Ethan's Birthday.....FINALLY

So, Ethan's birthday was August 28th but I went up to Idaho and things were busy and he didn't get his party until yesterday. That's right 17 days after his actual birthday. Poor kid. He's been really patient about the whole thing though. Before I left I did take a batch of cupcakes to his preschool class though.

I just arranged the mini-cupcakes how I wanted and then iced them like they were one whole cake. No knife needed for cutting and it's easy for little hands to get just the piece they want.

This year Ethan asked for Captain Hooks' pirate ship for his cake. I took a few pics during the process, but as you'll see, it was really pretty simple. I used a half-sheet cake pan, but you could easily use a 9x13 to do this cake. The only specialty thing I used was a little imprint that presses into the fondant to make it look like wooded boards nailed together. I got mine at Cake Craft Shoppe in Sugarland for 10 bucks in a pack that had that one, cobblestone, brick, siding, and basketweave imprints. Since we're trying to close on the house and pack and what not I decided to just buy a couple of pirates to put on top and then I printed Peter Pan saying "Happy Birthday Ethan" on a piece of cardstock that I used for the sail. I'll include the pictures etc at the end.

He decided for his birthday dinner that he wanted to make his own pizza. I'll include my focaccia bread recipe at the end since we used that for our pizza dough. 

So, I said before how Jon and I had taken away all their toys and....well, everything and that the end result was that they basically didn't care. We realized from that little experiment that all these toys and things they had were, for the most part, for us. We wanted our kids to have this stuff. They didn't really care. I read this article in some waiting room where this organization expert said (and I paraphrase):

"Look at all your stuff and realize that every thing you own represents some of your time; time to clean it, time to put it away, time to maintain it in some way or other. Think of how much more time you would have in your life for things and people you love if you took back some of that time that's being eaten up by things that are just in the way." 

Profound right? Since we're moving I thought this was pretty much perfect timing and we're getting rid of loads of our crap we've been holding on to for years for Heaven only knows what reasons. We'll donate it and maybe someone who actually needs it can have it. Simple, streamlined, peaceful lives is the plan. So, as part of that we asked the grandparents and cousins (we only did a family party) not to get toys for birthday presents. Yep, you read it right. No toys. Before you think I finally crossed the line just read on.What we asked instead is a gift that means something: time. We want our kids to have strong, happy, meaningful memories of time spent with those they love. A tradition of having a lunch date with just them and Grandma or going fishing with Grandpa will mean so much more to them than another plastic thing that will be broken or have half the pieces lost in a month tops. (Who am I kidding? We all know it's a week tops in this house.) And I don't mean that it will eventually, in the long run, sometime when he's older and wiser be more meaningful to them. I mean now as well. For his birthday present from us Jon and I took Ethan to the Houston Children's Museum for the day (we have an annual pass) and we ate PB & J's in the car on the way home. You never saw a happier kid. Traditions, memories, family. That's what we want our celebrations with them to be about.

For the pics and recipes....

Starting School and Visiting Grandma Stellmon

 Aren't they cute? Christopher walks Ethan to his class everyday and then he goes to his. I'd like to be able to say that I had a hard time watching them go, but the truth is I spent the morning of their first day at school reveling in my new-found freedom and marveling at all that one can accomplish with only two kids in tow. Still, I thought they were adorable and took this picture just after they crossed the crosswalk together. See, not heartless after all.

Some of you friends and family know what's going on with me lately, and some don't so I'm going to do a little 'nutshell' version for you. I went to a neurologist because I've had this annoying twitch thing going on since the last few months of pregnancy with Timothy. They ran a whole battery of tests and didn't find out what's causing the twitch, but it turns out that I've had a (VERY MINOR) stroke at some point in the past, I have a small hole in my heart (a congenital defect, but they're checking it out just the same), high cholesterol, a high anion gap (whatever that is), sleep apnea, and possibly arsenic poisening. You know, if you take a car to a mechanic and he pokes around enough he's bound to find something wrong with it. I'm just sayin'. Anyway, I had a thing this last Sunday and I'm going for another CT scan because my neurologist thinks it was a TIA (like a mini warning stroke without the long term effects) but he wants to make sure it's nothing more serious. I guess I'm in the same boat as Bill "We're toast." Really, I'm fine, no worries.

Now, for some fun stuff.

 Timothy, Ryan and I went up to Lewiston to visit Gram & Gramp Stellmon for a week. It was so great. Timothy still smiles when he hears Gram's voice over the phone and Ryan is such a little monster but he and Gram had so much fun having raspberry wars all week. I took a LOT of pictures and video so I just loaded them onto my picasa album. Here's the link to all the pictures from our trip up there. I'm going to load the video sometime, but you know me.

So-obviously-I'm trying to be even more careful of what I eat lately. Jon's sure that a low-fat, low to no sugar, only whole grains, low sodium diet can NOT include edible food, but I'm going to at least try. I got a leg up from my parents and Jay who gave us a huge amount of fresh caught Alaskan Salmon to add to the menu. Yay Dad. At Jon's parents the other day everyone else had burgers and I had a MorningStar Farms® Chipotle Black Bean Burger. I know what you're thinking:" Bean burger?!?" or "Mindy ate something with chipotle?!?!" Actually, it was pretty good. It had some spice, but with the bun, some lettuce and a tomato it wasn't too spicy. I also have a recipe of sorts that I tried the other night and loved. It's a black bean salsa thing. I'm not going to give exact amounts for the salt and spices, just add them to your liking. Really, all the ingredient amounts are negotiable. I just gave amounts to get you started. I know that the banana sounds like a weird ingredient, but trust me on this one okay. I had it once served over tilapia that I had just broiled with a little olive oil and kosher salt and I had it the next day in a whole wheat tortilla with some leftover grilled chicken. Delish both times. I'm also posting a lovely pork loin roast recipe that Jon made for me all by himself the other day because he's so wonderful. I just copied the recipe from the word file he'd saved it in, so I don't know where he originally got it from. For the recipes....