Spring Break

Our Spring Break has been pretty low key this year.  Jason's sick time from his shoulder surgery ended and we've already taken an unexpected vacation, so we've been hanging out at home.  On Monday, the kids and I had a play date at our neighbor's house.  Actually it was a coffee date for the moms and you were invited to bring your kids, but for the sake of the kids we called it a play date.  It went well considering we had seven kids there aged 7 and under.

Xander and Jordis got these fun glasses from my dad and step-mom in their early Easter basket, so we've been laughing about them as well. 

We've been letting the kids stay up late and play their DS's together.  We give them until 10 but they usually can't hang that late and end up in their rightful beds, sound asleep, all on their own.  We've really lucked out with these two and the disciplined sleep habits they both have.

And of course Mr. Jake has been getting lots of extra love and attention this week as well.

Spring Break is almost over, but the excitement is just beginning.  Tomorrow is Easter AND Xander's birthday.  I feel a sugar rush in our future.

Spring???

Mother Nature teased us this week with a little bit of spring. She can be so mean sometimes. We tried our best to take advantage of it though.

On Sunday Jason and I both had errands to run.....on complete opposite sides of Columbus. So he took Xan and I took Jordis and we went our separate ways for girl/guy time. Jordis and I were at Easton and I was excited about the prospect of lunch, even if she picked McDonald's. Jason isn't a fan of the golden arches, though I am, so occasionally I look forward to eating there. But not my little girl. She wanted a hot dog. There were only two places I could think of to get one, one being Steak N' Shake, and the other being Auntie Anne's. I tried to get her to go to Auntie Anne's and told her how yummy a hot dog would be wrapped up in a hot pretzel, but she wasn't having it. So alas, I ended up at the Steak N' Shake that I've been boycotting since I was pregnant with Xander six years ago. (They should really know better than to deny a pregnant woman some breakfast food five minutes before breakfast hours are officially over). Anyway, it clearly looks like Jordis is about to seriously enjoy this hot dog, doesn't it?

Um, wrong answer. Ate the applesauce and a few fries and declared, "This hot dog is yuck!"

A few days later it was even nicer, so when Xander got home from school I thought it might be nice to have a little picnic. The grass was really wet from all the melting snow, so we decided to sit on the driveway. First picnic I've ever had next to piles of snow.

It was also the quickest picnic I've ever had because someone saw a bee and it was all over.

A little bit later we attempted a bike ride.

That went pretty well. So well, in fact, that I had trouble getting one of them to come home.

One day this week there were two birthdays in Xander's class and Jordis was sad about him getting treats, so on Thursday morning I took her to get a donut. I'm not going to lie, I really needed an excuse to go to Tim Horton's for coffee. Her combination of short sleeved shirt and fleece pants was interesting, but I'll give her credit for matching. She was feeling quite sassy this day.

And then as quickly as it came, it left again. And now we have rain. And more rain tonight. And more rain tomorrow.

Guess that's what you get when you wish for Spring.

Cajun cookin'

One of my favorite things about Louisiana is the food. A lot of it is things that you just can't find anywhere else. Or you can find them other places, but they don't taste as good as you know them to be down south.

There were a few things I didn't get pictures of, especially the appetizers Jason's uncle made. Taken apart I don't like any of the ingredients on their own (except for the bacon), but together it was an amazing treat.

And I didn't take any pictures of our breakfast fare from Rob's Donuts. We all know what donuts look like so I didn't think it was necessary, but they are truly the best donuts I've ever had.

Here are some favorites from our trip:

Cajun Potato Kitchen serves huge baked potatoes loaded with a variety of toppings. I can't even remember what mine was, I think it was steak and gravy, and Jason's was stuffed with crawfish etouffee. They're so good.

Dinner at the Half Shell was interesting. It's a local hole-in-the wall type place and all the customers seemed to know other customers. The kids also made a gentleman friend at the table next to us. This is just a crabcake sandwich, which you can get pretty much anywhere, but it's one of the best I've ever had.

We took the kids to lunch at Frostop because it served kid-friendly food. We like it for the amazing root beer served in frosty mugs.

Sarah and I had never had boudin, so a public initiation at the family cookout was set-up. This kind was synthetic so didn't have the gross casings, otherwise I don't know if I'd have tried it or not. But we thought it was tasty.

My second ever crawfish boil. This picture's a little blurry but I like it anyway. Everyone makes boiled crawfish differently with different sauces as well. I usually get pretty good at peeling it by the time I'm full. I just can't look at their beady little eyes, it creeps me out. Jason and his cousin's husband actually caught all of this crawfish for our dinner.

LaBayou is one of my favorite restaurants in the French Quarter, and it just so happens that when you ride the street car it drops you off right at the edge of Bourbon Street where the restaurant is. Jason and his brother ate here twice in three days.

Crawfish cakes with a crawfish remoulade.

Crawfish pasta had sauteed crawfish in the pasta and fried crawfish on top. The sauce was a Cajun alfredo and there was paremsan cheese on top. My sister-in-law and I shared both of these for dinner and ate every last bite.

