Playmobil

We have entered into the world of Playmobil. Already, many hours have been spent with "my guys" or "my friends" (as Tripp calls them) and I have a feeling there will be many more to come (if only I could find some good deals on them...)!

Big Boy Bed!

Well, it is rather crazy, but at least it seems to be working. I am referring to Tripp's new bed, in case you were wondering. Why crazy? Well, I decided to relinquish some of my "control" over Tripp's life and let him pick out his own bedding for his new bed in an attempt to get him excited about it. It worked, but the bedding is a little less than desirable. I have nothing against Thomas, the number one blue engine, but these new sheets are a tad on the crazy side. But, I also was not about to pay somewhere around $60 for a set of much more tasteful sheets from Pottery Barn Kids. So we stuck with Thomas. Tripp loves them, loves his bed and we love that he loves his bed. The process actually went pretty smoothly. I had fully planned on letting him stay in his crib even after the baby was born (hey, I'll buy another crib if it means my toddler is confined to his bed still) but after walking into his room one morning and seeing him attempt to climb out of his crib, we decided that maybe moving him out was the safest thing to do. Besides, when thinking through all the transitions he will go through in the next year (new sibling, potty training, etc) we figured better do it now at this relatively calm time in his life. So we bit the bullet and went for it. We got my brother's old twin frame from my parents, bought a new mattress, and Tripp and Nelson set to work taking down the old crib and putting up the new bed.

Everything went smoothly until I realized that his lovies could fall out of his bed. This is a major problem at 4 in the morning when he woke up screaming (he made it sound like he had fallen out of his bed). So we ended up getting a longer guard rail and thankfully, the lovie situation has pretty much been resolved. He definitely talked about his crib for a couple of days after we took it down, but has since seemingly forgotten about it. We left all his blankets the same and even use the same "system" we did in his crib- one blanket for under his head, one for on top of him (not sure how that system got started but oh well, he likes it). As much as I would love to get a big comforter to cover up those sheets, I don't see that happening for a while for one big reason: 1. It is something else for me to have to wash and considering there are practically dirt piles on the end of our bed from my infrequent washing of our own sheets, adding something big (like a comforter) to my washing list is a very terrible idea. So for now, we will just "enjoy" those Thomas sheets (although I might have to buy an extra set for those days when I find a little wet spot on them from a leaky diaper) and be thankful that he loves his new bed!

Reed's First Birthday

Last weekend we decided to make a somewhat spontaneous trip to Dallas to celebrate our nephew's first birthday! It was also the perfect excuse for us to go- it had been all too long since we had been there last. But now that Tripp is two and we would have to buy him a plane ticket, it makes it a little more difficult to get there (seeing as it is a 10 hour drive and you basically "waste" two days driving there and back). But I have to say, despite me ignoring the GPS and taking us on at least an hour detour, the time in the car really wasn't bad. I even had a moment of thinking that it was nice to be together as a family. This was one of them (a really awesome rest stop with a nice picnic dinner):

And that is big for me, I really used to despise long car rides. But maybe the price of an extra plane ticket is enough to have changed my mind. But anyway, we had a great time in Dallas- we celebrated Reed's birthday,

watched Tripp and Weston (and Reed too) play together for hours,

and just had some good quality time together. It was just what we needed!

Baking Again

Tripp and I have been busy in the kitchen again. First, we made some bread. Honey whole wheat bread to be exact. The first loaf we made was a little too dense for our liking so after reading some reviews, I decided to add a little more yeast and then also did 1 cup bread flour and 2 cups whole wheat (instead of all 3 wheat). It was excellent. I might even go as far as making it on a regular basis for our sandwich bread. But that is taking a step towards being Pioneer Woman or something and I am not sure ready for that. Cause then I would have to start growing vegetables in my back yard, give up refined sugar and only buy meat that is from grass fed, free range, daily manicured and pedicured cows. And not that I have anything against that (I really do not, I promise), I just am not there yet. But it does seem like a slippery slope, and making your own bread might just be the beginning of that slope. So in order to take a step back, I decided to make a recipe that I have been thinking about for a while. Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. I now understand why the recipe calls for more flour than normal. But after using the typical amount, we were all out and I did not feel back to the store again.


