Jadon Had a Little Lamb...

Easter Bunny Picture, March 2009

Jadon & Lamby

• So today's adventure was to Arrowhead Mall. We went for bunny pictures with Amy, Connor & Elizabeth. Lamby (pronounced Lamb-e) had to come with us...Jadon's newest best friend or aka sleepy toy as he refers to her/him...not exactly sure of Lamby's gender...it changes. Lamby's brother's and sisters also live in his crib, but they don't usually come out to play like Lamby does. Sometimes we can be convinced to leave Lamby in the car, but on this adventure, Lamby's presence was needed.

• We did a bit of shopping...Jadon selected many soccer t-shirts at Gymboree, but we didn't buy any b/c we're sure they'll be further reduced any day now, Jadon picked out a very interesting present for his Geegu's b-day on Friday (can't give that store's name away...), got Easter Bunny pictures along with the Easter Bunny Snow globe, which will hopefully appease Jadon so that I don't have to venture into the attic to find his collection of Holiday Snow Globes that he keeps bringing up from time to time. Seriously...I kept his Santa Snow Globe out b/c he is still ALWAYS playing with it, but I guess he wants all the other ones to come out and play too... We ventured into a candy store for a promised "Lolli-pop-pop-pop", found a little potty at the family restroom and headed to the car. I had to steer him far away from Build-a-Bear and the nice lady at Godiva Chocolates gave us a catalog so he could circle what he wants. I thought about stopping at Trader Joe's but decided I was already pushing my luck and that would set things into meltdown mode, so we went home.

• p.s. Jadon & I did teamwork today picking out his clothes...I picked the shirt and he did the rest. Camo is like the new neutral in our house...it pretty much goes with anything...
  

Underwater...

Jadon and I took these pictures this afternoon in the cuzzi...I've been wanting to test out the underwater feature on my new digi camera for a while. Today after a hot morning at the Phoenix Zoo, swimming and watching the Luke Air Force Airshow from the backyard was the perfect chance. I think it will be easier to take better pics when we are in the pool...the cuzzi is kind of hard b/c its so small and Jadon is so fast swimming back and forth. Here are my best shots... Enjoy!

Does Camo Count for Green?

Because I can't get Jadon out of his camo pj's today, attacking my stamping markers...who are we kidding-they aren't mine anymore. He isn't moving...not even bribes are getting him movin... (more about bribes later...)

Sorry I'm not feeling the green today...I'm wearing pink.

I don't want to eat beef and cabbage, drink beers...but we might go over to Tailgaters (new neighborhood Bar & Pizza place) with the neighbors tonight? Is a Margarita green enough?

I didn't make green eggs today or anything else green for that matter...but maybe I'll eat a salad today.

Speaking of salads, I was going to share this really yummy salad like forever ago, but that was before Jadon got a nasty virus, turned into nasty colds/coughs, visit to the dr...blah,blah,blah... Things are on the mend now, so all is good.

So back to my "green" salad....

California Chicken Salad with Avocado & Mango

Make marinade: Combine 2T Olive Oil, 2T fresh lime juice, 2 T Mango Chutney (I used the Mango hot sauce stuff we had b/c I couldn't find anything else that was a chutney...), 1T Soy sauce (low-sodium), 3/4 tsp minced ginger, 1 garlic clove minced.

Chicken: 2 chicken breasts on plate-spoon 1/2 of marinade over chicken, turn to coat and let stand 5 minutes. Grill and slice into strips.

Salad: Mixed greens, diced mango, diced avocado...whatever else you might want...I think next time I'm adding cucumbers to my salad. Arrange chicken on top and drizzle with reserved dressing.

Now to the bribe...

Jadon got a splinter in his foot, who knows how/where but this only added to the drama of the whole cold... He would not let us even get close to look at it. So serious bribes were in order... We read online about some baking soda paste...totally did not work... Saw online to use teething gel to numb the area...worth a try. New spiderman bandaids...teething gel, and a bribe to get this ridiculous Ice Cream Truck he saw at CVS Pharmacy and a trip to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cone. This did the trick, but I'm not really convinced the splinter is out so more bribes may be in the works.

being attacked by a camo monster...must go...

Happy St. Paddy's Day-be safe!

Daddy Home Day...

Daddy Home Day is Sunday, it's the phrase we've always used with Jadon to help him understand why Dad is home on some days and at work on others... It's a BIG deal, especially right now during tax time!

