Welcome to Superhero Training Academy!!

On Saturday, we celebrated Jake's 5th birthday with a Superhero Training Academy!  Jake was SO excited for the party, I don't know how he made it through the day, anxiously awaiting the arrival of all of the superheroes!

We had decided a few months ago that we would just do the party at home; and of course, like anything with me, something that started as a simple idea spiraled into a theme (Batman), and then an even more elaborate theme (training academy), and then I blacked out while on Pinterest and found myself with a can of spray paint, boxes, and glitter foam stickers. But I'll do a separate post with all of the party details and projects.

The superheroes started arriving, and the first activity was making superhero masks to wear during training!

After that, it was time for an obstacle course.  The premise was that a villain had tied Spiderman up on top of a skyscraper with his own web, so the superheroes had to go through a tunnel, hit a punching bag, jump over some rubble from the building (fake bricks), then knock the building down so that Spiderman could escape from the top.  The kids loved it!!

Jake gets Spiderman down on the first try!

Next up, time to put the bat signal on Batman! (aka-Pin the tail on the donkey)

After that, the superheroes had to refuel with some food:

Next up was presents, and I love how excited other kids get when watching others open gifts :)  It was like Jake became a celebrity, they were all crowding in, and ooohing and aahhhing over stuff.  He got a lot of great stuff!

I love Liam photobombing while collecting tissue paper to shred.

checking out a stickerbook with Jaden

Cake time!!

Here is a video of the big candle moment:

Overall, a fantastic party, if I do say so myself.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, no one was severely injured, and my house is still standing.  I was a little overwhelmed during some portions of the party (mainly the ones that involved children running while emitting ear-piercing shrieks), but I guess that's all part of the experience.  Here is a video, to demonstrate what I mean....this was in between some games, when the kids were entertaining themselves:

Every superhero needs a dog sidekick in a cape!!!  (right?)

Me & my mom, striking superhero poses

And no matter what kind of anxiety I felt, or how much work I put into it, it was all worth it, because the next morning, Jake came over to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Thank you so much for my party, mommy...I loved it".  A-ma-zing.  I'd do the party again 100 times for that kid. 

Happy Birthday, Jake!!

Dear Jake,

5!  5?  How did this happen?  It's your 5th birthday, but if I sit here and close my eyes, I can still picture you as my little baby boy; snuggling into the crook of my arm as I rock you and sing you the "Go to Sleep" song that daddy made up for you when you were just a few weeks old.  I can still smell your baby smell, and still see your little fingers curled around mine.

Fast forward to now, and when I think of you, I see a handsome little boy who makes us so proud to be parents.  You are strong willed and independent, and while sometimes those qualities can be a challenge as a parent, we know that we are lucky because we can count on them to serve you well later in life.

You are caring when it comes to your friends and family, and especially your brother.  Sometimes when you are talking to Liam (and probably think no one is listening) I hear you say things to him like, "You are my best friend, Liam...did you know that?  I will never let you down.  I will always be there to be-tect you".  (On a related note, I'm going to cry when you stop saying "be-tect" instead of protect.  I love it.)  5 minutes later, you might be fighting with him over a toy, or accusing him of always stealing your stuff....but I know what you really think of him and how much you love him :)  It warms my heart when you say stuff like, "Can we have a family day today?  I love my family."; I can deny it all I want, but I know the day will come when you won't want to do that, so I'll treasure it now while I am able to.

Your athletic ability (which thankfully you seemed to have inherited from daddy and not me) always amazes me, whether it's playing t-ball with your team, skiing without an ounce of fear, or throwing a perfect spiral with a football while outside playing the yard.  You are starting to recognize more and more numbers and letters, and your teachers tell me that you seem to be most interested in science-related things at school. You can run around me in circles for what seems like hours, but then 5 minutes later, crawl up into my lap and sit still while I read you book after book after book.

Thank you for all of the memories of the last year, and for being YOU.  We love you, Jacob Charles...happy 5th birthday!!!

3 days old

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

Recipe: Pasta Fagiola-Type Soup

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest (you're surprised, right?) and just altered it a bit.  Here is the link to the original recipe: http://theitaliandishblog.com/imported-20090913150324/2010/1/2/sausage-and-bean-soup-with-pasta.html

Pasta Fagiola-Type Soup

• 1 cup dried cannellini or cellini beans or 1 15-ounce can of any beans you like, drained (I used Cannellini)
• 1 pound ground sausage, turkey or pork (I used turkey)
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 medium carrot, diced (I omitted this because sometimes carrots IN things offend me)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I used the kind that comes pre-minced in a jar)
• 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes 
• 6 to 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf (I didn't have an actual leaf, so I used crushed bay leaves)
• salt and pepper 
• 1 cup ditalini pasta, or any small pasta
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 

Instructions:

In a large pot, brown the turkey.  Remove from pot.  If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot.  Add onion, carrot and olive oil and saute for 5 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the drained beans  and the turkey and cover the pot. Cook for an hour over low heat, at a gentle simmer.

Add the pasta and cook, uncovered, until the pasta is tender.  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more chicken broth.

Serve with grated cheese on top and an extra drizzle of olive oil.

*I tasted my soup when adding the pasta, and thought it was a bit bland, so I threw in some oregano (maybe 2 tsp or so), which seemed to do the trick.

2012 Book Wrap Up

I really embraced my kindle this year and loved searching the library's site for books to check out; and even better for this upcoming year, I acquired a few amazon gift cards for my birthday, so I can actually buy some books that aren't available on the library site, YAY! 

