The Hamer Adventures

December Events

2012-01-03T21:01:00.009-06:00

I'm sure you'll all agree that December was a busy month! Well it flew past here and now it's January already. Happy New Year everyone!

We had a lovely month - my awesome cousin Catriona and equally awesome sister Ali both visited and Ali stayed for Christmas.

Gingerbread houses were constructed by Ali and Fiona...

Christmas photos in cute matching dresses were attempted, with partial success, but they never made it into christmas cards...

We performed a dramatic enactment of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the annual Hamer talent show. There were many other spectacular talents on show this year too... here's 10 minutes of the most impressive talent showing you've seen.

Santa Claus stopped by and brought Fiona the backpack she wrote to him to ask for. She had what she described as "the best day ever" opening presents from all the kind and generous friends and family we have. Adele had fun too but was a little overwhelmed.

Adele had a big assessment at Shriners, which is an amazing hospital for children specializing in (among other things) orthopaedics. We are lucky enough to live very close by and they provide services for free to people who do not have insurance or whose insurance doesn't cover the treatment they need. She's been diagnosed as having mild cerebral palsy which almost exclusively affects her left leg, and we're going to be doing physical therapy there two times a week in addition to the PT we do once every 2 weeks through the Minneapolis schools early intervention program. There's no reason she won't learn to walk, it'll just take a while, but all the extra PT will be great.

We headed to the U.P. for New Year and stayed in a log cabin in the woods with some friends.

Minneapolis has been eerily warm and almost totally snow-less so far this winter, so Fiona was very excited to stomp around in the snow up there.

Adele doesn't like to wear her mittens so didn't last long but enjoyed rolling around in it and observing for a while.

We had a great time hanging out with friends, and Fiona and Adele loved making two new friends of their own.

Today (and I did initially plan to just write about this before feeling a need to summarize the whole month) Fiona requested that I paint her fingernails (for the first time). She noticed a girl in her class at daycare had hers painted and asked me to do hers for her. She asked for red, which, luckily, is one of the two nail polish colours I own (the other being clear) so I painted them for her. I'm guessing that this is only the beginning of many requests for things she'd like because her friends have them...

She was so happy she kept bouncing around and it was very hard to get a picture in focus!

So that's the excitement for today. And who knows what tomorrow might bring!

Adele is 2!

2011-12-05T22:03:00.016-06:00

On Saturday Adele became a 2 year old. Here's what was happening two years ago, and here's the post I did on her first birthday, which really feels like it was just last month.

Ben's family came over on Saturday and crammed into our tiny kitchen for lunch to celebrate with us.

Adele had been singing "happy birthday" to herself all morning and was really happy.

After the obligatory savory course came the part everyone had been waiting for... (chocolate chip banana) cupcakes!

After cupcakes were licked, smeared, smooshed and eventually consumed, it was time for presents!

I was surprised at her first birthday that she got SO excited about opening presents, and nothing has changed. After she opens something she gives it her whole attention and only wants to play with that thing. Like bottles for her poor, perpetually naked baby...

A book about Elmo...

this cell phone from Grandma and Grandpa...

She also got an adorable tea set from the Tennants but I didn't get a picture of her excitement because the box was in front of her as she was squealing with joy.

It's amazing how much changes so fast. So now we have to have the "look how she's grown" progression...

Birth (well, 2 days old) 3lbs 2.8oz

1 year old. I can't remember how much she weighed... around 14lbs? Clearly my brain is running on fumes.

2 years old. Has a check up on Thursday so we'll find out how much she weighs then. Around 20lbs probably... more depending on how much snow she eats beforehand...

And talking of snow, it snowed. We all went out to play on sunday and Fiona climed up the snow mountain and made snow angels while Adele just plowed straight through with her walker.

Adele, over the last year you have worked so hard and learned so much. You are the same sweet girl as always but now you are holding your own with your sister and not letting her push you around. You love so many people (and a few animals) and let them know with the smiles and hugs and slimy kisses you share so easily. You're smart and funny and we are so proud of you. Looking forward to seeing what the next year brings, tiny love!

Working on Walking

2011-11-17T22:48:00.004-06:00

Adele is doing well with her new shoes... she likes to wear them and is more stable with them on. They are kind of clunky with the orthotic and the larger shoe on top so she has trouble with things like climbing the steps for the slide, but on the whole she's doing a great job.

She is tired of being carried around and really wants to be able to get around on her own, and today when the physical therapist came over she brought this!

We have a push-along toy that Adele likes to walk with but it causes her to hunch over forwards and she needs to be standing more upright. The walker goes behind her which encourages her to stand up straight. As soon as she got going she really loved it and was laughing and so proud of herself for getting around on her own.

In the afternoon we went to the tennis court to give her a large space to practice in. It was really cold so we didn't stay long but she walked around a bit. Here's a video of her practicing...

And here's one of her watching Fiona (speed demon).

I'm glad she seems to like it and I'm sure she'll be running around in no time :-)

Ben's Birthday

2011-11-08T21:56:00.008-06:00

Last Saturday Ben had another birthday... and that meant a whole weekend of partying!

On Friday evening we got together with his family to have a joint celebration for him and his Dad. His Mum made an egg, black bean, salsa, cheese concoction which was delicious and served it with tortillas, avocado and crispy roasted potatoes. Yummy!

For dessert there were birthday cupcakes and apple cake. Together the birthday boys managed to blow out all 10 of their candles.

Fiona was very excited to lick the frosting off the top of her cupcake!

Saturday was Ben's actual birthday and what he wanted to do more than anything was go to the Zoo to meet Diego. Well, we had to oblige him, and Fiona was quite excited to do that too, so it worked out. At least, until Fiona actually saw Diego and then got kind of freaked out because he was too big and couldn't talk. I felt really sad for her and guilty for not explaining well enough in advance what Diego would be like in real life (i.e. a dude in a giant Diego suit). Oh well.

(Here's Diego, from a safe distance)

We had lunch at Fuddruckers which cheered Fiona up because she got to eat only chocolate milk and french fries and that's her favorite!

In the afternoon we had a dance party. Even Brodie joined in, which the girls love.

I gave Ben Robo Rally for his birthday and our friends Tanya and Boyd came over in the evening to eat pizza and play it with us. I failed to take any pictures but we had a really nice time.

Happy Birthday super love!!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 29, 30 & 31

2011-10-31T22:07:00.008-05:00

I know, I fell behind. Here's a catch up!

Saturday 29th

Breakfast: Toast with nutella, mauled by a bear.

Lunch: We went to the zoo with friends in the morning and had some lunch there. We all shared some fries, Ben and I shared a cheese quesadilla and the girls shared a hot dog.

Snack: I invented a new BEST SNACK EVER. Pretzels dipped in nutella.

Dinner: Tonight was Ben's cousin Sarah's wedding. I failed to take pictures of any of the food or, even more sadly, the cake. So I'm just going to write a list...

Vegetable spring rolls with spicy dipping sauce

Pita chips with hummus and spinach dip

Falafel

Veggie sandwich

Potato taquito

Chocolate caaaaaake!!

The girls had so much fun dancing the night away and we had an exciting bus ride back with a variety of spirited young people dressed in sports team shirts and halloween costumes. My sister Ali will also be happy to hear that she is no longer the only person I know to lose a shoe on a bus.

After we got home we put the tired little girls to bed and hung out with Ian for a while. By then it was Sunday morning and it seemed appropriate to have some snacks from the pizza place round the corner...

Cheesy garlic bread, mozzarella sticks and cheese fries. Enough cheese? Just and no more.

Sunday 30th

Breakfast: Adele was up at 5am so I drowned my sorrows in a nutella sandwich. Which she then ate most of, and Fiona ate the rest of. I got the crusts.

We stopped by to see our friends Tim and Shannon and their little cutie Owen on our way back home and they kindly provided us with food to keep us going for a while.

We stopped at Qdoba for dinner which we rarely eat at and were pleasantly surprised by! They have an option to choose 2 "little" things which was perfect... I got gumbo for myself and a cheese quesadilla to share with the girls, and Ben and I shared some queso dip and chips. It was very delicious.

Later there were some peanut M&Ms for car snack. It was too dark to photograph in the car so this lovely picture was taken from here.

Now... yesterday!

Breakfast...

Back home. Back to normal. Latte, toast. Toast with... peanut butter and nutella.

Today's mug just came in the mail! It was a gift from MPR for giving signing up to be sustaining members. We were sustaining members before but then our credit card number changed and we forgot to update it so then they were not getting their money any more, so when they did the latest membership drive (where they offer thank you gifts when people sign up) I was excited that one of them was an awesome giant red mug and we signed up again.

Lunch. Ben took the day off to recover from the weekend so we went to his favorite chinese buffet. So healthy...

For dinner we went to Cathy and Erik's house so Fiona could go trick or treating with her cousins. We had baked potatoes and I brought vegetarian chili.

Of course, being halloween I had to eat some chocolate! YUM Almond Joy!!

So there you have it. A whole month. Here are some things I'm sure you picked up on:

1. I eat a lot of toast

2. I really am lazy, I wasn't kidding

3. There is no shortage of cheese in my diet.

Also, after putting the names of all the cheeto competition entries in a hat and picking one at random I can declare with fanfare that the winner is.... MATT!! Your exciting prize will make its way to you hopefully some time this year :-)

Also, because I know you're dying to know whether crunchy or puffy wins, here are the results...

Crunchy: 2 votes

Puffy: 5 votes

Both: 2 votes

Cheese and onion crisps: 1 vote.

Hawkins cheezies: 2 votes. Canadians...

So yay for puffy! They are really the obvious choice ;-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 28

2011-10-28T22:53:00.007-05:00

Breakfast... tea and leftover pizza! Yay vacation!

Adele and Olivia shared some nutella and toast and chili cheese fritos. Breakfast of champions!

We headed down to Navy Pier and walked around a little, the had some lunch...

Lunch: Vegetable panini and waffle fries.

After lunch we went to the Children's Museum. It was so fun, the girls had a really great time.

Fiona loved the tree house area where she could fish...

And Canoe!

I have some cute pictures but it's taking Foooooorrrrrrrrrreeeeeevvvvvveeeeeeerrrrrr to upload them so I'll post them on flickr some time when we're back. Hopefully some time in the next year.

On the bus on the way back I spotted this fantastic advert. I'll leave the interpretation up to you, but I think it's very interesting ;-)

This evening we went to the rehearsal/family get together dinner before the wedding tomorrow. It was so nice to see and meet some of Ben's cousins and family (and family to be) and the dinner was really delicious! Fiona was surprised and delighted to come out of the bathroom and find... Grandma!!

Full disclosure: I had more salad and beans and potatoes than shown, but I had to borrow Ben's phone for the pictures (it has a flash) and kept forgetting to take the picture before I started eating...

Salad!

Mashed potatoes, red beans and rice...

Corn muffin. I love these so much.

Bread roll (shared with Fiona)

Pecan pie. Ohhhhhhh YUM.

It was super delicious. We went to this restaurant. Next time you're in Chicago you should go!

We're having a great trip and are so happy to be able to spend time with people we love who we don't see nearly often enough :-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 28

2011-10-27T23:39:00.005-05:00

Breakfast. I hauled myself out of bed around 5am to finish up packing for our trip. There was no time for toast, no time for coffee, just go, go, go. I had a granola bar in the car because I was hungry!

We dropped off the dog and then we were on the road. We stopped at McDonalds for some breakfast and coffee as the sun was coming up and I had an egg mcmuffin (no bacon). At first he tried to give me no egg, but luckily after some back and forth the one that came out was baconless. It was still pretty gross though. The hash brown was good but Adele ate that. The mocha machine was not working and I ended up with regular coffee which I doctored with 4 sugars and 4 creamers and was still not good. SEE? THIS is why I eat the same thing every morning! I can't handle a disappointing breakfast!

