This year Ana was Belle and Alex was a pirate. Ana’s not all *that* into the princess thing, but she likes it when people tell her how pretty she looks. Alex was totally in his element. I doubt I’ll be getting my skull-and-crossbones bandanna back from him.

We tried something different this year and went to the local city Halloween festival instead of the usual door-to-door march. It was packed. There were, no joke, close to a thousand kids there. There was a massive line for the ho-hum petting zoo and pony rides. There was an enormous line for the too-scary-for-a-four-year-old haunted house. There was a line for everything.

After about 20 minutes of wandering around and playing carnival-esque games to win candy, the kids pronounce it lame and ask to go trick-or-treating instead. It was all good. The kids and I had fun wandering up and down our block extorting the neighbors for candy.

Categories: food, kids and parenting, memes
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I haven’t been able to cook as much as I’ve wanted to since I went back to work, but I’ve been trying. Monday I took the day off, and I ended up cooking a couple of dishes that fed us all week. Tonight at 10:30, instead of getting ready for bed I was sauteing garlic and spinach to put into a Tupperware container, for eating whenever.

This latest bout of interest in cooking started a few months before Angie was born. I attributed it to nesting behavior, but Angie is now four and a half months old, and it doesn’t seem to have diminished. This article puts it in context. Reading this, I found myself nodding in agreement quite a bit. I’m definitely buying more organic foods, and I can totally relate to the comments from Alice Waters and Rachel Ray.

My next goal is to include the kids more in my cooking. I know Alex is dying to crack an egg, and Ana has already proved herself capable of using measuring spoons. Hmm, maybe we’ll bake some muffins this weekend.

Tags: philosophical
Categories: food
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During my time at home this summer we’ve been eating very well. I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm. I only wished we ate this well during the rest of the year.

Then I had what could only be called an epiphany.

Here’s the situation. During the work/school week, we’re so famished by the time we get home that we end up getting fast food or heating up frozen meals instead of cooking from scratch. This has been the case for YEARS, and we’re sick of it. With the kids returning to school and me returning to work in a couple of weeks, I was desperate to find a way to fit home-cooked meals into our busy lives. Finally I thought, if we’re too hungry and tired to cook dinner as soon as we get home, why not cook AFTER eating dinner?

So this week I’ve been running a simulation. Every night, we’ve been eating dinner around 6:30. Afterwards, I clean off the table, put the dirties in the dishwasher, and then get to work.

How is it going? In a word, WONDERFULLY. Tonight we had chicken sausage / broccoli (cooked 2 nights ago) and turkey chili / brussel sprouts (cooked last night). We have so much leftover that I didn’t need to cook tonight (for tomorrow). I could really get used to this.

Tags: useful
Categories: food
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Kevin has been taking the kids swimming just about every week. Mostly they go to Grandma’s house, but the picture above was taken in my cousin’s backyard. Thanks to Daddy’s tutelage, I’m proud to announce that as of 3 weeks ago Alex is a swimmer! He can tread water, doggy paddle, and swim underwater!

Here’s Ana carefully portioning American cheese into bite size pieces. Of our two older children, she’s the one who shares Daddy’s love of cheese. Other than American she also likes cheddar and Gorgonzola.

Ana went through a pirate phase, walking around the house growling, “Arrr! I’m a pirate!” then summoning us to her bedside telling us she couldn’t sleep for fear of pirates, despite Kevin’s assurances that pirate ships can’t sail into the Inland Empire. Finally I learned that Alex had been telling her scary pirate stories at bedtime. I asked him to quit it, and Ana’s worries about pirates disappeared overnight.

Two weeks ago I cooked up 8 lbs of pork that Kevin bought on sale. I made Chinese bbq pork, carnitas, and chile colorado. Ironically, the Chinese dish turned out extremely mediocre, but the two Mexican dishes turned out fantastic. Kevin said they take him back to a little village in Guadalajara. I said just call me Rosa Chen.

Tags: summery
Categories: food, kids and parenting
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And now for something completely different. A post about some of the things going on this summer that aren’t baby related!

Since I’ve been put on a 4/10 (ten hours a day, M-TH) schedule at work for the summer, I’ve had Friday off to take the kids swimming. Yesterday was our second lesson and the kids are doing GREAT! Ana is motoring all over the pool in her little inflatable ring and occasionally dunking her head to blow bubbles. Alex just went from non-swimming to being able to swim half the length of the pool underwater in one visit. I’m so happy with their progress and really looking forward to all our remaining trips to the pool this summer.

Alex yesterday while in the pool: “This is more fun than playing video games!” And that is what they refer to as Epic Win.

The fireworks pictures were shot from our driveway with a 50mm lens. One of the advantages of living about a mile West and thirty or forty feet up from the local HS where they put on an outstanding show every year is that we don’t need to leave home to enjoy the best seats in the house.

Julie’s birthday fell mid-week this year so she got two celebrations. One today with all the family here and one last Sunday with just the five of us. For dinner last Sunday I took the two big kids out shopping and helped them cook dinner for Mommy. They got semolina flour from our local Italian market and made fettuccine from scratch with a hand-crank pasta machine. I’ve got to make this a tradition because I didn’t get any pictures of Alex cutting and Ana hanging the noodles! The sauce was mushroom vodka and the zucchini was fried in parmesan beer batter. We got rave reviews from the birthday girl and the chefs alike so I’ll call it a success.

Happy Birthday to the kindest, wisest, and hardest-working mom/best friend around.
Love, Your Four Biggest Admirers

Tags: exciting,hot
Categories: food, kids and parenting
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