Silly Snacks

I've been in a cooking/baking mood lately, inspired by my friend Casey's sister.  I read her blog regularly and she's always coming up with creative, healthy, fun things for her kids to eat.  She's a dietician, so that's totally up her alley.  I'm trying really hard to get Logan to eat healthy foods, and usually he's pretty good about it.  He loves fruits and vegetables, and we really haven't found too many things he doesn't like (primarily green beans - weird).  Still, I'm feeling like he is getting to the age where I'm going to have to make mealtimes slightly more interesting if I'm going to be able to keep him an easy eater.  

I was looking through my cookbook collection this morning before making my grocery list, and I came across Logan's "Sesame Street Silly Snacks" cookbook that I bought him last year for Christmas.  I looked through it and found three recipes that we're planning on trying this long weekend (when I actually have the time to make things for him).  On the list...

Strawberry Jam Sammies (finger sized cookie cutter sandwiches made with homemade strawberry jam - I've already made the jam, so these are on the menu for tomorrow)

Lily Pads (basically a spinach pancake with melted american cheese on top)

SCRAM-bled Egg and Zucchini Pie (a zucchini and egg omelet)

I'm so excited to try these "silly snacks."  I totally aim to be that mom that puts fun, healthy things in her kids' lunches that make all the other kids jealous!  Definitely not there yet, but I'll keep working at it.

For more ideas, see Live.Laugh.Love.'s blog.  Happy eating!  

Sneak Preview

This weekend was the annual Rossford Halloween parade.  We took Logan for the first time (last year he was only a month old and it was really cold so we missed out).  My mother-in-law took Logan shopping on Saturday to find a costume while T and I froze our butts off at the Michigan game.  Apparently, little Logan picked out his own costume.  Here are some pictures from the parade on Sunday - a preview of this year's Halloween (minus the whiskers that will be painted on this weekend).  Is he cute or what?!

The view from behind is my favorite!

After the parade, on Uncle Troy's motorcycle.

.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to the 

cutest,

happiest,

bubbliest,

most squeezable,

lovable,

adorable,

little light of my life!

Logan is one today!  Happy birthday to my baby!  He's the best!

A Few Fun Pics

Logan and I were playing around with the Photo Booth application on my Mac today.  I forgot how much fun it can be.  Here are a few fun pics we took.

He gets the thumb sucking from me, but that's about all he gets from me.

Here is the smile that makes ME smile every day!

And again.

And again.  I love it!

He just can't stop looking at the camera.

Oh man, he is just so cute I can't stand it!

Logan's first birthday party is tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some pictures and post them soon.  We are super excited!

Woo Hoo!

Yes, I'm excited!  I am finally up to THREE followers on my blog.  Congratulations to me - at least someone is reading.  Thanks girls!

Logan is walking!

Ok, actually he has been walking for about 3 weeks now, but I completely forgot to post about it.  Here's a video my dad shot when he was here last week.  Enjoy!

The Future of Our Schools

I had an inservice this morning at school.  The woman who led the seminar was great!  She happened to share with us what she thinks Obama plans to address in the world of education after healthcare is taken care of (which I guess is predicted to be sometime around Thanksgiving).  The two big things that she mentioned surprised me:

1.  Year-round schooling:  The concept is simple - one quarter of school followed by a three week recess.  Essentially you get a three week break every season of the year.  I think this is FABULOUS.  A LOT of schools in North Carolina have year round programs and have since I was in elementary school.  I think there are a number of pros to this: definitely less time in the summer for students to lose knowledge, cheap vacations when my kids get old enough (it is super cheap to go to Disney in October!), and especially FOUR breathers a year instead of one long one during the summer.  Let's face it, our summer break is fantastic, but about halfway through I get bored and by the end of the summer I'm so into being bored all the time that I am completely unmotivated to go back to work.  On the other hand, child care for working parents would be a nightmare with year-round schools.  I pity the parents who would have to find day care for three weeks at a time, four times a year.  Yikes!  Also, where are we going to get the funding to put air conditioning in every school that doesn't have it (which are A LOT of schools around here)?  No way can we go to school without air conditioning during the summer.  Hmm...

2.  A longer school day:  I've heard this.  I happen to work in a district where our school day is already shorter than most in the area, so there has been talk of lengthening our school day next year anyway.  BUT the woman at our inservice today mentioned attending school from 9-5.  WHAT?!  My second graders shut down by about 1:30 and are completely unfocused and ready to go home by that point in the day.  How in the WORLD am I going to keep them focused until 5:00?  This seems a bit unreasonable to me, especially if we will be going to school year-round.  But I don't make the decisions (though I often think I should).

I have a feeling there ARE going to be big changes in the world of education.  God knows Bush screwed it up enough, we're going to have to do something to make up for what he did.  Not sure if these are the answers.  Not sure if these are even Obama's actual idea of answers either.  Maybe just the opinion of our presenter today.  But I think she might be onto something.  What do you think?