Move Over McDreamy...Here Comes McSchmippy

This past month Liam's class has been doing a unit of study on "Community Helpers" where they learned all about the different things people do to help the people they live around. They had visits from several different people including fire fighters and a dental hygenist. To end the unit they had a community helper dress up day which was this morning. Liam had told me recently that he wanted to be a "Doctor Pilot" when he grows up (I am not quite sure how he plans to incorporate these two professions), so with my new prize possesion (a sewing machine that I was very kindly given for Christmas) I made him a pair of scrubs to wear for the occasion. I haven't sewn much in a long time and am just starting to get back into it, they didn't turn out perfectly and are a bit large but I did have a good time making them all things considered. I hope he had a fun time wearing them!

Pizza Rolls and Play Date

On Monday morning one of the Moms from our playgroup was very sick so two of her boys came over to our house to play with Liam so that thier parents could get some much needed extra rest. Liam had a fun time playing with his friends and I tried a new recipe to make for the boys for lunch. The dough for these pizza rolls was made in the bread machine with very little effort and then they were rolled up like cinnamon rolls only with cheese, pepperoni and sauce instead (the recipe also called for sauteed peppers, onions, mushrooms and olives...but since this was for children I left those toppings out). The recipe made two pans worth so everyone got more than thier fair share, and they were pretty yummy...at least I thought so. For dessert I whipped out this box of cookies that I grew up eating in Canada and just happened to stumble across in a specialty foods shop while getting ingredients for our Valentines dinner last week. They are a cookie base, topped with raspberry jam and a marshmallow on top of that and then the whole thing is dipped in chocolate...oooohhhhh the memories! I forgot how much I liked those until I found a place that sells them here in the states!

Spa Day At Chakras

For Valentines Day Bevan arranged for me to go yesterday and have a full spa day at a local day spa called "Chakras". It is a very beautiful and peaceful place that has been featured in travel magazines etc...and as far as I could tell was definately top notch. I am seriously almost embarassed to blog about this because it was such an extravagent gift, but Bevan deserves to be bragged about for putting this togethor. He planned all of this over a month ago but had been wanting to do this for me for a long time. After I had barely had Liam and Bevan had started school at UNCG he had a class with girl who worked at the spa. Bevan asked her what it was like and what they did there and thought it would be fun to send me there sometime. He asked her how much it would cost to go and when she told him he realized doing it anytime soon was obviously out of the question. Anyhow, now that he is working as a nearly proper accountant and we aren't quite the sturggling students we used to be he was very excited for me to go and do this and he actually set it all up without me finding out which is a feat in and of itself.
So yesterday morning at 10:15 Bevan and the boys dropped me off . The whole day was really dreamlike and started out with a seaweed body wrap and then a rinse in this amazing rain forest shower. After that I had an hour long massage. They ordered me lunch from a nearby restaurant "The Liberty Oak" and I had a grilled vegatable pita with feta cheese and a salad which I ate in a pillow stuffed and curtain draped alcove called the "nest" that is overlooking downtown Greensboro. After lunch I had a facial followed by a spa manicure and pedicure and after that I went down stairs to the salon where they washed my hair, massaged my scalp and gave me a blow out. I left around 5:30 p.m. Any one or two of these treatments would have been a luxury but the whole package was by far the most self-indulgent thing I have ever experienced in my life.
It was really the most perfect thing he could have done for me at this point in my life. Some of you know that I have worked really hard over the past year or so to become a more healthy person and I have made a great deal of progress, but this whole "Chakras" experience really helped motivate me to stay on track with my goals and keep taking care of myself. And in addition to that it really showed me what a selfless husband I have and how much he thinks about the boys and I and works hard to take care of and make us happy, which is the greatest part of it all really. (www.chakrasspa.com)

NASCAR

For the second time in 7 days, I am watching NASCAR. I was trying to find a decent Basketball game and the only ones on TV are Miami/WFU (neither team will go to the tournament) and Wash/Pitt No. 5 (only worth watching if UW wins). I wanted to see Vanderbilt/Florida No. 1, especially since Vanderbilt was leading by 8 at the half. Tonight at Midnight EST, NMSU plays OHIO. I am excited about that. NMSU finally has a 7 footer since... I don't think we ever had one.

OK so back to NASCAR. We are watcvhing it because Liam loves the movie Cars. He thinks that Dale E. Jr. is Lightning McQueen. I can't wait till the race is over. He is going to freak when a human being climbs out of the number 8 car.

Liam's Class Valentines Day Party

This morning I volunteered in Liam's class to help put on thier Valentine's Day Party. Another Mom from the class also helped. She brought in a special Valentine Story Book to read to all the children and organzied a cute craft and I provided the treat (see cookie post below). It was a really good experience for me to spend time in his classroom and get to know his classmates better. The kids all had a really good time with the craft (they made special picture frames to bring home to thier parents), delivered cards to each other and then ate the treat. The cookies were a big hit, most of the kids even ate two and they were pretty big! It was a nice morning.

Valentine Cookies

I volunteered to help organize Liam's class Valentine's Day Party. I am pretty excited about this because I don't often get to be involved in the classroom because I am working in my classroom while he is there. I was able to get the morning off tommorow to be able to do this. I am in charge of the snack so I made homemade sugar cookies cut into heart shapes that have been sandwiched with raspberry jam and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. My mom used to make these for us every Valentine's Day and I thought it was a yummy tradition worth continuing. I made three and half dozen this afternoon, there was barely enough room in the kitchen for them all!

Go Start The Bus!

