New Beginnings

Alayna is very excited for school to start Monday. Today was Meet the Teacher. Alayna wanted her hair to look good, so I took her to The Loft Salon. How did she want her hair? I'll give you a clue. We just read this book.

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School


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Any guesses?

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One more chance.

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She said none of her friends recognized her when they saw her tonight!

While it is shorter than she wanted, she decided that sending her hair to Locks of Love was more important.

Happy Birthday, Cavell!

For almost a full year Cavell has been telling us that his next birthday will be his "Go Diego" birthday. Thanks to a lucky find at Hastings and a little dedication from his Mama, Cavell did indeed have his Go Diego birthday.

Some cupcake toppers for his playdate with a friend.  Only one friend (Happy birthday to you too JackJack!) and the siblings, but they were too cute not to use all of the toppers.

Lex thought Cavell NEEDED a Diego doll.  I think he was right!

Almost all of his Diego gifts were interactive, as Go Diego should be.

The Finale was the Go Diego cake.  When asked what flavour he wanted, Cavell would always answer, "Go Diego"  We decided on chocolate cake with a dulce de leche ice-cream layer.  I made the top using a frozen buttercream transfer.

Will It Finally Happen?!?

This morning Cavell ran down the hallway towards his room. Moments later he exclaimed, "I pee on potty!"  I walked over to the bathroom and see his pajama bottoms and his discarded diaper on the floor.  Cavell is sitting on the toilet, beaming, and still telling me he peed on the potty.  And, there was pee in the potty!

I quickly created a Go Diego potty chart for Cavell to put his reward Go Diego stickers on.  He already has two stickers from this morning that he earned on his own, without any help or encouragement.  He is also making additional, unproductive, trips to the bathroom of his own volition.

Words can not express how excited we ALL are for this new step to be taken.

**Update: Cavell had only two accidents that first weekend.  After that it has been over two weeks with no accidents.  We can confidently say Cavell potty trained himself, quickly . . .  if you blissfully forget the numerous attempts I had made since he turned 3 that he didn't really participate in.

Peanut Butter Cup

A couple weeks ago we were in the freezer aisle buying spinach, Alayna was scoping out the ice creams on the other side.  She wanted the Peanut Butter Cup.  Except we were making "Purple Cow" flavour that weekend.  Instead, we bought some peanut butter cups to store in the freezer for the next week's ice cream.  It was very worth the wait.

Peanut Butter Cup Ice-Cream
1 Cup Peanut Butter (we used the creamy Jif Natural)
2/3 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2-14 oz cans Coconut Milk
20 mini peanut butter cups, most chopped into sixths but save a few to only chop into quarters)

Beat peanut butter, sugar and salt till smooth.
Stir in coconut milk.  Cool mix in fridge for an hour.
Churn mixture in the maker.  Transfer to a container, stirring in peanut butter cups.  Freeze overnight.

As if that wasn't yummy enough, Paul made his very own "Magic Shell" type of chocolate topping.

Crispy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate topping.
1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
1/4 Powdered Sugar
2 Tbs Cocoa Powder

Microwave oil quickly, like 15 seconds, to melt it.  Stir in sugar and cocoa.  Drizzle on top of frozen ice cream.

Lex

Mostly thanks to Cavell, we have some pictures of Lex this month. I thought I would share them with everyone.

Chillin' over breakfast.  Kix and raisins.

Hangin' at Carl Shurz while Alayna gets her certificate for completing 1st grade.

A little walk before bed.

Ice Cream!

For Christmas this past year, Paul bought me this Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker!  Even better, he got it on sale for half the price, including the shipping.

Since December we have been making ice cream almost every week.  Our first try was vanilla, custard-style ice cream with bits of our gluten free brownies for the mix-in using the recipe book included with the machine.  Since then we have branched out and made our own recipes.  We have had many successes, some repeats, a few that need fine tuning and one failure.  What we haven't done is written them down.  That needs to change.  So, I will start with our most recent success.

