What an insane weekend!!!!!

This weekend was a drill weekend. For those non-military out there, it basically means a seven day work week for Pete and usually a busy week at home too. This weekend I watched Makayla and her brother Sean both Saturday and Sunday. They are both very sweet kids. I have to say, though, it was a LONG week!

Saturday, Heather Naftal and her 4 kids (age 9, 7, 3, 1) came to my house for child entertainment and, for me, some adult company. All the kids get along very well, and it helps when Sean has some kids his age to play with. Every corner we turned, there were kids getting into something interesting, or troubling, or both! A few examples: Gabriella trying to put her doll on the potty (as in the real toilet...thank goodness I caught that one in time!), Madison standing on a toddler chair (she just turned 1), snatching and stealing left and right. Regardless of all of this chaos, it was actually a great day! We had fun making pizzas with the kids, and all the younger kids napped, so that is ALWAYS a plus! It was beautiful outside Saturday, and Sunday was supposed ot be more of the same so I knew I had to get outside with the kids.

Sunday was, of course, upon us before we knew it. Heather and company were unavailable, so I knew I had to avoid cabin fever and boredom by whatever means possible. It was supposed to be over fifty degrees, but there was still snow everywhere. That made for weird outside time, but oh well. Kids, and therefore I, don't care! We went to Montgomery for a walk in the woods. Sean was a bit disappointed that it wasn't a real hike, but considering even the paved trail was still covered in icy slushy mess, I can only imagine carrying Gabi, Makayla, and Tomas for most of it. NO THANKS!! We did have a good time taking a walk and playing at the playground, but I must say that ballet flats were a poor choice of shoes!

All things said, it WAS great to spend so much time outside today. I took the push handle off of his ticycle, and he was pedaling around like a champ! Too bad there are such hills in the neighborhood! Gabriella tried to get on and ride too...she didn't quite know what to do with her feet. She did, however, love being outside. She was soaked when we went in though. She kept using snow piles as seats; she was so wet she left butt prints on the front steps! Tomorrow and Tuesday are days off for Pete. WAHOO!

Dutch Cooking...

This week I've cooked a Dutch Meal twice. Andijvie met spek (one of my all time favorites) and pannekoeken (my comfort food). It's nice to share these things with the kids and hopefully connect them to their heritage.

Andijvie met spek is a traditional Dutch mash meal. We like to make meals where we throw everything in one pot and enjoy! This particular one is mashed potatoes with raw endive (I used Belgian endive, but what I'm used to is a bit greener and more curly than this) and yummy cooked bacon. Add a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg and YUM YUM. The texture of the raw endive is a bit different, and the kids weren't too sure about it. A little enticement in the form of dessert helped significantly, and Tomas actually admitted to liking it. Gabriella is still in the stage where raw carrots are a texture issue, so she remained a little resistant, but bacon helped ease the strangeness for her. She truly is a "meatatarian." Silly girl.

Pannekoeken literally translates to pancakes, but it is really somewhere between a crepe and an American breakfast pancake. That, and we eat it for dinner, not breakfast. Pannekoeken plain with syrup, pannekoeken with bacon cooked into them, pannekoeken with cheese, pannekoeken with tomato and cheese. YUM YUM. The kids devoured this without a problem. I haven't had them try the ones with cheese or with tomato ,but I loved them growing up and I'm sure the kids will too.

What an insane and exhausting day this has been! Tomorrow is going to be yet another long day. The last two mornings I have woken up very tired, and it just seems to hang with me. Maybe we should stop being addicted to Dexter. Damn Netflix!

What a day!!

I'm already exhausted. Tomas had school in the morning, so Makayla, Gabriella and I ran some errands so that we'd have enough food in the house for the weekend. Gabriella and Makayla tramped throught the grocery store holding hands and grabbing for kid-height, interesting foods and toys. TIRING!!! Luckily they were overall well-behaved and we had a good time.

When we got home from school, Everyone was falling asleep in the car and I KNEW I was in trouble! As usual, Makayla didn't want to eat lunch; I at least got her to eat some turkey. Gabriella has been a sneezing snotty mess all day. Nap time was a DISASTER. Makayla was crying, but eventually just fell asleep. Gabriella was just all out screaming. She can't breathe through her nose and she was just lying there pointing to her nose and saying Mommy in a whiny voice. (She was also very interested in seeing our neighbor Jenniene, who was downstairs with her nephew and Tomas. So far, Makayla is the only one that has napped. She is here until after 8 tonight and then again tomorrow morning with her brother. I just want to SLEEP!

Toddler Fun Times!

Today was a busy and fun-filled day. I watched Makayla (as I will be tomorrow and Saturday too)! Then Caren needed to me watch Jacob for just a little while so for snack and morning play, I had four toddlers running around the house. WOW! After snack and playroom cleanup we had some Playdoh time. As you can see, music and Playdoh are a BLAST!
After all that play, it was time to wind down a little before lunch and naps so everyone snuggled up under the Tinkerbell blanket. They were adorable, although the quiet was very shortlived!
This afternoon, after naps were done, Makayla, Tomas, Gabriella, and I made banana bread together. As Makayla said, "Yummy in my tummy!" We're all excited to try that special treat tomorrow. I'm exhausted after such a busy day. On to another fn-filled day tomorrow.

Paint!!

Yesterday was a day of traditional Dutch dinner.  Endive with mashed potatoes and bacon (everything is better with bacon right?).  Peeling potatoes is a process with toddlers under foot, so I decided to let the kids have some painting time...interesting choice.  They love to paint, but it's messy and Tomas is a perfectioninst (he didn't want to draw a sun because he couldn't make a perfect circle...hmmmm).  It was a lot of fun, but not at all productive for me.  HA!

Gabriella's hands were both covered in paint, and her smock/bib was as much of a work of art as her paper was...Tomas only had about five little splotches on his shirt, and his hands were spotless.  Typical!

How Buried We Really Got...

 

I hadn't gotten around to posting this earlier, but this is a picture Pete took of our car after the storm last week. This was first thing in the morning on Friday, when the lights were already out. When we went to bed Thursday, our driveway was shoveled. Pete worked together with other neighbors to clear our driveway and others. Needless to say, this was a LOT of snow! Right now, it has been a few days of well above freezing temperatures and there is not a hint of grass to be seen anywhere. The weight of the snow wreaked havoc on trees in the area. The routes to gymnastics and to Tomas' school are littered with downed limbs and even whole trees that just gave up under the weight. Unfortunately with all this thaw-worthy weather, the snow is now just wet slushy nastiness, so far from great for playing in. Now I'm ready for spring and real playground time!

Cooking Fun

For a long time, Tomas has not wanted to cook with me anymore. A while ago, when Bada and Oma were visiting, Tomas was helping make pancakes and he burned his finger. This has been very tough on Tomas. He is scared of doing that again and has therefore backed away from cooking. So today, I decided to try to get him interested in making pizza. I told him he could help me mix the dough and knead it, like he does wth play-doh, and he was ready to be a big helper. He got to wear Mommy's apron and weild his own spoon. The real selling point was that he could use Mommy's measuring cups.

We had a good time kneading the dough, although Tomas was most in love with flouring the counter top. This was very unlike him, as he is often averse to any mess! The flour was lots of fun to sprinkle and spread around. Finally, we started talking about toppings and Tomas was interested only in cheese, so I told him he had to pick a veggie. What did he pick?...broccoli!! Broccoli, cheese, sauce, and pepperoni became the toppings. Even Gabriella enthusiastically ate the broccoli. The only note for next time: leave the salt out of the dough recipe. The dough was, I would venture to say, disgustingly salty.