly love!  Too cute! 

Aiden consoling his brother by rubbing his head.  Apparently it worked pretty well.  Please excuse the mess! =)

Love!

Brothers watching cartoons together.

Then Ethan saw me and started to get upset again.  He was tired of laying on the ground.  Aiden appeared to be concerned.

Shortly after this, Ethan gave up for the morning and went down for a nap so I took the other two kids out in the front yard for some outside fun.  Then they got cold and wanted to come inside.  We were only outside for about 30 - 45 mins, but it's amazing how much children can do in half an hour!!

They colored pictures on the driveway with chalk.

Aiden really got into the coloring!  Note the hopscotch board behind him that Brenna begged me to draw and then used once.  Nice!

They played with bubbles.  Aiden ate some bubbles.  And then Aiden.....

SPILLED the bubbles.  He did grab a broom to clean up his mess though!  It's okay, after a winter in the garage the bubble solution pretty much loses all ability to make a bubble.  Better put bubbles on the list of things to buy soon!

Little signs that Spring are on it's way!!!  Hooray!  It just makes me smile! =)

All the big kid bikes are in the storage shed out back, but Aiden's bike was in the garage so they took turns riding around the cul-de-sac.

Then Brenna decided SHE wanted to push Aiden which was pretty funny to watch.

She thought it was pretty funny rolling down the driveway backwards.

Then she decided she was just too tired and needed to rest on the neighbor's lawn.

After we went in, Ethan woke up (it was a short nap) and I held him while the kids had a snack. I snapped these pictures while not looking through the view finder.

I don't think he is a huge fan of the big round camera lens being stuck in his face.  Better get used to it!

See....we do more than just cook!!! 

Leprechaun Hunt (Part 2)

Cooking is not the only thing that goes on in our home on St. Patrick's Day.  Although I'm only Irish through marriage, I still feel it is my responsibility to make a huge production on almost all major holidays...thus giving me a reason to cook huge meals.  This is the fourth year in a row that "The Leprechaun" has visited our house and it just hit me that our Leprechaun still has no name.  So without further ado, this year I dubbed our Leprechaun Charlie O'Sheen.  I felt it an appropriate name due to recent rantings from the real Charlie Sheen which make him appear to be rather nutty and what is crazier than the thought of a little man dressed in green playing tricks and trying to keep his pot of gold hidden at the end of a rainbow.  I have realized that there are indeed, quite a few similarities between our Leprechaun and his namesake.  Here are the Top 10 I could come up with.

1. I am tired of pretending like my Leprechaun isn't special, just like Charlie Sheen.  Although he's not quite a rock star from Mars, he is a rock star from Ireland.
2. My Leprechaun, funny enough, also has tiger blood and Adonis DNA.  They might just be related.
3. In the 4 years my kids have tried to catch him, they successfully haven't because he's just too fast.  Like Charile Sheen, he has one speed, and that's GO!
4. Much like Charlie Sheen, my Leprechaun knows an awful lot of trolls.
5. Both my Leprechaun and Charlie Sheen like to keep their pot hidden.  Both deny even having it in the first place! 
6. My Leprechaun will never be caught, because like the real Charlie Sheen, he's WINNING!!  In fact I do believe he is also bi-winning....he wins here and he wins there!
7. Every year I watch my kids get bested by my little green man.  Like the real Charlie Sheen, my Leprechaun believes that hope is for suckers and fools.  Sorry kids, no hope in ever catching Charlie O'Sheen! 
8. My Leprechaun is also rolling out magic, bro!
9. For a very short period of time, they are both the biggest stars in the world.
10. Charlie Sheen is grandiose because he lives a grandiose life...so does my Leprechaun.

Let me tell you, it's getting extremely hard coming up with a different Leprechaun Hunt every year that now has to both keep the interest of AND actively include a 10 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old.  I think I did pretty good this year.  364 more days to come up with something new.  Enjoy the pictures of my kids trying to catch that tricky Charlie O'Sheen. 

Brenna and Aiden taking a break from cake baking.  There's always time for a hug!  =)

This year Charlie O'Sheen left Magic Leprechaun Dust for my kids.  Don't worry....it's just pistachio pudding!

I had to take a picture in the Secret Underground Leprechaun Lair.  I knew I would never get a good picture of it once the kids got their hands on it.  Mom is always right!!

Every year, Charlie O'Sheen leaves a letter for Tyler to find in the mailbox with instructions about what they are to do this year.  They had to each find a number attached to something green in their bedrooms, youngest to oldest and with no assistance from anyone else.  The numbers then had to be arranged in the correct order to open a combination lock which that sneaky Leprechaun placed on our storage shed.

How cool!  The Master Lock company just happens to manufacture locks now in green!!  Very festive!

Tyler received the letter....

and read the instructions to his sister.

Youngest first...Aiden quickly located the number 1!!

"Number One"

Brenna looking for Number 2.

Still looking....

Still looking....Ah Ha!  On the green St. Patrick's Day library book.

Number 19!!

Tyler looking for the 3rd number.

Still looking.  Don't worry, Brenna and Aiden weren't helping...only dancing!

What's in here?

The 3rd number!  Yeah....on this shredded money.  Technically it's something green!!

Number 9!!

Working out all the possible combinations.  Don't worry....for those mathematically impaired people, there are only 6 possible combinations.  Charlie O'Sheen isn't THAT mean!!

Trying to open the lock.

Still trying....Aiden wasn't interested in this part much.  He did like Brenna's new pink soccer ball though and was very happy to be playing outside in the beautiful mid 60 degree day!!  Perfect weather for the Leprechaun Hunt!

After about 10 minutes of trying he finally got it open!

Is Charlie O'Sheen still in there?!?

Nope....just missed him again....there's always next year!

Brenna with the Magic Leprechaun Dust.

Brenna poured in the Dust.

Tyler poured in the milk....look at that concentration!!

Aiden got to shake, shake, shake!!

Thank goodness for TIGHT fitting lids!

Brenna got to shake, shake, shake (all while trying to keep it away from Aiden who apparently wasn't done shaking).

Tyler got to shake, shake, shake.  Very intense shaking!



While the kids were shaking up the Magic Leprechaun Dust I managed to snap some shots of my littlest little lad all decked out in green.  Isn't he cute?!?  3 1/2 months old.



Look....Mommy actually got in a picture!

Me and the 4 kids!  We took about 10 pictures and this was the best one.  The more kids you have, the less picky you get about them ALL looking.

3 Lads and 1 Lassie.  The luck of the Irish gave them to me! =)

A rare photo of me and my husband together in a picture.  Thanks Tyler!

Brenna eating her apple cake and Leprechaun Dust.  She said the pudding was nasty, but still ate it all.

Tyler thought the pudding was nasty and did NOT eat it.  It tasted almost like cherries.  He hates cherry almost as much as he hates mint and soda!  He liked the cake though.

Aiden ate all the cake AND pudding!  Go figure!

My mom sent these funny hats, but I forgot to put them on for the group picture.  Oh well.  They still look cute in them individually!

Me and my Leprechaun Princess/Assistant Chef.

I love this picture.  St. Patrick's Day makes Ethan sleepy!

Aiden in his hat!



HAPPY  ST.  PATRICK'S  DAY  FROM  THE FITZWATER  FAMILY!!