The boys discovered a toad in the backyard today, out because of the recent string of heavy thunderstorms we’ve been having. They had a blast playing with it for the better part of the afternoon. I felt bad for the toad as it endured the onslaught of our three boys. At some point during their fun David decided to kiss the toad smack on the lips, I had a chance to capture the moment which is here to share — our Frog Prince.
What? Dec. 3 and we are just getting snow? Unheard of around here. The boys can’t get enough of it!! I forgot to take pictures of their bigger snowman and the 2 snow forts we made the next day. They are melted now. Yes. All the snow has melted (another unheard of) and the weather has been in the 40s lately. But…
tonight right after dinner snow started to fall. Beautiful, slow falling snow. Perfect to add to our evening of seeing A Christmas Carol. Mikey, right before bed said, ”I can’t wait until I wake up, Mom. I can play in the new-fallen snow. My snow fort will be THIS high” (raising his hand above his head). When I told him a few weeks ago that new snow would help his fort, that was before I realized the fort would have completely melted. :)
Douglas loves the snow too- his reaction to seeing it the first time is memorable. Dan posted a video of it here (also found on the sidebar or under our videos tab). Not sure how many inches we’ll get tonight… we’ll see in the morning.
We had a beautiful Thanksgiving spent with friends (thank you, Arthur family). We relaxed, ate, played, took a walk, ate and relaxed some more. The boys had a wonderful time just hanging out. Wish Dan could’ve been there- he was busy saving lives at work. We each contributed our thankful thoughts for the beautiful scrapbook layout Alison created. Mikey’s picture is of his brothers. Davey’s is sliding down a slide (illustrated with help from Michael). My thoughts are on the middle “joy” tag.
Here’s some artwork from the boys.
Turkey by David made at preschool.
Little Douglas turned one. We took one year photos, ate cake topped with Oreos (decorated via his brothers) and opened presents. Can’t believe my youngest is walking! Little turkey is full of personality these days. I love it! We love you, Douglas!
David had a wonderfully fun Halloween costume party at preschool and everyone was invited. He made monster goo (glue, borax, water, & food coloring), had a witch’s brew of homemade root beer with dry ice, games and yummy treats.
Halloween night our pirate, knight and monkey went out with just light jackets on. Unbelievable! It’s been such a warm, beautiful fall. The boys had such a fun time running door to door. They weren’t great at saying “thank you” but wished each door a “Happy Halloween!” before leaving. They’ve all been enjoying the candy.
Firecracker Shrimp Bowties
1 lb frozen raw shrimp
1 pkg snap peas (or snow peas)
1-2 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped.
4 tbsp jarred pesto
A good drizzle of olive oil
1 lb bowtie pasta (also called farfalle)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4-1/2 tsp dried red chili flakes
Salt and pepper
Get your shrimp running under cold water in a colander for 5 minutes to defrost them. Also put on a big pot of water and salt it for your pasta.
While you are waiting for your shrimp to defrost and water to boil, you can start de-stringing your pea pods. This is the only tedious part. Grab the tip of one end and pull the string until it comes out the other end. Do this to all your pea pods and then cut them in half. To deseed your tomato, you cut it in half (with the tomato sitting face up on your cutting board), and then stick your fingers inside and pull out all the juicy seedy parts. Leave all the tomato flesh inside. This will make your sauce taste much better.
Put your pasta in the boiling water. De-shell the shrimp once they are defrosted as well as remove the tail. Put a frying pan on medium-high heat with a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Once the pan is nice and hot, throw in your shrimp and season with salt, pepper, chili flakes and garlic powder. They should really only take 1 to 2 minutes to cook. You just want them to have barely turned pink. Remove them from the pan onto a plate and add your pea pods to the frying pan. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes and then add the tomatoes and sauté for another 1 or 2 minutes. You can then turn off the heat, add the pesto and a good healthy dose of olive oil. It’s an olive oil based sauce so be pretty liberal with it. You can also add your shrimp back to the sauce.
Once the pasta has cooked to al dente, drain and add the veggie/shrimp/olive oil sauce. Dish up and serve with French bread slices and sprinkle with a bit of parmesan.
From foodbuzz.com
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