Jordan's First Train Ride

This afternoon we decided to take Jordan on his first train ride!  We barely made it to the station in time...I was holding Jordan and running to the platform while Chad was grabbing the stroller...we did make it just in time though!  Jordan was excited to be on the train and had fun looking out the window.  We rode from Prairie Crossing to Deerfield where we got off.  Jordan played in Barnes and Noble and then we ate at Whole Foods.  By then it was time for us to get back on the train again.  It was a nice afternoon out and so much fun to take the train instead of the car.  We're thinking of doing a monthly train day now!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Daddy and Jordan                                                              

Mommy and Jordan

Jordan and Daddy looking out the window from upstairs.

Daddy and Mommy

Yum!  Dinner at Whole Foods!


Jordan had a fun time.  Here we are on the way back.  He's just so cute this kid!

Fresh Fruit

Jordan and I have been looking through old posts from our blog and our friend Kathy's blog lately.  He loves to see the pictures and either call out someone's name or whatever is in the picture.  His favorite part is when there are movies.  He makes me watch them over and over again.  Today we were looking at a picture of flamingos and he asked me if, "Watch it."  I had to explain that not all the pictures are movies.  It was cute.  

We saw a picture from last summer when Jordan was eating a big piece of watermelon.  I miss watermelon!  I miss summer fruit and farmer's markets!  I am so happy that today is the last day of January...I feel like February is just a little closer to summer.  

The melons will be coming in soon...I bought some pears the last time we were at Target so I had one of those today.  Here's my fun apple corer that I love love love.  Slices are way better than eating it off the core or cutting my own slices.  

The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones

Most Recently Read Book:

The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones

By Rick Riordan

I am really excited about this new series.  This is the first of 10 books that are going to be written each by a different author.  I have read The Lightning Thief and other books in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan and I really liked the writing but I didn't like the story as much as I like this book.  It's kind of like the show Amazing Race but in a book.  Amy and Dan, a brother and sister team, are off on a clue hunt that their recently deceased grandmother left for them and many other family members to embark upon.  It's great!  I can't wait to read the next in the series!

Saving Francesca

Most Recently Read Book:

Saving Francesca

By Melina Marchetta

This was a great book!  It was very well-written.  I loved the character.  It's about a girl who deals with her mom's depression during her 11th year when she is one of a handful of girls to start at an all-boys' school.  It's a great story of family and friendship...and love.  

The View From Saturday

Most Recently Read Book:

The View From Saturday

By E.L. Konigsburg

I'm not sure what made me check this out from the library but I had heard of it before.  It actually ended up reminding me of the movie Slumdog Millioinaire, which I haven't seen, but that sounds really cool.  I like The View From Saturday because of the friendships that are described.  It's a nice story.  

Forever Princess

Most Recently Read Book:

Forever Princess

By Meg Cabot

Woo hoo!  I finished this book in two days!  It's an easy read but I was glued to it whenever I was at home.  I have to say it did not disappoint.  I knew Meg Cabot would not let me down.  It was a perfect ending to the whole series.  The ninth book had me completely stressed out and I was so mad that it ended and I had to wait for the 10th book, but the 10th book was great and worth the wait.  I think this is a great series for anyone in middle school/high school.  Love it!

I think I can...I think I can...

Thank you King Arthur Flour...I have been dreaming about this fancy cheese bread from the King Arthur Flour website for about a week...maybe.  I have never ever made bread before.  Kathy assured me the worst that could happen would be that it wouldn't taste good...but, oh, did it taste good!  I followed the directions as best as I could, I think I was supposed to spritz with water at the end and I totally forgot...so I think it would look a little different around the outside, but it still tasted phenomenal.  If you look at the pictures of their starter and their dough...my dough was totally way thicker and wasn't at all goopy like theirs...maybe I didn't do the right amount of water?  Oh well, I didn't burn it (woo hoo!).  Chad agreed that it tasted pretty gosh darn good.  I will definitely be making this again.  I have to say, it wasn't all that hard either!  Go me!

Here were my 4 mini-loaves before they went into the oven.
Here's a close-up...isn't she beautiful?
The final product!  You can see it didn't quite turn out like the picture from their website, but I used an Italian blend of cheese, which included parmesan...so I think that's why it didn't burst out all over the place.  Maybe?  I used a garlic and onion oil and it tasted kind of like pizza bread.  I wonder if King Arthur has a recipe for pizza dough?  
This recipe was actually quite perfect considering I just finished reading that weird Meg Cabot book about a kid who is basically King Arthur reincarnate...interesting.  