So for Daddy Home Day this Sunday I made the boys a special breakfast of fresh waffles. I LOVE my waffle maker...seriously it is the best! I used a Williams-Sonoma gift card from my Uncle Chuck YEARS ago to make this purchase and its gotten a lot of use! I've used lots of different recipes and pre-mixed batters, but I have to say that the recipe I found this weekend takes 1st prize-it's not lo-cal but they sure were delicious. And by the way I would have NEVER found this if it hadn't been for my friend Duane, who requested I make him this cake (which called for Buttermilk). I just happen to buy buttermilk at Trader Joe's and saw this recipe on the side of the carton. Thanks Duane and sorry you couldn't come over for waffles...maybe next time?

Buttermilk Waffles-made 8 waffles in my waffle iron.
2 cups flour
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking power
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cut butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff

In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks, buttermilk, butter, vanilla.

Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients and stir briefly until just combined. Fold egg whites into batter.

Add chocolate chips, nuts, dried/fresh fruit for variation.

Use 2/3 cup batter in traditional iron, 3/4 cup in Belgian iron

Tomorrow I'll share my low-cal dinner recipe that we had Sunday night...it was great too, but right now my pillow is calling my name....

Spring Break-Part 1...Saturday's BBQ

Tom, Corrina, Cadence, Duane and Rebecca all came to Spring Break with us in sunny Arizona. The weather was perfect for our BBQ Potluck on Saturday. It was great to see everyone and we're looking forward to seeing more of the gang this week and coming weekend! Thanks so much to all of you for driving WAY out west to our house! Hopefully some other peeps captured some more pictures of Saturday's BBQ...I didn't have my camera close by and I only got these 2 pictures...didn't get any on Friday when we all went to the Train Park! I put on Cars for the kids to watch...they did for about 10 or so minutes of the opening scene! We're missing Matthew, but you can see that everyone was in quite a trance over the famous race Car Lightening McQueen!

Tomorrow's adventure is at Desert Breeze Park in Chandler and hopefully The Children's Museum on Thursday.

Just a whole lot of nothing...

o.k. I'm going to admit that I am one of those Mommies who makes my own playdough...not because I have anything against the kind you buy, just because its kind of fun to make fresh playdough...too much time on my hands, yes I know...

Well yesterday is wasn't so fun.

It started out with that I was all out of regular flour, so I tried to take Jadon to the grocery too close to naptime and I ended up carrying him out of the store, kicking and screaming and leaving behind my cart of groceries (including flour)

After nap, he kept asking about the playdough, so I was digging around in the pantry and found some whole wheat flour...I figured why not try?

Let me just say that Whole Wheat Flour is not meant for making playdough...

Even trying to mask the brown playdough with Golden Yellow Wilton Food Coloring didn't help...but Jadon really didn't care that it looked like mustard and was all grainy...

We made playdough, tossed it into the air like the Chef does on Curious George, cut lots of shapes, made pretend tacos and lots of other things.

The first thing out of Jadon's mouth when Jason got home was to tell him about the crying fit he had at the store...like he was holding onto the guilt and he just had to get it out there! Classic. He's quick to apologize these days and its so sweet that its hard not to crack a smile and be serious.

So today we tried again (for the grocery store)

But I didn't subject myself to Bashas, where there is a silly baseball that Jadon thinks he needs (even though he has like 4 different kinds of baseballs and probably like 20 other types of balls...seriously... Ridiculous amounts of toys at this house...enough ranting!)

Instead we went to tiny, little Trader Joe's, where there are no toys for children to insist their parents buy them, but instead there are fun mini grocery carts for kids to push, balloons at the check-out, pretty tulip flowers for Jadon to pick out and lots of other yummy treasures. And free samples of juice (another perk for little boys!)

But...I still didn't buy flour, because I just couldn't pay what Trader Joe's wanted for their organic unbleached flour when I know I can get it for so much cheaper some place else. We will brave another store, on another day....

Until then we'll deal with our whole wheat playdough!

Tomorrow we're headed off for an adventure at the Phoenix Children's Museum to meet up with friends. The Page Family has arrived in Arizona for their "Spring Break" so we are looking forward to lots of playtime with them! Promises for better posts with more fun pictures soon!

Jadon's Quote of the Day... "Guess what Mom? My pee makes bubbles!" We're all about standing up and going pee these days....

Potty Dance...

This will not be a blog about potty training...

Jadon's buddy Connor and sister Elizabeth sent him an American Greeting card to tell him what a great job he is doing with the whole potty thing. The card is pretty funny...
You can view the card, complete with our pictures by clicking on this link... Jadon & Amy's Potty Dance

How does one even begin to comment on this... "The Potty Dance Video" ????