Underwear, Angry Birds, Creature Power and Mario?

My boys are growing up. And I'm noticing it in many ways. Aiden's is the most noticeable as he is in the middle of potty training. Like Ian, Aiden just decided it was time to use the potty.

 It started small. Him telling us on occasion that he needed to pee or poop. As I stated in my Boyne post, our trip back lasted much longer due to his telling us he needed to pee. Yesterday, after telling me he wanted to pee I asked if he wanted a diaper or underwear. He chose underwear. He wore a diaper for nap and one again after wetting his underwear while playing outside, and of course at night. But this morning when he woke up he again chose underwear.

More often than not he is wetting his underwear. But he trying to let me know when he needs to potty. And we always race to the potty to try. I figure it took Ian three solid days of being wet before I saw improvement and he was 3 months older than Aiden is currently. Cai took a solid week of no success before we even got him to use the potty once. And he was almost three. I think Aiden is doing well. And while there are moments I wish I could have planned this into my schedule, it is nice to see him making his own decisions on the matter.

 My toddler is quickly growing up.

The other boys are getting older as well. And I see this manifest itself mostly in their play. Both are more imaginative. Ian, especially, has gotten more aggressive. Which to be honest is very, very frustrating. Ian comes home with games about Mario and Bowser and I wonder does he even understand what it is he is playing? Sure Mark has let the boys play MarioCart and the original MarioBrothers on our mediaPC (a computer Mark creative for our TV), but he didn't start this game until months after said games were played. The joys of peer influence.

Of course, while some of his games are too aggressive for my taste and we have to sit down and talk about what is appropriate behavior and what's not, other games just make me smile. A favorite PBS kids show for Ian is Wild Kratts. Often for days after watching this show Ian and Cai will run around the house with "creature power." They have been hawks, shark, bears, and many other animals. No longer are my boys satisfied with pretending to be cats, dogs, dinosaurs or lions. No they are polar bears, great white sharks, and other animals I forget they even know about till I remember "oh yeah, they saw that on Wild Kratts."  The fact they even remember half of these animals illustrates how much they are growing up.  And while they can become aggressive in their play with these "creature powers" it more often than not make me smile to see them incorporating what they learned into their play.

 Yesterday a new game was added to their list: Angry Birds. Now Ian loves playing this on Mark's phone when he gets a chance. Mark doesn't allow them to play on his phone often, but when he does Ian tends to either play Angry Birds or some racing game. Cai likes Super Why game. Yesterday the boys set up balls on our couch. These balls were the pigs. And the boys then pretended to be the birds and would run and jump onto the couch and balls. I'm still not sure how I feel about this game. I do know that I'm grateful that they were not running and jumping on each other. And really they were kinda cute all running towards the couch together.

 My boys are growing up fast. And while I don't like everything this brings, it sure is fun to watch their transformations.

Boyne Highlands 2012

As I mentioned yesterday, this last weekend we spent up at Boyne Highlands. We left on Thursday, getting on the road at 10am. My plan had been to get out at 9, but somehow this seems to be our fate right now. Really we were mostly packed the night before, just had to get it in the van.

Here is where I should give a short life update. After become very frustrated with his job (long hours with little regard to his family commitments, etc) Mark applied to and was hired on to a company call eFolder. While based in Georgia, many of their employees work remotely from around the country. Mark's old boss from Kansas now work witht his company and had encouraged Mark to apply. So Mark's last day at his old job was the Wednesday before we left. And he started his new job on Tuesday after we got back.

Ok back to my main point. We would have gotten out shortly after my goal of 9am, but we had to run to the grocery store for garlic bread (I was cooking that night) and by Mark's old work to drop off keys to the company van that he forget and brought home with him the night before. :) Oh well. We did make the trip in 6 hours which was really really good.