Moral of the story: Do not be afraid.  If you try it, you will have great bread!

Flipping Out Over Forever Princess

I had an e-mail in my inbox this morning tell me that the library had a copy of Forever Princess by Meg Cabot waiting for me.  It only just came out and our library didn't even have a copy but I put my name on the list and they got it for me.  Oh, how I love the library!  

I was ecstatic to walk into the library today to pick up the book.  It was awesome to actually have it in my hands.  This is the tenth and final book in the Princess Diaries series.  I loooove this series and I have been waiting for this book.  A lot of stuff happened in the ninth book...and then it ended and we had to wait and wait for this final installment.  I can't wait to see if Mia gets back together with Michael.  I so totally believe she will just because Meg Cabot is awesome like that...but you never know!  I took my own picture of the book to post...because it's here and in my possession!!!!

My Own Banner Project!

I love projects!  I have been at a mini-standstill with projects lately, but I dragged this out on Sunday.  I was given this cool banner to decorate...I hate to say it...last year.  I really wanted to do something cool and then I put it off because I didn't really know what I wanted to do or how to do it.  I figured something out though...and I hope it will work.  I'm going to try and make it double sided.  To start, I cut out some crayons and pencils and started to put those together.  I have a really cool fabric that I can't figure out what to do yet...but here's are some pictures so you can get an idea of what I'm working on.  I'll post as I go.  

Avalon High

Most Recently Read Book:

Avalon High

By Meg Cabot

Hmm...not sure what to think of this book.  I love Meg Cabot's writing and I love the voice that the main character, Elaine, has, but this plot is not one of my favorite of Meg Cabot's.  I recently read Jinx by Meg Cabot and that one had a kind of far-fetched funky kind of plot kind of like this book.  This book is about Elaine who moves to Maryland for the year with her professor parents who are there doing research on renaissance history.  She meets a boy name Will who she completely falls in love with.  She ends up sucked into her new high school and finds herself living a parallel life to King Arthur and his friends from his time.  It's a little weird if you ask me, but I really like the main character and of course there's a love story so I can't complain too much.  

Operation Giving Part Three

Housewarming gift for our friends!  It's just not a house without chip clips!
A cheese and cracker snack for my hubby...waiting for him when he got home on Friday afternoon!

Almond bark and mint chippy bark for my parents!  So easy to make, but soooo pretty!
A fun puzzle for a puzzle-lover in my life.

Hanging with the G-People!

Because we decided to go to the Bulls game last night, my mom picked up Jordan and took him to their house.  We already had plans to go over to our friends' house tonight so Jordan will be there again tonight.  Chad had a basketball game to coach so I picked up my grandma and took him over to my parents' house so she could hang out with them and Jordan...and so I could see my munchkin for at least a little bit.  It was fun when I walked in and he shouted, "Mommy!"  I love that!  Chad felt awful that he couldn't go see him and Jordan was asking about him.  It's so sweet.  Jordan and Papa had a whole train set set up in the living room.  It was fun!  

We had a nice soup lunch: broccoli cheese soup and pea soup.  Yum!  

Mamita and me

Papa, Jordan, and Gama!

Bulls Vs. Raptors

Yesterday, Chad called me at work to see if we could go to the Bulls game because he got tickets last minute from a friend from work.  He was all excited so we decided to go.  We stopped at Fudrucker's on the way for burgers and then drove into the city and seriously walked into our seats as they were announcing the starting lineup.  We did great!  Here's Chad with the Michael Jordan statue...even though it's hard to see. 

This is supposed to be a picture of the inflatable Benny but this is as close as I could get with our camera.
These are the drum squad...I can't remember their names...but we have seen them before and they are pretty cool.  
The hubby and me!
A random far away shot of the game...oh yeah, there was a game going on.  I always get caught up on all the other stuff going on.  

Swindle

Most Recently Read Book:

Swindle

By Gordon Korman

What a great read!  I think any boy or girl would like this book.  The characters are fun and the story is completely engaging.  Having met Gordon Korman, I found myself picturing him and thinking about what he was thinking about when he wrote this book.  This is definitely a kids' book...with lots of adverbs, in case you are looking for good adverb usage!  

Ida B.

Most Recently Read Book:

Ida B. 

By Katherine Hannigan

This was a completely well-written book.  I love Ida B.!  She is such a fun kid!  I like how candidly she discusses her hard time dealing with her mom's cancer and having to go to school after being home-schooled all her life.  This is a great book for dealing with emotions.  I love the personification in the book and the imagery is great.  A really cute, quick book that is definitely worth reading! 

