put it on a stick

Given my recent flops in the kitchen I decided to focus my energies elsewhere for a bit.  Needing a confidence boost, I switched gears to some easy stuff.  Like painfully so simple a monkey could do it blindfolded, that kind of simple.

Our local Sprouts Market had this big ol' sale on grapes and I decided to grab some.  We had plenty for just normal grape-eating, but since it has been about fifty billion degrees outside I wanted to freeze some.  I have seen people put them in champagne as "ice cubes" so I figured we could do something like that, but a little more kid friendly.  I am not a champagne person anyway.

So we tried just dropping them in a glass with some Sprite as a special treat for Meatball.

I decided that just dropping frozen grapes into a cup wasn't enough, I could do better.  So I got some bamboo skewers and made frozen grape kabobs out of them.

I know this sounds so simple, but you'd swear this was the height of high class dining if you heard the way Meatball and the neighbor kids go on about it.

I now have a  Ziplock tub of them out in the freezer at all times.  When Meatball wants one he just pulls it out and sticks it in his drink, it makes him feel fancy and he is eating something that is healthy and cost me very, very little.

I may not rock all the time, but man, when I do, I am soooo awesome.

gather 'round children, a lesson

Maybe I am just older and see things differently.

Maybe my oldest was a little less of a death/thrill seeker.

Maybe I am just falling apart in general, but at some point I totally lost all grip on sanity when it comes to grocery shopping.

Shopping day is Wednesday, which is not so coincidentally payday as well.  I have grown to like Mondays even more than Wednesdays recently.

Perhaps it is the gripping heat combined with humidity, or the fact I sleep in non consecutive four hour increments, or that I have decided to wage a personal war on all the crap in my house while simultaneously doing a deep clean upon learning my in-laws may be visiting soon ... but I pretty much open my eyes on Wednesday and want to call in dead.

But I don't get that luxury.

The Beans could star in a sideshow for which the posters could read: "Houdini Baby can escape anything!"  Just below it in smaller print could read the tag line: "Unleashes a sonic-boom-bat-screech you just have to hear to believe!"

We'd need people to sign wavers though, as they'd never hear again and that has lawsuit written all over it.

So while I was racing through grabbing the basic stuff we needed one handed while trying to keep a hand hooked around Beans to keep him where the seat belt in the cart apparently can't and trying to stuff enough Apple Wagon Wheels in his mouth to keep it too busy to start screaming, I saw it.

It was beautiful.

A whole rack of beauty.

And I succumbed.

<3 <3 <3

Take this as a lesson in cause and effect.

I took my children grocery shopping.  

I bought sangria.  

A big bottle of it.  

End lesson.  

beer pong and nose theft

A couple thoughts to share with you today.

I was reading over at MommyShorts, one of my favoritest places on the interwebz, and she had a video that I too must share.  As she put it, this 9 year old is apparently already training for what will be "the most epic freshman year of college ever" and I do agree.  I would also like to point out that while MommyShorts has featured my child in one of her hilarious posts (she often asks for readers to volunteer children as tribute) this is not my child.  However, in slightly related news, I will begin a rigorous training program with my children today simply so I can watch this kind of awesome in person!

Second thing to share, and I am clearly running with a theme here is a picture.  My husband sent me this with the subject line of the Beans' name.  I about feel off my chair laughing.

I hope you had a safe and fun 4th, I will be back to more regular posting again shortly! ;)

gettin' our geek on

The Meatball is a geek, just like his Mutha.  So when we heard about this whole Pottermore thing-a-ma-jig we were all over that as soon as we could be.  Side note -- each member of our family landed in a different house, and given that we are all a teensy bit competitive that really adds to the fun.

The Meatball is also a kiddo who cannot play anything remotely videogame-ish for more than about 15 minutes.  Also all the end of the world, kid saves the day type stories that he loves oh so much are also things we have to limit due to severe hyperfocus issues.  Long story short, playing things like Pottermore are a brief, fun special treat.

I think fun special treats should always be paired with the proper fun special beverage.

Cue a web search for Pumpkin Juice.  Yeah, sooo not what I was hoping for either, but it is a beverage that features prominently throughout the Potter stories.  Perhaps it is also a common juice in the UK (?) but the Meatball and I had often pondered why on earth someone would juice a pumpkin, much less drink it.  Butterbeer sounded far more tasty, so I found a recipe for it too while I was at it (hot and cold butterbeer, yay!), but that is a post for another day!

So this is why I needed unicorn horn, er, I mean cardamom.  *rolls eyes* I found a cheap bottle for around $12, and it will last us a while.  We gathered our supplies, and while I was getting the blender out the Great Finger Massacre of 2012 occurred.  A slight delay in our plans, but once I was staunched, glued, and bandaged the Meatball needed something to distract him from his apparent conviction I was going to bleed to death from my index finger.

Ingredients:

15 oz can of pumpkin puree
64 oz bottle of V8 Splash Tropical Blend (we used about 32 oz)
1 T ground cardamom

Blend all the ingredients together and serve it chilled.  I don't have an immersion blender -- but I sure would like one -- so I had to use a regular blender.  We did not use all of the V8, only about half , and we thought it was good that way.  It already tasted mostly like the V8 Tropical splash with the half bottle, so we were happy with it.

Since neither the Meatball or I are known for patience, and I had made him wait long enough given my need for medical care, we served it over ice in my "fancy cups" and got our Pottermore on!