happy birthday, little adam!

you are the first smith boy to have a second birthday and NOT have a younger brother in the house. your big brothers adore you, look after you, include you, and can't remember life in the house without you. even if sawyer wasn't so sure about you at first:

we've had several days in the 90s. i'm LOVING it.

the first really hot day was thursday, and i basked in the warmth. by the second day (friday), i finally let kenny put the air conditioning on (i think it was the kids yelling over the monitor when i put them down for bed on thursday saying, "mommy, i'm sweaty!" a thousand times that did it for me).

we broke out a new wading pool (a frog!), kenny bought a new slip and slide, and by last night, the slip and slide fed into the wading pool. it's rowan and sawyer's new favorite thing to do.

our garden is popping up all over the place. all the beans popped, so far we have an 85% percent corn sproutings, and the other plants haven't burned up in all the heat. when the plants get a little bigger, i'll get a pictrure posted. now it just looks like black mounds and hay (similar to last year's garden, minus the chickens and the groundhog troubles, plus a big fence that kenny and my brothers put up last week).

and today, kenny purchased this book. are we crazy yet? :)

i've been making chocolate chip cookies forEVER, but have just recently come across the best recipe i've ever used. and yes, it's even better than that tollhouse recipe. i've made it several times in the past few weeks: for friends who just had a baby, for friends who just moved, for my family visiting last week, and now today because it rained and we needed something to shake off the crabby-cranks that rainy days like to bring with them.

so i'm sharing my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. the best part about this recipe is that you don't have to remember to set out sticks of butter on the counter to soften a few hours before you start since you use melted butter, not softened butter.


CrispyChewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

this recipe is very easy to double, and i often do. because semi-sweets come in 12 oz bags and who wants to save or waste a half bag of chocolate chips because i don't know about you, but those things do not have a long shelf life once opened in our house. if you know what i mean.

1 stick butter, melted
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease cookie sheet.
Beat melted butter and egg, add sugars and mix well. Stir in vanilla, soda, and salt. Mix with flour and chips.
Place 1" balls of dough at least 2" apart on greased cookies sheets. Bake 10 min (or 14 or 13...depending on the mood of your oven). Cool cookies on cookie sheet before removing them to cooling rack.

yesterday afternoon, as i was beginning our dinner prep (usually around 3:45....i know that sounds early to some of you, but i tend to take just over an hour to make most of our dinners, and we eat between 5:00 and 5:30. otherwise i have three crabby boys to contend with as well as make dinner...so i choose early dinners with happier kids underfoot), rowan walks into the kitchen holding my ring holder that was just moments before securely sitting on the back part of my dresser. this ring holder was holding a ring i wear on my right hand, and my wedding set and engagement ring (as i was gardening earlier and i don't garden with my rings on), however one of my wedding bands was missing.

kenny and i wear antique rings as we're partial to the antique style. so we wear white gold, turn-of-the-century rings. my wedding set didn't come with my engagement ring, it went with another ring altogether, but we chose it because it also matched my ring. the engagement ring is worn between the wedding bands. and one of them slipped off when rowan decided to play with my ring holder as a "treasure."

first of all, how do you think you would have reacted to this? admittedly, i was angry. i made rowan retrace his steps, i made him sit on his bed while i retraced his steps, i told him never (EVER!) to touch the things on my dresser (this is a rule in our house and he knows it) and the ring didn't turn up. after about a half hour of searching, he knew it was serious. so then we had the conversation: about how this ring was very important and symbolic to me, but he and his brothers are more precious to me than anything, even this ring, and i forgave him since he apologized a few times while we searched for the ring. all was good again (to him), but my heart was sick at the thought of my wedding band had gone missing.

several hours later, after getting adam out of the bath and getting his pajamas on, i noticed he was holding something in his hands. i'm sure you know what it was: i looked at my left ring finger to see my engagment ring and the other half of my wedding ring, so he was definitely holding the missing part.

we heaved a BIG OLD sigh of relief, with much rejoicing, especially between rowan and i. probably because forgiveness (and in his case) forgetting had already happened.

so what's my lesson here?
a/ forgive your child for their mistakes and you'll get your way (you'll get the ring back)?
b/ huff and puff angrily for a while to get your kids to apologize?
c/ don't EVER take your wedding bands off, even when gardening/cooking with raw meat/bread/dough, etc?
d/ get those three rings sodered together?

anyone care to add any more?

adam walking the balance see-saw thing in the obstacle course kenny made the kids. we couldn't keep him off!


uncle andrew (my younger brother) and his daughter ramona, and sawyer:


uncle dan (my youngest brother) and sawyer:


sawyer, ramona, and adam in one of the many forts they built (with aunt laura's help!):


grammy and grampy, the morning they left:


me, planting jalepenos and pimentos plants with sawyer:


grampy holding astrid:

we are very possessive of our sunny days here in western pennsylvania. we squeeze in as much outside time as we possibly can, until that last bit of daylight slips under the horizon. and it's been sunny for 8 or 9 days straight!

we were also having too much fun with two of my brothers and their families AND my grandparents in town (we missed you GR guys!). so i collapsed into bed each night and my laptop was unopened all week long. we were far too busy, cooking, birdwatching, tree identifying, tree planting, vegetable garden planting, tractor riding, fort building, bike riding, eating, museum going, icecream eating, hockey watching, beer drinking, more eating, wading pool swimming (the littles, not the adults), plant buying, pie baking, more hockey watching, more bird watching, obstacle course building (kenny) and running (the littles), treasure hunting (the littles), cookie-baking, more eating and we found time to sleep in between.

