Cousins and Snow

This past weekend we headed up north to visit with Mr. Dunbar’s brother and family. We hardly ever make the trip because it’s 8 hours away.  But this time we went with a plan in mind of taking the boys skiing. (But I’m getting ahead of my self.) Packing snow clothes is not as easy as packing up board shorts and some extra t-shirts for afterwards. It was a lot of work to get these guys all squared away, but it was totally worth it. I had to go to Target and get three extra bags to hold all of their stuff. How people live in the snow, I’ll never know.

So here’s our trip…

Our first morning there, the boys were having a great time playing in their cousins’ playroom that is filled to the brim with great toys that we don’t have. (And it has wonderfully big windows that I was enjoying with all of the great light.)

Not to be contained too long, the kids headed outside in the “cold” to putz around and play with sidewalk chalk. (Photos taken through the window.)

That afternoon, my sister-in-law and I headed to a nice little spa place in town to have a  mani/pedi. Girlfriend did not make appointments at the typical corner shop, she made appointments at the crem-de-la-crem place. Compete with homemade soaks, scrubs, and complimentary drinks.

We had our own little room to ourselves. Complete with great wall art, large windows, fabulous window coverings, and great music. So fun. Oh and my hands and feet have never felt better. (Tip: mix brown sugar with olive oil and scrub it all over your hands and feet.)

The next morning we got up with the roosters and headed towards the mountain. All five kiddos, getting their grub on.

Chunk in the Lodge with his little Patagonia jacket on.

Ski School.

My boys were so excited, they were the first ones out looking for their skis.

This little lady was not happy. She wanted to be in the same class as her cousins.

Hey look. I really was there. And that baby may actually look like me after all.

The ski school had this great “magic carpet” for the boys to hop on once they made it to the bottom of the hill.

Monkey did not want to learn the basics at first, all he wanted to do was tricks.

And because of that he kept ending up like this…

Mr. Dunbar bringing me hot chocolate, since I was that annoying mom who wouldn’t leave the class.

 

These guys were working up an appetite.

After lunch is when the real fun began. All of the cousins got to ski together.

The weather was just perfect it actually got pretty warm.

Okay, this has got to be the funniest thing I saw all weekend. PEETSA!!!

And this is our whole crew, at the very end of the day, tired.

Are these future men or what?

The Chunk, now nicknamed Chuey from his auntie, had a great ol’ time playing.

The kids went out skiing a second time the next day but I didn’t take my camera. They did great and will soon be speeding down the mountain faster than I care to think about.

Pizza after a second day of skiing.

My kids showed them how to watch Tom and Jerry on YouTube.

After all of this we packed our things up and drove home. Exhausted and happy.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies… YUM

I made the best cookies last week. Thought I’d share the recipe. My boys devoured these. But let me warn you, they are super sweet. Super super sweet.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter (real butter softened, almost melted)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 sugar

2 eggs (0r 1 egg and 1 egg white)

1 TBS vanilla extract

2 cups white chocolate chips

1/2 instant oatmeal (optional, if you don’t use add in another 1/2 flour)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla. Add in eggs one at a time.

Stir in flour mixture. Add chips and oatmeal. Drop heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes. When they are the color of brown sugar they are ready. Cool on cooling racks (or eat piping hot.)

 

Also, we took a few days to visit our northern cousins. It was a blast.

Now go bake some cookies!

Snippets from our week

doctors office

sssshhh…

playing games, we make up our own rules, so we win every time.

silly faces caught on tape

rainy day movie and popcorn (with marshmallows)

my boys love jillian as much as I do.

chunk loves the vacuum. I will remind him of this ten years from now.

bath time. oh how I love bath time.

hair up, hair down

 

If I were getting married again…

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must try this. sock bun curls. now, to look for a stray sock…

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once the bangs grow out. and I’ll take some of those eye lashes please.

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when I’m cleaning the house? a little inspiration. and I love that necklace.

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Small Tasks… Great Accomplishment

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. ~Helen Keller

My small and tiring tasks this weekend included hours and hours of rocking this baby as those chompers invaded his mouth. Four teeth in four weeks and still more swollen gums, fever, and runny nose. I expect he’ll have six teeth before this month is up. He smiles here, but in the middle of the night his pain has kept everyone up. Tired doesn’t even begin to describe the way I felt on Saturday. Exhausted, worn out, make a better attempt out describing me.  He wanted to be held 90% of the time. Have you ever tried to blow dry your hair holding a baby?  It doesn’t work out so well. 