Sunrise...

For lunch we spotted an Indian Buffet when we stopped for gas just past Madison. Fiona had just woken up and it was the perfect time to stop. And it was delicious. Mmmmm vegetable korma.

Car snack! Chili cheese fritos.

We made it through the tolls and traffic and under the scary old bridges...

And arrived at the apartment we're staying in, which is lovely, and our friends Ian, Olivia and Carole arrived a little after that, then Ben's friend Matt met up with us for dinner... turns out there's a great place round the corner for Chicago Pizza!! It was very dark inside...

Dinner: Chicago pizza!

I know, you can't see it. This is what it looked like (from wikipedia). I'm actually not sure exactly which kind of Chicago pizza it was, but it was delicious.

Ohhhh yum. Roll on breakfast!!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 27

2011-10-26T23:49:00.003-05:00

This is going to be the fastest blog post ever because I have to be up tomorrow at 5am and I'm not quite finished packing yet...

Breakfast: Toast and Tea. I did manage to buy more coffee this evening though!

Today's mug is another from a trip to Scotland.

Lunch: More beans on toast!! One can = 2 meals. YUM. I ran out of hot dogs, so this one is just toast, beans and cheese.

I finished off part of Fiona's dinner (hummus and bread) as a pre-dinner snack...

Dinner: Leftover quiche, sweet potato bites, steamed broccoli (I added some teriyaki sauce to the broccoli after I took the picture).

This weekend we're going to Chicago and I'm sure there will be some exciting and delicious foods to share!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 25

2011-10-25T21:06:00.008-05:00

Breakfast. Tragedy! I ran out of coffee. And I tried to buy some more after dropping the girls off but Kowalski's only had Folgers and some other weird brand. What the heck? I had already warmed up the milk before I realized so I had to have hot chocolate instead. Disappointing.

Today's mug is from Colgate University where Ben's cousin Amanda studied. He thinks she gave it to him as a gift when she visited Ann Arbor.

Lunch: My friend Sang spotted British baked beans at a store and instead of just letting me know he'd seen them actually bought some for me as a surprise. Which makes him pretty much the awesomest friend ever. Thanks Sang :-) Most recent recipient of that honored title was Emily, who brought me Shortbread from her trip to Scotland, so if you'd like to win a place in my heart, you know what to do...

I had some beans for lunch today on toast with chopped up veggie hot dogs and cheese on top. Delicious.

British beans are different from American beans, I think mainly because they're not flavored with maple or molasses. They have a more tomato-ey flavour. I like American beans, but I could never eat them on toast.

Here's some interesting beans trivia, shamelessly copied from Wikipedia.

1886: Heinz Baked Beans are first launched at the Fortnum & Mason department store in London, United Kingdom, although they were manufactured in Canada.

1928: Heinz Baked Beans start being made in the United Kingdom.

1941-1948: The Ministry of Food classifies Heinz Baked Beans as an "essential food", as part of its wartime rationing system.

Essential Food. No kidding!!

After that I had some tea and a piece of the aforementioned Shortbread...

For dinner this evening I tried something new... acorn squash baked with butter and brown sugar (and maple syrup). I used this recipe though I used 1 tsp of sugar and one 1sp of maple syrup for each half instead of 1 tbsp of each. It was definitely enough.

I made onion, spinach, tomato, three cheese quiche to eat with it, and while I was working on these things I got dinner ready for the girls... short order cook? Yes. That's me.

Adele entertained herself very nicely while I was cooking. Before I got the video going she was saying "lie down, go to sleep baby". In the video she's just saying "lie down".

Ben got home late and by then it was bath and bedtime, so I warmed the food up again later. It was good, but I was super hungry ;-)

That's all for today. I promise, tomorrow I'll announce the grand prize winner of the cheetoes competition!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 24

2011-10-24T20:57:00.006-05:00

Breakfast: Latte and burned toast. Gah.

Today's mug is one that Fiona made for Ben for father's day last year. We went to paint your plate in Edina (which - crazily - doesn't have a website!) and Grandma came with us to hold Adele so I could help Fiona. Fiona had a lot of fun and Ben liked his gift.

This morning we had a halloween party with a bunch of friends. Fiona dressed up as a cat this year. We got ears and a tail (and bowtie, for some reason, which came with the cat accessories) and I attached a furry cat tummy to a black shirt, which she wore with black leggings. She is over the moon with her cat costume and was very sad to have to take it off this evening after wearing it all day.

Adele borrowed a puppy costume from her sweet friend Annabelle but got kind of warm and uncomfortable, so wanted to take it off again before I got a picture. I'll take one another time, it's very cute.

Fiona and Adele with some of their friends...

The party was potluck and there were some delicious snacks, and a very strange beverage that was a combination of tasty and fruity and gross and slimy. We brought cheesy potatoes and some strawberries. Adele ate most of the snacks I was trying to share with her though I managed to eat half a cookie and some potatoes. I forgot to take a picture, so here's a picture of the half cookie and potatoes I ate once I got home...

For dinner we had more potatoes (they are too good) and I made black bean burgers. I use this recipe, and it is yummy, thought I always add cumin, coriander and a little thyme to the burgers and skip the seasoned ketchup. Tonight I had mine with guacamole, spinach, tomato, cheddar cheese and bacon mayonnaise*

*Doesn't contain actual bacon. Does contain deliciousness.

Ben thought it was good.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 23

2011-10-23T21:25:00.007-05:00

Breakfast: Fiona asked for pancakes so that's what we had today! I made them with whole wheat flour and they were yummy!

Today's mug is from the trip to Scotland we took in 2007. I won round trip flights for two to Dublin in a competition at the Fineline on St. Patrick's Day (just by putting my name in the jar, I didn't have to embarrass myself in any way!) so we flew to Dublin for a few days then to Scotland for the family holiday, then back to Dublin for a day before heading home.

Mum and I being statues...

Edinburgh

We stayed in a beautiful house way out in the country. This is the hill behind the house. You had to climb it to get cell phone reception... a bunch of us climbed it one day, which involved trudging though a ~~stream~~ raging river, climbing over some fences and staring down a number of sheep.

These little girls are not little any more. And that makes us OLD.

Catriona has never been more impressed with an activity...

We made it!! Who got text messages?

We stayed in a B&B near Dublin for a night on our way back but I don't remember where it was... pretty though!

It was a fun trip!

Lunch: We hadn't been to the mall for a while so we went there this morning. We had pita pit for lunch... YUM!! I had falafel and hummus and veggies and we all shared some fries.

Fiona chose the Blues Clues ride to go on.

Adele doesn;t like to go on the rides, but does like to watch her sister!

This afternoon we walked (and Fiona tricycled) over to the park for a while. She's getting really fast and is pretty good at steering now. It took a lot of practice - I think she got my coordination genes!

Adele went on a big girl swing for the first time and LOVED it. I have a cute video but it's upside down and it's going to take some time to right-side-up it, so I'll have to post that another day.

Dinner... leftover soup and bread and some frozen taquitos (well, they weren't frozen after I cooked them).

This evening I put my mediocre sewing skills to the test and worked on Fiona's halloween costume. She has a party tomorrow and I'll reveal the finished product tomorrow. Prepare to be underwhelmed with the effort on my part ;-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 22

2011-10-22T21:53:00.005-05:00

Breakfast. I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy head and sniffy nose. Thanks Fiona. So in addition to toast I had chamomile tea this morning. I'm telling myself it helped.

Today's mug is Ben's again. I got this for him when I was pregnant with Fiona and hid it until I went into labour. I packed it with my hospital stuff and gave it to Ben after she was born.

Lunch: I love broccoli cheddar soup but it turns out it's usually made with chicken broth (WHY?! It's made of vegetables!) so I had to make my own. It was meant to go in the blender but Adele was napping so I just bashed it up with the potato masher. That actually worked pretty well!

Broccoli Cheddar soup and bread.

This evening we dropped the girls at Grandma and Grandpa's, and the Tennants did the same and we all went out together to see a movie and have dinner. I know! 2 movies in one week! I could get used to this!

We saw 50/50 and it was really good. I was expecting something gross and goofy but it was more serious than that, though still funny. I'd definitely recommend it.

After that we had mexican food. Ohhhhh so good!

Chips and salsa.

Mushroom quesadilla, beans and rice.

Twoo wuv.

Thanks for going on a double date with us, C&E!!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 21

2011-10-21T21:36:00.005-05:00

Breakfast...

Latte and cake! I know, how exciting?!

Today's mug is another one from Ben's cruise with Laurie.

Unfortunately it was one of those frantic trying to get everyone dressed and out the door in time kinds of mornings and I wasn't able to drink much of my coffee and it got kind of cold. Which was good I guess in that by the time Fiona pulled it down off the counter all over herself and the floor, it was no longer burning hot, but lukewarm instead. Apparently she wanted to look at the map, and to her credit she does really like maps and there was clearly a map on the mug. I think it may resume it's place in the back of the cupboard again after today.

When I was explaining to her daycare teacher why we here half an hour late his response was... "Fiona drinks coffee?". I laughed at that for a good 15 minutes after I left.

After I got home I was hungry so I had my toast then.

Lunch: Leftover not-lasagne from yesterday. Some bread.

Dinner: We went to our friend Adrien's birthday party this evening and shared some fries and a cheese quesadilla. This picture doesn't show much of anything, it was really dark!

The party was at a bowling alley so after we hung out with the birthday girl for a while we went and did some bowling...

Ben bowling with Fiona...

And Adele...

And alone...

And me...

Check out that form!! How is it possible I am not a professional bowler? I just don't know...

Ben's feeling peckish so I might have to add another snack later this evening. I'm sure that whatever it is, it'll be super healthy and nutritious to make up for the fries earlier...

Oh, no, hold on. In the time it took me to write this he cooked some pizza. Super healthy, just like I predicted.

Yum. Eating pizza while blogging about eating pizza. Good times.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 20

2011-10-20T21:32:00.006-05:00

I know, yesterday is also named day 20. I published it after midnight so when I checked the date it was already the next day. And my brain works more slowly after midnight so I didn't notice.

Breakfast. Toast and Latte.

Today's mug is from the to trip to Washington DC Ben and I took the summer we met.

Obviously from this picture you can't tell where we are so you will have to just trust me. This is the best photo of us from the trip, which is pretty sad, and that handsome fellow in the back is our friend Peter. He lives in Tennessee with his lovely wife and we miss them!

Lunch-ish. We went to the Como Zoo with friends and had a picnic. I had an apple and a delicious pumpkin bar made by the charming and talented Vicki.

Fiona was taking some photos later and I think managed to delete the one of the apple. But you know what an apple looks like at least.

Later at the zoo Fiona remembered I said she could have some ice cream so we had coffee (me) and ice cream (the girls) with our second wave of zoo friends.

I meant to eat some more lunch once we got home, but then I was busy cleaning and cooking while the girls both miraculously napped, so I forgot.

This evening we had friends over for dinner - I was going to make lasagne but I only had fusilli and I didn't have any onions so in the bolognese I used a lot of garlic, some kidney beans and a splash of red wine instead. I layered that with bechamel sauce and pasta, then topped it with cheese. Tanya and Boyd brought yummy salad and Emily made a delicious pan fried cauliflower with golden raisins and pine nuts.

For dessert Mandy and Aaron brought apple cake. Mmmm good. I may or may not have a slice hidden away for tomorrow.

It was a fun night hanging out with good friends while eating delicious food. I am looking forward to doing it again soon! Consider yourselves all officially invited :-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 20

2011-10-19T23:25:00.007-05:00

Breakfast! Toast!! How exciting! And Latte!!

Today's mug was brought from Aberdeen. It is cute and has my name on it. I try not to use it too much because it already has a couple of chips out of it and I would be sad if it broke. So today was a special day :-)

Lunch... I happened to pass by the Co-op on my may home from work and couldn't resist the lure of fresh, delicious soup. They usually have at least 2 vegetarian options and one of them today was.... Borscht!! I've never had it so I gave it a try. It was pretty much like vegetable soup but slightly tangy. It was good.

