The Picky Eater

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Jennifer

Saturday night we went to a Halloween party at a friends house.

As I was standing around the appetizer table stuffing my face with chips and dip another mom said, “My son is the pickiest eater.”

And with that statement, I knew I had to take her down.

Now, having the pickiest eater is certainly not something I enjoy or celebrate but since it’s the case I’m going to claim it.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. My daughter is very picky.”

“Oh, Miles is the pickiest eater. He doesn’t eat eggs or drink milk.”

Lady, is that the best you’ve got?

“He will only eat grilled chicken.”

So he eats meat…?

“He doesn’t really like the cilantro I put in this dip.”

Oh, you mean the dip he’s been scarfing down. The one that obviously contains mayonnaise, corn, and green stuff, also known as cilantro. Let me just get this over with and save us both a lot of time and you a lot of embarrassment.

“Caroline eats peanut butter sandwiches every night and has for the last year.”

“Oh… Miles isn’t that picky”

Yeah, that’s what I thought lady.

Halloween Party Ideas

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Jennifer

Starting to mentally prepare for our Halloween party:

List of food possibilities

Fixing up the patio area

Finish Decorating House

Clean House

Front of House Decorations

And within each of those projects listed are twenty-three million things to do.

But I have taken some time to find some inspiration in blogville and thought I’d share with you some of the wonderful ideas I’ve found.

Harry Potter Free Potion Labels at Over the Big Moon

Halloween Lunchbox Notes from Kiki & Company

Tutorial to make “Eye” Candy Jars from Pink Polka Dot Creations

Black Widow Spider Bites from Mom On Timeout

Silhouette Pumpkins at Uncommon

Halloween Directions Post at Young and Crafty

Candy Corn Cupcakes from Our Best Bite

Mummy Dogs from Our Best Bite

and

Caramel Apple Bites from Echoes of Laughter

I love all of these ideas and plan on incorporating many of them into our Halloween party.

Hungry and inspired yet?

Halloween Estimation – Printable

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Jennifer

This weekend we pulled out our Halloween stuff and started decorating the house. I found the following printable which we used at our Halloween party last year.

Just find an empty jar, count candy corns as you fill up the jar, write down the total somewhere you will remember, and let the party goers guess away.

Click here to download the Estimation_Candy_Corns Page

Enjoy!

Only a Parent…

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Jennifer

Only a parent can be enjoying a dinner of black beans & rice,

leave the table to wipe a little one’s rear end,

and then return to the table to enjoy a chocolate pudding dessert –

all without a wince or a second thought.

And if you are eating while you read this, you’re welcome.

Top 5 Reasons I’m a Bad Mom

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Jennifer

Here are the top 5 reasons I’m a bad mom according to my 7 year old…

5. My Mom hasn’t run out and bought the part necessary to fix the XBOX machine.

4. My Mom won’t let me eat dessert everyday, several times a day.

3. My Mom makes me wear pants if we have to go to a nice function.

2. My Mom won’t let me watch a Harry Potter movie every weekend.

And the #1 reason according to my 7 year old as to why I am a bad mother…

1. My Mom won’t let me order chicken fingers & fries at a Mexican restaurant!

(when he noticed the girl behind us received chicken fingers to eat he was not impressed me – but let the record show he loved the flautas)

First Day of School 2012 – 2013

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Jennifer

Today we walked the boys to school for their first day.

It’s a big year around here because it will be the last year of elementary school for Alex.

Next year it’s off to the big middle school – but let’s not even talk about that yet.

Our morning started off with pancakes with either a 5 – 5th grade – or a 1 – 1st grade – cut out of the middle – a tradition now in it’s second year.

While one child was super excited for school to start, one child was not.

While one child was super excited to bring requested teacher items to school, one child was not – “But she’s already going to have twenty boxes of tissues, why do I have to bring another?” – The response of, “They were on her teacher wish list,” did nothing to appease him.

While one child was happy to wear his old tennis shoes which fit, one child insisted he had to have new tennis shoes even though his current pair fit.

While one child let his parents bring him to class and walk into the room with him, one child insisted 5th graders walk themselves.

Oh boy, times are a changin’ around here.

Should be an interesting year.

