{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. (well actually last week) A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Wishes for a beautiful weekend to you!

Santa

I've done a lot of thinking about Santa since Curtis was born 6 years ago. When I was a kid my parents told us children about Santa and then pretty much let us go with our imaginations. We saw Christmas movies and shows and read books and pretty much grew up with the basic North American Santa Claus beliefs. I remember writing him letters and leaving him cookies with such a feeling of wonder and excitement each Christmas like most other middle class children in New Jersey did at the time.

What I don't remember is when I found out the 'truth' about Santa. I can say, as a very sensitive person with a good memory for pain, that I did not feel lied to or misled by my parents when I did find out that it was them providing all those toys under the tree and eating those cookies that I set out each Christmas Eve. In fact my memory of the event is pretty foggy at the most and I am thinking it may have been the kind of realization that happens over a course of time.

Now, having said all of that I completely understand all of the arguments against Santa. I don't want to lie to anyone ever, let alone my kids. I also don't like the fact that most of what kids do believe about Santa has to do with consumption and greed. I try really hard not to label my boys, so the thought of a 'naughty' or 'nice' list sends shivers down my spine....However, there is something just magical about Santa.

I have come to the conclusion that I will allow my kids to believe whatever they want when it comes to Santa. As long the story of Santa continues to bring them such joy, then I see no reason for me to burst this bubble. After all I believe in lots of things that I cannot see or feel or prove, so maybe Santa is just another human practice in faith on a more elementary level. Without some magic and faith in our lives I personally believe that this earth would be a very depressing place to live. So in these last days before Christmas I say a very jolly Ho Ho Ho and a Merry Christmas to you!




PS - It was a nice mild December day when we saw Santa at the neighborhood festival. Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we are all bundled up and enduring the few weeks of cold that Florida gets each year. Warm wishes to all!

Birthday time!

It's that time of year again...no I'm not talking about Christmas or Chanukah or Kwanzaa or any other holiday...I'm talking about my two sons birthdays! It isn't always easy having two boys with birthdays right smack in the middle of the holiday season (did I mention my husband's b'day is in January?), but we know how to focus on the positive in this family and have really enjoyed celebrating this year.

Since my boys birthdays are less than a month apart we have successfully thrown a joint party for the past two years in a row. Our party this year was held this past Saturday and I am so glad that the beautiful and mild weather held out for us. Tough times have called for a more scaled back party this year, but their closest friends and family came to celebrate and my boys were showered with tons of love and presents.

This year Curtis asked for a Lego themed cake and party. After watching many a tutorial online I decided to make two lego block cakes so each boy could have his own theme.

Here you can see the Spongebob themed Lego cake for Clark.



And here you can see the Star Wars Lego cake for Curtis.




And here they are blowing out the candles.




Tomorrow my first baby will turn 6 and I can't help but to feel nostalgic. I cannot wait to see what is in store for these two wonderful sons of mine in the future and I will love sharing every minute of it with them!

Happy Birthday Curtis and Clark!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

This year the Fisher family certainly has a lot to be thankful for.

One of the main people on my gratitude list is a certain little 'just turned three-year-old'. He really is a little silly turkey most of the time and has been keeping me on my toes a lot lately!



If you know anything about me, you know I have a major sweet tooth, so these two delicious pies are certainly on the list too.



This year we started a new family tradition by making a 'Thankful Tree' after dinner this afternoon. I had planned to make a tree from a branch and pot filled with stones, but I never did get around to it with all of the holiday hoopla. Instead, each family member wrote a few things that they are thankful for on construction paper leaves and I arranged them into a pine-cone center-piece that I keep on my dining table.






There were a few interesting additions to the 'tree'. While I was pretty impressed that Curtis had God on one of his leaves, I was not surprised that both boys put the Wii on a leaf. I did enjoy using this thoughtful time together to bond as a family and will continue to try to instill the practice of active gratitude into my two boys.



I have seen first hand how drastically active gratitude can change a life, and while I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving I would also like to take this time to remind you to be mindful of your blessings all year round.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

ATrain Ride North

Recently, Clark and I took a train ride up north to visit my family. We rode up on an over-night train, getting as much sleep as possible while the train carried us through the Bible-belt states.

Here you can see as Clark waved to Paw Paw excitedly as the train pulled away.



Clark was very excited to ride on the train. I began discussing it with him about a week before the trip and he asked at least twice a day to "get on the train." I don't know what it is about little boys and the train, but it is definitely a match made in heaven.


After we woke up on the train the next morning, we had breakfast in our seats and prepared to depart in Raleigh, NC.



Instantly we knew we were under-dressed for the weather, so we pulled out our hoodies and headed to the rental car place for the next part of our trip.




Visiting Grandmom and Grandpop was really fun. Clark got to bounce in a bounce house, visit a really cool children's museum, and feed goats on a real working farm. We both had a great time catching up with my parents and enjoying the peacefulness of their country home.

