Earth Day 2011! April 22nd

Notice the huge undecorated cookie on Lauren's lap. And notice Audrey in the middle. Not a good idea since she was in hands reach of all the cookies and candy.
Heidi's shirt says "Love your mother" with little earth "o's."


Lauren, 7

Sara, 3

Julia, 4 (I had to be sneaky since she didn't me to take a picture of her)

I have the best friends, the Tripp Family! Kelly, the mom, like me loves to celebrate holidays and do something fun and memorable with our girls. (We started the 3 girls club) So when I realized that Earth Day was coming around again, I texted Kelly and asked, "What are we doing for Earth Day?" I found out later that she was so excited that I initiated our date. (Last year we planted little pots with flowers and veggies, and painted little pots and clay miniatures.) It seems to be getting harder to get together since our girls are getting older and more involved in sporadic activities. But we made it work for this day. Kelly and her girls, Lauren, Julia, and Sara, brought HUGE earth cookies for all the girls to decorate. The cookies seriously were huge, probably the size of our heads. They also brought green and blue frosting to make earth and ocean. Each girl made their own version of what they think the earth is like. Some had more water than earth and visa versa. Some girls used a lot of candy to make people or mountains. Or I could say that some of the girls ate more frosting and candy than they put on their cookie, Lauren and Heidi, not to say any names. All the girls get along so well and played @ the park. I couldn't resist taking fun pictures of each girl. Especially this one of Julia. (The No underwear girls) :)

Mexican Lasagna- MMmmm!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds ground chicken breast, available in the packaged meats case
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1 cup medium heat taco sauce or 1 (14-oz) can stewed or fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• Salt
• 8 (8 inch) spinach flour tortillas, available on dairy aisle of market
• 2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar or shredded pepper jack
• 2 scallions, finely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil - twice around the pan. Add chicken and season with chili powder, cumin, and red onion. Brown the meat, 5 minutes. Add taco sauce or stewed or fire roasted tomatoes. Add black beans and corn. Heat the mixture through, 2 to 3 minutes then season with salt, to your taste.

Coat a shallow baking dish with remaining extra-virgin olive oil, about 1 tablespoon oil. Cut the tortillas in half or quarters to make them easy to layer with. Build lasagna in layers of meat and beans, then tortillas, then cheese. Repeat: meat, tortilla, cheese again. Bake lasagna 12 to 15 minutes until cheeseis brown and bubbly. Top with the scallions and serve.

Naomi's Inquisitive Question!

Clearly I don't get dressed up enough on a daily basis. I sang @ "Broadway Brunch" (a monthly brunch where woman are invited to sing for woman who love to hear broadway music) a week ago so I curled my hair and wore a fancy head band, put on more make-up than usual, and wore a nice little button up sweater and jeans. When I picked up Naomi from school, she got in the car and as we started to drive, she inquisitively asked, "Where are you going and why is your hair curled?" I guess in her mind I only get all done up when I'm going somewhere special. Well, I guess we did go somewhere special since I planned for us to go to Disneyland right after picking Naomi up from school. We have to get our time in before we are blocked our for the summer. :)

May 4th 2011

I'm not going to lie... I sat writing out Mothers Day cards, about 10 of them to those close to me that I love as Mothers, instead of writing out our bills. Just going to put it out there that my first priority was letting others know how I feel about them and sharing my love for them, rather then getting bills taken care of. Sad to admit, but I just thought I'd put it out there.

Spring Break in Utah 4-9 to 4-19-11!

Friday the 8th of April, 2:20 pm: I picked Naomi up from school and headed straight out of town. Me and all three girls on our way to Utah. No Dad! :( I was a little nervous taking off since I expected the drive to be filled with crying, whining and major melt downs that would make me want to pull my hair out. But we only drove to Summerlin, NV on friday to stay with our cousins. Then drove the rest of the way on Saterday. To my surprise, the girls, Audrey included, were well behaved. I did play a "point of interest game" with Naomi and Heidi in which they got a dollar for every item we saw and checked off. If they misbehaved then a dollar was quickly taken away. Heidi lost her money by the time we got to Vegas. But she learned after that that she had less $ than Naomi. So she shaped up. (This game was given to me by my cousin Amber who had just driven from Idaho to California for her kids spring break, without a husband too.) I must say that my girls did even better on the way home. I left Saterday the 19th and drove straight through. It was a fun trip. Here are a few pics to highlight the kids.

If you want to feel like the worst Aunt in the world... then offer to take your niece to play with your kids, tell your kids we have to be careful to not let their cousin get hurt, then watch in slow motion as the wooden swing starts towards her head. Run, even though you feel as if you aren't moving as the wooden swing makes contact with the center of your nieces forhead. This is what happened to us with our niece/cousin Dara Rossiter. She took the blow really well. She cried from shock, then was so calm and even held the frozen strawberries. That was all