A Tapas Birthday Dinner, Part Two

During our tapas dinner, Nick played with his cars. Gigi (Nick's great-grandmother) was kind enough to let her legs be the road.

One of the tapas I served was Magdalena cakes, which are light, lemony cakes that melt in your mouth. They were actually pretty easy to make. You can find the recipe here.

Greg made several dishes to contribute to this fancy dinner. First, here are grilled plantains with a spicy sugar glaze.

On the grill, Greg made flank steak marinated in garlic and hot peppers. Yum!

Our dinner was not completely bereft of vegetables--Greg made a green bean and cabbage salad.

He also made lemon-thyme wild rice, which turned out pretty well. I thought it was delicious.

Oh, dessert? Of course we had dessert! My mom is a big fan of chocolate, so I chose a bittersweet chocolate tart on a hazelnut crust. It's one of the more challenging dessert recipes I have tried, and I had to carmelize the sugar twice. The first time it burned, and nearly set the house on fire. Then, I got chocolate all over my nose.

The recipe involved crushing hazelnuts and grinding them into a powder for the crust, carmelizing sugar (which is somewhat dangerous for absentminded people like me), and separating eggs. But it was worth the trouble. It was chocolatey and rich but not too sweet. I did, however, forget to buy birthday candles. So we improvised. . .

Yes, that's a scented candle. Hey, we had to have something for my mom to blow out after we sang. Here's what the tart looked like up close:

It was definitely a filling trip to Spain. By the end of the evening, everyone was sprawled out watching the Cars movie with Nick, barely awake. I think my mom had a good birthday, though, and that was the point. Maybe next year we'll go to Italy. . .

A Hot Day at the Morton Arboretum

Last Saturday we had a big outing. We went to the Morton Arboretum for a picnic and some fun. The event started as a present for my grandmother and sister. They both had birthdays in June, and we promised them a nice lunch and walk through the gardens for a present. My mom drove them down to the Arboretum. Also, my friend Gardenmom and her son were in town, and they joined us. A good (but sweaty) time was had by all.

The kids had a blast running around in the children's garden. They had a stream, slides, and a number of climbing areas.

Nick wanted to try everything that Gardenmom's son could do, even if he was too little. My son doesn't understand the concept of "too little."

It's actually quite surprising how refreshing it is to wade in a stream on a hot sunny day.

The arboretum had an art exhibit going on where they crocheted trees. It was pretty awesome, in my humble opinion. Kinda like a sweater for the tree.

Oh, and Henry? He got a ton of snuggling from his grandma and great-grandma. He pretty much got passed between the two of them the entire time we were there. Henry heartily approved. He is happiest in someone's arms.

I do want to go back to the arboretum sometime soon, but hopefully we'll pick a day where the weather is a little cooler.

June: The Craziest of Months

For my family, June has always been a pretty busy month. Between my birthday, my sister's birthday, and my grandmother's birthday, there are plenty of parties to go around. When you add in Father's Day, my wedding anniversary, and now Henry's birthday, June has truly become the craziest of months.

Yesterday we went to my mom's house to celebrate three of these major June events: my grandmother's birthday, Father's Day, and the second anniversary of my sister's 29th birthday (if you know what I mean). In the picture above, Henry is reclined on Gigi's lap, and I do believe I have never seen him more relaxed. She has the magic touch.

My mother made some really delicious chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling. Aren't they gorgeous?

Nick got to play outside in the pool, and his favorite thing to do was empty the pool one bucketful at a time into the grass. I thought this was a wonderful way for him to expend his energy, so I had Greg buy a similar swimming pool for Nick on the way home. We'll see if he does the same thing at home, and tires himself out.

Everybody wanted a chance to cuddle little Henry, but Nick made sure he got his share of the attention. Something tells me that my oldest son will never let anyone else take the spotlight for long. While we were fussing over the baby, check out what Nick did to get our attention. . .

If nothing else, June in my family will never be boring, because of all the celebrations! Greg and I did plan to have a baby this time of year, so I could avoid taking unpaid maternity leave. Nick was more of a, um surprise, so his November birthday wasn't planned. But I do think summer birthdays are nice because everyone can gather outside.

We have a lot to celebrate this year.  : )

An Easter Egg Hunt on Mother's Day!

On Mother's Day, we went to my mom's house for a combination Mother's Day/Belated Easter celebration. My mom and stepdad were on vacation in Europe, so they missed the whole Easter Egg hunt thing with Nick. Actually, though, the weather was much nicer on Sunday than it was anytime around Easter!

In fact, it was so sunny on Sunday that much of Nick's candy melted. We all loved the time outside, though. Funny how our weather changed in just a few days. Here in Northern Illinois, we went from daytime temps topping out in the 40s and 50s last week to 92 degrees today. Crazy stuff.

Compared with last year, Nick was pretty independent with his egg-hunting. Once he figured out there were cookies and candies inside the eggs, he was very excited.



Nick kept trying to get his grandpa to open up the shed. He thought there might be cows in there.



Later this week, I'll post about the neat painting project Nick and I did for all of his grandmas for Mother's Day. I have some pics of that as well. I've been kind of tired the last few weeks, and now that I'm down to the last month of this pregnancy, the doctor visits have been taking up a lot of my blogging time. Each week, now until this baby is born, I have an IV iron infusion, at least one doctor visit, and two NSTs (non stress tests). Man, am I ever glad that pregnancy only lasts nine months!

