creative can be easy

on friday i posted the friday links and then ended by saying that me and the boys were going to bake some chocolate chip cookies.
they had so much fun holding the hand mixer and dumping in the chocolate chips. but then when the dough was ready, i didn't feel like scooping out each individual cookie so i asked the boys if they had ever had a cookie pizza and if they wanted to make one with me.

of course they did!
all i did was spread the dough onto our round pizza pan and throw it in the oven for the amount of time it took for me to blow-dry my hair {15 minutes? it was still pretty wet.}, pulled it out and muah! perfection. and so much easier and less time-consuming than doing several sheets of cookies.
the boys loved it and were so excited when it was done that they insisted on having a cookie party and surprising jamie up in his office {he's moved his desk up to the "party house" now that we've re-arranged furniture for baby B}. we each took a plate up and gobbled up our pizza slices of cookie.
delicious!

sometimes thinking out of the box and being a little creative takes less work than doing things the old-fashioned way.

what's something creative you've done lately that's been easier than your usual way of doing things?

screen time tickets

last friday i posted on facebook that i had just implemented "screen time tickets" with my boys and that noah only had 1 left. for the entire week.

goodness.
i honestly anticipated more tantrums and frustration {on all our parts!} but as i type this {on wednesday} we've all been doing really well!
there will be a few new changes and alterations for our second week with screen time tickets.

as you can see each ticket is worth 30 minutes and can be used for tv, movies, daddy's iPad {one of the major sources of arguments before the tickets!} or computer.

how it works is that if the boys request to use the iPad or watch something i tell them to bring me a ticket and then choose what they would like to do. then i set the alarm on my phone and tell them when the alarm goes off, their time is done {or when a movie is done, etc. and they give the appropriate amount of tickets}.

each boy received 5 tickets last friday.
i am now planning on upping that to 6 tickets and will ration them out during the week; 3 on friday and 3 on monday. i may go back to giving them all their tickets on friday, but we'll see how the rationing goes if it seems to work for everyone.

jamie and i also discussed giving them an hour of saturday morning cartoons - as a treat for both kids and parents.
they also get one freebie of a family movie night which does not need any tickets.
noah also got a freebie ticket this week from daddy for obeying right away and with a really good attitude.

someone on facebook asked what happens if one child pays for a movie with their tickets and then the other child wants to sit in and watch. i commented that this is perfectly fine. the second child just doesn't have a say in what movie or show is being watched if they didn't contribute any tickets. over time this will hopefully lead to the boys working together to maximize their tickets and if they both want a say in the movie/show then they both need to contribute tickets.

right now both their envelopes are empty. they will stay empty until friday morning when i replenish them. we'll see how quickly they go through their initial three tickets or if they'll have learned to ration them for themselves.

overall their behaviour has been a bit better, they've played better together and have also self-initiated a lot more independent play time. hooray! oh we still have many fights every.single.day. {they are boys, after all!} but it's nice to see them being more creative and content with less screen time. kids will rise to the occasion and once again they have proven me right!

so all you need is to print off some tickets {i found mine here but there are other options for shorter amounts of time like 15 or 20 minutes or longer like 60 minutes}. i also chose to use colourful paper and then since i have no idea where i would laminate them, i used clear tape on both sides so we could re-use them.

this has been {so far} a good solution for our over-use of the tv and iPad. if you try it, let me know how it works for your family! i'll continue to update over the next few months as it's still a work in progress - and especially with the introduction of a new baby to our family soon!

paper roads

we have a lot of scrap paper lying around. 

schedules, outlines for seminars, failed print jobs, etc. 

and just like that, this extremely easy idea popped into my head.

i grabbed a marker and got started drawing road "pieces" on the blank side of our scrap paper. 

the boys were intrigued and instantly wanted to know what i was doing. when i told them, they were all excited. jude ran to get a car and noah ran to get some tape to help me tape the papers together.

i told noah he could arrange the pieces however he wanted and then we could tape them together. he was a great helper.

they both loved the parking lot i drew at first so i drew another. and a gas station. then i started decorating the sides although they could have cared less about the trees and parks and swimming pools. but if you have kids who are really into drawing, this could give you even more time!

both boys played for at least an hour. happily. jude sometimes walked on the paper and scrunched it slightly, but no harm was done. 

