Free Giveaway!!!

In honor of getting 2,000 hits on my blog (WOW!) I am having a giveaway. Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment with what your favorite post has been.

2. Get another chance to win by posting about it on your blog, and don't forget to let me know.

3. Get another extra chance by becoming a follower. (if you already are one, you still get that extra chance!)

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you please!!

The prize could be anything! It may be something handmade or it may be something that is laying around my house. I will announce what the prize is on the day I announce the winner.

You have until April 4 at midnight eastern time to enter!!


Thanks again to all those people that read my blog.

Finger Painting

After the day before and our fun painting experience I figured we could try out the finger paints (she says while shaking her head!). This was not exactly how I thought it would turn out. I did take the steps of putting plastic down on the table and putting them in clothes that I didn't mind having paint on. Well, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.....

The start of finger painting. Not too bad....

alright, getting a little bit more into it....

D just having a blast!

and then out come the dark colors....

and the mess begins...

hey, look, I can paint my arms, legs, face...

Sweet, I had puke brown!

Look mom, I am a mess!

This isn't even as bad as they got, it got a whole lot worse! I actually had to strip them down to their diapers and run them up to the tub. D even had it in her hair, ears, and eyes. It was bad! So the next time we do finger painting, it will be warm out, and the pool will be set up!

A Garden Party

Yesterday we had a garden party. This poor party was shifted around so much, I guess I wasn't surprised when only 2 other moms made it. But this was a fun thing to do with the kids. We went outside (which was a miracle that it was nice), and we painted flower pots. I have TONS of acrylic paint and foam brushes from B.C. (before children), and have been collecting stickers for fun projects. So I just laid out some old blankets for us to sit on, put my old Starbucks aprons on the kids, and headed outside to paint. The kids all had a great time and actually did really well with the paints. It was the first time my kids had ever used paints and L is hooked! Today he woke up and was asking to go out back and paint again. Looks like I better get some finger paints! When we were all done painting we headed inside to eat some dirt cake and get cleaned up a little. After snacks we headed back outside to fill up our pots with dirt and I put the seeds in the kids pots. I think the mom's had just as much fun as the kids. I did have to laugh because it figures my 2 would stick the brush in their mouths! They also painted right over their right eyes and it had to be with the shiny, glittery blue paint. L looked like he had eyeshadow on, so I started to call him Bowie for the day. D still has some blue paint in her hair on the tips, it actually looks kinda cute.

So my pictures are in reverse order, but I'm too lazy right now to fix it.

I did it!

L getting wild with the colors

Look mom!

About to paint her shoe instead

L really loved doing this!

My little Starbucks Barista

The coffee master!

Tres Leche cake

I made an awesome Tres Leche cake for last nights dinner club. The theme was Mexican food, and this was something I had wanted to try and make for some time now. I got the recipe here...



and it was super easy to make. The only thing that I didn't have in the house to make this was the heavy whipping cream for the topping. Sweet!

And the picture of it....



I thought it was a little on the sweet side compared to some I have tasted, but Adam said it need more sugar. We shall see. I may try to make this again using a different recipe to see if there is a difference.

Look what I got!!

On Facebook one of our friends started a note, that if you were 1 of the first 5 to respond you could get something free, and handmade. It was a way of pay it forward, and there were some rules.

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.

2. What I create will be just for you, with love.

3. It will be done this year (2009).

4. I will not give you any clue as to what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. I might bake something for you and mail it to you when you least expect it. I may even create something totally unbelievable and surprise you at work!! Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your note.


So as soon as I saw my friend MaryJane put this on her profile, I jumped at the chance to have an original creation. Well I got it at the end of last week, and I just couldn't wait to show you.

Here is what I got....

A coffee sleeve and a donut!

Do we really need this?

I'm sure all of you moms out there have heard about the new look they are giving Dora. I understand the marketing plan behind it, but why do they have to make her just like all the other dolls out there. I read in the article that you will be able to go online to her new website and change her hair and clothes. I have a real problem with this. Dora is a teacher to our young children, why when she "grows up" does she need to be vain? Can't she still be a teaching tool for the older girls? Girls already have a tough time when it comes to people put pressure on them to look a certain way, do we really need another doll to help further that idea? I would really like to see them change her, but keep some of her ideals in tact. I will leave you with a picture of the new Dora. You tell me what you think.....

