Baby Mullet

Okay there's just one picture of the Baby Mullet, but it's pretty funny..

There. I got that out of my system.

Ah, babies. So unintentionally funny. It's not like they can control how their hair grows in. 

They are just cute without trying.

I'm not having "one of those days", but it just feels like something is always happening, even if it's small stuff.
Today I am using Wren's hot pink hair elastic for a ponytail in my hair.
I just about twisted my ankle when I stepped on Wren's boot at the back door.

This morning on the way to preschool I ran over a bag (of about 7) of our trash in the alley, spilling nasty garbage everywhere for the magpies. Yuck.

My dishes are unending because  I don't have a dishwasher  I keep making food in my kitchen, whether it's purees for Ellie, treats, and suppers. And lunches. And breakfasts. Oh sheesh, just everything okay? I make everything!

Speaking of purees, Ellie hates my concoctions. She likes the stuff from jars, which is fine. I just like to be economical and also know exactly what's in her food. However, she apparently doesn't give a rip. 

She does love the vanilla custards I make. And anything doused in maple syrup, like pancakes. I don't blame her really. We all have a sweet tooth in this house.

Ellie has this obsession with crawling to the heat vent in the floor and pulling it out. Wren jumps on top of it yelling "No!! Ellie no!!!" and then Ellie screams because that's the only thing she wants in the whole room. It begins.

Oh here's Wren. I put a toy up high on the shelf when she wasn't listening to me earlier. She was mad I took it away, so she got a chair to climb and get the toy. And she found a pair of Ellie's pants, put them on her head and acted like if she wore them then I couldn't see her.

Yo, Wren. Sup?

While I write, Ellie sits by the front window playing with the curtain, squealing in delight as we play peek-a-boo.

And gets stuck. I am needed. Til the next post..

Two very different nap times.

Ellie has discovered her mobility. This means she'd rather be up and play instead of napping. 

While I was in the kitchen, I could hear some 'smacking' on the wall. 

I went to check on Ellie who was supposed to be sleeping, only to find the little person giving the wall some what-for.

The moment was so cute, I had to take her picture.

Then I went to check on Wren. The laundry basket that had previously been sitting on her floor was now up on her bed, and on her!

Having the basket in her bed for naps has sort of become her thing now...take today for example...

Ellie has started to get the hang of things again and lay down and sleep instead of play, but it's hard. I have to let her cry, which I never like to do. However, I don't want to rock her to sleep for an hour either, so we try our best to leave her (with periodic check ins) until she's snoring. She's getting it, which is helping me feel sane again :)

Happy 27th Birthday to me!

I turned 27 today. 

And I feel the same.

I never feel "old" or even older because out of all my friends, I'm still one of the youngin's, except for a few of my girl friends. It's all of our husbands that are the older ones. So no matter what age I turn, I still feel like I'm the younger one. I'm definitely not complaining.

I went to Duchess Bake Shop yesterday with my mother-in-law/Nana and the girlies for birthday treats because we wanted to beat the snow storm that came today. So therefore Wren thought my birthday was yesterday. 

When Wren and Kenton ran out last night to get me a little something special, he wanted to keep it in the basement to give to me on my birthday morning. But Wren argued, "No! It's her birfday today!", so he was forced to give me flowers and peppermint patties with a card, early. (Two of my favourite things ;)

Wren is now a big fan of peppermint patties...

Anytime Kenton gets me flowers, he likes to get ones that look somewhat picked out of a field which I always love. The weird part is that he spends the exact same amount every single time. Without even trying! 

These flowers are really brightening my mood on a snowy day right now. 

We're also celebrating by dining at The Marc in a few weeks, my all time favourite restaurant. I love eating out, and this will be the ultimate!

And in 8 days it will be Ellie Girl's birthday on the 13th! What.the.heck. I want to say that year went by fast, which it did. But when I think back to last spring, it seems like miles and miles away. Probably because it feels like December outside right now.

Wren walked around all last night saying "Happy Birthday Mommy!" and giving me many hugs and kisses. She's especially thrilled every time we get a card in the mail too- thank you to those who sent one! 

And now if you'll excuse me, I am going to go try out my new set of ramekins and make little Vanilla Petits Pots de Crème . 

Menu Planning

Do you menu plan?

We have menu planned ever since we first got married.

Buying groceries each week and making meals for two people on a regular basis was pretty new to both of us at the time. 

I also wanted to know what I was going to buy at the grocery store for what I needed to make for dinner. 

