Sugar rush

Per annual tradition our family spent Thanksgiving in Miami with Scott's parents and brothers. A highlight of this trip for Amelia and John is getting the rare chance to spend time with their cousins, Abby (age 11, almost 12) and George (age 9, 3 weeks younger than Amelia). The four kids play well together and really enjoy their time at grandmommy and grandaddy's house during the holiday.

The Friday after Thanksgiving - when our tummies were so full and satisfied from the wonderful Thanksgiving meal served by grandmommy and the boys the day before - the girls and I came up with the fun idea to decorate gingerbread houses to get in the spirit of Christmas. Grandmommy generously sponsored a trip to the craft store to purchase supplies, and each kid came back with their own gingerbread house and several extra bags of candy for decorating.

Amelia and Abby went first. Each girl created her own house, and to get over some of the structural issues with keeping the houses together grandaddy and I alternately used caulk (grandaddy) and super glue (me) to help the roofs stay intact (no, we did not eat these houses once assembled!). We felt like we were doing a good job in avoiding the tears that came with the roofs that were too heavy to stay put with icing alone.

Amelia's house is the first photo with Abby's house below. I love the icicles on Amelia's house and the snowmen decorations on Abby's.

Next up were George and John. Chris' girlfriend Hazel was super awesome and assisted the boys in the creation of their house. Hazel is also a rockstar because she assembled their house with icing only - no chemical-laden garage supplies were needed to hold their structure together! (So yes, the kids actually got to eat the boy's house).

I do not understand why John has to make creepy faces in every.photo.I.take.of.him.

Rest assured that in the photo below John is directing George to do something to their gingerbread house. You can see the command directing from his little body in the pointed hand motion.

The boys were very creative and combined their houses into one. Notice the University of Miami "U" on the roof. I have no control over John's sports allegiances, especially when in the company of his uncles, grandfather and dad. Notice how many men are wearing bright orange shirts with the U on them in the photo below the house!

Finally, the family assembled for a final vote on the most creative house. All of Scott's bothers plus Hazel and grandaddy weighed in on their favorite gingerbread house. I believe it was a tie - each house got three votes from different people as the favorite.

This was a fun post-Thanksgiving activity and I know that the kids enjoyed it. Hard to believe that this year we assembled gingerbread houses with over a week of November left until the start of December!

Ancestor's Feast + Thanksgiving

Amelia and her fourth grade classmates enjoyed a special day on the last day of school before Thanksgiving Break. As a capstone celebration to a week-long project celebrating the students' heritage, each child was responsible for researching the ancestry of their families and making a presentation about that country to their classmates. All of the kids had to select one country for their presentation and then on Tuesday they each brought in a culinary dish from that country for the "ancestor's feast".

I volunteered as a helper in Amelia's classroom for the Ancestor's Feast. I really enjoyed this role as I got to see how Amelia and her classmates interpreted this assignment and also I got to witness their explanations of why they each chose the dish they had brought to share. 

Amelia (on the left below) is explaining why she brought shortbread cookies to represent her country, Scotland. She actually made the shortbread herself the night before and it was tasty!

The spread of food below. Items on the table included Spanish tortilla (Spain), mashed potatoes (Ireland), German chocolate cake (Germany), gouda cheese and crackers (Netherlands), English sausages (England), and French bread.

Each child also made a placemat to use for the feast. Amelia's turkey states that she is thankful for lots of things including family, a good education, friends, the earth, food, clean water, people who do things for our community, books (Harry Potter and Warriors), knowledge, and for being a hufflepuff.

After the feast I walked over to John's classroom to spy on what the first graders were doing. I found this hanging on John's locker. John is thankful for video games, family, friends, God, and cake.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mother of the Year

I deserve the Mother of the Year award.

Not!

Nope - this story describes anything but the best mother award. Here's the background - a local restaurant that the kids like (Cafe Brazil) serves "candy bar pancakes", which are pretty much just as the name describes. A stack of beautifully fluffy pancakes with crushed up candy bars (Reese's, Snickers, M&Ms, etc.) in between each layer. When the candy is crushed beneath warm pancakes the chocolate melts slightly, so when splashed with whipped cream and a sliver of syrup before serving, these pancakes are downright lethal in terms of the sugar content. It's no wonder that my kids love them.

