Carried away by Cards

Last week I saw something posted on Facebook that got me super super excited! It was definitely too good to pass up.

Shutterfly is offering a deal to bloggers for fifty free photo cards. It got me thinking about Christmas cards that we've done in the past and what my plan was for this year.

Click my Review page to here all about it...

Perfect Popcorn

I know this is kind of a random recipe to share on Thanksgiving week, when blogs are full of recipes for yummy sides, perfect turkeys, and scrumptious desserts.

But I see it this way. What did the Native Americans help the pilgrims grow? That's right, corn! So I think it's entirely appropriate to share my favorite popcorn recipe as a reminder of all we have to be thankful for.

I know...it's a stretch.

First of all, in answer to the question you all are asking...why don't I just use microwave popcorn? Well, I wish the reason was that I knew all along tha microwave popcorn isn't that good for you, that supposedly certain chemicals leach into the popcorn and that's just not good, but I only found that out after the real reason....our microwave is on the fritz. It's brand new and it stopped working and we've had repair men out from the company and now we're waiting on a replacement.

Popcorn is an essential part of our family movie nights so I had to get online and find a recipe for stovetop popcorn. (which is when I found out that perhaps not using microwave popcorn is a good thing!) After making it one time I decided that this is how we'll do it from here on out. It was soooo good, and I honestly don't think I will be able to appreciate the taste of microwave popcorn after having this kind.

So, because I care so much about my blog readers, all five of you, I am going to share my new love with you.

Perfect Popcorn Recipe
from Simply Recipes, modified
Ingredients
3 Tbsp canola oil (I experimented with adding less oil and it works fine, I usually use 2 Tbsp)
1/3 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
1 3-quart covered saucepan
Salt to taste

Method
1 Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat.

2 Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.

3 When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. (Count out loud; it's fun to do with kids.) This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.

4 Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl.

With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop (I counted 4 unpopped kernels in my last batch), and nothing burns.

5 If you are adding butter, you can easily melt it by placing the butter in the now empty, but hot pan.

6 Salt to taste.

I usually make mine with just salt, but the kids like having a little butter. I'm sure you could try all sorts of fun toppings if you wanted. Let me know if you get around to trying it and what you thought of it! I'm home with two under the weather girls and I think that we might kill some time with popcorn and a movie this afternoon!

Facebook Funnies

I've been holding onto these stories for awhile now, but they are just too good to not share with you all!

First is one that has nothing to do with me so I won't use the name of the guilty party....

(I looked back on his profile and saw that the post and comment thread are no longer on there so I definitely won't post names - but it's just too funny, I have to make sure it isn't forgotten!)

I was scrolling down my facebook homepage and came across the following post and link from a friend;

(read carefully)

"Hey for all of you with young boys who like to play with blacks, check out this website!"

Crickets.....

The first comment was from a mutual friend of ours saying "I think you meant BLOCKS, right?"

So yes, he made a tiny little typo that totally changed the meaning of his post. This was one of those things that struck me as so funny. I laughed so hard. I thought it was so funny I had to call Matt and make him go on facebook and read it - because I was laughing so hard I could barely explain it. Renee and family were over that night for dinner and I had her come see it and laugh with me.

What kind of awful website would that be (it was actually a link to a kids woot deal on wooden block sets) according to his typo? Seriously - worst typo ever!!! I think some of the funniness of it knowing the person and imagining his enthusiasm over sharing a link to a great deal and then realizing that...oops....that's not what I meant to say!!!...is what makes it so funny to me - I hope you can put your imagination to work and find the humor in it too!

But if I'm going to laugh at someone else's mistake, I have to be willing to laugh at my own. So next up, a mess up on my part that provided people with many laughs!

Ever since Matt got an iPhone and I found the Words with Friends App I have been super into (i.e., obsessed) with the back and forth challenges that I have going on with various friends. My one friend "J" and I joke that we know each other's schedules based on when we play, and it seems to be around 11pm at night when she's done with all her grad school work and starts to play her rounds. Since I'm usually reading or getting ready for bed I'll grab Matt's phone and start entering words and occasionally we'll send messages back and forth, briefly catching up or talking trash!

(It's funny because often times J and I have 5 games going on and we're both on a roll and it's getting late and I know that one of us just needs to quit and go to bed...and then I'll see "Your Move with J_____" and I get sucked in again!)

Ok back to the story.

She had gone to a concert one night so was not available for our nightly WWF play. The next day she posted on facebook how great the concert was and I added the following comment:

"Glad you had fun - I missed you at 11pm last night! ;) We need to talk in real life sometime soon!"

No big deal, right?

That afternoon I got home from something and Matt was working on his laptop and said something along the lines of me being responsible for the latest facebook oopsie. I honestly couldn't figure it out....until he said "you posted on J's wall....under my account!"

So yeah - basically that innocent comment from me sounds not so innocent and rather strange coming from Matt! Strange enough that her husband was convinced that Matt's account had been hacked and was going to call and warn us. Two hours later she posted a follow up comment "Meg, is that post coming from you?" They figured it out, but I'm just picturing the two of them (both off of work after the late night - so they saw the comment right away) sitting there trying to figure it out for that long, her husband so convinced he needs to warn Matt when, finally they put it all together.

I think it will take me a long time to live that one down!

So which one is worse - The blocks website or my wrong account posting?

