Simple things in life

Today is Jason's 34th birthday.  I refer to him as my "oldest child" because he really is a kid at heart but that is also why I love him so much.  With that said, buying gifts for him is very easy and fun. This year took some thinking power, LOTS of research, and some sneakiness, but it all came along smoothly.  Me and the boys along with my parents (thank goodness the went in on it) bought him a Crossbow for his birthday.  We ended up buying him a Barnett Wild Cat. Icing on the cake I worked with his friend Drew and scheduled a "playdate" as we are calling it and they are going hunting together on Sunday to test it out. I wish there was a way to pay the buck to just show up!

The actual celebration...although his bday is today we ended up celebrating yesterday with my parents because Jason is going to the Tigers game (7th row).  I tell ya this birthday year wont be beat.  While at dinner I gave him a small gift bag that had a MSU house flag in it. He handled it really well "Wow thanks guys lets put this up later....".  After a great dinner we walked outside and my dad called him to the trunk. POOF 1000s of thoughts running through his head he was in denial. Of course he played with it right then and there. He then got home and played with it (while watching sports) for another couple of hours. 

Jason's first glance and trying to figure out what he was looking at.



In the middle of the parking lot he pulls it out to play.  Gotta love him!
Honestly, I wasn't planning on spending that much money for his birthday but watching his reaction and also listening to him talk with excitement makes it all so worth every penny. That's exactly why I coupon and cut corners wherever I can. Moments like this where I can spoil the ones I love... I'd do it everyday of the week if I could.

An Apple A Day

That's right an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I'm going to keep the Dr.s far away from us and keep these boys healthy. This week because Fall is in the air; with the BEAUTIFUL weather we are having (high 70s) in the middle of October here in MI we were lucky enough to grab great apples from an MI apple farm.  Each day this week we will have some sort of apple twist to the meal.

Monday - Happy Birthday to Chef Dadda a day early.  Since he will be going to cheer the Tigers on in round two of the World Series tomorrow (on his actual birthday) we will be going out to celebrate his birthday tonight with my parents.  The restaurant is his choice so far its a toss up of Puerto Vallerta (a true Mom and Pop Mexican restaurant that we love around the corner from our house) or Red Robin (Yummm)! 


Tuesday - We are going to have left overs and cheat today since Chef Dadda is going to the game. However we will be having Homemade Apple Pie Chef Dadda recipe for dessert when he comes home instead of birthday cake. Yes, I actually made him make his own pie BUT that's only because he is really picky if I do the crust wrong. Trust me it's safer this way.


Rosie's birthday is Friday so we gave her a little Apple Pie treat too. Looks like her licking those lips means she liked it. Happy 5th Birthday Rosie Grace we love you!!!

Wednesday -   Apple Stuffed Pork Roast with a farm fresh veggies that I picked up at a little side road market (one of my favorites in the Fall).

Stinker was our first taster he exact reaction "yummmm" I know it must be good he ate all of his meat and he isn't a meat eater! And he tried the Apple Spag Squash for the first time and loved it.

Close up of the Apple Stuff Pork Roast with the apple spag squash and side of mashed potatoes.

Thursday -  We have lots of beef to use up from our cow we purchased in the Spring. Chef J is going to make Swiss Steak and mashed potatoes. We will enjoy hot apple cider in real apple cups (hallow out an apple and pour cider in it).  I think it will be a nice special twist to our dinner.

I made Hot Apple Cider served in a hallowed out apple cup and gave the boys a side of homemade Apple Crisp.

 

Side view of our dessert.

Cider is gone after 2nds and the crisp is almost gone too.

 

Apparently this was a family hit the boys were sharing the apple cup!

 

Friday - Apple Chicken Pot Pie with another farm fresh veggie. Tank you Rachel Ray for the Pot Pit recipe. *** Working Mommy side note I made extra chicken mixture to freeze some and will place it in a pastry shell later on in the season for another dinner.



Saturday - Great family friends of ours The Elges family have 2 October birthdays just like us in the family. So we have a tradition to go to Frankenmuth in the month of October to have the Free Birthday Zhenders chicken dinner. We will take advantage of this today and head to Bronners (World's largest Christmas Store) to get in the Christmas spirit and then enjoy some of the famous chicken.

Hellooo.. Goodbye another weekend come and gone

 This past week flew by but with nothing but smiles.  Simple recap....
Friday -  I went out and used my Groupon to Dream Dinners with my mom. See a little alone time not only did we have a good time BUT I left there with 6 ready to eat meals to add to my freeze to have on hand. Friday due to a very great solid straight A progress report my Dad (Papa) took Jeffrey to the home opener Red Wings game. They had a great time... a little alone time for them (hasn't happened in a while). He also came back in a great mood.


My Mom and I getting ready to knock out some meals together.



Look at her concentrating so hard and then there is me... was that suppose to be Tsp or Tbl?


Nothing beats a great feeling of having on-hand ready to make meals completely ready in the freezer outside.



Look at this amazing 4th grade progress report from all of his teachers.


Yup it earned him a special night out with Papa just the 2 of them for the Home Opener Red Wings Game!!! Stinker is trying to go so we had to sneak them out.


Saturday - Jason and my dad went and used their golf Groupon and had a beautiful day of 18holes. Me and the boys played outside, did some yard work and just enjoyed some quiet time. We then had a fantastic night reuniting with the All Star baseball families at one of their houses. Of course the boys were gone and played for hours. The Dads also gone and watched sports together. The Moms sipped some drinks and we too even found some time to relax. Our goal was to leave by 9:30...NOPE we didn't leave until 1am. No worries Stinker fell asleep long before that, which is why we were able to enjoy a couple more hours.

