Wordless Wednesday

the blurry edition! This pic isn't the best but you can totally see how much Evan loves building blanket tunnels!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Ham Tetrazzini

So I'm not sure what came over me but I decided to buy a 1/2 ham, cut it in 1/2 and cook part of it for me and Evan for dinner the other night. That's right....me & the boy who doesn't eat meat. Great idea! I ate lots myself but there was still a ton left over. I decided to try to figure out a way to get Evan to eat it.....so basically it had to involve noodles somehow. Here's what I found

Ham Tetrazzini Adapted from www.allrecipes.com

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper chopped
1 Tbsp butter
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup diced ham
1 box whole wheat bowtie pasta

Cook pasta according to package direction & drain.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, saute chopped onion and bell pepper in butter until tender.

Stir in soup, water & shredded cheese. Heat mixture until cheese melts, stirring often.

Add ham and cooked (and drained) pasta. Stir until heated through and serve hot.

Recipe Notes - This turned out pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of recipes using condensed soup but I could see using this again. Evan ate the noodles but picked out the ham. Doh!

See what else is cooking this Wednesday over at Shan's!

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More Mommy Weekend Photos & The Moose is Pooping!

Even though I'm getting near my wits end with Dewey being away, Evan and I have had some great moments. One of the highlights that I didn't get a picture of was when he bent down & kissed the sidewalk art that we had all drawn before Dewey left. He kissed the flower & said "Mama drew the flower" and kissed the rainbow and said "Daddy drew the rainbow". I know...Eww he kissed the sidewalk but it was still sweet!

Food has been an issue for me that I didn't really even think about before Dewey left. I cook after I get home every night (our nanny doesn't cook) and I have a hard time getting excited about cooking for myself and a picky toddler. Enter TAKE OUT! Here is Evan eating teryaki chicken noodles from Wok in the Box (not a very good restaurant but they do make decent teryaki chicken noodles). At one point he shouted "Mama the noodles are dancing!"




We also had "Mama McMuffins" (a shameless rip off of Dewey's Daddy McMuffins but I don't care!). Evan actually ate some of it. You just never know with that kid!


On a totally unrelated note....we've been ignoring the whole potty training thing. He doesn't really seem ready and I must admit that I'm more than a little lazy. We did bring a potty in and put it in the first floor bathroom in the hopes that he would be interested. Nope, not at all. Well, until today. I heard him rustling around near the bathroom while I was cooking supper. I walked around the corner in time to see him go in the bathroom with a blanket...hmmmm. He excitedly said "Mama, Moose is pooping!" I said "huh?" because I had no idea what he was talking about...I just hoped the blanket wasn't in the toilet. When I went in the bathroom here's what I saw.




I said "Well maybe we should give him some privacy and let him finish". :)

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Sweetpea!

Okay, so Evan is almost 2 1/2 & he still sleeps in his sleepsack. Most kids are out of them by now but not my guy. I'm begining to wonder if I will be sewing him sleepsacks for when he's 15....let's hope not! Anyway, it really cracks me up that he can cruise around like nobody's business even with it on. He looks just like sweetpea on Popeye, too. Oh....and he calls it a "ha ha" because he has this cute little trick of calling things totally unrelated to what they are really called simply because somebody said it "around" the same time. Another case of this is the game Tap Tap...he calls it "Baby Head"....who knows!

This video is a tad bit long but it shows off his mad skills at walking in the haha & some of his new talking abilities. One thing to note...when the kleenex falls the second time he turns around & looks at the cat across the room & blames it on the cat. So Evan!

We watched it a couple of times tonight & he also thinks it is about the funniest think EVER!




Enjoy!

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Mommy & Evan Saturday!

Dewey has been away since Wednesday & has a few more days left to go. I must admit that I have a shorter temper than I would like when I have Evan by myself. I don't see how single parents do it! He really knows how to push my buttons but he also knows how to turn me into mush. Since it is rare that we have a Saturday without prior commitments & fall is coming fast, I decided to take Evan to Butterfield Acres. This is the last weekend they are open this year except for their annual "pumpkin hunts" in October. We did their Easter "thing" so I don't think we'll be going for a pumpkin. Anyhoo....I invited my friend Beckie & her little boy Teigan along. He and Evan are close to the same age so I hoped he would like it as much as Evan. Unfortunately, they live in South Calgary so it took them a LONG time to get there. Ooops! Oh well, I think they had a good time once they got there! You can see all of our pictures here.

Evan hugging a goat.

The goats are CRAZY! He was shooing them out of the wagons like he shoos the cats at home.

