All Things Loved in February

Here are a few things we loved in February!

Our small group "Souper" Bowl Party! We had fun watching the commercials - oh, I mean the game - and eating some great soups!

Snow! I've posted plenty of it on here, but we had more snow in Jan. & Feb. than I can remember in my lifetime. That's big for the south!

Making Valentiens. I just like making them for the boys friends - and getting to do something just a little more girly for a change!

Samuel's Valentine party was a lot of fun! I took a chocolate fountain and the kids loved dipping their fruit, marshmellows and pretzel sticks!
Charity Ball was fun again this year. It is the major fundraiser for our local Junior Auxiliary and it's fun to get to dress up and see friends.

For the start of the Olympics, we had an Opening Ceremony Party with food from different countries. This is our Canadian friend Meghan sporting her official Olympic gloves and scarf sent by her family from Canada.

And we really enjoyed every minute of the Olympics this year! We watched everything from snowboarding to curling. Samuel was really interested in it all this year too.

Occasional Comments - Kid's Welcome?

Written by Shaila Creekmore, illustration by Brittney Guest, as printed in the March 2010 edition of Jonesboro Occasions.

We strike fear into the heart of every seating hostess. Waiters and waitresses panic at the mere sight of us. Customers sigh a breath of relief when we are not seated next to their table. We are a group of mothers with small children.It is not our intention to cause such mayhem in our local restaurants; we just want to enjoy a non-chicken nugget meal with friends. But the looks of dread are noticed all the same.

Usually at least once a week, I enjoy lunch with a group of girlfriends and our small brood of children. Over time, the looks of dismay by various restaurant staffs across town have become a little joke among us.

The most notable was on a visit to a family friendly restaurant for brunch one morning. The two hostesses ran around, nearly falling over each other trying to figure out where they were going to put our group of four moms and seven children. The confusion over how many highchairs and how many adult verses children’s menus was nearly too much for the pair. When we reached our table, we quickly realized our experience would not improve when our waitress asked, “Are ALL these children yours?” To top off our trip that morning, the waitress sat a small plate in front of one of the two-year-olds who promptly knocked it off the table, shattering it on the tile floor.
But not all of our trips are that exciting – well except for the day I set off an alarm on a fire door adjacent to our table – most are a time for visiting, laughing and asking for more spoons or straws to replace the ones thrown to the floor.

It is always our intention to be as respectful as possible to those around us and for the restaurant staff. We expect our children to behave, we attempt to make as little mess as possible and try not to bombard the server with requests.

But in return, we expect a few things as well. We expect a clean highchair with properly working safety straps. A working strap in a highchair is a matter of safety and yet getting one with buckles that work is a 50-50 shot. If a restaurant wants to make a momma a happy customer, never bring a highchair to the table with missing straps or broken snaps. I will just send it back for you to find one that does.

We ask that you don’t pass food or drinks over the top of a child’s head. When my oldest, Samuel, was nearly two years old, a waitress dumped a tray of drinks on top of him as she passed our drinks across the table. He was cold, wet and had red marks on top of his little bald head where the ice had hit him. He immediately started screaming and I quickly rushed him to change his clothes and calm him down. Part of my frustration was that we had intentionally seated him near the wall and left an area of the table clear for her to serve, but she still stood over him as she waited on us. As I returned to the table, the manager was there helping to clean the mess up and apologized for the accident. He tried to make light of the situation and remarked, “I guess just be glad it wasn’t coffee.” I quickly turned to him with a look only a momma can give and said, “No, YOU better be glad it wasn’t coffee.” Our meal was free.

So what are a few things that can be done to keep a momma happy? Please give toddlers appetizer plates, salsa or cheese dip bowls or silverware just like everyone else. They like to eat too. Don’t place refilled glasses directly in front of small children. That empty area on the table in front of them is there for a reason. Children can be sneaky, so please only take food and drink orders from the parents. And bring extra napkins – lots of extra napkins!

Outdoor Wednesday - Snow III

As promised last week, here are more snow shots. These are from the snowfall we received last week. Here in Arkansas, we are lucky to get one good snow - and a good snow for us is a couple inches. The first big snowfall we got 7" and this one we got 6". The kids are loving it, but we've missed 7 days of school so far, not so much fun when June comes and we're still in school!

See more great Outdoor shots at Outdoor Wednesday!