I was also unable to resist the muffins today, but I chose a bran one to be healthy and only ate half.

But I did eat the other half a few hours later. So imagine the same picture a little later.

After I picked up the girlies we headed over to Shriners to have Adele's orthotics fitted! I'm so excited for her to have these finally!

She's interested in them. She doesn't like for me to take them off. She wears them half an hour on, half an hour off all day, moving up to more time on progressively. After a week or so she should have them on all the time.

She wears regular shoes over them because they are slippy and thin so could be damaged walking around on them.

Here's a video of her walking on them. In the past her left foot was twisted off to the side and she put her weight on the inside of her foot and ankle, but the shoe helps to straighten it out and point it forward. I was warned that there would be a big adjustment but so far she is doing great!

After they were fitted we hung out and played on their playground for a while. Fiona played "baby sloth needs to be rescued" and Adele played "stand there and look adorable".

Dinner was teriyaki veggie stir fry with noodles. It was yummy though a little overcooked.

This evening I had a lovely time going to see Footloose (yes, really) with one of my favorite friends. The movie was ok... the dancing was really great but the story was a bit cheesy. I kind of expected that though. It was fun :-)

Man, I wish I had that half muffin still... I'd like to eat it now.

I'll announce the winner of the big cheeto competition in the next few days. If you haven't cast your vote yet, better get on that! Also, for you British readers - cheetoes are like wotsits but fatter. Crunchy cheetoes are like 100 year old rock hard wotsits that got all messed up looking. Now, which do you prefer?! ;-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 18

2011-10-18T21:49:00.008-05:00

Breakfast... shocker! Toast! Latte!

Today's mug is Ben's from a cruise he went on with his sister Laurie...

Jealous.

After I dropped the girls off at daycare I stopped at the store. I managed to resist all of these though the effort caused me some serious pain.

Lunch: Mini baguette with brie and tomatoes.

In the afternoon we met up with our fabulous friends Kate and Audrey at the Wood Lake Nature Center and had coffee alongside the taxidermy...

Ben didn't get home from work until after 9 tonight so I had a snack while waiting for him...

TIME FOR A POLL!! We have a longstanding debate in Ben's family about which is better... crunchy cheetoes or puffy cheetoes? Which do you prefer? Leave a comment here or on facebook with your answer and you could win an exciting prize!!

Dinner... leftover curry. Adele ate a big bowl of this for dinner too. She rocks at eating food.

Still yummy. And still enough left in the fridge for another dinner for two, despite freezing half of what I had left over from the first time. Neverending curry. Mmmm.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 17

2011-10-17T20:54:00.005-05:00

This morning we still had small bread so I had a pair of toasts again. One with jam, the other with chocolate ice cream sauce. Yes, really. Yum! And a latte.

Today's mug is one I got as a gift for Ben a few years ago. It usually lives at the back of the cupboard so I had to dig to find it. I love it, but I am not excited for it to be a reality. According to the weather man it's probably going to get down to freezing later this week. Ack.

Plum for snack:

(Insert your own wrinkled plum joke here)

Lunch: Hummus, spinach falafel sandwich, shared with Fiona. She took bites out of both of them.

We watched some curious george, ate some shortbread that my friend Emily brought back for me from her trip to Scotland, and crocheted together after lunch.

First that meant she needed her own ball of yarn to mess around with and then turned into her yanking on the yarn I was working with. She's so helpful. I'm working on a rainbow blanket for her and now I have almost enough squares to arrange and crochet together.

In the afternoon she made short work of the leaf pile we've been working on.

Then for dinner I made pizza. We'll have curry leftovers tomorrow :-)

Anatomy of a homemade pizza...

Pizza and salad.

Now I am full.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 16

2011-10-16T20:53:00.007-05:00

Sunday again already! Why does the weekend go so fast?

Breakfast: Latte, toast. I was hungry and we have small bread right now so I had (as my friend Amanda put it) a pair of toasts. With marmalade.

Today's mug is from the airport in Amsterdam, Holland. I have flown through Amsterdam so many times traveling to and from Aberdeen, and although I've never been outside the airport it seemed fitting to have a mug from there.

Lunch: Leftover pasta from some time last week. Adele demanded that I pick out the broccoli and give it to her. That girl LOVES broccoli!!

Dessert: a tiny popsicle with my little loves.

Afternoon snack: a little roll.

I made curry for dinner which took a long time and required an emergency trip to the convenience store for peanuts. So I ate a few while cooking the curry.

Ben always wants more sauce than I make and tonight I said I'd double the sauce. He countered with the suggestion that I should make four times as much sauce so we compromised and I made three times as much, resulting in an enormous vat of curry. I hope he liked it because we're going to be eating it all week.

Cauliflower curry with rice and naan. (I also added some carrots).

Recipe (regular amount)... from memory because I am in the basement right now and the recipe is upstairs and I'm tired. I'll check it later and change it if I don't remember correctly.

4 oz red lentils. Here you get those from a middle eastern store, such as holy land. In the UK you get them in any grocery store.

2 tbsp oil

onion

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tbsp mango chutney (you can get this at target).

2 1/4 cups veggie stock

2 oz salted peanuts

cauliflower, chopped into florets

Put lentils in pot, cover with cold water, cook about 10 minutes. In large pot fry chopped onion in oil until soft, stir in flour and curry powder, cook a few minutes, add stock, lentils, peanuts, cook about 10 minutes, add cauliflower, other optional veggies, cook about half an hour or until veggies are cooked and soft.

Enjoy!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 16

2011-10-16T00:00:00.007-05:00

Saturday... latte, toast and... wait... what is that?! Eggs? Yes! Spinach, tomatoes, peppers, green onions, cheese?! YES!! Most exciting breakfast this month? By far!

Today's mug is also from our trip to Bordeaux. We went to visit the Dune de Pyla, which is the tallest sand dune in Europe.

Lunch: After so many days of eating almost nothing but fat and carbs, it was salad time.

Then a palate cleansing chocolate mint candy...

The salad was gigantic! We went to Cathy and Erik's for game night with them and Lori and David and for dinner I had...

Cheetos...

Piece of cheese bread...

Cookie...

Bread with peanut butter.

All those things are, of course, super healthy! Yay me!

Maybe tomorrow I'll do better. But don't count on it :-/

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 14

2011-10-14T21:14:00.004-05:00

Breakfast. Today with a twist! Toast, latte and leftover banana nut bread from yesterday! I know, how adventurous!

Today's mug is also from Las Vegas when we went there to get married. We stayed (and got married) in the Monte Carlo and there we found matching mugs with our names on them. This is the only place in this country that I have ever found a mug with my name on it, but I think it's possible they also have them in Florida because that's where they have the most old people.

Midmorning snack: I had a meeting at work this morning so I brought some doughnuts. And they were good.

Lunch: After the meeting I had lunch at Punch Pizza with my friend Emily. We shared a pizza and salad and both were yummy.

For dinner, since it was Friday, and to avoid breaking the trend of all the super healthy eating I did already today, we had Chinese food. Vegetable moo shu, sesame tofu and cream cheese wontons. The vegetable moo shu was really tasty but the wontons were cold (maybe because I was putting Adele to bed when it was delivered) and the sesame sauce was a bit too sweet. Still, it was nice to not have to break my streak and actually cook something!

Tomorrow's Saturday... and who knows what lazy, unhealthy food choices it will bring! In addition to toast, of course.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 13

2011-10-13T19:59:00.005-05:00

Breakfast: A single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat.

Not really. Latte and cinnamon sugar butter toast.

Today's mug is from New York. In 2004 (when we still lived in MI) Ben and I were flying to Aberdeen for Christmas. Our flight was scheduled to leave on December 23rd in the late afternoon, and (being the cheapest possible flight) had two connections, one somewhere in the US and another one in London, arriving in Aberdeen in the morning of the 24th (Christmas Eve). We made it to our first connection but the flight to London was cancelled for some weather related reason. They had to book us on a whole bunch of different flights and we ended up having to fly to Newark then from there to Glasgow, but the flight to Newark didn't leave until the next morning. So we had to sleep in the airport.

We arrived at Newark early in the morning on the 24th and had to wait about 12 hours for our next flight to leave. So we decided it would be a good time to take the bus into New York City for a few hours. We figured out which bus we needed and set off. Once we got there we walked around a bit and ate some really fantastic New York pizza from a (presumably authentic) pizza place.

We also stopped at a gift shop to get a mug to commemorate our adventure. Of course I was so paranoid about missing our next flight that we headed back pretty quickly and spent many, many more hours sitting in the airport.

Our flight left that night and arrived in Scotland the next morning. Unfortunately since it was now Christmas Day Aberdeen airport was CLOSED and we had to fly into Glasgow which is about a 3 hour drive away. My Dad kindly drove down well before the crack of dawn and picked us up. Here's a picture of dawn cracking as we drove home.

At the time it was a huge pain, but after traveling with little kids it puts the whole thing in a much less awful light. I think if the same thing had happened with the girls in tow we might have just not gone!

Back to today!

This morning we got together with our friends and ate some treats. I forgot to take a picture so I drew this in paint.

I know you can tell immediately what those items are, but just in case, I had a slice of banana nut bread (left) and a piece of blondie (right). Yum.

Lunch: Fiona requested mac and cheese so that's what we had.

Snack: A single plum, for real this time.

Dinner: Pesto tortellini with peas and broccoli in basil pesto cream sauce. Spinach salad. Half a little roll.

Ben sent me a picture of his dinner last night since we ate different things. He ate at his parents house because they were watching the girls while I went to my meeting and his Mum made a delicious vegetarian stir fry...

I'm sad that I missed it! His Mum is a great cook and has been making a lot of different vegetarian foods recently. I'm looking forward to swapping some recipes with her. Well, really I'm looking forward to having her cook more stuff when I visit!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 12

2011-10-12T21:47:00.005-05:00

My lovely friend Anna is pregnant and apparently all these pictures of food have been making her feel nauseous or hungry, so to help her out, this post has been modified specially for her.

Breakfast: Toast, Latte.

The bread was smaller than the last loaf so I had cheese on my toast to substantialize it. I also just invented a new word.

Today's mug is just one I found at Target, but it's tartan and it reminded me of home. It's also gigantic, and therefore holds a lot of tea. I love it. Though in the morning I have to remember it's extra big and only half fill it with coffee or I get way too jittery and caffeinated.

Lunch: Leftover risotto. I know, I had that yesterday, and also the day before. BORING. Also, some bread and pineapple.

Dinner: I had a late afternoon meeting in St. Paul that I had to arrange food for, and tonight it was pizza... It was from Pizza Luce though so it was delicious.

I'm feeling kind of peckish so I might have to have a pre-bedtime snack, but if so it'll probably be toast, so just imagine that next!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 11

2011-10-11T22:05:00.013-05:00

Breakfast. The usual.

Someone turned down the toaster so all I got was warmed bread. I should have re-toasted it but I wasn't paying attention. The bread was kind of stale too, so I added extra jam to try to make up for that. Not the best breakfast.

Today's mug is one we got when we visited MN when we lived in MI. It says "Uff Da, Yah You Betcha" (Minnesota). I have tried to adopt the phrase "you betcha" since moving here. It makes me happy to say it.

Lunch: leftover risotto. I took a picture but I can't find it. But it looked the same as it did yesterday so here's the same picture.

After daycare Fiona had what she kept telling me was the "best day ever". We went to the aquarium store and looked at the fish and turtles, then we shared a donut...

Then we raked leaves into a big pile for her to jump into. Which she did. For hours. She loved it.

I took 168 pictures, so here's a few of them.