Skiing weekend tends to go like this. Drive up on Thursday. Depending on age of family members, some leave before dawn in order to ski in the late morning and all afternoon. We then gather at our townhouse, eat a meal and either lounge around playing games and hanging out or for some go night skiing or to the pool/hot tub at the lodge. We take turns cooking meals and I cooked Thursday night. The great part of being the first one to cook is that I get to relax and enjoy everyone else's cooking the rest of the weekend. :)

Friday everyone that skis goes skiing. This is the day Mark and I have choose to put boys into ski lessons. This year, like last year,  Ian went to all day ski camp; from 9:30am till 4:30pm. In addition to morning and afternoon lessons, Ian got to eat lunch and have an afternoon activity there with the instructors and other kids. I'll mention here that Ian really wanted to learn to snowboard this year. But the snowcamps do not start till age 7 for snowboarding. You can get private lessons for younger kids but they are more expensive, much more. So I convinced Ian to ski this year, with the promise that when he is 7 he can choose to snowboard if he still wants to. Anyway, after showing the instructors he remembered how to "pizza" or stop they worked with him and other kids at his level on turning. He had a great time, to the point of being disappointed about not getting to go back to lessons the next day.

Ian with his instructor

Cai too got to take lessons this year. However, since he still naps in the afternoon I decided that a morning lesson only would be better. I could tell in the beginning he was nervous. He looked at me with "I don't want you to leave but I want to ski so I'll let you" look in his eye. I think it helped that Ian was there even if they didn't stay together and that Ian was so excited to ski. Cai had a great time though. And his instructor only had positive things to say about the morning. Cai spend the afternoon back at the town house with Aiden and his cousins Josiah and Oliver. My mother-in-law doesn't downhill ski so she spend alot of the weekend watching over kids. I was so very grateful for her excitement to watch them, allowing me to ski.

Mark and me sitting on the lift

Mark and I spend the morning with Rachel, Mark's sister, on the front runs. Then we spend the afternoon just the two of us on the back runs. It was nice to ski together. And as Mark commented at some point over the weekend, it was nice to ski together with the knowledge that we could wait at the bottom for each other. This is especially nice for Mark who likes to go faster and is much, much more daring than I am.

me at the bottom of one of the runs

That evening was spent relaxing, reading, knitting, playing games and for Mark sitting in the lodge hot tub. Several people went out night skiing, but I can't remember now if Mark did or not. I know he went night skiing at least one of the evenings but whether it was Friday or Saturday I can't remember. And really it probably doesn't matter.

one of the boys took this

Saturday morning Mark and I took both Cai and Ian out to the bunny hill to ski. We started on the magic carpet and then went up the lift. Both boys had a great time. Cai was having trouble with his "pizza" so Mark ended up keeping him in-between his legs with his arms draped over Cai's shoulders to keep him steady.

Mark and Cai at the top of the bunny hill

 Ian was doing really well turning when we went up the magic carpet, but decided the big hill was too hard to turn. He would race down only using his "pizza" (tips together) to slow down. Scared me silly. But he had a great time. We are purchasing a helmet for that kid next year. He is too daring for my taste.

Ian skiing down the magic carpet run

 The afternoon we spent back at the townhouse while Daddy went skiing. Then we all went down to the lodge (Aiden included this time) and swam in the heated outdoor pool. This boys love this and they get to see the hill and skiers while swimming. Plus the pool has an elevated area surrounding by bars that they can swimming, walk and Ian can even sit in, that is part of the larger pool. This way Mark and I could be in the deeper area and the kids could be near us but in their own area where they can touch. It's lots of fun.

sitting the the lodge waiting to pick up Ian

Saturday evening is much the same as any. I should state here that we played an awesome game called Pandemic on Saturday night. Rather than playing against each other you have to work together to save the world form the spreading diseases. Sadly we lost and the earth was over taken by the pandemic. But we sure did have a great time playing.  Friday night we played my new game of Anomia. I had played this at Winter Retreat with my Jr High Youth and thought it was so much fun that I bought a copy. It's a word/ random knowledge game. And lots of fun. Especially when you have two teenage brothers playing against each other. ;) Oh sibling rivalry is so much fun to watch when its not me.