I do long to accomplish a great and noble task: raising men. It is such a long journey, one that Mr. Dunbar and I have only begun to climb. A journey that will take three lifetimes. Where there are so many valleys and hills and rabbit trails to be explored. But in the small of the night it is my small tasks of rocking, soothing, cuddling that will hopefully forever imprint just how loved he is. So much of who he will become relies on these first few years. Whether he’ll know just how loved he is, whether he’ll understand his value to this family and the world,  his personality relies so much on his acceptance at home. I was supposed to leave him all day today. Had all of the plans made and then they didn’t pan out the way I had wanted. I was so super bummed. But then I thought, perhaps I’m just supposed to spend the day cuddling this guy.  So that’s just what we’re doing. And that’s okay.

How about you? Any small or large tasks you’re conquering today?

The Take-Over Dinner

One thing that the Dunbar’s have been great recipients of over the years have been Take-Over Dinners. You know, we have a baby and all of our friends rally together a schedule and coordinate dinners for our family. In our case it has been each time we’ve had a baby, but it can be for anything really, the loss of a loved one, a hard time at work or loss of work, a family whose time is being stretched tight. I’ve made dinner for several of my friends who are working moms, just to give them the “night off.”

There are several guidelines I like to follow when sending a Take Over Dinner.

1. Do they have any food allergies? Or foods that they just don’t eat? Avoid those foods.

2. When packing up the dinner try to include all of the plastic and paperware fortheir dinner. Eating and then having nothing to clean up is bliss! One thing I’ve learned, when you’re trying to give the mom the “night off” creating a whole bunch of dishes for her doesn’t really help.

3. When making dinner for a family who is going to be receiving dinner for a week or more, just try to include dinner for that night. Making too much takes over their fridge and counters and for people like me, ends up causing stress.

4. When packaging the food, put it in the disposable plasticware or baggies. (All you greenies don’t come banging down my door, I only use these containers for take over dinners… and Mr. Dunbar’s lunches, in which he always brings them home.) If you can avoid it, don’t take dinner in your favorite casserole dish or glass containers. One, the giving family will probably miss it and two, who knows when it will be returned.

5. A rule of thumb for me is whatever I serve someone else, it has to be something my own family loves. And I always make the same thing for my family that night for dinner.  If I wouldn’t give it to my own kids, I’m not going to give it to someone else’s. One time I made chop suey for a family, I didn't think their kids would eat it, so I included mac and cheese too.

6. Okay, my last point, if you run out of time, picking up a pizza and a premade salad is still okay. When our last guy came and I wasn’t getting more than 2 hours of sleep, anything to put on the table for dinner was fine by me.  I appreciated any and all of the help. A few months ago I was signed up for dinner for some of our best friends, their meal schedule was all fancy-schmancy on a website and I had entered that I was bringing ‘tacos.’ But when push came to shove tacos just weren’t happening on my assigned night. So I swung by Tios Tacos and brought those. (I still owe you real ones B!)

This past week I was able to take dinner to a friend who has just had a baby. When I made my meal plan the week before it was supposed to be warm, so between that and that I knew two others had brought over pasta I figured Chicken Salad Sandwiches sounded good. Looking back, I should have mixed that salad for her. But I thought, if they had leftovers from a previous dinner, this would still pack away for a good lunch the following day. There are no dishes that need to be returned and the bag is hers to keep if she’ll use it. If not, I told her to put everyone else's dishes in it.

Not the fanciest of meals, but something hopefully they enjoyed. My family sure did. I went to go take a picture of it so I could include the recipe and it was GONE. But I’ll still include the recipe.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

4 cups shredded or diced chicken

2/3 to one cup light mayo

1 whole apple diced

4 stalks of celery chopped

2 carrots shredded

1/2 cup pecans

Mix everything up and add salt and pepper to taste. I also like to add curry, lots of it, but not for new moms.

Spread on toasted bread and enjoy.

 

Do you take meals to people? What are your go to meals?