Baking Woes

I think I'll place the blame on the busy week. Just one of those weeks, getting ready for the girls' Fall/Halloween celebrations at school, coordinating the volunteers for Ella's class, getting ready for Pumpkin Math at Ella's school - just a lot of things all in a few days.

I had volunteered to bring in a pumpkin treat for the class to enjoy after Pumpkin math. Pumpkin math was this fun activity that Ella's teacher organized, where the worked with estimating, measuring counting and counting using a pumpkin.

Anyway....

I decided I would make my pumpkin cookies. They are super easy and super yummy. Also they are topped off with brown butter icing which is my favorite for anything pumpkin.

I figured I would double the batch since we had our church group meeting Thursday night and I could bring them to that as well. Only one problem. The recipe called for shortening and I didn't have enough for two batches. So I used half butter, half shortening.

At this point my problem began. I'm not sure if it was just using the butter or if my butter was too soft and getting melty, but the cookies flattened out more than usual and were very....soft/mushy/fragile/falling apart. I made probably six plus dozen cookies and I tried all sorts of tactics, cooking them longer, letting them cool longer on the pan, refrigerating the dough beforehand. Nothing seemed to really work too much, but the refrigerating did help a little. (leading me to think that it was the butter being too soft and not the use of it that was the main problem. any thoughts)

Of course as the cookies were basically falling apart in my hand, I ate much more than my fair share, because of course I can't give the kids broken cookies and can't just throw them away either!

Sidenote: There is something about pumpkin that leads to me always overindulging. With brownies or chocolate chip cookies I usually have more control, but give me a pumpkin cookie or even an oatmeal cookie and I'll just go to town. Is it that, despite all the butter and sugar that I added with my own hand, the addition of a "healthy" ingredient" results in me feeling that it's not as bad for me as brownie? Can anyone relate to this?

So I ate tons of broken cookies all day and then that night right before I put the kids to bed I made the brown butter frosting. This involves melting butter, adding brown sugar and milk and cooking it until it's boiling. Then you remove from the heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla, stir until combined and then drizzle or spread on your dessert of choice.

Easy cheesy.

So with the kids watching I did all of the above. Except instead of being a consistency that could be drizzled or spread, it got super thick and dough like. I thought perhaps I read the recipe wrong and added more milk, hoping to thin it out. And then more milk. And then it became apparent that whatever I had done wrong was irreversible so I had to step back and evaluate.

I tasted the icing. It didn't taste right. (Catherine liked it and actually had a cookie with it on top in a big lump) It didn't take me too long to realize that I had added flour instead of powdered sugar! Awesome! So I dumped it all in the trash and started over with much better results.

I packed the cookies up into a container and set them aside for the next day.

But of course that would have been too easy. When I opened the container whatever was wrong with the cookies from the beginning and just gotten worse and many of them were breaking, sticking to each other (kind of funny, not the icing, only the cookie part was sticky) - basically a big mess that I didn't feel would be great to share with a group of first graders.

So.....I decided to risk attempting to bake again, this time, pumpkin bread from my favorite food blog Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Even though I really really did not want to bake again, and the thought of having more pumpkin temptation was almost unbearable, I'm glad I did it because the bread turned out awesome!

Thanks to Mel I avoided adding yet one more baking woe to my list. Anyone else have issues when making non yeast bread when the middle seems to stay gooy and the sides get overcooked? It happens to me all the time. In this recipe Mel said that if I was using a 9x5 pan it would make 2 loaves and an 8x4 pan it would be three loaves. I don't think I ever realized that that extra inch on either side would make that much of a difference, because it turns out I do have 8x4 loaf pans. All those times I was getting gooey undercooked bread - perhaps I was cramming three loaves worth of batter into two pans!

So yeah, all of this to say, go check out Mel's Kitchen Cafe and make her pumpkin bread. You can't go wrong with it!

Stay tuned for some more yummy fall recipes. I have some that are so easy and simple that I can't not share them with you!

Fashion Sense

One of the things I love so much about Catherine is her sweet confidence in who she is and a willingness to do whatever she wants regardless of what people might think of her.

It's always been different with Ella. I am a bit ashamed to admit that there were times when I would be trying to talk Ella out of wearing a certain mismatched combination of clothing to school and I would say "well it doesn't match and it does look a bit silly but you can wear it if you want." Knowing full well that she didn't want to look silly and would be embarrassed if she did. Some of that was me protecting her because I know that she would be upset, actually mad at me, if I let her go to school and someone laughed at her outfit. She's gotten a bit stronger in that she doesn't care as much and would rather just wear what's comfortable, which I definitely prefer!

Never with Catherine. She would pick out an odd combination of clothes (not based on comfort for her, she really just wants to look beautiful!) and I would tell her that it doesn't match and looks funny and she would shrug and say "no one laughs at me". I have to admit I love her gutsiness - she likes what she likes and can't be told differently!

In honor of Catherine I am posting a few pictures highlighting her unique fashion sense! FYI - these are all from the past week or so - we've got plenty more if I dig into our photo archives!!

She put this entire outfit together, head to toe, by herself. She insisted on the red holiday sweater as well. When she showed her sister, Ella told her she looked great - such a good big sister, knowing that Catherine was proud of her outfit.

I can't decide what cracks me up the most about this one...the pink converse shoes, the totally out of place plaid skirt or the addition of the red shrug? It's all just so priceless!

She put this outfit on the other day after school. She called it her "work outfit". Love the addition of the headphones and iPod. The best was when she went outside like that and leaned against the van and grooved to the music. Again, she's all about doing her thing!