We also got to visit my oldest brother and his family while on our trip. It was so great seeing them, and both Clark and I were very sad to leave when the time came.



While I mostly enjoyed my nephew's company, I also enjoyed his drum kit just a little bit.



And Clark and I both enjoyed a wonderful Japanese meal cooked by my super cool Sister-in-law. Don't worry we didn't give Clark any of the sake!

I would definitely recommend overnight train travel to families with children. While I didn't get a great night's sleep either way, it was nice to be able to just sit back and relax as the work of the travel was being done for me. Clark LOVED everything about the train and still talks about it to this day. We are discussing a trip north with the whole family for sometime in the future, but for now I am enjoying being back home in my own bed (and my own warm-weather home state).

Halloween Crafting

Halloween is by far my two son's favorite holiday. I'm not sure why, but they say they like it even more than Christmas. I know they like the candy, but they also really like all of the Autumn themes that come along with this holiday in particular.

This year we spent most of the month of October making holiday crafts. Both boys are getting more and more into arts & crafts, and this couldn't make this 'crafty' Mom any happier.

Here is one of the hand print bats that we made. We got this craft from my church group and the boys did enjoy making them at home. I like the fact that I have a record of the size of their hands during this season and I hung them up in my kitchen to enjoy for a while.



Last year I bought several holiday themed 'foamy craft kits' right after the holiday on clearance. These next two crafts come from a kit that the boys really enjoyed personalizing. Curtis made this spooky sign for our front door, practicing his spelling skills with foam letters.



Clark choose to make this magnet for our refrigerator, decorated with really sparkly glitter.



At a holiday themed story-time, sponsored by the library at a local park, we were given this little paper craft. Clark had fun folding the papers and I helped him slide them onto the base. I was very pleased with how sweet and minimal this one turned out.



And of course I wouldn't be Taradactyl if I didn't have some kind of baked good to share for the holiday. When we were up north visiting family last week Clark was given this little plastic spider by a friend of my Mom's who decorates cakes for a living. I immediately got the idea to try this spiderweb cake that I had seen in magazines. I was pretty happy with the results and the guys were all very happy to help eat it.



And now as my tired little boys sleep off the excitement of Halloween, I have this one evening to relax before I can begin to plan for the joy of the next celebration, my baby boy's 3rd birthday!!!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Wishing everyone a great Halloween weekend!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Baking Weather

That's right, it's finally baking weather in the Tropics. I love to bake and also love to eat baked goods, so I am welcoming this recent cooler (high in the 80's instead of 100's) weather. It's a good thing that I exercise regularly and have a fast metabolism or I'm sure I'd be 200 lbs or more.



I've been making apple pies lately. Only half of my family will eat apple pie regularly, so anytime I'm invited anywhere I've been bringing an apple pie with me. This is how I get to eat some pie without having to eat all of the pie. I do also have an ulterior motive since most people are usually very happy to see me coming with a pie in my hands.




After making my own yogurt I ended up with more yogurt than my family could handle. I searched online and found this yummy looking recipe for Maple Yogurt Pound Cake. Lucky for me I already had all of the ingredients so it was a go. Boy was this tasty! It definitely would be a good choice for a brunch or breakfast potluck dish. While it is very 'desserty', I think the maple syrup flavor lends itself to consumption before noon if you ask me. This is one of those baked goods that actually tastes better on the second day, so I recommend that you make it late one evening and wake up to a wonderful breakfast treat.

Now, I am going to go hit the kitchen once more. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing on a nice fall Sunday afternoon than baking up a delicious treat while watching the game. Go Eagles!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Pizza

I have written about making our own pizza once before. Not much has changed except that Clark can eat cheese on his now. I make my own dough in my bread machine and then the boys get their step stools and get to work. We didn't have any special toppings this time since we haven't been to the store since the vacation, but I think most of us were satisfied with the cheese pies.









The boys participate in every step after the dough is made, from stretching to saucing to topping. Here you can see the little one eyeballing his parents big pie.







The five year old still declares the 'round pizza that the guy brings' as better than the ones we make, but the two year old really was pretty happy with his results. I don't know if it was because he made it himself or if he was just having a good day, but that little cutie ate the whole little pie he made for himself. I call that success!

Celebrate!

It's that time of year again!




This is what I found when Curt and I came home from our semi-annual weekend get-a-way on my birthday.









I'm a lucky woman!

More about the weekend away another time...right now I'm still catching up on laundry.

Making Yogurt

I recently got this idea that maybe I could start making my own yogurt. In a wonderful moment of serendipity SouleMama posted about this very thing that same day. When looking at her blog post I remembered that I had bookmarked something about yogurt making ages ago and went on a search to find it. Making yogurt in the slow cooker....how ingenious, I was game!



