Pictures and videos from our annual cookie decorating party. Okay, I’m not sure if two years in a row makes it officially a tradition but I’d like to think so. 🙂
Back in December, Ian completed his first session of Youth Soccer Academy and received his medal for completing the “season”.
(I’m so behind on blogging that he’ll actually be finishing his second round of soccer next week. Whoops!)
Videos of his last week of practice:
Ian really seemed to enjoy soccer these past two sessions. In fact, he enjoyed it enough that we decided not to sign him up for t-ball this spring. I think we’ll give him at least another year before we try that again. He enjoyed t-ball but I think he was bored a lot of the time. I’m not sure if that is an age/maturity issue or a “Ian doesn’t want to play baseball” issue. We shall see.
Despite enjoying soccer as much as he does, we decided to switch things up a bit and we’ll be enrolling both boys in swimming lessons. Ian and Matthew love “swimming” (floating while we carry/hold them) in the various hotel pools and beaches we’ve visited so we figured it was the perfect time to start lessons. 🙂
I decided to get a little creative this year and make heart-shaped crayons for Valentine’s Day. Since I stink at crafting, I was pretty proud of myself for putting my own spin on a project that I found online. (Yay for internet!)
Home-made Heart-Shaped Crayons:
- Peel the paper from your crayons. (The easiest way to do this is to soak them in warm water.)
- Break the crayons and put them in a heart-shaped cupcake pan (Wilton makes a silicon pan).
- Bake in a preheated 250 degree oven for 5-10 minutes until melted.
- Cool for 20 minutes (or pop in frig/freezer) and remove from the pan.
I packaged a crayon, turquoise/pink heart paper, a Cars 2 Valentine, and the crayon recipe in a clear plastic bag.
I chose to sort the crayons by color before baking because I’m anal and I’m not a big fan of the home-made crayons that have all different colors mixed in. Having different shades of the same or similar colors gave our crayons a really cool look – kind of like tie dye. You can see what I mean when looking at the crayons in the picture on the left/second one down.
After the crayons were made, I sorted them into piles by whether they seemed to be “girl” colors or “boy” colors….or, in reality, by how well they matched/coordinated with my turquoise and pink craft paper. LOL The pink craft paper packages were stuffed with the Valentine’s we addressed to the girls in Ian’s class. The turquoise craft paper packages were stuffed with the Valentine’s for the boys.
This was a really good way to use up old broken crayons that we had in our crayon box. I can actually see us doing this again in the future just to use up all the crayon scraps we always seem to have around.
I love the internet. Seriously. I would be lost without it. For example, how would we ever cook dinner or find delicious recipes without the internet?!?! 😉
In all seriousness, we’ve made a handful of recipes recently that I felt were worthy of sharing….
#1. Buffalo Grilled Cheese Sandwiches : I’d like to think we’re kind of experts in all things “Buffalo” and we give these sandwiches two thumbs up. It turns your regular, ol’ grilled cheese into something pretty awesome. Mike has pretty much taken his grilled cheese Buffalo-style every time since we tried this recipe. 🙂
#2. Chicken Gyros : I was introduced to gyros and tzatziki sauce by coworkers and my life hasn’t been the same since. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but I really liked it a lot. Since we only order lunch from the Greek place near our office about once a year, I was pretty excited to find a recipe to make at home. This was delish!
#3. Apple Cabbage Slaw : I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to get fruits and veggies in our diet so I picked this recipe this weekend. I made it Tuesday and it was outstanding. I will admit to making a few modifications to the recipe though: I only put in 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds (1 seemed like plenty to me), I used 2 bags of coleslaw mix instead of chopping a million veggies (yay for shortcuts!), and we didn’t put apples in it. We did serve apples that night but didn’t feel like the coleslaw really need any on it.
#4. French Dip Sandwiches : Do you like easy recipes? Yes? Well then you’ll love this! I’ve been hunting for a roast beef sandwich recipes for…um…forever? I craved roast beef when I was pregnant with the boys and we’ve never been able to find a recipe that mimics some of the excellent sandwiches that you can get at local restaurants. I’m happy to say we FINALLY found the recipe! This one has become a huge favorite since it tastes so good, only has two ingredients, and is made in the Crockpot. You just can’t beat a simple, great tasting dinner that is waiting for you when you get home from work. 🙂
No blog post is complete without a picture so here is a cell phone picture of dinner on Tuesday night: French Dip sandwiches, Apple(less) Cabbage Slaw, and home-made potato “chips” (no recipe, I just kind of winged it on those LOL).
It isn’t easy watching your brother open all the birthday presents….