Darth Vader eating a turkey and avacado sandwich

"William," I asked, "why aren't you speaking quietly?"

"Because I Darth Vader," he replied, "and Darth Vader's a Bad Guy."






































valid point.

the littlest carnivore

at 14 months both the boys were all about avacado and wheat bread and cheese and asparagus.
(I know.)

Ivy Elizabeth, on the other hand, would like more turkey:






and while I'm up, could she have it with a side of bacon, and maybe a nice juicy steak?



(she is her father's daughter.)

beating eggs for Sunday lunch

(figured we may as well keep the lunch theme going.)

double standards

sorry about two lunch posts in two days, but there are important reasons for this:

first, we really love lunch around here. It's a thing.

second, and this is the bad news, my kids are on to me. they've finally noticed that while they're eating this for lunch:

I'm eating this:

and they are not happy about it.
not at all.

so here's the question of the day: do I start sharing my froot loops? Or start eating spinach?

...decisions are the worst.

why lunch is better when Dad makes it

The kids are always like, "Mom, make me a 'W' sandwich!" or "Mom, please make me a 'Michael' sandwich!" or "Mom, my sandwich would be better if it looked like a rocket." And I'm always like, "What are you talking about? I don't care. eat your sandwich already."

because when I was little, we were lucky to have bread and spinach was an unheard of luxury and if we wanted cheese on our lunch we walked out to the dairy and curdled some milk, plus we walked uphill to school both ways, or at least one way, but it was a really big hill and we were always very tired at the end.
(that last part is true, by the way.)







































stop showing me up, Christofer.

taste test

hopefully she'll like it as much as her brothers do.
all signs point to yes.

food storage

I'm not very good at emergency preparedness.

We do have complete 72-hour kits. (that's something, right?)

But other than that, in case of flood, famine, fire, earthquake, tsunami, plague of locusts, outbreak of brain-eating zombies, or other disaster, we might be in trouble.



on the other hand, should any desperate situation requiring intervention by cakepop arise, I'm your woman.

Dear Universe,

I would really appreciate it if you would stop sending me irresistable Easter treats.



I cannot resist them.


I've probably eaten one meal that wasn't at least 50% chocolate in the last week.



and I'm getting too old for that.






























maybe some fresh produce instead?

thanks,
Liz

my two-year-old uses a binky, and other recent parenting failures

We took away our two-year-old's binky, then gave it back to him

and I still let my three-year-old use a sippy cup.

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I've been letting the boys watch two or three episodes of Little Einsteins a day

and for lunch this week they've had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.

Two days ago I put Michael in time-out, and forgot about him

til I heard a little voice ask "Mom, can I please get down now please?"

Ivy hasn't had a bath since Tuesday

and I spent five minutes today pushing Michael's shoe on and insisting he just needed to relax his foot already! before realizing it was actually William's shoe.

next week will be better (I hope).

my favorite things, vol. VI

chocolate chip scones:




I usually make them on nights when Chris works late and the boys are already in bed. I eat some for dinner, then I eat some for breakfast the next morning, and then more for lunch. I might need a normal meal after that, but then I'll probably want some for dessert.



scones are delicious.

the beginning of the end

The boys are good eaters, and by that I mean both they eat a good deal and also are not picky about what they eat. It's pretty remarkable, actually, the things my kids like. They love broccoli, asparagus, salmon, avacado, oatmeal, peppers, too many things to list.
They hate pretty much nothing.
It's not that my kids love healthy food more than anything in the world--I mean, if you give them a choice between some broccoli and a cookie, those guys are definitely going to eat that cookie. and then ask for another three-- but if they're given broccoli to eat, they'll eat broccoli. If they're given curry, curry. and so on.
And, barring any handy baked goods, they do like vegetables.
(as a matter of fact, right at this very moment William is sitting at the counter declaiming his Great Love of celery. whatever, dude.)
However, are these halcyon days coming to a close? I have discovered something that I cannot, under any circumstances, in any fashion, no matter what, disguised or not, convince them eat:



roasted edamame.
I just hope it's not a portent.

valentine's day

For valentine's day this year I made our traditional Fondue dinner

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and then invited my brother's family over to share it with us.

because I am a romantic fool.

my favorite things, vol. V

chocolate covered pretzels

especially when they're pretty.

my favorite things, vol. III

chocolate for breakfast

dinner time/my favorite things

If any of you are Costco members, you should seriously be eating this ravioli (Monterey Pasta Company Spinach and Cheese Ravioli). It's what I make (er, "make") on nights when Chris is working late and dinner is too hard.
It is easy.
And delicious.
Especially with parmesan (reggiano, whatever) on top.










and the boys love it.



you're welcome.

we are in sugar overload

I spent several hours shooting candy with kat today and all I can say is: it is not good for me OR baby to have that much candy.


The shooting took several hours because we were experimenting with some new layouts, and I'm not really sure how it will all turn out, so I think I'll just share the easy part of my day:

Michael Found the Chocolate and Went to Time-Out

candy

making caramel apples