This pink and brown outfit is probably my favorite - mostly because it's pretty coordinated. I have to admit that I helped a bit in picking this out, but I didn't anticipate the pink shoes - definitely pulled it all together!

Hope this brightened your day - how can you not smile at these pictures!!!

First Grade

It's about time! First day of school pictures from Ella's first day of first grade. That is definitely the most I've used the word first in one sentence. :)

Every year we take a picture on the front porch before the girls leave for school.

Every year we forget how bright the sun is on the front of our house at that time of day.

Every year we're running late enough that we can't waste time going back inside to get a better picture.

So this is what we get....
It's kind of a tradition!

I like this picture of Ella getting into the van. She just looks so old!

She was a bit nervous when we got to school to drop her off but thankfully our next door neighbor Evan arrived at the same time for his first day of kindergarten and they were able to go into together. Yes, she's nine months older than him. It used to bother her so much that he was bigger than her!

At this point she's been in first grade for a month. The combination of transition from kindergarten to first grade, from half day to full day and from familiar school to new school have added up to this being the roughest start to a school year we've had.

Because of overcrowding in the district last year Ella went to kindergarten at a different elementary that what we were districted for. Then she got shipped back to our "regular" school for first grade and beyond. Last year she went to school with her best friends and because of that was completely comfortable and loved school from day one. This year it was like starting over.

Also, kindergarten is kind of easy. First grade...not so much!

We had tears every morning and each day was a battle. It got so bad that one morning she couldn't pull it together before she got to school and went in crying. Thankfully her teacher is open to tons of parent communication and got my quick email letting her know we had a rough morning and I had no idea how Ella would be getting to school. She emailed me back letting me know that Ella was upset, but went to see the guidance counselor and came back happy and was fine since.

Coming home with homework on a first day and every day after (at first it was just 10 minutes of reading) resulted in tons of anger and frustration.

She missed her old teacher. She missed her old friends. She wasn't going to make new friends. The playground wasn't as good as at her old school. Why can't she go back to her old school? Why does first grade have to be full day? Could I call President Obama and ask him to make first grade half day? (for real!)

But week and a half ago she turned the corner! She's doing her homework without fighting (mostly), her reading is drastically improving and the battles we have in the morning tend to be based on something absurd like we have to leave and she can't find her shoes and we're going to make her wear a pair she doesn't want to wear. Basically, life is back to normal!

Ella really has grown up so much in the past month. Much more is expected of her now that she's in first grade (spelling test the first full week of school, yikes!) and after she got through those first rough weeks I see how well she's doing and I'm really proud of her.

The lasting results of her rough start to first grade? One morning taking her to school in tears, I just felt so bad that I told her I would sign up to be her Homeroom Captain (classroom mom basically) so I could be in her class ALL the time, for ALL the parties, in hopes that it would make her feel better.

It did. Makes me wonder if that was her plan all along.....

I just love this picture of her wearing Matt's noise reducing headphones, linked to an mp3 player in her backpack. It says total teenager except for the blankie and doggie!

Blogging Funk

I'm still here.

I promise I will be here more often soon.

The last month plus has been a bit crazy and while it would have been good to be able to get on here record and remember things...it just wasn't happening.

Memorable events in the past month since I last posted...

In no particular order....

• My baby turned five! I definitely will be doing a post on my darling Catherine and her fifth birthday. But you know what that means? I also have to do a post on my beloved first born's sixth birthday....yay, just a bit behind on things.

• Matt suffered from an undiagnosable stomach ailment that resulted in not one, but TWO, emergency room visits. I guess I should do a nice detailed post about it just for posterity's sake, but man, a little more time needs to pass before I feel like processing through all of that again!

• Our kitchen got attacked by weevil moths. I am not a big lover of bugs (surprise surprise), but I have to say that these things now top my listed as most hated bug ever. Yes, more so than the dreaded stink bugs which now just seem like a part of our family (kidding...kind of).

• We went on vacation to New Jersey for our week long beach trip with my family. Matt's stomach ailment put a major damper on things, but despite that we had a lovely trip with great weather and time together.

• Ella started first grade. My big girl is gone from 9-4 every day and it's kind of hard to believe that she spends more waking hours a week at school than at home. Sniff sniff. Makes me appreciate weekends that much more!

• I coached Ella and her team in their first soccer game on Sunday. The whole soccer coach thing had been fun so far - thankfully the girls didn't seem to mind losing 10-0 :)

• Finally - tomorrow Catherine starts her PreK program.

Each of these events (even the darn weevils, advice is needed) deserves the attention of an individual post. So now you know what you have to look forward to :)

I promise I'll get there.

Slowly.

At the moment I'm busy taking pictures of myself using Photo Booth. It's quite addicting. If I actually knew how to use it other than to take really really ugly pictures of myself I would post one on here. Don't worry, I'll figure it out soon.

So much to look forward to I know!

Cancun!

This was my view for seven days.

Sigh....

This was my view from my lounge chair every day...

We had a favorite spot and were able to get it every day - with that view, can you blame us?

I spent a lot of time doing this...

I read almost five books (finished number five on the flight home). Bliss!

When it got too hot (which it often did...wow, the humidity in Mexico is intense!) this is where we would head to cool off....