pictures to follow. some day. i'm still recuperating!

kenny got in a fight with a honeybee yesterday. here he is with his eye open:

 

i think the honeybee won.

would somebody please tell the atmosphere that it's the END of MAY? these cooler temperatures and rainy days are supposed to come in April, and May is the month of flowers. i guess the current atmosphere wasn't taught the "april showers bring may flowers" rhyme? geez.

we've got two more days of rain and highs in the 50s to go until we can experience warm sunshine again (starting friday!). it's been like this for about two weeks now.

we already put away our winter wardrobe, so i've been washing and rewashing sweatpants and sweatshirts and socks for this family of five.

i'm so ready for summer!!!!

this past week has been a bit of a challenge in the eating department. i struggle with getting food (any food!) into their mouths on most days, or getting quality food, even if it's not much of it on others. it's a new challenge every morning. but it's a learning process, and all of our food choices won't change overnight, i'm well-aware of that fact!

some things that we did this past week:

• after my mom read this waldorf eating entry last week, she showed up at the door with bags of veggies and a bottle of Trader Joes Goddess salad dressing, and that has been the boys' snack of choice for the past week: raw carrots, broccoli, and grape tomatoes in the salad dressing.
• i made homemade granola with dried cherries. mmm. but it wasn't my favorite recipe. if you have a favorite recipe for granola, please share. i've yet to be blown away by my homemade granola. and i do like granola! fortunately the boys loved it. and ate it with milk and over yogurt, or by the handful.
• i made millet bars, from the waldorf kindergarten snack book and it was a total flop. i can't even bring myself to eat it, even smothered with honey! blech. i'm "x-ing" that one out in the book.

here's another recipe i can share with you that was a total hit. whenever we are out at a restaurant, the only thing the boys ask to eat is "macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers with dipping sauce." they're palates have yet to move beyond that. but it's quick and easy and fills their bellies. good thing we rarely eat out any more. so, i brought their favorite restaurant food home, and found a great recipe for it that doesn't include frying in oil! the best part is that all our plates were clean - even Adam's (which is rare!)

Seasame Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
(I served it with sticky rice and steamed endameme)

1/3 cup stone ground mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 T lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 black pepper
1 lb skinned, boned chicken breast cut into strips
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix together mustard and honey and set aside.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Combine sesame seeds and breadcrumbs in a shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg whites, and dredge in sesame seed mixture.
Arrange chicken in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray (or lightly coated with veg. oil). Bake 350 for 15 minutes.

*I also added some grated parmesan cheese and garlic powder to the sesame seed/bread crumb mixture.

Kenny: "Make it again!"
Liz: mmmmm.
Rowan: Empty plate with no bribing needed!
Sawyer: "Can I have some more please?"
Adam: He ate everything but the endameme. Because it was green.

despite it being a frigid 50 this past week, we've had little outside work to do as nothing is blooming or growing. not even the weeds. fortunately so, as we've had our hands tied up with the wildlife.

this is what a perfectly good, never-before-used bee frame looks like. this is what you put into a hive box when you start a bee colony:

i missed yesterday's t-ball festivities, since i was at home waiting for the game commission to drop off a big old bear trap, but more on that later...

sawyer's three-year-old t-ball team meets indoors. thank goodness for that as it was cold and rainy again yesterday. i sent kenny and dad away with camera in hand and told him not return without a good set of pictures. i look at these pictures and want to just squeeze the little guy. how cute is he????
the three-year-olds did a lot of obstacle courses and running around. and of course sitting in circles and waiting. he learned to step with his left foot and throw with the right arm. they didn't do any catching or even hitting the ball off the tee. and he still came home saying how much fun he had.


i'm excited to join him next week. so far it's been too cold to hang out outside and "practice" with them. but i'm sure the weather is bound to break eventually and we'll be outside throwing grounders, pop-ups and hitting off our target-bought t soon enough. and...in a week, two of the boys' uncles and aunts and cousins will be in town for a week. there's bound to be lots of "uncle daniel! uncle andrew! aunt laura! aunt kara! please can you play tball with me?" 

i might even get their great grampy to throw a ball or two with them. :)

when rowan was born, kenny and i sat up at night staring at our sleeping newborn dreaming about all the adventures we'd get to take with him. we dreamed of his baptism, his first steps, meeting his future sibling, "going off to kindergarten," and all the fun sports, or arts teams he'd be a part of (his parents are of the artsy persuasion but we do know the importance and fun of being involved in sports. i was a cheerleader, afterall, so i know all about team S-P-I-R-I-T!).

tonight, rowan had his first t-ball practice. (sawyer's first practice is this saturday - stay tuned!) i thought for sure it would be canceled because it was cold and rainy. and his team is comprised of 4-5-year olds. we showed up, the rained slowed to a steady spit, and the wind kicked up a bit. the kids were all split up into teams (rowan is a marlin!) and practice started. the rain got heavier and steadier and the wind got stronger, so sawyer, adam, my mom and i headed to the car only after 10 minutes. kenny stayed with rowan who was oblivious to the rain and the cold: