Mel & Monterey

Melanie & Wyatt came for a quick trip to Monterey.  It was great to meet Wyatt and fun to hang out with them for the day.  Spending time with family is our favorite pastime.  Spending time at the beach is our other favorite pastime.  It was a happy day!

The afternoon, in pictures.

Amanda teaches our kids how to properly chase birds.

She's a good teacher.

We love Amanda!

A running hug for Melanie!

The Honored Guests + Seals on the rocks

 

Making friends with hermits.

W & A

Stayed here nearly the whole time, watching and feeling the water go in and out.  Can't blame her.

W, A and M

Not pictured was lunch at a place we'll likely not visit again, a memory-filled walk to Big Granddaddy & Corrie's old house (owners let us walk into the back yard and, sadly, we forgot to get pictures!), and afterward hot cocoas to warm up after all the time on the beach. 

To Mel & Wyatt: Thanks for the visit and sharing your whole day with us!

Pioneer Day 2011 - The Makings of A Tradition

I'm about a month late doing this post, but I wanted to record what a fun FHE (Family Home Evening) night we had for Pioneer day.  Both Blake and I have ancestors that were Mormon Pioneers (read more at wikipedia; lds.org used to have a great website about the pioneer trail but I can't find it anymore...).  In fact, Anson is named after one of these ancestors - it's a good naming story I'll tell another time.  We know the names of our ancestors, but not many stories about them.  We decided we could use at least one FHE night around Pioneer Day on July 24th to talk about the faith and sacrifices of the early pioneers.  Hopefully we can find more stories as a family and our children will be familiar with our history.

Realizing our kids are still young we kept it very basic.  We sang Primary songs about pioneers, looked at LDS art of pioneers, and "made" our own handcart out of card board.  We told Claire what the pioneers took with them, but that they could only take what they could carry.  Claire went to her room to get a few changes of clothes, favorite toys, pretend food & utensils from her play food collection, and a blanket.

Then we sang "The Handcart Song" and "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked" while walking up and down the hallway.

When we started singing about washing at streams Claire told us we needed a stream.  We set that up and every time she crossed over she stopped to pretend to wash clothes & dishes in it. 

The girl LOVES to pretend.  She had a blast.  All week long she kept asking to play pioneer again.  Thanks to Blake for keeping that cardboard thing held together long enough to have a nice night.  Thanks to Grammy for walking Anson back and forth - I think he had fun, too. :) 

Tribute to Ice-Cream

One of the less-significant rules of our marriage is that we will always have ice-cream in the freezer.  Our children are no strangers to the creamy cold bliss in a bowl.

We recently asked Claire to draw us a picture.  This is what she brought back.

The ice-cream cone and scoops of delight are fairly obvious.  Her traced hand is holding the cone.  Her wrist is adorned with a bracelet.  And that other thing reaching out from the left side of the picture?  That's her tongue!

Summer Staycation

With an impending (local) move we didn't make any big vacation plans.  But we can't just let summer go by without doing ANYTHING.  So here's a couple things we decided to DO.

OAKLAND ZOO

DAY OUT WITH THOMAS

Both of these were 1/2 day trips.  The kids and parents all came back happy instead of wiped out.  What 1/2 trips have you done lately?

I Love Food! (& My Latest Recipe Find)

I love food.  You may not be able to tell by my waistline (at least at this stage in my life) but I really love food.  And I found that I love cooking it, too. 

It's ironic because my mom really doesn't like cooking.  Neither did her mother.  My grandma's recipe submission at my bridal shower was "Take prepared meal out of the freezer.  Microwave it for the appropriate heat and time."  My dad isn't a good cook either, but his mother (who I last met when I was only 2 years old) had a catering business so maybe this comes through my Japanese blood.  Both parents have taught me some real basics about how to cook in both cultures but in the last 10 years or so cooking on my own I've really come to love preparing and eating my own meals.