You can tell by the slight wave at the bottom of the picture that we are actually in the ocean...not the pool. I think if not for that wave you might not believe me. The water was really that blue and beautiful. This pics are straight from the camera - no editing needed! (not that I have a clue how to do anything more than crop, straighten, good old basic Picasa stuff).

Along with all the relaxing there was a lot of silliness...

from trying to pose on the edge of the infinity pool and realizing we were about to fall over the edge...

to playing in fountains while all the other tourists watched us thinking we were nuts!

In case you were curious I did also go on this trip with my husband of ten (almost 11) years.

It was our first time getting away on a trip like this and I so enjoyed having all that time with him apart from all our typical daily responsibilities and pressures.It was such refreshing time for us that was so needed and I for sure don't want to wait another ten years before doing something like this again. Our marriage is definitely a worthwhile investment!

We definitely had plenty of time for this....
hee hee...and moving on....

You can be the closest of friends in everyday life but how well you vacation together really defines a relationship.

We had such a fun time with Jon and Renee and I can't imagine having a better time if we had gone alone. Sometimes a girl just needs to chat and while I love my husband he is not a chatter. That's what Renee was for! And Matt had Jon for beach volleyball and body surfing. Mine and Renee's attempt (one single attempt) at body surfing was pretty disastrous. Let's just say that I found sand in my ear the next day and I can't be certain that I didn't inadvertantely flash some of our fellow vacationers. That was just my experience, I can't say with absolutely certainty that Renee's was the same. That's up to her to share!

This trip was truly a blessing. I loved being with my love and just enjoying each other.

It's been a great ten (almost eleven) years...


Here's to many many more....

It's Almost Here...

In two days I will be on my way to Mexico for a long awaited week long trip celebrating 10 years of marriage to my wonderful husband!

We are lucky enough to be going on this trip with our friend's Jon and Renee so we're looking forward to having fun with them as well as having time together with just the two of us.

We'll have free wi-fi in our hotel so I hope to be able to blog a bit while I'm there, especially so I can post stuff for my kids to see.

But in the meantime, I have packing, laundry, cleaning, organizing, list making and checking off....basically all sorts of stuff to do. All on top of a not so fun cold that really kicked me in the butt yesterday!

So I'd definitely appreciate some prayers that there isn't too much stress between now and our departure. Times like these bring out my tendency to be anxious (about all the little things that I might forget or might go wrong)!

Adios Amigos!!

Beating the heat

So we're in the middle of a heat wave. Today it actually hit one hundred degrees (I caught the car thermometer at 101) and it's pretty ridiculous. It seems like the excessive heat is causing our power to repeatedly go out when we run the AC during the day. The main breaker trips and it all turns back on when we reset it but it would then happen an hour later. We're trying not to run too many appliances and the AC is basically our priority so at the moment I have a load of half dry laundry in the dryer and I know I'm going to have to rewash and hopefully find a way to dry it - I might have to set up a clothesline outside - with this heat everything should dry in a matter of minutes.

Tonight the power went out again so we only have the air on in the girl's rooms and I am sitting on the couch sweating. To avoid focusing on my discomfort I am remembering what I was doing just five hours ago....

Matt had off today and we decided to beat the heat with a beach trip! I love the beach and as soon as we crossed the bridge onto the island I just felt so happy. We had umbrellas, chairs and coolers full of food and drinks to last us all day. It really was a great day. Although it was still blazing hot, with the constant beach breeze, you never felt that bad. If you did, the cool clear (woohoo - clear Jersey water - a miracle!!!) water was a few steps away. The waves were nice, not too rough and there was no undertow - really the perfect beach day!

Ella spends 90% of her time in the water. I took her out pretty far and we alternated riding the waves on the boogie board or just jumping or swimming over them. After each time of almost getting knocked over both of us had to make sure our swim suit bottoms were still doing their job and covering out bottoms - pretty funny!

Catherine loves the sand and digs and builds and fills her bucket up with water and pours it over everything and then starts over. We did get her out in the water swimming around and she didn't mind too much when Matt forgot to lift her over the waves and she got pummelled.

All in all it was a great day and I feel like I could go again next week! Definitely looking forward to a week long visit in August with my entire family!

All Around the House

Something I look forward to doing every day this time of year is going out in the morning to check out how everything is growing....

As you can see our cucumbers are doing quite well! We've already picked four and are expecting a bumper crop this year - I've already wanted to be able to use that phrase!

Hello Romaine lettuce - thank you for giving us such lovely salads.

Tomatoes! Tomatoes? Oops, forgot to upload a picture of our tomatoes, but we have a ton of green cherry tomatoes and I am looking forward to the morning when I first see the color starting to change to red. We also have a few regular tomato plants, a ton of zucchini and some green beans over at a little garden plot on our church property. We've picked a few zucchini and
while I typically don't like zucchini apart from baked goods, I am excited to try this recipe from my favorite food blog.

All that is well and good, but you can't forget about the color! I planted these pettunias a month ago and I just love the colors of the dark purple and striped pink...
with a little splash of yellow thrown in as well!

Currently these beautiful blooms are making me the happiest....

Here's a closeup of one that is almost completely bloomed.

I have three bushes filled with various shades of pink, purple and blue hydrangeas and it makes me so happy. Ten years ago (verging on eleven) I so wanted these colors of hydrangeas in wedding party bouquets but September is not the time to get a good price on hydrangeas! I'm convinced that these flowers are just a teensy tiny blessing from God - just a reminder that He is good and He knows my heart and loves that it puts a smile on my face each morning. I'm not too crazy for thinking that, right? :)

What is growing around your house this summer? What are you excited about?!

