And our Thanksgiving

We have a Thanksgiving tradition at our house: I get out this decoration and crack up.  Every year.

Then Ray rolls his eyes at me.  Every year. 
It's a turkey eating a potato.  With a knife and fork.  Come on, that's funny.

We also have a tradition of pizza on Thanksgiving Eve.  This tradition began the first year that we were married when I spent the entire day cooking and then Ray came home from work and asked what I was making for dinner.  I gave him the look.  He was smart enough to respond "I'll call Papa Johns" and Hayes family tradition was born.

We've hosted every year since we've been married so I've slowly tweaked the menu that I grew up with.  In addition to turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes (which you cannot fool with, although Ray keeps threatening to deep fry the turkey) we have butternut squash casserole, rosemary cornbread stuffing (never actually stuffed), and asparagus.  And despite the fact that it's just my parents and us, pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll and fruit salad.  It's tradition.

Ray will also argue that it's tradition for me to squeal when I inevitable have difficulty removing the neck from the never-quite-completely-thawed cavity.  I HATE that part.

This year I'm trying to teach B about the holiday too and not just rush past it to Christmas.  We've been reading One is a Feast for Mouse which he seems to enjoy. (http://www.amazon.com/One-Is-Feast-Mouse-Thanksgiving/dp/0823422313).  We've also been singing some turkey songs and coloring some turkey pictures (Did I mention I like turkeys?)

We made these cute keep sakes based on the idea found here http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Hands-and-Feet-Turkey.html.

N was NOT a fan.  It was one of those crafts that was really more work for us (yes it took two of us) than them.  B did cut out the beaks and glue them on.  The first time I put the hand prints too close to the bottom of the page so I had to cut them out and glue them on a new sheet rather than mess with paint again. 

B also enjoyed making turkeys (maybe we'll use them as centerpieces?) from toilet paper rolls (http://www.messforless.net/2011/11/paper-roll-turkey.html).

Yes, these turkeys have blue feathers.  And they are done in his trademark minimalist style. 

I'm looking forward to the Macy's parade, a delicious meal and even better leftovers.

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

And a simple fall dinner

I enjoy cooking and someday I hope to do it again. :)  Okay, so I do cook, but the days of elaborate meals are over for awhile.  You know, meals with multiple components: main dish, 2 side dishes, salad, bread, dessert. 2 components are about my max these days, 3 if you're allowed to count bread from a bag (and I seriously often forget to even put that on the table).

That's why one-dish meals are so fabulous.

It's hard to go wrong with the ease and delicious-ness of roasted veggies.  Dress them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a fresh herb and you're good to go. To make it a meal I add some sliced sausage and perhaps a salad if I'm feeling ambitious.

Any vegetable that will stand up to roasting will work.  Green beans made a frequent appearance when they were so plentiful this summer.   I made a beautiful version with multi-colored carrots and potatoes. My absolute favorite has to be the fall combination, however.

I like to use a butternut squash or sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and apples.  A chicken apple sausage compliments these flavors beautifully.  Simply peel and cube the squash or 2-3 potatoes, about 2/3 head cauliflower, and slice 2-3 apples and a pack of sausage.  Toss them all together with enough oil to lightly coat (2-3 T) and kosher salt and pepper to taste.

 Spread the mixture out on a jelly roll pan (or 2, depending on how much you make) and pop them in a 425 oven for 35 minutes, stirring (and rotating if you're using 2 pans) halfway through.

And dinner is done.

and a fall sensory box

B may not be much of a crafter, but he loves sensory boxes.  Give a boy something he can dig in and you have got a winner.

One of the things that I'm really trying to do with the crafts and other activities is recognize the seasons. I want to create family traditions and rhythm to our year. I love seasonal things and especially love fall, so a fall sensory bin seemed like a good idea.

When I searched Pinterest the ideas I got were oatmeal (messy), coffee grounds (messy and wasteful!), and popcorn (expensive!) I decided that dried corn would be a good idea, however it would appear that "deer" corn only comes in 50 lb bags.  Our sensory bin is an under-bed box.  That's a bit too much. Next obstacle.  A friend was willing to split the bag, and then we discovered that it was coated in molasses.  Toddlers manage to be sticky even when you don't let them play in molasses. In the end we got dried corn on the cob and the hubby stripped it.  This option was still fairly expensive, but worth it.

 I added some small pine cones and artificial leaves and then the best part, some tractors and diggers (I am terrible mother of boys-I call every construction vehicle a digger).  

I'm lucky I got the picture above, because B couldn't wait to get in it and he played with it for hours over the course of the next few days. He took out the leaves pretty quickly because they didn't work that well with the tractors.  Then I said that we needed to make a silo, and he went and got his Duplo blocks, so they got added to the mix too. 

I guess I had better start thinking about a Christmas sensory box, in case it proves as difficult as this one!

and a paper plate pumpkin

So, my good intentions for posting more often? Ha! I need to 1. Get supplies together for projects; 2. get B to DO the projects; and 3. remember to take pictures of said projects.  So, it's slow going.  B gets excited about "projects" but loses interest pretty quickly.  Nevertheless he gets excited about seeing his completed works hanging in the breakfast nook, so I guess we'll keep plugging away.

We did manage to complete a few fall themed crafts easy enough for a two-year-old-boy and his Mama who is always. holding. the. baby. (right now? He's sleeping on me.) in the the last month.

First we made a paper plate pumpkin.

B painted a paper plate orange with a foam brush.  Fingers would work too, but he doesn't seem to like being dirty.  Every time he got paint on his fingers he had to go wash his hands (wiping them off wasn't enough).

He's been excited to use scissors, although he hasn't quite gotten cutting in different directions so he usually just cuts in and then tears off.

He used a glue stick attach his "face."  I cut out a brown stem and stapled it to the top so that you could tell it was supposed to be a pumpkin :)

We're working on some projects with leaves and a fall sensory box which I think/hope will interest him longer than the crafts. 

And two

I'm back!

What have I been doing for over a year? Having a second child.  And man, number 2 changes everything.  Please forgive me for my smugness, little brother has changed all of that for me.

Before I became a mom I had these ideas about what motherhood would be like. I would be an awesome mom, calmly providing guidance to my well-behaved children.  Saturdays would be spent reading the paper on the couch while they played contentedly on the floor.  I would plan fun and educational activities and crafts which we all would enjoy.  I would be the mom you pin on Pinterest.

Well, then kids happened.  Boys happened.  Two boys happened.  And often when I manage to find the time to plan and execute an activity/craft/learning opportunity B squashes it/drowns it/eats it/throws it on the floor/runs around it so that rather than being awesome-educational-activity-planning mom I am harried-yelling-cleaning-up-messes-why-can't-you-ever-listen mom.

I still strive to be that mom, but I've needed to scale back expectations.  I scour Pinterest skeptically and seek out activities that are actually realistic for a 2 1/2 year old. 

So my hope for this blog going forward is to share some ideas that have actually worked for us.  As I continue to try to feed my family healthy food I'll try to share some recipes too, containing only easy-to-find ingredients. I hope you'll read, share if you like it, and even Pin!

Olympic Ambition

I am an Olympic junkie.  I tend to walk around in a daze during the two weeks of the games due to lack of sleep.  For years I would watch the games and dream of being an Olympian, despite my complete lack of coordination. 

This year as I'm watching the London Olympics, I no longer hope to be an athlete myself.  Now my dream is to raise an Olympian.  I think about the sports that he might excel at, and try to get him kicking in the pool.  Our off-the-growth-charts toddler will probably never make it as a gymnast, coxswain, or table tennis player, but basketball, swimming, and volleyball would all be possibilities.  (And does any American really fantasize about being winning the gold in ping-pong?)

But as I hear the stories, I wonder if I have it in me to raise an Olympian.  There's the good side: would I see the potential in my child and nurture it like Jonathan Horton's parents?  But also the bad: would I send my child away to training camp like Gabby Douglas? It's clear from the stories of many of the young athletes that becoming an Olympian takes the dedication of not just that person, but the entire family.  As I watch I wonder, don't Michael Phelps's sisters get tired of being just that? Are siblings neglected?  Do relationships suffer? Where is the line between being supportive and pushing your child too far?

Do you think you have what it takes to raise an Olympian?

I'll continue to try to teach B to swim, but the genetics and training that I provide will probably mean that his most Olympic event is enduring two weeks of Bob Costas.  I'll be happy and proud of that, too. 

When vacations aren't

I have always loved to travel.  From camping to Europe, I love to get away.  I even liked to pack.  It was the anticipation that I enjoyed. 

Since having a child, however, I have come to dread vacations a little.  I still love to get away, but the packing for the whole family, including gear, toys, books, diapers, milk, snacks, etc. is such a pain!  There's the looming knowledge of coming home to stacks of mail, piles of laundry to mar the last day as well.  Ray is helpful in many things, but packing is not one of them.  I spend a week shopping, making sure clothes are clean, getting things together...and he makes a pile of clothes 30 minutes before we leave. 

Traveling with young children adds the complication of sleep arrangements.  B sleeps in a pack and play, and is pretty good at going down by himself, but not when we are in the room.  So for a few hours in the afternoon and after 8 pm we are sort of stuck.  On our last trip one of us sat on the desk chair in the hall outside of the room while the other fled to the lobby.

This past weekend we headed to the Hershey Lodge for 4 days where Ray was attending a conference.  Despite my urge to strangle him, we got everything packed and headed out ahead of schedule.  His conference started at noon, although check-in wasn't until 4. So B and I perused the outlets for a while on a 20-minute car nap and waited for a call about early check-in.  By 3:30 we were back at the hotel requesting again.  Now they managed to put us in a tiny room on a narrow hall at the back of the property.  I wanted to cry.  What I did instead was crab at Ray until he called to ask if we could get into a room with an exterior door.  They were able to switch us, but it would now be 5:30 until we could get into the room.  So we went back to the lobby and chased the York Peppermint Pattie and the Kit-Kat around for awhile.  We had snacks.  We terrorized the other guests, but at least a few of them were in the same situation.

We finally got into a new room, and it was great.  Centrally located, bigger, and with an external door with two chairs outside.  It was 95 degrees, but still better than sitting on the floor in the hall.  B never slept anymore that day, but did remarkably well, except for a struggle to fall asleep at bedtime.  He did repeatedly unplug the alarm clock, try to talk on the phone, and switch the wall unit from AC to heat, but we all survived, and even enjoyed ourselves. 

We learned some lessons too...arrive a day early, and be sure to request one of those rooms in the future.  And for now, I'm looking forward to the next trip, at least until it's time to pack!