At first I wanted to start with half and half, but alas my store only carried ultra-pasteurized half and half and this is not good for yogurt making. So I decided to try whole milk instead, since I am still trying to fatten up these skinny boys of mine.



The process was easy and the product turned out great. What a thrill when I awoke that next morning and found a crock full of yogurt on my counter. For the price of a half gallon of organic whole milk I made a lot of yogurt.




And I must say the smoothies have been flowing ever since....and they are good! I have recently been feeling like my green smoothies were missing something, and I do believe I have found the missing link to the perfect smoothie. Not only does this addition make the smoothies more meal-like, it also adds the benefit of live active cultures to each sip.

I'm planning to experiment more with straining some to get a Greek style yogurt and look forward to finding some good cucumber/yogurt dip recipes. The possibilities are endless.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Reusable Snack Sacks

In a recent effort to have a 'greener' kitchen, I have been trying to reduce our use of plastic zip top baggies. With school now in session I've been packing 7 lunches a week for the boys (5 for kindergarten and 2 for preschool), which can mean lots and lots of zip top baggies. After doing some research online I found several tutorials for sewing my own reusable snack/sandwich baggies that looked to be within my skill level.



After buying the supplies at the local Joanne's, I tried my hand at two different patterns one rainy evening. The pattern on the right is much easier to sew but I personally prefer the finished product of the one on the left because of the hidden inside seams.




Here you can see one of these baggies in use. I will need to adjust the size to hold a full sandwich, but this size seems pretty perfect for a snack of pretzel thins or any other munchie (by the way these things are really yummy and B1G1 at Publix right now). Because I used a food safe fabric for the lining I can even use these baggies for any moist food like apple slices or strawberries (two of Clark's favorites right now).

I will definitely be trying my hand at a few more of these and even have some more ideas about how to personalize them further for each boy.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Jaws Alton Daniel Lopez Fisher

A little over a month ago our beta fish 'Bobby' passed away. He had lived to the ripe old age of 4, which is pretty old for a Beta, but the kids were still sad to see their little pal go. Each morning we look toward the spot where his bowl used to sit and remember giving him his smelly fish flakes before breakfast.

This happened around the same time that a neighbor's dog gave birth to 7 puppies. For the past 7 weeks or so we have been wondering if one of these puppies would become our new pet. The puppies are 1/4 poodle, giving them a good chance at being easier on my allergies, so it seemed like one of them might be a good choice for our family.

After the writing of many pro/con lists and playful visits to the puppies, we have finally come to the hard decision that getting one of these puppies would not be the best choice for our family right now. While all four of us still hope to find the right canine companion for our family at some point in the future, we took joy today in a trip to the pet store to invite a new pet beta fish into the family. So here he is....



After looking at many fish we settled on this pretty blue guy. Curtis immediately commented on his back fin, comparing him to a shark, hence his new first name 'Jaws'. Of course for our family one name would not be enough for our new fish so each boy gave his own middle name as well as both of our last names to Jaws. So this little pet store beta was happily introduced to the family today as Jaws Alton Daniel Lopez Fisher.





It was fun to see the excitement on the boy's faces as we ushered Jaws into his new home. Clark insisted that we play music and dance for him once his bowl was set on the record player where his predecessor 'Bobby' once lived. Listening to both boys talk about their new pet and dance and giggle as they relished the excitement of the day was very heartwarming.



Welcome Jaws! We hope that you enjoy your spot in our home.

Clark's Morning Out

That's right, even my baby is going to 'school' now. I enrolled Clark into a Mom's Morning Out program at a local church this year. I wasn't planning to put him into a program until next year but after listening to him cry for half of his big brother's VPK year I decided to listen to his needs. Even during summer VBS Clark cried when we dropped his big brother off, asking "My go to school peeease!?!?!" It became very clear that he and I could both benefit from a little time apart during the long boring and hot summer months, so I took a leap of faith and enrolled him into a two year old class. Clark will be one of the oldest kids in the class due to his fall birthday, but after meeting the teacher and seeing the daily schedule of events I knew that he would fit right in. So now I sit here blogging away freely in a quiet house without any background video game noise or toddler demands. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry...

You can trace the progression from excitement to tenacity in these photos I took of Clark on his first morning at preschool.






When I told him he got to have his own back pack (handed-down from big brother)and got to go to his own school this morning he was VERY excited.



As we drove over he asked me about who would take him to the potty and got a little anxious when I told him that I wouldn't be there to take him.



As we reached the church I could tell he was getting a little nervous.



And of course once we got in and heard one of the other kids crying for his Mommy the mood definitely changed. Clark has never had any kind of separation anxiety and had no hesitation as he walked into his classroom, but this expression on his face certain shows that there was a little anxiety there on his first day away from Mommy.

After all the transitions this week I'm not gonna lie....I was in tears before I even made it back to my car. I love both of my sons so much that I cannot even put it into words and I can only hope that all four of us will manage these transitions gracefully, and most importantly, together.