Kiss Me, I'm Irish!

Happy St Patty's Day!

This is a copy of the 1920 census.  At the bottom is the surname Dale.  Cecil Dale is my great grandpa.  Listed under him is Thelma, my grandma Bradbury, and Thomas A, my Great Great grandpa.  I found this census doing my genealogy about 6 years ago and was shocked to find that my great grandpa Thomas had listed Ireland as the birth place of his mother and father.  I was also shocked to find that he had listed their primary language as Irish....hahaha!  Of course that instantly meant St Patty's Day was taken to a whole new level.    

After church on St Patty's Day we threw off our church clothes and put on the green.  Then we started cooking our Irish feast of Irish Stew, Colcannon (basically cheesy mashed potatoes and cabbage), and apple barley pudding.  Of course we have to have some O'douls as well...oh don't judge, I know you're drinking your Martinellis.  We invited some friends over to enjoy this Irish feast and celebrate our legacy and the joy of genealogy.

Playtime in green

Playtime with dad

O'Douls, Apple-barley pudding with homemade whipped cream,  colcannon and Irish stew

Yep, we had to add a "kids' table" :)

Peterson Obstacle Course Races

We declared our Saturday a family fun day.  Blowing off everything on our "To-do" lists, we spent the entire day enjoying life as a family...with simple, inexpensive things.  We ended our day with an after dinner obstacle course race that the kids LOVED....okay mom and dad loved it too.  First the kids had to race their "racers" to our piano then climb through the "tunnel", over the boxes, and jump along the cushions before racing to the finish line.  We did this over and over and over, until finally Ethan said ,huffing and puffing, he needed to take a break.  That was our cue for bedtime.  It was a great way to get our kids to burn off some of that energy, especially Claire, right before bedtime, and made for some fun pics :)

Ethan on his "racer", heading to the piano

Claire on her "racer"

Daddy through the tunnel...and no, no adults got stuck in the process :)

Ethan through the tunnel

Over the boxes

jumping down the cushions

Through the finish line.  Ethan modelling the broken through finish line ...our wonderful streamer we'd taped and re-taped across the doorway 

Gold trophy stickers for everyone

Pinewood Derby

Pinewood Derby Time!  

We asked Ethan a month ago what kind of car he wanted to make. I'm not even sure why we asked, we all knew what he would say...LIGHTENING MCQUEEN.  After having the cars cut, Ethan and Daddy got to some quality time painting his McQueen car.  He helped Daddy spray paint him red, and of course Mommy made Ethan wear a little mask over his nose and mouth that I'm pretty certain drove Daddy nuts...but those fumes are nasty! Then we made some stencils for Ethan to paint onto this car.  He even got out his little toy hammer to help daddy hammer in the tires.  Claire and I made Mack to race alongside McQueen...you can imagine how much help she was :)  So it was pretty much mommy's car.  The day of the derby I babysat so we ended up letting Christian race Mack with Ethan.  It was a fun night that included a potluck dinner to start and then awards rounded out the night.  Ethan's car won a couple of his heats, but didn't win the big prize ..although I'm not sure he understands that...he just thinks he's always the winner :)  They did award him the "Kiss the Competition Goodbye" award that was a giant Hershey Kiss. Man did that make his night!  Here are some pics of our derby extravaganza. 

painting McQueen, using his stencils. 

painting McQueen, using his stencils.

painting with daddy, using his stencils.

Me attempting Mack

Before I made Mack's hat out of salt dough, and before the wheels went on

Ethan so excited to race his car

Ethan and Christian with Mack and McQueen

Snacks we brought for the potluck

some of the competition

Racing

Claire having a blast

Accepting his Hershey Kiss award

So excited

The little candy cars all the racers got on the right

Playing with McQueen...which he slept with that night and has played with everyday since.

Happy Valentine's Day

We love Valentine's Day at the Peterson house.  I know we constantly hear "oh it's a greeting card holiday", and other remarks about how stupid the day is, but we love it.  There's no better day than a day dedicated to showing love to those around you.  We try to make it fun by eating heart-shaped foods and making heart projects and of course eating some "treats" that we wouldn't normally eat.  So Happy Valentine's day from the Peterson's.  We hope you were able to show love and feel love from those around you.  

heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast

Claire's heart hairdo

Heart Penguins with hand-print feet

Hearts the kids made for the pantry doors

our heart-shaped lunch

chocolate treats that Mimi sent over from a local chocolatier

Life or Something Like it....