Dear crabby old lady

Dear crabby old lady,
What did I do that put such a sour look on that old face of yours? Was it that I took my kids for a walk on a beautiful day to the library teaching them that exercise, fresh air, and reading are all important? Was it that I let me kids choose what they wanted to get, teaching them that they have a choice in life? Was it that when they were fighting over who got to hold the Curious George movie I told them they needed to be quite? Was it when they kept fighting that I told them both to stop yelling and didn't smack, hit, or scream at my kids? Was it when they still kept it up that I took away the offending movie? Or was it that I didn't ignore them acting up? Maybe it was when they still couldn't be quite, I took them out the door and left? Gee, I really wish that you could have stopped me and told me what pissed you off. Well maybe next time you can tell me while I'm busy being a decent parent to 2 small children!

Thanks for nothing, and making my mood a foul one!
Hippie Mama Kelly

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today's post is brought to you by the color green today!

We had a play date this morning. We snacked on Lucky Charms, green water, and green jello. The kids had a blast! I also had shamrocks for the kids to color. They did a pretty good job. Most of them knew they needed to color them green without any prompting.

While the kids napped I whipped up some green cupcakes and white frosting. They look so yummy! I can't wait until after dinner to have another one. And yes I am making a corned beef and some cabbage. I may also make some mashed potatoes so the kids will eat something. The hubby is stopping off to buy a few bottles of beer for us to dye green to go along with dinner. I love celebrating all the holidays, can you tell?

L after discovering the marshmallows in Lucky Charms

The green cupcakes and green water

I know the shamrocks look a little silly!

Look how fun!

Lemon Meringue Pie

The last time I made lemon meringue pie is looked like this:

Ewwwwww! I apparently over beat the meringue and it just looked gross. Tasted yummy, but looked gross. So I'm trying again! I made a promise to myself to try new techniques, and since I didn't feel comfortable with the end result last time I thought I would give it another shot. And the reason I'm making is that since this summer my high school girlfriends and I try to get together once a month. There are 4 of us and we take turns hosting at our houses. So each of us brings something to share. I was bugging Adam trying to come up with what to make. This popped into my head. I use 2 different recipes and combine them. I use this one for the crust and it comes out amazing! You have no idea when you taste it that it isn't a traditional pie crust. And I use a good old Alton Brown recipe for the filling and meringue. It is awesome! Alton can do no wrong in my eyes.

So here are the pictures, you tell me what you think....

Shell pre baking

egg and lemon mixture

filled pie

making the meringue

pre baking, looking pretty good!

The end result! Much, much better! Can't wait to eat it!

Frugal little me.

After being in the situation that we have been living in for a while, you become thrifty and frugal out of necessity. I started to keep all the glass jars from pasta sauce before Christmas to put the homemade apple butter in for gifts. Well I still had 3 sitting on my shelf. I thought why not put all my dried beans into the jars and clean up the pantry a little. I was inspired by another blog that I follow, the only difference was that I was motivated by clutter. Last weekend when I went to the junk store I picked up a super cute vintage jar. It has yellow sunflowers and a yellow lid on it and I thought of putting my coffee beans in it. Perfect! I have a large glass jar with a tight fitting lid, and it dawned on me to put my flour in that one. And the old plastic Tupperware cereal container that the flour was in is now going to hold the rice. I am feeling great about this. I get to reuse, and tidy up my pantry. Just a few more random glass jars and it will all be perfect.

Good? Morning

Have you ever joined a group just to cause trouble and stir the pot some? Do you like drama? Well, I think my cat says yes to both of these questions! Last night at 2am he cat went into the kids room and somehow woke L up. So of course that means it's time to play. The only problem is that there are no toys in their room. So L tried to play with the cat, that didn't happen, since the cat doesn't really like him, so he crawled under the baby gate at the door just enough to pull on some of the toys just of of reach. This then causes a huge crash since the toy he was pulling on was under an old baking sheet filled with magnets. L didn't fall back asleep until 4 am! It took me going into the room and sitting in a chair until he was finally out. I go back into my room and D wakes up crying. So I get her back to sleep. By this point I am wide awake! I spend the next hour listening to the kids tossing and turning, the cat under the bed licking and scratching, and the hubby snoring next to me in bed. I sit up in bed and read my book. It is not a good book to read before bed! I read until 6 and finally try to close me eyes. Now my stomach is growling and I start to have a random asthma attack! I force myself to sleep since I know the kids will be up soon. I actually got 2 hours of sleep once I finally closed my eyes. I'm beat today and now I don't feel well. Great!

