Best Shake Ever!

Gotta love a green smoothie smile!  Miss Sassy still thinks smoothies are about the best treat around!

Actually, we've started feeding these smoothies to visiting kiddos.  Ummmm... without disclosing the secret ingredients.  Y'know... all the green stuff.  I felt a twinge of guilt the other day.  Until an extra kiddo declared her smoothie the, "Best Shake Ever!"

Guess the spinach didn't hurt her...

 Here's the current favorite...

Two frozen bananas

An orange

About 1" chunk of ginger, peeled and sliced

Big, big handful of spinach

A cup or so of water

Have a great day!

Vacation Shenanigans!

New Englanders are perhaps a bit more prone to cabin fever than their southern counterparts....  So our family has a tradition to combat that dull and lifeless time of year.  All day sledding parties!  We go from 10-10 and invite everyone we can think of!  Crazy gatherings with herds of kids, goofy games, and some kind of entertainment.  Like duck tape.

Soooooo... what do a bunch of crazy teens do with several roles of duck tape?  And why do we call these parties SLEDDING parties?  The kids go sledding for a few minutes, then spend the rest of the day snacking, throwing marshmellows, playing games, whipping a ping-pong ball back & forth, and gabbing!  Oh... and decorating cars with duck tape.  Or taping each other into chairs.  Or to each other.  Or to walls....

I would sooooo love to share pictures, but I don't like to post other people's kids here unless I know its ok.  We did count, though... 23 kids in one photo!  Plus a few brave adults.  And the kids kept showing up throughout the day... I just forgot to dig the camera out again.  Too busy trying to keep snacks on the table, I guess! 

The day really was a wonderful start to vacation week!  Miss Sassy spent the day at Camp Nana & Boppa.  She even had her little friend, Bus Buddy, visit with her!  The other girls each had a herd of friends over.  The herds tended to hang out together and stampeded the kitchen only when foraging for food.  Or when their clothes were wet from sledding.  Or someone had a boo boo.  Or they needed more duck tape....  Oh, yeah!  I stayed busy....  lining up the crock pots, cutting fruits and veggies, getting out more games, scraping marshmellows off the floor, throwing more clothes through the wash.  And I wouldn't change a minute of the day!  (Especially since after the last remnants of food were served, I got to escape to the loft and join the ping-pong play offs!)

Another photo of what's been keeping me busy during vacation!  The girls brought their trombones home, so we have five (yes FIVE) trombones to use as doorstops....  My husband doesn't quite understand why we need so many trombones.  Oldest two kiddos play, so that accounts for two.  I play, so make that three accounted for.  Oh... except that I LOVE to play!  And recently invested in a second trombone.  Really a sensible investment for a trombone player.  Really... one large bore, one small bore.  Completely different sounds.  Ok... he's still not getting it and thinks I have become a very expensive wife....  Oh!  And the 5th trombone is the "fleet spare" for when we are all playing together and the kids forget to bring theirs home from school.  Sensible.  REALLY.

Oh!  A couple buddies and I just started a weekly trombone jam session.  Just in case two bands, a quartet, and playing in church didn't allow enough play time!  These guys are THE BEST!  We played, talked, and laughed half the night.  Sometimes we laughed at the playing... sight reading does produce some interesting chords!  Especially when we don't look at the lables on the music and start out with the most difficult piece...

And Miss Sassy!  Miss Sassy has trouble walking in all this white stuff.  So my friend, Awesome Neighbor, and I took her downtown for a walk on plowed sidewalks.  Miss Sassy goes for walks around town with her special class at school, so she is familiar with many of the businesses.  She lights up when she enters some buildings.  Like Murrays.  Hmmmm... I think she has been sneaking out for lunches!  She seems to know the menu.  She pointed to sweet potato fries when asked what she wanted to eat.  I thought I would get to share the fries, but no such luck.  I scored ONE fry....  She cleaned up the fries, ate her half of the burger and most of our salad!  Next time, I'm ordering my OWN fries!

And a bit of sewing!  Any guesses?  Yup... a baby quilt!  Oldest kiddo helped choose the pattern and fabrics.  She loves bright colors and chose a multi-sized star pattern... white for the stars and mostly bright yellows, greens & oranges for the background.  Honestly, I wasn't sold on the colors... but as the first blocks took shape, I LOVE IT!!!!  This promises to be a fun quilt!

