Monday, March 31, 2014

Grub It Up: Frozen Hot Chocolate


So warmer weather finally seems to have moved in, but we decided that with the On-Demand release of the much-beloved "Frozen," we needed to make a frozen treat for movie viewing (mom might have been reaching a bit since it rained ALL weekend and daddy is on a long jaunt out of town, but we weren't complaining). It's not fancy, but that means it's an easy recipe and probably a good way to use up any of that powdered hot chocolate mix you've got left from spring errr.... winter. Here's the frezeal, you'll need:

- 2 packages of single-serving hot chocolate mix
- 3 cups milk 
- 1 1/2 - 2 cups ice 
- whip cream and marshmallows 

In a blender, blend hot chocolate mix, milk and ice. Top however you'd like. Mom gave us some chocolate and vanilla macaroons, too. Yum! 

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Miscellaneous Madness: A Day in the Life (March 2014)

This month's 12-in-12 fell on a busy day where we both had lots of scheduled activities sans mom -- she had trouble snapping many photos of us. And so she didn't really fit within the 12-hour period. She also ended up with lots of shots with really bright colors. So she decided to Waterlogue them, an app with which she is totally obsessed like so many others. What do you think?

After you get your fill of us, head on over to Where the Watermelons Grow and No Monsters in My Bed to see what they were up to.


8.05 am -- Cam is big into picking out her own outfits these days, which almost always means a skirt or a dress, tights (NOT leggings), and some kind of pattern mixing. Today is zigzags + zigzags + stripes. 


10.00 am -- mom returns home from school drop off to find that Vegas ripped open the trash bag containing the entire contents of a broken glass jar of sundried tomatoes in oil (which mom dropped and broke all over the floor that morning) and spread it all through the house. after first slinking away upon mom's entry to the house, he fakes sleep (with open eyes).


11.30 -- it's mom's turn for the cocktail post on A Feteful Life this week so she mixes up a quick spring drink and shoots it on the roof in the 5-minutes of sun we had that day.


12.45 am -- mom heads to her training appointment. against all better judgment, mom ran a long run a few weeks ago on ice, rain and snow. not surprisingly, she hurt herself enough that she's not going to be able to run her planned 1/2 marathon. training is maddening, but slowly helping her get back to running. this winter is breaking all of us.


2.15 pm -- mom sets up at Hawthorne Homemade for lunch and to get some work done before pickup. 


3.45 pm -- as usual, Cam falls asleep on the way home from school. it's a delicate balance of bumping tunes loudly until she passes out and then switching over to the book on CD for Kane, hoping all the while she stays asleep without the music blasting. 

4.30 pm -- Kane's new method of "picking up his room" involves posing his toys in elaborate scenes on the shelves, which he claims technically falls within the ambit of cleaning, because they are "put away on shelves." here his vintage He-Man toys have gone awry and Skeletor appears to have taken over Battlecat. 


5.05 pm -- between our schedules and Daylight Savings Time, which is also destroying us right now, we've been eating dinner really late. so mom gives us a decent-sized snack late in the afternoon. she tries to keep our requests for a Zaytinya meal at bay by putting together a greek-inspired snack tray. Kane declares she can "start selling them to Zaytinya," so guess that went over well.

7.45 pm -- our little lady loves to get fancy, even for bedtime books. she insists on "dress jammies," wearing her "fancy shoes" for books, and brushing her own hair. Veg is over it.


8.15 pm -- we read another chapter of "Treasure Hunters," a great James Patterson kids book we borrowed from our buddies. Kane multitasks and etch-a-sketches scenes from the book. 


9.00 pm -- mom does dishes and eats leftover dessert props from party styling. it's a tough job. 

10.15 pm -- mom sets up her Macbook next to Cam's "princess computer" to do some photo editing before bed. the princesses. oh, the princesses. 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Holidaze: St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Fun


Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! If you're anywhere in our area of the country, we understand if the snow has you confused. BUT it is indeed March and St. Paddy's Day! To celebrate, mom rounded up our favorite rainbow activities, all of which can be done indoors for those in the cold. AND stay tuned for a snow-related rainbow activity on our Facebook page later today!

- Rainbow Cupcakes
- Rainbow Popsicles
- Rainbow Roller Paintings
- Rainbow Scavenger Hunt
- Rainbow Shaving Cream Tub Paint

Friday, March 7, 2014

Your Dough is My Dough: Shamrock Shake Playdough


We come from a long line of Irish folk and LOVE us some St. Patrick's Day. I mean, my favorite color is already green, so .... Mom's been talking up something called a shamrock shake lately -- apparently it was one of her favorite holiday treats growing up. Then she mentioned to a friend she was planning on taking us to Old Macdonalds for our first taste and said friend relayed her own experience last year where her kids went into a sugar-induced high followed by a vomitous downer. Mom rethought her plan and came up with this: shamrock shake playdough. All the holiday fun without the tummy rollercoaster. OK, not ALL the fun, but it was still a pretty good time.

Here's the shamrock scoop:


Shamrock Shake Playdough

Ingredients:
- 4 cups flour
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup salt
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/2 - 1 tablespoon of peppermint extract (depending on how strong you want it to smell)
- 1/2 - 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (same)
- green and yellow food coloring
- green and gold glitter
- gold coins (mom picked up these shamrock ones in the Target dollar bins) or other St. Patty's Day appropriate props (we also used heart cookie cutters to make shamrocks)

Directions:
Combine ingredients through extracts and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until most of the moisture is absorbed (it will take a bit). Let it cool on some wax paper. Divide the batch into halves and work green and yellow food coloring into the respective halves. Add glitter to each and work it in. 






(mermaids are totally friends with leprachauns)