The beach and.....stalling

We have had such a busy summer and I am sooo behind on catching up with our summer activities. We have been to Arizona, Atlanta, the beach, more doctor visits than I want to remember, and a few other places in between. With all that we have had going on this summer, we really were doubtful that we would even make it to the beach. Thankfully, we were able to go, have a wonderful trip, and didn't see a single tarball. I think we could move to beach. My kids, especially my oldest, could spend all day, everyday on the beach.

She immediately made friends with another 4 year old sitting next to us. Some days I wish we could all be more like young children. I think their conversation went like this;

4 year # 1 "I like your swimsuit"

4 year #2 "Thanks, I'm building sandcastles, want to build them with me?"

#1 "Yeah! Ok!"

Bam! Instant best friends.

They immediately started on their project, but it only involved prep-work. Somehow all they ended up doing was filling buckets with water and pouring it in the sand near our chairs. They never actually built a sandcastle, but they had plenty of wet sand. It ends up that her parents live about 10 minutes from us and her grandparents live 3 houses down the street from us.

After "sandcastle building," it was time for a raft ride. Sister asked to ride along, but we said that her friend should get to have the first ride alone with her dad......and this happened right as those words came out of our mouth. While swimming out, a wave hit them
Flipped the raft
And sent our new friend flying
Dad valiantly held on to the raft and pulled her out of the water. Everyone was fine, but the raft was retired for the day.
Next activity? Bury Papa in the sand! He was such a trooper for letting these kids bury him in the July heat in Florida.
See ya, be back after lunch. Just kidding, she just wanted to get more water to "set" the sand.
Thanks for being such a fun dad. He said it took days to be rid of all that sand.
One evening we went to Baytowne Wharf. Our plan was just to eat dinner, but right as walked in sister spotted the bungee trampolines. It was great bribery during dinner though for us! We went straight to the trampolines after dinner. Sister was just barely big enough to do it. I was a little concerned that she would get frightened once she got up there, but I was completely wrong-she was in heaven!
I don't know what type of 4 year old cuteness she pulled on the girls working there, but she had 3 turns of jumping. She would have jumped for hours.
She kept yelling "watch me do gymnastics!!!! Coach Krista would say I'm doing a great job!"
We had to spend a few evenings out on the beach. I love going out later in the evenings. Any time I can spend on the beach with my kids that I don't have to slather them up in sunscreen sounds good to me.

Such a fun trip. I'm ready to go back!

Summertime

We had the yummiest and easiest kabob dinner tonight of summer foods and thought I would share! We are cooking lots of squash and zucchini right now since this is the time of year for it. All the produce is at great prices at the store right now.
For the vegetable skewers-squash, zucchini, and onions. For the fruit skewers-pineapple and mango. They are simply cut up into about 1 inch cube pieces, so they will stay on the skewer while grilling. We like to keep our pieces touching. It seems to keep the food from getting dried out and it retains the juices that way.
The chicken is cut the same size. I always end up with some smaller strips of chicken when I'm done cutting it up and I just put those on the skewer in a "C" shape, skewering both ends of those pieces.
The sauces are what makes this. For the vegetables we use a salad dressing, such as balsamic/red wine vinaigrette or caesar, but NOT italian. For the chicken we use whatever marinade we're in the mood for that day-BBQ, tequila-lime, Dale's, etc. For the fruit, and this is important, we ONLY use Brianna's blush wine vinaigrette. If you don't use that dressing, I'm not responsible for the outcome! The pineapple and mango are absolutely unbelievable, and could even be served as a dessert.

Once all the pieces are cut up we get 3 Ziploc bags or tupperware containers and place each veg/fruit/meat in the separate containers with desired marinade for at least 30 minutes (tonight we marinaded for 2 hours). The fruit only needs about 3 Tbsp of dressing, just enough to coat the pieces.
Once skewered, head to the grill. Our grill has 2 levels. We put the vegetable and chicken skewers on the bottom rack, directly on the heat, and the fruit goes on the top rack. Cook for on med to med-high heat for about 20-25 minutes (chicken should be at 175 degrees). It is so good! Added bonus-both of my kids devoured it! In our house, adding a novelty at dinner, like chopsticks, goes a long way in getting kids interested in the food and eating well. Sister ate hers right on the skewer.
Brother isn't quite ready for the kabob yet, but loved it anyway.

We do have one addition that I think we will try next time. We were at a dinner recently where we had grilled angel food cake for dessert. They sliced the cake and lightly grilled each piece. It was served with fresh fruit and lime sorbet. It was soooo good, and I think the pineapple/mango would be a great addition to it.

One

Guess what little man? You're ONE!!!!

Seriously Mom?!?!

That went by pretty quick!
We had a very eventful weekend of celebrating our first year with this little guy and getting the all clear from the doctor. No surgery, no scarring, and no more dressing changes!! He's back to his normal very happy and content self, with one addition. Meet Bla Bla.
Anything else he gets in his hands is thrown, chunked, banged, clapped, hit, or any other activity that would be expected of a baby boy. But Bla Bla, is cuddled, carried, never let go of, and even stays in the crib with him.

Mom, can you stop taking pictures please? I dropped Bla Bla and need you to pick it up for me.

