Ben 'n Boots

Well, Dreamworks took a pass. They decided to go with that smooth talkin' cat with the fancy hat. But I think they made a big mistake. This little guy is going places...

Before and After

I recently picked up a simple, small wood hutch from the ReStore for a makeover. The hardest and most time-consuming part was picking the paint color and fabric to back it with. Now, I just have to fill it! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for some wire baskets for the bottom shelves.





Isn't my model such a cutie?!

Demo Time

We had a demo crew over the other night...we had been thinking about remodeling a little...the crew was cute...but a little demanding. But, they did come highly recommended and they had a pretty fair price of a handful of animal crackers each.

Put Me in Coach!

Hmmmmm....what's it going to be?

Center?....


Receiver?....


Quarterback?....

It Was the Best of Times...It was the Worst of Times

Last weekend, B and I headed south to check out a park that many had lauded as the best kids park in the area. We hit the road around five-ish, planning on eating a picnic at the park. I had heard that this particular park had quite the concession stand with reasonable prices. Looking back, this was the one part of the plan that I would change. Once that little bugger caught sight of all of the raging fun rides and jungle gyms he didn't want anything to do with standing in line to get food let alone sitting still long enough to eat it. At that point I knew there was going to be a storm brewing in the distance, I just didn't know how long it would take to get there. Hurricane "B" had been spotted off the coast of the swing set. When we were walking up to the jungle gym, we passed a family who was leaving and they stopped and asked if I wanted the their ride ticket which still had one punch left on it. I of course said yes, since I was planning on letting him go on some rides while we were there. BTW, this particular park had little kids amusement park rides. Pretty cool, huh? Anyways, once he spotted those rides he was off. I whipped out the ticket and he happily climbed into a little airplane to ride around.



Mistake number two for Mommio. I should have went and bought more tickets before we even started with the rides. I found out pretty quick this kid does not like lines...one bit, or looking at the camera...




Needless to say, I ended up dragging a screaming kid to buy more tickets, stand in a couple of more lines and then eventually out to the car. Should of ate that dinner....

Reunion Time

Last weekend we met a couple of friends from our old college days at ONU in Ft. Wayne, IN. We hung out at the hotel pool, ate dinner, caught up on what's going on and had a blast at the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo. If you have kids, are ever in Ft. Wayne and have time to stop please do. This zoo is AWESOME for kids.

Play Ball!

Last Christmas, we gave Papa fake tickets to the Cubs game of his choice with B and Jeff. He finally redeemed them a couple of weeks ago and we celebrated Christmas in July at PNC park in Pittsburgh. This was B's first ballgame and who knows what team he will be rooting for in the future but I think he enjoyed it. It was a night game with a 7 pm start and fireworks and a band playing afterwards. I made sure we got seats on the aisle, right on the main level for easy get-a-ways for an antsy toddler. He walked up and down the steps a couple of times and my MIL followed him around for a little bit. When we first got to our seats, he saw the field and immediately said "Play?". He was ready to go out on the grass. After some mid-game Dippin' Dots, he sat still for a little bit but then had to take another stroll. Overall, I think he did pretty good with only a few minor melt-downs. Maybe we'll catch a minor league game before the end of summer as well.

Big Shoes To Fill

B takes every opportunity to try different shoes on. He pulled my running shoes on the other day and decided to take a stroll around the house...

We went to the 4th largest [in the WORLD] Amish community today!

...and all we did was play in the park! Middlefield, Oh has a great splash pad/playground in one of their parks (Eagle Park). We thought it would be a nice day trip since it was a little over an hour away. We spent a good hour and a half playing in the motion-activated fountains and on the playground right next to them. They also had shaded picnic areas but we decided to stop by this Amish restaurant for some home cookin'. Yummy pie! The town also has a lot of your usual Amish community touristy places to stop in but we headed home for naps after lunch. We will definitely keep that park in mind for those hot days ahead of us!

Workin'...On The Weekend...?

We started our sunroom transformation on Memorial Day Weekend. You can see what we started with below....but you will have to wait for the job to be completed before we reveal it! Thanks to some wonderful helpers, we are moving along quicker than I thought. But, we have a couple more steps before I will be satisfied with it. :-)

Italian Wedding Soup

Another soup I made a lot of this past winter was the following recipe. We live just down the street from a wonderful Italian grocery store/market and they have wonderful, homemade meatballs that are perfect in this soup.

16.5 oz mini meatballs
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
2 oz frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
garlic salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1/4 cup romano or parmesan cheese
1/2 cup acini de pepe pasta

Directions:
1) combine all ingredients except pasta and cheese in crock pot and cook all day on low. (6-8 hours)
2) Add the pasta during the last hour to hour and a half of cooking.
3) Serve with the cheese sprinkled on top

This soup also freezes really well.

Black Bean 'n Pumpkin Chili

I got the following recipe from one of my coworkers. When she first mentioned it, I thought "yuck"! But, now that I have made it a couple of times, I have decided that it is one of my favorite soups and SO healthy for you. This recipe also freezes really well. Enjoy!

1 med. onion - chopped
1 med. yellow pepper - chopped
2 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic - minced
3 cups - chicken broth (low fat/sodium)
2 - 15.5 oz cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
2 1/2 cups cooked turkey sausage (I use pork sausage)
1 - 29 oz can solid pumpkin
1 - 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp parsley flakes
2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt

Saute onion and yellow pepper in oil. Add garlic, cook 1 minute longer. Transfer to 3 qt slow cooker. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours.

