ROAR! I've Got a Tie!

I've gotten a HUGE kick out of making these Dinosaur/Dragon Hats, and Tie Onsies!  I'll be mild on the commentary this time, and just stick to the pictures.

Dinosaur Hat!

Round 1 of Tie Onesies

Rehearsal Dinner Tie

Wedding Tie

Round 2 of Tie Onesies

Baptism & Dedication Tie

Fiery Dragon Hat!

The ties are great for formal events for this little dude, while the dragon or dinosaur hat will not only keep you warm, but also defend you from bigger predators (one of my biggest concerns these days).  And speaking of dinosaurs, check out this roaring little guy:

Quincy's Story: Chapter 2 from Brad Haveman-Gould on Vimeo.

Formal Roar!

~M

My First Pinterest Party

Have you heard of Pinterest?  Though its reputation has been heavily promoted by DIY'ers, recipe hunters, and quote enthusiasts, its purpose is to better organize things you like on the World Wide Web.  Think of it as a digital cork board that you can "pin" something found on the internet to review later.

Needless to say, I've spent my share of time browsing Pinterest for ideas and fun things to do, and a friend had come up with the idea of having a party in order to work on some of the ideas found through Pinterest.  I know there are plenty of Pinners out there that have found countless ideas, and this was a way to bring some of those to fruition.  Quite exciting stuff!

I even repurposed a Pinterest logo for the event!  Super corny and ridiculous, right?  That was my aim.

Original Image Courtesy of Google Images,
Added (Dorky) Features Courtesy of Maggie H-G

I invited some of my favorite gals, put Quincy to bed, and we set to work on our various projects... and of course made sure to eat some tasty treats!

Here is what my cool friends made and/or worked on...

Jamie - Crocheted Booties

Megan - Cross Stitch 

Kristin - Birthday Onsie, Hat, and Fingerprint Craft - Balloon Theme!

Nicky - Pennant/Flag Decorations for Baby J.'s Room

Ashley - Treasure Chest to use as a Prize Box for her Students

And, here is what I made... (see if you can guess which photo is my favorite, hehe):

Apple Butter {pin it here}

Lime Sherbet Punch {pin it here}

Homemade Mod Podge, or as I like to call it, Magg Podge,
which notably smells like green salsa (despite washing
the jar with super hot water and tons of soap... hmmmm)
{pin it here}

Phone Charger Caddy {pin it here}

Bandana Apron {pin it here}
(uh, best prop for the photo, right?)

Like the idea of throwing a Pinterest Party?  Feel free to pin it for later use!  

My plea is that you were pleasantly pleased after peeking at this post, and found it most pinteresting! * 

Party on, Pinners!

~M


*My apologies, though I'm not sure which was worse: the excessive alliteration or the terrible pun.

Landscaping Phase I

Maggie and I are taking advantage of our second summer in our wonderful home address landscaping. A huge *thank you* to the previous owners for giving us an excellent house. We decided to tweak a thing here or there... The majority of the more intense projects were completed by Landscape Designs, and they were great to work with and did an excellent job. Thank you to all our family, friends, and neighbors for physical labor, helpful insight and references, and tolerating the noisy work!

The old front breezeway area was all concrete, and it had settled down to the point where rain water wasn't cooperating, so we decided to do something about it.

Note: this isn't the most flattering picture. I promise it looked better than this before... and now it looks even better!

They weren't messing around

I have never been more terrified and anxious than when they were taking a gigantic saw to attack our concrete. And to think that they managed to make a precise arc with this beast...

Pavers coming together quite nicely

Quincy fulfilling his role as official site supervisor during the paver installation. Quincy gave them an A+

Designing the new planting beds.

Added new planting beds to the west side of the house. Phase II will bring more plants here, and Phase III next summer should bring us a patio in this area off the back of the breezeway.

We transplanted our strawberries from an old brick planter that was trapping water and was in a state of disrepair. We ended up finding a great deal on a half whiskey barrel for our new planter.

This striking planting bed was already here for us, but we placed some mulch in it.

Both downspouts on the east side of the house now go into a drain tile that disperses in the front yard. We are VERY happy with this after this past rainy period.

It was amazing how quickly they took the old concrete out. We had them place rebar within the thicker new concrete to try to battle the tree roots.

It was amazing how quickly they took the old concrete out. We had them place rebar within the thicker new concrete to try to battle the tree roots.

15 minutes later, our driveway is in the road

Again, supervising the work

Quincy keeping the riff-raff from putting handprints in his fresh concrete

Street view of the new driveway without gigantic bumps. The sidewalk and approach will also be replaced in the coming weeks after the permits are obtained.

Also, with the help from family, we cleaned up the shutters and painted them a great "calming depths" blue-green color. I think it makes the house look very sharp!

New driveway interfaces with old, soil graded away from house, mulch placed, downspout into the drain tile, and super-hostas split up into something more manageable.

Maggie and I love the final paver walkway to the breezeway.

Notice how incredible of a job they did cutting the concrete with a smooth arc.

Downspout now drains into a drain tile that disperses in the front yard.

