Its Bat-drew!

Andrew has been talking and talking about wanting a costume with bat wings for several weeks now. Not a cape (which he already has), it had to be wings.  He has practically talked my ear off about how he can't wait for Halloween so he can get a bat costume and then wear it to play in.  Frankly, I found this ongoing conversation way too annoying... because I am sure not in any hurry to get past summer and on to late fall!

Last night, I somehow came up with the idea of taking a black shirt and adding fabric bat wings under the arms.  I thought this would be an easy way to create his vision right now.  Of course, one can find anything on the internet and I had no trouble finding an example to show Andrew.  He was so excited, he had trouble getting to sleep!

While he was at school today, I dug out a size 10 black shirt I knew we had stored away and then went and spent $2.50 on 1/2 yard of black polar fleece.  This project was very easy and I was done in no time.  I hung up the finished project and left it in his room for him to find after school.  Boy was he THRILLED!  He wore the bat shirt all afternoon while playing outside.

Weekly Produce Bin

So fun getting a weekly "present" of produce at our front door!

Ever since the start of the year, Thursdays have become one of my favorite days of the week.  That's because I decided that this year we would subscribe to a weekly produce bin delivery from The Downtown Farm Stand.

Having a bunch of produce delivered to my house is not only convenient, it forces me to find ways to include all of this healthy stuff in our menu each week.

The kids love discovering
what's in the box each week!

Every Monday the lovely delivery assistant, Mary, at the Farm Stand e-mails me to let me know the list of that week's bin contents is available on the website.  I just cruise over to the list, look it over, and if there is anything on there I'd rather not get that week I fill out the form at the bottom of the list to let them know what I would prefer instead.  This week I opted out of lettuce and bananas because we already had those on hand and got green beans and lemons/limes instead.

The other awesome part of this deal is that if I find I'm out of any other groceries that the Farm Stand carries, I can just add them to my bin through their website and the groceries will be delivered to my house with my regular bin contents.

Today's Lunch for School

I pack lunches every day for my two boys to eat at school.  This is a decision we made based on the facts that my kids don't particularly like any of the food served at school, the school lunches produce a lot of trash (including the tray they are served on, and other packaging), and the school lunches include a lot more highly processed foods than we typically eat.  

Recently I decided to make myself a lunch menu that would be the same every week, just to make it easier to figure out what to pack each day.  I also always include fruit and another side.

Here's the schedule:

Mondays - sandwich

Tuesdays  - salad

Wednesdays - something hot in the Thermos (they prefer it to be leftover pasta)

Thursdays - creative lunch

Fridays - mom-made lunchable

So, today was creative food day and I decided to give the boys Little Smokies with BBQ sauce as a very special treat.  They also have the Biscoff banana muffins I baked yesterday topped with candy eyes and sitting in a silicone muffin wrapper, as well as strawberries and apples.  I think they will really like this lunch!  

These bento-style lunch containers are Ziploc brand from Target, the round dip containers are from Cost Plus World Market, and the clear rectangle boxes are from The Container Store.

Youth Golf at MD's Golf Academy

MD's Golf Academy has announced their spring/summer session of their Longest Drive Junior Golf Program for kids ages 7-17.  It will take place on Saturday mornings, starting May 18th.

Robby did both the spring session and the fall session when he was 8-years old and really enjoyed it.  The kids practice putting, chipping, driving, etc. at the academy every other week.  Then on the alternate weeks, they take a bus to Crestview golf course to play a few holes and learn golf rules and etiquette.


At the end of the program, there is a closing banquet and the kids get an achievement award.  One of the times Robby participated, the award was a funny bobblehead golf trophy (which he REALLY liked).

Earth Day Thermostat Woes

Yesterday was Earth Day and the weather was actually sunny and spring-like.  So, I decided to walk the 1.5 miles to the library to pick up a book I had on hold.  It was so nice to get out in the sunshine.

Yes, I do realize our hallway wallpaper is hideous.  We
have been putting off removing it for 10 years because
there is so much of it to remove.

