Do You Have Tickets...

To the gun show?!?!

I love it when the boys do all the heavy lifting for my gardening.
Makes things a lot easier for me.

I know the title is lame. Leave me alone.

D...d...d...d...d...

Dora!

Gavin is just in love with Dora the Explorer so I thought that, for his birthday, I would make him a Dora cake. I remember as a kid my mom making all these cool birthday cakes for me and my siblings and it made our birthdays special and memorable. I want to do the same thing for my kids. As I have come to find out, I am not a cake decorator. Especially since I don't have the right tools to decorate. I just use zip-lock bags and cut the corner off. It works well enough but I get so frustrated when things don't turn out like I wanted. Also, I couldn't find the right food colorings at the store so I improvised. Yes, I know, Dora has a sunburn. Leave me alone! Here is Gavin's cake.Gavin was so excited to have Dora plates too!
Gavin was so funny when JJ was trying to light the candle. He would blow it out before JJ even took his hand away. We couldn't even get out the first line of "Happy Birthday" before he blew it out again. I swear we light that candle 10 times!

He was ready to dig in!
Torin was very excited for cake! He was wishing Gavin "Happy Birthday" all day. Even today, he is so cute!JJ trying to get everyone some cake before Gavin eats it all.
Gavin taking a taste. Sort of. Have you seen Dora's face?




Yum!Oh my gosh...JJ was so excited to give this balloon and bike to Gavin. I had to make him hold back and wait till after the cake.
Guess which part of the present Gavin liked best?

This is a video of Gavin blowing out the candle. I meant to get more but once I pulled out the camera he stopped doing it so much.



This is a video of Gavin enjoying his card from Grandma and Grandpa Lace.

One..

TWO!
Happy second birthday to my soon to be middle child! Gavin was born at 9:48 am on April 20, 2009. He is so funny and a joy to be around.
I'll make sure to do a post after his little birthday party tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know that Gavin is 2!!!!

Here are some pictures of Gavin. He can be so cheesy!




What a goon!

Yo Yo!

This post is a shout out to my very good friend Dugan. He helped me figure out why my poor onion seeds were dying.What what, Dugan!

Quick and Easy

And tasty too!

I have some picky eaters and after a while I get bored with the usual rotation of dinners. I can be pretty adventurous with food for myself but since I have to think of others that don't possess that same spirit, experimenting can be frustrating. I made a new recipe this week and I think that it turned out pretty good. It was simple and easy and seemed to please everyone.


Tortellini with Peas and Prosciutto


Ingredients nocoupons

• Kosher salt
• 1 pound meat-filled tortellini
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces prosciutto or pancetta, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the tortellini and cook as the label directs.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and prosciutto and cook until crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Ladle in about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and simmer until reduced by about half, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cream and simmer until slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.

About 2 minutes before the tortellini are done, add the peas to the boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain the tortellini and peas and add to the skillet, tossing to coat with the sauce. Stir in the parsley. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.

I actually used a box of cheese filled tortellini instead of meat filled. I also used dry parsley instead of fresh because that is just what I had on hand.

There were no leftovers.

My Turn!

Normally the boys take a bath at the same time. Usually this ends up with a lot of screaming, splashing and water on the floor. One day I thought that they might like to take them separately so they could enjoy the time in the tub. I put Torin in the tub first and I check on him a couple minutes later and look what I found...
I guess they would rather scream and fight with each other than take a bath apart.

Gavin...

"Swim Like a Giant Whale!"

That was one of the phrases Torin would say every time we headed out for swim lessons. I signed him up for lessons for two weeks in February and then again for four weeks in March. He had his last lesson on March 24th. Torin absolutely loved swim lessons! He loves playing in the water. I was only able to take pictures from the first session because I was in the water with Gavin during the second session.

Waiting for class to start.Getting in the water all by himself! He is getting so old...

Walking over to his teacher.

A little one on one time with his teacher.

Now we are preparing for soccer to start. I am so excited for him to start running around and burning off all this energy he has!