B's New Game Shirt

For B's recent party, we requested that everyone come wearing something from their favorite team. I've had an idea for a shirt for B for a while now, so I decided I would knock them both out at the same time by making his 2011 game shirt a little early so that he could wear it on his b'day. Hopefully it will still fit him this fall! I (actually a friend of mine came over to help me) used freezer paper to create the stencil (with my Silhouette) and white fabric paint to fill in the stencil. It was super easy!





And for those of you who don't know...the moose is Malone's mascot. Yeah, I know. It doesn't make much sense...

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I made a special batch of cupcakes for B's birthday party this past weekend. And to go with the theme, a friend of mine helped me decorate them like some of B's favorite balls.



Cookie Dough Cupcakes

1 pkg plain yellow cake mix (18.25 oz)
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding mix (3.4 oz)
1 cup whole milk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pkg frozen cookie dough (break apart kind that makes 24 cookies)

1) Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcakes with paper liners. No need to grease them.
2) Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with the mixer. The batter should look well blended. Scoop about 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it half way. Put the frozen cookie dough pieces on top of each scoop of batter. You can push the cookie dough down a little but the batter will bake up and over the dough in the oven.
3) Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your fingers- 23 to 27 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. They may sink a little more in the centers after cooling.

Two Is A Party

B had his 2 year well check-up today and passed with mostly flying colors. He has been hit full force by allergies again so he was wheezing, but other than that everything checks out. He got his last shot (other than annual flu) until kindergarten and he doesn't have to be seen again until his 3 year appt. Because of his wheezing, she did bump him up to two steroid treatments a day and prescribed Nasonex to maybe help his drainage from getting stopped up in his ears. As with past doctor visits we took new measurements and he has stayed pretty true to the course. He is a big boy. She said there was no reason to worry about his weight though because he is very proportionate and his weight percentage is creeping down instead of being off the charts.

Weight: 34 lb = 95%
Height: 37" = 97% (he had to stand for the first time to take this measurement)
Head Circumference: 20" = 92%

Everything looked good developmentally and normal on the autism screening. His vocabulary has exploded in the past couple of months. He wants to "try" anything that is cooking on the stove or that Mommy or Daddy is eating. He loves to go outside to "pay". He loves to play with cars and tractors and LOVES any kind of ball. His Uncle Jesse got him a basketball hoop for Christmas and he shoots all kinds of balls through that hoop. He loves other kids but is usually shy at first but then goes all out to "pay" with them. No potty training yet but it is on the horizon since he is moving to his new classroom, which features an open toilet area, next week. Overall, he is just a pretty happy little boy, for which we are so grateful that the Lord charged us with his care. He brings us so much joy each and every day.

Shhhhprise!

This past weekend we traveled 8 hours just to have B sleep through his Gramma's entire surprise 50th birthday party. Sorry Gramma!

Play Ball!

B has a ball in his hands pretty much from morning to night. It kind of made it easy to pick a birthday party theme for him this year.

There was only a minimum age...

Opposite of Clean

This is what happens when I break out the vacuum....toys magically appear all over the floor and B is busy pushing his shopping cart full of footballs around. :-)

Sledding With a Toddler

As many of you experienced parents know, sledding with a toddler is not all of the laughter and rosy cheeked excitement that many of us remember as kids. Once I heard that we were getting a nice fresh snow this past weekend, I began to formulate grand plans of taking B sledding on campus. I had recently purchased a couple of different types of sleds at Goodwill (BTW, great place to buy sleds for cheap) and we were going to pack them up on Saturday morning and meet a couple of friends out at the slopes. Well, we ended up changing our location to that of some friends that were meeting us and this new location was a little walk from the car. I had opted to dress B in his snow pants on site so that he would be a little more comfortable in the car. Some might call this a rookie mistake...he was a little chilly when I put on his outer layers in the back of the car. I know this because he actually said - in the clearest little toddler voice - ccccccooooollllllddddd. Poor little guy. But I pressed on and got him all bundled up and pulled him out to where our friends where sledding. We went down the hill once together, climbed back up, got the other two sleds out to try and then went back to the car to warm up. This is when we decided that we were done for the morning and that we would call it a successful sledding day and head home. Total fun, rosy cheek snow time = 10 minutes...tops. From now on, I think we are going to stick with the bunny slopes in our back yard.

PB Knock-offs

You might say that I have Pottery Barn taste with a thrift store budget...or that might just be how it actually is. For some reason, I just hate to spend the $ on something that I can make or replicate myself. The following pics are a couple of my recent finds that are PotteryBarnesque. I bought some old sweaters at the local Goodwill and sewed pillow covers out of them. Cozy! For the mantel, I've been picking up some things here and there and have come up with this combination. I also threw in a picture of some recently hung photos....since we actually have some pics on the wall now! The white D isn't finished yet...still trying to decide what color to paint it.

Christmas 2010

Our Christmas this year, involved a little less time off and a little more travel. With my job, I don't have as much vacation time or flexibility as when I did working at a University. But we made it work and got to see family. My parents came in to visit a couple of weekends before Christmas and we ended up taking advantage of my Dad and his mad electrical skillz. We changed out almost every light fixture in our house which has definitely updated those rooms. He was also able to install an outlet so that we could use our dryer that we had purchased right after we moved to OH. They ended up leaving a little early due to an impending snow storm since they had to drive all of the way back to SIL.
Since we were leaving for CHI after I got off work on Christmas Eve Eve, we decided to have our Christmas on Wednesday night. Nothing too exciting just a relaxing evening at home. B was pretty excited about his new movies. He loves his VeggieTales! We were in Chicago visiting family from Thurday night to Tuesday morning. It was a great visit minus my being sick and GG being sick. I'd like to say that we rolled with the punches and were able to adapt to a new gameplan last minute. :-) It seems that I didn't take a awful lot of pics over Christmas. These were the only ones on my camera. Sorry, if you were missed!