Makutu's Island

Tuesday of Spring Break my mom took Tami & I and all seven grandkids to Makutu's Island. It's one of those kinds of places that you feel like anyone could make off with one of your kids any second and you wouldn't even notice. You know, the kind they always have on tv where the bad guy snatches some cute little girl or boy. But... they seemed to have good security there, with printed wristbands and limited in and out access. And hey, we did have three adults for the seven kids - so we saw them each every ten minutes or so.

There is a whole rainforest/jungle theme and miles of tunnels and slides and fun stuff for kids of every age. Our kids all loved it and we didn't lose anyone and the whole trip was a rousing success. Thanks for taking us Mom!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

We had a great time at a St. Patrick's Day feast over at Will & Missy's house last night. Our thanks to them for inviting us and providing such delicious food. We had corned beef and all the fixings, my only contributions were green jello and a green lemon cake. Missy even made 2 kinds of delicious Irish Soda bread, my favorite was a recipe listed here. I wanted a picture of my whole family, all decked out it green. We only have like 1 shot of all 5 of us since the baby was born. But we forgot and I barely remembered in time for Aaron to snap one of me and the boys before we broke out the PJs. Hope everyone else had a great green day too!

More Zoo Fun

We are still lovin' our season pass to the Phoenix Zoo. Saturday was Roland's first trip, and he managed to sleep through the entire thing. We did the children's zoo portion, which Aaron had never seen, and visited the wallabies, lots of birds, some monkeys (besides ours), and the Farm playground. There were lots of really cool statues that graciously agreed to pose with us. Alden still has that weird smile going on and although he was great about wearing his hat and sunglasses the whole time (to protect him), I'm not sure why the hat sat so low on his head.

WWFW - Pirate Party

Ahoy, Matey! Here's a great idea for all of you with little boys out there. Alden goes to a little co-op preschool for 2 hours a week. The moms all trade off hosting and every week we do a letter of the alphabet. Today was the letter X and I really wondered what my friend, Jody, would do. But she is brilliant and came up with a whole Pirate theme, with X Marks the Spot! She said I could share the ideas with everyone - they would be perfect for preschool, a birthday party, or just a fun activity for your little pirate.

The treasure hunt is the big activity - Jody printed them out on cardstock and let the boys crinkle them up. She even sent me the Publisher file, if anyone wants it. They went around the house according to the map and collected Xs. And at the end they found the treasure! Alden loved his chocolate coins and preferred to eat them whole and spit out the foil afterwards.

For snacks they had beef jerky and dried fruit and goldfish crackers.

There were also cute flags they constucted by glueing 2 bones in an X and stapling to a drinking straw.

For a little quieter activity they read some pirate books:

How I Became a Pirate - Melinda Long & David Shannon
Pirate Pete's Giant Adventure - Kim Kennedy
Do Pirates Take Baths? - Kathy Tucker

This is what worked for me and Alden today - for more great ideas check out Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

First Smiles

Roland smiled at me for the first time on Wed. March 5th! I even had witnesses. Jo & Forrest Humble stopped by to visit and bring a cute gift for Roley - they saw the whole thing. I love little fake baby smiles, while they are sleeping or passing gas, but this was a real smile just for Mom. He gave me a few more last night and graced Aaron with his first Daddy smile this morning. This was the closest picture I could get. Isn't that a cute blanket? My Mom made it for Roland - the first blanket just for him rather than a hand-me-down. She crocheted all the cute trim. Thanks Mom!

Pancake Mix

I generally list pancakes as my favorite food - love the ones from IHOP and Martha Stewart's Best Buttermilk Pancakes recipe. I usually make Bisquick pancakes for our family but recently found a great recipe for a make-your-own mix, which saves a lot of money and tastes better too. This recipe comes via my friend Jane (What About Mom) who got it from her sister Marcy (Marcy & Adam) who apparently got it from the Mom's Make-a-Mix Cookbook (couldn't find this on Amazon - maybe title is different). I used half whole wheat flour just to be healthier - it makes for a heartier texture too.

Pancake Mix (from Mom’s Make-a-Mix Cookbook)

10 cups flour (you can do any combination of white and wheat flour; you can even add wheat germ or other healthy stuff)

2 1/2 cups instant nonfat dry milk (if you don’t have powdered milk, you can just always make it up with milk and buttermilk with no problems.)

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup baking powder

2 TB salt

Mix well & store in airtight container.

To make 12 3-inch pancakes:

1 1/2 cups Pancake Mix

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/4 cup buttermilk

3/4-1 cup milk or water

3 TB oil

Cook pancakes on high heat griddle. (I don’t know why pancake recipes call for high heat. I like to use just barely over medium.)

For more money-saving recipes check out The Recipe Box Swap at i have to say.

Weekend O Fun

Friday night Aaron took me out to a little Thai restaurant. It is a little gem we discovered four or five years ago and then I guess we forgot about it the last few years. It's called Benjarong Thai and for you Mesa dwellers, it's on Country Club and Southern. We had a coconut chicken Thai soup (Aaron's fave) and a curry (my fave) and split a dessert. With our 2 for 1 entree coupon the bill came out around $15. My favorite Thai dessert is magoes with sticky rice but since mangoes aren't quite in season yet we got the Thai custard with sticky rice. I mostly love the sweet rice anyway, but the custard was sooo good! I need to find a recipe. It had a very different texture - not as smooth, but not lumpy either. It kind of seemed layered, although I don't think it is. I do have a good recipe for the mangoes and sticky rice - I will post it soon.

Saturday morning we went to the Arizona Museum for Youth. We signed up with Generation Eight, an ASU sponsored program, to attend a special exhibit, (for free!) Jim Henson's Fantastic World. The museum has three areas - a kid's play area that is always there and two rotating exhibit spaces. Alden & Emmett loved the play area - they had tons of cool stuff, some pretty ingenious I thought. Then there was the Berenstain Bears exhibit, which was lots of fun too and had plenty of interactive opportunities for the kids. Not to mention the free refreshments. Last was the Jim Henson exhibit. This was not as interesting for children, since they don't remember The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, etc. and the displays were much more geared towards adults. But Aaron, Candice, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Don't ask me what's up with Alden's smile. This is his camera smile.

Saturday was also Aaron's Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, CJ! We had a little party at the park, had a great time, and ate very well too. The boys love their Nana and she is always taking one or the other of them to give me a break. Candice & I took CJ to lunch last Thursday for her birthday and enjoyed some nice adult time.

Late Christmas

Somehow we haven't seen my Aunt Beverly since before Christmas but she stopped by on Friday to visit. She brought darling little ornaments for our family - intricately ribbon-woven birds with long tails. And she brought gifts for the boys. Turns out they haven't forgotten how to tear into a wrapped present. Thanks, Aunt Beverly, for the ball, dinosaur, cards, and Play-doh. And the best part for me was when she stayed and played with Alden & Emmett for three hours! Here is a shot of them modeling animals out of the Play-doh.