Cooking, Baking, Shopping, and Playing

The title pretty much sums up the week. I have been working on gifts to give to some people, just some cookie mix mason jars and baked goods, but with two little ones, it's taking up a lot of time. I made some pretzle/kisses things to go in the gifts, some Pilsbury sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and I'm making some chocolate covered pretzles tonight. I'm hoping to give them out tomorrow.. All the things I've made have taken the entire week and many trips to the store to get more ingredients. I also made a trip to Joanne's to look for pretty baskets to package the gifts in, and World Market, where I picked up some delicious chocolate spread (one for us and one for one of the gifts) and then to Michael's. I wanted to use a basket for all the gifts, but that was too expensive, so for most of them, I'm just using gift bags. I really enjoyed making and baking this week, but I'll be glad to have the gifts handed out so I can have my counter space back.

 Here's a picture of the boys "taste testing" the cookies

Evan looking for more, he saw where I got them from.

Look at that dirty face. (and those dirty windows!! maybe I should spend more time cleaning and less time baking)

Greg had a Christmas party at work today, so yesterday afternoon he took the boys out and I cooked a ziti for him to take. I also went ahead and made Paula Deen's Beefy Mac and Cheese and it was awful. It was so bland!! I normally like all things Paula Deen, so I was really disappointed in how it turned out. Greg didn't like it either, but the good news is that the boys loved it. They both ate it for dinner last night.

Tuesday afternoon, we took the boys to Bounce and Play again, and there was only a few people there. We took advantage of how empty it was and let the boys play on some of the smaller bouncy things. Then, we climbed up and went down the bouncy slides with them. The boys really loved it. They had so much fun. Right before we left we went on the biggest one there, after climbing to the top I realized the slide basically went straight down. I was so nervous and had Carter in my lap with the same expression on his face that I had. Greg wasn't worried at all and Evan was squeeling and couldn't wait to go down. It's funny how Carter really takes after me and Evan takes after Greg in so many ways. Afterwards, we went to Vinny's for dinner. The boys love their moose hats and wore them while they ate.

This afternoon after Greg got off work, I went to a pizza making party with the MOMs group. The host provides the dough and sauce and everybody brings their own pan, cheese and a topping to share. You make the pizza there and bring it home to bake it. The kids get to play, you get some hang out with the other moms and then dinner is already taken care of when you get home-just pop it in the oven. This was my first time going and I just brought Carter and Evan stayed home with Greg. They have one of these every month, so next month I'm hoping to go again and bring Evan with me and leave Carter with Greg. It was fun and I think Carter had a good time.

Carter loved this little bench/stool there.

This little boy was born on the same day as Evan and Carter. They got along really well.

Carter was watching the older kids make their own pizzas and looked like he wanted in on the action.

So, I sat him down and let him help me with the toppings.

He was doing a great job until he tasted the pepperoni, and then he decided it was much more fun to eat the toppings.

Yum!

It's been a pretty busy week and I'm so glad that Greg has tomorrow off. I really love that he gets a 3 day weekend every other week. I'm looking forward to relaxing tonight, watching some Friday Night Lights, and opening this bottle of raspberry Italian Spumante that I found at World Market yesterday.