Cooking

We went over to my parents' today to get a few things, and my mom suggested we get some "new" toys from the attic. We're so lucky to have a treasure trove of toys that Amy and I used to play with up there!

So we ended up bringing down the cooking stuff, which Jake was totally thrilled about.

Then Jake asked me to come cook with him. He said "because you're a girl." Luckily, Daddy stepped in and said hey, both girls and boys can cook, and went on to remind Jake of all the things that he cooks on a regular basis (pizza, pasta, eggs, etc.). Nevermind that Jake himself is a boy, he knows he's a boy, but apparently he can cook just fine.
So we cooked the play food, as well as cookies, pancakes, and cake.

Screen-Free Week

So this week is National turn off the TV week. Jake's school sent out a memo regarding this week and encouraged all families to participate. Having enough advance notice, I decided we would do this.

Jake watches TV and plays on the computer, a little more than I would like. I have seen a study showing that the amount of time spent in front of a screen does little to make an overall difference in the kid's life -- it is the activities during the non-screen time that makes all the difference. Nevertheless, I would like to see Jake becoming more creative in how he decides to spend his non-screen time, with less whining "can I waaaaaatch?"

So Sunday night I told Jake what was up. After some initial confusion and lots of "why?" he was onboard. Monday was very impressive, he did not ask to watch or use the computer at all. Instead, he had school, then we went to swimming, then to the library where we picked up 8 books instead of our usual 4. (Interestingly, after I got home I realized that 4 of the books were about dragons, 2 were about superheros, and 2 were about firefighters. Not planned that way!) When we got home we read the library books and Jake just puttered around, playing with things.

Tuesday morning I came down to find Jake playing a game on Mike's iPhone. Mike thought it was just "watching movies" and not screen time in general. FAIL. That will not happen the rest of this week.

Tuesday after school Jake and I went grocery shopping and had a snack in the seating area while we were there. When we returned home, I got "can I watch?" and had to remind him about the no-TV week. His response? "Just 5 minutes?" Ha ha. After more reading of library books, we headed over to Gramma's house, where Gramma, Aunt Amy, and I were able to keep him busy and happy playing. Then home, a bath with Daddy, and dinner. So far, so good!

Will let you know how the rest of this week goes...

Weekend Fun

Aunt Amy and Jake both share a love for Babar books. We put Jake to bed at my Mom's house so the adults could enjoy grown-up time late into the evening, then took him home with us.
The next morning, happily playing with Daddy.

Pregnant!

Yes, one of us is pregnant with a baby! We are all so happy, especially after having an ultrasound which confirmed that the baby looks perfect and healthy. Baby is expected late September. Yay!

(I love the 5 second delay feature on my camera, but it's not as easy to do as you would think! Especially at the end of the day with all of us (happy but) tired.)

Easter, Part 2

Easter day. Jake enters my parent's house and goes straight for his Easter basket.
Cool new underwear (yes, he actually was excited).
Just because I love this man.
The table all set up, looking pretty.
And the food was so incredibly yummy!
Jake and Shelley reading the Tale of Peter Rabbit.
What Jake made for Easter gifts.
Time to hunt for eggs!
Happy.
The adults chatting and watching while Jake dashed around looking... you can see him exiting the picture on the right.
I found one!! (He said that each time he found an egg.)
A basket full.
He loved opening the eggs. Most had candy inside, but a few had little animals, which he loved more than the candy.
I was holding the camera the whole time, but made sure a picture of me made it in!

Social technology information exchange.
Joe with the Easter basket (after we hid the eggs a second time and Jake was hunting them again).
Happy Easter!

Easter, Part 1

This was Jake's first year dyeing eggs. Last year there were hard-boiled eggs with faces drawn on them, but this year my mom encouraged me to color them, and I'm glad she did.

So we have spinach, blueberries, tumeric, and beets cooking in water and vinegar for 30 minutes.
Next we let the dyes cool and then put in the already cooked, already cooled hard-boiled eggs. They were left in the dye overnight in the refrigerator.
This is how they turned out... keep in mind these were brown eggs so they might have been more vibrant with white eggs but we like to eat our brown eggs from our local farmer. The colors are so interesting! The off-white ones are from the spinach. The blue and green ones are all from the blueberries. One from the beets turned dark red and the other two turned pink. The yellows were cool.
Pretty!