Here is my round up of books read in 2012; I finished 23 books this year, which is up from 20 last year. 

• "Faefever" (Karen Moning)
• "Bloodfever" (Karen Moning)
• "Dark Fever" (Karen Moning)
• "Summer in the City" (Candace Bushnell)
• "Frozen Heat" (Richard Castle)
• "Gone Girl" (Gillian Flynn)
• "A Summer Affair" (Elin Hilderbrandt)
• "Beautiful Ruins" (Jess Walter)
• "Secret Lives" (Diane Chamberlain)
• "The Castaways" (Elin Hilderbrandt)
• "The Peach Keeper" (Sarah Addison Allen)
• "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" (Mindy Kaling)
• "Keeping Faith" (Jodi Picoult)
• "Vision in White" (Nora Roberts)
• "Fires of our Choosing" (Eugene Cross)
• "Still Summer" (Jacquelyn Mitchard)
• "Naked Heat" (Richard Castle)
• "Maine" (Courtney Sullivan)
• "The Girl Who Couldn't Say No" (Tracy Engelbrecht)
• "Just When I Thought I'd Dropped My Last Egg" (Kathie Lee Gifford)
• "Lola and the Boy Next Door" (Stephanie Perkins)
• "Before I Fall" (Lauren Oliver)
• "Pretty in Plaid" (Jen Lancaster)

 As you can see, I'm in the middle of a series of books by Karen Moning called The Fever Series.  I kept reading about this series, and it's definitely something I would have never started reading on my own based solely on the description (fantasy stuff, and it's pretty violent-neither of which are usually my cup of tea), but I'm sucked in at this point.  I read 3 of them in the past month or so, I'm on book 4 now (there are 5 total in the series, so at this point, I'm just going to go ahead and finish it out all in a row). Side note-this is why I'm hesitant to start the Harry Potter series...I know that I will get completely sucked in and want to sit and read all 7 (8?) at once.

I was a bit of a slacker this past year on book reviews, but if you want a good list, check out my friend's blog, she just did an extensive list with reviews and recommendations...I can't wait to read a lot of these!   http://jchokie.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-books-of-2012.html

Ski season begins!

Brian was so excited to get to take Jake out skiing for the first time this season when his family was visiting.  We got a lot of snow the day after Christmas, so they headed out on the 27th to enjoy it!

Here are some videos, followed by some pictures:

And, as always, passed out cold before even making it out of the parking lot:

Christmas Sangria

I sent Brian to Aldi (my idea of frugal heaven) a few days before Christmas and he came home with everything on my list and some type of fruit that I could not identify.  Conversation:

Me: What are those?
Brian: Pomegranates. They were on sale for less than $1 a piece.
Me: Oh.  Ok.  What do you do with them?
Brian: I'm not sure.  We can just google it.

And they say women are impulsive buyers for things that are on sale.

A quick google search showed that you actually consume bits of things that look like seeds.  And each piece of fruit gives you a lot of seeds.  A LOT.  We had 4 of these things.  We had also received a huge crate of nice oranges from my mother-in-law.  An abundance of fruit, just before Christmas?  Sounds like it's time to search my pinterest board to figure out a way to use it that involves alcohol!

Original recipe can be found here, but I changed it to involve the oranges (instead of limes).  I also left out the grand marnier because we didn't have any, and it's expensive.  We keep it classy!

• 1 bottle white wine (I used chardonnay)
• 3 cans 7up or Sprite
• Seeds of 1 pomegranate
• slices of orange
• ice

*I put the fruit and the wine in the pitcher the night before so that the fruit could soak, then just added in the sprite right before serving.

That's a wrap!!

 

 It's hard to believe that as I sit here and type this, I am less than 12 hours away from being back to sitting at my desk at work.  *sigh*  Why do vacations always fly by?   I can't really complain though, we've had a fantastic Christmas vacation this year.  I'll have quite a few posts to catch up on all of our fun (Children's Museum!  Skiing!  Sled riding!), but for now, I'll start with Christmas day.

Santa and the elves were hard at work on Christmas eve....

And everyone was up bright & early on Christmas day!! 

Video of them coming down:

He has been loving his dream lite at bedtime!

Apparently, getting a Hot Wheels car from Cars never gets old!! 

He loves Master Moves Mickey!

This was the gift he was most excited to ask Santa for...Lightning McQueen hawk

I don't know why he looks so sad!

I took Jake to the store & he picked out gifts for everyone this year, it was so cute :)

 The kids got a new play kitchen from us (I scored a great deal on craigslist!):

And they got a surprise power wheels from Aunt Amy & Ben!!  Here is the video of them unwrapping it (after going on a treasure hunt with clues to find it in the garage):

Liam looks a little scared here, but he had no problems climbing in and hanging on with Jake behind the wheel!

After all of that, GG & Pappy arrived for more fun!

Liam got his own stool so he won't have to steal Jake's anymore :)

a new suitcase!

 Sometime in the chaos of wrapping paper, toys, packaging, and a toddler who was dangerously close to naptime, Gracie managed to get herself stuck behind a pile of presents.  It was not a high point for her that day:

And then one of Brian's Christmas dreams came true...he received an ugly Christmas sweater from my parents!

After a great meal, we enjoyed some dessert (and gingerboozeshakes, of course!) and good times with our family.  We say it every year, but it's so true...we are really so lucky that both of our families are always able to be here with the kids. 

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!!  Happy New Year!