We headed home on Sunday after breakfast. The car trip took longer coming home, but we were okay with that. Mostly because we stopped so Aiden could use the potty. While we changed his diaper twice in 7 hours, we probably could have used one diaper the whole way. He was that on top of letting us know when he needed to go. Potty training is here. And while its overwhelming cause we were not expecting it, it is still very exciting.

new goggles were a big hit

tired after a long weekend

As always I was sad the weekend was over. I could spend many more days up there skiing and hanging out with friends and family. But alas our time is done and I get to start dreaming about next year. The thing we look forward to: Cai will go to all day camp and Aiden will get a morning ski lesson. Our boys are going up.

To look at more of our Boyne pictures visit Mark's picasa site

Completed Projects :)

Almost every year, since Mark was in high school, several members of Mark's family and another family from church, along with other family and individuals depending on the year, travel up to Boyne Highlands in northern Michigan for a weekend of skiing and fun. I've had the pleasure of joining in on this awesome weekend now four times. This year being the second year in a row! With us living in Goshen now, and thus the trip easier to manage than when we were in Kansas, Mark and I both hope to continue the family tradition for our boys to grow up in. Last weekend was our Boyne trip. And prior to this trip I had a long list of things I wanted to complete. Really I was very proud of myself. In the two weeks leading up to the trip I got most of what I wanted to do accomplished. And I have to say I'm very pleased with all my efforts. 

Christmas 2009 my creative sister-in-law Rachel gave the boys a felt puppet theater and two felt puppets. She had seen a puppet theater held up by a tension rod in a store and thought "I could do that." We have enjoyed the theater, and enjoy the puppets even more.

Christmas 2009 

This last Christmas (2011) Rachel gave Cai two more puppets, an owl and a dragon, to go along with our frog and bear.

Christmas 2011

 Also this Christmas, Ian was giving The Frog and Toad Treasury. If you have never read Frog and Toad and have small kids you should. They are fun. Both Cai and Ian love the stories. So realizing that we have a frog puppet, I thought wouldn't it be great to have a toad puppet and then they could act out the stories from the books. So I set to work making them a toad puppet.

Toad front and back

 Being that my nephew also loves Frog and Toad, I made him a set as well.

set for Josiah

 Since I was making puppets I made a cat for Aiden cause he loves cats right now

after detailed glued on

. And a tree. Now this once might seem weird, but trust me there is a reason. Ever since Cai got the owl at Christmas the boys have used this puppet only with an odd green one (I think it looks like a green gingerbread man) and sing Owl in the Tree, a song they learned at the library storytime. Watching them I decided that maybe a tree would be fun for them.

owl in the tree says "hoo hoo hoo"

 All three new puppets were met with squeals of joy.

one of the boys took this

And I learned some thing in the process. Most importantly, if you use hot glue to attach any detail pieces, glut them on after you sew the puppet pieces together. You can not machine sew through hot glue. My poor cat puppet had to be hand sewed because I had already hot glued the stripes on. Still it seems to be holding together.

The next thing I wanted to complete before our Boyne trip was a car road made out of old jeans. Rachel had told me about this when I was telling her about all the old jeans I had. When she asked if she could have some, I told her I would be glad to make it. Rach had seen the idea on pinterest.

all our road pieces

 Of course it should be noted that I didn't finish it until the night before we left. Oh well, it was made and the boys all enjoyed it.

 I had meant for it to go home with Rach, but it ended up in our bag. I'll give it to her sometime this week. Since the boys were giving an awesome road area rug from their grandparents for Christmas we don't need the road pieces.

In addition to some new toys, I made several new snacks for our trip. Since Cai can't have peanut butter, I tried soy nut butter in puppy chow. It turned out really good. Sunflower butter (our normal peanut butter substitute) just isn't the same and can sometimes just make a recipe taste odd. But the soy nut butter worked great, no oddness at all.  I made strawberry fudge from a link my mother shared with me. Two ingredients- strawberry icing and white chocolate chips. It turned out ok, really sweet and soft. Not something I would make very often to be sure.

