Soccer Mom

I knew the day would come.. I am now officially a soccer mom! I enrolled Mickey in a soccer program called Lil’ Kickers. He is in the Thumper group for 2-3 year olds. Our first class is this weekend. We decided this would be a great social activity for Mickey(I mean come on, chasing a ball with 12 other 2-3 years olds…that is right up Mickey’s alley!) as well as great family time for us. If all goes well we will also sign Minnie up in a few months for the Bunnie league which is 18-24 months. We finally found an activity that we can all do together and I am sure the kids will love. I will post pictures this weekend.

Obama or Hillary?? That is the question!

Haircuts!!

I let the kids hair grow through spring and Zeus loved there little Greek curls and didn’t want me to cut them off. However, with the heat of summer and both having such thick hair I figured it was time. I used the clippers on Mickey for the first time and although I definately made some uneven spots for the most part it looks good. He actually cooperated pretty well and even held my supplies for me. Minnie ate her lunch while I evened out her hair to a Posh Beckham inspired angled bob. I wanted to let her hair grow out but it was just dangling in her eyes and I had to do something… so this was her first official haircut!

The Reunion

It only took 14 years for old friends to reunite..but we did it! The Puerto Rican Diva, The Chilena Goddess and myself all met in the 8th grade. I attended one Jr. High and met Miss Chile than later during the year transferred to another Jr. high and met Miss Puerto Rico and introduced them. They still live near eachother and have seen eachother off and on, but this weekend they took a trip and visited me. Although we are all married with 2 kids each, not much else has changed. We are still the same as we were almost 15 years ago just with a few pregancy pounds left over. We picked up right where we left off and were giggling like little girls again. We have made plans to get together in different cities on a more frequent basis. It was really great reconnecting with old friends who have known me since childhood. Now hopefully our children will get to know eachother as well!

Grilled Pizza

We got our new grill yesterday and I was eager to try it out. We grilled some chipotle smoked chiken breasts for sandwhiches last night which were excellent! Today I thought I would try grilled pizza. I took store bought dough (from Trader Joes, but Winco also sells it.) I rolled it out and lightly brushed it with oil. I also brushed oil onto the gril. Over medium high heat, I placed it on the grill for about 2 minutes and then flipped it. (a cookie sheet helps support it when you flip it.) I then spread a little alfredo sauce from a jar (with a few cloves of garlic I crushed in it ) all over the crust. Then I topped it with some shredded italian cheese, sliced red onions, sliced tomatoes, chopped red pepper, crumbled goat cheese, chopped italian parsely and thinly sliced summer squash. I cooked it for another 8-10 mintues and it was done. Voile! I made a spritz al’aperol to drink with it and it was by far the BEST pizza I have ever had. I am looking forward to experimenting with more flavors and toppings. Who knew gourmet was so easy?

Fingerpaint Art

These are the master pieces of my little artists. Mickey made a fingerpaint butterfly by only painting half the page and folding it over to make a butterfly. Minnie painted freestyle and it somehow came out looking like a dragon. They had a blasts and now I have beautiful art!

The Game

 

The game is finally being released to the media. IGN.com had the first official exclusive and commercials will began airing on TV this weekend. It will be on MTV starting on Monday. It is exciting to see all the hard work into reality. FYI, we know the name isn’t the greatest, however, the origional name “Pandora’s Box” was copyrighted and they had to come up with something fast before the media release. The game is receiving outstanding reviews (except for the name!) and will hit E3 ( a huge Video Game confrence held annually) on Monday. After E3, reviews should be everwhere on it including the LA Times, NY Times as well as various magazines. Pretty exciting. We are all very proud and know how much hard work has gone into it. Here is the link(wait for it to load when it pauses) :Legendary:The Box

Here is the link for info on the game:Review

Fingerpaint

It was a very hot day today, so we stayed inside. The kids love art projects so we did finger painting. I tried mixing food color and condensed milk. Minnie LOVED eating it and it was very sticky and hard to clean up. Instead I made a cornstarch recipe using 3 cups boiling water and 1 cup cornstarch disolved in about 1/2 cup water. Once the water boiled, I turned off the burner and poured the cornstarch mixture in. With 1 stir it became instant gel texture. I took it off the stove, added color and popped in the fridge to cool. It will thicken slightly as it cools. The colors were bright and the kids loved it. It doesn’t taste great which persuaded Minnie from eating it. Mickey however preferred the store bought paints. (They came in a squeezy tube which he liked.)

Toddler Meals

I swear my son is the pickiest toddler of all but I know alot of moms also go through picky eater stages. I found this great website with TONS of recipes on making your own foods. It also has great ideas for crafts and print outs. I really like the “Fast Food” section on how to make your own frozen foods that you can quickly heat up instead of buying processed foods. Here is the link:
http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/downloads.htm

Church Review

I met Louise (sans our children) at the local Unitarian Universalist (U.U.) Church. The basis of this church is that it believes in love, tolerance and acceptance of all God’s children regardless of dogma or religion. All religious backgrounds are welcome. It was a small group of maybe 50, gathered in a community rec room (they don’t have their own building yet.) Everyone was very nice. Louise and I found some seats and settled in. I was prepared to spend the hour listnening to a sermon or some spiritual ideas. Nope, with in a minute we were up on our feet and singing a worship hymn. This is not really my thing. Not to mention Louise and I forgot to pick up a hymn book and a book of verses ( I am not sure what you call it, but kind of like a non-demoniational Bible.) So we ended up clapping our way through 3 or 4 songs and listening as the group recited verses from the book. It reminded me of a cross between Greek Orthodox church with the rituals and reciting after the Priest, and protestant church with the singing. Then the pastor gathered the children in the front of the room and asked them how many U.U. they knew? How many Christians? Jews? Muslims? etc.. Then he said wouldn’t be great if their were more U.U.? And wouldn’t it be great if we were all U.U? At this point I was thinking, “Oh NO!! This is why I shyed away from Christianity. I don’t like the idea of brainwashing children to believe what you believe and I don’t like singling out one way of life or one religion as better than others.” He went on to do a sermon about how God was  like a bored little boy with nothing to play with so he created the Universe and us to play a game for him (since we are all from him) and that we should go out and live are life to the fullest for God’s experience instead of sitting at home doing nothing. I wasn’t thrilled with his analogy but he had some good points. Overall, the experience was too churchy for me given it is an alternative to church.  The good points were the members of the church are involved in a lot of good charities and organizations- saving the Earth, Grandmothers for Peace, local food drives etc. I am not sure if I would go back or not. It is close to home where as the church I really want to go to is about 45 minutes away. I am going to that one next week and we will see.