Asian Night at the Peterson's

A little Asian mushroom stir fry, chopsticks, and little Asian buns for Claire, and Viola!  It's Asian night at the Peterson's.  Of course Justin got out the camera and managed to get out of any photos :) but it was fun all around.

Look at that focus

yes, one of my finest :)

So silly

 Airplane Mater

We're not those parents that buy our kids toys every time we're at the store or generally buy them toys without a purpose (like a holiday or something like that)...go ahead you can say it, we're the meanest parents ever...but Ethan really wanted this Airplane Mater, so we told him he could earn it.  We kept a little mason jar in view so he could always see it and every time he helped mom and dad he got to put money in his "mater jar".  Of course, if he threw a fit, he would have some money taken away.  He spent a little over a week helping us do laundry, unload and load the dishwasher, pick up toys, and other age-appropriate chores, and we're excited to say...HE DID IT!  He earned enough money to buy his Mater :)

 Family Home Evening- The Tower of Babel

This week our family home evening included the story of the Tower of Babel.  We then let the kids use their legos to try to build the biggest "Tower of Babel" they could build.  It was a big hit...which I have to say, not all of our FHE's are.  We then wrapped it up by enjoying some Lego brownies.

"Whoa!  That's a big tower"

building the tower

Mmmmm!  Lego Brownies and Ethan's "Say Cheese" face :)

Ethan the Animal Doctor

So with the flu and strep hitting me this week, I was less than able to care for the kids like I would normally do.  Luckily a friend stepped in the first night and then Justin had to head home from work the second night to help me.  While I was waiting on him to wrap things up at work and get home, I remembered this toy doctor's kit I bought 2 years ago on sale and still had not managed to give it to the kids.  So without hesitation, I busted that thing out hoping to distract them with this new toy until daddy could arrive and save us.  Ethan went from being mommy's doctor the first day to animal doctor the second day.  It was so sweet how he cared for his sick zebra, yes zebra...We even had to get out the Thomas bandaids for his zebra's boo-boo's.  Ethan even took the zebra, and its bedding, to bed with him that night...until he was all better, what a good doc.  Such a fun age!  His little imagination is getting bigger all the time.  

Cheaters Never Prosper

So around here, yes most things, especially desserts, are made from scratch.  But sometimes, you just don't have time or your just dying for something sweet, but really don't need all those extra calories.  Well here are a few of my cheater cake ideas for you.  Don't forget, you can always cut calories with replacing oil with unsweetened applesauce (equal conversion, 1 c oil= 1 c applesauce), and greek yogurt works wonders as a base in most recipes.


Cheater Cake

One box cake mix and diet 7 up...yep that's all there is to it; no oil, no eggs, nothing; just cake mix and diet 7 up.  Just stir in enough diet 7 up to get that liquid cake batter consistency you would normally get by adding all the other ingredients, then pour into a greased pan and bake according to the box (usually 350 degrees, ~30 minutes).  Yep that's all.  Of course, since we've cut all those calories, we like to throw in chocolate chips occasionally, or add nuts, and yes even cherry pie filling with our chocolate cake mixes.  If you're feeling really healthy, you can add your choice of fresh fruits, cut down to an appropriate size of course.  Or,  drop in some almond extract ~2 tbsp, or orange extract~2 tbsp to jazz it up.  Yep, so much you can do, so be adventurous.


Cheater Icing

Well, if you're making a cheater cake, might as well make some cheater icing right?  In a pinch or looking to cut calories, take 1 box of instant pudding, whatever flavor you want your icing to be, make according to package.  When firm, gently fold in 2 cups of lite cool whip and top your cooled cake.  Again so many things you can do, so be adventurous.  We've made cheater pistachio cake with cheater pistachio icing, cheater chocolate-chocolate chip cake with chocolate icing, and more.  Next up is cheater chocolate cake with butterscotch chips and cheater butterscotch icing.  Have fun!  Enjoy!