Tarter's Pretty Horse

Tarter drew this on my little sister, Whitney's touch-screen cell phone. It's Tarter's pretty horse.

(sometimes Carter can't say his C's very well...and they come out as T's) 

Guess who has super clean carpets?

We do! We do!

We do! We do! 

Open mouth insert foot

The setting: We are at Cole's monthly scout pack meeting (he earned his bobcat and tiger badge) and I'm standing in line with another mom and we are having a light conversation about a new exhibit that is coming to our Museum. It's a little contorversial just because the touring company can't specifically identify or verify that the bodies in the very well known BODIES exhibit gave permission for their bodies to be sliced and diced. Anyways....there are specific portions of the exhibit that focuses on health. 

A pair of smokers lungs are in the exhibit. 

I blurt out: "I can't wait for Cole to see what smoker's lungs look like. 

Hopefully he'll never pick up the awful habit!" 

The nice mom I'm talking to looks at me and nicely says: "Ya, I really should quit." 

Valentines Day-We'll start with dessert first

I made a cake. I don't  bake or make treats too often. I don't know why (or actually I do know why...I would eat them all so I just don't make them...that way we don't have them around to eat)

(Is that terrible? Cole told me it's terrible. He also told me Grandma Trudy makes
6 cakes a week and I should ask her to teach me to make a cake)

So I made a cake. A devil's food cake with pink frosting and it was DELISH. 

So while we waited for Chris to come home the kids colored and drew. Cole was working on his 'landmark' poster for school and he drew the Golden Gate Bridge. Carter was just working on some 'monsters'. His favorite thing to draw these days.

I set the table with new caramel chocolate covered apples to add to our devil's food cake dessert. 

We didn't cut any calories this Valentine's Day.

So here it is. Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon. All 16 oz of bacon that took 3 special and specific steps to prepare before adding to the meat that was simmered in the bacon fat. It was pretty good. Next to that is a potato dish. The second potato dish in 2 days.

We are out of butter. We are out of cream. We are out of cheese.

These are Julia Child's favorite ingredients.

Also, don't crowd the mushrooms when sauteing them in butter. All very good cooking rules.

Last night was Tuesday. 

Taco Tuesday to be exact. I picked up 9 qty $1.50 tacos from Cafe Rio. 

My favorite taco place. Chris said the taco's were not nearly as good as our two day Valentine's dinner and dessert feast. I think he was on his best behavior for saying that. I sure appreciated it.

A day in the life of Carter

Just relaxing in his pillow fort watching Toy Story.

After we picked up Cole at school we ran the car thru the car-wash. The snow is melting here and our cars have been super dirty from the slush and water on the roads. 

The car wash is not Carter's favorite thing....but luckily Cole was with us so he could calm Carter down. 

1 lb of Butter

Last night I made 3 of Julia Child's recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 

I only used 1 lb of butter.

I made one of her potato dishes: 2 cups of cheese, a stick of butter and
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream.

Could not believe it. I do have to admit.
I replaced the cream with skim milk.

I mean seriously. Seriously. 

To top that off we had devil's food cake. 

I told Chris....we have to slow down. I think this will be weekend cooking. 

However, I am making beef bourguignon tonight. Did you know you brown the beef in bacon fat before putting it in the oven in wine and beef brooth for 3 hours. Sounds pretty delish. After tonight...we'll be back to hot dogs, homemade pizzas, and spaghetti...these are the work week staples.

How again do the french stay so thin?

In other news...and bad timing. I think Chris and I are going to start training to run a 5k. 

A Haircut for Cole and all about Red for Valentine's Day Part I

Cole had a haircut on Saturday at his favorite spot, Sports Clips. They also sell 'flags' as Cole calls them and he picked out a Notre Dame flag for his dad for Valentine's Day. What Cole didn't know was while he was getting his hair cut I bought the same Notre Dame 'flag' for he and Carter. He was so excited this morning to give Chris the Notre Dame flag...and was even more surprised when Chris and I gave him one too! 

So we celebrated Valentine's Day Part 1 today. Chris works tomorrow so we wanted to do something special today so he could be home with them when they opened their gifts and ate their pink breakfast. 

Carter got LEGO GUYS. His favorite. 

Cole got a new Zuzu pet. 

Dad got a Notre Dame iconic sign. 

  

Carter playing with all his Lego Guys. 

Chris gave me the cookbook Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. He's so thoughtful. 

I'm going to try to make the Beef Bourguignon tomorrow for Valentine's Day Part II after Chris is home after work. I'll let you all know how it goes. Wish me luck. 

Friday's With Dad

Some pre-Valentine's treats!

Heading to school

The boys hold hands in the mornings as we take Coley to school. 

I thought I had experienced it all...boy...was I wrong

Cole our oldest...well he's a busy kid to say the least. He was a very busy toddler and I have some very fond memories of the time we spent just him and I when Chris was in Virginia doing some training for his career. Cole could escape any baby seat, baby gate, door knob lock, and trap or invention I could come up with. Cole would play and play and play until his little eyes were so tired he couldn't hold them open anymore. Cole can still play until he drops. Now Cole has a group of friends at school and they call themselves in laughing hysterics..."The 1st Grade Bad Boys" and they race at recess against
the "2nd Grade Sad Boys".

I thought I knew everything there was to know with our first born...about boys.

Then along came Carter.

Carter has re-written the book on chaos. He has turned our schedule upside down and has shaken our lives like one would shake a barrel of monkeys.

This morning at 5:30 am both boys were awake. I promptly poured myself a cup of coffee turned onMorning Joe and told both boys to get back to bed. At 6:30 am I could hear some rustling in the bathroom and a few drawers opening and shutting.

After opening the door...I found Carter.

He had covered nearly every square inch of the bathroom in a paste of toothpaste.......and........poop.

We are potty training...so he did make it into the bathroom.

He just did not properly use the toilet.

He then thought it was best to brush his teeth next and that is exactly what he told me.

I think our neighbors heard my shrieks.........and Cole literally hid under his blankets.

I did apologize to Cole. I will probably stop and pick him up a new Hot Wheels...for the shrieking. Poor guy. Cole is such a good big brother. Carter is such a good boy...just a rascal.