Weekly Menu 9/26/10-10/2/2010

We're a mess.  Haven't stuck to the menu in two weeks.  Good news is very limited take out.  I still have a freezer and cabinet full of food so grocery shopping was limited.  Here goes.

Sunday-Swiss Steak w/potatoes, roasted broccoli & turnip
Monday-Steak Fajitas
Tuesday-Roast Pork
Wednesday-Chicken somehow
Thursday-Crockpot Beef Stronganoff
Friday-Either Fri or Sat we are going out to eat with a bunch of Becotte's so whatever night we don't go will be BBQ pork chops.

Canobie September 2010

Every year Bob and Gail give us passes to Canobie for Christmas.  We prefer to use them towards the end of the season, though sometimes that bites us in the butt when we run into cnflicts with other stuff.  This year we saved them for the last possible weekend....and no issues....and phenomenal weather.  Seriously it was like 90 out.  Here are some pics.

Alex in the house of mirrors.

They are big enough now that we don't have to ride everything with them....phew.  All that spinning makes me sick.

The guys on the sky ride.  Remind me in the future not to ride with Miss Squirmy Butt, seriously I'm afraid of heights and she's all over the place.

Driving one of the antique cars

Hanging out waiting for the guys

Still not tall enough for the big bumper cars so the small ones will have to do.

She's a maniac out on the course

Now we hung out inthe shade for a bit and I asked the kids to sit together nicely so I could take a picture we could use for Christmas cards.  Rachel wanted nothing to do with sitting next to her brother to the point that she said send out pictures without me in it.  Then she hid behind a big rock and pouted.  So I took Alex's picture and told her I was sending this one out.  Maybe I will.

After the pout session I took this picture, but she still wouldn't pose with Alex.

Family picture

It;s hard taking pictures of a moving target

Much easier when the ride slows down, however they wouldn't look at me.

Our Creations!!!

We finally picked up our pottery from You're Fired on Friday.  I was really impressed at how good they came out.  I will definetly go back there.

My mug

Rachel with her piggybank.

Dad's Bday!

I snapped a couple of pictures over at Dad & Lyn's on Saturday night so I figured I'd share them.

Friday

Can't beleive I forgot to post the Friday fashion pictures.  By the way, this morning Rachel asked why I wasn't taking her picture.  When I explained why I had been taking it every morning she replied well you can still take my picture every day. 

Can you tell he just doesn't care.  This morning he wore running pants, really, he did and he was happy about it.

This took some major persuading.  She has no interest in wearing pants.  She could care less if its gym day or its cold out.  This winter should be fun.

Awww...aren't they cute?

Weekly Menu 9/19/2010-9/25/2010

Alright last week was wacky.  I worked weird hours and it interfered with dinner almost every night.  The good news is, for the most part, we just made do and scrounged stuff from the cabinets like tomato soup and grilled cheese.  This week is equally weird but I at least planned for strange hours and will use the crockpot.  Here goes.

Sunday-At the race all day, left over pizza for dinner
Monday-Coach Doug's Goodbye Party-Dinner on the Y
Tuesday-Crockpot Beef Stew & rolls
Wednesday-Pork Chops, potatoes and squash
Thursday-Sweet & Sour Chicken
Friday-Crockpot Beef Stronganoff
Saturday-Canobie Lake (please be nice out!)  so something easy for dinner, maybe breakfast for dinner

The Budding Photog

Back in April, we went to Disney.  Of course I had my ever present camera everywhere we went, Rachel had one of our very old digital camera that she used quite a bit.  Up until recently I hadn't really looked at the pictures she took.  It's interesting to see the world through her eyes.

our first night there, waiting in the lobby at Boma

I'm impressed, keep in mind she was 5 years old.

There's that whole height issue

Tank exhibit at the Living Seas

It was the Flower & Garden Festival

self portrait!

Thursday

Alex is looking sharp this morning, Rachel well....we may have had our first misfire of the year but she was happy so whatever.  She just had to wear the leggings.

Alright people stop asking me about the plaid.  He likes it.

More impoartantly than Rachel's outfit, check out her goofy brother in the background.

Wednesday

Things were much smoother Wednesday morning.  Alex actually picked out his outfit, because I told him I didn't have time.  He's smart, he knew what we wore the first day of school and that it was clean and hanging in his closet so he grabbed that, which is why there is no picture of him, you've already seen it.

Dont mind the fact she has a mouth and hand full of banana.

