Fun in the Kitchen

 

With the logistics of moving and the excitement of a new neighborhood and a yard with a creek and playmates and hidden treasures like toads and worms to discover, we haven't spent a lot of time in the kitchen this year.  (Although it often seems like I spend ALL my time there.  Make the meal.  Feed the meal.  Clean up the meal.  Repeat. And repeat.  And repeat.)  And even though Sam has been asking on a weekly basis if we can make his favorite cookies, I have really not wanted to get out the flour and the sugar and the measuring cups and deal with the mess of sprinkles all over the ceramic and frosting smeared all over the bane-of-my-existence countertop that never looks clean no matter what I do.  We've done pizzas on the grill with friends several times, but when it's just our family of three alone, the last thing on my list of things to do would be "Make MORE mess in the kitchen." 

 

But when we sauntered down to the garden last week and discovered that all the rain that had produced a giant zucchini plant leading to a generous supply of zucchini and cucumbers that we could not possibly eat all in one weekend, I asked if the kids wanted to make zucchini bread.  On the way back to the house we crunched down most of the smaller cucumbers and saved the big ones to make cucumber salad for dinner.  Eva hoisted a large zucchini over her head and said "Whoa.  This is super heavy." And Sam carried the largest zucchini with both hands and asked if it was the largest zucchini I'd ever seen and what WAS the largest zucchini I'd ever seen and what did I do with it and how did it get so big and did I think we'd ever grow one that big again.

 

Later in the day I pulled out an old recipe for blueberry zucchini bread and Eva peeled and shredded the zucchini before eating handfuls of it raw alongside the quart of blueberries we set aside for the last step.  Sam played with Lego at the dining room table but showed up for the tasting of the batter, and it was so much fun that I didn't even mind sweeping up flour and cinnamon and mopping up egg whites and milk.  When it came out of the oven Eva declared "TT is going to LOVE this!" 

 

Now we just have to make about 10 more batches before we're out of zucchini.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Spirit

After a long weekend away for Thanksgiving and a long week of fighting some sort of crud that seems to insist on hanging around long after it has worn out its welcome, we spent a weekend at home getting in to the holiday spirit.  We decorated the windows with snowmen and Christmas trees and elves and snowflakes. We made cookies in the shapes of bells and stars and Christmas trees and snowmen, covering them with ready-made-frosting (good idea, Barb) and green and red sprinkles before Eva would lick off all the frosting and declare "Done" and throw her uneaten cookie in the trash.  Sam helped by carrying the artificial tree (yes, yes, I know, artificial tree AND ready-made frosting... but we all make sacrifices in order to maintain our sanity) up from the basement and putting it together, and Eva got to plug in the lights and ooh and ahh.  We covered the tree with lots of ornaments that Eva insisted were "very special" (especially the one from 1976 engraved with Pooky), and Sam put the golden angel on top and we posed for a family picture (remembering our tree decorating night with Brooklynn last year) before the crud caught up with us again and we all slept long and hard through Saturday night.  (And ate Christmas cookies for breakfast on Sunday.)  Not a bad way to enter the home stretch towards the end of the year.

Notice that they spent nearly the entire weekend in their pajamas.  Why not?  It was 4 degrees outside. :)

Another Family Chef

Back when I was only juggling one child, we used to do a lot of cooking as a family.  Sam would stand on a chair pulled up to the counter and help with cookies and pizzas and teetsa bread and pumpkin ravioli, all a little bit crooked but made with love and care, each new cooking adventure a decision to allow the kitchen to be covered in flour or sprinkles or grated cheese. From a very young age, Sam was allowed to help with chopping and rolling and cutting and stirring.  He got to experiment and create and taste ingredients while he covered himself and the kitchen in butter and flour. And I had both the time and energy to clean the floor and wash the dishes.  With child number two everything has been different and we haven't been cooking as frequently as a family.  There is the fighting and whining about what is fair and who got more cheese and why her pizza crust is bigger than mine.  There are tug-of-wars over the rolling pin or the salt shaker or the cookie cutters.  And there is the way my back screams at me when I bend over to dust up the flour or pick up the 30-pound toddler covered in egg whites.  But today while Sam was away at a birthday party and Eva and I had a little rare alone time, we made whole wheat dough and roasted peppers and simmered homemade tomato sauce and laid everything out for a mini-pizza dinner party.  Eva rolled out four little crusts all by herself, and when Sam came home he topped his with cheese and pepperoni and more cheese and more pepperoni.  And nobody whined (well not much) and nobody got hurt and I didn't have to bend over to sweep up the kitchen floor.

TT on 4th of July

Another awesome weekend visit from TT.

Brooklynn and Harmony

During a perfect summer weekend in June, Brooklynn came to visit so we had vegan chili and set up the pool and invited another friend over to play.

Bonus Mommy Day

After last week's craziness as I worked from home and prepared the house to go on the market while Sam nursed a 104 fever for 4 days, we were just getting back to our normal routine when snow swooped in from the southeast and blanketed our area in a heavy white mess that has already started melting.  This is how we spent what Sammy calls "a bonus Mommy day."

 The Lorax babysat while I worked from home online

Sam was content with just one of the boxes of Lego that we pulled out of storage

   The reward for letting Mommy work all morning - Cookie making

Fun!

"I wear Sammy's shirt!"

 

Technology at Two

 

What's funnier... that Eva calls the Etch-a-sketch her I-pad or that she hands me a dried up marker and says it's not working and needs batteries?

As challenging as age 2 can be with all the boundary testing and insistence on doing it their way and then doing it your way and then doing it their way again (just ask me about the blanket battle routine at bedtime every night), my rapidly growing daughter is a delight who makes me laugh every day.  Last night when Sam won the coin toss to pick the movie to watch and he didn't pick Finding Nemo, my sweet, cuddly little girl burst into tears and pointed at her brother and screamed "NO!  NO!  We're not watching that movie!  I don't want that movie!  No!"  And I had to duck behind a wall so she wouldn't see that I was laughing just as hard as Sammy was.