 The snack I'm most excited/proud about was the gluten free goldfish crackers I made.

My sister-in-law Andrea sent me the link to this recipe. I used my own flour mix in place of Bob's Red Mill gluten free all-purpose flour. I also added a teaspoon of xanthan gum. The original recipe come from Chef Chloe. I didn't have a goldfish cutter. But when I was talking to Rachel she said something about using old aluminum pop cans. So that's what I used. I cut a strip out of an old coca-cola can, folded over the top edge so it wouldn't be sharp when I pressed down on it, and shaped it into a fish, Then I used scotch tape to tape it together. Simple.

 The downside to this type of cutter is that after only a few uses it would bend out of shape and I would have to reshape it.

 

Other than that it worked great.  Next time I make these I will add less onion powder and maybe less nutritional yeast. The flavor, while great for me, was alittle much for the kids.

one of the boys took this

The last completed project I want to share is this. I finished my sweater! Yes, the sweater I started last year. Here is the blog where I shared my goal of finishing within the year.  I'm alittle late, but not much. And mostly I'm just so excited to finish it. I don't have a picture of it completed yet. I'll try and take one soon. Next up is socks. We'll see how quickly I get a pair done. I haven't started yet. Spent most of my time up at Boyne reading when I wasn't skiing, playing with kids or playing games with everyone else.
Well that's it. I realize this isn't an update on our family or the kids. But that's what you get today. Boyne and skiing update to come soon. Any fun projects you've completed lately??

Menu Plan Monday- Jan 23rd, 2012

Hello world! Sorry for being mute for over a month. Somehow blogging never made it on the top of my priority list and thus got dropped. To be completely host, menu planning even got pushed to the back burner and was only a vague outline in my head. Good thing its soup season and thus we tend to have leftovers to feed us. Sadly that means I'm starting to get tired of chili and cheese corn chowder (my staple soups).  And its not even February yet. Even without a lot of snow I'm somehow done with winter, if for no other reason than I miss fresh green, crunchy veggies (oh and summer fruits too). And to make it all even sadder, I lost all my frozen berries when our refrigerator died on us. We have a shiny new black fridge but no more frozen strawberries or blueberries. In other food news, I have successfully used my new pasta cutter for my kitchen-aide (my Christmas gift from my father! Thank you Papa). I made Gluten free egg noodles for chicken and noodle soup. We all loved it. In fact I think I'll make it again late  in the week if we have leftover chicken. :) I had taken a picture of our noodle soup, but have yet to upload it. And I'm lazy right now and don't feel like searching the house for the camera. Another post maybe.
In family news we are all doing pretty good. Aiden just came down the stairs in tears but Homer has proved to be a fine distraction and is currently curled on the couch letting Aiden pet him. Even if that cat seems to love Mark more than me, I can't argue that he is a fine cat for all the torment he puts up from the boys. He even seems to like Aiden when the kid is calmer and not chasing and screaming after him. Of course being two those moments are rare and short.
Ian and Cai are both still loving preschool. Mother's Night is this week. Last night I went to the school with Ian and tonight is Cai's turn. I'm enjoying the one on one time with them as those moments are so rare. Especially since currently everyone is in a "We love Dad" stage. When Dad is home the boys want very little to do with me, unless of course they are hurt or upset with Dad for some mean thing he has done. ;) I'm sure I could say more, but as I try to keep my updates on menu post shorter I'll just end it there. If I'm feeling motivated I'll post a longer update soon.
Ok on to my menu for the week-