Tuesday

Tuesday, well today, didn't go as smoothly as Monday.  Alex once again could have cared less, Rachel on the other hand had about 4 skirts picked out, all of which required black leggings which are in the wash so they are not avaialble.  Apparently I need to buy another pair.  We finally settled on this outfit.

More leggings are you can see.

So when it was time to go I told them to grab sweatshirts.  She was appalled, I can't wear a sweatshirt!  I told her she had to wear something, she came down like this.  Did I mention she loves vests too.  Oh yeah, has about 4 of them thanks to Aisling as well as what we had bought her.

Alex is not officially annoyed that I am taking his picture every morning.

Fashion Week

Being able to wear cute clothes to school everyday is a HUGE thing for Rachel.  Actually it's a bit of a nightmare, as arguements frequently happen over my insistance that pants be worn or my vetoing clothes.  Alex on the other hand doesn't care, he's even gone as far as saying just pick out my clothes for me Mom.  I do have to admit that Rachel looks pretty darn cute going to school so I decided to post their outfits for the week with some commentary.

Monday!!!

First off ignore the background, someone seriously needs to do some decluttering. 

Plaid seems to be big this year, at least in my house.  Alex loves this shirt, why you ask?  Because it's orange.  That's all he really cares about.

You will see a leggings trend with Rachel, it's a bit nuts she loves them.  I happen to love the shirt, which we bought at Crazy8 in the mall.  Really cool stuff.

Props!

Haven't done one of these in forever, guess noone is impressing me much.  But today I have two.  One is a bit silly, but I have to give a shout out tothe Dunkin Donuts on Rt. 28 on the Salem/Methuen border.  Seriously good customer service, plus they make my coffee right every time I go there.  Can't say that about other places.  I was there last week and have compared every other DD I've been to since to them.  Noone has come close.

Second one is You're Fired in Salem, NH http://www.yourefirednh.com/.  Rachel and I went Friday night for our ladies night.  Great place, great customer service, what a fun experience.  I'd go back on my own just to hang out and paint.  can't wait to pick up our pieces next Sunday and see how they came out.

Weekly Menu 9/12/10-9/18/10

Wow did last week go great.  Only change up was Friday night we hit Fridays (he he) then I took Rachel to You're Fired for a girls night out and Allen and Alex played mini golf.  So hopefully this week will go as planned. One night will switch out as we are taking Bob and Gail out for dinner for their 40th anniversary, we just haven't settled on a night yet.

Sunday-Potroast w/the fixings, applecrisp for dessert (still have about 200 apples!)
Monday-It's the kids open house at school so something quick Sweet & Sour chicken w/rice
Tuesday-Crockpot Beef Stew
Wednesday-Pasta w/tomato cream sauce (new recipe will post it later w/review)
Thursday-Shake & Bake Pork Chops
Friday-Sub Night
Saturday-Out to dinner for Dad's Bday w/ the family!

Remembering September 11th

Allen and I had a moment this morning, remembering the awful events of September 11, 2001.  It's amazing to me how crystal clear that morning is in my memory.  But yet it's as if we have all forgotten.  I know it's there in our memory banks but do we think about it enough, the people who were lost then and continue to be in the endless war on terror.  The ways in which our country has changed, for good and bad.  We need to remember, to keep it in the forefront of our mind and not let it happen again.

Fashion

Being that the kiddos are in public school picking out clothes everyday has become a big thing, especially for Rachel.  I think in the next week or so I will publish pics of each day and what she wears.  Honestly she's pretty good with her outfits, except this morning where she threw a nutty because it's gym day and she had to wear pants instead of the adorable black & pink plaid skirt she had picked out.  According to her she owns no cute pants.  Big lie, she's got stacks of them.  Eventually we found a suitable outfit and she was happy again.  Can you believe she's only 6?  What am I going to do?

Any who, here is the outfit they each wore on Thursday.  Very cute.

Don;t mind the fact he is standing in the extremely messy foyer.  Doesn't he look good?  By the way, I picked out the clothes, as I have done every day and he could care less.

Adorable.  Her new big thing is footless tights.  Loves them.  These have little butterflies around the ankles.  There is this great new store in the mall, Crazy 8, with awesome kids clothes.  The boys selection is very skater, rocker, preppy, which Alex is all over.  And the girls are similar.  The shirt Rachel has on is from there.

