How I spent my birthday

So my birthday was last week.  The big 2-7.  I did not spend it going out for lunch, getting a pedi, or generally being child free.  In fact, I gained 3 kiddos!  My sister was 3 days past her due date at that point, and was in desperate need of a kiddo break.  So I volunteered to get them out of her house for the day so she could rest or you know, go into labor.

So I piled the 4 kids and car seats into the van, drove to my parents house to see Grandpa for a little bit and jump on the trampoline.  All well so far.

I had planned to take them to a park, so we headed out after jumping for a while and got to the park about 30 minutes before lunch time.  I figured we could still do it, since we had snacks packed, so I hauled them all out of the car, fought with the new stroller I didn't know how to work, and got them all to the picnic tables to eat snack before playing.  We skipped over two picnic tables due to yellow jackets and went for a third which I thought was bee free.

I thought.

We were all happily munching on snack when a yellow jacket started whizzing around our heads.  We all held still like statues and thought we were in the clear, when it made one last pass between Conal and Liam's heads, and apparently conducted a drive by sting to Conal's ear.  Oh, that was the end of that.  And pretty much the end of the world and everything.  Conal was madder than a hornet (ha.ha.ha.) and the poor thing kept clutching his ear.  No amount of snacks or holding or distracting was going to work.   We spent about 10 minutes wondering around the park trying to calm him before I decided No. Can. Do.

We packed up and headed home promptly.  After only 10 minutes at the park.  Oh well.

We got home and I started fixing lunch and THANKFULLY all of the new/different toys distracted Conal to the point where he apparently forgot his stung ear and happily started flinging toys about.

Whew.  Crisis averted.

While I was lunching about the kitchen, Liam the 5 year old, wondered in...

L: Did you hear what I was playing, Aunt Jamie?
Me: I did.  It was very nice.
L: I was playing music for you cause it's your birthday.
Me: Aw, really?
L: Yes and I was playing the hardest I could and concentrating really hard to do my best work cause it's your birthday.
Me: <melts>
L: Did you like it?
Me:  I loved it. :-D  Will you go play me some more music while I finish lunch?
L: YES!

So I snuck in and snapped this.

My birthday serenade. :)

Then we all sat down for lunch.  Wouldn't you want to sit down to lunch with these faces?

And yes, that is macaroni and cheese from a box.  I wanted so badly to be the cool aunt who fed them something super healthy and plant based, but I had little time, little food options, and little money.  So rather than feed them something I wasn't sure if they were going to eat and then be stuck if it turned out bad, I opted  for something I knew they would eat.   There's always next time....

Then the littles went down for a nap while the big kids watched X-Men 3 and played Legos.

And I know you are all wondering if my past-due sister had her baby on my birthday.  No.  We all were hoping and waiting and wishing.  I wanted a little birthday niece, but it didn't happen.  (Happened the next day actually after 2 more false labor attempts.)

But it was still a good birthday, filled with lots of chasing little kids and diapers. ;-)

Flax eggs

I just realized I posted a recipe that used a flax egg, and I didn't even explain what a flax egg was!

A flax egg is super simple.

1 Tbsp flaxmeal (ground up flax seed)
3 Tbsp water

Stir well and let sit for several minutes to thicken up.  Once it thickens it has a consistency remarkably like an egg.  You can use it in baking just like you would a regular egg.

Flax Egg

It's hard to tell, but it's thickened up to a nice egg like consistency.

Why would I want to use a flax egg? 

If you are vegan and avoiding all animal products you would obviously want to use a flax egg instead of a regular one.

If you were looking for an extra dose of healthy essential fatty acids (EFAs), flax is a GREAT way to do that!  It also contains fiber, which eggs do not.

If you have allergies to eggs.

If you were trying to watch your cholesterol, flax is a great substitute for egg.  1 large egg has 70% of your RDA of cholesterol, which means 2 eggs for breakfast already puts you past your RDA of cholesterol.  Whereas a flax egg has 0 cholesterol and half the calories that a regular egg does.

Obviously you can't scramble up two flax eggs like you can regular eggs.  But for baking, flax away!!  :-D

Curried Vegetable Burger

Boy, I have got a tasty veggie burger for you all!  We had this a couple weeks ago (and it's taken me that long to blog about it!), but it was so good, even on a full tummy, my mouth is watering a little.  :)  It's the first veggie burger I've made with potatoes and curry in it, and mm-MMM good.  The curry gives it such a nice spicy warmth, and the potato adds a nice texture that we don't usually have in our veggie burgers.