Olympics Dinner Party

We'll pretty much use any excuse to get together and have a party! Friday night we invited a group of friends to come over for an Olympics Watch Party. One of our friends, Meghan, is from Canada and we wanted to celebrate the Olympics with her. This is her in her official Canada Olympics mittens and scarf you saw them wearing throughout the opening ceremonies and on the sidelines during the competitions.

When I thought about what we should do for food, I kept thinking "What is 'Olympic' food?" Wednesday morning it hit me - Food from around the world. So that's what we did. Each couple/person brought something from a different country.

For an appetizer, we had Mexican chips and salsa and cheese dip. We also had Fried Plantains from Cote d' Ivoire, Africa and a great crab dip made by Meghan (she grew up in Nova Scotia which is on the Canadian East Coast).

Our main dishes were Italian Lasagna (trust me, it tasted better than it looks here, the guys were hungry and wouldn't let me get a good picture! Ha!)...

and Sauce d' Arashide from Cote d' Ivoire, Africa.

Four of our friends (all present that night) recently returned from Cote d' Ivoire and Karen made this dish. I really have no idea what all is in it except that it has chicken and a peanut butter sauce. She served it over couscous.

For our bread, we had what else but French Bread!
For dessert, we had Canadian Crepes. They were sooo good!

It's great to get together with friends and it's also fun when you can try some new foods in the process.

We are loving us some Winter Olympics this year!

Sorry no recipes this post, but it was a great food night at my house!

For more great recipes, visit Foodie Friday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day. I thought I would show the Valentines I made for my boy's friends at school.

Tyler goes to a Mother's Day Out Program and only has 6 in his class, so I wanted to make something cute, but easy. I used my Cricut to make these butterflies.
The cut is off the "Simply Sweet" cartridge using the butterfly cut in floral paper and the Shadow option for the background on purple card stock. The card stock was needed to make them sturdy enough to hold the sucker. I ran the butterflies through my Xyron and stuck them on the card stock.

I then made 2 small cuts in the center with a straight blade and stuck a Dum-Dum through them. On the back I just wrote "From: Tyler" Very easy, but I thought they looked cute.

For Samuel's class, I wanted to also make something easy, but still cute. I used the two flower shapes on my George and Basic Shapes Cartridge - both on shadow so the hole would not be cut in the flower. For these Blow Pops, I used a 3" size for the flowers and leaves. (The sample I made was with a Dum-Dum and I made those with 2.5" shapes.) For the top flower, I used printed paper and then folded them up toward the sucker. For the bottom leave, I used matching card stock and left them flat.
For the leaf, I used the acorn cut on the Doodlebug cartridge, but just tossed the remaining pieces. My son wrote "From: Samuel" on the back of the leaf and I wrote his classmates names on the front.
The girls flowers were 1 or 4 printed pink papers with matching pink card stock. The boys were a two-tone green with purple card stock. To push the sucker through the center, I made a small whole with a sharp pointed tool and then pushed the sucker through the hole. I then used a small piece of scrapbook adhesive to adhere the leaf to the bottom petal.

As a special flower for his teacher, I used the left over card stock and one of the printed papers to make a larger flower for her. (We also gave her a small gift, but I thought this was cute.
I then placed tissue paper in the bottom of a small blue (his school color) tote pail and arranged the flowers in the pail.
Although he's a boy and this may seem a little girly, my son was very excited to hand out his flowers. Valentines is the one day a year a mom of two boys can get away with making something a little sweet.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

I LOVE this dessert. It's easy and I usually have everything on hand to make it up quickly if we're in the mood for something sweet. I thought this would be a good week to post it since Valentines is this weekend. This is a great couples dessert. This recipe makes 4, so you could either half it and just make 2 or go ahead and make all 4 and put the extra 2 in the fridge for later. Just reheat for 20-30 seconds and they are just as good the next day!

Ingredients:
4 squares semisweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 T. flour
Cool Whip, powdered sugar or ice cream to top

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 4 custard cups. Place on baking sheet. Microwave chocolate and butter in a large bowl for 1-2 minutes until butter melts. Stir with whisk until chocolate melts. Stir in sugar.

Whisk in eggs and yolks. Stir in flour.

Divide batter between cups.

Bake for 13-14 minutes until sides are firm but centers are still soft. Let stand for 1 minute. Run knife along edge to losen.

Invert onto dessert plates or place in bowl. Top with cool whip or ice cream or dust on powdered sugar.

When you break into the cake, the yummy melted center pours out of the cake. Enjoy!

For more great recipes, visit Foodie Friday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays!