do not disturb us

Owen created a little "keep-out" corner of the house last night. Except he's permitting all of us to enter...he's so nice.

The sign says: Do not the disturb us!

Us = Mom, Dad, Owen, Maya, Star, Nigel (his friend), Denise & Jason (Nigel's parents:)

 He cut a bunch of twine and taped it to various surfaces in the play area. 

He had hoped to make a larger space with his twine but Woody was hopeful someone might come to see the house today so put the kaibosh on that.

Then they did some jumps...

The kindness can:

Maya's class has a clear jar that they call the kindness jar and everytime someone does something nice for someone else they put a little puff ball in the jar. Once the jar is filled they have a celebration.

We thought this was a lovely idea so we made our own version for our home. Owen did the decorating.

I've been going to church the past couple of weeks and am super excited to bring the whole family this Sunday for Easter.

I read this lovely blog post this week and this one (and hope you do too:)...

what we did with the rice

This is what we did with all that colored rice from last week... 

We made the Colored Rice Easter Eggs from MADE.

I ran out of vinyl so I haven't finished sewing all the eggs yet but it's super easy and OM were excited to make them.

But what Owen is most excited about every single day is playing Super Mario Bros...the kid LOVES it...

My dearest friend Season gifted me the Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health cookbook for Christmas and it's super duper great. Everything I've made (every single thing) is scrumptious and usually not all that difficult.

Tonight it's Broccoli-Cheese Wraps:

1 T olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1/8 tsp. salt

3 cups chopped broccoli

4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese

1/2 cup mozzarella

1/2 cup feta or chevre (I sometimes omit this OR the ricotta)

2 T chopped fresh basil

salt & ground black pepper

tortillas

Warm oil in skillet on medium heat. Add onions and salt; cook until softened ~ 5-7 minutes. Stir in broccoli, garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes...cook 7-10 minutes until broccoli is bright green. Remove from heat and stir in cheeses and basil. 

Roll filling in tortilla.

Shove in your pie-hole.

Just kidding. Be mindful and eat slowly. 

Buen provecho/Bon apetit/Enjoy!

yellow, orange or yellow-orange?

Moon sand continues to be a hit around here...remember our first foray into moon sand?

A couple of months after we moved in to our sweet home our next-door-neighbors came over and asked us if we wanted a bunch of kid stuff they were getting rid of: 

we scored a giant stash of white paper (that despite OM's prolific artistry we still have LOADS of), several reams of multi-colored butcher paper, a purple book shelf (that I pained red) and this puppet theater with a bunch of puppets. (oh look, I explained that here!)

If it weren't for the fact that we're trying to minimize the amount of crap, I mean belongings, that we have out at any one time to hopefully lure some lucky home seekers into buying our home, this theater would probably be getting even more use. As it is, we have to stow it in the garage every night.

But the puppet shows are adorable when we do get them.

Behold Woody's one and only attempt to create a dinner once a week:

They were incredibly tasty but they don't technically count as dinner b/c as the recipe clearly explains...

It's a spread. 

I like my meals, ya know, well-rounded. 

But it was a good first attempt and hopefully one day soon I'll be enjoying a weekly meal prepared entirely by someone other than me (or Chipotle & Burgerville).

We made the carrot cake again except this time we used zucchini.

Not as big of a hit (it took 2 days instead of <1 day to finish it off) but still tasty.

On Friday, Maya and I cut some tulips and daffodils from the yard to make our house extra awesome for an Open House we were having Saturday (sadly, not one person came...boo).

We all voted on our favorite color of daffodil. The kind with all yellow centers, the kind w/ all orange centers or the kind w/ a combo of yellow-orange centers.

Which one do you prefer?

Friday & Saturday

I love my Friday's off. LOVE THEM!

We made this carrot cake. You must make it. A) it's super easy and B) I had to make another one Saturday because it was taken down in one day (so was Saturday's, we have no more).

I followed Angry Chicken's advice and mixed my glaze with a little apple juice instead of water..mmm. I also used 100% whole wheat pastry flour and a touch less sugar.

Good stuff.

The pink trees this time of year break my heart. So gorgeous.

 (Maya has 500 pairs of shoes, courtesy of her cousin Faith, but I couldn't resist these princess Superstars when we were @ the Adidas Employee store..how could I? they match her bike:)

 (looking for duck babies)

a little easter craft we're working on...

 (I made this galette for dinner...super easy but a little too rich for my taste)

Woody and I watched this movie last night...can't stop thinking about it:

Happy Sunday!