Not a smile to be had when he stuck his head out the peep hole. I think he might be tired of me & my ever present camera!
Evan's whispering "Avoid looking at the camera....it drives her NUTS!"

Pony Ride!

What's more fun that kicking the fence with your friend? Nothing!

Feeding the horses. I kept thinking that he was going to get bitten but he managed to keep all his digits intact.

The bunnies could run but they couldn't hide. Evan crawled under a step to corner this one. Thankfully he was pretty nice to them.

After getting home, Evan was exhausted. All that running around made him need a nap BAD. He actually slept for 2 hours which is amazing since he normally naps for 30 minutes to an hour. After he woke up we headed to the mall. I wanted to do some shopping (with a toddler....yea right!) and Evan had requested fries for dinner. We had a great time looking at stuff & at people. Evan got to get one of his favorite "race car" strollers (it's a huge plastic car that is pretty much impossible to take in any store) and there was a balloon animal lady who made him a monkey. Put that with fries & what more could a kid want????

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Talking

Just a short post (while I'm watching Grey's) to let you know some of the cute things Evan says these days. He is talking up a storm and getting better at talking every day. One day soon he'll be talking perfectly & to be honest I'll be more than a little sad.

His favorite thing these days is to come up to me and say "ahhh-choo" & then "Mama! Evan neezed! Evan neezed!"

He likes to be really, really clear these days. If he wants something he says "Mama, Evan wants eggs too also!" Everything is "too, also"

He runs after the cats yelling "Abby....Zoe"! They then run in the other direction as fast as possible.

Oh and did I mention that the other day on the way home from Nana's he said "Oh shit"? Yep! Plain as day. He said it at least one more time before I said "Evan, maybe "oh no" would be a better thing to say, okay?" Thankfully he hasn't said it since (or at least not that I've heard).

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Wordless Wednesday

I promise I will be back to blogging soon. Still recovering from the weekend & super busy at work. Until then, here's a little wordless Wednesday.....Evan had ravioli last night. Nuf said.

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Apple Crepes

A yummy breakfast or brunch staple. You can add fillings to make these sweet or savoury.

Basic Crepes
Recipe from allrecipes.com

2 cups all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix flour & salt in one bowl. Mix liquid ingredients in another bowl. Add liquid to flour & beat until smooth. Batter should be relatively thin so that it will spread in the pan. I had to add about 3/4 cup extra water.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter on the pan using ~ 1/4 cup for each crepe (or more if this amount won't cover the area you want). Tilt the pan in a circular motion so the surface is coated evenly.

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes until the bottom is light golden brown in spots. Flip and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Apple filling - makes enough to fill about 4 crepes
2 apples
2 Tbsp powdered (icing) sugar
2 Tbsp butter

Heat in non-stick skillet on stove until apples are tender. Increase recipe for the number of people you have.

Recipe Notes: These are a little fiddly until you get the hang of it but they are very, very good.

See what else is cooking this Wednesday over at Shan's!

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Lazy Sunday!

After a busy Saturday at Calaway Park, we decided to lay low on Sunday. I got up and tried my hand at making crepes. I have to say that they turned out pretty darn good for my first try! Dewey, Evan and Will loved them. Nicole, not so much. Dewey and I had both forgotten that crepes weren't really her thing. Oh well, everyone else liked them! I will post the recipe I used on Wednesday.

We're starting to teach Evan his letters. Sunday was the first day so we did a craft with a lower case "a". "a" is for apple. We also had apple crepes for even more letter tie in! I got this great craft idea from the blog No Time for Flashcards. Cute, huh?

After brekkie and crafts, we headed out to the park. There was lots to see and do including blowing dandelion seeds & playing with ladybugs!

Check out the ladybug on his hand. Also check out the University of Alabama shirt that he picked out himself!

Big breath in so that he can definitely dislodge some dandelion seeds. He may have also swallowed some of those dandelion seeds as well!

When we got home we finished up the day with some sidewalk chalk. I must say that the sidewalk art gave me an extra little lift this morning as I left for work. Maybe we should draw more often!


What's your favorite way to spend a lazy Sunday?

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Calaway Park!

Dewey has a few busy weeks ahead so we had the kids this weekend in exchange for weekend days we'll miss in the future. Since the weather here in Calgary has been WONDERFUL, we decided that it would be a great day to go visit our local theme park, Calaway Park. Don't kid yourself, this is nothing like Six Flags or Disney but it's pretty good for the kids. It was the first time Evan has ever ridden a "ride" before. He liked them but he hated waiting in line for anything. Since the weather was so nice, people were out in full force so there was (unfortunately for Evan) lots of waiting. We still had a great time & Evan really liked it.