Summer Stuff

We just got back from a relatively spur of the moment trip to the beach and I hope to be sharing some pictures and stories late on this week. I have to sort through the 50+ I took of Ella and her cousins trying to balance on a surfboard and see if there are any worth sharing!

In the meantime I figure it's been awhile since I shared a recipe and this is one that is so simple and yummy. It's my favorite summer salad dressing. I just happen to have some now and it makes me actually want to make a salad so I can use this dressing!

Sugar and Vinegar Dressing

1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Combine the first six ingredients in a blender or just one of those nice little salad dressing jars. Shake or blend it up. Add the oil and combine. Stir in the basil.

Enjoy. I promise you will. You might just make it your new ketchup and dip everything in it! :)

Family Resemblance

Last month Matt and I and the girls visited the Please Touch Musuem in Philadelphia. As always we had a great visit and the kids just love it every time we go there.

I love these pictures that we took. First of all because they are just cute. I love the girls on the roller coaster :)

But I also love it because I feel like it's a good opportunity for me to get some feedback. You see I always hear who Catherine looks and who Ella looks like and it's never consistent. Sometimes they both look like Matt, sometimes they both resemble me, so I figure what better way to really determine who they look than when you can only see our faces!

But seriously, it's really just an excuse to post some cute pictures!

Dancing the night away

I can't believe it's already mid-May. This month is flying by, we've had some busy weeks and just when I feel like things are starting to slow down I take a look at the calendar and realize it never does!

A few weeks ago we had a very special occasion...Ella's went to her first school dance! A little young I know, but I totally trusted her date to take good care of her - in case you didn't guess, it was a Father Daughter Dance. It happened to fall on the Friday of one of the busiest weekends we've had in awhile. I had a catering job Friday afternoon, the dance was Friday night and then there was a big fundraiser that Matt and I were both involved in, him with the organizing of and me with the food side of it. So needless to say that the reason I never appear in any of these photos is that I had just come from a Mexican themed meal and was prepping food for a Chinese themed fundraiser the next day and I wasn't looking too pretty (I'm being generous with that).

Friday afternoon Renee was kind enough to come over and help with the fun task of deboning and cutting up 12+ pounds of chicken for lo mein. Afterwards, as a way of thanking her, I let her fix Ella's hair for the dance that night! ;)

Love that Ella is totally playing with her toenails. She decided how she wanted her hair done, with a braid in front and pulled to the side. I was pretty impressed that, whether she knew it or not, she picked something that was in style!

Here is Renee putting adding a flower as a finishing touch. It was one of the ones they used for their Easter worship dance and matched her dress perfectly. (As an aside...anyone willing to place bets on how many years Renee will end up doing this? I'm thinking that it wouldn't be too far fetched to say 12, and counting Catherine, 14. Yikes!)

Ella and her dad, all ready to go!

A close up.

Before the dance we went over to a friend's house and met up with other girls and their families for a pizza party. It was mainly a group of us who have known each other for a few years as our girls were in preschool together and now that they are in kindergarten they have weekly playdates together as well. It was nice to have a break from the craziness at our house and just hang out with friends. The girls were all having so much fun that night I think they could have stayed there and played all night long. It was pretty cute because they were all dressed up, as soon as they got there, Ella and her friends went out in the backyard and starting collecting caterpillars. By the time they ate they had at least 30!

Here are all the girls....looking cute....I love that Catherine was included in everything...she fits right in with everyone (good thing she thought to wear a dress! that's only funny if you know Catherine because she wears a dress for every occassion. she changes out of play clothes to wear a dress to a park....) After 20 pictures later and much silliness this is how they ended up....

Again, I loved that they were so silly and falling down - I wouldn't have been to excited if they were taking it too seriously....I mean that's what is prom is for!

Finally, we couldn't not post a picture with the dads!


I didn't hear much about the dance other than Matt being dismayed that he didn't know it was a 60's (or 70's, don't remember) themed dance. I asked him if he would have worn a leisure suit had he known and he said yes - so I am hoping, praying, crossing my fingers that this theme is repeated at some point over the next 5-6 years and I can hold him to it!

Oh yeah, notice that Matt is wearing a tie. For those of you who know Matt, you'll know how rare this is and it is a result of major compromise on Ella's part. Initially she requested...actually demanded...that he wear "wedding clothes". She started to get mad that he wasn't making an effort to get wedding clothes so thankfully she was fine with just a tie (Matt on the other hand is saying "just a tie?")

The first Father Daughter dance was a success and I will continue to look forward to every dance where my girls get to take their father as their date...if I have to think beyond that I start to get nervous!!! ;)

Chocolate Lover

I love chocolate. I do, I love it. As I've gotten older my taste buds have become a bit more discriminatory. While I will always love a good old milk chocolate Hershey's bar (preferably with a roasted marshmellow and graham cracker!), I so enjoy and appreciate some high quality dark chocolate.

Two weeks ago Ella was going to a birthday party for a school friend and it turned out the party was located right next door to a gourmet chocolate factory store, Antoine Amrani. I knew nothing about it, would have had no clue, if not for the sign saying it sold gourmet chocolates. I stopped in after dropping Ella at the party, took a look around the elegant small store front (the majority of the place is their factory) and of course enjoyed a sample of delicious, delectable dark chocolate truffle.

