Weekend Update

Our weekend started off on Friday afternoon with the arrival of this guy, his hat and two of his sons.  Yes, do the math with me now...him + two sons + SP + our three boys = LOTS OF TESTOSTERONE in one place!!! (-:  He is a friend of SP's from their high school days and the weekend actually went really well and I know our boys loved playing with his sons.

They left on the early side this morning in effort to miss the soon to come . . .

Fresh blanket of snow.

After church, William went out to the deck to catch snow in a bowl . . .

I think he's finally figuring out that the "no shoes" thing won't be working much longer.

After about an hour and a half (you moms know what I mean here), we got all the snow pants, boots, mittens, face masks found and put on and headed out to make our first set of snow angels.

Or just "play dead".

Harrison was VERY excited to give it a go for the first time on his snowboard.

Yep, the leaves were slick enough for sliding on once the thin layer of snow was gone.

 (-:

I was excited to try this new trick I saw somewhere (Parenting mag?)

I pounded a nail in the wall, hung a thin chain from it and clothes pinned our wet mits to it.

Here's hoping the kids leave it alone, it's really a great concept!

Finally, two tips for the day:

1.  Want to jazz up your standard chili recipe?  Go Here and you just won't believe the results, DELICIOUS!  Found the site after just Googling "Turkey and White Bean Chili".  You'll see she pulled from an Epicurious recipe and I ended up using mostly her recipe and a little of the Epicurious.  From the Epicurious I used the 1/4 tsp cinnamon (because I didn't have any sticks like she wanted) and I did use the 28oz whole tomatoes and their juice (she didn't use those).  Also, she wanted fresh andouille sausage (I'm pretty sure) and three stores I checked didn't have it.  So I used pre-cooked and still tried to remove the casings (that was a pain but made it easier to crumble instead of having chunks).  BE WARNED:  This recipe has some zip to it but three of the kids did eat it (two being our guests) and I'm not a fan of super spicy but I liked it...meaning, it's not super spicy.  Oh, you've just got to try it!

 Next tip

2.  Take a moment now (or the next time they're near by) to sit with your children and remind them that if they loose site of you say...at church...it would be best for them TO STAY IN THE CHURCH AND ASK AN ADULT TO HELP THEM FIND THEIR PARENTS . . . rather than, say, TRY TO WALK HOME!!!!!  (Especially if they're FIVE!!!! AND IT'S SNOWING!!!!  AND YOUR HOME IS SEVEN MILES FROM THE CHURCH!!!!).  Just a suggestion, never know when that reminder might be useful to your precious jewels.