Orange Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 - 14 oz cans of Coconut Milk (we use Thai Kitchen)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• orange zest from two cutie oranges

• 10 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 6 oz orange juice concentrate

Directions

• While stirring, heat first 4 ingredients in a double boiler to 175°
• Whisk together egg yolks and second 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• Gradually temper egg yolk mixture with 1 1/2 cups of milk mixture
• Incorporate the tempered egg mixture into the remaining milk in the double boiler
• Stir and heat for 3 minutes

• Place vanilla in a separate bowl and pour in the milk/egg mixture.  Stir, and place into the fridge overnight.

• Freeze ice cream mixture and orange juice concentrate in the maker.  Transfer to a container and freeze overnight.

The kids liked theirs served in some cutie peels we had saved in the freezer.  Paul even found some Orange Creme Magic Shell for our citrus treat.

Go Fish!

Alayna participated in her school's first grade play Tuesday night.

Go Fish!
by John Jacobson and John Higgins

A Musical Play for Young Singers. A Tuna Fish that can't carry a tune? A Star Fish that can't get an acting job? A seven-legged Octopus? A Zebra Fish with spots? A Tiger Shark who wants to be friends with everyone? Join in the aquatic fun as little Tiger Shark and his unique collection of friends discover how their differences make them each special.

Alayna worked hard remembering lines and creating different characters for the auditions in March.  She was given the part of . . .

Angel Fish.

Once she received her script she diligently went to work memorizing her lines and even deciding how she would deliver them.  She went to early morning rehearsals for two weeks.  She volunteered her mama to help with the set.  After 10 weeks of practice Alayna made her debut on the stage.

She was excited to have wings.  We also used a large amount of glitter and a little makeup.  I know we are the proud parents, but I think she did really well.  All of her lines were memorized, delivered well and, more importantly, audibly.

 Commotion in the Ocean

 "Maybe a little"

 The Colors of the Sea

She was extra excited to have her best friend and favourite babysitter, Lindsay there.  Thank you for coming Lindsay.

Go Fish

Alayna participated in her school's first grade play last night.

Go Fish!

From Hal Leonard

A Musical For Young Singers

by John Jacobson and John Higgins



She worked very hard learning the different lines and creating the different characters for the audition back in March.

Alayna got the part of the Angel Fish.  She began memorizing her lines as soon as she got the script.  She went to early morning rehearsals for two weeks.  She volunteered her mama to help with the set.  After 10 weeks of practice Alayna made her debut on the stage.



She was excited to have wings.  We also used a large amount of glitter and a little makeup.  I know we are the proud parents, but I think she did really well.  All of her lines were memorized, and more importantly, we could hear her.

 Commotion in the Ocean

 "Maybe a little"

 The Colors of the Sea

She was extra excited to have her best friend and favourite babysitter, Lindsay there.  Thank you for coming Lindsay.

Lex is Rockin'

Lex loves to sit on the kids' rocking chair.  Cavell brought the chair into Lex's room while he was eating lunch. Lex could barely take the time to finish eating before he dove off of my lap to speed-crawl over to the chair and climb up.  It's even cuter when he tries to rock himself by wiggling back and forth and then claps.

Jelly Bean 10k

I ran my Jelly Bean 10k at the gym, on the treadmill, Wednesday.
One of the Y gals took my picture at the beginning of my run

I tried to take one at the 5k mark.  I wanted to show my race bib and not my armpit.  This was more difficult to do than I thought it would be.  Maybe this was because I was running at the same time.

My goals for this run were to get under 60 minutes, no matter what.  Even better would be 58 minutes.  I am happy to say, I PR'd at 57:17!

While I did walk a 1/2 mile to cool down, this is me picking up the boys from Child Watch 8 minutes after finishing my run.  Lex did not care how sweaty or smelly I was; he just wanted to be loved by his mama.

I thought it would be fun to take our picture with the Y's Easter bunny, Daisy.  Cavell made bunny ears and an Easter "basket" with eggs (all paper cutouts).  He very happily hop-hop-hopped over to Daisy's cage.