The recipe was taken from http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/278/Curried-Vegetable-Burgers-With91962.shtml

I made a few alterations (as always), but not many.  And because I love it when posts show step by step pictures along the way, I'll will do that for you now.  Well, 4 pictures to be exact.  Not quite step by step, but this recipe is hardly complicated enough to warrant that.  But I do like to know what a recipe looks like at different stages to make sure I'm on the right track, so I'll assume the same for you all. :)

Ingredients:
1lb potatoes
1 flax egg
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 small leeks, chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 tsp curry powder
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
non-dairy milk (optional)
salt and pepper

1. Boil the potatoes in water until tender, then drain.  When cool enough to handle, peel and mash them with the egg yolk (or flax egg).

2. Meanwhile, cook the onion slowly in the oil until softened.  Add the garlic, leeks, and carrots, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, adding water if needed to cook without additional oil.

All the veggies sauteing.  I'm kind of obsessed with how leeks look these days.  I think they are gorgeous.

3. Stir in the curry powder for 1 minute.  Mix the curried vegetables and the parsley into the potatoes.  Add a little milk if the mixture seems dry.

Doesn't that look delicious already!

4.  Form mixture into flat cakes.  Put on lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet, and bake at 375 for roughly 15 minutes on EACH side.  You want a nice golden brown color on both sides.

Prior to baking.

And voile!  A little spicy, warm and tasty dinner!  Generally I like a nice dollop of hummus on my veggie burgers, but this one was so good, I didn't need the hummus!    I like just putting my burgers on a bed of lettuce and tomato, but hubby of course eats his on a bun with fixin's.  :)  You can eat it however you choose. :)

Let me know what you think if you try it!

Big Boy Bed Take 3

Ahh, the final installment of the Big Boy Bed saga - at least for now.

But where is the big boy bed you ask?  I see none in sight.  

That would be because the once he figured out how to crawl back and forth over the railing, he has delighted in pulling all of his precious treasures off of his bed, and huddling behind his bedroom door and drifting off to sleep there.  (Can you see the door in those two pictures?  That was me inching it open and peering around with my camera to take these shots before scooping him up and putting him in his bed.)  Oh yea.  He turns the light on too, THEN crawls out of bed and falls asleep behind the door.

I love how he fell asleep with his little feet propped up against his dresser.  Like I said, in spite of disciplining, he will get up out of bed and do this.  And at moments like these, I don't mind terribly.  It's somewhat humorous actually.  The night I found him like this, I saw that his bed room light was on, so I naturally cracked opened the door to reprimand him, only to find that his bed was empty.  Opening the door a little more expecting to see him up prancing around the room - which he wasn't - I opened it a little more, and just when I was getting ready to have a moment of panic -

SOMEONE CAME IN AND STOLE MY KID WHILE I WAS IN THE HOUSE AND I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE!!!   

I open the door a little further and almost banged him in the head before realizing he was happily tucked behind the door in dreamland.  That was a moment of relief, frustration, and hilarity all rolled into one Mom Moment. 

Then I made a mad, silent dash for the camera.  I'm glad I had the presence of mind to think of that, so I could document that night forever.

Sweet dreams little vagabond sleeper.

Too cool for school

That's right.

He knows how to rock mama's shades.  And don't forget the bib.

The Big Boy Bed Take 2

So here's how the big boy bed ended up.  We have the head board and foot board from my great grandma on now, and we opted for the child railing as well.  Not totally sure why we did the second since I wasn't too concerned about him falling out and hurting himself, and since in spite of disciplining, he still crawls over the railing and gets out.  But maybe he likes that he's got himself a little pen again, so to speak.  He clearly can't fall asleep until he dumps all his precious treasures out and scatters them around.

Oh, he's been known to crawl out of his bed and open his draws to retrieve a favorite shirt or pair of pjs to sleep with. Too funny!  Also he will retrieve favorite items from the dirty laundry basket as well to sleep with.  Not as funny.  I'm thinking I may have to move that basket out of his room.


But oh wait, there's more....

Cousins

Recently Charlie and his cousin Conal went in for a picture session at the photographers.  And no the pictures below are not the actual pictures that were being taken.  They were having solo pictures shot, but we managed to coordinate times, which always makes things more fun.  The shots below are of them waiting patiently outside the studio for their turn.  I love the mini-sofa.  Super cute and just their size.  They loved it too.

The look so grown up.

Clearly sidetracked by something important.

I think this was a failed attempt at a hug.

Twins?   What do you think?

I love that Charlie has a cousin so close to him in age (7 weeks apart) and that they can buddy up on things.