Confessions of a Lazy Mom

1. I only make the beds when we're having company.
2. I don't make my 4-year-old keep his room clean.
3. Clean, folded laundry often sits in the laundry baskets until I need the baskets to do more laundry.

Here's hoping these confessions make someone feel superior, because that's always fun (for you, anyway)! I have more (worse) confessions of a Lazy Mom, but you have to confess something to me first. ;)

Recipe Test #1

Today after Alexander's basketball class, which lets out at 5:15, was a great time to test the first recipe submission for my recipe contest .

Justin submitted the following "recipe":

Daddy’s Dinner Special …

Step 1: Go to http://www.papajohns.com/

Step 2: Order pizza

Step 3: Wait 45 minutes

Step 4: Pay delivery dude (or dudette)

Step 5: Eat

It was delicious. Great recipe, Justin. ;)

Typical

I bet every parent reading this has experienced an incident like the following:

I had just served my children lunch and Alexander commented,"Mommy, this sandwich tastes like peanut butter and jelly, but I asked for jelly with peanut butter."

We like to hike!

Yesterday I took the boys to Gambrill State Park to do a little hiking. We did the White trail, which was one mile and "easy." I will narrate the hike from the point of view of each boy:

Alexander: Look, I am driving a white truck! La, la, la! Now I am driving a white car! La, la, la! Now I am flying a white airplane! I am so fast! La, la, la! Now I am flying a white rocket! Zoom! La, la, la!

Jack: Look, a rock! Ow, I fell. Ow, I fell. Look, a rock! Look, a rock! Look, a rock! Ow, I fell. Look, a rock! Ow, I fell. Look, a rock! Look, a rock! Ow, I fell. Ow, I fell. Ow, I fell. Mommy, carry me. Look, a rock! Put me down; I want to touch it! No, I will not walk! I want to touch the rock!

Artistically, I really love the photo on the left! I love the photo on the right for other reasons! ;)

Recipe Contest

Yay! It's time for another contest! Why? Because I said so and, despite what my children think, I'm the boss (well, here I can be)! This time it's a recipe contest, as I am looking to broaden my dinner horizons. So, here are the "rules," should you like to call them that.

1. Dinner recipe, please.
2. Get it to me via E-mail by midnight April 30th. (If you don't have my E-mail address, just put your recipe in a comment and it will be E-mailed to me.)
3. My kids are not super picky, but the recipe should be somewhat kid-friendly.
4. I am not an expert chef. If there are lots of ingredients that I can't pronounce or that aren't sold at regular grocery stores, or if there is equipment needed that I don't have, or techniques that I don't know how to do and aren't explained, I will not test your recipe. I will be impressed by you, perhaps, but that doesn't win any prizes.
5. I will test those recipes that fit my wobbly parameters.
6. When I have all the submissions, I will let you all know how long it will take for me to test the recipes and come up with a winner.
7. I will post the winner's recipe, so obviously you should not share something that is your prized family secret.
8. I don't need to know the entrant personally, so if you're a "lurker," or if any of my regular readers want to pass this along to other good cooks, all the more fun for me! Everyone is welcome.
9. If your recipe is not original, that's fine, but please cite your source.
10. The PRIZE is a $10 gift card, likely to Starbucks, unless I know (or you tell me) that you don't go there, in which case we can come up with a substitute.
11. If I missed something, let me know. :)

Now, go. Look through your cookbook. E-mail me. Now. GO! ;)

Hey, guess what! Jack is ridiculously cute!

Greek Easter

I told you holidays last forever around here! Today we celebrated Easter #2: Greek Easter. Justin's cousin Margi hosted and we had a great time with some of the local family. We timed our kids perfectly, it seems, because Margi has a four-year-old son, Grant, and their other cousin Jessica has a one-year-old son, Hunter, so both of our boys have a built-in playmate at family gatherings. Alexander and Grant totally hit it off and got along perfectly. They even included the little ones by playing "follow the baby" for a while! It was great the see the little cousins all playing together.

We also enjoyed Greek favorites like souvlaki, lamb, spanikopita, stuffed grape leaves, feta and olives, and we learned the traditional art of egg fighting. Here, Jamey coaches Grant on how to properly hold the egg before "bumping" eggs with his Mommy (not sure why blogger insists on rotating that picture- if you have know, please clue me in). Whichever egg doesn't crack is the winner! Then it was Alexander and Grant's turn!

Happy Easter, again!

Juiceman!

Alexander loves to play "supers," where we all pretend to be different superheroes. Today he was being Juiceman, and the following conversation ensued:

Alexander: I am Juiceman and I can turn things into juice!
Me: That's useful, because then you could drink the juice if you got thirsty.
Justin: Does the juice have any nutritional value?
Alexander: Oh, no! It does not have any [pronunciation garbled] nutrional value! That would be dangerous!

Randomness

Today while eating breakfast, Alexander was rather quiet. That is, until he completely randomly came up with this: "Mommy, did you know that Batman lives on Mema's roof, but he is going to take a vacation soon?" Yes, Dear.