Personally, I hate running errands (Kenton totally doesn't mind), so if I want to cook/bake something in the moment and I don't have everything I need, I'm so irritated!

Especially on days where it's cold and gross out and Wren and I need something fun to do, like make cupcakes. If I don't have eggs, I'm not hauling everyone out to the store to get them. Not happening.

 But I know everyone does it differently. We like to shop once a week, get everything we need to make 5- 6 nights of meals. Some like to shop every few days. Some don't mind picking up what they need that night. And some eat out. We like eating out too :)

But food is expensive, and it's expensive to eat out, or order in a lot, so we hardly do.

When we first got married, I didn't really know how to make anything but pasta dishes. With a jar of sauce. There wasn't much variety in our house. It wasn't until Wren was born and I was home with her, that I started to take on making dinner most nights. 

I had so many dinner-making disasters- some winners, and lots of experiments that were hit or miss. But it wasn't until we bought this cook book that I actually formed a baseline for cooking that I could expand from.

Jamie Oliver has lots of cookbooks with complicated and crazy recipes, but in Food Revolution, he dumbs himself down to help us start from scratch. I learned the basics for making soups, roasting meat, and preparing salads. It was the biggest help!

Now 4.5 years later of practice, and two of them spent at home on maternity leave with more time to hone my skills, I love cooking and baking from scratch. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy our Delissio pizzas, but because we have made it habit to cook from scratch, we find we enjoy making food more that way on a regular basis.

Yes, it's more effort, but I have found the more you work at it, the faster and better you get at it and therefore you can make it happen even when you have a little family to feed :)
When I make new recipes, I see it almost as a small challenge for myself- like I'm competing against myself to make a great meal. I get a lot of gratification and joy from doing it, even if it's just for the 4 of us.

I still use Food Revolution every single week for at least 1-2 of our meals, but have enjoyed using other cookbooks like Jamie's Dinners, Chef at Home, Smitten Kitchen and my newest one, La Tartine Gourmande. (and of course the internet is an endless resource too!)

I mostly use cookbooks as a guide when I make food. I admit, I typically need to stick to a recipe in front of me and not deviate too far from that. 

To make my life easier when I sit down every week to pick the meals I need to shop for, I made a list of all of the dinners we typically enjoy and wrote down the cookbook title next to it so it could easily be found to make. That way, we don't pour through stacks of cookbooks on the kitchen table looking for something to make. 

Some favourites are things like pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, beef stew, pasta with garlic bread, asparagus risotto, blt's, homemade soups, roast chicken with veggies and potato fish cakes. 

Can I just say, food tastes so much better when you're cooking with fresh herbs? It's frustrating how expensive they are in the grocery store. I try to grow my own, but I'm not great at it. I'm going to try again this year though and hopefully I can keep them growing year round eventually!

One of my biggest motivators for continuing to try new recipes and make good food is that I want to pass a love of food to the girls. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting down with your family and everyone going "Mmmm! This is so good!" to a new meal you tried. Well, Wren is fairly picky but we are trying really hard to get her to try new foods, even if it's just a bite. 

I like to have Wren cook with me when possible and try mixing, rolling, patting and whatever else she can help with. In our society of technology, I think it's good to get your kid's hands dirty in whatever they love to do, and cooking is one of them in our house :)

The last of the weekend photos

Easter Sunday, Wren wanted to be like Snoopy from Charlie Brown and read the "newspaper". We looked over and saw her reading a magazine at the table and eating her grapes. Cute.

We headed to Nana and Papa's for the day. There were cupcakes to celebrate my birthday too! (Which is on the 5th). Right after the photo was taken, Wren quickly popped the tiny lemon wedge into her mouth thinking it was a candy and was rudely surprised at the burst of sour in her mouth.

Ellie crawled for the first time too! Kyran liked to try and get ahead of her and show her his crawling skills. It was cute as he tried to rush past for the toy ahead.

 

Kendra and I were matching pals, we were complete with turquoise pants that you can't see here. 

 Ellie crawls to the Easter egg!

Good job Ellie :)

This morning I hid the coloured eggs Wren and I made. She was pretty cool about it.

After she found them all, she asked "What we do wif dem now?" 

I explained that the only thing now was to eat them...seeing as they are hard boiled and were kept in the fridge.

So we peeled a few and mashed them up for some egg salad. We spread it on a piece of bread, folded it over and had egg salad sandwiches which is now loves. 

Wren likes to wander over and play with Ellie, even when Ellie is trying to eat breakfast.

And when Ellie eats breakfast, it's usually all over her face. Wren was grossed out...

But she likes her anyways.