You know you're a mommy when... (6.27.11)

standards for acceptable topics of conversation have been significantly lowered, as you regularly broadcast your child's pooping habits and the word 'nipple' no longer makes you blush, or even pause.

You know you're a mommy when... (6.22.11)

you sit on the couch sipping coffee and watching TV while your kids are still sleeping and 10 minutes later realize you're watching Disney Jr.... all by yourself.  Oops!

A Dad's Life

You've probably seen this before, but Jim and I still laugh out loud whenever we watch this so maybe you will too!

A Dad's Life

On a serious note, wanted to give a shout-out to my awesome husband, Jim.  I see what my he does for us everyday and am so appreciative of how hard-working, sacrificial and involved he is.  He works hard so I can stay home and the kids can take gym class and have Chik-fil-A for lunch.  He takes Andrew to swim lessons on his day off.  He helps with dinner and bedtimes when he's tired after a long day.  He does it all without hesitating or complaining.  Dads are so essential, but sadly often absent and my husband goes above and beyond the 'call of duty' to make our family feel important and loved.  We love you, honey, and we're so thankful for you!

And to my dad, thank you for always being there when I need you and thank you for still being there.  I'm blessed to have grown up having a Dad who wants to know me and be involved.  I love you, Dad!

Death by Chocolate? Don't mind if I do.

Today, I was making one of my super-easy, delicious and pretty summer desserts and thought, why not share the recipe with all 40 people who read this blog on occasion?!  I was especially excited to make this because I finally have my own trifle dish (bought it at Target for $11!) and don't have to borrow one to make this anymore.  I love trifles.  They make desserts extra pretty.  That is until you serve it up and it turns into mush.  But that's OK because then they still taste pretty darn good.

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

Ingredients:

1 box of Devil's Food Cake Mix (plus, all ingredients to make the cake)

1 16 oz. container of frozen whipped topping, such as Cool Whip, thawed

1 box of Chocolate Mousse Mix (plus, ingredients to make the mousse)

1 bar of chocolate covered English toffee, such as Heath Bar, crushed

Bake cake according to package instructions and let cool, cut into small cubes.  Prepare mousse according to package instructions and refrigerate.  In a trifle dish or glass serving bowl, layer cubes of chocolate cake, followed by mousse, then Cool Whip.  Repeat.  Top with crushed Heath Bar (we prefer semi-sweet chocolate shavings rather than candy).  Refrigerate until serving.

You know you're a mommy when (6.9.11)

You have the privilege of being entertained by your child's interpretations of everyday things he encounters.  These are a few of my favorite Andrewisms:

~  Looking at my abundant moles and freckles: 'Mommy, you have polka-dots!'

~  Watching the cars on Street Road at rush hour from the Yum Yum parking lot: 'Look at the cars!  They're all racing!'

~  After spotting a jar of pickles in the fridge:  'Look!  They're swimming!  And that one has a TAIL!'

~  Playing with a pile of Cheerio's at the kitchen table:  'I made a big Sandcastle!'
~  Andrew's response after I asked him to take a bite of his grilled cheese:  'I put it in my mouth.  It went down the drain.'
~  As he was watching his pee come out and go into the potty, 'I'm making a waterfall!'
~  When we were outside checking out a rainbow after a storm, 'There's a tunnel in the sky.'

You know you're a mommy when... (6.7.11)

When you get home from family vacation, you review the 300 photos you took and realize that 295 are of your kids; half can be deleted because your child(ren) are not looking, are grumpy, or are 1 of 8 photos of them in the same pose; you only find yourself in the 6 pictures you managed to take yourself; and you don't have any photos of the other family members who were with you all week.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Apparently today is Oprah's final show.  I actually don't really watch Oprah, but I thought I'd give a nod to the Queen of Daytime and steal one of her themes. :-)  I know I'm not Oprah, but I have favorites too!  Since I'm always looking for new products/recipes/tips, please feel free to share some of your faves!