This weekend the kids requested that we go to Cafe Brazil for candy bar pancakes, but I wasn't in the mood. The restaurant serves awesome omelets and other breakfast items that are actually pretty good for you (or at least they have a lot of veggies), so I do enjoy going there. But the timing just didn't work out for a trip to Cafe Brazil this weekend so I denied their request.

So to make up for this, I promised the kids we could make our own candy bar pancakes at home for dinner on Monday if they met certain behavioral objectives beforehand. (Translation: I bribed them by promising candy bar pancakes in advance of getting them to complete certain chores).

So how did this turn out? The kids loved it - but of course, this was entirely predictable! John studded his pancakes with crushed up Reeses's (beneath the whipped cream in the photo below) and then added M&Ms for color. Amelia had a combination of Snickers and Reese's (no whipped cream) on hers.

Notice the plate in the front of the photo. It contains two small slices of bacon (protein) and a half of a juicy pear (fruit, hence nutrients!). Does the balance of meat and fruit outweigh the candy bar pancakes as a meal for dinner? Most definitely not! But we all had a fun evening and the kids thought it was fun to make candy bar pancakes at home. Thank goodness for leftover Halloween candy for providing the candy bars that we wouldn't normally have in the house.

Beautiful Arboretum Day

Today was the last weekend day of the Fall Festival at the Dallas Arboretum. The kids and I have visited the arboretum during the fall for the last two years and I knew I didn't want to miss it this year. The arboretum is just so beautiful with all of the decorated pumpkins and gourds, fall mums, and gorgeous colors that it is really quite an amazing place to be. So after church and sunday school this morning, the kids and I packed up and headed over to the arboretum for a quick fix of fall.

And the colors and pumpkins did not disappoint. Pumpkins everywhere!

 

Amelia and John each picked up a map at the entrance that had all of the pumpkin houses marked on it, and they both had fun navigating through the paths and green spaces to find each numbered spot on their maps. They both thought this "swam gourd pond" was pretty cool. The squash gourds inside the "pond" were supposed to serve as swans swimming in the ocean of gray pumpkins.

I can't remember seeing small pumpkins entwined in wire around large tree branches before so I thought this look was interesting. We all also enjoyed the horses in the background (made out of hay).

And of course the Chihuly glass exhibits placed throughout the arboretum continued to amaze us!

After getting our fill of pumpkins the kids and I headed over to Pioneer town, where Amelia and John worked hard to plow the earth in preparation for planting of corn seeds.

And of course before we left the grounds I had to try to obtain awesome fall photos of the kids posed with the pumpkins. I realize that we are well past the toddler/pre-school age where taking photos of kids with pumpkins is the most natural activity in the world, but really I just wanted a few colorful shots for fall. Is that so much for a mom to ask?

Apparently, yes. The battle of mine was completely lost this time around. Let's take a look at selected shots from the progression of today's photo shoot. Both kids openly questioned, "Mom, why are we doing this?"

John: "Really, mom? I hate posing for you!" Amelia: "Mom, I am smiling pretty!"

John" I just can't fake it anymore. This is how I really look." Amelia is laughing at her openly goofy brother. I am pretty sure I had already bribed them with donuts at this point, and this was still all I could get from John.

 John: "And while I'm at it, let me try to tackle my sister!"

Whoa - this one looks pretty cute! New haystack, new mood maybe.

 And maybe even the best of all. Lovely smiles from both kids!

Can you believe this was one of the first photos I took today? Just goes to show you that you may get an awesome photo at the beginning and not realize it, and then drive yourself and the kids crazy trying to get something better.

We had a lovely afternoon at the arboretum! So happy to have had this experience with my children, and despite their hesitant photos for the camera, I know they both enjoyed our day together too.

Strange taste buds

The strangest thing has happened to me over the past two or three years. I have developed a positive attitude towards certain foods that I NEVER used to like. Sometimes I actually crave such foods. I'm talking about items (mainly vegetables) that are often on most people's "NO" list. Things like mushrooms, brussels sprouts, eggplant, avocados, and sweet potatoes. Well, that last one deserves special attention because sweet potatoes are actually quite popular, but I never ate them until the past few years. The other items on my list? Well, they are quite hit or miss.

