Happy Birthday Daddy!

We didn't do to much to celebrate Jerry's 38th birthday since it fell on a busy Tuesday (AWANA) night. We did have time for cake and to sing (terribly off key). I grabbed the camera for a quick shot and am so glad I did! It's one of the best photos of my boys ever! Everyone is smiling!

We spent the morning making birthday cards for Daddy. I found this site a while ago and used a few of their printables to help me make this card:

I have two years to come up with something crazy to celebrate Jerry's 40th birthday. If you have any ideas let me know. :)

Easter 2011

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday! We had a busy but fun day. Here are the handsome Shown boys right before church Easter morning:

I was going to take a family shot since Roz was able to come home for the weekend but as you can see we were having some difficulties getting certain parties to cooperate. (Why the sad face for Eli? He didn't want his shirt tucked in. I'm such a mean mom!)

After a breakfast at church, church service, quick lunch, and a nap... we went up to my parents for Easter dinner. We had delicious leg of lamb with mint jelly. My contribution was the annual lamb cake. This was cake #2. Cake #1 fell apart upon removal from the pan. Don't worry, it didn't go to waste we still ate it! I made some cupcakes in addition to the lamb cake for the (crazy!) non-coconut lovers.

If you want to know more about our Easter Lamb Cake tradition, read this post.

New Baby Gift Idea: Carseat Canopy

A few years ago Jerry and I decided we wanted to give more baby gifts to the new parents that we know. It wasn't in the budget to go out and buy something every time so we decided that something small and handmade would be best. We loved the handmade gifts we received when our children were born!

My old stand by is a set of my flannel/terry burp cloths. They are cute, easy to make, and useful. I never made a tutorial for those because they are almost too easy to make. Anyone who can sew a straight line can make one. The link above shows the first one I ever made. Looking back that first one was kind of lame. :) They have gotten better over the years because I have found cuter flannel and added better embellishments. One of these days I'll have to post some pictures of more recent ones.

But I'm always on the lookout for new baby gift ideas. So when I saw a "carseat canopy" I knew I had found my next project. I can't even remember where I first saw this now. It was one of those things that you just look at it and think... I can make that! There are a few patterns out there (just search: carseat canopy tutorial) but like anything else you can make them your own way.

What is a carseat canopy? It's basically a glorified blanket to put over your carseat. Straps keep it from falling down on baby while keeping the handle accessible. Lightweight cotton makes it perfect for warmer weather or you could make one out of thicker material for colder weather.  The canopy will keep out the sun, weather, or even inquisitive eyes at stores or restaurants.

Saturday I headed to JoAnn's and got some fabric to try and make one. Mine cost about $10 to make if you buy the necessary items on sale or with coupons. Just for fun I looked on Etsy to see what they were going for... anywhere from $25 to $50 depending on the style and fabric.

For my prototype, I chose two coordinating lightweight cottons to make the canopy reversible. Yes, I know this fabric is for girls. No, this one isn't for me! :)

Guess I should have ironed it again before taking this photo, please ignore the wrinkles.

If you want to try and make one, it's just a rectangle (32in x 40in) with rounded edges. The straps (2in x 8in) are sewn onto both sides and hook around the handle with velco. I top-stitched around the whole outside edge of both the rectangle and the straps.

To attach the straps securely, I stitched it like this:

Below is the final product all folded up and ready to give as a gift. I just have to make a cute, little instruction card to go with it!

I plan to make a few of these to have on hand to give as gifts. I also made about 20 of the flannel/terry burp cloths this weekend. I like to have a LOT of those ready in girl, boy, and gender neutral patterns.

Some of my other gift ideas are:
Fleece Blanket with Yarn Crochet Edge
Bathtime Lolly
Flannel Blanket with Thread Crochet Edge
Reversible Cotton Blanket
Diaper Cake or Diaper Wreath
Pull-On Bib

Nine!

Wesley's birthday was March 20th and I am just now getting around to a birthday post. I know, I know... I'm a terrible blogger. My goal was to make sure I got the post up before April 20th. I made it, with three days to spare!

We usually end up celebrating birthdays twice unless they happen to fall on a Saturday. On the actual birthdate we have a dessert of some kind (not usually cake) and open a few gifts. Then we do it all again with cake on the weekend when we can have a party with extended family. No one seems to complain about celebrating twice!

So here is Wesley on his actual birthday opening a few gifts and having cookie bars.

And here he is doing it again at his party a few day later.

