Projects and more

We were SLAMMED with a terrible stomach bug last week (we all got it). I felt like the entire week was pretty much a waste. Connor and Isabel each missed a day of school (seriously, on only the 2nd week?), and I can't count how many loads of bedding, blankets, stuffed animals, clothes and children we had to wash. Ugh. But thankfully we are all over it, and happy to be starting a fresh week, which includes a somewhat serious first attempt at potty training Lucas. Thus far day 1 has gone a bit better than I expected. I'm not getting my hopes up. In other areas...

I love the blog Just A Girl. She has SUCH great do-it-yourself, largely cost-effective projects. And I'm a sucker for a good DIY project. Earlier this summer, she had a post where she showed this darling trees painted canvas project:

I'm not an artist by even the largest stretch of the definition, but I did manage to paint these flower canvases for Isabel's room last year:
And last year I also did these bug canvases for the boys' room:
So when I saw Just A Girl's cute tree canvases, I decided to re-create them in a totally different color scheme for my totally un-decorated kids' bathroom. I think they turned out pretty cute!
I decided to go for the oh-so-popular but darling nonetheless owl and tree theme, so coupled with a few little things I've got around here, I've got a vision for the bathroom. Now I just need to put it all together-

Another simple project, but one that has brought me much joy, involves turning a regular 3-ring binder into a recipe binder. I like to collect recipes from magazines, which for years have been stuffed into my recipe box. Thus making it a real pain to find anything. So I pulled out all of my 8 1/2 by 11 size recipes, slipped them into plastic sleeves, and made a cute little paper cover sheet for the front. Voila! It is SO MUCH EASIER to flip through and find clipped recipes. I will fully admit organization-type projects have never been my forte, but this has given me some inspiration!

And speaking of recipes (can you tell that the approach of Fall means 2 things to me?: projects and cooking/baking), I tried a fabulous new corn chowder recipe that I have to share. It was simple, very tasty, and has the perfect consistency. Let me flip through my new recipe binder... oh, here it is:

Corn Chowder
3 slices of bacon
1 small onion, diced
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup flour
1 32-oz package chicken broth
2 cups cubed frozen hash-brown potatoes
3 cups fresh corn, cut from the cob
1/2 cup heavy cream

1. In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove from pan and set aside.
2. Discard all but 1 Tbs. drippings and add onion, pepper, and nutmeg to saucepan. Cover and cook over low heat 10 minutes, or until onion is soft. Stir in flour and cook 3 minutes more. Whisk in broth, increase heat, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in potatoes and corn and cook 5 minutes more Stir in cream and cooked bacon. Makes 6 cups.

Connor may be a little director in training. For his 6th birthday last Spring, Brian's parents gave him this darling little puppet theater, which includes a stage, 4 puppets, 2 headset microphones and a sound box (with a huge variety of theatrical music, sounds effects, etc). He loves this theater, and yesterday was putting on quite the show! Highly entertaining. And his brother and sister were amused; what more can you ask for?

Just call Brian "Radio." He's been a guest on an increasing number of sports talk radio shows as of late, but this morning made his first guest appearance on one of the two "BIG-TIME" (in his words) sports talk radio stations in Denver, 1510 AM (to talk all things Broncos). Nice job, Brian! We're proud of you.

Post by color

Stricken with YELLOW fever over my new shoes. I almost bought them at my small hometown dept. store in MN, then had un-buyer's remorse when I got back to CO, so my mom grabbed a pair and sent them to me (thanks mom!). And I paid one-fifth of the original price; joy.

Fearing GRAY as I near my 35th birthday (2 months away) and knowing someday plucking probably won't do the trick.

Anticipating ORANGE, BLACK, PURPLE and GREEN as October/Halloween is on the horizon. I'm SUCH a fall girl! I was practically drooling as I browsed the fall/Halloween decor at Hobby Lobby the other day; oh my heavens, serious cuteness. And I think we have pretty much narrowed down the kids' costumes; the boys for sure are decided. I'm still working with Isabel. I'm not sure how to pull off Isa the Iguana from Dora...?