But, there are conditions.  I'm lactose intolerant.  My husband has high cholesterol.  We like eating vegetarian periodically.  And with working and/or small kids I have to prepare it fast.  My last condition is that if I'm going to take the effort I want it to actually taste good & be healthy.  No hamburger helper in this house.  In my mormon.org profile I mention, "If my recipe collection was published, it would be called, 'The Half-Japanese, Working Mother, Lactose-Free, Low Cholesterol, Flexitarian, Less than an Hour, Easy Gourmet on a Budget Cookbook.'" 

I had a great afternoon this week on Beth's couch talking about all of this (among many other more important topics).  She mentioned a great recipe her husband Joe had made recently that was a really light pasta with shrimp and I think I've been craving something like that since.  Surprisingly tonight I found a recipe on the back of the plastic "Sunny Select" store brand pasta package that sounded similar and gave it a shot.  IT WAS GREAT!  It was fast, fresh, few ingredients, easy, low-cost, and super tasty.  This is going to be a new favorite.  Here it is:

ANGEL HAIR with TOMATOES, BASIL and GARLIC

1 lb Angel Hair pasta, uncooked

2 Tbl olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled & finely chopped or 2 tsp garlic powder

5 cups tomatoes, diced

3 Tbl fresh basil, chopped or 1 1/2 tsp dried basil

salt & pepper to taste

3/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan/Romano cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions (boil about 3 minutes), drain.  Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic & saute 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes, basil, salt & pepper.  Saute another 3 minutes.  Stir in broth & heat through.  Add drained pasta to skillet & toss well.  Toss with Parmesan cheese & serve immediately.

*My changes this time:
1.  I never have fresh basil.  Dried basil worked great.
2.  I buy minced garlic in a jar (like from Christopher Ranch).  This saves a bunch of time and my hands never smell like a clove.
3.  I only had 4 medium sized tomatoes so I probably only had about 3 cups worth of diced tomatoes.
4.  I sometimes don't toss the cheese throughout if I don't feel like taking Lactaid and have people add it to their own plates - or - just pull out my serving first.
5.  For broth I use Better Than Bouillon.  Instead of storing cans or cubes I can mix my own in whichever quantity I need.  Since you mix 1 tsp per 1 cup I can easily modify to half a cup or this 3/4 cup.  We like the flavor, too.


So give it a try.  It may just be a new favorite in your home, too.  And, hey, if any of you have any "'Half-Japanese, Working Mother, Lactose-Free, Low Cholesterol, Flexitarian, Less than an Hour, Easy Gourmet on a Budget" recipes let's trade!

Claire's Drawing: A Mommy & Baby Bird

Claire is also getting better and better at drawing and coloring.  Here are her two latest pieces of art.  Too bad it's on the magna doodle.  I'd probably frame it otherwise.  :) 

The amazing thing to me is that she keeps trying.  The first picture is the one with her holding it proudly.  It's a mommy bird giving a baby bird a worm.  It's stick people style. The birds have stick bodies and heads with beaks.  You can see the squiggly worm going from beak to beak.  She had to re-draw the first time because it got erased. She started to cry while trying to re-do it because it was hard, but I convinced her to keep trying and not give up.  She was able to dry her tears and finish the drawing.  She did it pretty close to what she had done the first time. 

We were both so happy and proud!  It may have been a learning moment for her, too, that you can do hard things if you keep trying. 

And every time she gets a little better.  The next day, her stick birds got bodies and the tree had more branches. 

I think it's really a great lesson for all of us - applicable to developing new talents, acquiring skills, habits, or attributes.  And perhaps it brings God joy, too, in an even greater way than I had with my daughter.  Pretty cool lessons we get to learn in our families.

Watch Out for Anson

Twice yesterday I thought Anson was happily playing by himself with toys.  Nope! 

First I heard the banging of the toilet lid and realized he wasn't in his room any more.  I found this:

And not only that, the toilet seat and his onesie were soaked with toilet water.  Are Lysol wipes safe to use on babies?  This was one instance where I thought it was appropriate.

Attention all residents & house guests:  We have now entered the stage of closing the toilet lids and bathroom doors behind us at all times.

Then it was this:

You'll notice in the background my wallet was the first thing to come out of the purse.  The wallet is open, too.  He's already good at rifling through my purse for the most important things:  keys, credit card, and cell phone.  I have to find a new place to drop my purse...