When I picked Ella up for the party she begged to go in the chocolate store to try something out. I couldn't say no so we went in but there were other people there sampling and actually buying stuff, so no one offered us anything and it felt awkward to be browsing around when it was obvious that my six year old just wanted some free chocolate! So I scouted out the cheapest thing I could buy which was a big square chocolate covered brownie. Of course when I was buying it they pulled out the samples and Ella got to indulge in a yummy taste of truffle - I was so proud of her because she loved it! She's her momma's girl!

Anyway, to make a long short story a little less long...

I waited awhile to break into the brownie. I even thought about giving it away a few times! But eventually I opened it up and took a little bit. Swoon. Seriously, it was so good. A thin coating of chocolate surrounding a rich fudgie brownie - delicious!

I've been taking little tiny bites every couple of days- I really can't imagine eating it all at once, it would be way too rich (ok, who I am kidding, pre healthy-eating-lifestyle I would have totally eaten it all at once.). The other day I broke off a bigger piece than intended so I figured it would be the perfect chance to share the love.

"Matt, you gotta try this gourmet brownie, it's so good..." and on and on...so eventually he agreed and took a bite.

Do you want to hear what he said? I'm still in disbelief days later.

He said it tasted like a Swiss Cake Roll!

I still can't wrap my head around the comparison....seriously.... a Swiss Cake Roll? If you could see my face as I typed that, you would see a look of shock and disbelief!

So anyway, any chocolate lover's out there want to join me in my next visit? It's either that or I take Ella with me!

Random bits

We've been keeping busy enjoying all the beautiful weather we've been blessed with these last few weeks. The girls have spent hours and hours playing with the neighbor boys and there are sidewalk chalk drawings up and down, not only our sidewalk, but the neighbor's as well!

Matt and I are in week 5 of our P90x workout/eating regime. So far so good. I'm definitely sticking with the workout part of it more strictly than the eating. I have been doing well curbing my tendency to snack throughout the day, but when I fall I tend to fall hard. Case in point, I made homemade chocolate chip cookies (what was I thinking, baked goods are definitely one of my weak points) and took them to our small group meeting last night. I lost track of how many cookies I ended up eating!

Another random bit of news. I am slowly coming to grips with the reality that Matt is going to buy a (used) truck. This has been developing for a long while now and I voiced my strong opposition to it, but apparently he has not been persuaded by my fine arguing skills! If anything his obsession with craigslist and other used car sites persuaded me to not make a fuss over it anymore, because after a year plus of it I realized he was not giving up. So I grew up in Central Pennsylvania in a small town where hunter's safety was a required course in middle school and we got off of school for the first two days of hunting season every year and we always got tons of snow every winter - all that time, my family never had a truck. Now, living 15 minutes from the biggest mall on the east coast, smack dab in suburbia, I am soon to be a truck owner. Still can't picture myself cruising around in the truck when Matt's home with the kids and I'm out running errands. I may come to love it, but then again, I may become even more grateful for my minivan!

Finally (nothing like a completely random blog post to catch up on a few weeks of absence)...Ella is definitely one of those kids who gets caught up in having the latest and greatest cool thing. The other day she said something to Matt and me that topped all her other requests...

"Mom, when I'm old enought have a cell phone, I want an iPhone. Just so you know."

Seriously, her words exactly. What do you do with a six year old who says that?! After laughing out loud, I told her that she would have to have a job that would pay for the iPhone......but to myself I said, puh-lease child, there is no way you are getting an iPhone before your dad does! :)

Have a great weekend!

Three Things and more...

Three things to share with you all today....

First of all, thank you so much for all the input, via comments on the blog and on facebook, regarding the naming of my new venture. Please keep throwing any ideas or suggestions my way!

I would love it if you would weigh on the two ideas that, thus far, I like the most. I won't tell you who suggested them (even though you could go back and read comments and figure it out) but this way you don't have to worry that your opinion will make someone feel bad!

Delectable Dishes It was suggested as DeMontaigne's Delectables, but I changed it a bit, but still leaving credit with the first person to mention Delectable.

Piece of Cake Catering (and more). I really like the tag line that was suggested..."we make all your catering needs as easy as pie." So clever! But does it limit me to coming across as more of a dessert person?

There were many others I liked and I can't even say for sure that these are the only two I'm picking from. If someone suggests something that jumps out at me as really fitting, I'll have to go with it. But these are the ones that have stuck with me all week.

Let me know what you think!

Secondly, we had a wonderful Easter weekend. I know this should be first, but I felt like I owed and update on the whole naming process going on. Can you remember the last time we enjoyed this type of weather over Easter?

I think the last time we had nice Easter weather is probably the last time we took a nice family picture at Easter time. With Matt out the door a few hours before us and home after us, we rarely are all in the same place, sitting still, while still wearing our dress clothes (our dressier clothes probably qualify as most people's regular Sunday attire!)! In fact, just minutes after taking the below picture, both girls spilled orange juice on their dresses and changed the second we walked in the house.

I had the camera handy because the girls had danced in church and I took lots of pictures. But I'm saving them for another post because I have confidence in my ability to download the video I took and post it to the blog. It's only happened once before using our actual video camera (as opposed to a video taken using our regular digital camera) but I really have faith that I am going to find the elusive cord that makes it possibly and share it with you all later this week!

Thirdly I think most people end up serving ham as the main course for Easter and I wanted to share a yummy recipe for those of you looking to use up some of your leftovers. It's super simple and pretty healthy.

