This Week

We did some 'green' themed crafts. Here is Amelia using markers and glue, a dangerous combination. What idiot didn't put her smock on?

Holy Turkey Bacon, Batman! She does eat meat!

Love the hair, right? Our inspiration for this side-half-pony comes from the one and only Sophie-saurus.

Hannah completing her green craft. We also did another green "green" craft: a St. Patrick's Day crown (made from recycled milk boxes) to wear to Daddy's parade on Saturday. Since it's only Friday, I have no pictures of the girls actually wearing their crowns yet. So... later, gator.

Hannah chowing down on some "deceptively delicious" cheese quesadilla. Amelia could tell something was amiss with this entree, and calmly requested* plain tortilla with her meal instead.
(*threw her quesadilla to the dog, shoved her plate across the table and screamed)
But when we used the same butternut squash/shredded cheese combo on pasta or in a grilled cheese sandwich, she thoroughly enjoyed it. Go figure. Fresh baby spinach on homemade pizza (under the sauce--hence, deception) and the pumpkin bread with cauliflower puree are also hits in our house. I like this cookbook so, so much.

Our Valentine's Day breakfast

Hannah...

our mailboxes full of goodies, heart pancakes on our silver 'tea party' tray, pink cups for milk/juice, tea cups for coffee, and our vinyl (washable) craft table cloth that happens to be covered in hearts....

Amelia....

And Valentines for our sweethearts!

You don't say?!

I pulled this out of our pantry the other night to prepare with dinner. And when I read this I couldn't stop chuckling...

"Garlic Roasted Garlic"
Sounds tasty. Redundant, but tasty.

Lunch time!

This is what we ate for lunch today, as part of our 'snow' themed activities.

What a cute idea!  It wasn't mine.  Cream cheese on soft toast, with raisins and carrot sticks for the buttons, eyes, arms and nose.  While making it, it occurred to me that mini bagel slices would have been more perfect, because then you wouldn't need to cut the bread into circles.  

  Speaking of snow, if you watched the news this weekend you're aware that the entire state of Kentucky had a sleet storm followed by a snow storm, resulting in some heavy power outages across the state.  The entire post was dark for about 36 hours, and in surrounding Radcliff, E-town and Louisville it's still pretty sketchy.  We braved it for two days and one night, mostly because we couldn't find a vacancy at a hotel from here to Cincinnati.  We spent one day bouncing around well-lit and heated spots in Louisville, and the next at the Newport Aquarium in Covington, KY (right across the river from Cincinnati).  What a great aquarium!  We had a blast.  Hannah was most impressed by the penguins and multitude of fish tanks, and was intent to walk like a duck the entire day.  Amelia walked wide-eyed between everything, waving hi and bye, and blowing kisses at everything that moved.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of our trip.  Sometime soon...

Apple Trees

We made apple trees the other day.  The girls used green and brown crayons, markers, pencils, etc., to color the top and trunk of the tree.  Next, they cut out the top and trunk, and glued them onto a sheet of construction paper.  Hannah cut it all by herself!  Our little lefty is getting much better at manipulating her scissors around curves.  Then, we picked out red, yellow and green puffs, and glued them onto the tree as our apples.  For Amelia, I taught her the sign's for "apple" and "tree."  For Hannah, we talked about different colored apples, their names (like Pink Lady, Granny Smith, etc.) and how they each grow on different trees in an orchard.  Lastly, we sliced up a delicious Pink Lady, looked at the seeds, talked about how to grow a tree from seeds...  They need dirt, sun and water, you know!  And of course, we ate it!!

All the cool kids are doing it...

Eating their veggies secretly pureed into their favorite foods!  Here's a shot of the girls eating pizza, with carrots in their pizza sauce.  

I'd been wanting Deceptively Delicious for a while, a cookbook with recipes based around adding vegetable purees into them.  I finally got it for myself on a trip to Target last month.  We still strongly encourage the girls to eat actual vegetables, because we realize the value of them developing a taste for healthy foods.  We also try to set a good example for them by eating our greens.  But... we also like the idea that the whole family can eat an extra serving or two of veggies in a meal without even tasting it.  Since getting the cookbook, I've made spaghetti sauce with zucchini, squash and/or carrot in it, mashed potatoes with cauliflower, mac-n-cheese with butternut squash, and a few more tasty meals.  The girls ate it up!  So did we, actually.  And they never knew...