a glimpse into my purse

Front and center - calendar, wallet, and a book about kids.

Karenlynn's been cooking again

This was a dish I made for my darlings today, April 1st. Sushi? Are you surprised?


Why? It's April Fool's Day!
By the way, my family loved the rice crispy treats :-) I found this idea from the April issue of Parents magazine. I'm not normally a crafty person (I want to be but that's another blog) but this was too cute to pass up. I made rice crispy treats and wrapped them in fruitaboos. Fruitaboos are basically fruit roll ups but they are made with organic fruit and less sugar. Owen loves them and thinks of them as a treat, and so do I.

Sunday, happy Sunday

How do babies know to wake up right when Mommy sits down to finish the newsletter? To use teen-speak, brb....

worst mommy moment of 2009 (so far anyway)

On Thursdays Owen goes to school. Last Thursday I dressed Owen in plaid shorts and a t-shirt (it was supposed to be hot). Owen decided he didn't like what he was wearing and changed into fleece sweats and a sweater, oh and snow boots. After much battling we compromised on the sweats and a different t-shirt. When he came out with an Iron Man t-shirt, I groaned inwardly. Owen's school frowns on superhero clothes (because boys act like superheros when they see them. As if they didn't act like superheros anyway). That's when I made a bad choice. I decided to shift the burden to his teacher. When we got to school I asked the teacher if she could tell him that superhero shirts weren't allowed. I figured she'd pull him aside and ask him to change. Not exactly. She told him in front of all the kids that superhero clothes were not allowed and would he rather turn his shirt inside out, or change. I knew immediately that I had made a mistake. I should've taken care of it myself. As it was, he got so embarassed and started crying. I never should've asked someone else to parent my child. We would've battled some more but at least I would have saved him that moment of embarassment and being upset. Lesson learned.

No complaints here

I have two boys who are good eaters. I bought the Deceptively Delicious cookbook in preparation for hiding veggies, but the boys eat broccoli, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, and tons of fruit. However, I would like to branch out even farther into, say...tofu, or hummus, or papaya and kiwi. Big O won't eat mango. How can you not like mango?! It's like candy. From what I can understand, it's not the taste he objects to, it's the texture. He's always been a texture-picky eater. He doesn't like mashed potatoes (I know, weird) because of the texture. Any ideas to incorporate tofu?

Owen's birthday eve

For the first time this weekend I saw Owen as a boy, not just a little boy. We were playing Taboo and he was watching and helping, and enjoying the game with us. Normally we would have had to distract him with something else, or wait until he went to bed to play a board game. He even came up with some pretty funny clues himself. Then today, we actually played Uno together, and he won, and I enjoyed myself. I didn't let him win, but I will admit we were playing a little loose with the rules. Number one because he's only four and can't hold all those cards in his hands, but also because I am not sure about all the rules (what do the arrows stand for? What's +2?) I say honestly that I don't like playing kid's games. They are boring. Of course I play Memory, CandyLand, and the most repetitive of all - Chutes & Ladders, but I can't honestly say I enjoy them. I am so excited that Owen is moving into a stage where we can play games I like too! Uno, Freeze Tag, even Hide N Seek. A world of possibilities is opening up!

so many places to go

so now I am up and running on Facebook. I joined GoodReads, and have two email accounts, not to mention the several blogs I like to follow, oh yeah, and this [somewhat neglected] blog. I get so excited about the new sites I find and join, check them alot, and then get tired of checking them all the time. I joined facebook in March, but never did anything until about a month ago when I heard from a friend from San Francisco. Then I got really into it, connected with other old friends and really liked it. My cousin set me up with other cousins/friends so now I have alot of "friends". It's fun, but how often does do I need to post "what I'm doing right now"? I joined Twitter and LiveJournal (on someone else's request) but never did anything with those sites. With all this instant updating, I have to say I was happy to receive handwritten Christmas letters. How refreshingly slow and thoughtful.