Monday: Cheese Corn Chowder with biscuits
Tuesday: Ethiopian Lentil bowl (from Simply in Season) I should note that while the recipe calls for red lentils I just used brown lentils cause that's what I had.
Wednesday: Oven Roasted Chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, and maybe homemade bread
Thursday: Chicken and noodle soup (if there is leftover chicken) or some other soup
Friday: Eat at my mother-in-law's (I'm heading out with the Jr. Youth at church for Winter Retreat shortly following dinner)
Saturday: Mark's in charge- I'm at Winter Retreat :)
Sunday: Something simple as I'm sure I'll be tired out from running after Jr. High Kids all weekend :)

Ok so if you want more menus head over to Organizing Junkie. I'll try to post more frequently that I have been, or at least start back up with my Menu posts. But now its time for me to check on dinner. Happy cooking and eating!!

Gluten free Reviews #2

So we started our adventures in eating gluten free back in August. Now in December I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of cooking and eating gluten free. And since it's been almost four months since my original review post  I figure it's time for another. As one might expect, after four months I have come to rely on a few staples in my kitchen. So I figure I'll start there.

Gluten Free All-purpose Flour Blend
In my freezer (because that is were I store the majority of my flours) I try to keep a gallon plastic bag of GF flour blend. My recipe is loosely based on Mary Frances' flour blend. Go check out her blog/website at http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/. She can be very helpful. Anyway, some friend of mine in Kansas fostered a child with Celiac Disease and so I turned to them early on for resources and suggestion for cooking and living gluten free. They happily gave me all sorts of information including several recipes that they loved. In there was an adaptation of one of Mary Frances' flour blends. (Their child could not have corn or dairy in addition to no gluten)
 Here is C and M's (my KS friends) recipe.
3 parts Brown rice flour
3 parts Sorghum flour
2 parts potato starch  (or tapioca starch)
1 part Millet flour
I have had a hard time finding Millet flour. In fact I haven't found any in the Goshen grocery stores. In the beginning I substituted buckwheat flour. And we liked that. More recently I have been using teff flour instead of millet. We really like the flavor this flour mix has.
And I tend to use it in everything. Such as
Pancakes- the recipe I have from C and M was adapted from Mary France's pancakes
Sandwich bread -again an adaptation of Mary France's sandwich bread. I should note here that I use a package of Active Yeast which is about 2 1/4 tsps I think. It seems to work well for me assuming I let it rise for a full hour in a warm spot.
Biscuits- this is one of the places I use a gluten free flour mix in place of wheat flour in a recipe. I have a great biscuit recipe  that I love And i have found that just substituting the flour with this flour blend works really well.

Cereal
We like cereal not only for breakfast but as part of snack with raisins and other dried fruit. Chex is gluten free and I tend to keep both rice chex and corn chex around. I even made gluten free chex mix using corn and rice chex, almonds, cashews, gluten free pretzels, and black bean chips. It was very yummy.

Rice Krispies has a gluten free version that my mother used to make rice krispie treats. They tastes good. And weren't too hard the next day. Of course we made sure to cover them with plastic wrap. I don't tend to keep these handy but it's nice to know they are available

ErviroKidz Organic Gorilla Munch Cereal seemed to be a big hit with Cai.  I send snacks with him to Preschool and this is what is currently there. He teachers say he loves them and is even disappointment when he doesn't get it due to the fact that snack that day is already gluten free.

Post Pebbles Cereals (both Coco and Fruity) are gluten free. Over thanksgiving my step-mother used Coco Pebbles to make rice crispy bars. Agian these are not something I keep on hand, but knowing it's out there and that it tastes good is nice. :)

Snack food
With little kids running around I have to have regular snacks available. Some things are easy, such as fruit or veggies with dip. Other things have been more tricky. Here are some of the staple snack foods I try to keep around.

Pretzels -Glutino brand twist and stick pretzels are enjoyed in our house. Everyone seems to like them. Although sometimes I'll hear Ian say he want the "gluten ones" again.