A mom moment

D is not feeling well today. She has thrown up three times and doesn't really seemed phased by it. The kids always go take naps after lunch at around 1. They know it happens after Sesame Street is over. Well we were about 15 min. away from the end, D climbs up on the couch next to me, and just falls asleep. I thought she was watching the show, but it turns out that being sick has wiped her out. So I picked her up, held her like when she was a baby, and carried her up the stairs to her crib for a nap. It was just so sweet to have a "baby" again.

It was something that only a mom would love!

Random thought of the day

So it occurred to me while I was washing dishes that I am friends with people I have nothing in common with other than the fact that we have kids that are close in age. It was a true mom moment to think that had I not had kids I would never have been friends with these people. We sometimes don't share the same ideas, or politics, or hobbies, but we do share the feelings of bringing up kids.

Just a neat little observation that happened to me today.

Now back to your regularly scheduled nonsense day!

The April Calendar

Okay so here goes April. I know that more things will come up and I will up date this as they do!

1-playdate at chocolate cafe
2-
3-couple's night for fondue @chocolate cafe
4-april birthday party
5-easter egg hunt
6-playdate at Sarah's bringing canned goods to donate
7-national no housework day
-visit carrie and the girls
-organizers meeting at Yesterdays
8-walking playdate at Notre Dame
9-soccer zone
10-national grilled cheese family dinner
11-Mom's night out
12-easter
13-mall playdate
14-rum village park playdate
15-scrapbooking @pages in time
16-pajama playdate
-book club
17-McDonalds for lunch
18-healthy kids day at YMCA
19-Adam's birthday
-mom's shopping trip
20-book club?
21-visit mom
22-earth day
-walking at Notre Dame
23-used book exchange
24-picnic at Potawnami park
25-Beth's wedding
-March of Dimes
-Arbor day
26-Kite day at St. Pats Park
27-bike parade
28-Mom's night out movie and drinks
29-visit mom
30-national oatmeal cookie day playdate

Who knew?

Who knew that a mom's group organizer meeting would last 3 hours trying to get the April calendar filled. Of course it was at a coffee shop with no kids, and we met with a possible sponsor, and instated new guidelines. We had tons to go over, but it was still a shock!

I'll be back later to post the April calendar. There are some fun things happening!

Very Busy March

So I was sitting here and thinking about how busy I am and just to prove it I am going to show you my March calendar.

1-Visit friend with new baby
2-Dr. suess playdate
3-visit my mom
4-mall playdate
5-Tastefully simple party
6-girls night out
7-mom's lunch and shopping
8-beer night
-Gibson's party
-Montana and Mira's party
9-playdate at Annie's
-playdate at Healthworks kids museum
10-organizer's meeting
11-group get to know you at Chocolate Cafe
-Johnny Appleseed Day playdate
12-playdate at chocolate cafe
-Dominik's birthday playdate
13-
14-Women's Health Expo
-Winter Days at the zoo
-Get together with the Baker family
15-high school girlfriends get together
16-playdate at Katrina's
17-St. Pat's kids party
18-visit mom
19-mall playdate
-book club
20-Garden party
21-dinner with friends
22-Family dinner at Steak and Shake
-Stephanie's baby shower
23-playdate at Diane's
24-visit mom
25-
26-playdate at Chik-Fil-A
27-Bubble playdate
28-Compost seminar
-Art night
29-Beth's wedding shower
-Ben's birthday
30-Incredible kid playdate
31-


Wow that's tons of stuff.

My mom's group is getting together tonight to put together the April calendar. I'll post that too when I get home!

Veggie Brown Rice Casserole

If you are on WIC like me, then you too probably have tons of dried beans and not sure what to do with them. I can only cook so much with beans. I have never been a fan of them myself, and my kids seem to be following in my footsteps. Well, this is one that seems to go over well. It is vegetarian if you either leave the cheese off or get a substitute. I love to make this because I typically have everything in the house already and it's super easy to put together. I call it my hippie dinner, but I think that you could really impress anyone with it.

