Happy Halloween!

Isn’t it fun seeing all the neighborhood and school kids dressed in their Halloween finery? The wild array of costumes just makes me grin. This year Ro is a frost fairy and Ree is a magical mermaid. They picked their costumes out of catalogs ages ago and never wavered.

Have a wonderful night of trick or treating. We’ve got a costume parade at school this afternoon, an early dinner (in hopes of filling their bellies with real food first), and then the main event.

PS: I’m curious – how do those of you with little ones handle door duty? We usually all go with the girls trick or treating, which means no one is home to give out candy until we return. I always feel bad for anyone ringing our bell while we’re out, but no one wants to miss having fun with Ro and Ree as they run up to each door in giggly anticipation.

Post 31 of 31 in Oct Daily Life – wahoo!

TJ’s never lets us down

Swung by Trader Joe’s to get Ro and Ree’s mochi ice cream fix and spotted some enticing-looking pumpkin pancake mix. Well you know that box vaulted right into our cart. Feasted on them this morn. One word: yum!!!

Like warm pumpkin bread in a pancake shape. Delish. I hope this isn’t just a seasonal thing that TJ’s will stop carrying in a month or two. Might need to stock up!

Ro likes them with just butter, Ree likes them plain and dipped in maple syrup, and I like them with both butter and syrup.

Mmmmmm.

PS: The girls found this feather in the park and want to know what it’s from. I thought maybe spotted owl (do we even have those in CA?), but Ree was justifiably skeptical of my avian knowledge and said “Just put it on the blog, mama, and ask them, they always know.” Heh. True.

Post 30 of 31 in Oct Daily Life

And now I will indulge in a little whine and wine

Yeah they’re cute and all, but don’t be fooled.

Their moods change with the wind, and apparently six is the year of DRAMA.

Oh my word. The attitudes, the whining, the foot stomping? This is just a short phase, right? Right?!!!!

Post 29 of 31 in Oct Daily Life

PS: Yes, yes, I skipped post 28, dammit, because these two had me all verklempt and I needed to just lie on the couch with a nice glass of wine, watch some reality tv, and mutter to myself. Going to do it again tonight, actually. Am also going to amuse myself by coming up with a good term for the sixes. You know, like Terrible Twos, Trying Threes, that sort of thing. If you’ve got anything for Six, please share, I need the laugh.

Slurp!

After hearing about the fun things that Catherine and fellow twin-mama K put in their kids’ smoothies, I was determined to add them to our breakfast routine. So the girls and I assembled a vibrant army of ingredients on the counter and prepared to be amazed. That’s when I remembered that our blender glass was broken eons ago and we only had the forlorn bottom sitting solo in our cupboard. Doh!

Blah di blah... the girls had something else for breakfast and I set off for Target (you’ll never hear me complain about having to visit that lovely establishment). There were scads of blenders, but one was really calling my name. It was a slick little gizmo called the Ninja that has a “normal” blender cylinder as well as three blend-and-sip glasses that just screamed “smoothie.”

Oh yeah! After school we fired that baby up and it was divine.

We used yogurt, frozen berries, wheat germ, torn-up baby spinach leaves, and orange juice for these first smoothies. Delish! I love the fact that I can put spinach leaves in there and easily get in a serving of veggies without any taste at all. You basically put your ingredients in one of the cups, screw on the slicing lid, flip it over and blend. Then unscrew the slicing lid and put on one of the sipper lids instead. Repeat with another cup for another smoothie, and voila. Good to the last drop.

Slurpies, I mean smoothies, have now been added into our breakfast rotation. The girls have really been digging yogurt with granola on top and also fruit-and-cream oatmeal, so it’s good to have another a.m. smile-maker in house full of non-morning people.

So, does anyone else have any good ideas for smoothie ingredients? I know we can use milk instead of orange juice (well Lactaid, in the girls’ case), and different kinds of fruit (almost any kind will probably be enthusiastically accepted, although Ro and Ree are kind of anti-banana right now). I might just pop into JambaJuice to see what their menu board looks like!

