Easter 2010

It was chaos for a moment when the kids saw the eggs lying on the carpet.  We went to plan B since it was raining badly (and it was not supposed to rain..." but it was equally fun).  The kids had fun.

All the kids including the munchkins collected eggs.  I thought Santana and Arianna will just stare at the other kids, but nope they put quite a bit of eggs in their baskets.  The girls helped them too.  How nice of them.

Besides the eggs and after the rain squashed my map hunting for the treasure.  I came up with another solution.  I wrote the name of each of the kids and hid it in the basement.  I told them that the Easter bunny said that they needed to work as a team, and unless everyone found their name... no treasure can be unlocked.  The same went for the rare eggs.  Each needed one of each.  It worked.  Everyone helped everyone, the smaller eggs where first come first served. 
I did buy a small toy to each of the kids: Surge and slinky dog from Toy Story, batman car, project runaway for the big girls (they came with the templates to draw dresses, hair styles, etc...), and a car for Santana.
Plus everyone got a notebook and a box of crayola.  (Well, the crayola was needed for school, but they loved it).

I picked one picture that I liked from each kid...

 

Everyone started playing together...

The adults in the other hand were relaxing, but having fun as well.

Food was good.  People were great. Ari gave us a big tantrum at the end of the night, good thing is that she felt asleep and woke up her normal self.  She is after all 21/2 years old.  But, overall was a good night. 

Indulgences

Browsing for ideas for a friend I came across this set that was being auctioned at ebay.  I loved it (even thought it is missing 2 states which I will complete myself).  It has 2 things that I love - flowers and cross stitch.  Even more, the cross stitch part can be done in parts.  Not a big piece of fabric to start with, excellent size to put away and have close by when I get a bit of time.  I can try to set a goal of 1 or 2 flowers per month and not feel overwhelm.  The only problem? A lot of people want it.  Maybe for the same reasons? So, I bid as much as I will pay for it and went to work (the auction ended while I was at work).  So, I did not know until next day if I won or not. 
As you can tell, I did :)  I looked everywhere else for the set and I could not see it.  I know the set was made in Denmark awhile back, but I don't know the year.  This as you can imagine will be a big project and I will start as soon as I decide what type of fabric to get.  Yeah, it is an indulgence... but I hope to make it into a quilt for keeps.  Now I set myself for the record.  ;)

52 Projects #11 - Middle Eastern Spicy Chicken Shawarma and Rice Krispies Squares.

 I wanted to try to cook something that I had not done before.  We always try different cuisines, and although we had gone to Middle Eastern restaurants I don't remember ever eating Tahini before so I found this recipe in one of my magazines ( Cooking Light) and decided to make it a project!

Spicy Chicken Shawarma Ingredients:

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp ground coriander

5 tbsp plain low fat Greek style yogurt, divided
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
3 garlic cloves, minced and divided
1b skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, thinly sliced
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp TAHINI
4 (6 in. ) pitas, halved
1/2 cup chopped cucumber and plum tomato and pre-chopped red onions!

1.  Combine the first 6 ingredients with 1 tbsp yogurt, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 2 garlic cloves.

2.  Add chicken; toss to coat.

3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken mixture and saute for 6 mins. or until browned.

4.  While chicken cooks - Combine remaining yogurt with the rest of the lemon juice, garlic clove, and TAHINI.  Stir well.

I found out that this brand is really good!

5.  Spread the mixture in your pitas equally. 

6.  Fill each pita with the chicken, cucumber, tomatoes and onion.  Decorate with some grapes or more of the veggies!

And for dessert I made Rice Krispies  with Mike.  I had never done squares, he has.  :)

I could not believe how easy they were. I am sure most of you know how, but here are some pictures of ours.

Not very flat, but they were very tasty :)  We need to work on that part.

WPP#14 - Penny

 I had another picture in mind, but since Misty (another kitty of ours) is a bit sick - she gets from time to time diarrhea and we need to trim her butt to help her out.  She is, after all, in a medicine for life.  I am planning to take her to the vet so they can check her out (just in case).  But, that got me thinking about Penny.  I still miss Penny.  And sometimes I miss her even more when I think of my grandmother.  She loved Penny.  I get comfort believing that they are together.  :)
This picture was taken around 2001-2002.

52 Projects #10 - Scrapbook, doodling and a doll...

This weekend I took some pictures so you can see how the Cricut looks:  Shots of how it is when it is closed or open are posted first.

Then, you can see all the lights going on once you program what you want.  Can you see that little "drop like" cartridge on the right?  That is where all the information is stored.  Then, you press what figures you want and how many.  Hit Cut and it goes. ( I always program more than I want because you will save from wasting paper - which is one of the negative things of this machine. In the other hand, the blade cuts more and you need to replace it more often, but I figure I will used some of the extras in other things)

Then, you hit unload paper - and you can start to peel the paper.

I have a box where I leave the extra ones for later...

Found the scrapbook I wanted to use - A black cover with ivory pages.  The picture took longer to figure out... but this one is the classic one.  It is the first picture that I can remember of us together.  The one where I wanted all the beanies that he had given me ( and some that I bought myself) to be in the picture.  See, instead of flowers I wanted beanies.  So, I still have a lot of those although I have given a lot of beanies to charities by now.  We did go crazy for those critters for awhile. You see that camel?  It is one of my favorites.

And after playing with the pieces - this is the configuration that I liked.

Looking for the picture I found some scrapbook pages that my sisters in law and I did the first or second week after Arianna was born. Oh, our baby :) 

And finally... here is the doll that I managed to finish today! Here is the before picture.  It took me awhile to pick a face I wanted to draw.

And here is Anita!  (well, that is where this little girl is going...)

 Here are some faces that I did for my dolls....

And some doodling it... I am trying to decide if I want to color these 2 drawings or not?

It was a nice crafty week for us :)  Arianna started to draw faces.  I will take some picture of that for a future post :)  Have a great week!