Meeting Ann Brashares

I was so excited to meet Ann Brashares tonight!  When I saw that she was going to be doing a book signing I knew I had to go.  Ann Brashares wrote The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and now has a new book out called The Three Willows.  I love the story of the girls in the Traveling Pants series and I think this new book is going to be another fun girl/friendship story.  Ann talked about her life and about her books and then answered questions from the audience.  When asked what three books she would want with her if she was stranded on an island she said: 1) War and Peace, 2) Jane Austen, like Pride and Prejudice or Emma, and 3) something religious or spiritual.

A Day Off

Jordan and I had two fun days off on Thursday and Friday and then on Monday Chad and I had the day off together.  We went to Deer Park and go my laptop (woohoo!!!!) and then ate a nice lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen.

I had never eaten at CPK before.  I ordered the Four Cheese and Tomato pizza.  Doesn't it just look delicious?  It was great.  I loved the cheesiness.

And then, we went home and I opened my laptop and felt chills all over my body and just wasted away the day getting sucked into figuring out my new computer.   !!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Jordan Fun

Here are just a few fun pictures from our long weekend!  Jordan and Chad at swimming lessons!

Here we were playing with Mr. Potatohead.  He calls him Hot Potato.  
Jordan got his first pack of Hot Wheels and he had fun racing the cars around.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Rob!

On Saturday night Jordan went to sleep over at Gamma and Papa's and we went out with Rob and Silvia and their friends to celebrate Rob's birthday at an Irish Pub called Peggy Kinane's.  Yum!  

The birthday boy!
Rob and Sivlia!
The hubby and me!
Here's Rob with his homemade gift!  

Stencil Profile Project

I have seen this really cool project and I finally got brave enough to try it.  I saw someone blog about making these t-shirts using freezer paper stencils.  I didn't have freezer paper but I had a roll of contact paper so I just tried that.  I love the profile idea!  I made these two t-shirts for Rob's birthday.  Here's what I did!

First, I found a picture of Alex from the side to get his profile.  I printed it out and put it on top of a piece of contact paper.  I used an exacto knife to cut out the profile from the picture through onto the contact paper.

Next, I peeled the contact paper off and stuck it right onto the t-shirt. 

I used black fabric paint and painted in Alex's profile and then lifted the contact paper off the t-shirt and voila!

I thought they turned out pretty cool...Chad even said he wants one with Jordy's profile!  You could really do any shape you want and then also do any color of fabric paint.  I'm excited to do more because it was so easy!

I was surprised at how much it actually really truly does look like Alex!  

Operation Giving Part Two

I'm not sure what happened to my pictures but I was trying to be creative and they went all funky on me!  You can see them at least...they're just all over the place!

I started off the week giving some of these homemade chocolate covered pretzels...with sprinkles!

I had these two books that I only read once that I passed along to a librarian at one of my schools.

  

Our book club was at Cheesecake Factory this month so I brought Chad a slice of Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake.  (I'm not sure this counts because he asked me to bring him a slice, but I was kind of already thinking I would bring him a slice...and I did use my own money to buy it, so...)

I also gave out some bookmarks that I sewed a while ago...but I realized I didn't take a picture!  They were really cute...at least I thought they were!  They were cotton fabric pieces sewn together.  The colors were white, pink, yellow, and red, and I appliqued red felt hearts on them.  I'm making them sound way more complicated than they were to make!

This was the most fun and completely surprising even to me...on Saturday I met my mom, grandma, and aunt at the mall to do some shopping (oh! totally part of my more-family-time resolution!) and I stopped at Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream.  They had soft serve cones for only 59 cents, so I decided to get one of those.  The guy in front of my ordered two soft serve cones for 59 cents and then upgraded his cone to a chocolate-dipped cone with sprinkles.  Yum!  When he pulled out his credit card the cashier told him they only take cash.  The dude was bummed because he didn't have any cash and was about to go see if his friend had any cash when I decided, hey!  I can pay for his ice cream!  It was completely random and nothing like that has ever happened to me before but it was so fun to say I would pay for his ice creams.  He, of course, didn't want to have me pay for his ice cream, but I insisted...it was only a few dollars.  

I found this cute sweatshirt to send 

to my cousin's daughter in Guatemala.  I just happened to pass it in Target and I thought it was so cute. I love the girly stuff!