Well... there's still a bit of vacation left!  And we have new white stuff still falling!  Time to go play in it!  Have a happy day! 

Baby Bump Update

Grandbaby bump is about 21 weeks along now.  Miss Sassy is still keeping tabs on niece/nephew's progress.  Only caveat is trying to explain to Miss Sassy that she can not pull up all shirts to admire her friends' tummies.... 

Oldest kiddo is feeling mostly well except for frequent tired spells.  She has an active kiddo in there.  Lots of sommersaulting and carousing.  I'm guessing tired will be a frequent companion after "Hi Baby" is born, as well....  Otherwise, her spirits are good.  She has a little more space with her new room.  Her senior year, she'll be easing up on her previously hectic and difficult schedule.  No first block classes and the chance to study some optional courses that interest her instead of AP, really tough stuff.  She's a little overwhelmed planning for the future.  I think that is often true for later highschool kiddos, but exceptionally so for this sweet, gentle girl who will have a baby in tow as she figures out the rest of her life.

And me?  I seem to alternate between worrying like crazy about her (their) future and looking forward to meeting my Super G'andkid...

Clean?

We were totally snowed in today... close to two feet of the white stuff!  The morning was relaxed.  Very relaxed!  My dad called at 8:30 and woke us ALL up.  Even Miss Sassy, the very early riser.  Even youngest-always-ready-to-go-child.  Even me!  On a weekend with no kids at home, I generally can't manage to squeeze my eyes shut past 7:00.

Then, after sleeping half the day away, the girls and I managed to accomplish nothing noteworthy all morning.  It was lovely.  But by noon I was tired of all that relaxing.  Blah!  Time to do something. 

Hubby has been working on oldest kiddo's new room.  Oldest and youngest have been sharing a room.  Maybe I should add that they comfortably shared a room with no screaching, hair pulling or any of that rotten sibling stuff.  Really!  They are well-matched.  But... incoming!  One baby.  That could tip the scale....

Anyhow, other than piles of tools, sawdust, and pieces of linoleum, the room looked pretty finished to me.  By the way, I have no idea how to spell linoleum.  I hope it is spelled correctly.  Or that you do not know how to spell it either.  I digress...  I don't know how to spell digress either.  We decided to move oldest kiddo into the new room! 

A couple of hours later, all the tools and sawdust were banished and kiddo's furniture was moved into the room.  There was the trail of mess that accompanies any big move.  Miss Silly had spent the two hours alternating between giggling at us and scattering all of her toys.  And... ummmm... housecleaning is not my favorite chore any day of the week, so I often clean tomorrow.  I was several tomorrows behind.

Soooooo... I had the brilliant and impulsive idea to invite my parents over for supper.  In two hours.  With the house a mess and dinner not even begun.  Sigh.  Since there was NO chance of cleaning up the living room and all the various messes on my to-do list, I focused on making the meal that I had promised.

My parents arrived with dinner close to ready.  They admired oldest kiddo's new room.  We hugged.  We talked.  And my mom said, "oh!  Your house is so cozy and clean.   It's all picked up.  Your counters are all cleared off.  The dishes are done." 

Huh??? 

My mom actually LIKES to clean.  She shines the bottoms of her pots and pans.  She washes windows twice a year even if they don't have any spots on them.  She vaccuums ummm... more often than I do.  Beds are washed every seven days without fail.  She dusts before fingers can leave trails.  She thinks my house is CLEAN??? 

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.  When I looked around again, I saw kids playing, rocking chairs and quilts, a braided rug, a mostly-cleared-off table, a couple of projects mid-progress by the sewing machine.  The rug was recently vaccuumed.  The few things on the table were oldest child's cross stitch, youngest child's homework and a book.  Not immaculate.  But tidy.  And very cozy.

Perspective.  Our house is cozy.  Maybe I'll clean tomorrow.   

   

Green Smoothies!

A friend of mine told me about green smoothies.  I had seen recipes before combining spinach and other such yucky green stuff with fruits in smoothies and reacted the way any sane person would... EEEEUUUUUWWWWW!  Why would anyone contaminate a fruit smoothie with green stuff???

