Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

Summer gardening season is upon us and if you planted zucchini you will more than likely have more than you know what to do with. Recently another gardener gave me about six pounds of zucchini and I’ve been working my way through it. I thought I would share a couple of recipes we really liked.

Black Bean Zucchini Quesadillas I didn’t have green onions or jalapeno so I made a couple of changes. First, I sautéed half a yellow onion with a clove of garlic (I could have used the whole onion). Second, I put in some cumin and cayenne pepper. Other than that I made it as is. It made more than enough for our family, so I froze the rest. I reheated one today for my lunch in the toaster oven and it came out great. 🙂

Lemon Zucchini Bread There is a bounty of zucchini bread recipes. I chose this one because it used less sugar than zucchini, a lot of them used more. I made a couple changes to this one too. First, I used half whole wheat/half bread flour. I only used the bread flour because I have a ton of it, I would normally just use all purpose. Second, I used half brown sugar/half white. Third, replaced the vegetable oil with applesauce. I also doubled it and made muffins too, the boys loved it.

Photo Friday – 05.28.2010

Playing nice with the kitty (who would later wake them up from nap and the rest of the day was shot)

My half dressed silly boys (we were getting dressed but they needed breakfast now!)

No I did not eat sand again

I see this view a lot

Hi!

Being silly

Mom! I have toilet paper.

and I am going to eat it.

Red Tent Project

“So ladies….think about the last time you were on your period. Which newspaper did you use as a tampon? Did you dig through your garage or trash to find a rag to use as a pad?” – Jill C.

A wonderful online friend, Angie, has started a new project to provide reusable sanitary pads for girls in Ethiopia. She is starting with girls at her agency’s transition home first, 30 girls, and would like to send them June 15 with a traveling family. After that she wants to work with her agencies sponsorship program and provide them to even more girls. You can read all about it here and here.

If you are interested in the info please email me.

First D-Backs Game

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For Grandma’s Birthday we decided to give her a d-backs game with the boys. The boys had a lot of fun and we hardly saw any baseball. Ezra sat and watched the big screen, clapped, and danced with Grandma and Daddy. Noah on the other hand wanted to run.

IMG_7607 Running and dragging Grandpa along with him.

IMG_7606 We went up to the Sandlot, he ran around screaming (happily) and then kept trying to escape.

We then went back to our seats so we could have some dinner. We all ate like pigs and had way too many calories. We even let the boys try some of our lemonade.

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Here’s me and Ez, he is staring at the big screen.
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Looking for an escape.

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Grandpa and Ez.

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Noah having fun with the seat, just ignore me.

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Grandma and Ez.

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Garden Update – 05.22.2010

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted about my little garden. Things are really starting to take off and we should starting getting some veggies here soon. Everything is starting to bloom, so hopefully I get a few more worker bees out there. I would like to fertilize the tomatoes, but since I use natural (fish emulsion and liquid seaweed), I am hesitant. The last time I used some we had a coyote in the backyard!

Artichoke

Cucumbers and some flowers

Noah checking on a couple of tomato plants

Squash, tomatoes, and a couple of surprises (I have no idea, seriously!)

Tomatoes!

Bell Pepper

Sweet Potatoes, just for Ez 🙂

Green Bean Teepee, can't wait to see how it turns out

Weeds! Just kidding, little boys that are growing like weeds.

My pomegranate tree is loaded this year!

Photo Friday – 05.21.2010

Popcorn deserves a cheer

Playing with frozen veggies is way better than eating cooked veggies

Do you like my hat?

Noah's new obsession, putting rocks places

Rocks in the dog water bowl

Rocks in my weeding bucket

Don't bug me I'm reading

He looks so grown up to me in this picture. 🙁

Noah relaxing, Ez climbing

Cheese on my nose

grrr

Cleaning up

18 month check-up

The boys had their 18 month check-up yesterday. It was not a fun appointment. We had a blood draw, one vaccination (MMR), and a TB test. Ezra was stuck with three needles, Noah five (just couldn’t keep him still). Luckily for me daddy did the holding and I took the other baby for walks. The doctor thinks they look great and said we are doing something right. 😉

Noah is 33 inches (70th percentile) and 26 pounds (50th percentile). He gained about 1.5 pounds and 2 inches since his 15 month check-up.

Ezra is 31.5 inches (25th percentile, how does 1.5 inches make such a difference?) and 26 pounds (50th percentile). He gained 2 pounds and 1.5 inches since his 15 month check-up.

In their 18 month update I forgot a couple of things. They can both say Thank You and Baby. They also give high fives and blow kisses. The biggest NEW thing, wait for it, SLEEPING through the night! (hopefully I haven’t jinxed us by mentioning it to the world)

Totrags Contest!

Win a $75 Gift Certificate!

Totrags is having another contest. They are giving away three $75 gift certificates. The products are great, and $1 from every single item goes to cancer research.

18 months!

My babies are 18 months old today. Unbelievable! Last year on this date we failed court for the second time, oh the heartache, but what a difference a year makes. They fill our lives with such joy!

They are very busy boys.  They love the outdoors, water, reading, making noise, dancing, music, and playing with mom and dad.

Currently they are really working on their vocabulary and try so hard to copy us.  Words they are saying:  dadda, momma, kitty (ez says key but I know what he means), door, shoe, bubba, dog, hi, hey, uh-oh.  Noah also says Ezra and has said Grandma, but refuses to now.  They also say nana for banana.

Noah and his wocket for his pocket.

Ezra dancing

Reading

shhh don’t tell him the book is upside down, he likes it that way

momma’s headband

he had to try it too

mmmm food

resting by the door

hockey time!

Noah has his hockey face on!

what you said don’t put my foot on the table?

don’t ask.

60 years!

Yesterday my grandparents celebrated 60 years of marriage. WOW!!! Congratulations to them. We get to go back and celebrate with them at the end of the month. I can’t wait for them to meet their great-grandsons. 🙂

Here’s the clip from their local paper, there is another couple on the page married for 73 years!

Letting go

Yesterday I decided to let go of control, the control I had because I still fed the boys their breakfast and lunch. I decided it was time they could feed themselves. They’ve been feeding themselves dinner for a long time and I had been resisting letting them feed themselves the rest of their meals. Today I decided to just rip the band-aid off and let them at it. Well they loved their new independence and did really great, plus ate plenty of food.

Here they are enjoying breakfast:

and lunch:

We were having so much fun with our new independence we decided to try out our booster seats and sit at the table for snack:

We also ate dinner this way. All four of us at the table, it was nice. 🙂 Plus not having high chairs in the kitchen frees up some space.