For dinner I had to make something fast because it was a book club night so I went with frozen veggie pizza from Trader Joe's. It was good. The girls ate it once I scraped the veggies off their pieces.

At book club there was homemade apple pie and ice cream. Yuuuuuuuuum.

A busy day, but lots of fun!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 10

2011-10-10T22:37:00.007-05:00

I realized after the first few days that I hadn't used the same mug for breakfast yet, and figured I'd try to keep that going until I had to repeat one. Then today I realized that each mug (or at least the vast majority of them) have some kind of memory associated with them. So I thought I'd start sharing those.

Breakfast... toast and marmalade, latte. Today's mug is a souvenir from a trip to Bordeaux Ben and I took together during the year when I was living in Aberdeen and he was living in Michigan. We went there to visit his awesome sister Carol and her family and had a great time.

Lunch:

Picnic with lovely friends. Cheese and spinach (and mayo!) whole wheat wrap...

Plum...

Oddly shaped and flavored crackers, generously shared with me...

Frazzles, imported from home by my Mum on her most recent visit.

Later I was waiting for Ben to come home to eat dinner, but I fed the girls beforehand. I was really hungry though so when Fiona only ate half of her roll, I polished off the other half...

I made butternut squash risotto for dinner (using regular rice instead of risotto rice). It was really good, but as usual it looks like unappetizing goop!

Then later I shared a special shortbread finger with Ben (also imported by my Mum, and so yummy). I even gave him the big half.

And because I know you're just DYING to know, here's a rundown of the meanings of mugs from the last 9 days.

Scottish mug, specially for me. According to the definition on the mug, a besom (biz-um) is: obstreperous girl or woman/woman of low moral standing/broomstick made from loose twigs/a comet, or its tail.

Scottish mug, specially for Ben but used almost exclusively by me. According to the definition an eejit is: idiot, simpleton, one not possessed of all their mental faculties.

Charming!

"Louise" mug. Also imported from Scotland because it is almost impossible to get mugs that have my name on them in this country. Sad because I LOVE mugs with my name on them!! It has a cute poem on the back about how awesome I am.

Ben has not one but two lego mugs with his name on them but I have this one because although I am special, I am apparently not special enough for lego to make a mug with my name on it.

That one is Ben's. I like it. He has no idea where he got it.

Vegas baby!! Souvenir from our trip to Vegas to get married.

Aerial lift bridge in Duluth from the trip we took up there with my parents last year.

We have a lot of friends in Chicago and got this mug on a trip we took to visit them before Fiona was born. I don't remember exactly when it was but it was the trip when we first visited the bar at the top of the John Hancock building and it was awesome.

I got this mug last December when I was looking for a mug to give as a gift with a mug cosy (picture right at end). I didn't use it in the end because the shape was too awkward to fit the cosy around, but I liked it so it earned a spot in the cupboard.

Now, wasn't reading all that a good use of your time?

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 9

2011-10-09T20:26:00.004-05:00

I have a lot of ironing to do tonight, so this will be brief!

Breakfast... latte, toast with peanut butter and honey, overripe pear. What is it with pears?! I love them but it's so hard to eat them in that perfect five minutes between rock hard and slimy.

Lunch: Leftover enchiladas, potato corn chowder, 2 crackers with cheese, pineapple.

Dinner: Salad. The weather today was perfect so we ate dinner outside.

Spinach, green peppers, carrot, green onions, tomato, apple, craisins, cheese, quorn breaded chick'n patty. Creamy poppyseed dressing.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 8

2011-10-08T20:04:00.009-05:00

So much for not eating today. I was hungry again by the morning.

Breakfast... I decided that if I'm going to have the same thing every day I should at least try some different toast toppings from time to time. So today I had this...

Yep, those are bananas on top, and underneath the bananas is... dulce de leche!! And it was incredible. Best. Toast. Ever.

Accompanied, of course, by a latte.

Later that morning we decided to have an adventure so we took the train downtown. Here's Fiona waiting for the train and "smiling".

We strolled around downtown and settled on Indian Buffet for lunch. It was so dark inside that I wasn't able to take a picture until I remembered the handy flashlight app Ben has on his phone, but by then I'd started eating. So here's my first, partially eaten plate...

My approach is usually to try a little bit of everything and then have more of my favourite, and the winner at this restaurant was (what I'm pretty sure was) Paneer Makhani. Oh my goodness, my mouth thought it had died and gone to heaven. It was incredible. I know all of the pictures I took make the food look really questionable but you'll have to believe me that it was delicious.

After that we walked over to Loring Park and played for a while before taking the train home.

Double swing!!

Later in the afternoon we went to a super fun birthday party!

Fiona and Adele had a really good time playing with their friends and bouncing in the bouncy castle and I had a really good time chatting with my friends while Ben bounced in the bouncy castle with the girls!

We had yummy party dinner...

My super talented friend Sara makes amazing cakes and this one was no exception...

And delicious! Happy Birthday Connor and Dominick!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 7

2011-10-07T21:48:00.005-05:00

Breakfast... toast, marmalade... tea?! Something's gone wrong! There was only a dribble of milk left so I had to have tea.

Not to worry though, after dropping off the girls at daycare I picked up some milk and since it was Friday I had a sneaky mocha from caribou. Yummy! Here it is helping me prepare to ~~check facebook~~ do some serious work.

Lunch: Multigrain toast (yes, more toast) with brie and tomatoes, and some corn chowder.

Dinner... date night!! Grandpa kindly watched the girls for a little while and Ben and I went to Red Robin (which we go to way too often, but it's convenient and delicious) and had a whole conversation uninterrupted by anyone needing to be taken to the bathroom. Going there works well for us because they have all kinds of burgers with different toppings but also two different vegetarian patty substitutions. I had the banzai burger which has teriyaki sauce, cheese, pineapple and mayo on it. I love mayo.

So don't expect too much tomorrow because after that dinner I'm not sure I'll need to eat for a couple of days.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 6

2011-10-06T20:05:00.006-05:00

Breakfast with Adele and Fiona:

Latte, toast.

Some friends came over to play this morning after Adele had physical therapy so we made some more cookies to share. Apparently I learned nothing about the danger of cookies on Monday.

So for lunch we all shared the food we brought. Vicki made healthy applesauce crepes which were yummy, especially with the apple stuff she made to put inside them. Sang made fancy pineapple and later accepted the challenge to prove he could actually make a swan out of an apple. He really can, it was very impressive! I made a couple of boring sandwiches and the cookies.

I'm including a picture partly because it's cool and partly because later in the day I callously ate it. I think it tasted even better because it was in swan form.

After lunch we ate cookies.

Pretty lazy dinner: enchiladas*, mexican rice.

*Enchiladas:

Tortillas (I used whole wheat)

Red Enchilada sauce (I used Trader Joe's)

Veggies

Cheese

Some kind of additional protein if you like

I fried onion, mushrooms and green peppers along with some Quorn turk'y burger patties. I saved a patty and a half for the girls and chopped the rest up and put them back in the pan with the veggies. I mixed half of the sauce in with that stuff then split it between five tortillas, which I then rolled up. I poured the rest of the sauce over the rolled up tortillas and sprinkled cheese over the whole thing. Then I put it in the oven at 370 for 15-20 minutes. I served them with mexican rice. They were delicious, even if that picture makes them look seriously dodgy.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 5

2011-10-05T21:55:00.007-05:00

Today has been exhausting.

Breakfast with Adele and Fiona, both in good moods because Daddy promised waffles with syrup and Mummy delivered.

Latte, toast, raspberry jam.

After reading my post from yesterday Ben turned to me and said "do you have toast every day?". Ah, marriage.

Shortly after that my phone froze and then wouldn't turn on again so I felt strangely lonely all day (and at one point it would have been nice to be able to use the GPS, so that was annoying). Luckily the third technology store we went to this evening was able to get it up and running again and Ben was kind enough to put all my apps and contacts back on it so yay for that.

Lunch: Leftover quiche, salad, bread.

That afternoon Adele had an appointment at Shriners to check out her left foot. As most of you know she has some gross motor delays and does physical therapy every 2 weeks. In addition to that her left foot has not been developing normally and is twisted to the side and rolls inwards so when she stands on it the weight is all on the inside of her foot. This is impeding her walking progress and her therapist thought she'd need some kind of corrective footwear to help her put weight on her foot and learn to walk. However, our insurance doesn't cover that, which is nuts, but luckily we live right by Shriners which specializes in orthopedic care for kids and provides free services for people who are not covered by insurance. They were kind enough to accept us as patients and immediately made a cast of her foot to construct some orthotic shoes to help straighten her foot out. The shoes should be ready in about 2 weeks so that will be exciting!

Exciting and exhausting. After trying to keep both kids entertained and under control for hours in a confined space I was ready for a nap and a big glass of wine. Luckily I made a pot of soup last night when I was cooking anyway so we had that for dinner along with more leftovers.

Quiche, potato and corn chowder*, mac and cheese and bread.

Real Recipe!

This is the recipe from the book, italics are my changes...

1 small russet potato, peeled /2 large baking potatoes, not peeled

1 tbsp canola oil s/plash olive oil

1 small red onion, chopped /regular onion

1 small green bell pepper chopped and de-seeded

1 14oz can creamed corn

1/2 cup frozen corn /1 can regular corn

1 cup fat free chicken broth /2 cups veg broth

2 tsps fresh/half tsp dried thyme

pinch cayenne /seriously, that stuff is HOT

4 ounces hot-smoked salmon, flaked /(I've made it with the salmon before back in April 2010 and it's REALLY good, but to be vegetarian I skipped it.)

Today I also added enough milk to thin it out a little because it got thicker overnight.

Cook potato. In another pan, heat oil. Cook onion, pepper. Add creamed corn, frozen corn, broth, thyme, cayenne. Bring just to boil. Add potato, stir in salmon if using. Season. Eat.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 4

2011-10-04T20:48:00.011-05:00

Breakfast. For those of you wondering why I only eat breakfast with Adele, it's because Ben gets up first with Fiona and they eat together, then I eat later with Adele. But this morning I got up first because Ben slept badly last night and I got to share the joy of breakfast with my eldest.

Here she is having a cry because I only let her watch one episode of Diego before breakfast. Delightful. In addition to that, latte. Toast.

Today was a daycare day for the girls and I accomplished important pizza related tasks for work. Ben had a mishap and spilled coffee on his pants so I met him at lunchtime with a clean pair. I was rewarded for this stellar display of wifely love with lunch at Panera.

Greek salad, tomato soup. Ben is anointing his sandwich with mustard and hot sauce.

After that I headed home to do some more work and have a cup of tea. And... what the heck?! What are those still doing in my house?!! Oh dear.

The girls and I went to the zoo after daycare and it was really hot! Apparently it was around 85 today and will be above 80 for the rest of the week. I made very poor outfit choices this morning based on my assumption that it was going to be in the 60s (where is should be in October) and as a result we were all way too warm in our sweaters.

So we cooled off when we got home with a popsicle.

Unrelated: When collecting the mail I noticed this... can you spot what's wrong with this picture?

Um... someone totally stole our doormat! So weird!! It was old and gross too, so it probably had all kinds of bugs living in it. Enjoy that, doormat thief.

While I was making dinner I noticed that Adele was trying to stand up! This is a HUGE step for her, until recently she has been completely unwilling to attempt to balance so trying to stand is a great achievement.

Dinner: Real recipe with ingredients!

Cheddar, gorgonzola, onion and tomato quiche*, roasted asparagus and twice baked potatoes.

*Quiche:

Premade pie crust (bake before filling).

4 eggs, splash of milk

desired fillings

seasonings

Whisk eggs and milk, mix in fillings, pour into crust, bake at 375 for around 40 minutes.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 3

2011-10-03T21:28:00.007-05:00

Day 3!

Breakfast with Adele... Latte. Toast. Marmalade. Sensing a theme?

And some strawberries.