You can't go to New Orleans without stopping at Cafe du Monde. We took the kids here for dessert. I must admit that the beignets were not the best I've ever had. They were decent, but I think they didn't hit the powdered sugar soon enough after coming out of the fryer. I was really surprised though at how much I enjoyed the frozen coffee. I really love their coffee and chicory au lait, but it was so hot that night I opted for the frozen and I'm so glad I did.

Watch Man v. Food on the Travel Channel? We saw the New Orleans episode and decided we had to eat at Mother's. This is the file gumbo. I ate the whole bowl. After a very long day in the French Quarter we got off the street car at VooDoo BBQ & Grill, a restaurant we passed every day on St. Charles Street. It was SO good. I got a platter of pulled pork and Caribbean jerk chicken with macaroni and cheese and corn pudding. The chicken was so good I gave my pulled pork to Jason before trying it. It looked good though, and they had sauces on the table for you to choose from. I think they need to get a franchise up here.

Sarah and I spent one day shopping and eating in the French Quarter and we'd been wanting to try some fried alligator, so we ate lunch at Cafe Pontalba. The beauty of the French Quarter is that all the restaurants post the menu outside, so you can find what you want before you decide where to eat. This place is right in Jackson Square across from St. Louis Cathedral and is open on two sides, so we had a great view and a fun time. The alligator was pretty tasty, too. I don't know that I'd order it again just because there's other things I'd like to try, but now that I've tasted it I wouldn't shy away from it in the future.

We also shared this crawfish fettuccine. It wasn't as good as the crawfish pasta at LaBayou, but we still liked it.
On the way back to our hotel I had to stop at NOLA and get these bourbon mashed sweet potatoes. Sarah couldn't believe I spent almost $7 for them, but it is an Emeril restaurant afterall, and you only live once, so I got them. They weren't as fantastic as I had hoped, but still good. The green onions added a nice flavor. We also stopped at The Gumbo Shop. She got some gumbo to take back to the hotel and I got bread pudding. It was really hard to find bread pudding that didn't have white chocolate in it, so I was elated when someone at the Tabasco store told me I could find it here.
Another crawfish boil, different side of the family. Also some amazing desserts this day. I think I have recreated cousin Shannon's frosting for brownies, so I'm pretty excited about that.
Thus ends the food journey (insert sad face here). I can't wait to go back and do it all again.

January's almost over

I'm SO looking forward to February so I can focus on Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras. This month has been kind of lazy because it has been so cold. Global warming my booty. Last Friday after dinner I went to a friend's house for a spa party and this was what the thermometer said in the Jeep.

When I went outside my nose hairs were freezing. Later that night when Jason was at work he said it eventually got down to -23. That's without the wind chill mind you. Yesterday it reached 50 and I was out without a coat and had actually contemplated wearing flip flops. I quit wearing gloves earlier in the week when it was in the 20's. Too hot for such nonsense, ha-ha.

Comfort food is one of our joys this time of year, so the kids and I attempted to make our own hot pretzels. For whatever reason I couldn't get the dough to rise. I'm thinking maybe my water was too hot and I killed the yeast. Or maybe it was the fact that I chose to make them on the coldest day of the year. But oddly enough they still turned out, so I'll keep the recipe. Might try cinnamon sugar, too.

Xander has been taking a sports adventure class thanks to our MRDD funding. He really likes it and lately they've been skateboarding. I'm hoping this class will help him with spatial awareness and coordination.

Jordis has been my little helper around the house while Xander's at school. She loves to do anything that makes her a "big girl." Remember, she's 2 going on 12.

Yesterday we went to the nursing home to deliver the snowflakes we've been making. Jason's parents gave me some old coffee filters when they got a new coffee maker, and then I quit drinking coffee at home. Always trying to find ways to be less wasteful it occurred to me that they would make great snowflakes, so the kids colored some with markers and then I cut them out.

They're getting much more comfortable being there, so I'm happy about that. Yesterday they led the way and I didn't have to drag them behind me.

And finally, one of the things I like about January is clearance sales on winter items. I got Jordis this adorable dress for about $4 and it was normally a ridiculous $32, so I was pretty excited about that.

I can't pass up a good deal on something I know we'll use. If I can find Xander a new winter coat in the next week or two I'll be golden.

Christmas Carnival

Today was the annual Christmas Carnival at Xander's school. He was so excited to go. I was excited about the free coffee and Tim Horton's donuts because I didn't get a chance to eat before we left the house.

Cookie decorating had to be first.

Carnival games....


Face painting...




And Jordis' visit with Santa. She told me she wasn't going to pose for a picture, but I thought this would actually be funny when she's older so I had them take it anyway.

I also gave the kids money and BaDee took them to the Secret Santa shop to help them spend it to buy a gift for Jason and myself. I used to get my mom the most horrible things at my elementary school's Secret Santa, so I can't wait to see what she helped them buy.