For Family Home Evening tonight we attended the UNCG vs. Elon basketball game. Before hand there was an alumni social that provided dinner for everyone belonging to the alumni association...and even though Bevan is still in school he is technically also an alumnus, so we decided to take advantage. There was a pasta bar, salad, rolls and pizza. I am pretty sure we were the youngest people there by at least 15 years, but the food was pretty good. The basketball coach even showed up to make a little speech and promised us all a good game, which was a nice gesture I suppose.

Anyhow, the coach didn't dissapoint. Elon and UNCG have a fairly intense rivalry going on, so everyone was pretty fired up to begin with. It was a dramatic game with lots of foaling...the crowd even got a technical foal for throwing a cup of water at the referee, good times. In the end UNCG won 86 to 73. Liam was shaking his keys along with all the UNCG students, telling the other team to "start the bus".

Big Boy Asher

Asher had a well visit with his Dr. yesterday afternoon and we found that he has had a big growth spurt recently and is now in the 50th percentile for weight and, get this...the 90th percentile for height! How on earth did I ever manage to produce a tall child? Neither Bevan or I are very tall, Bevan is 5"8 I believe and I barely measure up to 5"3....I guess somewhere back there in the gene pool somewhere some tallness has surfaced. To be fair two of my brothers are a little on the tall side, both Ethan and Truman are about 6 foot....but I guess I am just suprised because I am such a shortish type of person (I had a roomate in university who was convinced I must have some form of dwarfism). This is a recent shot of Asher from earlier this month.

FHE and S'mores

The other week while shopping for a much needed new garbage can at Linens and Things we stumbled across a S'mores/fondue/caramel apple set that was on clearance and immediately I knew it must be mine! So the following Monday we invited our friends the Carpers (who are expecting thier first baby this summer!) over for family home evening followed by some rousing S'mores making...delicious and FUN. Liam had never done this before and especially enjoyed himself. Good Times.

ArtQuest

Liam has started an art education program this semester called "ArtQuest"...normally thier classes meet at a building downtown but our preschool has started offering some on site extra curricular programs (such as Kindermusik). Starting in January this art program was being offered until the spring so we decided to sign Liam up and he attends on Wednesday afternoons. We felt that this program would be a good fit for him because during a parent-teacher conference his teacher had noted that he really excels in class during arts and crafts. He exhibits above average fine motor skills when painting etc... and tends to express himself better verbally when involved in creative and artistic activities. So it seemed that this would be a way to help him with his verbal skills while doing something that he likes and is confident with at the same time.
So far we couldn't be happier with the program and Liam loves it. Each class involves an art history componant where the children are exposed to an artist and thier creative style. The children are then given an opportunity to try and recreate the artist's techniques themselves. After that there is usually a "story time" and afterwards a craft that centers on some componant of the story...the parents are asked to participate with the child for this last portion. The teacher also uses this as an opportunity to educate the parents about creative aspects of child development and things to try at home. The pictures are some samplings of Liam's work so far!

Semi-Healthy Play Group Snack

Today I volunteered to bring treat to our ward playgroup. I wanted to bring something yummy, but I also wanted to be able to eat it myself and not have to spend a lot of time cooking and cleaning...so I found a recipe for reduced fat Cheesecake Brownies in Kraft Food and Family magazine (which is FREE! so sign up for a subscription if you don't have one at kraftfoods.com...also a great website with a recipe search engine that lists the nutritional information for all its recipes). It uses a boxed brownie mix, and generally I stay away from boxed mixes of any variety prefering to do things from scratch (mostly to avoid trans fats etc.) but I really didn't have the energy for that today. So in a pinch I thought this was a tasty compromise and was rather good for a mere 110 cal., 3 g. fat per serving. Here's the recipe:

Cheesecake Brownies

1 pkg. (19.5 oz) brownie mix
1/2 c. applesauce
3 egg whites, separated
1/4 c. water
1 pkg. (8 oz) Neufchatel (cream) cheese, softened...is a third less fat than regular cream cheese.
1/2 c. suagr
1/4 c. flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix brownie mix, applesauce, two of the egg whites and water. Pour into 13x9 inch pan sprayed with Pam.

Mix Neufchatel cheese, sugar, flour and remaining egg white until well blended. Spoon over brownie batter. Cut through batter with knife several times to create a marble effect.

Bake 28 to 30 min. and cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into 32 pieces.

The Great Influenza Epidemic of 2007

I think we have finally surfaced from what has hands down been the most messy ordeal our family has collectively experienced (don't worry, there are no pictures for this edition!). It all started on Thursday morning with poor little Asher, fortunately for us though it was a snow day so school was cancelled anyhow so I didn't have to worry about finding a last minute sub which is nearly impossible to do. Friday though he seemed to have most of it out of his system so of course Liam was next...and then to my shock and horror I was next to fall ill Friday night (I rarely get sick, especially the kind of sick where I am out of commission) which was fairly fortunate at any rate since Bevan was home for the weekend by then and was also the only one not symptomatic. Liam had it the worst overall though I have to say, my already somewhat skinny boy is little looking a little skeletal I am afraid! Lots of chocolate milk and donuts for him I guess, no better medicine than that (just kidding!). We did some errands today that could not be avoided but otherwise took it easy and are gradually getting our energy back. The upside is though that on Saturday and Sunday while I was mostly to exhausted to move around I did find a window of reading opportunity and got a good jump start on 1776 by David McCullough which I am working on right now and is proving to be very educational. Bevan was also a good sport taking care of us all which was greatly appreciated.