Made with love

As is usual weekend tradition here in our house, Adam made us breakfast this morning.  In honor of Valentine's Day, he used red food coloring to dye the pancake batter and eggs.  He even made the kids some special heart pancakes, complete with red sugar crystals.  Happy Valentine's day, Daddy, you're the best!

Easy dinner idea

I made a pretty yummy dinner tonight so I thought I'd share here.  The other day in the doctor's office waiting room I was flipping through a Martha Stewart Living magazine and came across a recipe whose picture looked so good, I asked the receptionist if I could tear it out.  Once she gave me the go ahead, I tucked it in my purse and planned to buy the ingredients soon.  

Cut to today.  I had taken some chicken tenders out of the freezer yesterday and didn't really have a plan for them, other than to use the crock pot and be lazy on Valentine's Day.  This morning I remembered the recipe in my purse, but I hadn't made it to the grocery store yet, so I decided to improvise.  I put the following in the crock pot: 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, a layer of chicken tenders (or breasts, whatever you've got), and a sprinkling of garlic powder.

I turned that on high for a couple hours.  In the meantime, Adam julienned some red, orange, and yellow mini sweet peppers and sliced some celery into bite sized pieces.  We added them to the crock pot along with another can of stewed tomatoes and cooked on high for another hour or so.  I made some israeli couscous to serve with it.  It was so good and I can't wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow!

My funny Valentines!

I'm ready for a nap - updated!

I had a couple girlfriends over today, one from high school and one from both elementary school and high school.  Between the three of us we had one 4 year old, six 2 year olds, one 1 year old, and one 10 month old.  Julie had an extra one she was babysitting, but her oldest was at school, so it evened out.

These are about the only pictures I got, and somehow didn't manage to get any of Owen or Ally.  Gen took a bunch, and I know she got a good one of us moms, so whenever she gets those up I'll link them.  I can't imagine what takes her so long!  *wink*  Here's her post, check out the second half of it.

Molly and Libby enjoying their snacks.

Perfect rainy day toddler energy drainer!

Brody and Lauren, just hanging out.

Here's Russ, spending some time with Maggie and Illiana - 

two girls who, amazingly, aren't his sisters.

She's artistic like her daddy

Lauren is sitting at the bar writing her name on Valentine's cards for her preschool friends.  She's adding a smiley face to some of them above her name.  

I handed her a card for her teacher and she wrote her name and handed it back to me.  I returned it to her and told her to put a smiley face on it, since she did it on the rest of them.  She said, "I think I'll just draw a human instead."

Somewhere over the rainbow...

We had some pretty heavy rain this afternoon and this was our aftermath - one of the largest rainbows I've ever seen:

Look at how bold the colors are!

There was even a double rainbow right before it disappeared.  

It's a little hard to see, since it's not as bright as the main one.

Don't be jealous

Do you all know my good friends Robin and her brother JR and his wife Leslie?  If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting them, let me tell you, they are some of the wittiest people I know.  So ravishing, darling!

P.S.

We used to take baths together when we were little.  

P.P.S.

When Owen was first born he looked just like JR and we all had a good laugh about it - even Leslie.

October already?

We were at the bank this morning and as Owen was getting out of the van he stopped short and exclaimed "Look at that lady wearing a tiger costume!"  Adam and I turned around to see an older lady wearing a spotted fur coat.  We started cracking up!

Getting ready for spring

"Stay friends"

Last night I got together with a group of friends - a group of friends from 17 years ago - a group I graduated from 8th grade with!  It was so much fun catching up with everyone, showing off pictures of our kids, and reminiscing.  Some of us went to high school together, but for the most part we hadn't seen each other in over 12 years, even though we all still live in the same city.  And we owe it all to FB for getting us back in touch.