Then we made some cookies to share with our friends...

In the interest of heath and safety, I had to test one.

We went to Richardson nature center and the girls had a lovely time playing and picnicking. It was a beautiful day.

The girls ate lunch and I ate some blueberries...

And a cookie.

We missed some of our other friends who were under the weather and didn't make it. Hope you guys feel better soon!

After we got home I had lunch while Adele napped and Fiona rested in front of some Diego.

Cheese and salad sandwich, apple and yeah, that's another cookie.

Later I made a cup of tea but it looked lonely... so I had another cookie.

Around 6pm I fed the girls, but Ben works late so to tide myself over until dinner I... um... had another cookie. PLEASE, will someone remove these from my house?! I clearly have NO self control!!

Then after the girls went to bed it was dinner time. It was almost 9pm so I snacked on an olive while I cooked.

Lazy recipe! Veggie burgers with gorgonzola and sauteed onions and mushrooms in red wine. And whatever you fancy on the side. YUM. I had salad and something that was the same as tator tots but organic and called something else. Something puffs.

So that was Monday. I'm hoping Ben will take the rest of the cookies to work tomorrow.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 2

2011-10-02T21:29:00.008-05:00

Day two. Sunday.

Breakfast:

Latte and toast with marmalade. Now before you go thinking I'm fancy this "latte" is just microwaved milk with a spoonful of instant coffee stirred in. But it's nescafe, not folgers, so that's a little fancy.

I started eating the toast before I took the photo because since I got the android 2.3 update on my phone the camera has not been working right and I was waiting for the phone to reboot. And I was hungry.

Lunch:

Potbelly mushroom and cheese sandwich (with lettuce, tomato and mayo), broccoli cheddar soup (shared with Ben and Adele the soup monster).

The crackers were on Ben's half. I don't know why people like soggy crackers in their soup.

I also got a tiny fraction of the chocolate malt that Fiona, Ben and Adele guzzled the rest of.

Dinner: Lazy recipe! Falafel hummus sandwiches with fries and veggies and more hummus. Falafel frozen from Trader Joe's.

And some M&M's.

We also took Fiona and Adele to a fun climbing-sliding-crawling place with their cousins today. They had a really fun time together but the pictures are not on the computer yet, so that's a story for another time!

Edited to Add: Cathy blogged about it so I don't have to! Thanks Cathy!!

A month in the mouth of a lazy vegetarian.

2011-10-02T00:32:00.004-05:00

One of the common responses I get from people when I tell them Ben and I are vegetarian is "but what do you eat?". So I thought that this month I'd have a go at documenting all the food I eat, all month and in the process share some lazy recipes, fast food options and food I actually cook with ingredients. My brother in law Mike has this book that I read a lot of when I stayed with them for a few weeks - it documents every single thing the author ate for a year and it's absolutely fascinating. But if this project ends up being boring and lame I'll only do a week :-)

Saturday September 1st

Breakfast with Adele...

Latte and toast with cinnamon sugar butter (did you know they sell that ready made now?! It's awesome!!).

Lunch with Ben and Fiona...

Leftover vegetable korma (from dinner on Friday at India Palace in Burnsville, which was SO GOOD) and leftover pasta with broccoli and balls* from Thursday.

*they don't have meat in them, so I guess that makes them just balls, rather than meatballs...

Game night with the Tennants! Traditional game night food... Papa Murphy's thin crust pizza with mushrooms and green olives. Also, cookies.

(And in the interest of accuracy, you should imagine twice the amount of pizza on the plate and another cookie that looked just like the first one. Because I had seconds :-)

More Adventures in Nature...

2011-09-28T20:10:00.006-05:00

Warning: The following post contains graphic scenes of real nature. Prepare yourself.

Around this time last year Fiona found a tiny caterpillar and a big caterpilar which she adopted. You may remember this post. Well I guess this is the time of year that baby caterpillars are born because she found another one today and it was just as exciting...

Feeding it some grass...

While I was photographing Fiona's latest friend Adele crawled off into the playhouse. After a couple of minutes she started yelling at Brodie. She says " Bohdie NO" which is really cute but she sounded serious so I went over to see what was up. All I found was Brodie snuffling around a damp patch of yard so I figured he probably had eaten something gross and Adele had seen something... so I turned to her to tell her it was ok and spotted THIS in her hand.

Brace yourself.

EEEEEEEEEEHAAAUGH!!!

Yep. That, my friends, is a severed bird head.

My initial reaction was "how do I get this out of her hand without touching it". Second was "can I wash her hands with bleach?" and third was "I seriously hope that didn't make it as far as her mouth". So if she comes down with some horrifying bird disease, you'll know why.

DISCLAIMER: If you arrived here because you googled "can I wash my kid's hands with bleach?" I'd like to go on the record and say - NO. DO NOT WASH YOUR KID'S HANDS WITH BLEACH. You should use soap and warm water and wash thoroughly. Bleach is never the solution.

Haha, solution. Liquids pun.

Later, after the drama had passed, we were heading out for a walk. I came out of the house to find Fiona distraught. She'd been jumping up and down and the caterpillar had jumped out of it's box (a little tupperware I thought might provide some protection from her toddler fingers) and she couldn't find it. She was incredibly upset because she "wanted it to be her friend".

Poor little bean. So all in all, not the best nature experience today.

Apples, Apples, Apples

2011-09-26T21:30:00.012-05:00

Today we had a wonderful morning at Applewood Orchard with our friends. Fiona remembered going apple picking from last year and was super excited to pick apples again!

What's the best way to go apple picking? In a wagon, of course!

Apples were picked then there was some climbing on hay bales...

(All fun and games until you get spiky hay stuck in your tights!)

And some trying, and failing to get the girls to both look in my direction...

This group of inanimate objects was more cooperative.

After we got home it was time to figure out what to do with all of our delicious apples. My awesome, apple trip instigating friend Sang sent me this recipe which involved crescent rolls in a can, TWO STICKS of butter and a can of mountain dew (or MtnDew, as I guess they are calling it now) and it was so intriguing that I had to try it...

See, these are the real ingredients!

And I know you're thinking what I'm thinking... two of those ingredients are not really food based... but hey, you only prepare for your first coronary once...

So you are meant to use all those ingredients with only two apples, but I wanted to use more apples so I used seven (they were small) and stretched out the dough and wrapped 3 or 4 pieces up in each little dough triangle. Then came the stage when you're meant to melt two sticks of butter, mix it with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and drown the dough wrapped apples in that "sauce"but when it came down to it I just couldn't do it. I know, I'm ashamed. It just seemed excessive. So I melted one stick and added 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and poured that over the top. Then I used half of the can of MtnDew rather than the whole thing and poured it round the outside.

Here's the finished product...

I served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and they were delicious. I'm sure the double fat double sugar double dew version would be a little better but these were really, really, really good.

Between us Ben and I managed to eat three... who wants to come over and help polish off the other 13?

Day Camping!

2011-09-17T21:58:00.024-05:00

What's "day camping"? I hear you ask... well, it's when you have friends who are brave enough for regular camping and you tag along for the day thus enjoying all the fun parts of camping and avoiding all the less fun parts like trying to get your kids to sleep in a tent and staying awake all night listening for bears and vampires.

We had a really wonderful day... here are some of the fun things we did!

Hammock!! Kids love hammocks. Here are some girls in a hammock. Aubrey (in the middle) is Fiona and Adele's friend and they always have a nice time together.

Camping Chair! Adele was a huge fan even after she fell out headfirst...

Hanging out and relaxing...

Boyd and Aubrey contemplating something important.

Adele and Ben

Playing soccer ball! This was mostly Fiona running around after the ball while the littler girls looked on but there was some sharing and passing involved.

Taking a walk to the waterfall...

Tanya and her little friends...

Tanya and Aubrey

Aubrey and Daddy

Waterfall

Tanya, Fiona, Ben, Jason and Aubrey climbed up the tower.

Aubrey walked up the whole way herself! Fiona congratulated her at the top...

(That's Gena in the red shirt, I am to the right holding Adele)

We headed back to camp to have some snacks and pitch Tanya's tent.

Everything is more fun when you're camping! Like making guacamole!

Jason made yummy fried green tomatoes!

Tanya made ratatouille which was delicious but I failed to take a picture of it.

And Gena made peach cobbler using a super magical recipe and cooked it in the hot fire coals.

We ate our dessert around the campfire...

And then it was time to go home. We put the girls in their pyjamas before we left and they both fell asleep on the way home and went straight to bed. The perfect end to a perfect day!! Thanks for a wonderful day you guys! We were so happy to day camp with you :-)

Edited to add: Some people were asking where we went... we were at Willow River State Park by Hudson in Wisconsin.

Book Club and High Pressure Cheesecake

2011-09-13T21:55:00.006-05:00

Tonight I hosted book club at my house. We read Room by Emma Donoghue. It was very good, you should read it!

Hosting book club is not all fun and games though, first you have to clean, and you also need to provide some delicious dessert. I spent some time cleaning today and as soon as Adele came in the door from daycare she undid all of the putting away I had just done... seriously, it probably took her less than 60 seconds to do this...

GAAAH. She wasn't the only one though, I left the bag full of kitchen trash outside the back door and then forgot I'd done that and accidentally let Brodie go out there unsupervised. Rookie mistake. When I let him back inside again there was disgusting trash from end to end of the yard and it took me significantly longer to clean it all up again than it would have to just take it all the way to the bin in the first place. Double GAAAH.

Ok, so cleaning was a struggle and that only leaves dessert. Ben doesn't like cheesecake and I love cheesecake with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so I thought I'd make cheesecake! Yum! I'd made it once before but when I looked at the recipe it asked for FIVE blocks of cream cheese and needed me to begin at least 24 hours ahead so I found a different recipe online.

From today's cheesecake making experience I hereby decree that the standards by which you judge the perfection of a cheesecake be amended.

Apparently a perfect cheesecake is totally smooth, and not browned, curdled or cracked. I disagree. Here's the new rating scale.

1. Cheesecake is not browned, curdled or cracked, is flat on top, crust comes evenly up the sides. You have obviously been spending too much time practicing making cheesecake. I bet you even cooked it in a water bath, you fancy pants. You clearly don't have little kids trying to pull your pants down as you stand by the stove. Your dog can't possibly have strewn trash all over the yard minutes before the cheesecake was due to come out of the oven. I bet your house is always clean and you take daily showers.

Your cheesecake is worth 0 points.

2. Your cheesecake is kind of brown on top and cracked because you googled "how to tell when cheesecake is done" after it was already past the point when you should have removed it from the oven. Your oven smells terrible and smokes like crazy when it gets hot now because it turns out your springform pan doesn't fit together quite right since your toddler used it for some kind of hoopla game and the batter dripped through onto the bottom of the oven. It still tastes good though and you can hide the cracks with a bunch of toppings. I achieved level 2 today, here's a picture.

Your cheesecake is worth 100 points.

3. Your cheesecake went horribly wrong and was totally inedible so you bought one from the store instead and picked up a bottle of wine while you were out anyway. You got home and realized that your shirt was on inside out and had someone else's snot on it. You don't even care any more.

Your cheesecake is worth 1000 points! You win. Lets get together and eat some. I'll bring wine too so we each have a bottle. Happy days.

Mighty Mississippi

2011-09-11T20:35:00.009-05:00

My parents left this evening but before they did my Dad wanted to take a walk and visit the Mississippi. We drove over to the Ford Parkway bridge on the Minneapolis side and walked around and across it. I only had my phone with me but we had never been there and I saw some interesting things so today cell phone photos will have to do! At least I took the first few with the app that makes them look all "arty" ;-)

We walked across the bridge first... a half naked guy zoomed up into the picture, but that's ok!

It's interesting that you can cross a bridge in the car many, many times and never really appreciate how enormous it really is, and how much work must have gone in to constructing it. When you're underneath it, it's a very different perspective!