Sunday - Its a beautiful day that couldn't be passed up. We utilized our Greenfield Village pass and brought along Nonna and Papa. We all had an absolute fantastic time. We took a train ride, rode in the Model T cars, we learned a lot about Thomas Edison. It was a great day we had a nice picnic. Sunday evening the boys had the typical neighborhood play date in our backyard but I don't mind all the giggles and smiles it was great to see all the kids enjoying the weather together.


Mom, Dad, & Sport riding in the Model T behind us.


Stinker taking a deep breath of the beautiful mother nature surrounding us.


This is one of my favorite buildings the garden house. Where's Waldo/Papa I love that I was able to capture him with these beautiful colors AND he has a smile!


My Mom and Dad are waiting outside in the front of the Thomas Edison building. Sport wouldn't leave, he had so many questions and wanted to learn. The workers were very patient with him it was cute.


We took a nice family train ride around the whole Village. What a BEAUTIFUL day and place to escape to.

Another wonderful weekend with the family enjoying time together & making memories.

Do something nice day..

Driving into work today I heard on the radio its "Do something nice day".  I thought what I wanted to do and didn't come up with anything too far off the wall. I can help out one of the Teammates, but that's not being nice or any different than any other day and it's my job to help them out. I can give Jason a back rub... nahhh that's just silly, but he should give me one. I can go to the park with the boys.. nope Sport has religion class.

Well I'm now in the office and started to move along with my day and out of midconversation my opportunity came up.... donate blood. Today Red Cross is at the Arsenal.  This is it! Whether I planned on it or not, although I completely freaked out when I got there and filled out the papers, this is what I was suppose to do today. 

An hour later after the physical and precheck (passed), they tapped my vein got what they needed (passed), I do feel like I'm ready to PASS OUT, but I think that part is pretty normally. It's a great feeling knowing I somehow helped someone today. That's even better I did something nice for someone I may or may not even know!

Judging (venting session)

I can remember my mom raising me to “never judge, always accept everyone the way they are, and be open minded to everyone that I interact with”. We have raised our boys the same way. I will give a pat on my back to know that so far our boys especially Sport has really lived up to that. He doesn’t care about age, color, shape, size. He is the kid on the block that will make a game for EVERYONE to play including Adults at anytime. Gosh I love him! A couple weeks ago he tried to surprise me by wearing a tie to school for his school pictures and also concert. He didn’t care that he was the only, I repeat ONLY one in the school wearing a tie but it was also about 1 foot too short (oh my!) But he kept the chin up, huge smile and didn’t care. That’s my boy!!! I was speechless and will say YES that was a surprise but when I noticed he didn't care what people thought and did it just for me I also decided I didn't care what anyone though.

I am boggled by so many that surround me that chose to dwell on the negative and almost thrive on making others feel bad about themselves or how they think/feel.  When someone smiles they want to know why?  When they hear someone got a raise/bonus, they want to get more or claim it should’ve been there’s.  Why is life so competitive?!? Whatever happened to people really being happy for someone?   I don’t understand how people can have such strong feelings about someone, without really ever trying to get to know them.  Instead of trying to see the good in a person, they assume that they are up to no good.  I have made a promise to myself to not lose sleep over people such as that. I am who I am.  If you have to be better than me then go ahead, but the fact is you don’t even really know me.

Ethnic Night 1- Greek Night

Καλή όρεξη! (Kalí óreksi!) - That is the translation in Greek for Let's Eat/Enjoy.

Our first day of Ethnic Night was so much fun! There was so much learning involved. First what do we eat? We talked with some friends and created a good Greek Menu which included a true Greek salad, Spanokopita (Spinach Pie), and stuffed grap leaves.  We hit up the farmers market and got as many of the items we could including fresh spinach, large onions, and herbs.  I thought we would find grape leaves but that turned into a challenge. After going to 3 stores (in the rain) with the boys I finally found them at Randazzos. However not where I was looking. I thought leaf=lettuce... NOPE they are jarred and in the deli aisle by the olives.  Speaking of olives while we were there I hit up the olive bar and got a variety of olives (pitted, unpitted, stuffed with cheeses, stuffed with jalapenos, garlic...).


All the groceries in hand we now had to prepare the food.... We began this process while Stinker was sleeping but it took much longer than that.  Some of the things we learned and researched while we were cooking the food.
* Grape Leaves are used in many countries for medicinal purposes. 
* In the poor areas of Greece if not enough spinach is found you can substitute it with leeks (we had plenty!)
* Phyllo dough is made with flour, water, and a small amount of oil/white vinegar

Sport has not been in the kitchen often so he was very eager to measure and stir. We also took some time to discuss some math with him and discussed cups to quarts (4 cups -1 qrt), 1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons.

Sport got a lesson on the airflow through the container.

We had to wash each leaf and pat dry.

Even Stinker got to roll one.

He is so proud of it! Although he tried to take a bite right after and they weren't cooked yet.



The full meal ready to dig in.

As a family we got an assembly line going and rolled the grape leaves (after washing each leaf and drying).  about 2 hours later after everything cooked and settled it was time to EAT... The taste test results:
* Sport loved the spinach pie... funny because he hates spinach (hmmm maybe him help cooking helped). He discovered not everything taste as bad as it smells (AKA feta cheese he said it smells like feet but it tastes pretty good).
* Chef Dadda ate everything but wasn't too thrilled said the grape leaves had too much lemon (we followed the recipe exact so a good note to make for next time)
* Stinker he loved the inside of the grape leaf.
* I enjoyed it all and even ate a couple extra grape leaves. 

This was a great trip to Greece with my family. We learned alot and had a great day in the kitchen together. I look forward to our next destination next month.