Jamaican Ham and Bean Soup

1 TBS oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 16oz cans vegetarian refried beans
1 can whole kernel corn with red and green peppers
1 can white shoepeg corn
1 small can chopped green chiles
1/2 cup chunky salsa
1 can fat free/low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Jamaican jerk seasoning
1 lb cooked ham, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2oz can sliced ripe olives drained
1/3 cup lime juice.

Heat oil in large saucepan and saute onion 3-4 minutes until tender.
Add next seven ingredients (up to the ham), mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add ham, olives and lime juice. *My husband doesn't like olives but he is fine with this b/c they are easily picked out. I usually don't add the whole can. Also, the lime juice is pretty strong, but an essential flavor to the soup. If you are uncertain how you'll like it, just add a bit at a time and sample it. * Cook until thoroughly heated, about 3-4 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and lime slice!

I know this calls for a tsp of Jamaican jerk seasoning and I imagine not many of you have it. I bought it years ago for this recipe and have used it for a few others as well. I never mind buying a specialty spice like this since it's a flavor I like and it's still good after all this time. If you're local, feel free to come borrow a teaspoon from me!!! :)

It's a pretty healthy dish, not sure how low carb it is, but it's all good complex carbs so I think it would pass the P90x test....which is the workout and diet plan that Matt and I are currently on week three of. Because of my current weight if I was sticking strictly to the diet plan I would only be allowed one portion of carbs per day. I intend to stick to it, but I allow myself some wiggle room (hmmm...like, you know... Easter dinner!) so I can sustain it over the next few months. The eating plan is coupled with an intense workout plan that I am hating less and less as the weeks go by, but I still miss my quick, but still difficult, workouts with Jillian Michaels! I'm still in the early stages of this and hoping I can see it through to the end.

I think that ended up being more like four things. I wonder if I should go back and change the beginning? Nahhh...then I'd have to delete this sentence and that would be 10 seconds I'd never get back. Ok, I should stop before I head down this road of randomness....

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! He is Risen! Or as my girls say...He is rose. He is rose indeed! :)

What's in a Name?

Not only do I drop off the face of the blogging world, but when I return it's to ask for help!

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had a small catering job. I did light breakfast and full lunches for a group that was using our church building for a training session that met five times, three times each week. It was definitely a good experience and something I've been looking to get started in for a long time now.

It started a few years back when I was doing some occasional part time work with a caterer/party planner. I would just work the events, most of which were high end, fancy schmancy ordeals, which provided me with a window into the catering world and some money to help pay for things like vacation and Christmas. Somewhere along the line the woman realized that I was "into food" and at one point she was talking to me about having me do the baking for her events. This would have definitely been a big deal and a great opportunity had it worked out!

For the last year or two I have been wanting to start selling homemade baked items, specializing in cupcakes and cakes, all sorts of varieties, focusing on quality ingredients and taste rather than your basic grocery store purchase. I even made up some lists of different options and looked into pricing.

The main thing holding me back was a name. I knew I couldn't do something like this if I didn't have a name for my little endeavor, whatever it may be. Something that would convey what I was doing, perhaps something that sounded a bit old fashioned, a bit clever and not too cutsie.

Piece of cake (hahaha!) right?! Not really since that was over a year ago and I haven't really come up with anything.

Since then I have been floundering, unsure whether or not I was going to move forward at all. Then this whole catering gig happened and that involved more than just baking. After doing that I realized that I really did enjoy planning and cooking the whole meal, not just the dessert! I could see myself doing more stuff like this in the future, small corporate functions, baby and wedding showers, dinner parties, etc.

In fact while one of the ladies at the training session asked me for a business card (ugh) and talked about possibly having me cater a First Communion party.

Now I have another chance to work with this group coming up next month and I'm determined that I will have business cards with me, which means I need a name!!!

Help me! I need some ideas and people to brainstorm with me. Make as many suggestions as you like....I don't care if you think they might sound silly, I really need all the help I can get!

I don't think Megan deMontaigne Catering really sounds that great. Also, catering might suggest a much larger scale operation, when I really want to focus on smaller events.

Ok....I am counting on the few blog readers I have out there to give me some guidance and suggestions. If you do suggest the name that I end up picking I will send you in the mail a thank you package of homemade goodies!!!

Catherine stories

I've been sitting up in bed hoping that my kids eventually fall asleep. I didn't mind getting to sleep in this morning since they didn't know the time had changed, but it backfired tonight when 8 o'clock rolled around and they were nowhere near being tired enough to fall asleep when to them it felt like 7 o'clock!

Since I have the computer and I'm stuck up in my bedroom (so much easier than going up and down when the girls venture out of their rooms for one reason or another...so far we have, "I'm thirsty", "I'm scared", "My shoulder hurts" and "I need to be tucked in") I figure nows a good time to jot down a few little stories I've been collecting that I don't want to forget.

Catherine says and does so many things that crack me up and I know I'll regret it if I don't record some of them to look back on. Here are a few of the recent ones...

I was driving the girls home from somewhere a few weeks ago when I heard Catherine ask me a question from the back seat.

"Mom, why are we poor?"

What?! Oh no, did I give her the impression I think we're poor? I asked her to repeat the question and once again she asked "mom, why are we poor?"