Post 27 of 31 in Oct Daily Life

A room that even Ro and Ree couldn’t break

The girls went to a birthday party at Great Jump Sports – basically an entire room of trampoline squares and walls. They jumped themselves silly, and even got a little tired (that’s saying A LOT for Ree and Ro).

We all thought it was a super neat place, and can’t wait to go back with Uncle Bobby and Aunt Jane someday. I think they’d really show us some moves on those trampolines.

Post 26 of 31 in Oct Daily Life

Sleeping Queens

No, I’m not talking about Ree and Ro. They’re not sleeping (yet) and if anyone’s the queen around here it’s me. I’m talking about this new card game the girls are mad for called Sleeping Queens. Ma and Pa gave it to them for their birthdays, and we’ve played it almost every night since.

It’s a cute game, dreamed up by a six-year-old girl, which tickles my fancy. The object of the game is to awaken the sleeping queens, and you draw a bunch of power cards along the way (kings, knights, dragons, potions, and wands) to help your cause. You can also play your number cards by making equations (like the 7+1=8 below), and that’s a feature that I LOVE. The girls are getting so adept at glancing at their hands and knocking out simple addition or subtraction equations. It’s fun.

Anyhow, eight thumbs up on this game from our little family.

PS: This...
...never fails to scare the crap out of me when I round a corner and see it. It’s like living with a horde of really big colorful spiders.

Post 25 of 31 in Oct Daily Life

I need some new lunch ideas

Ro and Ree tried hot lunch at school and hated it. They begged to have “mama lunch” every day instead. So I pack them lightning-fast lunches while they’re having breakfast each day. The problem is that it’s only October and I already feel like I’m mindlessly packing the same few things Every Single Flipping Day. I need to make some visual menus of tasty things that are easy to pack and won’t spoil easily so that I can break out of this yawner lunch rut. Those menus worked wonders on our home lunches, and I’m hoping that I can modify them to focus on packable food and they’ll kick our school lunches in the pants too. Maybe I’ll work on that this weekend.

In the meantime, here are a few lunches that pass the Ro and Ree “we’re practically vegetarians” litmus test. They all include some combo of protein, starch, and fruit -- and the proteins are usually turkey deli meat, cheese (havarti for Ree and white cheddar for Ro), yogurt, peanut butter, hard-boiled egg, avocado, or nuts.

The Bagel Thins and Sandwich Thins they sell now are always popular. I guess the girls don’t like too much bread:

Buttered tortilla or tortilla cheese wrap-ups are good options. Actually buttered anything is. They would eat butter with a spoon if we let them. We keep Smuckers Uncrustables in the freezer for the mornings like today when the alarm doesn’t go off and we wake with only 17 minutes to get out the door (&*$%!!):

Cookie cutter shapes out of bread (like the hearts or the apples) always get gobbled up. For yummy apple slices, I cut the apples, put in a ziploc bag, sprinkle with cinnamon, and shake:

Hm, I’m noticing a lot of pretzel sticks in these lunches. Booooooooring.

Food markers always make them grin. And the girls love Trader Joe’s onigiri, but I usually pack it in the hot thermoses. They gave this room-temperature try a thumbs down:

We use these divided ziploc containers most days. I pack them in Ro and Ree’s insulated lunchboxes on top of big icepacks. I also do a few hot lunches in those squatty thermos things that have soup or parmesan buttered noodles. I guess I’ve never taken a picture of those.

So, help a mama out here. What are your go-to packable lunches that always result in big smiles and empty lunchboxes?

Post 24 of 31 in Oct Daily Life

Five years ago today, I was not a mom

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of family day, the day we met our little girls. Which means that today is the fifth anniversary of the last day I wasn’t a mom.

It was kind of surreal, spending the last few days of non-parenthood in bustling China. We never in our wildest imaginations could have pictured that one day we’d be standing on the Great Wall of China, about to meet our daughters.

The funny thing is that after this, life really got wild. :-)

Post 23 of 31 in Oct Daily Life