I'm Done with the Snow

The meteorologist said that the snow was going to start at midnight (it didn't), then 2:30am (I was up--no snow), but by the time folks were traveling to work there was a steady, heavy snowfall. It has been going non-stop ever since.

Some things were left in the van from our trip to Jungle Jim's yesterday and when I went out to get them I couldn't get over all the snow. Last week I shoveled a pathway to each side of the van and put salt down. You couldn't tell anything was shoveled at any point.

This first picture was taken a couple of days ago. All along the front of the house we have some mega icicles. With the warming up, a little bit of melting and refreezing (didn't know how icicles were made, did ya?), they have quadrupled in size! I feel like this second picture doesn't do them justice. Maybe if I work up the nerve I'll go outside and take another picture of them. Needless to say, I won't be upset when it warms up enough for them to disappear all together!

The boys are getting stir-crazy. They have no desire to go outside to play in the snow anymore and it seems like the only thing on their agenda is to get on each others nerves. And mind. Poor Meredith is getting her two front teeth in and they have been worse than the bottom two. Her gums are swollen and pink with pain. And to make matters worse, I hear that Cleveland is sunny today! Spring--your arrival will be much appreciated!

Presidents' Day Eve

In other words, Jungle Jim Day for our family!

Each February my aunts, uncles and cousins make the trek out to Route 4 to find the oddest ingredients to make up some pretty good recipes. This was Meredith's first experience out at Jungle Jim's and I have to say that she rather enjoyed it, if only because she walked away with a special biscuit treat from the UK. Yum!

Some highlights of the menu:

• stuffed clams
• rotisserie-style pork heart (it was Valentine's Day!)
• baby squid salad
  
• crickets (dead, sans chocolate)
• broiled eel
• Blue-Point oysters
• more kim chee
• something that I was not able to identify (I'm guessing I don't want to know)

(The heart--I wasn't kidding.)

Some things are made more for shock-value, to see who is willing to put it into their bodies, but there were many "normal" things made as well. For instance, Aunt Jane made bruschetta, which isn't so exotic, but it tastes so much better when made with fresh basil, tomatoes and mozzarella from this great market! (Jungle Jim's makes many of their own cheeses in house.)

Cousins Susie, Jill and Denny
(They made a delicious guacamole and a I'll-have-to-get-the-recipe creamy cheesy corn dip)

Our main contribution was "wonton bowls." I wanted to do something for the Chinese New Year (year of the tiger--rarr!), but I'm thinking that the recipe might be a little more Japanese than Chinese. Regardless, it was very easy to make and I think I might make it again. What was great is that I could try it out on everyone there, get honest reviews, and next time I'll be able to perfect it. (There was too much ginger in the beef mixture and not enough wasabi powder in the mayo.)

My Funny Valentines

Last year for Valentine's Day Kevin worked in the basement and the boys and I made decorations and dinner for him. We did the same thing this year and it was a real treat.

These are stained-glass hearts that Louie made at his Valentine's Day party.

While Ben and Charlie napped, Louie punched out paper hearts and I used a sewing machine to make them into Valentine's Day garland! (Can you see how excited I am about doing the most basic things on a sewing machine--ha, ha.)

I made a devil's food chocolate cake with vanilla icing and the boys decorated it for Kevin.

The first time was an honest mistake, but after hearing every few seconds Oops--I got icing on my finger! I figured that they were using that as a ploy to taste the dessert before they ate dinner.

This was the finished product. I thought they did a pretty good job of decorating. Especially since all three were doing at the same time. I had visions of it being ripped in three because one was putting red hots on their section of the cake. What's funny is that they didn't end up eating any of the decorations. None like cinnamon and only Ben and Char like peppermint, but they didn't want it with their cake.

After making the cake they made a "Happy Valentine's Day" poster where they each colored a few letters and then glued on conversation hearts.



Our Valentine's Day dinner! We had pork loin (using my always-a-winner Paula Deen recipe!), asparagus (the boys had a salad) and couscous. Who needs a fancy-smancy restaurant when you have Casa Llena?

Heart-Day Par-Tay

I haven't been in Louie's class at all year, so when I secured a babysitter in Grandma I volunteered to be a part of the kindergarten class' Valentine's Day party. My job was to come up with a craft.

I saw some really great deals on oriental trading company for Valentine crafts. They fit the theme; they were magnets, so they were actually a useful craft; and they had bears in them, so they weren't such a "girly" project.

But they wouldn't get here until after the party was already over.

So I went searching on the world wide web and found this great craft where you make a bee pencil topper with googly eyes (and who doesn't like googly eyes?!) and on the antennae you put two hearts that say "Bee" and "Mine."

All the items for the craft were found easily and last night I did a trial run of the bee and also made some rice krispies for a party snack. You are well aware of how terrible I am at making these marshmallow treats as witnessed in Benny's 3rd birthday "Christmas Bush." I am getting better, is all I'm going to say. Unfortunately, this post has no pictures but I will describe as best I can.

