Baby Prep 101

Knowing how important food is for domestic harmony, and how potentially busy our kitchen will be after this newest bundle of joy arrives, I have decided to stock the freezer with all kinds of frozen dinners.

Now, I think I have been pregnant too long, and should begin to seriously examine my decisions in other areas, because the insanity of quadrupling a chicken pot pie recipe (that already normally yields two pot pies), all in one afternoon, never occurred to me. Not as we cooked two whole chickens, nor as we peeled and sliced 2 lbs of carrots, cried through 5 diced onions, or even when we cubed 3 lbs of potatoes... but as Jeremiah rolled his 16th pie crust, I think it had occurred to someone else.

In fact, the insanity seemed to have worn on him quite a bit, because instead of continuing to make pretty little hearts on all of his pies...

Peter talked Daddy into making an elephant on the final pie. At least, that is what he said it was.

BUT, now we have 17 frozen meals in our freezer, unfortunately, the selection is limited to Chicken pot pie, baked ziti and mac'n'cheese... perhaps I should have thought of this also, when quadrupling meals?

Summer Time

So, while bathing the kids last night, we realized they have spent "a bit" of time in the sun recently...

Trains, Trains, and more trains...

Peter just recently celebrated his 5th birthday, and anyone who has been around Peter for more than a few minutes will hear stories of his new train pieces, three of which just came in the mail this past week after a most unpleasent 4 days of transit on the UPS truck.

With these three new pieces, which included a turn-table, a switch track, and 6 pedestals to provide for an elevated track. These pieces were a very big deal!

Here below is by far the best track we have ever designed. I am thinking of changing career paths after this successful engineering feat! Now I know what you are saying, "That just looks like a normal toy train set," but to a well trained eye this is incredible. Included in this track layout, is a turn-table, crossover drawbridge, 4 splits, a switch track, a 7 piece long double elevated track, and Cranky the crane.
In this low angle shot, you can see James and Oliver pulling the freight cars through the turn-table one at a time. In the top middle you can see Cranky working hard. On the right is the drawbridge, and to the left is the elevated track.
Here are Thomas and Percy pulling Daisy through the switch track next to Cranky.

Peter was very thrilled with this track, proudly proclaiming, "I never build a train track like this before, it is pretty neat."

And I can't end without saying a very grateful thank you to my assistant track designer, Uncle Philip-pie. We worked hard on this for well over 45 minutes and are very pleased with the results that we obtained.

Daniel discovered "Magic"

Daniel, being the entertainer he is, discovered a new way to captivate the family at dinner time (and conveniently avoid eating his food).



He "magically" makes his bowls and cups disappear...



Now watch closely...

"Where is the bowl," he asks us. No one can find it, it must have dissappeared! And Daniel grins with delight at this exclimation.












Is it under here? No...." and he shakes his head with wonder at the magical disappearance.


















Then, suddenly, when every one is perplexed by this mysterious disappearance, he returns the bowl to its original position, laughing at our confusion and enjoying every moment of the applauses.

And conveniently we have forgotten about the uneaten veggies in his bowl!