INGREDIENTS:
2 quarts water
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown
rice
1 cup dry split peas
1 cup chopped fresh
mushrooms (you could probably use canned)
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced
tomatoes, undrained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup shredded Cheddar
cheese
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large saucepan, bring water, rice and peas to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. In a skillet, saute the mushrooms, celery, carrots, onion and garlic in oil until vegetables are tender. Combine the vegetables, rice mixture, tomatoes and seasonings.
3. Transfer to a greased 2-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted.

The carrots, celery, mushrooms, and garlic being sauted.

I add the seasonings and tomatoes to the veggie mix to make it easier.

The rice and peas before being mixed. Yes, you do see some white rice. I ran out of brown and still needed a 1/2 cup.

All mixed in the casserole dish and ready for the oven.

The finished product. Look at that cheesy goodness!

Please let me know if you try it and like it! Thanks!

A picture update

Wow, I'm on a role today! 3 posts and I'm planning one more about a yummy recipe. We have been super busy these last few weeks. We went to a Beer Night party with the mom's group, had a mom's shopping and lunch day, I got to go out with my friends for dinner and a drink, we had a Dr. Suess birthday party, and a whole bunch more.

The kids at the beer party. They all got on a computer chair and watched Baby Einstein.

D wearing mommy's heels

The moms on our shopping trip.

My biking kids. Can you tell we are ready for spring?

And now my firefighters in no pants. Cause that's how we put out fires, what about you?

A question for all you moms of more than 1 child?

Alright I have a question. When you mommies of more than 1 child go shopping and need to put the kids and bags in the car. How do you do it? I typically have both children belted into the stroller or the shopping cart. When I get to the car I put one kid in while the other is still belted in, with the stroller or cart pushed close to the back of the car, out of the way of traffic. Once the first kid is in, then I put the other kid in. After both kids are in I finally put the bags in and either put the stroller back in the trunk or put the cart back in it's place.

Now I ask because I swear that everytime I'm out with the kids woman walk by and give me dirty looks. Not once has that person asked if I need help! If it offends you that much, then help me! How else am I suppose to get to kids and all the bags in?

Any suggestions?

FREE TEA!

There is this new tea company out there and they are trying
to get the word out about their yummy teas so if you register
with them they will send out a free tea sample every 2 weeks.
I just signed up because I can't turn down free stuff and
I can't turn down tea either!  Plus a neat bonus is
every order to Tropical Tea Co. helps give a person in
Africa 1 year worth of clean drinking water.
Want more info, well here is their blog and the website.  

A D side note.

I had a Tastefully simple party on Thursday night and some of our friends from out of town were able to make it. The husband's name is Gregg. Well he headed upstairs to hang out with Adam and the kids. D is still very shy around him at first but usually warms up to him pretty quickly. Adam told me later that because she couldn't say Gregg she started to call him "cake"! I think that's pretty clever. And I guess he got a kick out of it too. D is just too cute!

What???

Okay, I know I have been a bad blogger this last week. So much to do, so little time for much else. Plus I keep coming up with these brilliant ideas to blog about and I'm an never near a computer in time to put them down. But, last Sunday the kids and I were heading back to Valparaiso to see my best friend Stacey and her new baby. I was traveling on 80/94 going west bound and a little snow started to come down. As I was getting further into Michigan City it was getting worse. Cars were slipping off the road everywhere, the accidents were getting crazy! It was a messy. I noticed that a car had slid off the road and down the embankment and was hidden in the very tall grass along the way. So I grabbed my phone and called 411 to get a hold of the state police. I felt I needed to because the car was very hard to see and I just had a vision of that person being stuck down there for days (like all the news stories that we hear). The operator comes on and asks for the city and state. I tell her that I need the Indiana state police to report an accident. She tells me that I need to be more specific because there are many Indiana state police numbers. Fine, I tell her that I just passed the Michigan City exit, heading to the Valparaiso exit, and that the car was under Brown rd. She mumbles something and then sends me the number. I stay connected and it goes ahead and calls for me. The person on the other line picks up and I give them tons of details. And the person on the other line asks me if I'm trying to contact the police. I say of course, and she then tells me that I called the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Now come on! How did the stupid operator confuse the police with the DNR! That is just retarded, I'm sorry! The nice person on the phone through the DNR asks me if she could call the police for me, so I give her all the details and she calls them. By the time I was done with all that it actually made me question if I should have even tried! But in the long run, I'm glad that I did. Who knows what could have happened to that person down in that ditch if I hadn't. They may have been fine, they may not have.