Budding chef?

Nate has decided tonight that instead of reading books (maybe his favorite thing in the whole world), he is going to create a recipe for a chicken wing marinade. 

S'more fire fun

Last night we had a few friends over and we broke in the new fire pit. The kids cooked hot dogs over the fire, and then we made s'mores later.

We had a lot of fun, and the boys are already asking when we can do it again. Actually, Nate asked us today if he could cook dessert over the fire every night.

Nile, helping get the fire ready.

The kids, cooking hot dogs.

The "roaring" fire

S'mores.  (at least the marshmallow part)

Ehhh...what's up, Doc?

Hopefully he will leave some for Novak.

Sous-chef

Nile is helping me make baby food this morning. He is an excellent carrot peeler!

Fun with Nile

Since I had the opportunity to stay home an extra day with Nile, I thought that we'd have some fun. I feel like so often I don't spend the quality time with him that I should. Either I'm nursing Novak, or I'm making lunch, or we're getting ready to go to preschool or the gym. Add in a nap or quiet time in the afternoon, and I find the day has gone by and I've hardly spent any one-on-one time with him.

Today, I made an effort to correct that.

Nile and I sat down with our latest issue of Family Fun magazine, and picked out two projects to do. Both required me to do some prep work, so while I got ready, I gave him "ingredients" and let him "play cook" in the kitchen.

Then, we made silly ornaments out of pieces of yarn and cornstarch glue.
And we made "tarts" with a frozen pie crust and raspberry jam filling. Nile helped brush on the egg wash.

Of course, they wouldn't be complete without fluorescent orange frosting (Nile's color choice) and LOTS of colored sugar sprinkles. :)
Notice that, in all these pictures, he's still in his PJ's. Nothing better than a day home with Mom, hanging out in PJ's.

Note: I'm 0-for-3 on projects/recipes from Family Fun. None of them have worked out without having to make changes. So, although they have good ideas, at least when I do them, I have to be prepared for tweaks. Today, the cornstarch "glue" for the ornaments was WAY too thick and had to be watered down, and the frosting for the tarts needed to have extra water added in order to mix in all the powdered sugar. Live and learn!

Baking Day

I'm done. I swear. With the holiday baking, that is. This year my sister, mom, and I combined to bake or make 9 different types of cookies and candy. Then earlier this week, Nile and I baked Swedish cookies.

This is not good for my waistline or my attempts to lose the baby weight.

But ever since reading about these sour cream sugar cookies on the "A Mommy's Blessings" blog, I have been really wanting to make them. And, like the frosting on the cake, er cookie, when I won the Cappuccino Brownies giveaway on that blog post, it was like fate yelling at me to make these cookies...thanks to Holly for the recipe! Here's a link to her blog - feel free to check it out!

So on Friday, Nile and I whipped up the dough, and put it in the fridge to chill. There was way too much going on yesterday, so I decided Sunday was going to be Sugar Cookie Day! This morning, after putting Novak down for his morning nap, we started in.

I have also been wanting to try this "cookie paint" after reading about it in Family Fun magazine. It's basically dyed egg yolks that you paint on the cookies before baking. We started with that, then Nile got bored. Since we had these unused egg whites, he decorated his cookes with an egg white wash and colored sugars.

Nate, focused on painting a special cookie for his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Chaney.

Hmmm. Nile, licking his fingers? Really? What a surprise.

Now, you have to remember that a 5 and 3 year old did this cookie decorating, so I think they look pretty awesome! Here are the finished cookies, waiting to be put on plates and "donated" to the boys' friends. (Remember the waistline? I'm not keeping all of these around!)

And the verdict on the recipe? Yum! This is a keeper for future years!

Miss my big brother? Who, me?

Today is the first day in three years that I have spent at home with Nile, but without Nate. Nate is off at kindergarten, loving it, and Nile is home, loving it. Today, it's just him and me.

I realized this morning that I have NEVER had a day like this. When I was home on Mondays and Fridays with Nate, before Nile was born, I was working from home. So I would sit on the computer all day, working, while Nate played around me. I was still there with him, but I wasn't always WITH him, you know?

So today, Nile and I walked Nate to the bus stop, then came home and ate breakfast together. Then we headed to the gym. I got to the gym earlier than I may have ever gotten there. It was about 8:30 AM. After the gym, we ran to the store and then came home.

Then Nile and I baked banana cake. My mom has been training him well, he's really a great helper! He didn't spill a thing and was an excellent stirrer. We're going to have banana cake for our snack when Nate gets home from school.

After we put the cake in the oven, we played Candyland. Or, maybe I should say I got schooled in Candyland by a 3 year old. It was amazing how well and how nicely he played the game when Nate wasn't there. After Candyland we played Connect Four - well, at least we filled it with checkers...

We took the cake out of the oven, had lunch, and painted with watercolors. Then Nile found some toys and started to play. He really enjoyed being able to play with all the things that Nate usually won't let him touch (shhh...don't tell Nate!).

Here he is fixing a road, wearing Nate's new construction hat.

But the best part? Getting to play with Transformers! Nile is hardly allowed to look at these, let alone touch them or play with them. And he was so good - careful and gentle!

Right now Nile is napping, and I've had two hours of quiet. That alone is wonderful. I took a shower, frosted the cake, and have posted two blog posts. In about 40 minutes, Nate will be home from school, and I'm sure that chaos will begin. But, maybe not. Hey, a mom can always hope!

In two weeks he will start preschool. And in about six weeks, I won't have these quiet times with Nile any more...I am going to enjoy them as much as possible while I can.

Cleaning the bowl

There is one reason Nile likes to cook...to lick the bowl.