and it didn't have to be perfect. some of the roads didn't line up, but the boys were so thrilled for this "make your own town" that they weren't giving out marks for perfection. 

it's a fantastic activity requiring very little materials and a great diversion for kids who like watching tv just a little too much. sure you can buy those cool rolls of tape that are already marked like a road, but that's a lot more money for the same thing that will likely be enjoyed equally. if not less? 

green

almost 10 days since i last posted. goodness. where has the time gone?
well, we've had water back. then lost it again for a couple days and now it's back again. praying it stays on.
we're spending a lazy saturday morning with cartoons on my computer because the power is off, drinking starbucks coffee and eating biscuit cinnamon rolls and playing impromptu games of baseball in our front yard.
and it's St. Patrick's day today!
we won't be eating any green food {except for the beans and zucchini that were in the leftover stir fry we had for lunch} but i did make the boys some lovely green play doh this week in honour of st. patty.

best play doh

you can triple or quadruple this recipe and cook it in a large pot with good results

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 tbsp food colouring

1 tbsp vanilla extract (optional) 

combine the flour, salt and cream of tartar in saucepan. add the water and food colouring and whisk until smooth. cook over medium heat until playdough is nearly set. add the vanilla extract {i did the first time but vanilla here is kinda weird smelling so i didn't add it this time.}. stir until blended, then remove and knead ad when cool. store in an airtight container or a ziploc bag.

we made a batch of this to give to our friends and even added green sparkles for some st. patty's day fun! this play doh is incredibly smooth and soft and so much cheaper than the store bought stuff! i give my boys tooth picks and popsicle sticks and googly eyes and it's hours of entertainment.

and here's the story of st. patrick {a la veggietales!} for those who aren't familiar with where we get mixing green beer with lucky charms from. {er, scratch that. not really sure who made that tradition up. i could do without the green beer, but i'd LOVE some lucky charms today. oh well. maybe i'll whip up something green for dessert. it's pizza night tonight!}

aaaand....if you're looking for something sweet for you to whip up for that special someone, try the white russian cupcakes with kahlua buttercream that i made last year. YUM.

art

Sometimes you just need to create your own art gallery.

And then pose in front of it with a VeggieTales video.

birthday cake

**Please forgive the length of this post. I thought about splitting it up, but then I couldn't bring myself to do it. So...here it is. Enjoy!**

As I looked at my calendar last week I realized that my friend Jen's daughter was having her first birthday today. I thought about volunteering to make the cake but then as quickly as the thought occurred to me I forgot (like most things - but that's an entirely different post). Then, a few days ago Jen emailed me wondering if I was interested in making Naomi's cake but that there was no pressure.

Great minds think alike. 

So it was set. I was making Naomi's cake. And I was going to get to use my sweet, sweet KitchenAid. (Woot!)

So Friday morning (when I should have been at a play date which I completely forgot about it - again, that's for another post) I set to work and decided on a recipe for the cake (Pure Vanilla) and the icing flavour (lemon buttercream), the shape (square at first, but then circle) and the theme (yellow duck!).

I actually did one of those shots with all the ingredients that you see on all those fancy food blogs:

I used this recipe for the cake and this recipe for the icing. (I felt very Joy the Bakerish. If you haven't heard of her...*gasp*. GO. Now. She is adorable and bakes amazing things.)

I even bought real vanilla extract. (As opposed to the artificial stuff.) Here's the batter, ready and waiting to be bake-ed.

YUM.

(And then my kitchen looked like this:)

Not so YUM.

And then in the evening I cleaned up, wrapped up the cakes, put them in the cold room and went to bed.

The End.

Just kidding. Is that mean?

So Saturday afternoon (after I ran 6 miles, what what?) during "nap time" (Noah fought it ever step of the way) I whipped up the lemon buttercream (triple YUM) and brought up the cakes. I sawed off the top of one of them to make it more flat and then iced the cakes together (you can see in the picture above the 2 round cakes - I just stacked them with icing in between). Then I slathered the cake in icing until it was perfectly unperfect (I can't do a perfect ice anyway, so I opt for the cool "unperfect" look) and then set to work on the fondant additions (a giant "1", a giant "N" and yellow ducks).

If you don't know what fondant is, you are missing out. read this, buy some and eat it. Or not. Whatever.

