You Capture: the letter L

Here are my captures of the letter L, and you can find more here.

Leaves in the kids' gravel box.


Legos, of course! These are Buttercup's. (Incidentally, I used the incandescent setting on the camera and the colors came out much better.)


Large belly.

Oven-fried talapia

This is one of the recipes that I used to make about once or twice a month, but it never turned out just right. I've used it for chicken and fish, and usually the meat would end up dry while the crust would be goopy.

Then, the other afternoon, I tried the recipe again with chicken, but was rushed for time and ended up baking it at a higher temperature. And guess what? It turned out SO much better than before! The chicken was juicy and tender (we didn't even need knives to cut it), and the crust was crispy and crunchy. I tried it again tonight, with fish this time, and got the same results. Fabulous!

Here's the recipe, using tilapia. If you use chicken, you'll need to bake it for about 15-17 minutes. As a side note, I almost never measure ingredients when I cook, so this is my best estimation . . .

Oven-fried Tilapia
6 boneless tilapia filets
1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp dry ranch seasoning
1 tsp ground mustard
parmesan cheese

Move top oven rack to the upper level. Preheat oven to 450. Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray. In a shallow dish, mix all of the dry ingredients, excluding parmesan cheese. Dip the fish in the dry ingredients, coating each side. Lay each fillet in the baking dish (it's okay if the sides touch). Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until fish flakes apart easily. Enjoy!

Oliver-isms

Mom, were you funny a very long time ago? Because it's okay that you're not funny anymore.

Do you like my new Death Star that I made? I used up my whole imagination to build it, you know. It's [his imagination] not here anymore.

Buttercup, can you please be quiet?! I'm trying to talk to myself and I can't concentrate with you talking all the time.

Is Obi-wan Kenobi just a Jedi Knight, or is he a Jedi Day, too?

You want to know something? The guys who sit in the Imperial Cruiser are all men. Not ladies. But they wear something that looks like a tutu. [puzzled expression]

Did you know that I am stronger than Buttercup and a Lego guy?

And now . . . I will sing the "Afraid" song with my nose. [begins blowing air rapidly out of his nose]

You Capture: warmth

Doesn't she look warm and cozy? You can find more You Capture here.

C is for Cookie

We sing Cookie Monster's "C is for Cookie" song quite a bit at our house. Surprisingly, I don't remember it from my childhood, but it's a really cute, catchy song! Oliver learned it at his preschool, and we found the video on You Tube, and it's been a family favorite ever since. (If you haven't heard it, you can click here.) So naturally, it was the perfect choice for our next letter lesson!

Oliver decided that he wanted our cookie to look "just like Cookie Monster's." So I cut out a half circle and tried to make it look like Cookie Monster had taken a big bite out of it. :-) For the chocolate chips, Oliver used black construction paper and the hole punch. Then he smeared glue on the cookie, and I applied the chocolate chips with my fingernail. He added the letter C, carefully sounded out and wrote the word "cookie", and we were done!





Pretty cute, I think!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is what happens when you let your kids eat a piece of Valentine's candy after breakfast . . . happy Valentine's day, everyone! :-D

Pretend Play

One of the really fun parts of my day is getting to watch the kids interact and play. They're both really into pretend play, but in different ways!

Buttercup likes to play with her baby dolls (specifically, Big Baby), our play kitchen, and her grocery cart. I really love to watch her play with Big Baby. She's such a good little mommy, holding Big Baby carefully on her shoulder, feeding her, changing her diaper, etc.

Today she found something new to play with . . . plastic zoo animals! She pushed them around in her grocery cart, carried them in her purse, and "fed" them with a spoon. She even put them in time out! I asked her why, and she said, "Uh . . . zebra kick[ed] alligator and hit gorilla . . . very not nice."



I hope they can all play nicely now. ;)


These days, Oliver's pretend play focuses on Star Wars (his latest obsession) and legos, of course! Several times a day I'll hear him talking loudly in his room, and I'll call to him, "Do you need something?" and will get the response, "No Mom, I'm just talking to my legos!!" :)