Crackers- Glutino has a round cracker that reminds me of Ritz. They taste pretty good. And we like them with soups or spreads.
                Crunchmaster as gluten free crackers. Although these did not go over as well with little boys. Don't know why, cause I like them.
                S'Moreables Graham Style Crackers are enjoyed by the younger too boys. Ian will only eat them after being told we have not other kinds in the house.
               Mary's gone Crackers are also enjoyed by all of us. I just got some to try in chex mix. We'll see how they taste that way.

Chips- Food Should Taste good has excellent chips. We really enjoy the multigrain and the sweet potato.

Snack bars- EnviroKidz Organic crispy rice bars are loved around here. Especially the chocolate.
                    Simply Sugar and Gluten Free by Amy Green has a great chewy granola bar recipe. I love it.It is one of the many wonderful recipes in Ms Green's cookbook.

Finally I want to share a book with you. The Essential Gluten-Free Grocery Guide put out by Triumph Dining has been very helpful. I have come to keep it in my bag so I always have it whether at the store or a friends house. It lists food companies and products that are gluten free along with alittle (not much mind you) information on the risk of cross-contamination. It has been a good purchase and makes finding things alot easier.

I'm sure there is alot more I could share. But I'll leave it here for now. :)

Menu Plan Monday- Dec 12th

Yes, yes it's Tuesday. But hey I got alot done yesterday so I'm not feeling to terrible about being a day late on posting this. Don't have alot to say this morning. Mark is taking the day off. So I'm at our local coffee shop The Electric Brew all by myself. Enjoying an Egg Nog Latte, a frosted pumpkin bar, and time to myself. Mark has been working late many evenings including Sunday afternoon-evening. So the time without boys is very much appreciated. Anyway on to the menu.

Monday: leftovers
Tuesday: ham and kale quiche
Wednesday: Spaghetti with side veggie
Thursday: Potatoes and Peas with Ham (from More with Less)
Friday: Sweet Potato and Black bean Burritos (from Simply in Season)
Saturday: leftovers or other simple meal
Sunday: finger food dinner at Mark's parents- we are decorating gingerbread boys and playing games in the late afternoon/early evening. :)

Okay so that's the week. Hopefully it will go smoothly and Mark won't have to work too many late hours. Keep you fingers crossed to me. Oh and check out Organizing Junkie for more menus.

Menu Plan Monday- Dec 5th

My apologies for the lack of update and menu last week. We got home from our Kansas trip late Sunday evening. Unloaded the van, put kids to bed and then just relaxed till we crawled in bed ourselves. Last week was spend unpacking, catching up on laundry, and decorating the house for Christmas. Anyone else having a hard time with the fact that yesterday was the second Sunday of Advent?  Of course we missed church the first Sunday due to traveling, so that makes it jarring for me as well. I"m happy to say though that I did get all the decorations up. I have a box of fresh pine branches that still need hung, but I just got those on Saturday. A friend of Mark's family had a large branch fall in her yard, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law went and picked  up several of the cut pieces for holiday decorations. They were nice enough to pick some up for me as well. In other fun news, Mark finished the bookcase at the top of the stairs this weekend. It still needs the middle shelves, but the structure is there. :) I'll have to take pictures and post them so you can see what I mean. Ok on to our menu. This week will be crazy busy on a few days. Bless my mother-in-law for allowing us to come have dinner at her house. Makes my life so much easier.

This weeks menu is a s follows:
Monday: Dinner with Mark's folks - I'm bring GF bread (Mark has to lead a training for work)
Tuesday: Tacos with leftover Thanksgiving turkey (My mom send home leftover meat. I put it in the freezer and have been taking it out a little at a time)
Wednesday: Dinner with Mark's folks (Mark and I both have church obligations that overlap. So Grandma and Grandpa have agreed to help with the kids)
Thursday: Ethiopian Lentil Bowl (From Simply in Season)
Friday: Homemade GF Pizza
Saturday: Broccoli Cheese Soup
Sunday: Pancakes and bacon

Don't forget to check out Organized Junkie for more menus.  Happy Monday Everyone!!!!