Notice the shirt change. Wesley got a Packer Super Bowl Champ shirt as a gift and, of course, he had to change into it right away.

If you're up for a trip down memory lane here are some birthday posts from previous years:

• Turning 6 in 2008
• Turning 7 in 2009 here (includes birth story) and here
• Turning 8 in 2010 here (includes pictures of Wesley from each year) and here

Be sure to tune in next year when Wesley hits the DOUBLE digits and turns TEN!! Hopefully I'll get that post up in a more timely manner.

Wacky Weather

"Spring" weather in Wisconsin can be interesting. The snow had all but melted when we got a huge storm March 22nd and 23rd. We went from seeing grass to this...

...in about 24 hours. It's a good thing the snow had melted before the storm hit, we would have been buried otherwise! The final total was just under 18 inches! It was a record setting storm. Several cities declared snow emergencies. School didn't have to be canceled though... the kids (including Roz) were already on "spring" break.

After getting the car stuck and then being stranded at home in the great blizzard of 2009, Jerry now takes the van to work instead of the car whenever we get a good amount of snow. Since we live on a cul-de-sac and are pretty low on the snow plow priority list this works out nicely. He wouldn't get to the end of street otherwise.

We also had thundersnow and lightning. Thundersnow is actually rare but it was the second time we've had it in the past few years. (And we actually have had it yet again since this storm.)

Last Sunday (April 10th) it was 80 degrees and we had storms move in again. No snow this time. This was a good old fashioned thunderstorm including another broken weather record... this time for the most tornadoes Wisconsin has had in one day. The new record set: twelve. This weekend hasn't been nearly as exciting... just plain cold and even some snow. Although not as much snow as expected tomorrow though. (They're predicting 6 - 10 inches!) Snow in April is always a bit depressing but, thankfully, it melts right away and makes the grass green.

Adventures with Ocho

After Christmas we added some gerbils to the family to ease the pain of not having any pets. Wesley named them Milt and Ocho. We thought at the time they would be "easier" to deal with than a dog. And they are... mostly. Not too long after we got them, they escaped. Both of them. At 3 am. On a weekday. Thanks to Wesley's good ears and some fast early morning furniture flinging by Jerry we had them both back in the cage within minutes. That time they got out of a "side door" in the cage.

After a few weeks of looking a the duct tape on the side doors and dealing with the mess they were able to kick through the sides of the wire cage, we decided an aquarium was the way to go. The aquarium keeps the bedding in so much better than the old cage and, as an added benefit, the boys can see the gerbils much better too. They are fun to watch! We've had no problems since. Until yesterday.

Sometime Tuesday night or possibly early Wednesday morning one of the gerbils made his second escape. This time it was our fault. The cage was due for a cleaning and there was a little to much bedding (and chewed up toilet paper tubes) in the cage. We have no witnesses but they must have pushed the bedding up high enough for one to get out. Perhaps with a boost from his brother? :) The second one was not able to get out and thankfully remained in the cage. How they manage to survive the equivalent of a 3 story fall off the dresser every time they escape is beyond me!

Wesley thought he heard something at 9:30 and I thought I heard an odd sound around 10:30, but neither of us investigated. It wasn't until I was wiping off the table after breakfast and I saw some "droppings" that I knew something was amiss. I saw the evidence and thought to myself... I can't believe it, we have a mouse! Then it dawned on me... we have two! Sure enough, I went right to the cage and saw that we were short one gerbil.

I rallied the troops and we began our search. We checked the boys bedrooms and bathroom, cleaning floors as we went, then shutting the doors and blocking them with towels to prevent re-entry. Next we moved on to the living room. Since I am not allowed to move furniture I had the three big boys push the couches for me. After spending a good half hour cleaning up the pencils (so that's where they all went?), crayons, books, paper, dinos, legos, silly bands, and various other assorted items that can be kicked under our couch we knew where Ocho wasn't. Under the loveseat we found a little nest of shredded paper so at least we knew where he had been.

I did a quick search with the flashlight under the rest of the furniture. At that point we gave up. I couldn't move any other furniture or appliances and we had to move on to school work. I prepared Wesley for the worst and told him that we may never find Ocho. His biggest concern was for Milt, that he would be lonely without Ocho to keep him company. I won't tell you what my biggest concern was but includes smells and duct work.

