118

The other night while watching the Bruins game one of the announcers made a remark about why one of the Chicago players wore the number he did. He explained that the numbers were the month and day that his son was born, which in turn made me think of the month and day that my own children were born and in doing so discovered a weird coincidence that I am a little bit embarassed to say it took me this long to notice. What I realized is that the numbers of the month and day of both girls is 118. Kenzie born 11-8 and Becca is 1-18. Now to get a little weirder the ages when I realized this are 11 and 8. I mentioned this to my husband which freaked him out a little. I continued to watch the game with all these ones and eights running through my head when lo and behold the Bruins score a goal. The number of the player that scored was

# 18 and he was assisted by #11. A little freaky right? I think I need to go buy a lottery ticket with these numbers!

Wordless Wednesday

Planting Plans

Even though the weather has been 10 degrees below normal and we still have a bunch of snow on the ground I am planning out some veggies to grow. We only did a few things last year, mainly tomatoes, squash and some herbs that were successful. I had a few others that weren't so successful- broccoli and mini watermelons that I got into the ground too late. This year I am ready to try again. I am hoping to add another raised bed and more veggies.

This past weekend Kenzie and I started some seeds inside. With such a short growing season here in the northeast, it seems beneficial to give plants a head start inside. We'll wait to put the carrots and corn directly into the ground after the final frost as these don't seem to transplant well.

Mackenzie, my little scientist also has her own experiment going on involving plants. For Christmas she recieved a Root Vue Farm which is basically a little container with a plexiglass side that allows you to observe how root vegetables grow underground. She has some radishes, onions and carrots planted and they have just started to sprout! I'll update her experiment later with some pictures as the actually veggies start to grow.

Wordless Wednesday

Spring??

Yesterday was the first full day of spring and everything around here was more white than green. We got several inches of snow and even though I am more than ready for the warmer weather it was pretty.

Now Thing 1 and Thing 2 are normally pretty good about going to bed on school nights. But last night Thing 1 snuck into Thing 2's room after they had been put to bed and lots of talking and loud giggling ensued- if they had been quiet I wouldn't have been the wiser. Anyway, even after being seperated they were still up reading later than I would have liked for a school night.

Perhaps they knew that the snow would lead to a two hour delay and that they would get to sleep in the next morning!

Some Faves

One of my favorite sites for weight watchers recipes has been Gina's Skinny Recipes. I have found lots of yummy stuff with the weight watchers points already figured out-pure awesomeness!

A favorite recipe is the Spinach Lasagna Rolls. It is a variation of lasagna and the kids will actually eat it! That is a huge plus in my book. Yes, Becca ate something with spinach in it, I almost fainted!

Today I just found another website called Mother Rimmy's Cooking Light Done Right . I haven't tried any recipes yet since I just found it but I hope to try some really soon!

One more recipe site that I have been enjoying is Frugal Antics of a Harried Housewife. Not necessarily weight loss friendly, but more good stuff that I hope to try for a special occasion. She recently posted a coconut cake that I really want to try, maybe for Easter.

St. Joseph's Day 2011

Today we traveled to Gloucester to celebrate St. Joseph's Day. This means no dieting for the day and lots of yummy food cooked by my mother-in-law.

Here are a few pics of the beautiful altar they have set-up.

And here are my girls trying to ignore the mamarazzi as usual. I finally got a couple of smiles.

Though not from both of them at the same time.

Lucky....or Not?

Yesterday the leprechauns made a little mischief while everyone was sleeping. We had green milk, green sugar and green toilet water! The girls also found a few little treats in their shoes-some japanese erasers and chocolate gold coins.

The girls have had the past two days off from school for parent-teacher conferences and a teachers workshop. Both girls recieved much praise from their teachers. Becca has all A's and one B. Kenzie 'exceeds expectations' in all areas. I am a very lucky mommy to have two smart girls. As a reward for such great work we hit the book fair so the girls could pick out some books. We were also lucky enough to be blessed with some beautiful weather with temperatures close to 60, perfect for playing outside.