Little man, your personality is definitely shining now. You love to open and close doors, empty baskets, be thrown in the air, swim, play in the tub, flip pages of books, and look out the window to watch sister and Papa throw the ball with Lily.

You love your dad. In the last few weeks you have also started holding onto us when we hold you and I really love that. I especially love it when I'm putting you to bed and you snuggle your head into the left crook of my neck, grip my left shoulder with your right hand, and wrap your left arm around the right side of my neck.

You love your dog and she loves you. When I can't find Lily I always know to look for her under your crib or sleeping in front of the door to your room while you nap.

You love your sister and immediately start grinning and giggling when she walks in the room. The first you do in the morning is start calling for her if you don't see her "Sis, sis, sis!"

You love to sit with her while we ride in the car, holding hands, dancing, and jibber-jabbering with her.

And your favorite may be when she shares her ice cream cone with you.

You like to sleep with your pointer finger of one hand in your mouth, while the other hand grips the edge of your ultimate crib sheet.

You love the park and laugh uncontrollably on the swings. So much that the other moms within earshot say "Wow, he really likes the swings doesn't he!?"

My precious son, you are an absolute gift from God and a complete joy to us. We love you more than I could ever adequately put into words. We are so thankful for you and treasure every moment we have with you. We are excited to see the boy you are becoming and eventual man that you will become.

It's Your Birthday

A couple of weeks ago we had a cookout/pool party/early birthday party for brother, since part of our family would be out of town for the actual day. If was a somewhat last minute get together, so Mr. and I were trying to decide if I should make a cake, of if we should just buy one. Well, that decision was made for us when 4 year old ears heard that conversation. She was aghast that would even consider buying a cake. "Mommy, we HAVE to make a cake for brother!" Since it was last minute I couldn't order a cake and would have had to pick out a pre-made cake and have a birthday message written on it. That would've been fine, but thought the proud big sis and I could could do a special project and since 1st birthdays are special.

I initially planned on this (fairly) simple fish cake. It would just be a sheet cake, with the corners rounded, repositioned to be fins and tails, icing, and decorating. That idea also got shot down by the 4 year old. She quickly let me know that brother does not like fish, but really likes crocodiles! I guess it's a good thing she let me know, because I had no idea :). So we proceeded with a crocodile cake, which was an undertaking for this self-professed uncrafty mom. First, we had to make a bundt cake, cut in into 3 sections (with one of them cut diagonally top to bottom), and arrange the sections.

Then we iced it. She would drop a big glob of icing (vanilla with green food coloring) and I would spread it. She frequently licked the spatula before the next application, but we kept that our little secret. Somehow 4 year olds don't see the big picture of licking it at the end as not to spread germs when there's yummy icing staring them in the face! Then we decorated with candy. There might have been a few pieces of candy eaten along with those used for decorating. Sis was so proud at the end she had to give our crocodile a kiss.

Then {because better is always the enemy of good :)}, we decided he couldn't just sit on the cutting board, but needed a scene, and thought a swamp would be appropriate. We were going to do chocolate dipped pretzels for logs, but somehow the chocolate turned into balled up bits. We improvised and used it as dirt instead and covered the pretzels with chocolate icing.

I was pleased with the results and honestly a little shocked that I didn't have to ditch our efforts and run to Publix for a cake! It wasn't too hard, just time consuming. I was glad I made the cake the day beforehand, because it took a good chunk of the morning to decorate it.

The company arrived that afternoon for some grillin' and chillin' by the pool

Papa is pretty sly and snagged the umbrella from the outdoor table while he cooked the burgers, hot dogs, and ribs.

After dinner we brought out the cake. Doesn't brother look so thrilled by our hard work?

He took one bite of it, ONE BITE, and was done. This is my son that has eaten anything we have ever given him-broccoli, green beans, asparagus, squash, olives, tomatoes, bell peppers, mango, blueberries, watermelon, avocado, etc, and yet wanted nothing to do with his cake! Maybe there's some type of survival instinct that tells you not to eat neon green food :)
My thoughtful nephew even tried to cut it up and feed it to him, but he still wasn't interested.
Then he said, thanks but no thanks. Here you can have mine! As least that's what I think he was saying. I'm not going to lie and say my heart didn't do a little backflip when he turned down sweets!
It was such a fun day. I got the cake instructions here. I did change a few things. I made the green icing a little lighter than the picture and used candy that I thought stood out more: green gum drops along the back, yellow sour gummy candy for claws, and junior mints for the eyes and nose. The whites of the eyes are marshmellows cut in half and the teeth are broken yogurt covered pretzels. I also think it should call for more icing. I got 2 cans of icing, 1.5 for the alligator and the remainder for the water. I'm not a pro at bundt cakes, but my MIL is, and recommended a thick layer of Baker's Joy (not Pam or butter) and then flour in the pan. I also waited 10 minutes for it to cool, then put the cutting board on top of the pan, flipped it, and tapped the pan. I was so afraid huge chunks would stick to the pan, but it came our perfectly! Good luck if you try it-if I can do it, trust me, anybody can do this one.

As for an update on my little guy, he continues to improve! It already looks much better than it did on Thursday when we went in for a checkup. We have to keep up the dressing changes and go back on Thursday.