Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween Mason is a Ninja, Kennedy will be a cat and Kameryn will be an elephant.

If these outfits look familiar that's because I'm an avid recycler of Halloween costumes ;-) The kids didn't seem to mind, all they care about is the candy!



ouch my teeth!

Here is just a portion of the aftermath, the rejects went to work with Charles!  Notice the grabby little hand at the top of the picture!



The Cooking Playdate

In the last two months we've been here I've met some moms through a playgroup but haven't really clicked with many people.  It seems like the older you are the more the harder it is to really find a good bond with someone, not sure why, inhibitions, insecurities, lack of similar interests?  But I did meet a girl with 2 kids about the same age as Kennedy and Kameryn and we get together about once or twice a week and I would say she's a good friend.  All it takes is one!  We do have a lot of similar interests, one of them being cooking!  If you know me than you know I love to cook good food.  And if you have small kids than you know how difficult it is to cook while they are awake (and getting into things).  So we came up with the Cooking Playdate.  We've had 2 so far and they have been very successful!  The first time we made Figs stuffed with Goat Cheese and Proscuitto and Poached Eggs on Toasted Baguettes with Goat Cheese Let me tell you that these 2 dishes were so delicious it was like eating heaven!  I really don't know how else to describe it.

little balls of heaven

So good!

Since my friend leaves at 12:30 to take her oldest child to pre-school and we sat down to eat at 12:15 we literally inhaled this meal and couldn't enjoy it like we wanted to, we had to have another cooking playdate.  

In the spirit of Halloween we decided to make Baked Intestines and Sweet Potato and Black Bean tacos (since they are orange and black).  The intestines were good as shit!  Ha Ha! But really they were delicious! The intestines are very simple: puff pastry stuffed with whatever you want, then baked.  The package comes with 2 sheets so we did one sheet stuffed with Spanikopita and the other stuffed with a Maple Almond Butter and crisped Prosciutto.  They both tasted amazing!  

Maple Almond Butter Intestines

Before the heat

Spanikopita Intestines

If we had put both in one pan the intestines probably would've looked more "authentic" (whatever that means) but we just separated them in 2 small pans. We dotted some red food coloring on the spinach one to make them look a little "bloody."  Well, however gross or crappy they looked, they both tasted awesome!

The tacos were also excellent, they are topped with a chipotle lime mayo.

Yes we know what we are doing!

Here's to good eating!  Between us there are 5 kids (Mason was off school that day so he came too) and we  tried and tried to get them to eat the intestines since the tacos were spicy but no such luck.  They noshed on pretzels and goldfish...kids!

Raw Kale Salad, What???

If you haven't had the raw kale salad at Whole Foods you don't know what you're missing!  I know I know raw kale salad doesn't exactly scream "Eat me! I'm delicious!" Oh but it does, you just have to try it.  I first tried this at my old job last spring during a health fair and man it was so good so I immediately googled the recipe and my procrastinating self finally made it two weeks ago... about four months after I discovered it.  Hey I had a busy summer!  So my friend bought garlic at Costco not realizing she already had some at home so what did she do?  She gave it to me - nine bulbs!  Thats alot of garlic!!!  Right away I decided to make this salad and it's intensely garlicky dressing and I've eaten it three times a week for lunch for the last two weeks.  While the girls are napping, Mason is at school and Charles is at work.  I don't share!  It's best enjoyed in total peace and quiet! 

This is the recipe I used borrowed from http://www.stephaniekeenan.com/2012/02/12/2049/

2 bunches kale, chopped and de-stemmed
The salad is just kale but I added chopped avocado, almonds and raisins for a little more texture but you can leave it out

dressing:
4 cloves of garlic, pressed (or finely chopped)
4 T tahini
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or Soy Sauce
1 T Nutritional Yeast (i left this out)
1 lemon, juiced (i didn't have lemon but I had lime and it was still good)

ready to be rubbed!

Wash and put kale in a large bowl.  Mix together all the other ingredients, hand mix your garlicky tahini dressing with your washed and de-stemmed kale.

ready to wash my hands!

The secret to the salad is you must massage the dressing into the kale.  I do it for about 3-4 minutes.  I know that sounds weird but who doesn't love a good rub down!  The toughness of the fibers break down and loosen and while you are massaging while the dressing makes its way onto each and every piece of kale. Enjoy!

ready to be eaten!

Kale is a super-food full of vitamins and nutrients, (hear that old neighbor Lisa??) so it's very healthy and after noshing on football watching snacks ie. beer, pizza, wings, this is just the kind of salad to consume on a Monday to erase the weekend guilt!  Plus it will keep the vampires away!

Future Olympians???

The Olympics are long gone but my kids' love of swimming never dies!  Fortunately for us the pool down here is still open, thanks to the late summer heat.  They insist on wearing goggles all the time...even in the house.

