Mmmmm! Homemade Frosties!!

The boys and I were in the mood for a treat today, so I decided to try out a recipe from the Hillbilly Housewife website for a chocolate milkshake. Just as she claims on her site, it tastes just like a Wendy's Frosty!! Yumm-o! I just had to share!

By the way, that site has a great section on instant drink mixes that I love. I make the hot chocolate mix and the chai tea mix regularly. They're yummy, easy, and so much less expensive than buying the packets at the store!

Bouncing Baby Josiah!

Here is a cute video of Josiah I thought y'all would enjoy! It was taken at one of our favorite parks, which is downtown next to the World Financial Center. The boys' favorite part of this playscape is this open mesh type stuff that is about 7' off the ground...the boys run around up on top while Daddy pushes up on them from below to bounce them. This was Josiah's first time to actually crawl around up on top...I think he enjoyed himself!



I took tons of still photos as well...hopefully I'll find some time to edit and post some of them later as well!

Making Peanut Butter!

This is something I've been wanting to try for a while, and seeing Annalia's post on making peanut butter with her children inspired me to take photos and blog it! Thanks, Lia!

Now that I have my amazing Vita-mix, I've been experimenting with all sorts of great things to do with it! Now, in addition to baby food, hummus, grinding my own wheat, and almost-daily smoothies, I can add peanut butter to the list! But first we had to deal with the peanuts...

I bought them with the shells still on, thinking it would be fun for the boys to shell them. It was, but it was also the BIGGEST MESS I think we've made in a while...and we make some pretty big messes!!

Jonathan, who is allergic to peanuts (not bad allergic, just makes him itchy if he eats them) decided that it would be "safer" to beat them out of their shells with a meat tenderizer. I vetoed that one pretty much right away!


Joey tried several different shelling methods...squeezing really hard...


the "karate chop"... (that's marker on his arm...not wounds, lol!)


Jordan really was having fun...really...


the "relaxed-toes-on-the-table" approach...


the "laying-on-the-floor-under-the-table" attempt...





and finally he decided to just go ahead and use his teeth!


Joshua coined a new word..."demolate." As in "Hey, Jon, want to watch me demolate this peanut?" I tried to convince him that "demolish" was a better choice, but Joshua is already convinced he knows everything!


Ready to be blended...


This picture is awful, but here it is all smooth and creamy!


The first taste-test...yum!


Of course we had pb&j sandwiches for lunch!


That was fun, although I don't think I'll repeat it with peanuts in the shell! Even after sweeping several times, I was still finding bits of peanut shell in random places!! The boys really enjoyed it, though, and the peanut butter was yummy!

Jonathan's Poem

Jonathan decided to write a poem today about seasons. I think he did a really nice job! Go here to check it out!! (And leave him a comment about it!) :)

Boys Will Be Boys!

All of my boys are definitely "all boy," but my little 5-year-old Jordan is especially rough-and-tumble. He's the one most likely to be playing super hero at any given time, pretending a stick is a gun, and trying to do the most dangerous "exciting" activities he can think of. He certainly keeps me on my toes!!

Since here in New York he is supposed to be officially in Kindergarten this year, he is doing some school work, but not nearly as much as his two older brothers. Because of this, he has a good bit of time during the day when I need to work with his older brothers (and keep the 3-year-old from harassing the baby). So several times a week I will let him choose a video to watch.

Usually he will choose a Veggietales video, or one of several Disney videos that we own. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the living room to find him watching My Fair Lady a few days ago. I didn't ask him about it at that time, but when I went back into the room a little bit later, we had this conversation:

Jordan: "Mommy, this movie is BORING! Can I watch a different one?"

Me: "Well, since you've already watched most of it, don't you think you should watch the rest and see how it ends?"

Jordan: "No, it's BORING!"

Me: (getting curious at this point) "Hey Jordan, what made you choose this movie in the first place?"

Jordan: (In his best disappointed voice) "Well, I was going to watch something else, but Jonathan told me that this movie has GUNS in it!! And he LIED!!"

I'm not sure where he gets it, but that's my boy!!

Park Fun!

We had a gorgeous day here on Saturday! It was a nice, warm 68 degrees, so we just had to get out and spend time at the park! The boys (and Daddy and Mommy, too) really needed to get out and stretch their legs a little. We walked through Riverside Park, to a playground about a mile away from our apartment. Now, we do have several playgrounds a lot closer than that, but this one is one of the boys' favorites!

Joey climbing...doesn't he look just thrilled to be outside?


Josiah checking out the playground from the safety of Daddy's arm...


Since we did get a big snow storm earlier in the week, there were still some small piles left that hadn't melted yet. Josiah was curious about it, but didn't like touching it!





About to try the slide for the first time...


Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!