Dom even got home a little early and joined us for a walk to the river.

It was a very nice day until I totally messed up dinner.

Now let me start by saying that I have come a long way in the kitchen. I couldn't even boil water when we first got married. We ate a lot of frozen pizza and steak-umms. Dom would often cook when he had a job close to home, as he has lots of experience since he had cooked his way through high school and college. Then he got a job farther away and I was in charge of dinner meaning we ate a lot of prepackaged things like Hamburger Helper and frozen meals, which is not of course real cooking.

Slowly I gained confidence in the kitchen. Dom, my mom and mother-in-law offered tips and encouragement. I started watching cooking shows and surfing the net for easy recipes. I am proud to say that I am no longer afraid of the gas stove and words like mince and saute don't send me running for a dictionary.

So yesterday, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I planned on making an Irish stew which I had made quite succesfully the year before. Stew is not hard to make, quite simple in fact, but not so I was not so lucky this time. Now my very sweet husband insists that the failure of dinner was not my fault but it was, mainly because I did not pay close enough attention when buying the lamb. (I still struggle a little with buying meat.) He said they should have labeled it differently, Anyway the label did say Lamb-Stew Meat B.I. What I failed to notice was the B.I. meaning of course bone in. But when I realized my mistake at home I still thought I could make it work by just taking the meat off the bone. What I soon realized is that the meat was very fatty and that really the only thing this was good for was making a stock and then throwing away and long story short we ate salad and smoothies for dinner. Not very irish, but luckily, still tasty!

Wordless Wednesday

Dear Four-Legged Furbabies...

Dear Four-legged Furbabies,
I would really appreciate it if you could come in the same door at the same time when coming in from outside. Waiting until I sit down on the couch after cleaning up from dinner is also unacceptable.
And cat, waiting until I walk away from the door after having just let out the dogs and meowing to got out-not okay. Also just because I am sitting, standing or looking out the sliding glass door it does not mean any you have to go in and out 14 times.
Tuukka, coming in the front door and running immediately to scratch at the back door to be let out again is not a fun game. The house is not a shortcut to the back so that you
can ambush Boomer and eat his face. Run AROUND the house next time. Lord knows you have plenty of extra energy to burn off. And speaking of burning off energy, You get walked at least once sometimes twice a day on most days. When we return from said walks it is not necessary for you to come back inside just because I do. Especially if it means as soon as I remove my outdoor clothing and sit down for a second you are at the door scratching to go out again. Just stay outside!!
Misty, aka: The Keeper of the Door, I will not leave the front door open in 20 degree weather while you take 30 minutes decide you actually want to go out or not. The door to the downstairs will remain closed at MY discretion not yours! It is closed for a reason- usually to keep Tuukka out of trouble or to block the noise from Thing 1 and Thing 2 (aka-Becca & Kenzie). You can sit there and meow and give me the evil eye all you want, it will remain closed!
Your prompt attention to these matters is greatly apreciated,
Love, MOM

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Okay, so Dr. Seuss's birthday was actually yesterday but the kids are celebrating in school all week long. I always want to do something special but for some reason I never remember until the last minute. There were several websites that had lots of cute ideas but I really liked this.
If you check out the link you'll see she actually used clothespins for the bodies and pon-poms for the hair. I did my own version with these little peg figures and found some blue boa material. Love the way the hair looks but there are now little blue feathers floating all around the house because once you cut off a piece of this stuff it sheds like crazy!
Other than the pegs, boa material, some paint and a fine tip black marker that's all there is to this little project.

But I couldn't just stop with Thing 1 and Thing 2. I had to add Thing 3 and Thing 4 because I just happened to have some smaller pegs on hand. Anyone who got a Chrismas card from us will understand. For those who didn't get a Christmas card we did a family photo with the four of us in t-shirts that had thing 1,2, 3 and 4 on them. I wanted to include that picture in the post but

for some reason I can't find it on the computer.

Wordless Wednesday