I did manage to force myself onto one ride....the mini-Ferris wheel. BIG MISTAKE! It stopped so often & for so long that Evan was bored. He then tried to crawl out of the open window when we were at the top of the Ferris wheel. I was shouting "Sit down" while he was saying "Evan climb!" I was very, very glad when we got OFF that ride!

Will & Nicole are on there somewhere. They have no fear & no motion sickness issues. I get nauseous just LOOKING at these rides!

What's better than riding in a giant easter egg? Why riding in a giant strawberry! I forgot to take a picture of that ride. Evan cried when he had to get off.

The tot train. It's so boring that there was no one in line so they got to ride twice.

The fam waiting for the train. Aren't Will & Nicole growing up!

Evan driving the truck full of other kids. He liked this ride the best.

Hope everyone had a marvelous weekend! I hope this wonderful weather sticks around a bit longer as I am going on my first ever "golf trip" this weekend. I am one of 3 girls amongst the 50+ guys. Oh, and did I mention that I SUCK at golf? Cross your fingers for me!

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Even More Firsts!

Yesterday was a day full of firsts. When babies are in their first year you are constantly doing "first this" and "first that". These days it has slowed down a bit. Evan loves his routine so more things are "the billionth time we did x". Yesterday, however, we had 2 firsts. Evan fingerpainted with real, honest to goodness finger paint! Prior to this he had some of the ColorWonder fingerpaints which are the consistency & appearance of Crisco. The pictures then magically colorize but only where Crayola thought they "should". Plus the paper stayed greasy forever. Yuck! Evan liked them but I was quite happy when we got to throw it all way. After yesterday, though, I have a nice "real" painted picture on my fridge. Awesome!


The other first was that we finally broke down and gave Evan peanut butter. My doctor had suggested we wait until he is 3. After reading yet another article proclaiming that waiting to introduce peanuts is one of the reasons kids GET allergies, I just said "to hell with it" and gave him some on a piece of bread. Amazingly enough the world kept on spinning and he had no reaction. Phew! One more neurosis bites the dust!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, hot pink washable marker will come out of white carpet using only water. Those things are amazing!

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Another Camping Season Comes to an End...

The kids went back to school extra early this year so our September Long weekend camping trip was shorter than usual. We made up for it, though, with awesome weather, an awesome campsite & great friends. Seven families rented out the group camping site at Etherington Creek (Kananaskis) campground. This was a new group site for us & we loved it. We've stayed at the Lower Lakes group site before & we love the cook shack there b/c it has a fireplace. The camping sites aren't great, however, because it's kind of like being in a parking lot. This new group site had individual sites with trees between each site. It also had a cookshack but without the fireplace. All in all, I think I like the new site better.

Camping season has felt much shorter this year for some reason. Maybe it's because two of our friends (& families) have moved to Ft. MacMurray, maybe it's because we had crappy weather...who knows. I do know that we did have a great time whenever we camped & I can't wait for next year!

Ben's been sick with a cold/flu but he was a trooper all weekend. He stayed up with us & managed to have a pretty good time even though he felt rotten.

Kate & Evan enjoyed playing with the old fashioned water pump.

So did all the big kids!

Coz, Heels & Mark cooking wings, fries, ribs & mushrooms for our big group dinner. They did an AWESOME job!

Evan playing by the campfire in his brown bear suit. He wore that suit ALOT this weekend!

The musketeers...Nicole & Madeleine!

Chess was the game of the weekend. Jonah (front left) taught Will to play. I wouldn't have thought Will would like it but he does.

Nicole on baby chasing duty! He can run fast!

Justine realizes why bingo callers drink while leading a rowdy game of Bingo during heavy winds! But oh what scenery!

Our campsite.

Evan is really sick of all the pictures. He's saying "Mommy no more pictures!"

We broke out Cranium & Taboo for some fun on the last night. The boys won AGAIN. I think it may be because of the hat....what do you think?

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Knowing Me, Knowing You - September Addition

We're back from a wonderful, wonderful weekend of camping with a huge group of our friends. I am so lucky to have found a great group of friends since I moved to Calgary. Even the guys....who always win at board games and GLOAT WAY TOO MUCH!

Anyhoo... I have lots of pics of this weekend but I am much too tired to upload them tonight. Until then, here's some Knowing Me, Knowing You September edition!

1. What is your favourite smell?

Evan fresh and clean out of the shower! It reminds me of when he was little b/c now he stinks sometimes. Especially his feet in his Striderite sandals. Gross!