We watched the scum floating about in the river and Fiona chattered away about all kinds of things, then we walked a little further down to the lock and dam. Turns out you they have a whole big area that's open to visitors where you can watch the lock and dam working and it's really interesting.

There are two locks, and I think they have some kind of generator in the other part of the river.

The lock on the left was in operation, but not the one on the right.

Boats coming in, waiting...

Here you can see the difference in water levels (and a couple of leaks).

Fiona is getting to be old enough to start understanding and having an interest in things like this, and it was fun to explain to her how locks and dams work and watch her figuring it out. It was a great surprise activity and I bet we'll be back again soon to just walk around and watch the boats.

Renaissance Festival

2011-09-10T23:46:00.014-05:00

My parents leave tomorrow so today was our last day to do some fun things before they go. My Dad loves Scotch Eggs (hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, breaded and deep fried) but apparently it's hard to find them in Scotland now, so it seemed like a good idea to go to the Renaissance Festival so he could have one. Our friends Tanya and "big"* Emily came along to join in the fun.

*Remember, big Emily is not really that big, Fiona just calls her that because she's an adult and therefore taller than little Emily, Fiona's cousin (who is also not all that little).

As soon as we got there Fiona spotted a dragon...

Coincidentally it was Scottish Day, so we saw some Highland Games. Unfortunately what would normally be a much more exciting spectator sport was made very family friendly with the addition of spandex shorts under the kilts so there was no bum flashing. Even without that the hammer throwing was a combination of impressive, and occasionally life threatening when one of the competitors accidentally launched it into the crowd...

Visiting the Renaissance Festival with little kids is a very different experience to visiting without... we didn't manage to watch any of the shows or attend the free wine or beer tastings but we did get to hang out with Fiona who we told beforehand about the prospect of face painting and animals to ride on, and after that she was very, very excited at the prospect of having her face painted and riding on an elephant and that became her list of goals for the trip. We strolled around a little and then inevitably arrived at the elephant spot.

She had such a nice time riding on the elephant... what next? Camels, of course! Oh, to be 3.

After all that fun we took a break in one of the few shady spots and ate some ice cream, then Fiona and Ben went off so Fiona could have her last special treat of the day and have her face painted. While they were doing that Emily, Adele and I checked out the other animals...

Adele really loves animals and found ducks, a Highland Cow, horses and ponies, and along the way I met a sweet talking pickle seller who was definitely my favorite part of the Fair. Yes, there are many pickle related jokes that could be made here, but I'm trying to control myself, it's a family blog after all...

There were lots of fun things to look at...

Fiona came back and was very pleased with her kitty face...

(There was a free wand making craft in the kids area so Fiona and Adele both made a wand too).

We met up with the rest of our party, and by then it was late in the afternoon and everyone was tired and hot so we headed out. It was a lot of fun and Dad even found a Scotch Egg to eat so everyone was happy :-)

Granny Love!

2011-09-04T21:43:00.005-05:00

We picked up Granny and Grandpa (my parents) from the airport on Friday afternoon and Fiona was SUPER excited to see them!

One thing we're trying this time is having Adele share Fiona's room with her. Fiona is doing a really great job and is being super quiet when she goes to bed and gets up in the morning. Adele is sleeping even more horribly than usual, but has been getting progressively better since the first night so I'm hopeful that soon she'll be back to just sleeping badly rather than horribly. We moved the crib in there to see if she'd sleep better in her own bed and since that involves taking it almost completely apart then reassembling it, it's a pretty permanent move! Fingers crossed!

Fiona has been very happy to sit by (and on) Granny and spend time with her. Here she is working on her crochet while Granny knits...

Adele has also been happy to see Granny and was enjoying reading stories with her today...

So far we have been to the wood lake nature center, tavern on france, target, hiawatha park and minnehaha falls. We're having lots of fun and looking forward to a whole week of adventures!

** Edited to add - we're all very happy to see Grandpa too, just in a less demonstrative way ;-)

It's like a box of stick-on hugs.

2011-09-01T22:39:00.005-05:00

Fiona fell over today and scraped her knees. She has been pretty sad about it all day and keeps hobbling around like she suddenly has a wooden leg which is funny for me, but then I feel bad for laughing at her. She needed a giant band-aid for the bad one and a little band-aid for the less scraped one and on the box I spotted this:

"You're going to be just fine!"? Really? Thanks for the warm fuzzies, band-aid. They're practically saying "suck it up, whiner, it's just a scratch".

I really hope they have a variety of helpful platitudes for the different products they offer... like on the roll of extra heavy duty antiseptic infused bandages... "looks like you've hurt yourself pretty badly buddy, maybe you should see a doctor". Or for the band-aid brand tourniquet... "you're in serious danger of death or permanent disfigurement, you should call 911".

Thanks for keeping it real, band-aid.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 30

2011-08-30T21:54:00.004-05:00

Here we are... the finale! 30 days, 30 photos. It's been a long month but I have learned a lot about my camera and photography techniques and am so glad I did this challenge! Today's final challenge was self portrait. Eek, scary!

During my research into various techniques I have found some incredible low light photographs - usually long exposure pictures taken in darkness or semi darkness which can create some beautiful effects with lights - stars, cars, the moon, sparklers, etc. - and interesting images using people and other props. Check out this google image search for some great examples.

There's a class on night photography through community education that I'm thinking about taking to learn more about taking these kinds of pictures, but here is my first attempt...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 30: Self Portrait

Photo Challenge Day 29

2011-08-29T21:27:00.009-05:00

At bedtime every night Fiona requests a "telling story" which is either a completely made up story or a story about something we did that day or are going to do the next day. Here's tonight's telling story...

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Fiona, and she was super smart and super sweet and super awesome (they always start like this). One day Fiona went to the nature center with her friends. Once they got there they found a nest and turned into a Mummy bird and some eggs...

After a while the eggs began to hatch!

(This is honestly what she's doing here!)

And one by one the birds flew until there was just one bird left...

The birds got bigger and moved into a new place together...

(Though they were reluctant to all be in there sitting still at the same time)

And had such a wonderful time playing, climbing, hugging and getting all grubby together that they promised to always be friends...

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end.

So that was our morning. This evening I did something I've been planning to do for a while and took my tripod to Minnehaha Falls. Here's today's photo:

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 29: Black and White

Photo Challenge Day 28

2011-08-28T21:19:00.002-05:00

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 28: Flowers

Photo Challenge Day 27

2011-08-27T15:59:00.004-05:00

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 27: From a distance

Photo Challenge Day 26

2011-08-26T18:07:00.013-05:00

Today the girls went to daycare and Ben and I snuck off to the State Fair with his family for a few hours.

We were there for a few reasons - we wanted to see the quilt that Ben's Mum made for Adele that won FIRST PLACE! I'm going to make a separate quilt post some time, but here's a sneak preview...

We were also there to root for the Tennant kids in the "make something fantastic with spam" contest. All three kids entered a recipe and although I tried them all without the spam they were delicious! And Andrew won third place!

Emily got cozy with a Gopher...

Ben, Cathy and the Tennant kids slid on the giant slide...

In addition we checked out all the interesting foods, especially the ones on sticks (a Minnesota tradition!).

And my very favorite: cheese curds. Oh, so good.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 26: Close Up.

Photo Challenge Day 25

2011-08-25T21:32:00.004-05:00

We had Ben's family over for dinner tonight. You may or may not be aware that Ben and I are vegetarian, so I made vegetarian chilli, baked potatoes and salad. To appease the carnivores I also fried up a pound of bacon. I'm telling you, cooking and not eating that bacon nearly killed me. I love you, bacon. I always will.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 25: Something Pink.

Photo Challenge: Day 24

2011-08-24T20:51:00.003-05:00

Being a Sloth is a profession that I can only dream about having. Apparently sloth is a sin but I think that may just be because back in the day there was no Netflix, wi-fi or pizza delivery and the fields didn't just plow themselves y'know.

Also, baby Sloths are adorable!

Since I already photographed Brodie and Monty today we went further afield...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 24: Animal

Photo Challenge Day 23

2011-08-23T21:58:00.009-05:00

Ben's sister Laurie and her husband Nate are visiting at the moment and we had a lovely afternoon hanging out with his family by the lake. I am tired, so there will not be much text, but I got some cute pictures...

Fiona had fun playing with her cousins and Grandpa...

Adele had fun getting to know Nate and eating crackers...

Aunt Gail got to swim in the lake for the first time!

Andrew practiced his State Fair Spam Competition entry... and the Tennant kids are being interviewed on Kare11 (local TV) tomorrow morning about their entries!

And I spent a lot of time practicing taking sunflare photos. These are so fun to take!

Sunflare + Laurie silhouette...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 23: Sunflare

Photo Challenge Day 22

2011-08-22T21:54:00.005-05:00

Fiona is a very tactile little girl. She wants to touch everything, particularly things that are creepy, crawly, furry, squishy, slimy, jumpy, lumpy, bumby, bitey and just gross (see yesterday's entry!). My tolerance for touching undesirable objects has increased significantly and I have honed my ability to spot and catch a toad from 600 yards*.

* I just googled how far 600 yards actually is and it's apparently 548 meters. So yep, my estimate was pretty accurate! ;-)

Anyway, Fiona loves to touch these interesting creatures and I love that she's not squeamish about this stuff even if it does sometimes give me the heebie jeebies, so I encourage it.

This afternoon we were at a nature center with our friends Kate and Audrey and Kate kindly fished a bunch of stinky, slimy (and mercifully empty) snail shells out of the pond for Fiona and Audrey to check out. She was really happy and excited to hold these lovely objects.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 22: Hands

Photo Challenge Day 21

2011-08-21T21:36:00.005-05:00

We had another busy day today with more yardwork (cleaned out our gutters out for the first time since we moved here six years ago), cleaning, laundry and a fun visit to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden with the Tennants.

It was a really nice way to finish the weekend.

And here's the challenge contribution for today...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 21: Faceless self portrait*

*Yes, I'm drinking wine in this one too.

Photo Challenge Day 20

2011-08-20T20:11:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy day! Fiona and I got a lot of yard work done this morning and the girls went to a fun birthday party this afternoon. They were so tired after the party that they both fell asleep in the car on the way home and then went straight to bed. Yep, for real! They are both in bed right now! It's a Saturday night miracle! What should we do with it? Darts tournament? Board game? Right now Ben is watching car reviews on cnet so we'll have to try to do something more exciting than that at least...

Today's challenge was bokeh. According to wikipedia bokeh "is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." "

I love bokeh. I love portraits with bokeh. I love the lens I have that goes down to f1.8 which gives me great bokeh. One of my favorite things about it is that when I take "blurred background" pictures in my messy living room, the mess is all blurry and therefore "artistic" and not "lazy and slightly unhygienic".

My friend Sara who is also taking the challenge went all out and pulled out some christmas lights and got some really beautiful bokeh but I don't have the energy she does so this is my offering for today...

30 day photo challenge day 20: Bokeh (with cat)

Photo Challenge Day 19

2011-08-19T19:26:00.003-05:00

Something orange. That's a tall order! There is a definite lack of orange things in my house and I was trying to think of something orange all day long. I went in to work this morning and saw a bunch of orange construction cones. Orange traffic lights. Orange posters around campus. We went for a walk this afternoon and I spotted a man wearing orange shorts. It wasn't convenient to take pictures of the first few and the latter would have been strange, so it was late in the day before I thought of something...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 19: Something Orange

Photo Challenge Day 18

2011-08-18T22:24:00.008-05:00

My bestest friends from Scotland Amanda and Michelle reminded me of this story the last time I visited. I was in my last year at university, studying for my last ever exams and I'd bought a beautiful new pair of shoes. Oh, they were so pretty. I kept looking at them and being happy that they were mine. Soon I was looking a them more than the (boring) psychology textbook and I had to put them away so I could concentrate. I love those shoes.