Every morning all winter, Robby has complained that at 72 degrees its much too cold in our house and he can't get out of bed and can't get ready for school.  One morning, he even secretly turned the thermostat up to 76 and I didn't notice the problem until it actually reached 76 in our house later that morning, long after he was gone to school.

So I was fairly surprised when yesterday afternoon he started whining that he was too hot and blaming me for making it too hot in our house.  I checked the thermostat and the sun had managed to warm the air to 75 degrees.  He declared we needed to turn on the air conditioner.  On his third time coming to me and complaining, I finally convinced him to just change in to a short-sleeve shirt.  Funny thing is that later I found him doing his homework with a blanket wrapped around him.  He was too cold.

Rhubarb Snacking Cake and a New Garden

Its been a busy and chilly Saturday!  Rob left with our car early this morning to run the Carmel 8k. Robby had a 9:00am Saturday Adventure class called Survivor Island that was about using geometry to complete challenges.  Andrew and I walked him all the way over to the Burris school building and on the way back to our house, we stopped to pick up a friend of Andrew's for a play date at our house.

When Rob got back, I ran over to the last indoor farmer's market for the year at Minnetrista and managed to snag some early season rhubarb from Northern Tropics.  Score!  Rhubarb is one of my favorites.  I also bought two bottles of wine from Tonne Winery....

At noon, I went to drop off Andrew's friend and they invited him to stay at their house.  So, I fetched Robby from his class and headed home.  We had some lunch, stopped by Science Day, and headed to Lowe's to get supplies for a raised garden that we are putting in our FRONT yard.  I'm sure the neighbors are not going to be too excited about that, particularly the ones that always have perfect yards.

While Rob and Robby were assembling the garden frame, I baked this delightful Rhubarb Snacking Cake.  It was a thoroughly delicious way to start of rhubarb season.  

And finally, 8 1/2 hours after Andrew started playing with his friend this morning, Andrew finally returned home.  A bit tired and quite hungry as he was too busy playing to eat much all day so we all headed out to the new Greek's Pizza location for some cheesy bread and pizza.

Up Too Early

"Good morning Andrew, how did you sleep?"
"Bad!"
"Why?"
"I wanted to wake up at 7:14, but instead I woke up at 7:03. So now I'm super tired!"

How does he come up with these things?  He was genuinely upset about this. LOL!

Science Day at the Fairgrounds

The annual Science Day will take place on Saturday, April 20th at the Delaware County Fairgrounds.

Thai Peanut Sauce

Earlier this week, I mixed up half a batch of Thai Peanut Sauce and put it in a jar in the fridge.  This has made it it really easy for me to quickly prepare myself healthy and delicious lunches at home several days this week.  I've been cooking up one serving of linguini or sobe noodles and then tossing the noodles with some of the sauce and some fresh spinach and then topping it all with chopped cilantro and green onions.  With a side of fruit, this is a fantastic meal!

If you make this sauce, I recommend doubling the coconut milk.

Spring at Minnetrista - Some Photos

Track Meet

Today was my 10-year old's first track meet, a day he has been looking forward to for a long time.  In our area school sports start in 4th grade and Robby has been waiting to join track since he started school.  This boy has always loved to run... he pretty much never walks when he can run.  To him, a hike through the woods is a run through the woods, a walk with his mom is him running way ahead of his mom.

Robby has been a member of  Yorktown Roadrunners (a youth running club) for three summers, and has greatly enjoyed distance running, but he was anxious to try running shorter distances and in a team format.

The first track meet of the year was canceled due to stormy weather and the conditions for this meet were definitely not ideal.  The spectator area was a huge mud mess and Andrew came home filthy!

Robby competed in the 800 individual and the 4x200.  He finished second in the 800 and was pleased with that result.

Rocks

While vacuuming the carpet today, I started to wonder how many pounds of school playground rocks I have sucked up this year.  Andrew comes home with anywhere from 2-20 of these little rocks in his shoes every day and I can never seem to remember to have him dump his shoes outside when he takes them off.  How can he stand going around all afternoon with all those rocks in his shoes?

Welcome

Welcome to my little corner of the world.  Here, I will post about cooking, parenting, things to do in Muncie, IN, and regional places to visit and explore.  I'm looking forward to sharing with you the things in life that excite me!