Crockpot Corn Chowder

When I was a kid my Mom used to make corn chowder every once in a while.  Strangely, I loved it, I was an extrememly picky eater as a kid (wonder where Alex gets it), so something like chowder I wouldn't think would have been a favorite but it was.  Every now and again I decide to make it, but always on the stove top.  I came across this recipe on one of my favorite sites, http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ , and decided to try it.  I did make a couple of alterations, but think my version came out great.

Ingredients

1 medium onion diced
1 Tblspn. flour
4 cup frozen corn
1 tspn. Worcestershire sauce
1 can cream of celery soup
1 cup chicken stock
2 large potatoes cubed
1 cup cream
salt & peper
other herbs to your liking
7 strips cooked bacon crumbled

Saute onion in oil or bacon grease and once translucent add flour to make a roux.  Cook for about five minutes and add to crock pot.  Add all other ingreients except cream and slat & pepper.  Cook for minimum 8 hours on low.  Add cream and salt & pepper, turn off and let stand for 30 minutes.  I served it with a loaf of crusty french bread.  It was great and extremely filling.  Enjoy!

Weekly Menu 9/6/10-9/11/10

Back to school week.  Back to hopefully having some sort of schedule.  We are still working the kinks out of that part but it will get there.  With that comes back the weekly menu.  Trying to organize the pantry area, use up stuff we have over the next two weeks, and get on track with a budget.  We'll see.

Monday-Grilled chicken, noodles & green beans
Tuesday-Skillet Beef Stroganoff
Wednesday-Chicken & Rice
Thursday-Crock pot Corn Chowder
Friday-Pasta & meat sauce w/garlic bread
Saturday-I am working 10-6 so either crock pot pot roast or shake & bake pork chops

Apple Picking

As part of our great Labor Day Weekend we went apple picking.  I think we picked about 30 pounds of Cortland and MacIntosh apples.  The crockpot is already cooking up a batch of applesauce.  Applecrisp to follow soon and snacks for the whole week.

Rachel amongst the apple trees.

Alex climbing up to get the red ones

Allen sampling the pickings

The trees are bursting with apples

Seriously this child will pose anywhere for a picture

It's tough eating apples with wiggly teeth.  Ouch!

Not for Alex

Family picture using the timer with the camera set up in a tree

Weekend Away-Labor Day Weekend

We were supposed to go camping this past weekend, but the possibility of being stuck in the camper (basically a tin can with sails on the end) during Hurricane Earl didn't exactly sound too appealling.  We headed up to the Mountain House in case of inclemenet weather and had a great time.  Here are some pics from out adventures.

On Friday we headed up to Lancaster, NH for the county fair.  On the way we stopped at the Basin.  The kids loved it, so a longer trip in the future is in order.

Working on my Christmas cards, making them pose everywhere.

Did you know this spot is over 15 feet deep?

If Rachel didn't have chocolate donut on her face, this may have been the Christmas card.  Maybe it will photoshop out.

Hanging out on the rocks with the kids

Family pic using the timer

This is around the spot Rachel lost her flip flop in the water, thank goodness it didn't get caught up in too much of the current and Alex was able to save it.

We ended up taking a wrong turn (thank you Mapquest) so it was the scenic route to Lancaster but we made it there finally.  Here is Rachel checking out a cow in the 4H section.

Alright let's talk about Fair food.  It's awesome, usually fried in some capacity.  This here is a fried twinkie.  Probably knocked a year off his life, but man was it good.  I snuck a few bites myself.  They even had friend candy bars and fried oreos. 

Rachel enjoying some rainbow shaved ice

Alex too!

The day after the fair we headed to Attitash for the day.  What a great time.  The kids couldn't get enough of the Alpine Slide.

Since I wasn't brave enough to take pictures while on the slide these will have to do.

After riding the Alpine slide a few times we took to gondola to the top of the mountain.  Not the best idea for the woman with a fear of heights.  Once up there Allen and Rachel went to the top of the observation tower and took some pictures.

Alex and I wanted no part of it and waited on a bench for them.

Rachel, as you can see, has no fear of heights whatsoever.

Following more Alpine fun, the kids and Allen went on the water slides.

As you can see they loved it. Not so much when they got out and the wind picked up and they were freezing but at the time they did.

oops, flipped over and cant get back.

Overall it was an awesome weekend.  We had dinner with Grandpa Saturday night, pancakes at the Sugar Shack Sunday morning.  Played outside, did a little shopping, scenic drives, and an overall good time.  Can't wait to go back.