She promised me that I wouldn't taste the veggies.  She promised me that I could actually drink the stuff.  And she was right!  Huh!  Who woulda thought that you could hide spinach, carrots, bok choy, even celery under a couple pieces of fruit?  But, even better (or more unbelievable), who woulda thought you could get KIDS to drink their veggies???  After playing around with some fruit/veggie combinations, I added a big handful of spinach and a couple of blueberries to the kids favorite shake.  When they asked about the funky color, I blamed it on the blueberries.  Well... the gullible kids loved their banana, BLUEBERRY, yogurt shakes!  Honestly!  Even after I admitted that the blueberries alone did not provide the exotic color....

Now my teens request green shakes.  They are mindful of getting the proper amount of fruits and veggies into their daily diets and are thrilled to be able to sneak a few extras in painlessly.  Best of all, though, is watching Miss Sweetie Special Silly-Pants come running when the blender starts making a racket.  She is notoriously difficult to get veggies into.  Now she giggles when I tell her to drink her spinach! 

Our favorite, so far...

one or two bananas
an orange
BIG, BIG handful of baby spinach
a single-serve yogurt (any flavor, but vanilla is best!)
@half a cup of milk
3 ice cubes

Just throw it in the blender and give it a whirl!  Then get creative & see how many veggies you can hide in your shakes :o)

Have a happy day!

skiing and birthdays and snowdays... oh my!

Little Miss third child had a birthday.  Number 13.  Sweetie kiddo figured out all on her own that bucket loads of sass are what the teenage years are all about.  While getting her dressed in the morning, she swings her legs away from me so that I can't catch her feet to put socks on.  And she giggles.  Then she picks up her pants, throws them behind her and giggles.  When I plop her shirt over her head, she pushes it back off.  And giggles.  She won't cooperate to get dressed until I laugh at all of her shenanigans. 

This morning, the pranks continued all through breakfast.  Make a shake with mom.  Giggle.  Drink the shake so fast that there is shake-moustache all the way up to her eyebrows.  Giggle.  Squirm away from the washcloth.  Giggle.  Hide Mommy's shake.  Giggle.  Refuse to take her medicine.  Giggle.  Finally take the medicine.  Giggle.  Paint the dogs with mom's oatmeal when mom leaves the room for a moment.  Giggle.  Oiy!  Looks like we'll need to start our days in the wee hours to accomodate Little Miss Silly-Pants' pranks before the school bus arrives!

Little Miss Silly's birthday party was last weekend.  What a wonderful day!  Oldest kiddo took Miss Silly and her younger sister for a drive while I finished getting ready for the party.  She loves to go for a ride... and this was the first parent-less ride with newly-licensed big sister.  This kiddo was certain that she was getting away with something extra special!  They even went through a drive-though and got frosties.  (Yup... another name for a shake.  Miss Silly loves her shakes!)

   When the daring trio returned home, there were balloons, party favors and presents on the tables and  friends were arriving.  Miss Silly was way beyond excited to see so many people she loves!  She squealed and laughed and tried to introduce eveyone to each other. 

Miss Silly's interests are very different from most 13-year-old girls.  No rock star posters, glittery nail polish or hours of giggling with friends over the latest hunky crush.  This kiddo prefers coloring books, memory cards and Barney videos.  We invited the kids from her special class at school and a kindergartener that she adores.  I hoped we could keep such a diverse crowd of ages and abilities happy for a few hours.  When I worried about the diversity of the group, though, I forgot about the common connection.  These kiddos all love Miss Silly just the way she is!  And she loves them!  Our gang of kids happily made balloon animals, played hide & seek and created some crazy flashlight game.  They ate too much cake and icecream and goofed around like any bunch of buddies. 

It was chaotic.  It was wonderful.

   

Once again, Miss Silly is faster than the photographer!  She snitched a cupcake (far left) before I managed to take the picture!

Youngest kiddo went to her second cross-country ski race this weekend.  The first race was a bear of a race.  A short, icy, two-lap course which produced four skiers carried out on stretchers and two taken away by ambulance.  Youngest kiddo was knocked flat by a herd of high school B team boys, broke her glasses, and had to be helped off the course by onlookers. 

After such a scary introduction to racing, the second race was a joy!  This course was gentle and powdery.  The jr. high and high school races were kept separate.  The hills were rolling little bumps with no sharp curves.  Kiddo had a wonderful time racing.  It was fun to hear the team chatting happily after the race comparing their races; which hills were fastest, where they double-poled, any tumbles they took, and whether they had any energy left at the last big uphill.  It was a wonderful day full of team camraderie and the excitement of hanging out with 700+ skiers and all the assorted parents and coaches.  Oh... and lots of driving!  Almost three hours each direction.  But the driving time is enjoyable, too.  I love listening to the happy chatter.  First of anticipation.  Later, the joy of having raced hard and the happiness of accomplishment.  I'm so proud of this kiddo for skiing!