In honor of the Olympics taking place in London, I had to make a British meal so I made bangers and mash.   I was kind of skeptical about making this because we don't eat that much sausage unless it's crumbled out of the casing but this was absolutely delicious! It's not the most beautiful looking dish but it sure was good!  If there were not 4 other mouths to feed I would've eaten it all by myself!  We ate well watching events we already knew the results to!

This is the recipe I used, courtesy of Macheesmo: http://www.macheesmo.com/2012/08/bangers-and-mash/

3 in August!

Kennedy turned 3 in August!  She was very excited to "see her birthday"  For months we would ask her "Kennedy, how old are you" and she would reply "3 in August"  It was so cute and I have no idea who taught her that!  It's now September and she is still saying she's 3 in August.  We tell her no you are just 3, August is over.  Then she gets heated mad and screams "No I'm 3 in AUGUST!"  LOL, that girl is something else!

Here are some birthday pics:

Very happy to see a cake!

she loved the red velvet!

Unfortunately we spent the day unpacking and trying to organize but she didn't seem to mind...as long as she got her cake!

The Intruders!

As soon as we got to South Carolina (our "in between" house) I noticed my head was really itchy.  Well what do you know, Kennedy and I had gotten lice!  Grrrr!  I was mortified!  I don't know where it came from but I knew I had it and had to get rid of it before anyone else got it.  Well, it spreads like wildfire so right away the other kids got it too!  For those of you who have been fortunate to not experience this (but I know a few of you have!) let me just say that it is the BIGGEST pain in the a$$ to deal with and it literally consumes your whole day!  Also, do you know how difficult it is to get a 3 year old and 18 month old to sit still?!?  It's virtually impossible unless you sedate them, which I did not do.  The lice were pretty easy to get rid of, that was not the problem it's the nits, those pesky eggs which are literally glued to your hair. After doing daily online research I found that there are hundreds of remedies for lice/nit removal and treatment, but only a few are legitimate. I found that "washing" your hair with vinegar and leaving it in for 5-6 hours does the trick.  It also smells like a beast when it's 100 degrees in July in South Carolina!  I did it a couple times and eventually we got rid of mine but my kids...well that's another story.  I couldn't soak them in vinegar and have them rolling around on someone else's carpet so... we opted for the chop!  We cut their hair!  Mason was hesitant because he didn't want to be bald but once he got buzzed he really liked it and I told him his hair would grow back pretty quick and he'd be curly again in no time!  Kennedy was another story, I loved her long curly hair!  If I had a dollar for every compliment someone gave me on her hair, I'd be rich!  She had hair halfway down her back and lots of it, therefore lots of nits so it had to go! 


I was not able to do this when it was long!!

 At the time I just wanted the invaders to be gone.  I'm not one to shy away from cutting my own hair, I've had short hair so many times and it always grows back so hers will too.  Kameryn's hair was an uneven mess so evening out her locks was needed anyways. Here are the results:



Happy to be chopped!





I read some stories online of people who took over 2 years to completely get rid of it!  If you miss one stupid pin-sized egg the cycle starts all over again!  So glad it didn't take that long!!!

Maryland Summer pics

Here are some pics of the kids from the summer, I know I'm late but better late than never!

Mason and soccer friends

Hanging out with a friend

First time having ice cream!

My Sleeping Beauty

 

I'm still very new to this blog thing so the pictures are not consistent in size.  I'm lucky if I can squeeze in a shower while the girls are napping so figuring out the settings on the blog is pretty much non-existent.  I'm working on it though!  More to come!

 



The beginning of the end...of Maryland

Sometime in February or March Charles came home from work and the conversation went something like this:

C  "There's an opening in Charlotte they keep telling me about."
Me *gasp* "Charlotte?  Do you want to move to Charlotte?"
C  "Do you want to move to Charlotte?"
Me "I don't know, I haven't thought about it.  What did they say?"
C  "That there's a position there and they want me to have it."

And that was the end of the conversation.  I don't know why but I assumed he would inquire about it.
About a week later:
Me "What happened with that job?  Did you apply?"
C  "No.  Did you want me to?"
Me " Ummm, I thought you were going to.  Just do it and see what happens then go from there.  We can decide later."

So here we are!

The movers came late June to pack and load our things.

Boxes and Boxes!

And more boxes!

                           And the results:              It actually looks kinda big with nothing in it! 

 

This was the picture I texted Mason's best friends mom and she replied "So I guess you really are leaving"  Sigh, I didn't realize she was in denial.  Thank goodness for the magic of technology!



Finally!!

We are finally settled in our new house!  It's been a while since we left Maryland but we did it just in time for school to start.  Here's a picture of the outside

It took longer to find a nice rental than we expected, but we did it and here we are!

Here is Mason going to first day of school, at a new school!

He was actually excited to go back for the second day, which was great but also surprising to me...or maybe he was just excited to hang out with kids his own age!