Have a great first day to all of my teacher friends out there!

Fruit as a Dessert?

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Jennifer

Fruit is not a dessert.

I repeat. Fruit is not a dessert.

I hate it when you are visiting someones house and they say, “For dessert, I got ice cream for the kids and some some water melon for the adults.”

First, the kids should get the fruit, they’re still growing. The only part of me growing is my rear and I’ll be the one to worry about that thank you.

Second, watermelon is NOT a dessert.

Chocolate. Toffee. Marshmellows. Cake. Frosting. Cookies. Those are desserts!

But, in an effort to expand our horizons I decided to try a new dessert recipe which includes fruit.

Gasp! Horror!

I came across a recipe for a simple Blackberry Blueberry Pie and decided to give it a shot.

(unfortunately, I can’t find the original source so if you know it, tell me, and I’ll give proper credit)

Because of my hesitation for this kind of dessert, I decided to less the fruit in the recipe by one fourth.

After all, we don’t need to jump into crazy and implusive changes all at once!

The recipe is super simple and is mighty pretty when it’s all done.

The moment of truth came when it was time to taste this dessert.

I thought it was okay.

Fine. I’ll admit it was good.

Alright. Alright. It was GREAT! My husband and I loved it. I’ll have to admit that my vanilla ice cream ratio to blueberries was not equal BUT it was good and it is a fruit desert so that’s saying a lot from me.

The kids were less than thrilled with the dessert but considering two out of the three of them thought I was poisoning them and didn’t even try it, I’m still counting it as a win.

(and just for the record, those two pie haters love eating blueberries and blackberries right out of the container, but throw a little ice cream on there and it’s poison suddenly)

Since I have one more pie crust left I’m going to cut up some apples and follow the recipe using those while adding some cinnamon too.

While this dessert will never take the place of anything covered in chocolate in my mind, it was pretty tasty.

What about you? What’s your favorite dessert item to eat?

A Mary Poppins Carousel Cake

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Jennifer

Several months ago Caroline had a Mary Poppins birthday party.

So for a Mary Poppins party we had to have the proper hat...

play a bean bag M.P. toss game…

ride wooden “carousel” horses…

play pin the bow tie on the penguin…

play in the cardboard chimneys…

and have a Mary Poppins cake.

I started out this cake as I do all cakes – from a box mix.

Frost the cake and set aside.

To create the carousel, I used cake dividers (not sure of their official name but they are placed in between cakes with multiple layers) and ribbon.

First, I attached the bottom of a piece of ribbon with hot glue.

I continued to do this until I had gone completely around the circle.

I then glued another cake divider onto the bottom in order to cover up with glued bottoms.

I then glued a piece of ribbon along the side in order to cover up the opening between the circles.

Next, I glued a candy stick wrapped in ribbon to the center of the top circle.

I then took each ribbon individually and glued it to the center post (candy stick).

I topped the whole thing off with a little white pom pom.

I then attached the “legs” to the structure.

The legs are candy sticks wrapped in ribbon.

For the horses I found a picture online that I liked and printed it out on card stock.

I then cut out the horse and glued it to yet another candy stick.

Three horses late and the cake was done.

Caroline seemed to like it although it’s honestly not one of my better cakes.

Now that she is about to be three and half I’ve finally shared everything from her party.

And if you had any doubt about next years party, Caroline started talking about it roughly 10 seconds after her last guest left.

New Orleans Mini Vacation

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Jennifer

We were supposed to be at a 3 day soccer tournament this weekend but sadly it was cancelled.

And by sadly, I mean YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

So instead of sweating all day long watching kids run back and forth, we decided to sweat all day long while eating beignets, crawfish, and shrimp po-boys.

Definitely a better option.

So as you read this we are on our way back from visiting New Orleans and headed directly on our way to a week straight of Lean Cuisines.

Food Flags

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Jennifer

For my sister’s baby shower we decided on the colors of hot pink and turquoise. Our theme of the event was “What will the baby be?” or “?” since Amanda is choosing to wait to find out if she’s having a boy or a girl.

One of the items I made for the shower were food flags.

I didn’t actually get any pictures of them at the shower but I dressed up our breakfast to show you what they looked like.