Well... I have about a zillion more happy thoughts for today, but they'll have to wait.  I'm running behind again....  Have a happy day!        

Happy 2011!

A few happy shots from the holiday break!  I love these goofy flowers!  Oldest two kiddos ganged up on me for Christmas and made this bouquet.  They know that I love anything loud, bright and colorful.  Ok... so they might have used the word "obnoxious", but I know they *meant* colorful!  I also have a very poor record for keeping plants alive.  The little green thing next to the colorful posies seems to have made an exception to my care.  Probably because it hardly ever needs water...  A colorful bouquet that doesn't need water, what could be better?  The BEST part... these posies are duck-taped to pens!  'Cause I manage to lose mine all the time!  Loud, colorful, easy-to-care-for AND useful... love it! 

Oh!  Sassy second kiddo saved the very best POLKA DOTTED flower for an antenna topper!  No photo yet 'cause this is a quick-'cause-I-gotta-write-out-bills post.  But lets just say, even *I* can find my car now!  (Just one more thing I frequently lose...)

And, speaking of sassy second kiddo... she and I have both been dreaming of making capes!  Big, long, sassy capes!  Kiddo chose black velvet for the outside and red stretchy velvet for the inside.  Have you ever tried SEWING yards and yards of velvet together???  It slithers all over the place!  The two-hour pattern turned into a monster project.  We were up until 12:30 finishing the bugger so that she could wear it to school today!  And we cheated A LOT on the bottom... we just COULD NOT get the layers to play nicely with each other.  But it is gorgeous!  She wanted a cape big enough to wrap her friends into.  It fit the two of us together nicely with room for more (had there had been anyone else awake past midnight).  Hmmm... needless to say, plans for my cape do NOT include yards of velvet.  And it will be a tad more obnoxious colorful.

And one more happy thought from vacation!  Skiing!  We got about 18" of beautiful white stuff the day after Christmas.  I love this line-up of fun gear!  We spent several days out trecking around in the woods.

My sister visited from California.  She gets excited about anything active and has been known to ski with large backpacks full of camping gear.  Can we just say that she is in *slightly* better shape than me?  I kept up bravely for the first couple of days, but by day three, I was wimpering and begging for a slower pace.  Yup, I slowed her down on that last ski.  Besides, I was a little worried about breaking my neck on some of those hills.  Guess I should have been worried about standing still on flat spaces though... I only fell three times.  Once for a hidden stump on one of those hills.  The other two times, I was standing still and got too excited talking with my hands.  Go figure...

But we got some surprise extra time with little sis!  Chicago airport shut down just in time to cancel her flight back and she was stranded on the east coast for four more days.  Aw shucks....  (insert happy dance here!)  Thank goodness I had recovered from the first round of abuse exercise and was ready for more!  We got one more day of crazy sister time!

And my ski team kids!  Love the sister grins!  And sweetie special third kiddo exploring the track behind my skiers! 

Youngest kiddo is my nervous-Nellie.  She needs to be eased into new activites and is very scared of learning new things in front of people.  She's been skiing for a couple of years now, so I didn't stop to think that *skate skiing* is new for her.  (Skate skiing is a very fast, graceful form of skiing used by competitive skiers for racing.)  And we missed the first couple of ski practices after Christmas because we were playing with my sister.  Those were the first team practices on SNOW.  Before the holidays, practices were all spent running.  Yup... tears.  She was sure that everyone else would be skiing gracefully past her while she fell. 

So we got to practice an hour early and sassy second kiddo gave youngest kiddo a lesson.  By the time the rest of the team arrived, my nervous-Nellie was managing a pretty fair skate-ski.  AND... three other jr. high kiddos were brand new to skis.  Yes... brand new to SKIS.  None of them had two years of experience balancing on long, skinny, slippery things.  There was the cutest line of new skiers following the coach around the track that day.  Like little ducks in a row!  Sooooo... that smile stayed on youngest kiddo's face all afternoon!

Ok... that's the happy thoughts for today!  Have a happy day!