1.  Barnes and Noble's online storytime.  This is great entertainment for when I'm folding laundry or cleaning and need Andrew to do something quietly on his own.  His favorites are "Smash Crash" and "Charlie the Ranch Dog."  You can also create a playlist so you don't have to keep restarting them!

2.  JoJo Electronic Easter Egg Hunt toy.  My mom got one for Andrew for Easter and it may just be my favorite toy ever... and it probably one of Andrew's favorites too!  This is also great entertainment because I can get things accomplished while still playing with Andrew.  You just turn the egg on and hide it and it calls out things like "Yooo hooo!" until Andrew finally finds it!  It's really cute hearing Andrew say "JoJo" too.  :-)

3. BeFunky.com.  Don't have photoshop?  No problem!  You can upload a photo and have fun editing it on this website and end up with beautiful creations like this...

and this...

4.  Strawberry muffins.  We're trying to get Andrew to try eating fruits and vegetables (he doesn't eat them... ever.) so I've been getting things like strawberries and putting a few pieces on his plate at each meal so hopefully at some point he'll decide to try it.  Anyway, when I did strawberry week a few months ago, we had a ton of leftover strawberries so I found this recipe to make sure they didn't get wasted.  They're delicious and that's how I eventually got my kid to try strawberries!  The only tweak I made was adding 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

5.  Restaurant.com.  If you don't use this site, you need to start.  Now.  Local restaurants use Restaurant.com to for promotion purposes so they'll offer a $25 gift certificate for $10-15.  Steal, right?  Well it gets better.  If you sign up for emails from them, they'll send you (regularly) coupon codes for an additional 50-80% off!  That means that you get a $25 gift certificate for $2-3!  They also offer gift certificates in other increments like $10 or $50.  Just be sure to check the fine print for restrictions.  We use this sight a lot when trying new restaurants and are even planning to download a few gift certificates for our trip to Charleston nexy week.  I'll even help you out for your first purchase.  They are currently running an 80% off promotion through Memorial Day.  Enter code: FLAG.

6.  Coffee + Ellen Degenerous + Oreos (or Chris Shafer's 'I've-Died-And-Gone-To-Heaven' brownies - that's what I've named them anyway - if you have some on hand) + silence coming from the monitors.

7.  Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.  This product completely lives up to its name!  I used it on the wall behind the high chair that has been splattered with pureed prunes, peas, etc. for the past few years.  Despite all my best efforts, the dried up splatter has stayed on the wall - until now.  After about 30 seconds of using my Magic Eraser, I can testify that this product is indeed magic.  I immediately went out and bought a box to have on hand. 

8.  Garden-to-table cooking.  Although we've been slacking so far this year, we usually have a pretty good garden in the summer.   (Correction:  Jim has a good garden.  He's the one with the green thumb.)  This year, we are even growing plumbs and peaches!  Anyway, I recently discovered something called Outstanding in the Field.  They travel to local farms, hire a local chef, set out an impressive display and serve up locally grown food.  I would have bought my tickets to the one in Perkasie, PA by now if I had $200/plate to drop on it!  Anyway, I love the philosophy of eating fresh, homegrown food so I've been looking into trying new garden-to-table or farm-to-table recipes.  If you're into that sort of thing, here are a few links: AllRecipes.com Garden-to-Table Page, Garden to Table Blogs

From healthy food to comfort food...

9.  The Happy Waitress.  This was a Jersey Diner favorite of mine that is my ultimate comfort food.  Bacon, tomato, bacon, melted cheese, bacon, all grilled together on the bread of your choice (I like rye) ... did I mention the bacon?  Everything is better with bacon.  If only I could have it with a side of Disco fries.  Try not to drool on your computer.

10.  The Library.  There is a whole world of entertainment and education available to you and guess what... it's FREE!  I don't know why I never took advantage of everything it had to offer before.  We did 'Toddler Tales' (story/play time) when Andrew was younger and he loved it.  Lately we like to go play in the children's section and read books on rainy days.  Yesterday I stocked up on kids DVD's for our upcoming 12-hour road trip.  Score!