Next phase (this fall) will include getting some greenery in there...

-Brad

Nine Vegetable Baby Purées: Preparation & Taste Rankings

Recently, I've done a few posts about baby foods - first attempts, do-overs and cereal - and now it's time to recap on some of the purées I've made.  A few people have asked how to prepare them, and how they went over with Quincy, so this may help answer those questions.  As another great resource,  check out Momtastic's Wholesome Baby Food website, which was recommended to me from a friend; it has been a wealth of information to find out what foods are appropriate for which age, and different methods of preparing and storing the foods.

On a side note, for those of you that read about The Promise (La Promesa) I made to Quincy, I've decided to give the names of the foods in English and Spanish.  Hey, who said you couldn't learn some new vocabulary from this blog?!

1. BUTTERNUT SQUASH - La Calabaza Moscada

* Preparation: Wash, Peel, Scoop Seeds/Gunk, Cube, Steam 10-12 minutes, Puree with Water.

* Quincy's Rating: Yu-Yu-Yummmm.

* Note: Warning - may cause Squash Hands


2. PEAS - Los Guisantes

* Preparation: Steam 8-12 minutes, Puree with Water.

* Quincy's Rating: Gross Enough to Gag.

*Note: Frozen peas are WAY easier than fresh unshelled peas!

3. ZUCCHINI - El Calabacín (Verde)

* Preparation: Wash, Peel, Slice, Steam 8-10 minutes, Puree (without Water).
* Quincy's Rating: Eh, They're Alright.
* Note: This is a runny one, especially since you do not add any water when pureeing; great to mix with thicker purées.

4. CARROTS - Las Zanahorias

* Preparation: Wash, Peel, Slice, Steam 10-12 minutes, Puree with Water.

* Quincy's Rating: Gross Enough to Gag.

5. YELLOW SUMMER SQUASH - El Calabacín (Amarillo)

* Preparation: Wash, Peel, Slice, Steam 8-10 minutes, Puree (without Water).

* Quincy's Rating: Eh, They're Alright.

* Note: This is another runny one, especially since you do not add water when pureeing; it's great to mix with a thicker food like sweet potatoes.

6. EGGPLANT - La Berenjena

* Preparation: Wash, Peel, Cube, Steam 8-10 minutes, Puree with Water.

* Quincy's Rating: Great when mixed half-and-half with sweet potato; not so great on its own.

7. PARSNIPS - Las Chirivías

8. TURNIPS - Los Nabos

PARSNIP + TURNIP COMBO

* Preparation: Wash, Peel, Cube, Bake in Pan with Water, Puree with Water.

* Quincy's Rating: Run Away!! Mommy & Quincy agree - definitely not a tasty food.  It reminded me of a slightly sweeter radish, thanks to the turnips.

* Note: Bake at 375˚ for 30-45 minutes with water covering the cubes 2/3's of the way.

9. SWEET POTATO - La Batata

* Preparation: Rinse, Poke Holes with Fork, Rinse Again (to get water in the holes), Wrap in Foil, Bake 45-60 minutes, Scoop out Guts from Skin, Puree with Water.
* Quincy's Rating: Yu-Yu-Yummmm.
* Note: This can be a thicker purée, so I've used either extra water or a runnier vegetable like zucchini or summer squash to thin it.

-----

What are Squash Hands?  Glad you asked.  You may find, especially with Butternut Squash, that your hands get really dried out when handling it after peeling.  Your skin will feel taught and possibly peel.  You'll know what I mean if you give it a try.

Squash Hands

Clean Up! If you're doing multiple vegetables at a time, be sure to clean your cooking gear in between each vegetable so as not to contaminate your final purée with other veggies.  If your baby ends up having an allergic reaction to one of the vegetables, it'd be horrible to have it accidentally mixed in with another!  That being said, I know I did a mixture of the turnips and parsnips without cooking them separately, but having the mix was intentional - too bad it didn't taste so good!

Cleaning in Between Batches

Storage:  Freezing the food into cubes, and then storing the cubes in freezer bags helps save on space in your freezer.  When you're ready for baby to have another portion, either thaw them in the fridge for a day or defrost them in the microwave (be sure to use a Defrost setting and not cook the food).

White = Parsnip & Turnip Combo
Green = Eggplant
Yellow = Yellow Summer Squash

Freezer Stock-up: Three vegetables (listed above)
waiting to freeze into cubes and other frozen cubes
stored in freezer bags

El Vocabulario: I have to admit that I found looking for the Spanish equivalents for some of the foods a bit puzzling.  By following a friend's advice, I was able to find a lot of the names by first looking up their Latin name, and then looking up the Latin name in Wikipedia en Español.  For the variety of squashes, there seem to be two main words: calabaza and calabacín.  Calabaza seems to be the bigger gourd-like squashes, such as Butternut, whereas calabacín is more typical of slimmer and softer squashes like zucchini.  My best guess for the yellow summer squash and zucchini was to differentiate them by color.  If there are some Spanish-speakers out there that have better words to use, I'm all ears!

Got any other foods you've heard of that are great to purée?  Share below!

¡Buen Provecho!

~M