At least I look thin

For my 35th birthday Zach stuck with his hat trend (Alex, Liv and Vince all got different styles of hats) and got me this lovely visor. It is huge. If you think it wraps all the way around my head you would be wrong. It is one of those visor on a headband things.

Terrible.

You can see James agrees.

Alex claims it was this one or one that was burnt orange and he thought that would clash with my hair. Says the man who wears two different shades of gray in one outfit.

I want to be one of those moms that doesn't care but seriously, I am never going to wear this visor. I think I am going to tell Zach it does not fit and take him with me to pick out another one. If he really pitches a fit I will cave (obviously). But I will not be seen outside of Drummond street in this visor.

I am 35 not 55. And I don't power walk in the morning. I mean I need to, but I don't.

Christmas under 4

Under 4 minutes, under 4 years old, which ever under 4 works for you. Because Christmas at our house was all those things.

Zach insisted we leave three cookies for Santa and and three carrot sticks for the reindeer. Unfortunately his mother only had an apple for the reindeer. The baby will choke himself on carrot sticks and Zach refuses to eat them so why would I purchase them? Anyway, he seemed happy enough with the apple. He also placed Jack in James' chair so he could make a quick get away (and I was glad to see him go).

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house after a marathon mass at the Co-Cathedral downtown. A retired priest gave the sermon and (it was obvious he did not have children) he talked FOREVER even reading directly from a letter from the Pope to the New York Times. Both boys held out as long as they could but finally we just had to bail. I don't think my father in law appreciated my critique of the priest's sermon - but I speak the truth.

The best family photo in a while. Better than this at least. 

Wall to wall free for all...

Christmas morning was great, it really is exciting with two little ones! Zach got a play table/kitchen, a dream light and some miscellaneous Spider-Man stuff. James got stuff pulled out of the closet, a musical play set and Spider-Man slippers that match Zach's. It is hilarious to watch him stumble around in them - I sort of wasn't thinking that a not-secure walker would struggle with a padded shoe. He doesn't care a bit, he has the same thing as Zach which makes him super happy.

Here is Zach "helping" James with his gifts.

The play table and general Christmas morning destruction.

This is my favorite photo from the day.

Alex got James the leaf blower from Home Depot but Zach immediately decided it was his.

Super hero lawn boy, right here.

Breakfast from the freezer

Does anyone else dread breakfast? I mean not at much as dinner, obviously, but I feel the pressure of feeding my kids something that is nutritious and will hold them until snack (at least my little ones get snacks) but also something they can eat without my help. Zach can do cereal...but it almost always spills right when I am in the shower or straightening my hair. AKA I can't stop what I am doing.

So I started batch cooking breakfast items and freezing them. And I love it. As my sister would say, technically you can buy all the items I make and freeze. And honestly, now that I am back full time I do usually buy them. But I still really like to make the stuff too, when I have a little time.

This weekend I bought some "Renaissance bread" at Randall's only because I wanted to make french toast for the boys and wanted it to be with a hearty wheat bread. Oh it is hearty all right, the first two ingredients are wheat flour and barely. My children might come to hate me in the future I know.

But look how pretty they turned out!

I decided I did not have the time to stand at the stove (that and the fact that James is always "helping" me with everything which is somewhat of a fire hazard) so I searched around for a way to bake it in the oven. After wading through entirely too many french toast casserole recipes I found a non-casserole that I re-worked a tad for me.

It was so much faster than just doing 4 at a time. I squished 10 slides on the cookie sheet and they all turned out perfectly. In case you would like to make them as well, I put the recipe below. I included some pineapple puree which is from a Deceptive Delicious recipe and makes the french toast a tad sweeter without anyone being the wiser, but you could obviously leave that out.

Baked French Toast

4 large eggs

6-8 slices of bread

2 TBSP pineapple puree (optional)

½ tsp cinnamon

Splash of milk

1 -2 TBSP butter

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Blend eggs, milk, puree and cinnamon in a bowl

Put butter on cookie sheet in oven just long enough to melt the butter. Roll the pan around to coat well.

Dip bread in egg mixture turning once and then put on cookie sheet.Bake for 10-15* minutes, turning once to get the bread golden brown.