Oh man, I was sweating it because I can't imagine she would have gotten that impression from anyone other than me. I know our house is smaller than most in the area and if we could afford something bigger, we would jump on it, but that's definitely a choice we made with Matt's occupation and wanting me to be able to stay at home with the kids. But that doesn't mean we're poor. Did she hear me complaining about wanting more space or a bigger house? Have I ever actually said something like that in front of them?

My mind was racing.

I gathered my thoughts and began to explain to her that we weren't poor, that we had a house, a car, plenty of food and clothes, stuff that many people don't have and we should be thankful and grateful for all that we do have.

I was met with silence from the back seat, until Ella spoke up and said "mom, she asked "why are we small"

Oh.....because of course Catherine can't do her "sp" sound so small can across as pall which I somehow heard as poor.

I really didn't know whether to be happy that I hadn't given my daughter the impression we were poor or disappointed that my little impromptu speech had probably fallen on very confused ears!

These next two little ditties are similar, but again, cracked me up enough that I had to get them written down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One night last week we were at friend's house for dinner and afterwards Catherine and Nolan were playing a game that involved throwing balls at plates trying to knock them over. Apparently this was only a two person game and they told Ella she couldn't play with them. Naturally Ella was very upset by this and we talked to the kids and told them that Ella needed to be included.

Catherine came into the kitchen to tell Ella with great enthusiasm that she figured out how Ella could play with them...."hey Ella, when we throw the ball and it misses and rolls away, YOU can go get the ball for us!!!!!" Seriously, you would have thought she was offering her the role of quarterback or pitcher and not ball girl! There may have been some bursts of laughter from the adults! It was doubly funny to me because I could tell how earnest she was and not trying to manipulate things at all.

Today the same type of thing happened excepted I was the one given the role of "ball girl". Somehow we were talking about clubs and they were trying to think what their club would be and I suggested sister's club. They were excited about that and I said, what about mom's too? Can I be in the club? Catherine immediately responded with "of course mom, you can be our server. You can serve us food when we're hungry!"

So basically this is just an imitation of everyday life club!

Catherine is just such a funny girl. Tonight Matt was trying to get her to wind down for bed and had already read books and sang her a song, but she was still super chatty. I guess he was getting ready to leave and she said "dad, I still have LOTS of questions for you!"

Just like both girls love listening to me read blog posts about them as babies, I know how much they'll enjoy reminiscing about their antics as preschoolers. Definitely a good incentive for me to keep blogging, whether once a week or more!

Checking out

I have much much much to update on and I promise that it will be coming soon! We just got home from a nice weekend away with friends and I am getting all settled in to watch the Oscars, but I feel like the Winter Olympics are just so last month and I figured it would be nice to get a new post up for the start of the week.

Also, this was just one of those things I had to share....

Last week I headed to my favorite money saving grocery store, Aldi's, to do my weekly shopping. I had taken Ella to school so I was getting my shopping started early and I was looking forward to a productive day and was actually calculating how much I would get done before Ella got home from school at noon (crazy, cannot remember where Catherine was...somewhere with Matt I know).

I got to the register, all my food was rung up and I slid my debit card only to have my card denied. Gulp! The cash register worker told me that it was expired, so I immediately checked the date to see the expirations being February 2010 and of course it was the very first day of March! Aldi's doesn't take credit cards so I had no other way to pay. They pulled my cart aside and I said I'd be back. I ran over to Wal-Mart and grabbed the stuff I hadn't found at Aldi's (just slightly tempted to reshop, but it's just too much cheaper at Aldi's!), ran (ok, drove) back home, brought the few bags I had in to the house, grabbed my new debit card (It's coming back to me, I remember calling Matt saying that I my card was expired and he reminded me that it had been sitting there on our computer desk for months just waiting to be activated....I have no idea where he was and what Catherine and him were doing.)

Headed back to Aldi's with my new card, not sure if they still had my cart of groceries waiting for me. Thankfully it was still there and the cash register worker was very kind in quickly scanning my receipt and having me pay without waiting in line and had pulled aside some of the perishables allowing me to go grab fresh ones.

Overall, not too bad, but it cut into my productive morning and was basically a realization of a fear I have everytime I go to check out at a store, that I won't be able to pay.

Skip one week forward to tonight. I was tired after being away all weekend, up too late, and up too early, but I have a catering job this week (more on that coming soon) and I knew I had to get shopping so I could focus on cooking tomorrow morning.

I zoomed through the store, grabbed a take-n-bake pizza for dinner and headed to check out. All the groceries were scanned and reloaded into my cart when I reached in my purse for my wallet only to realize it didn't appear to be there. I set it down and proceeded to rummage through it, because I have so much junk in there that often it only appears that my wallet was missing, but no it was just hiding behind that bag of goldfish.

I found my cut up, expired debit card (I can't even take credit for that, I tried to use it again at Wegman's a few days later and that time the register worker cut it up for me. Apparently this is a lesson I am having a hard time learning.) but no wallet. It truly wasn't in there.

I said something like "oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened again, " and the lady working said "oh yeah, like the last time with your card."

That's right, same employee as last week. Two times in one week she got to be a part of my forgetfulness and actually remembered! I wonder if I have a reputation?

Thankfully my wallet was in my car and I didn't have to go home. Not sure if I would have had the energy to come back!

Now it's time to watch the Oscars and lay on the couch until I fall asleep, perfect ending to the weekend! I hope to have time to update on what's been going on this past month besides the Olympics and my inability to pay for groceries :)