From a young age Fiona has also shown an interest in shoes... here she is at Christmas dinner at great grandma's nursing home in 2009 (around 18 months).

(The pictures look really grainy tonight, you can click them for a clearer (and larger) version).

You can tell from the next picture that she is taller, but not much else has changed! This is her official "check out my shoes, aren't they awesome?!" smile.

She still loves to put my shoes on and clomp around the house, and it seems Adele is taking after her. Given that she still gets around on all fours she just wears the shoes on her hands. The girl is obsessed with wearing shoes on her hands. It's hilarious.

(She's just getting ready here, once she has them on it's almost impossible to take her picture because despite the fact that she's crawling while wearing high heeled shoes on her hands, she's fast!)

Sadly I don't have many opportunities to wear all my fun high heeled shoes any more (or un-sadly in a way because my sensible sandals are MUCH more comfortable!) but luckily the girls pull all my shoes out on a fairly regular basis and wear them all.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 18: Your Shoes

Photo Challenge Day 17

2011-08-17T21:13:00.006-05:00

First things first, when I logged into blogger this evening it popped up a message saying "it looks like your blog is popular! Popular blogs can make money with adsense! Try it now!". I'm so flattered! Popular? Me? Aw, shucks. Thanks, people who read this! You guys are the best!

Second things second, here is a story. As some of you may be aware, British people like tea. Gallons and gallons of tea. It cures all ills. Had a shock? Make some tea. Got a hangover? You need tea, lots of tea, in a big mug. Local priest drops in for a chat? Pop the kettle on. Looters burning up London? Serve cups of tea to the bobbies using riot shields as trays. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up!

When I moved to the land of the free and the home of the brave I found one thing sorely lacking... kettles! There were a variety of kettles that you can put on the stove and whistle when your water boils but they take a really long time and I kept forgetting about it or being in the middle of something else by the time it finally boiled. What I needed was an electric kettle. After a few years I finally found one at Sears and was so excited! Now you can find them everywhere but this one is special. It sits quietly between the utensils and Ben's coffee maker waiting to be put to work and then BAM! Water = boiled. No fuss, no whistling, no need to run naked and soggy from the shower to take it off the stove.

Thanks kettle! Without you, the multiple cups of tea I drink every day would be significantly more challenging.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 17: Technology.

Yes, it's technology! It has a plug, doesn't it?!

Photo Challenge Day 16

2011-08-16T20:24:00.005-05:00

Today's challenge is "long exposure" which can create some incredible photos, but is actually kind of a pain! As a general rule I like to use the shortest exposure possible to maximize my chance of getting a photo before one of my subjects runs off, and long exposure requires the use of tripods, steadiness and patience, none of which are that compatible with toddlers!

I've always loved light painting images, so this afternoon Fiona and I played around with long exposure, jumping around and flashlights. She had lots of fun, and I got a picture that will work for today. This one was exposed for 10 seconds.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 16: Long Exposure

Photo Challenge Day 15

2011-08-15T21:03:00.009-05:00

One of the reasons I am enjoying this challenge is that it is forcing me to learn how to do new things with my camera. Today's challenge is silhouette and I've always loved silhouette pictures of people but did not have any idea how to actually take one myself! So I turned to trusty old google and found this nice list of tips. I tried to take some pictures earlier today with the morning sun coming in the front window, but the sun was too high and the tree across the street was in the way (and the window was filthy - I have no idea how that happened!) so this evening I made Ben and the girls take a walk to the park so I could try to take some more in the low sun.

It was a beautiful evening and I accidentally took this one, which I love!

And I also managed to get this one of Adele. I am so pleased with how these turned out, and will be taking a lot more in the future!

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 15: Silhouette

Photo Challenge Day 14

2011-08-14T12:00:00.004-05:00

Adele is napping, Fiona is playing with Daddy and I'm meant to be doing laundry, so what better time to take a break and play with photoshop?

One of the things I am constantly working on when taking pictures is getting at least one, but preferably both eyes in focus. It's more tricky than it sounds because those girls move fast!

I told Fiona that I wanted to take her picture and this is the pose she did for me...

So I told her I needed to see her eyes and this is what she did next...

So helpful!

So I bribed her with a gummy worm and she cooperated, for the most part...

I did a little editing in photoshop to brighten it up a little and there is day 14.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 14: Eyes

Photo Challenge Day 13

2011-08-13T17:27:00.003-05:00

We went to the zoo today, then straight to Cathy and Erik's for game night with them and the awesome Lori and David, so I'm attempting to post today's picture from there...

To save you counting here are the things:
1. Cat
2. Hat
3. Mat
4. Fish
5. Pot
6. Rake
7. Dress
8. Kite
9. Umbrella
10. Mirror
11. Books
12. Sally
13. Nameless Boy

Photo Challenge Day 13: Yourself with 13 things

Photo Challenge Day 12

2011-08-12T21:27:00.009-05:00

Fiona has been at grandkids camp since yesterday which is a fantastic camp adventure run by her grandparents for her and her big cousins. Adele is too little still, but maybe next year :-)

Apparently she did a really great job and even slept for a few hours last night. She had so much fun and keeps asking for more grandkids camp. I think Grandma and Grandpa are going to need the next year to recover but when it arrives she'll be there with bells on! Camp finished this evening with some playing in the lake, dinner, and a closing ceremony.

Fiona has been getting more confident in the water over the summer and her favourite game is jumping in. She was reluctant to jump off the dock but a couple of weeks ago conquered that fear...

Jump...

Splash!

Her cousin Emily is great at getting her to try new things (and eat her vegetables) and Fiona loves hanging out with her and her other cousins.

The closing ceremony involved putting stickers on everyone else who was at camp and telling a memory of them from camp or something nice.

Everyone had really nice things to say and Fiona carefully selected a sticker for each person and told them all something nice. Ryan was first but I was too slow with the video and I missed it but she said "Ryan, this sticker is for you because you're the best swimmer in the whole world I never seen". You'll have to watch the video to see what came next...

After that we had s'mores and brownies. Today's photo challenge was sunset and it was a high pressure challenge because if you miss the sunset there's no second chance! I set the alarm on my phone to go off to remind me but we were still hanging out and facing east when the sun set. To complete the challenge I took a picture of the sunset reflected in the house across the lake reflected in the lake.

Photo Challenge Day 12: Sunset

Photo Challenge Day 11

2011-08-11T21:25:00.004-05:00

The older I get, the less interested I am in waterslides. Sun lounger in the shade, fruity cocktail, good book, peace and quiet = paradise.

We had a playdate this morning in a park by the Edina pool and I was reminded of this by the giant waterslide and pool full of screaming kids. I bet there was a serious lack of fruity cocktails too...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 11: Something Blue

Photo Challenge Day 10

2011-08-10T20:57:00.008-05:00

When I was little I loved to watch Bagpuss. According to my Mum I called it "Puss" and it was my favourite.

I tried to introduce it to Fiona but she thinks it's boring. I think it's wonderful. I may or may not get a bit emotional watching this...

It's well known among my Scottish friends and family that I love Bagpuss and one year I was given one as a Christmas gift. I brought him out today to photograph and Fiona really liked him.

That other thing she's holding is Floppy Bunny. My Mum knitted him for me when I was a baby. The tips of his ears are red (the story goes) because she ran out of white wool. I think he used to be fat, but his stuffing got all packed down and now he's floppy. Fiona only got to hold him briefly in case she stopped protecting him adequately and allowed Brodie to get him.

She quickly found that if you squeeze Bagpuss' head he yawns and says "it's rather nice to have a cuddle!". She liked that!

So that's day 10!

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 10: A childhood memory

Photo Challenge: Day 9

2011-08-09T22:06:00.012-05:00

Once upon a time there was the cutest puppy in the world, named Brodie...

The puppy was cute, but mischievous. He liked to chew on important things like shoes and cats. He was a sweet puppy though and enjoyed going for long walks with the humans he lived with. He grew bigger and bigger and one day he moved with the humans to a different city.

After some time a noisy screechy thing named Fiona came to live with them. It was interesting, and smelled good. Brodie liked to lick it, but was very careful with it.

Some more time passed and the screechy thing became a screechy walking thing. She would follow Brodie around and love him and dress him in towels and pull on his fur. Brodie did not love this, but he loved the humans and she tasted good after she ate dinner so he tolerated it.

Before much longer another screechy thing arrived, who was named Adele. By now Brodie couldn't care less. He was used to the noise and the abuse and was just happy to be petted and loved in between the pulling and poking. The second screechy thing tasted just as good as the first too, so he was pretty happy with the situation. Now she's crawling around, climbing all over him and loves to give him kisses. He is enthusiastic to return the favor.

Every meal time he hangs out under the table patiently waiting for accidental cheese or intentional carrots to come his way.

Now don't get me wrong, Brodie has his flaws. He jumps on people when they enter our house. He is highly motivated by food and frequently eats some or all of the food I have just prepared for myself but left too close to the edge of the table. Last week he ate an entire loaf of bread. He snatches food out of the hands of toddlers (or anyone not paying enough attention) and he still has a tendancy to chew on things, now mostly precious plastic toys, much to Fiona's horror.

But, the girls love him. They love to take him for walks. He's part of our family. He's gentle and kind and undemanding. I guess I love him too.

30 day photo challenge, day 9: Someone you love.

Photo Challenge: Day 8

2011-08-08T20:49:00.005-05:00

Oh, today is tricky! I have to photograph a bad habit. I noticed that it didn't specify that it had to be one of my bad habits, but it seems like cheating to post one of the 4,000 pictures I have of Fiona picking her nose. She does it on purpose when I try to take her picture just to annoy me, so I have quite the collection.

So what's the bad habit? Well, I have mentioned this before but one frequent source of stress in my life is caused by my favorite bad habit: procrastination. It is my friend throughout the day. I put things off until the last minute causing me to be frequently late, and on the days when too much of the morning is procrastinated away, unshowered. I pack for trips late into the night before leaving very few hours for sleeping, I wait until there's no underwear left in the drawer before doing laundry, and why do you think this blog is posted so close to midnight every night? That's right. Procrastination.

I have book club tomorrow evening and put off starting the book because I was excited to read a different one. If I wasn't a procrastinator I would have started it before the other one, but I thought "I'll read that later, I have plenty of time".

Still 18% to go. I'm not sure I'll ever learn.

Photo Challenge Day 8: A bad habit.

Photo Challenge: Day 7

2011-08-07T20:46:00.007-05:00

When I lived in Aberdeen my Mum was, at one time, searching for a giant fruit bowl. It took a long time to find exactly what she wanted and during that time whenever we'd spot a nice large bowl one of us would say to the other "that would make a good fruit bowl". It became a tradition and I still say it whenever I spot a nice large bowl.

When they visited last year we had a day trip to Stillwater where I spotted a bowl. We'd seen a lot of pottery that day and had exchanged many "that would make a good fruit bowl"s but although they were all beautiful and special, they were also way too expensive to live in a house with two rambunctious children. But this bowl was different. It was hand made and lovely, but also under $30! It was going to make a really good fruit bowl.

I bought it, and it came to live in our kitchen where it holds our fruit.

Today it's empty because I used all the old bananas that were in there yesterday to make banana bread. Banana bread is, without a doubt, my second favorite way to get my USDA recommended daily servings of fruit. My number one choice is, of course, wine.

Look, it's even got raisins in it. That's double fruit!

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 7: Fruit

Photo Challenge Day 6

2011-08-06T21:34:00.004-05:00

Today we took a 40 mile walk. At least, it felt like 40 miles, but it was actually only 5.5 miles. Still, it took hours and we were all exhausted when we got home...

While we were lunching I took this picture for today. Luckily I squeezed it in because this was the last one before the battery in my camera died...

Photo Challenge Day 6: From a low angle.