In my mind I thought, how cool would it be if I could get the rice krispies to sparkle with sugar crystals! I wanted to do something to make them special for the holiday and we had some pink sugar crystals in the pantry. I mixed them in with the melted marshmallow and...it made it all pink. Pepto pink, it was that bad. Oh well. They were shaped well (very pretty cubes) and there was enough for the class. Probably extra marshmallows were thrown in, so I'm sure they tasted good! Reflecting on the matter, I probably should have just sprinkled some on top of them after I put them in the pan. Benny thought otherwise. For his St. Patrick's Day party I'm volunteering for he wants me to do the same thing with the green crystals. Hey, what can I say? I know what kids like.

On to the craft: my little prototype was looking good as I attempted to instruct the kids on how to create the pencil topper. It didn't go so well for the kindergartners. Who knew that my generic glue holds better than the fancy Elmer's they have at school? Googly eyes rolling everywhere, paper hearts sliding off of antennae, and I had another mother helping out at the table who kept laughing. Ah, the story of my life. Great idea in the head, doesn't always do so well when executed. We ended up securing everything with scotch tape, which made the bees look pretty shoddy, but the kids loved them. Again, the googly eyes made everything funner.

Besides the bumble bees, they also made "stained glass" hearts and played a bean bag game and heart bingo. Afterward, their teacher read them a really cute story called Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink and then came the treats. Wowza! They had a lot of sweets. There were four different kinds of heart cookies along with the pink rice krispies, red jello packs, strawberries and grapes. The party was in the morning, so that poor teacher was stuck in a room with 24 crazies! (The kids did put the leftovers in a baggie in their cubby for treats at home.)

I'm so glad I was able to come in for the party. It was neat to see Louie with his classmates, see a little bit of what goes on during the school day, and I even made friends with some of the other mothers! I just need to brush up on my craft and baking skills. Hopefully by the time Meredith's in kindergarten!

Our Newest Musical Favorite

For Christmas, Meredith got the Ziggy Marley "Family Time" CD. It is awesome. I've written on here before about music that the boys like, and it's no coincidence that it is stuff that Kevin and I like, as well. They have plenty of time in their day when they hear nursery rhymes and other "kid" songs. When we're in the van or in the kitchen we play music that the whole family can listen to and this CD definitely fits the bill.

Not only are the songs great, but Ziggy sings duets with many of our favorite singers! Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson and even Laurie Berkner! The music has the familiar reggae feel, but the lyrics of the songs are geared toward issues children deal with as well and family experiences. For instance, the song "Cry, Cry, Cry" sounds, at first, like a "Redemption Song." As serious-sounding as it is, it somewhat mocks the struggle of a child who isn't understood by his or her parents. One of the lines is Set the Children Free! when they are put in their room under duress. Make me laugh every time I hear it. Because that is my life. Every night.

All the kids--Meredith included!--bop along with the beat and sing the words. No kidding--Charlie, even! It's one of those CDs that you can listen to all the way through and while making its listeners happy, it's also a soothing disc, which is often needed for long car rides.

The CD ends with two stories read by Jamie Lee Curtis. The first one was written by Ziggy called "Helping Hands," the second one is a children's book written by Jamie Lee called "The Human Race." Although they are both good stories, sometimes I wish there was a way to put the songs on repeat, skipping the stories unless we're wanting to listen to them. The CD is enhanced, in that if you put it into your computer and there are activities for the kids to do.

Overall, a great call by Santa! The CD case was sitting out last week when Uncle Billy stopped by and saw it sitting there. He let us know that "Family Time" recently won a Grammy. No surprise to our family!

The Wrath Against the Magical PJs

Second night of wearing pjs backward, second snowday.

Ben was not impressed. In fact, he was pretty darn mad today! He has good reason, though. Today he was supposed to go to school, but tonight was to be his VIP night. Every year the preschool has a night where a person who doesn't normally get to come into school visits with the student to see what the day is like. It's a shortened version of the day, and it's something Benny's really been looking forward to.

I tried to explain to him that Miss Cathy emailed to say that there was just too much snow in the parking lot to allow everyone to come tonight, but in his best "angry" voice, Benny yelled at Lou that it was his fault that Daddy can't come to school with him!

The night will be rescheduled, so I'm not feeling too badly for Benny, but I imagine it is hard when you believe that pajamas have the ability to control the weather.

For the Love of Snow Days

The day is done and I have to say, even with the moments of craziness and creeping in on cabin fever, I really, really like snow days.

I like being forced to be homebound sometimes. We rush around so much with school drop-offs and pick-ups, appointments and play dates that it's nice to have to stay put for a while.

Part of that comes from the fact that I feel like I got a lot accomplished today! We were gone all weekend and last week was pretty busy so the laundry had piled up, among the multitude of other things that had to be done around the house. In addition, we made paper snowflakes and shoveled two driveways!

I know that a generation ago, people didn't leave the house as much as we do today. I imagine that if I had to pick, I'd choose to have the ability to leave the house more often. I like being able to go to the zoo, the park or the museum. There isn't a bus system, so I have to be able to drop off and pick up the boys from school. We are busy, and there are other parts of our life that are affected by it, but I think that we have a lot of great experiences because of it.

And that is why snowdays are so treasured in our household. It shakes things up a bit!