I printed out the N and 1, cut them out and then traced around them with a toothpick on the fondant. Then I used a knife and cut them out. I used cookie cutters for the ducks.

I used water to attach the ducks to the sides of the cake as well as smoothing down any ragged-looking edges. I just guessed that this would work and it did!

Oh yeah and I had enough extra cake batter that I was able to make a smash cake for Naomi. I've seen "smash cakes" and I thought it would be fun to make one - plus then I'd get to make an "N" for the smash cake (since Jen preferred a giant 1 on the bigger cake - the smash cake was a surprise for her). 

Here's the final product:

Simple and cute. Just the ways I likes 'em. And delish.

After icing this small square-ish cake I was pretty happy I chose a circle for the larger cake - corners are hard to ice!

Naomi getting into the smash cake. Love this shot. All we're missing is Graham (but he was busy taking a video of this momentous occasion).

YUM. 

You know when you can't enjoy something (whether it's something you've done or something about you or some sort of talent you have) because you're too caught up in all the things that are wrong with that particular something? Yeah. Boo to that. 

But not this time.

I'm proud of my work. And it was such a joy to present this offering of love - and the proverbial icing on the cake; I had fun making it! That's not always the case with things I set out to do for others but this one, it was fun. 

Thanks Jen for giving me the opportunity and honour of making your daughter's first birthday cake!

Think Time...reviewed

Remember this?

Well, I've been moving forward on the creative front.

I've cooked with bulgar wheat, quinoa (the organic kind and the red kind - who knew?), and zucchini (I know. But I never really cooked with zucchini before.). And I absolutely LOVE quinoa. Too bad Noah and Jude don't. But hey...more for me, right?

I've also picked up my camera a lot more lately - and not just to take pictures of my boys (although the majority of my pictures are of my boys). And I'm going to try out this whole You Capture thing (click on the button on the side bar for more info). I think it'll give me some motivation and inspiration to work at being a better photographer.

I've also been running! I'm now on week 4 of a 10 week training program to run 10k. Some days I complete my goals, other days, not so much. But it's a WHOLE lot more than I was doing 2 months ago!

I'd still like to start sewing and become more confident in that aspect, but there's plenty of time for that.

It's good to get that think time, but it's even better to see what comes out of it.

Think Time...

The other night (aside from Jude rejecting his crib/room for the third night in a row) Noah woke up at around 11pm and cried for awhile. So I went in and sat with him - I said I would stay until he fell asleep but 40 minutes later with my left leg completely asleep and Noah standing up in his crib peering down at me in the dark I realized it wasn't happening. So I left. And he was quiet for a little while but then cried again about 20 minutes later.

We eventually hung out in our bed until 2:30ish and then all fell asleep in our respective beds.

But all that to say, I had 40 minutes of quiet, uninterrupted think time while sitting with Noah.

I don't often get think time. So much so that after I came back to bed with Jamie and words started pouring out of my mouth of all that I had been thinking about, Jamie remarked this very thing to me.

It's true.

But one of the things I thought about was creativity.

I know it's a bit late for New Years' Resolutions, but if I had to make a goal, I'd say that I want 2010 to be all about creativity for me.

Here's how that breaks down for me:

1. In the kitchen.

I want to be more creative with my cooking.

I want to try using ingredients that I've never used before (like bulgar wheat).

I want to discover new food loves (maybe even ones that don't include sugar...?).

I would like to try fancier desserts and work on my cupcake skills...

2. In my leisure time.

By the end of 2010 I want to be proficient and confident at using MY sewing machine. I want to know how to fix minor issues and be able to use at least a handful of the settings on it.

I'd love to be able to sew basic things like pillows, simple clothing patterns, and even make some kids toys/baby accessories.

I'd also like to get out with my camera and even though my favourite subjects are my boys, it'd be nice every now and then to capture the world around me.

3. In my health.

This does tie into cooking, but also by trying new exercise classes, videos and other ideas for staying (read: getting) in shape and keeping healthy.

I would LOVE to get back into softball/baseball some day and maybe this year could be a year of betting the old glove and ball out and playing some catch with Jamie (and entertain the boys all at the same time).

I want to have more of a creative outlet in my life. I was made with this creative 'itch' and I think it's about time that I scratch it.