Awaiting BLUE, as we found out a new nephew will be arriving early in 2010 (Kelley and Leo are having a boy!)

Thinking it's a nice time for a WHITE wedding... my friend Bonnie has been doing a wedding blog for a few months, all grouped by gorgeous color patterns and incorporating all things homemade, primarily Etsy stuff. Even though I'm not planning a wedding, I've enjoyed looking at her blog and the plethora of eye candy on there. Seriously - beautiful pillows, jewelry, accessories, shoes, etc. She has posts like this:
and this-
Check out all the pretty things at Inventing Weddings.

Tickled PINK by the funny things my daughter says. The other day she told me, "my pink elephant's canine is really fluffy." I asked her what she thought a canine is, and she replied "it's a kind of tooth that's in your mouth." So she knew a meaning for canine, but I never figured out why her pink elephant's canine would have been fluffy. Crazy girl.

What is BLACK and WHITE and read ALL over?... I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo for book club - all 1,467 pages of it. I sort of had a negative attitude about reading it for some reason, but oh my, I LOVED it (and love book clubs for continually expanding my literary repertoire). What an amazing, adventurous read with themes like pirates, prison, revenge, forginess, repentence, love, suicide, murder, bandits, and more. And a FABULOUS ending. Makes me want to dive into more of the classics (and watch the movie, which I hear is really good).

Eating PEACH. Love all the produce at this time of year (corn, tomatoes, peaches, etc). One of my favorite desserts is peach cobbler, and I have a divine, easy recipe for peach cobbler that is moist, batter-y and fabulous. I will share. (it is also very good with berries). And do you know the easy peach-peeling trick? Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the peaches whole and boil for 30 or 40 seconds. Remove from the pot and submerge in ice water until cooled. The skins literally come right off just using your hands! Thanks Lara for the tip on an easy, fabulous time-saver.

Easy Batter Fruit Cobbler
4 Tbs. butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 plus 1 Tb. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
2 heaping cups of sliced fresh peaches or nectarines, or whole blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination of fruits (or a 12-ounce package of frozen berries)

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Put butter in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan; set in oven to melt. When butter has melted, remove pan from oven. Whisk flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add milk; whisk to form a smooth batter. Pour batter into pan, then scatter fruit over batter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tb. of sugar. Bake until batter browns and fruit bubbles, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream if desired.

Worrying about RED and GREEN. Lucas seems to have all his colors down, but consistently mixes up red and green. Could he be color blind? Both of my brothers are, and mothers carry the color blindness gene, so I'm kind of concerned. Guess I'll keep watching and see if it remains a problem. Hope not.

Back to school Howell-style

1. Annual mother/son back-to-school date at Red Robin: CHECK!

2. School supplies: CHECK!

3. Annual Hugs and Kisses (as in reading The Kissing Hand and making BH's fabulous pretzel hugs to send in lunches): CHECK!

4. Father's blessings: CHECK!

5. Postcard in the mail from fabulous 1st-grade teacher: CHECK!
6. Successful BTS night, with thoughtful goody bag from teacher: CHECK!
7. A great first day of 1st grade: CHECK!
First grade is a big change, with Connor going all day every day for the first time. The first day went GREAT, he was all smiles, and gave the day "55 thumbs up." He thinks having his own desk this year is fantastic (only tables in K). His teacher is Mrs. Wingfield, who was the sub for the last 3 months of kindergarten while the regular teacher was on maternity leave. Mrs. Wingfield ended up getting hired for a 1st grade position, and fortunately Connor is in her class. She is a true gem of a teacher, totally gifted and born to teach. Love her x a million. Connor loves her x a billion; going into the school year knowing she is his teacher gave him a huge advantage and much-needed peace of mind. I think Connor is on track for a great year. Happiness.