Photo Challenge: Day 5

2011-08-05T22:51:00.006-05:00

This is going to be short. I won't promise sweet, but it'll be short. It's late.

This is from my 3rd floor office window looking down at the steps of the Northrop Auditorium at the U. I would have loved to have a person peeking out from behind a column or sitting on the steps somewhere, but it seemed weird to ask someone to do that. But maybe by day 30 I'll be so committed I'll do just that...

Photo Challenge Day 5: From a high angle.

Photo Challenge Day 4

2011-08-04T21:43:00.010-05:00

One of the results of this challenge is that I have been taking more pictures in general, and I have my camera with me more often and am able to take fun pictures of things that would normally be forgotten. For example, we met friends for breakfast at Ikea this morning (which was super cheap and pretty tasty and I would definitely recommend) and on our way out I spotted this:

(Click to enlarge. If you can't read what's circled in the bottom right, you'll miss the joke!)

The sign must have been at least 15 feet wide. Who knew Ikea had a sense of humor? I had to stop and take a picture even though Adele was really mad and Fiona took it as an opportunity to climb on a pile of ektorps.

Fiona and Adele have both been really interested in taking care of babies recently, which is adorable. Fiona likes to wrap hers up and tote them around and put them in bed and tell people to be quiet because they are sleeping...

She was asking for a baby carrier so I made her a moby of her own and she insisted on packing two babies in there.

Adele loves to feed her baby too, and also likes to take their clothes off. She is funny.

This afternoon we went to the Zoo, partly to get out of the house and partly to look for something green to take a picture of. I got a telephoto lens for my camera (thanks Dad!) but haven't had much opportunity to use it yet and I thought that there must be a bunch of fun green things at the Zoo to take close up pictures of... crocodiles, frogs, turtles... Well I took some really fun pictures but it turns out it's a lot harder to find green creatures that I expected. The crocodiles look more grey than green and the other things had greenish parts but were not really green.

The only really green thing was this big fat caterpillar waiting to turn into a beautiful butterfly... so here he is.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 4: Something Green

Photo Challenge: Day 3

2011-08-03T23:18:00.008-05:00

Today dawned bright and clear. Which was a surprise because the last few days have been nothing but thunderstorms. Today's challenge was clouds so I took my camera with me when I dropped the girls off at daycare thinking I could get some fun cloud pictures over the lake on my way home. Sadly it was not to be... I never thought I'd be disappointed with blue skies before.

Fortunately I took some cloud pictures yesterday, and although it feels like cheating, here's my submission for today...

Photo challenge day 3: Clouds

Photo Challenge: Day 2

2011-08-02T21:40:00.008-05:00

When Fiona was about 9 months old my sweet friends sent me a really fun t-shirt for my birthday. It had a bunch of animals riding a roller coaster on it and I loved it. Unfortunately it was too tight and although I tried it on from time to time just to check, it never fitted well. It became my goal shirt. I WOULD fit into it one day, hopefully. Well Happy Day, today I wore that shirt! I'm not the same weight I used to be, and I think it would take a lot of effort to become that weight again, but the shirt fits, and that's enough for me!

So here I present to you Louise's diet plan...

1. Have a baby

2. Have another baby

3. Spend every meal time trying to eat while doing a combination of these things: picking up dropped forks, getting drinks, getting more blueberries, exchanging blueberries for watermelon, trying to spoon foods into the little one, picking up that fork again, mopping up spilled drinks, wiping hands and faces, taking toddlers to the bathroom.

4. Come back from that bathroom trip to find the dog with his head in your plate licking your dinner.

5. Give up.

6. Have a glass of wine instead.

There you have it! It's not healthy and no doctor recommends it but at least wine is good for you... right? Yes! It's full of antioxidants and resveratrol. Thanks science!

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 2: What you wore today.

30 Day Photo Challenge

2011-08-01T21:56:00.007-05:00

A friend posted this on facebook yesterday and I thought it would be fun to do a 30 day photo challenge because I leaned after Adele was born that the 365 day photo challenge was much too challenging. A month is the absolute maximum length of time I can keep something like that up. The list was right there, and the new month started today, so both of those facts greatly increased my chances of at least achieving day 1. So here we go!

Day 1: Self portrait. Ack. I should have looked more closely and taken a shower today.

For a long time now, I have wanted to visit Lake Louise in Banff, Canada. According to Wikipedia "Summers consist of frosty mornings and crisp cool days", which makes it just about the ideal climate for me (in summer at least, in winter they get over 3 meters/almost 10 feet of snow!).

(Photo source)

Once there I plan to relax and sip Louise Champagne which sadly costs $225 and oddly I have only ever seen for sale in the airport in Schipol, Amsterdam.

(Photo source)

Why the random segue, I hear you asking? Well, tonight my dream came significantly closer to becoming a reality. On a wine run to Trader Joes I found THIS...

Ohhhhhh yeah. Louise sparkling wine, in both red and white varieties! AND it's less than $7 a bottle! Yes please!

Half of my dream will have kind of come true as soon as I chill those puppies. And in the meantime, I'll work on this other bottle instead... which leads me back to the challenge...

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 1: Self Portrait.

The third and final installment of our action packed trip to the UT!

2011-07-25T21:43:00.020-05:00

The big day arrived on Friday and we were all very excited, especially Fiona. She had been looking forward to the wedding for weeks because she knew that was the day she got to wear her new yellow wedding dress and fancy wedding shoes. We subjected both girls to a shower (which they hate, but you can't be all sticky and grubby on wedding day!) and then put them back into their pyjamas (they still had to eat lunch, and it was pizza...).

We headed over to the wedding location, a very pretty historic farm by the mountains. After lunch we got the girls dressed and had Fiona practice her flower girl duties a few times, then other people began arriving and we were ready to begin! Fiona's cousin Emily accompanied her down the aisle, and many petals were dropped along the way, then in came the bride. I'm going to have to steal some pictures from other people here because Ben was working the video camera and I had my hands full of Adele so we didn't get any pictures of the ceremony. So you'll just have to take my word that it went something like this...

It won't let me embed it, so you'll just have to click. It's worth it. Trust me.

Here are some pilfered pictures too...

Beautiful couple...

(Photo by Mike)

Adele had a good time making faces at people sitting behind us...

(Photo by Mike)

The ceremony was really nice, and the Bishop who performed it gave some good advice to the newlyweds. Luckily it was also pretty short because Fiona really wanted to go and pick up the rose petals she'd scattered on the way in; after all, we had picked them up after our practices! We got her to hold off until the ceremony was done, then she insisted that Andrew should help her pick them all up. It was cute.

After that we got to congratulate the new Mr. and Mrs.

Photographs were taken and we hung out for a while and had Adele take a nap before the reception started. The dinner was delicious and then there was a program with speeches, songs and a funny video. I hear the program was great, but both girls were having a hard time sitting still so we took a break outside and I missed it...

After that it was time for.... cake! Oh, the cake. I have never seen so many delicious cakes. Fiona wanted to try all of them, which was fine with me because I got to finish off all the cake she didn't eat. YUM! Then later there was some dancing, which is always fun. Fiona had so much fun dancing with Emily and Adele endured dancing with me though by then she was very tired.

First dance as husband and wife...

Everyone dancing!

(Photo by Mike)

We saw off the bride and groom and then headed home. Both girls fell fast asleep in the car and went straight to bed. We headed sadly back to Minneapolis early the next morning, waving goodbye to the mountains as we went. The girls did great on the plane there and back though, so who knows, maybe we'll have another exciting vacation sooner rather than later!

Congratulations Laurie and Nate! Looking forward to seeing you both next month!

The second installment of our action packed trip to the UT!

2011-07-24T20:47:00.016-05:00

If you missed the first installment you can check it out here!

Some of us woke up bright and early on Thursday morning, and the rest of us pried our eyelids open with a groan because wouldn't you guess it, no one under five likes to sleep at night on vacation. Grrr.

Still, morning it was and going we were getting! We packed up and headed out to see some mountains! First stop was Bridal Veil Falls. According to my source of all information, Wikipedia, Bridal Veil Falls is a 607-foot-tall double cataract waterfall in the south end of Provo Canyon in Utah. I love waterfalls, and this one was very impressive!

We settled by the little lake at the bottom of the falls and ate our picnic lunch.

Then the bravest among us paddled around in the lake. I say bravest because although it was a hot day, the water in there was absolutely FREEZING. I guess the water comes from snow melting on the mountain because it was so cold that you could only have your feet in it for a few seconds before feeling intense pain. If you're an adult, anyway. The kids that were splashing around in it didn't seem that concerned.

Fiona was reluctant to have her toes in for very long...

The Tennant kids endured the icy waters to have a photo-op on the falls.

And Adele took a nap for the most part. Yep, not sleeping at night really tuckers you out during the day!

Our next stop was Sundance! Yep, like the film festival. Apparently Sundance is owned by Robert Redford and is primarily a ski resort, but also has the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute. Sundance is on Mount Timpanogos, which is 11,749 feet high, and the resort has a restaurant at 8,250 feet. In the summer the chairlifts are open for people to ride on to see the view from higher up, so that's what we did! Check out this link (yes, it's wikipedia again) to see some panoramas of the view and the mountain. The lift takes you up to 7,100 feet and although there is a lot of mountain left further up, the views from there are spectacular.

The ride up was a little nerve wracking, but the ride back down was very pleasant after Adele stopped screaming and went to sleep. Sorry, other chairlift riders...

(Credit to Cathy for that photo, stolen from her blog.)

We finished the day with delicious ice cream from an ice cream place that Cathy and Erik would eat at when they were in school at BYU. We were lucky to have our very own live in tour guide for this trip who took us to such awesome places! Thanks Cathy!

The first installment of our action packed trip to the UT!

2011-07-23T21:27:00.027-05:00

Well, we're back from our trip to Utah for Ben's sister Laurie's wedding. The tales of our adventures there will come in a few separate posts - here is day 1!

We had a really great time. From the minute our plane landed we just went, went, went, and saw and did a lot of really fun things in the one and a half non-wedding days we spent there. Fiona has started using the expression "holy cow!" (I really don't know who she got that one from!) and that pretty much sums up a lot of the things we saw and did. I've never been to Utah before and although I know people ski there I was unprepared for the incredible mountains that are everywhere you look!

We arrived around 1:30pm on Wednesday and went straight from the airport to the This is the Place Heritage Park.

The park has a lot of history of the first Utah Mormon settlers (who were led west by Brigham Young, who declared "this is the place" when he spied the Salt Lake Valley) and is a really fun step back in time to Pioneer days. There are little houses and stores where you meet and talk to people dressed as Pioneers who tell you about blacksmithing or leatherworking, or some other pioneer-y thing, and you get to have a go at making something using pioneer time tools. Here are some pictures of the things we did there...

Horse riding...

Candle making... (Andrew had made one earlier in the day, so this was old news for him ;-)

Walking on stilts...

Fiona learns an important skill... pioneer laundry!

Mountains!

Hoop and stick games!

Crawling around on the ground!

We visited this house - it was very cute! Then we read the sign outside. A Scottish immigrant lived here with his wife and NINE children. That's crazy.

We would have stayed longer but they closed, so we moved on to other things! We continued our history themed day and next up was... Temple Square!

Temple Square is the world headquarters of the LDS Church, and has all kinds of interesting things to look at. The Temple itself is a beautiful building that took 40 years to build. Here we are posing by it (sorry there's a tree in the way!).

We were given a tour of different buildings, including the Tabernacle where the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir practices and sings. We also had a picture taken by the Christus statue, a replica of a famous statue which lives in Copenhagen. The room it lives in is painted with a the night sky and is full of constellations and planets, and is really strikingly beautiful.

After that we were completely exhausted, so we called it a day. More fun was to be had the next day, so we needed to get home to sleep. Stay tuned for our day 2 adventures!