Category Archives: Addison

Welcome to the food network. Where all we think about is food. All the time.

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The chowdah (gotta say it like you are from Boston) and cookies were highly successful yesterday, thanks for the inquiries.

I am actually away from the house (Gasp…What? I Know!) at the moment, so I’ll post the recipes later on tonight.

But, yes, it was nice to have some good homemade nutrition for dinner. I think J. enjoyed his soup, it has jalapenos in it (totally optional), which he loves, but come to find out, it is not so nice to kiss someone who has indulged in them. So remember that. Be nice to your significant other if you make this chowder and/or if you would like any cuddling later on in the evening.

And the cookies! Let’s just say I’ve “tested” the cookies several times since last evening and they keep getting better with each taste test. So we may have a winning recipe. Finally. Now I need to slowly (s-l-o-w-l-y) wean myself off of them. Will you all just send me some random emails? Just title them “Carrie – Step away from the cookies. Now.”

Must. Stop. Eating. Cookies.

Because soon, our house will be flooded with cakes, cupcakes, puppy bone cookies, puppy chow and hot dogs.

We are on T-2 days and counting til A.’s birthday party. That is our menu for the event, so far. It has been really kind of fun prepping for it. I haven’t figured out, or bought, any of the food yet, but the girls and I have been putting together all of the “crafty” stuff for it.  J. and I cut 12 pairs of puppy and kitty ears out of felt the other night. (This is what constitutes a “hot night” at our house, aren’t you so jealous?) And then Em helped me glue them all together yesterday. And I made some little cards that have puppies on them and say “Doggy Bag” for the kids to take their goodies home in.  Em was so excited to glue them onto the little bags, so I expect that is what she and Denise are doing right now.

The hard thing is that I have to remember that A. is only 2, (although sometimes she acts like she is 4, like Em) and yet a lot of the kids that are coming are 4, 5 or older. You invite one child, and have to invite the other sibling sort of thing. Then it all snowballs. Anyways, I’m trying to do fun things for Addie that the big kids will still get “into” as well.

I’m also trying to decide whether to have a “pin the collar on the kitty” or a “pin the bone in the puppy’s mouth” game. I have some craft paper and I’m just going to draw it out, but I don’t know what would be cuter.

I was leaning towards doing more of the “puppy” side, I found this really cool doghouse cake that I thought she would flip over. So we are in the craft store and they actually had the pan, even though it is sold-out all over the internet. I showed it to A. and she said, “OH!  Puppy. Puppy in a house. Cute puppy.”

“Sweet,” I thought. And then A. squeeeeaaals, “Mama! A Smokey! A Smokey, Mama!” (All cats are “Smokey” right now.)

Sure enough, she found the only cake pan in the mountain of pans that can be made into a kitty. And as she pulled it out to carry it around, I realized the doghouse was so not going to happen.

So we are making a “Smokey” cake. Em thinks we should make it gray, black and white like our Smokey. Which I think is a fine idea, because black frosting is so much fun to work with and clean up.

Sigh.

I know. I know! It will be gray, black and white. Don’t worry.

Serious trip to the Park – Best Shot Monday

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The girls were very subdued at the park yesterday. Lots of serious, “thinking” shots. I had one of Ad all picked out because it made me laugh out loud when I brought it up. And then I came across this one.

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I am always surprised when I come across a photo of the girls that literally takes my breath away. Just an opportunity to stop and admire innocence and beauty for a moment. To forget about the frustrations and trials of the week, and just have that “breathtaking” pause of peace.

Okay, because I cannot resist, I will put up two this week. This was my original BSM before I fell in love with the one of Em.

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That is a classic A. look. She is mad because her Crocs are full of sand. It cracks me up everytime I look at. Seriously, I get this look. A lot.

The rest of our park photos are up at Flickr and for more great BSM photos, hop over to Tracey’s.

Friday Randomness

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It is Friday already. Yes, I did just say, already.

This week went flying by, even without running Em to preschool every other day. Between swim lessons everyday, dance lessons (and preparation for this weekend’s recital!), we have also been trying to catch up on work projects (well, I have), house cleaning (well, kind of) and have been house sitting for the neighbors (well, mostly just taking advantage of their pool). So, yeah, this week has kind of been a blur.