After lunch I was cleaning up the kitchen and heard Ocho scratching under the oven. The boys were super excited that we found him, but getting him out proved to be a bit of challenge. We tried various things to get him out. None of them worked. (We stopped short of trying Jerry's idea: turning on the oven to see if the heat drove him out.) I blame my excitable helpers. I'm sure my inability to move the oven didn't help either. So we gave him some food (which he scattered all over under the oven) and water then left him in our little corral until Daddy came home.

Ocho's Corral--he never came out from under the oven

Spotted! The little trouble maker!

J.D. waits for a sighting

Within minutes of getting home Jerry's had Ocho back in the cage. He pulled the oven out and I used the broom to send him under the oven into the open space where Jerry caught him in a bucket. (Think furry hockey puck and broom as a hockey stick with a bucket for the goal.) Jerry was nice enough to do a little spring cleaning under and behind the oven as long as it was out. Then, since it was dinner time and I hadn't been able to cook with a gerbil and his corral under my oven, we went out to Taco Bell for dinner. We also stopped at Petsmart to get a lid for the cage because this will be the last time we do this.

Thanks to Ocho... I got most of my floors cleaned including under and behind my stove PLUS I got to eat dinner out! But he still owes me $10.99 for the cage lid.

Stormy Weather!

It's Severe Weather Awareness Week in Wisconsin and wouldn't you know we had some crazy weather to get the week rolling! There were tornado watches and warnings throughout the evening on Sunday. Our weather radio went off twice and the community sirens went off as well. After looking at the path of the storms on the radar Jerry and I decided not to wake up the boys and bring them to the basement. We were fortunate and didn't get anything more severe than a pretty awesome lightning show and some rain.

If you live in Wisconsin you should check out the Ready Wisconsin website. If you live elsewhere you should check out the FEMA Ready website. Both of these sites have lists for basic emergency kits. We take emergency preparedness pretty seriously. Here are some of our basic emergency kit items:

#1 Weather Radio: This is our main weather radio. I decided we needed one when one we slept through the community sirens one night. There are cheaper weather radios out there, but I like that this one could be programmed for our specific county and we could chose which alerts make an audible sound. There is no need to have an alarm go off in the middle of the night to let us know there is boring ol' thunderstorm watch. I only want to be awakened out of sound sleep if there is something serious going on. This radio is not just for weather, it will also sound an alarm for any community issued alerts (like the need to evacuate for a chemical spill). It plugs in but has battery backup in case of power loss.

#2 Emergency Radio: We also have this smaller, more portable emergency radio. Even though this radio is small it's very multi-purpose! It tunes regular radio as well as the NOAA weather band. It has a flash light. It can also charge a cell phone. Best of all it is solar or hand-crank powered so there is no need to remember to store batteries! It won't replace a weather radio though because it won't alert you to any severe weather.

#3 Oil Lamp:  We bought ours at Walmart for under $10. They sell the oil to burn there as well. When the power goes out, this is one of our most used emergency items. Flashlights are nice, but honestly I'm cheap and I hate how they drain (expensive) batteries. Candles are great but one of these little lamps can light up a room better than several candles.  If you want even more light put it in front of mirror! As an added bonus you can pretend you're Laura Ingalls or Amish! :) If you have small children you'll want to be extra careful with one of these with just as you would with candles. Don't forget to keep some water proof matches in your kit to light the wick.

#4 Water: All emergency preparedness literature suggests you have a 3-day to one week water supply on hand. How much water is that? The experts say 1 gallon per person per day is enough for drinking and hygiene. When we first started our emergency kit we just used 2 liter bottles or recycled juice containers. A really easy (but more expensive) way to do it is using these Aqua-Tainers. They each hold seven gallons. So just get one for each member of your family and you'll have a week's supply of water! You can buy them online but they are cheaper locally at camping stores. We got ours on sale at Fleet Farm for about $10 each. We try to empty and refill them at least once a year. Jerry carries them up and we use them to fill the washing machine for a load of laundry, refill them, and put them back in the basement. These are not really portable since they are super heavy (well over 50 lbs.) when full! So we try to keep at least one case of bottled water in the house too.

Twice in recent years we've had friends without water due to a water main break. These containers can come in handy for a non-emergency water situation like that too! Even if your neighbors don't have water you'll still be able to flush your toilets for a few hours with these on hand.

I also keep one bottle of regular (plain) chlorine bleach in the basement. If for some reason we had a long term water emergency you can treat water by using 16 drops of regular (not scented or color safe) bleach per gallon of water.

#5 Wrench: Even if you aren't the handy type keep a wrench on hand that fits your gas and water valve shut offs. Don't turn off your gas unless absolutely necessary because the gas company will have to be called to turn it back on.