* In all honesty- I am just estimating the cooking time. I left mine in the oven while I was doing 15 other things and once I smelled it I came running. I start with 10 minutes and go from there. 

Zach was very excited when I told him we were having french toast for breakfast.

Quick Gift

Whenever it was grandparent’s day, we happened to be seeing Liv and Vince. I had seen these on where else, Pinterest, so I set about convincing Zach to jump up and down for a photo. It did not work especially well but I was determined to use my laminator. Determined. 

I finally got one that would work, where he is basically just holding his arms up. Poor James, he had to settle for hanging from his arm. Unfortunately I am not the best with scaling photos so it sort of looks like James is going to eat Zachary. Whoops. But Liv and Vince love them which is what was important.

Thank heavens my dad is a periodicals only reader like Alex and my mom has a Kindle so I don't think they mind not having hanging chads of the boys. But if I hear any different I will get that laminator out immediately.

Walk for a Cure

Technically October is breast cancer awareness month, but technically my life spirals out of control at a moment's notice so posts end up coming out two months late. This is of no surprise to anyone I know.

Liv (a cancer survivor) always organizes a team to walk. There are some constants (Jim and Susan) and some new faces each year. The new faces this year included Zach and James. The last walk Zach attended was two years ago when we was just as pleasant as James is these days.

In 2009 I found a onesie for Zach that had the pink ribbon and the slogan, "A cause I can latch on to" which I found enormously funny. I mean, who doesn't love a double entendre?

Not to be outdone by my 2009-only-one-child-working-part-time-self I knew my boys needed clever shirts. Turns out there are not really any that you can buy. OK, any that you can buy on such short notice. But you can buy pink ribbon clipart on Etsy and iron-on paper in a hurry.

Naturally, James was making his standard face and eating snacks the entire time. He is very thin.

The walk was PACKED. It took us an hour just to get to the starting line. By that time our boys were done. Done with being in the wagon and done with their snacks. We turned around at the first street we could and headed back to our car. It was still a disaster, they were both crying and we were basically speed walking to get there as fast as we could. Finally once we were back in downtown we let them out to walk. They both enjoyed "sliding" down/around the sidewalk of the Chevron building. Their hands were covered in black dirt. Gross. But worth it for less crying.

I insisted on a "blood only" photo for Liv. All moms want this even if they lie and say they don't because they have such amazing daughters-in-law. Granted, most moms don't call it "blood only"; but my grandmother loved that phrase and it makes me laugh when I use it.

Merry Christmas?

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all my sweet friends and readers! I really do appreciate everyone who checks in on this mess of Walls I have and leaves me comments on how they can relate and how I am not 100% crazy. Just like 97%.

I hope your holidays are as delightful as ours!

They have just started and I am already exhausted. 

Anyone need company and/or a 4 year old and a baby who may or may not cut you?

That's right, I made elf doughnuts

Because I don't have enough to do and Jack is not trying to kill me in my sleep, I decided I HAD to make elf doughnuts. These on Pinterest looked darling.

However, as noted by another blogger actual instructions on how to do this are hard to find. This same blogger said something about rolling hers in melted chocolate and then in powered sugar or sprinkles. People, these are cheerios. I am supposed to melt down perfectly good chocolate that I could be stuffing into my face when I walk by the pantry and roll cheerios in it? I do not have that kind of time. Or patience. Or utensils needed to dig chocolate covered cheerios out of goopy chocolate.

So I did what any self respecting mother would do: I wet the cheerios with water and tossed them in powdered sugar.

Once again; nailed it.

However, once they were put in the matchbox and placed on Jack's lap I was pretty pleased with myself.

I was especially pleased the next morning when Zach could have cared less about the elf doughnuts. He did not find them charming and cute. He thought they looked odd and said James could have them. Now how ticked would I have been if I had wasted that chocolate and oodles of my time? Exactly.
I think I am pretty smart as well. Please feel free to spread the word about my wet cheerios trick, though I am not telling Pinterest. They might revoke my membership.

A few days later Jack brought some blocks (thanks Liv!) that were a much bigger hit. And not one mess was made with that one.