Visiting with Gigi

During my spring break, Nick and I decided to take a day to go and visit my grandmother, who Nick calls Gigi. (G.G.=great grandma) She just had cataract surgery and we figured she could use some cheering up. Nick picked out pretty yellow tulips and cupcakes to bring for her.

I think Nick's favorite part of the visit was romping with Lucy, the Yorkie pup.

My grandma made us lunch and dinner, and we talked and watched Nick run around and try to destroy things. At one point, he kept sneaking into the living room and stealing Hershey's kisses from the candy bowl.  For a two-year-old, he can be pretty surreptitious--Nick would put the candy behind his back so we couldn't see it. He must've gone back seven or eight times before we finally put the candy bowl where he couldn't reach it.

That really brought back memories for me, because I can remember doing the exact same thing. In fact, one time, when I was about 5 or 6, I snuck a whole bunch of chocolate out of that same crystal candy bowl and hid the wrappers under the couch cushions. I was caught and I can remember having to write a silly sentence about 100 times. It was something like: I will not take candy without asking. It seems my son has inherited the tendancy to swipe chocolate whenever it is in the vicinity.

It was a sunny day, so we decided to go outside with Lucy for awhile. Even though it was somewhat chilly outside, Nick wasn't even a little bit cold. Too busy running full speed towards and away from the puppy, he got quite a bit of exercise. You can tell, though, that Gigi was a little chilled.

I really love this time in the spring when you can have the windows open and let in the fresh air. Spring is such a hopeful time, and I have to say that Nick is so much more mellow when he gets to run around and play outdoors.

Nick has quite a few doting grandparents--four grandmas and three grandpas--but there's only one Gigi. Since Nick lost his Grandma Marie in February, she's his only living great grandparent, and very special to him. You'd think he'd get confused with all of the relatives, but we have pictures up all over the house, and Nick can point to them and name everyone. He knew just who I was talking about when I said we were going to visit Gigi. In the car, he asked, "I see Gigi. Puppy, too?"


Yup. Puppy, too.

At times, I felt sorry for the puppy, because Nick was not very gentle with her. But Lucy kept coming back for more, and licking the heck out of my boy. He didn't seem to mind much.

I spent most of my spring break working on a very big freelance writing project, all while potty training Mr. Nick. I also had papers to edit for some friends and a Power Point presentation I was working on for work. Not very relaxing.

So getting to take a rest from the computer and drive up for some adult company was really nice. I think Gigi liked the company, too, though she looked pretty tired by the time we left. It's hard for anyone to get used to the energy of a two-year-old!

This Boy is Well-Loved

Here are the promised pictures from Nick's visit with my mom, stepdad, sister, and grandma. Nick had a ball and loved all of the attention. He knows all of his relatives by name and he even knows how they like to play. Auntie Mandy likes to tickle him, and Grandma Linda likes to read with him. Gigi likes to sing with him--in this case they sang "The wheels on the bus."

Nick knows that he can play pinball with his Grandpa Ray, and that Grandma Linda will let him make biscuits and eat "cookie bears" anytime he wants. (I'm talking about those chocolate graham cookies--my mom keeps them at her house just for him.) Nick sometimes chooses to eat them with a spoon.

Nick even knows how to play blocks with different people. With me, he wants to make houses for his little animals, but with Grandma, he likes to build with squishy blocks. Plus, also chew on them.

Grandma Linda also makes a delicious dark chocolate bundt cake. Nick really loved that. I'm going to have to get her recipe. Anything with dark chocolate is a craving of mine lately.

Grandma Linda also likes to play Wii with Nick. He loves the balance board, and even requests to stand on it when he visits. Chewing on the Wii mote is even more fun. I think he was playing a game where you're a penguin and try to catch fish and not fall off of your iceberg. Nick got to visit his grandma and grandpa again this week, and he exhausted them with all of his energy.

We don't have any sort of video gaming system at our house, so this is very special for Nick. Also tasty, apparently.







Christmas Post #2

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. . .

Well, it certainly wasn't two turtledoves. Our cats would've just eaten them. Our Christmas #2 was on Christmas Eve, which I've always spent with my mother's side of the family. Nick was excited to see his Grandma Linda, Grandpa Ray, Gigi (Great Grandma), Aunt Mandy, and Uncle Andy.  Above you can see Nick showing off his big boy Christmas argyle sweater, which I love because it looks like something an adult would wear. All he needs is a briefcase, and he's ready for a business casual day at the office.

The good thing about my son is that he gets far more excited about playing with new people than he does about toys. Not that he doesn't like toys, but I'm less worried about him getting spoiled after seeing how much he wanted the interaction. There were so many presents, but he wanted everyone to sit on the floor and play with him.  Here is Aunt Mandy sharing a candy cane with him.

Nick was soon overwhelmed with presents, and he often couldn't be bothered to open new ones because he was so busy playing with the last present he'd opened. One of his favorite gifts was a keyboard--one obviously meant for an older child. Nick absolutely adored all of the buttons. I believe in the video below he's singing a version of "Somebody Come and Play" from Sesame Street.

Nick also loves giving presents. One special one that Nick and I made for Grandma Linda was one of those Shutterfly memory books. It was all pictures of Nick and his grandma together. I think she liked it.

I'll leave you with Nick regaling us with Christmas Carols. Jingle bells is his favorite song, and the only one he knows the words to so far.