So I think I will just do some dividing up, get a cold glass of milk, and enjoy a cookie inside a cookie.

Strawberry Pizza

Although I am not the biggest fan of fruity desserts, when Aldi has a sale on strawberries for $0.89 for a quart, it is hard to pass up making something fruity (and it was also about time for me to make something with some fruit in it for Nelson cause he loves fruity dessert). So I decided upon a Strawberry Pizza, inspired by one of the desserts my co-worker brought to our dessert potluck a little while back. I couldn't find the exact recipe I was looking for, so I used This one as a starting point and did a little modifying along the way.
Here is the crust:


Then the cream cheese and cool whip layer with strawberries on top:


And finally, the final product, topped with a strawberry glaze:





It's in our fridge cooling, and I'm sure that after an episode of The Good Wife, we will make our way upstairs and enjoy a slice (or two)!

Lots of Cooking

Tripp and I have been busy in the kitchen lately. He really loves being in there, and I love cooking so that means the two of us have been whipping up so tasty things as of late. It's mostly fun for me- sometimes having two extra hands around is hard in our small kitchen, but I am just thankful that he even wants to be around! He has helped me make some tasty dinners, including this Honey Garlic Balsamic Chicken and tonight we made a delicious penne pasta (which actually ended up being a bow tie pasta since I forgot to get penne noodles from the store). He also helped me with the caesar salad, and he was especially concerned about the croutons. He kept reminding me to put them in the salad and in case I was confused as to which thing in the kitchen they were, he reminded me "they're the crunchy things Mommy." He also reminded me "Don't squeeze the bag" since he had to be reminded of that same thing in the grocery store only a few hours earlier.

He is also learning how to set the table, and while it is far from perfect, I am proud of him for putting most things in the right spot. He has even learned to ask Daddy what he wants to drink and will get him whatever drink he asks for. Tonight I let him carry my water glass to the table for the first time, and besides the fact that he drank about half of it before he actually got it to the table, he did a great job.

We also made a fourth of July cake the other day for a "dessert potluck" that we were having at work. Ever since seeing this cake, I knew I had to make it. So one morning, Tripp and I set to baking. We made all the layers and set them out to cool. We had to head out to camp for Tripp and work for me, so I told him that he needed to remind his babysitter, Sally, that they needed to wrap up the cakes as soon as they got home. I fully planned on him forgetting so I texted Sally to let her know. But of course, as she let me know later, in the car on the way home, he reminded her that they needed to wrap up the cakes. He is such the great helper! Then that night, after he was asleep, since I needed full concentration for the assembling part, I put the cake together. Tripp was a little disappointed that I had to take the cake to work the next morning, but I was sure not disappointed when this is what we sat down to at work on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend:

My boss knew how excited I was for my cake and so she made every watch as I cut the first piece. And then we had to take a picture of course!

It is not the best pic, so I was fully intending on taking some pics of the cake when after I got home. But I had to go see a client in the afternoon in the 100 degree weather. I did not think about what this would mean for the icing on my cake so after it sat in the car for two hours, it completely fell apart on the way home. I was a little disappointed to see all our hard work end in such a terrible way, so this morning, Tripp and I took the extra cake (since there is lots of cutting/trimming of layers) and make cake balls! They win no points for style or good looks seeing as a two year old helped me roll them into a shape that somewhat resembles a ball but more closely resembles a blob. They also turned a rather strange color of pink/purple because we were mixing layers of red, white and blue cake. But they win lots of points on taste, which I guess is all that really matters.

I am pretty sure we made banana bread sometime this week as well, but just like the milk in this house, it disappeared faster than what seems humanly possible, so it's hard for me to remember if that was this week or last.

So it's been a busy week in the kitchen for us. But that's a good place to be busy.

Papa!

My parents were out of town for a while, then we went out of town, then my dad went back out of town. Tripp had been looking and wondering where his "Papa" was and hoping he would be back soon. Well, this morning when I dropped Tripp off at my parents', my dad stuck around to make sure to see Tripp before leaving for work. He was one happy boy, to say the least.