A few noteworthy points to document on the week:

-Addie now has most of her favorite bedtime books memorized. She reads them along with me. And God forbid I try to skip a page or two. Last night I didn’t think she was paying attention, just playing with her little stuffed kitty, so I tried to skip a page (or two, or four). Suddenly her had snapped up so fast I thought it was going to pop right off of her little neck. She exclaimed, “OH! Mama! No, no. This page. THIS page!” As she flipped back to the “forgotten” page. That girl is too smart for her own good.

-Emma has graduated from a “fish” to a “dolphin” in the pool. I am utterly impressed with that girl and how quickly she has caught on to swimming. She now jumps into the pool, no fear, no need for catching. Yesterday in swim class she was going down and picking up rings off of the floor of the pool and was so proud to tell me how to “side breathe.” It won’t be long until we will be needing to find a swim team for her to compete on, I think.

-The debate over Katie Holmes’ haircut still rages on. Apparently people are either really for, or really against this ‘do. I could care less about her, her crazy marriage, or her impossibly cute daughter, but I do happen to love the haircut. And unless I get some serious feedback telling me otherwise by 2 o’clock this afternoon, I’m going in to get my haircut as close to this cut as possible.

And that just about does it for the totally unrelated post today. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Thursday’s Theme: Fade

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This week’s theme is fade. Here is my submission…

…my little fading flower. This past Tuesday we had already visited the gym, been to A’s music class, had a little lunch and we were just patiently waiting for Em’s dance class to finish, when I snapped this picture.

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Check out everyone else’s take on fade over at Tracey’s. I’m sure a lot of others are busy documenting the fading summer days, but it is still 95 degrees most days here in the Valley, so it still doesn’t really feel like the end of summer to us!

Thursday’s Theme: Fade

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This week’s theme is fade. Here is my submission…

…my little fading flower. This past Tuesday we had already visited the gym, been to A’s music class, had a little lunch and we were just patiently waiting for Em’s dance class to finish, when I snapped this picture.

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Check out everyone else’s take on fade over at Tracey’s. I’m sure a lot of others are busy documenting the fading summer days, but it is still 95 degrees most days here in the Valley, so it still doesn’t really feel like the end of summer to us!

Sorry you asked?

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The first chance I had to talk with J. yesterday happened over IM at nearly 6pm. It went a little something like this…

J: There? How was your day?
C: Mother of God, please tell me you are miraculously IMing and driving home at the same time and are only 5 minutes away.
J: Um…no. Sorry. Bad day?
C: Well, A. has not stopped screaming since she woke up from her alleged “nap,” one hour ago.
J: Yipes!
C: We are in a five-minute quiet interval currently because I threw together some scrambled eggs and toast, and they are both filling their heads right now. She took off her diaper during her “nap” and awoke amidst a puddle of pee.
J: Yuck.
C: I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant, but it has all been cleaned up (as has she) and she still insists on screaming. I don’t know what the problem is. But, how was your day?
J: Slightly less pee…

Crafty Tuesday

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I have two different layouts of Ad’s “in progress” right now, well, really in pieces. I have all of the photos and papers I am going to use for her 1st Halloween and 1st Christmas, but I just haven’t had a minute to really put them all together. They are spread out all over my desk, (ha! I will not be taking pictures of our craft/playroom today.) just waiting patiently for me to get around to them.

Are we still on track? Hmm…we have 2 1/2 weeks before Ad. turns 2. Yikes. I think we’ll be close though. I have the major holidays, Halloween, Christmas and Easter to do still, and a few others. I need an all-day Saturday scrap and I could be done, I think.

I have been craftily (is that a word?) trying to plan Ad’s birthday party, though. Here is the invite I got done last week.

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(click to big it…as always)

If anyone has any good ideas for a cake or “kippy” type foods, let me know! (1000th commenter gets a prize – don’t forget!)

I have also completed an invitation for a pool party for some neighbors and a few different flyers for others, so my crafts have been all computer-based the past week.

But my friend Elisa has been sharing her craftiness with me, but she doesn’t have a blog, (Yet! She needs one, so we need to work on her.) but you can see her layouts here and here. She did these albums for her son, John’s coaches. Each player has their own page. Pretty impressive, huh. Yeah. I’m off to get some more done on mine. Check out Kim – I’m sure she has some cool stuff to show today, too!

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Updated: Check out Kimmer, too! She has gifts that she made my girls. They have not left Em’s feet since we received them. Ad loves hers, but can’t get them between the right toes most of the time!