Carousel and Cookies

So...you can probably guess who today's activities were planned for. We took the kids to the local carousel to ride. Even one reluctant son ("Mom....that's for babies!") decided that it was too fun to pass up and had a blast riding a gorilla. :-) Wanted to take a picture, but the camera batteries were dead. Bummer.

Needless to say, M loved the outing and we finished it off with a session of homemade cookies. YUM!

Vacation Week

It's vacation week here in CT. We had hoped to go away for some of the time, but we had no idea how hard it would be to get an affordable hotel stay for a family of 6! So, we decided to have an in-home vacation! We're enjoying things that are available to us locally that we don't normally "splurge" on doing. Each of our days has a different child's likes and interests in mind (although we don't think they've picked up on that...they're enjoying all the ideas we've mentioned).

N is BIG into cooking. Never heard a middle schooler squeal over a whisk in a Christmas stocking before! :-) Sunday he and I (J) went to our local Whole Foods Market where N inspected every mushroom type, pepper choice, and cheese selection. He was in heaven. He had selected a recipe ahead of time to shop for and prepare. (We also stopped for gelato on the way out. Shhh!) It's like being with a little Tyler Florence. So fun!

Last night was Italian night. N made his recipe completely on his own - stuffed mushrooms...sauteed his turkey sausage, red peppers, onions, etc. Chopped, diced, stuffed, baked. LOVED IT!

I made pesto spinach pizza to go with it. YUM! The younger boys dressed up like Europeans for the occasion. It was too cute!