Jonathan loves his baby brother!!


Joshua loves his baby brother, too!


Who's this little monkey?...Jordan!


Jonathan thinks I can't see him...


I like this picture of Jordan. Yes, he needs a haircut! His hair reminds me of a hobbit, lol!


Daddy trying to get Josiah to look up at the camera...


Joshua


Mommy going down the slide with Josiah...


I'm not sure what you call this, but the boys all love sliding down straddling it.


Ah, Josiah's favorite part of the playground...the swings!


Is this a happy boy, or what?


The boys call this playground "the dinosaur park" because of these big fiberglass dinos they can climb all over...





Joey loves the sandbox area...


Jonathan made a sand volcano!...


Another shot of a happy Josiah...


And Joey on a dinosaur...


The bigger boys and I raced for part of the way home. We stopped to rest on a bench and saw Joey behind us, valiantly trying to catch up. Run, Joey, Run!! :)


We had a great time playing all together outside. We can't wait until the weather is this nice consistently. Hurry up, spring! The J-Boys want to PLAY!!! :)

A Birthday, Bowling, and Other Random Happenings

Happy 1st Birthday, Josiah!!

Yes, yesterday was our little Josiah's first birthday! It ended up being a crazy day, due mainly to non-birthday-related happenings, but we did manage to get everyone to Chuck E. Cheese's for a little celebratory pizza and games...from 8:30 pm to a little after 10:00 pm. Yeah, so we won't be winning any parenting awards for THAT one, but at least everybody had fun! Everyone under 4 also slept in nice and late this morning, which was a perk for this tired mommy!

Here is Josiah exploring his first piece of pizza. The pizza slice looks really weird because it's upside-down...it really was better than it looks here (but not much, lol!) Considering that Josiah's "chewable" food to this point has been limited to Cheerioes and bananas, he did quite well with it!


Mmmmmm! I get a kick out of how serious he is when trying new things!


Riding the carousel with his brothers...


He's not so sure this is a good idea!


Joey and Josh on the little roller coaster simulator...


Daddy, Josiah, and Jordan on the BIG roller coaster simulator...





By the time we got home it was about 10:45. We had done our monthly Costco and grocery store run before going to CEC, so we also had a packed-to-the-gills SUV to unload, including the cargo carrier on top! By the time we got everything unloaded, children put to bed, groceries put away, etc. it was close to midnight. So I went to bed like a good girl...NOT! Jeremy had some work he had to get done on his computer, and I stayed up with him to keep him company! Until 2:00. Boy, was I TIRED this morning!! Even though my 2 little guys slept in this morning, unfortunately I could not, at least not as late! I host a Bible study with some ladies from church on Thursday morning, and I had to prepare for it...while sleepwalking, LOL! This was only our second meeting, and for the first one some of the ladies brought lunch. There was mention this week of someone bringing cupcakes, so I assumed I was to make the main course. No problem, usually...but not so easy on very little sleep. So I cooked, roped Joshua and Jonathan into doing some spot-cleaning (the bathroom, for instance, was less than guest-worthy...for some reason, at least in MY household, little boys and clean toilets don't naturally coexist!) and managed to be pretty much ready by the time everyone arrived. We had a nice time, but it turned out lunch wasn't on the agenda, after all. Oh well, the boys and I have to eat anyway, so after everyone left, we had a nice lunch! :)

I love Costco's Sonoma Chicken Salad, but I rarely buy it because one, it's pricey and two, we can't eat the whole container of it before it goes bad. But I've been really wanting some lately, so yesterday I googled it to see if I could find a copycat recipe. The closest I found was a recipe for Whole Foods' version of it, which, with a few minor modifications, was really close!! I made homemade whole wheat pitas to go with it. It was very yummy! I'll be making this often!!
The dark bits are craisins and toasted pecans...


This afternoon while the little guys were napping and Joshua was reading in his room, Jonathan challenged me to some Wii bowling. He usually beats me handily, but this time he was having an off game and I bowled my best game ever! I had to take a picture...


Well, Jon was quite upset that not only did he do poorly (and lose to his MOTHER, lol) but I also had to take a picture of it! He lost his pro status to boot. So I, like any good mommy, volunteered to play a game for him on his mii character thingy. I warned him profusely that I was making absolutely NO PROMISES that I would get him a decent score, but he wanted me to play for him anyway. So I did, and bowled this game...


I'm not nearly as competitive as my children but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that I bowled that well and it wasn't even on my own character!! I got 7 strikes in a row! So I just had to switch back to mine and try again...


Not quite as good, but not bad, either! :) Just for the record, when bowling in real life at a real bowling alley with a real ball, on a GOOD day I might bowl around 100. Maybe. But there's always a trade-off...at home, I don't get to wear the snazzy shoes.