Another Cute Play Kitchen

I just saw another cute DIY Play Kitchen on the Sutton Grace blog. I must admit, it had me wishing I had a play room to make one of these for. Seriously folks, I've seen so many Entertainment Center's cheap or free on Craigslist, this would not be an expensive project! Her cost $65.

Funky Lunch Anyone?

I found this site via Hostess With the Mostess that has made me excited for lunch time again. It's not really an original idea for lunches: Sandwiches and Vegetables. It's just the amazingly original presentation. I don't know very many kids that wouldn't smile for a Funky Lunch. I know it's not an everyday thing, but when it will only take a few more minutes for a really happy lunch time, I'm willing to put in the effort. Check out more pictures in their gallery.

Please note that this is a start-up company. They are trying to get a book together to teach you how to make lunches like the ones in their gallery. I love their company goal and hope you all will share this site with your friends and family!

Thai Soup

(I don't claim to be a good food photographer :) )

During my last trip to Idaho, my mother-in-law made this soup for me. It was SO yummy and SO fast to make. I thought it would be a good recipe to share. It can be made with chicken, halibut, salmon, shrimp, crab, or any combination of the five. In the above picture, I combined shrimp and crab.

INGREDIENTS:

1 14oz can of coconut milk

2 Tbs red curry paste

2 Tbs brown sugar

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 of one red bell pepper (chopped)

2 Tbs fish sauce

1/3 cup water

sticky rice or jasmine rice

chicken, shrimp, crab, halibut, or salmon

INSTRUCTIONS:

Make rice according to package directions. In another pot, simmer coconut milk and curry for 5 minutes. Add all other ingredients and cook until heated through. NOTE: Because the seafood cooks so fast, you can just add it uncooked. If you are using chicken, cube and cook BEFORE adding to the soup.

Spoon rice into serving dishes. Ladle soup on top and serve immediately.

Tomato Sauce From Heaven

My sister in law is Italian. And this is her divine recipe just the way that she used to make it with her Nonna when she was a little girl. So you should make it (with homemade pasta) and feel like you took a step into Italy!

Amazing Tomato Sauce

16 Roma Tomatoes (dark red), cut into eighths

1 yellow onion (chopped)

extra virgin olive oil (about 1/2 c.)

4 cans 16 oz tomato sauce

6-8 cloves garlic (peel off the white paper and keep the cloves whole)

1 bunch of fresh basil (Carpinito Brothers located in Kent sells gloriously huge bunches of basil for only 99 cents!)

Salt and pepper

Cover large pot bottom with olive oil.

Saute onions, salt, pepper, basil and cloves of garlic.

When onions are tender toss chopped tomatoes into pot.

Don't stir.

When red water appears on top add the tomato sauce.

Cook 1.5 hrs on med/low and 4 hrs. on low (covered)

If sauce is too thin add a bit of tomato paste to thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now take a chunk of fresh baguette and dip it into the sauce. Mmmmm. Enjoy! And let me know if you have any questions!

Weeks vs. Months of Pregnancy

Do you ever get really confused by the weeks and months of pregnancy. If you ask someone how far along they are and they say 6 months what does that really mean? During pregnancy it's much easier for me to think in weeks, but often when I tell someone how many weeks I am (especially those who haven't been pregnant since before I was born) I get confused looks. But for me months confuses me. I think maybe because it's a little more vague.

So the other day someone asked me how many months I was and I had no idea! They looked at me as if to say "You must be a real idiot." So I looked for a good way of seeing the breakdown. Here you all go:

So I'm 32+ weeks along which means I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant. I'm in my eight month and third trimester. Yes, for me it's coming soon. I hope this helps some of you the way it helped me.

Reward Systems

So I've been looking at Reward Systems. I've been using Candy for Potty Training. Actually, I'm going to pop the candy out in the open now, in a gumball machine and use that as even more motivation to go potty. But I have recently been pondering the introduction of rewards for good behavior and chores. (Of course it would be chores my son could handle.) I've see several star charts or happy face charts. I think that will work for now. But as he gets older I've wondered if he'll remain as excited about putting stickers on a chart. I've also recently come across these Happy Tickets from Ambrosia Girl. She has them available to download on her blog. Cute as can be, and I can see them being more effective once the kids are older.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Here's another Sunday idea for Moms. This is specifically for the little girls. These Cupcake Tic-Tac-Toe games are hiding out in the dollar bins at Joanns Fabric and Crafts. They come as shown in the picture for $2.50. If you have a boy I'm sure a Train version would be easy to design and make (just do it out of paper and laminate it instead). But seriously, if you have a girl, there's no need to even bother making one!

Sunday Sanity

Here's a little tip for Sunday Sanity: Get some Sticker Scenes. I'm planning to purchase a few sets from The Oriental Trading Company. There's only one problem - the sets come in packs of 12! Some are 12 for $4.99 the others are 12 for $9.99. So I'm looking for 11 other Moms who would like to go in on the purchase with me. I'd like to buy 6 sets which I'm thinking with shipping would work out to a maximum of about $6. (That's if all the sets were the $9.99 sets.)

Please let me know if you're interested.

Little Kitchens

Do you wish you had a little kitchen for your child? Do you look at them and dream, then look at the price tag and think it will remain a dream? Do you have the patience and skills to possibly make it yourself? Yes? Then look what you can do:

IKEA Hacker is a cool blog for the many brave do it yourselfer's out there. I'm was so excited to see their recent posts on kitchens. The simple white and green kitchen cost about $35! Try to get that price at Pottery Barn! These are my two favorites: The Furusund Play Kitchen (second kitchen in the post) and the inspiration for the first one, Play Kitchen. I think it would look awesome in some gender neutral greens.

Free Time at the Children's Museums

I've looked up information for a few kids museums that are local (or near enough for a day trip). Here are there links, and the days that are free there.

Children's Museum of Tacoma is free every Thursday for the months of July-August. I think during the rest of the year the first Friday is free?

KidsQuest Children's Museum in Bellevue is free every Friday night (5-8pm).

Kids Discovery Museum on Bainbridge Island is free every first Thursday.

Any other places that you know of have free days?