* In other news, Isabel started pre-school for the very first time, and loved her first day. She is going to be a school-lover after my own heart.
* With Connor in school full-time, and Isabel gone 2 mornings a week, I get to spend some fun one-on-one time with this crazy-
feisty-
beautiful child-
who is also relishing the quiet time.

Happy school year!

8th Wedding Anniversary

On Tuesday, Aug. 11 Brian and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We couldn't get a sitter that night, so we went out as a family; we went paddleboating on a little lake, and then out to Cold Stone for ice cream.

On Friday evening we got a sitter and went out to a fun little Italian restaurant, and then spent the beautiful evening just walking, shopping and talking. I forgot my camera, but it was fun, low-key, relaxing and great evening.

Every year on our anniversary, Brian at some point in the day plays the song from our first dance at our reception, "Cowboy Take Me Away" by the Dixie Chicks (I used to be REALLY into the DC) and asks me to dance, and we slow dance to it. It's a fun tradition.

I seriously need to get some of our older photos scanned, but here are a few of us through the years-
Engagement:
Wedding, Aug. 11, 2001:
The Washington Coast, Oct. 2006:

A walk in the Minnesota snow, Christmas 2007:

Spring 2009:

Happy 8 years Brian! I love you.

Minnesota: The rest of the story

This is the last Minnesota post, I promise. We did so much there, I wanted to capture as much as I could.

My parents live in a log home in the woods, and it's always so relaxing and peaceful to go there.
The just put in a new perennial garden, which is so pretty.
The kids love hanging out in the gazebo-
They have a sauna, which is one of my favorite things - love it!
Although some boys liked using it as a road-
Some other highlights:
* We went to Rice Lake, where wild rice grows naturally. My dad used to harvest wild rice from this lake, and we'd make wild rice bread, wild rice pancakes, wild rice soup, wild rice hot dish, wild rice pilaf, and on and on. I still have my parents send me Minnesota wild rice each year; it's so good!
* We had a big bonfire in the backyard; my Grandma Downing is a bonfire expert!
Isabel and Grace-
Lucas and Nolan-
* Dad pulled us through the woods on the trailer behind the 4-wheeler-
On one of our rides, we bumped into a tree, and a tree frog fell down and landed on Connor's shoulder. Poor thing never saw freedom again.
* We picked - and ate! - a ton of blueberries and raspberries, which grow in the woods-
* The kids had an ET movie/popcorn party and a slumber party with cousins in the loft. Connor has watched ET once since, and has now become terrified of ET's eyes and head, and is convinced there are glowing eyes everywhere. Ugh. I have never seen him afraid of anything like this! Hope it passes soon.

* My dad picked so many blueberries last season, they have a freezer full of them. So we had blueberries for breakfast every single day: blueberries on cereal, blueberries on oatmeal, blueberry muffins, blueberry sauce over pancakes and French toast, and blueberry pancakes. Yum! I'm surprised we didn't all turn blue (at least not permanently!)
* We hung out-
* Grandma did bubbles-
* We drove to Pfeiffer Lake, not intending to swim, as it was a rather cool day. But it got so warm while we were there, and being thus underprepared, the children ended up with a somewhat scandalous nearly nude swim party! What else could we do? We started out swimming with clothes, and it just didn't work. Don't judge us. :)
* It was so fun to spend time with my brothers and sisters; we are getting so geographically spread out these days, that we aren't all together very often any more. But we always have a blast together! (L to R: me, JJ, Kristina, Nate, Lara).
* On the way back through Minneapolis, we spent the evening with my best friend and roommate from college, Beth, and her cute family. It was seriously the MOST HUMID DAY I have experienced in a very long time. I looked like a drowned rat. But we had a great time regardless, it was so good to see you Beth! Thanks for your fun hospitality. We all had a fabulous time.
The roller coaster and frozen watermelon smoothies were a huge hit!
After 17 days filled with fun and playing, I have having slight withdrawal! But we have so many great memories; thanks to all our family and friends who made our trip so memorable.