She's back...little darlin'.

My baby is back...and Canon ROCKS! They got her Thursday and she's already back and ready to go! I didn't have time for much tonight, but here are some hubby doodles and tests to make sure she is ALL THAT. Help me name her...email me, we'll talk.

Field Trips, Fiber and PTO

Tonight, I will live through my daughters photos. She went to Bellingrath Gardens for a field trip, and I couldn't go on this one. I believe in trying to show her a little bit of what I love and encourage her to use the "eye". As all kids do, she sees things I don't see. She looks at things in ways that I have long forgotten, what is important, what is beautiful...but then she didn't get my note until after lunch...LOL! (The note said: "I love you boogie! I hope you are having fun. Take lots of pictures. Love, Mom) The rest of the pictures are of friends and her being silly during a scavenger hunt at the gardens put on by the gardens or her teachers - I'm not quite sure where the credit lies. I can't include them for obvious reasons. I will say this, my daughter has something I didn't have at her age...a digital camera and an opportunity to use it. (Yes, I sent her on a field trip with chopsticks...forks are for the lazy!)

NOW...fiber, are we getting enough? We don't get enough. As Americans quantity seems to be our dictum rather than quality. The average 50-55 pound child needs at least 14-15 grams (according to our Pediatric Gastrology Specialist with USA) per day, are they getting it? You tell me parents…
What does your child eat in a day? The average school lunch - here’s a break down of a school lunch from the Mad Monsters school:

Breaded chicken on a bun
Tater Tots
Pinto beans
Fruit
Teddy Grahams
Do your homework, take care of your kids...GIVE THEM FIBER - get them used to loving it, make it fun! I will work on some recipes. In the mean time think on fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans...

OK, off to consider the "Spring Into Art" PTO stuff I've gotten suckered into...just one more thing to put on my schedule.

Bounty from the office gals

I work with a great group of gals. Thanks ladies for making it easy to get over the fact that I'm another year older.

The glory of triumph and the agony of defeat...

As with all birthdays, my husband went all out and purchased the most awesomest gift this gal could ever want...it's beautiful. It's sleek, black and has so many features, I don't know where to begin. It was a whole new camera outfit.

Just tooling around with it a little and trying to figure out all the new bells and whistles (because this baby is so unlike my old baby in almost EVERY way) and what happens...?

This! What is this? Err #30? 12 pictures and the shutter sounds like it's stuck, this message pops up and then the shutter releases, not capturing that 13th picture. So I follow the instructions, take some more pictures and it happens again. I have to get ready for a soccer game right now, but I will fill you in further on what we have to do when we get back. Bummer!

It has to go back. My new toy has to go back, I'm not happy. I had a photo shoot on Saturday and it froze too many times to be acceptable. So sad.

Spinach Cheese Fritters

This mom is always looking for ways to get the veggies into her daughters diet. I have one of those kids that actually likes it. She is thin and active so I have the luxury of introducing fats to her diet that include various ways of incorporating veggies. Tonight it was Spinach Cheese Fritters...thanks Cooks.com submission (CM).

As you know I never follow a recipe 100% so here's my take:

• 1 bag baby spinach (stems picked and then chopped and sauteed w/either butter or olive oil then drained and patted dry) a pkg of frozen spinach heated and drained will do.
• 1/4 cup Ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup (ish) Romano/Parm cheese (I cheated and used the Kraft stuff)
• 1/4 + a dash of Italian bread crumbs (I mixed in a hand full of Panko for crunchies)
• Dash salt
• Dash Garlic powder
• Dash pepper
• 1 egg
• Veggie oil or peanut oil for frying
• Your favorite sauce (I used a bruschetta mix: tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, oregano olive oil) but you can use your favorite spaghetti sauce

Mix spinach, ricotta, Romano/Parm, breadcrumbs, salt, garlic powder, pepper and eggs evenly. Flour up you hands for making some ovals. Form into balls then fry up and serve with your sauce. Enjoy em hot or room temp. I was pleasantly surprised as this was an experiment.

Strawberry Festival 2009

The Festival had a threat of rain to compete with all weekend, but even Mother Nature held off until later in the day on Easter Sunday for the young and old to go out and enjoy Baldwin County's Annual Strawberry Festival and tribute to strawberries (or Strawberry Shortcake, rather). YUM!

There is something for EVERYONE to enjoy, I always go for the food. From Steak and cheese, fried gator on a stick, Crawfish Etoufee, Polish Sausages, Shrimp Quesadilla (more like double platter burrito, it was THAT fat) to Funnel Cake, Kettle Corn and always, ALWAYS Strawberry Shortcake! Sorry we couldn't wait for me to take a few pictures before we dug in...

We had a great time out there, and here is the biggest kid in our pack...the big daddy bro-in-law enjoying the Dragon roller coaster thingie.

Hope you made it out there!

Spring Break is upon us

This year, I will have to reminisce about the past. We have no real plans this year as we are broke from the Mad Monsters 1K party/birthday. So I will revisit last years International Spring Break awesomeness. We all had our reasons for going to Japan. I hope we can go back someday soon to enjoy the hospitality and wonders to be found among the Japanese citizenry.

Why my hubba hubba went, although he didn't know it until he got there, the vending machine coffee. The top two rows and half of the third row were coffee selections in a can, they came out piping hot and deee-lish every time. The other portion of the vending machine were cold selections that came out, yes you guessed it, cold! Why don't we have these here in the US? Everywhere we went - I mean EVERYWHERE, these guys were there to keep us buzzed up. I went (oh twist my arm) for many reasons, but the food was my favorite experience there. I have to say every time my brother-in-law said he was hungry...I pounced! The food was amazing everywhere we went and I could go back just to hit all of the food again and then some. You haven't had sushi/sashimi/nigiri until you have experienced it in Japan. And this was conveyor belt stuff, it wasn't even from a hoity toity place. AWESOME!

Ok, the real reason we went to Japan...1 year on the 15th...little poot. I can't believe she is a year already. She's already walking and talking...the time flies so fast. Embrace everything!
Happy Easter and Spring Break!

I'm baaaack...for DINNER!

I have the hardest time reconciling the fact that I just can't fit it all in. Why can't I work full time, be the ultimate soccer mom, keep up with church, housework, car maintenance, family time, hubby time, me time and cook all in one day??!! Is it because after I get the monster and myself actually out the door for work/school and through the day that it's suddenly Saturday?

The one night I have nothing but bunny duty planned I decide to go all out for dinner...and I can't get it all in. DARN! I wanted to do a nice healthy stir-fry with an almost healthy side of "veggie" egg rolls. I got to the stir fry and the filling for the egg rolls, but I guess the assembly and cooking of the egg rolls will be tomorrows treat.

After I assembled the goodies for the egg rolls (half of which would end up in my stir-fry) I realized that I was not going to have time to fit it all in.

At least I got dinner on the table before it was the Mad Monsters bed time and she never even knew she was eating cabbage, onions, mushrooms and snow peas...she saw rice and didn't look back. Now to move her to brown rice...maybe I'll mix it in a few times and then she'll never know that I am giving her a more healthy food. One can only hope.

In case I haven't mentioned it before, we do McDonald's and the like MAYBE once every other month...that's why I have an issue with schools telling my daughter she can't have a cookie AND a cupcake on special occasions. I actually try to feed her healthy stuff at home.

We parents have to step up and make healthy fun. Make it an adventure, a game if you have to. Discovering food is a wonderful, but discovering HEALTHY food that you like is oh so much better. Now...where did the "me time" go?!