For example, tonight's dinner was a combination of mashed sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, and a corn muffin. You can tell that Scott is out of town because there is no animal protein in there, and I think I am craving Thanksgiving foods and this is what I could come up with. But, really! Roasted brussels sprouts are just about the best thing ever. I use this recipe from Cooking Light, subbing parmesan cheese for the romano.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/romano-topped-brussels-sprouts-50400000124431/

And avocado? I am a big believer in using avocado in salads all the time. It doesn't get much better than fresh arugula or baby lettuce with sliced tomato, sliced avocado, and a lime vinaigrette dressing studded with flakes of salt and pepper for dressing. And I can't tell you how many times I have purchased guacamole over the past couple of years. Who knew? I never ate this until a few years ago.

Sweet potatoes? They belong in everything from soups to salads. We tried this outstanding gem recently. So good!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-sweet-potato-salad-50400000123966/

Mushrooms? Completely made for pasta, although they are delicious chopped and diced raw in salads as well. My mom thinks it is hilarious (crazy) that for over thirty years I picked mushrooms out of each and every dish she prepared with them inside, and now I actively find ways to include them in a meal.

Eggplant? Roast it and stick it in a roasted vegetable salad or as a condiment in a wrap, which my lovely cousin Kim taught me to do).

So what is the point of this rambling?

I really have no idea. Except that the puzzling nature of once foreign foods, now turned into favorites, has boggled my mind for quite awhile and I don't know what to do with it. I guess I will keep experimenting to see what else I can come up with. Please send any suggestions you have for fun recipes with these ingredients my way.

Amelia's activities

Several friends have inquired about the outcome of Amelia's student council election. Unfortunately Amelia was not elected Vice President of the student council, however, the school invited all of the students who competed to join the student council organization. So even though Amelia is not an officer (and she seems OK with this), she gets to participate in the monthly meetings and serve as a leader for her school. So far Amelia has helped with organizing cans for her school's Thanksgiving food drive, and she was very excited about arriving early to tally results for cans contributed by each class/grade level.

Amelia also participated in the fourth grade choir this year. After attending practices for the past two months once a week before school (starting at 7:30 a.m. - early arrival for us!) and once a week after school, the choir performed for the school's Veteran's Day concert this past Friday. Amelia is wearing the blue t-shirt in the back row (far right).

The performance was very patriotic and appropriate for Veteran's Day. In addition to the songs and a photo slideshow of school children's loved ones who had served in the armed forces, there were elements of history sprinkled in. Each choir member had a speaking role where they recited quotes from presidents and military generals. Amelia did a great job and looked like she was having fun with this group.

Halloween 2012

The latter half of Halloween week got a little crazy at the Wilson's, hence the delayed posting of photos of children in Halloween costumes. I am strongly in favor of weekend Halloween events, in fact I believe that if October 31 naturally falls on a weekday then the government should make it mandatory that trick-or-treating should be celebrated on the following Friday or Saturday night. That would make things a lot easier on working parents and children that have to get up and go to work and school the next day!

Amelia dressed as Hermione Griffendor Granger (from Harry Potter) this year. I hope I got that name correct! Thanks to my cousin Kim for correcting my description of this character! I haven't read the Harry Potter books so I have a hard time keeping the names straight from what Amelia tells me. However, I am proud to say that I can now name all of the houses of HP and tell you a little about them.

John went as the "Scream" character from the movie. John is not actually familiar with this character itself, but rather he liked all of the "scary" costumes from the mail-order catalogs we looked through together.  This was the best one where John's interest and my permission-to-purchase intersected. People on our block (where we trick-or-treated) provided good frightened cries towards John when he approached their homes, so John felt proud that he was scary enough for Halloween this year.

We enjoyed a lovely evening that began with a fun block party followed by low-key trick-or-treating. Our favorite part of Halloween, in addition to seeing the children excited with their costumes, is the opportunity to visit with other families on our block and in the surrounding area. Temperatures were in the mid-60's, which made for a gorgeous few hours outside to enjoy the holiday strolling with our friends and neighbors. And now we have enough candy to make it for months of sugar overload. Amelia and John are thrilled!