#6 Five Gallon Bucket with trash bags and toilet paper for "sanitation": Thankfully we've never had to use this! But we have it on hand just in case. You can get five gallon buckets from grocery stores or bakeries for free or very cheap. Ours is actually a large laundry detergent bucket. You can also buy buckets with toilet seats (like the Luggable Loo) but I figure why pay for something you can rig up for free. Toss a bottle of hand sanitizer in the bucket to be extra prepared!

#7 First Aid Kit: This can be as simple as a store bought one or you can put together on your own (we chose to put our own together). Either way it will need to be cleaned out and restocked every year or two. The dollar store is a great place to find inexpensive items for your kit. I also recommend getting a first aid book of some kind to put in the kit. If you live in the GB area you can almost always find the Red Cross handbook at St. Vincent de Paul thrift store.

 

#8 Food: How much food you store is up to you. The emergency preparedness literature suggests you "store at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food". And that you select foods that "require no refrigeration, preparation or cooking and little or no water". That would be a lot more food for my family than for the standard family of four.

Canned food is good because it can be eaten right out of the can, just don't forget to keep a manual can opener in your emergency kit. We don't have special food set aside for an emergency but since we have a stockpile we would definitely not starve! The menu might be strange if there was an emergency but we wouldn't go hungry. One of these days I would like to get a "grab and go" food pack together for an emergency that would take us away from home, but I haven't gotten around to it... mostly because the thought of it overwhelms me! 


#9 Extras: If you have babies or pets you'll want to store extra items for them. This is a good use for those formula samples that you get after you have a baby or free samples of pet food you can sign up for online.

Here are some resources for more information:
Ready Wisconsin
Ready.gov

To help your kids prepare:
Ready Kids (site for older kids)
Let's Get Ready (video and printables for little kids)
FEMA for Kids

Sesame Chicken

I found this recipe for sesame chicken a long time ago but decided it was too complicated to make without a little help. So with Roz home on Spring Break and Jer here to help too, we decided to make it for dinner.

Ingredients:
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
2 green onions (sliced)

Marinade-

1 teaspoon chicken base
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sesame oil
ground white pepper (to taste)
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon raspberry wine (or any fruity flavored wine)

Batter-
½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg (beaten)
½ cup water (or as much as needed to make batter smooth)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Sauce-
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sugar
Salt (to taste)
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
a sprinkle of ground black pepper

 
Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: Cut chicken breasts into 1” chunks and in a glass bowl combine all of the marinade ingredients and mix well. Add the chicken and coat evenly. Cover and marinade for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Step 2: Meanwhile, in separate bowl combine all of the batter ingredients and mix thoroughly. The batter should be thick enough to coat the chicken but thin enough to flow around the pieces. Set aside.
Step 3: Using a fork or tongs remove the pieces of chicken from the marinade and dip them into the batter to coat evenly (one by one). Deep fry the chicken in batches in your deep fryer for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. (or you can fry in hot oil at about 325 degrees in your wok for about 3-4 minutes or until golden brown.
Step 4: In your wok combine the sauce ingredients and warm over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring and simmer until sauce slightly thickens.
Step 5: In the wok or in a serving dish coat chicken with the sauce and garnish with sliced scallions and sesame seeds.

We marinated the chicken and then I made the batter. Roz and Jer did the dipping and frying out in the garage so we didn't stink up the house.

Roz... Fryer Extraordinaire!

We were encouraged by the fact that the chicken coming out of the fryer looked and smelled just like chicken you'd see in a Chinese restaurant.

Looks good and smell great!

The Finished Product!

We were all pretty please with the way it turned out. There wasn't enough sauce to cover all the chicken we made even though we doubled the entire recipe. That worked out to be a good thing because the boys liked the plain chicken. We got some sweet and sour sauce with our egg rolls that we used to make some into sweet and sour chicken as well. I think it would be a great freeze ahead recipe. Just cook up a bunch of the battered chicken and then freeze it on cookie sheets before putting it in freezer bags. Then you could take out as much as you need and make it into any type of various Chinese chicken (sesame, sweet & sour, Kung Pao, orange, etc).

The chicken was perfect but next time we make it we plan to try a different sesame sauce (maybe this one). This sauce was good for kids but we want something more sesame flavored. This whole post where I found the recipe is filled with various Chinese yumminess. If you are looking to make some tasty Chinese food at home... check it out!