2. Did you/would you/are you co-sleep(ing)?

Evan slept with us for most of his first year of life. I knew he would be my only baby and I wanted to experience every second of it. Plus I was a little (okay a lot) neurotic about the fact that he *might* stop breathing and die. I figured if I was right there I could save him if it happened. Thankfully I have gotten less (slightly) neurotic as time has gone by. I miss cuddling up with Evan these days. He would much rather sleep in "Evan's bed" than mine.

3. Fall fair season is upon us, so what's your favourite fair food?

Corndogs. Yum!

4. Thinking about Christmas shopping yet?

I'm starting to think about it but I have not started yet. I have a good idea for a gift for Evan. Everyone else is still pretty much a question mark.

5. What's your favourite colour?

I love the blue of the sky here in Alberta in the fall. It is an amazing color!

Want to participate? Copy the questions onto your blog & then head over to Shan's to put your address into Mr. Linky. It's THAT easy!

Hope you had a wonderful long weekend!

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Linky Love - Redux

The other morning I tried to write a Linky Love post but Evan was having NONE of it. I only got three links in & the descriptions were pathetic at best. You can go back and read that post here. I have found so many amazing blogs lately. I really love reading them though I have to admit that they make me think about things to. #1 thought - wow it would be nice to be able to stay home (though for any work people reading this...it's not going to happen so breathe!), #2 thought - holy jeez....300+ people COMMENTED on this blog post. I'm lucky if I get 9 hits per day to my blog and 1 comment (though I know lots of people read & comment on my posts through Facebook), #3 thought - wow their are some really creative people in this world! Having said that...I'm trying to think of ways to improve my blog. I know that part of my issue is honesty & sharing. I just have a hard time really putting myself out there on my blog b/c so many people from my work know the web address. It's not as if I have anything to hide....it's just hard! I'm going to try to make baby steps to do that. I have tried to post more. I know it's hard to read a blog when their are rarely new posts. I've been doing much better lately if I may say so myself!

One thing you can do to help is to comment more (please) and tell me what you would like to see more/less of. There are somethings that I wont' change but you never know. Thank you for being a reader....I love you guys!

Anyhoo....on to the links!

• Homesick Texan - a woman after my own heart. She is from Texas but currently lives in New York. She has some awesome looking recipes for food often found in Texas. Many of them are high on my list of things to try. The Tex-Mex Squash Casserole is at the top of the list! Her photography is great too!
• Socks are NOT the enemy - Lianne and I went to highschool together. I never realized it back then but she is one of the funniest people on earth. Follow her stories of a stay at home mom in Alabama. I'm hoping that our house might get a visit from an Elf on the Shelf like she has!
• Sweetnicks - What has great photos, wonderful stories & awesome recipes....well Sweetnicks of course! Cate is a great cook and focuses on recipes for real people that are super yummy. She even has a place for OMG recipes...the ones that are just so good that they need their own spot!
• Are you gonna eat that? - If you live in Western Canada, you have to read Are you gonna eat that?! She does awesome reviews (with photos) of restaurants around western canada. She has me jonesing to go to the Richmond Night Market and I think our next girls night out might be at Broken City for Punk Rock Bingo. This is a definite must read even if you just want to see all the wild and wonderful food offered in various places.
  

Hopefully you find these sites as awesomely awesome as I do! Enjoy!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Blueberry Raspberry Cobbler

When I made jam, I had some left over berries. I googled cobblers to see what I could come up with. This recipe showed up & it is mmmm mmmm good!

Blueberry Raspberry Cobbler
from Canadian Living.com

Ingredients:
4 cups blueberries (preferably fresh)
3 cups raspberries (preferably fresh)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Biscuit Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/4 cup cold butter
Biscuit Flavouring:
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup buttermilk or sourmilk

Directions:
In a large bowl, gently toss blueberries & raspberries with sugar and cornstarch. Scrape into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

In bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until crumbly.

In a measuring cup, stir cinnamon into buttermilk; drizzle over flour mixture, stirring with a fork to form soft, sticky dough. With spoon, drop dough in 9 evenly spaced mounds over fruit.

Bake at 400°F oven for about 35 minutes or until bubbly and topping is light golden and no longer doughy underneath when lifted with a spoon.

Recipe Notes: I used raspberries that had already been smushed for jam, which I wouldn't recommend. My cobbler was much bigger than it should have been. My dough also didn't come together like it was supposed to so it was more like a top crust than mounds of anything. Regardless, it was really good & I would definitely make it again!

Don't forget to visit Shan to see what else is cooking this Wednesday!

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