Happy Easter!

One of the best things about having kids is how there are so many fun activities for every holiday, major and minor, that we can occupy ourselves for several weeks with holiday activities. There are holiday crafts to make, invariably something special to cook or bake, special events at the library, with friends and playgroup. Then comes the exciting actual holiday, which never really means that the "season" is over. There will still be candy to be eaten, new treats to play with, and late events! As a stay-at-home mom, I find it very enjoyable and helpful that there are so many ways to stretch out any holiday!

In any case, Easter was no exception. Jack woke up first on Easter morning, but didn't really notice/discover his Easter basket until a few minutes before Alexander also woke up. The Easter Bunny brought Jack candy (his favorite!) and a new play-doh toy. Alexander got candy and a Lightning McQueen "hopper." (It's one of those big bouncy balls with a handle that the kids can bounce on.)

The boys enjoyed their treats for a while, and then we headed off to NJ where we visited with 26 of our closest relatives. As usual the boys had a wonderful time with everyone, and Alexander claimed that he lived there, with Great-Grandmom and Great-Grandpop, and that if we took him with us at the end of the night, we would be kidnapping him. On the ride home we introduced him to the digital age by letting him watch movies on our new Zune. (It's the Microsoft version of an I-pod [a music player of sorts if you're still not helped by the previous explanation] that can also hold several movies.) He exclaimed, "It's like a little TV that you can listen to with headphones!" Yes, dear. Perhaps we should "take him out" more often.

Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt

On Thursday we joined our playgroup for an Easter Egg hunt. My boys decorated bags beforehand at home, got to eat a picnic lunch, and then hunted for eggs with their friends. They were extremely excited and had an awesome time! SO much candy! Who wouldn't be pleased? ;)

It was such a nice day out that later we ate our dinner outside also! Both boys actually enjoyed eating outside very much, although Jack did not want to be photographed. He was actually glaring at the camera, using his most frequently used word of the few he uses at all. "No!" Ah, well. Two outdoor meals in one day! Yay, Spring!

I KNEW it!

This morning I asked Alexander to please stop pretending to be a baby. His response: "Mommy, I am just doing it to frustrate you." Ah ha! He admits it! I have a witness, and now I am documenting it. I'm gonna get you, kiddo! ;)

Early Easter Fun

We had a gorgeous weekend, and took advantage of it by doing some special early Easter activities. Once again we found an instance where language proves difficult for Alexander. On Saturday I told him that I was hard boiling eggs so that on Sunday we could dye them. He asked if Sunday was Easter. I said no, and he asked, "So we're just doing to dead the eggs tomorrow?" I tried to explain to him that "dye" is different than "die," but he made several other comments before we worked with the eggs that indicated he still thought we were planning to somehow kill them. I managed to refer to it as "coloring" the eggs for the rest of the weekend.

Here they are watching the color tablets fizz, and here are our finished products, displayed and being eaten.

We also took advantage of a Easter festival put on by a Church that meets at the nearby elementary school. They put on an event before Thanksgiving, too, at the lakeside pavilion, and these events are free to the community, and both times we have been warmly welcomed (and, surprisingly, not proselytized to in any way). Alexander and I went while Jack took his nap. There was free food, a moonbounce, and an Easter Egg hunt. Alexander collected the most eggs in his age group, so he won a chocolate cross. Everyone cheered for him and he was extremely exited to have "won." Later, he graciously shared some of his spoils with Jack.

Stylin'

My kids are stylin'!

Mommy Wisdom 4-3-09

This time I'm offering actual advice as opposed to the sorry attempt at humor I usually display.

Drink your fruit. My kids, though not particularly finnicky eaters, are quite wasteful eaters. I can't tell you how often they will ask for a piece of fruit and then eat just a few bites. I always try to save it for the next snack, but obviously fruit, once cut or peeled, doesn't last very well. So a few times recently, I've looked at the half-eaten fruit about to go to waste and asked Alexander if he wants a milkshake. He always gets excited and says yes. I have a little baby-food mixer, but a blender would work well, too. I just throw the leftover fruit in with a bit of milk and sometimes a couple drops of food-coloring to make it exciting, and voila, my kids guzzle leftover fruit and milk happily through a fancy straw. We've had plain banana, banana-strawberry, and today an exciting mix: banana-apple-pear. The novelty may wear off at some point, but for now, we're all quite happy with our "milkshakes." (They're more like "smoothies," of course, but since Alexander isn't familiar with that term, I offered them up as "milkshakes.")

My child is wise

Today, while getting ready to go to Toys R Us so that Alexander could spend his hard-saved money, we had this conversation:
Me: Alexander, are you going to wear your flip-flops or your shoes?
Alexander: If I wear one flip flop and one shoe, it will sound like, "flip-shoe, flip-shoe" when I walk.

Some useful advice

Yesterday Alexander and I were planting some pansies near our one rosebush. Alexander cautioned me, "Mommy, watch out for the pricks."

Sage advice, Son.