Tommy, Julie and Adam

Happy Valentine's Day (part 2)

2012-02-14T07:43:00.001-05:00

We decided to take Adam to his first movie for his Valentine's Day treat. We are very lucky to have a dollar cinema near us, so if he didn't make it through the movie it wasn't a big deal. Aside from a few trips to the bathroom though he seemed to enjoy it. He particularly enjoys Kermit and Fozzie Bear. (By the way, we went to see that Muppet movie, haha.)

You can't go to the movies for your first time without popcorn! Yum

Tommy and I don't exchange gifts or cards or anything. In fact in the past we have been known to throw anti-v-day parties. I did tell him though that if he ever felt the need to get me something, a big pack of butter would be sufficient. I buy mine in bulk and still go through it too fast, because I can't resist making things like these:
This is the best raisin bread EVER!

Adam and I had already made our special cake but we wanted to make some cookies for Tommy's work too.

Yummy yummy in my tummy. (I had to try a few to make sure they tasted ok)

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-11T09:38:00.003-05:00

We were going to wait until next week to make our special cake, but my Grandpa Russell passed away this week and Adam and I were both a bit blue....so we decided to make our cake a little early.
I absolutely love this picture of Adam with his Great-Grandparents Russell.

Tommy and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, but the kid aspect of it is kind of fun so we are starting to do that.
Adam is only getting squirrely-er with age, look at this grin. I think it says "let's eat the cake NOW!"

It doesn't look like the picture said it was supposed too, but it was still fun for Adam and I to make. Note ~ making straight lattice work is very difficult when the table is being shaken. :-)

Mmmmm, Crock-pot cooking

2012-02-09T18:19:00.004-05:00

If you enjoy slow cooking I have two products you must invest in.
The first is the America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Cookbook. Now I will warn you , if the way you like to slow cook is to just throw stuff in then this is NOT the cookbook for you. Each of the recipes I have made so far have included at least 30 to 40 minutes of prepping and pre-cooking. That being said, please believe me when I say these are the best slow cooker recipes ever, and the added effort in the beginning is worth it in the end.
Sadly, my slow cooker did not survive the move, so I decided to see what America's Test Kitchen recommends. I prefer their recommendations because they are not sponsored by any companies and thus they are truly just promoting the products that work best.
Typically there are many choices, with a range of prices. This is the only time I have ever seen them narrow it down to one choice, the Crock-Pot Automatic Touch Screen. Today was my first day using it and it worked like a DREAM! I cooked for 8 hours, with tomatoes, sausage, pork loin chicken and beans (a wide range of textures and cooking times) and the meal turned out perfect, even better no scorching around the top which is a pet peeve of mine.

Since we had some extra time in the afternoon Adam and I decided to make some baguettes to go with dinner.

He kept saying "this one Mom, this one".

An interesting quirk of living in these older houses....turning on the oven tends to set off the smoke alarm. In our last house I could only heat the oven up to 350 without the alarm going off. This house gets a little higher and lets me go to 400, but since the bread was baking at 425 the alarm kept going off.
Adam gets extra kiddo points, he didn't cry or get scared when it went off. He simply came to me and said "beep beep". Then we grabbed our towels to disperse the hot air away from the alarm. What a goof.
Adam is a dunker, just like his Dad.

Let's Go Bake a Cake.....

2012-02-05T17:46:00.004-05:00

Hmmmm, how to fill those last few hours before the Super Bowl. Bake a cake of course. You would think that I would make a football themed cake, but Adam had already chosen what he wanted to do.
We received this great kids cake book for Christmas. I let Adam go all the way through it and pick out the first cake he wanted to make.
Here is the one he choose:

We are currently practicing our colors so maybe that influenced his choice.
He helped me frost the layers of the cake together. I need to work on the concept of not licking the spatula each time though. haha

I found this picture of Tommy while unpacking the house. He is about 1 year old:

Do you see any resemblance? When we show Adam that picture he usually says its him.

I decorated the cake just like the book said, with Adam helping by calling out the colors we needed. That of course just can't compare to doing it yourself....so I decorated half the cake and I let Adam decorate the rest. He did apply the colors in the correct "rainbow" order. (Roy G Biv), but he took a more interpretive approach to his side of the rainbow.

Checking out his handy work:

A new addition to the family

2012-02-03T09:03:00.007-05:00

As part of our stay-cation activities Adam got to go to Build-A-Bear with his Christmas gift card.
I have never even let him walk into that store before, so he really had no idea what was coming.
Adam choose a cute little puppy for his new pet and then helped stuff it with love and fluff.
Here is the fluff:

Here is the love: (Adam picked out little puppy's heart, which said "I love you".)

After his puppy was stuffed with love it was time to have his first bath:

Followed by a great big hug:

Adam made his new puppy's birth certificate and decided to call him Toto. When we first got pregnant and asked Adam what we should name baby his answer was always "Toto". Well, that isn't going to happen so a dog is the next best thing. (Sidenote, he has never seen Wizard of Oz so I don't know how he knows about the name Toto.)

Adam insisted on carrying Toto all by himself:

When we came home Adam made sure we dressed Toto in his Pirates outfit right away.

Support our troops!

2012-02-02T14:02:00.007-05:00

I know we all have our own little ways of supporting the troops, but if you are feeling in a rut and looking for a little change, here is a great way to send a little love to the men and women over-seas. Our cousin Dana started this wonderful care package site to help make life a little bit sunnier for the troops when they are separated from their loved ones.
www.militarycarego.com

Her husband, Patrick, is currently deployed to Afghanistan for another round, so she has become quite the expert on sending care packages and knowing what the troops really need and/or want.
If you are like me and don't know a lot of deployed troops but still want to send a package there is a tab on the website where you can choose a soldier to send a package to.

This is Adam's favorite package to choose because it is called Cookie Monster!

Blessings to all of our troops and wishing them a safe journey home as soon as possible!

Let's compare shall we....

2012-01-30T10:52:00.004-05:00

Adam at 30 weeks:

Lumpy at 30 weeks:

Dance Class

2012-01-28T07:57:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately these pictures did not turn out very well, but I decided to post them anyhow. One of Adam's wonderful Christmas presents this year was dance class at the local rec center. This class is parent and child interactive which makes it difficult to take pictures...however this week Tommy was off so he took Adam instead of me. I stayed for a bit to take a few pictures then I went into the hall to read my book.
Here is Adam playing with his scarf. This is really more of a movement class, than an actual dance style, which is just perfect for his age.

I am so sad that this didn't turn out because it would have been so cute, Adam sitting next to his friend Allyson. Big parachute day is always a favorite of Adam's. I don't think these things ever go out of style. The kids all love sitting in the middle while the parents spin them around.

Making "small" bubbles. Then they make "big" bubbles. Afterwards they all crawl underneath and the parents make really big bubbles.

This is the opening song every week, which gives Adam a nice sense of continuity. That being said, the only part of it he will do is the walking in the circle. The rest of the time he just smiles at the teacher and the other kids.

Adam says "Ta-da"!

2012-01-25T06:43:00.004-05:00

Adam and I were forced to make a decision yesterday. Go do all of our errands....or stay home and make a cake with our new matching cake pans. (The reason I rarely make cakes is I don't have 2 of the same cake pan so it is rather difficult to make a layer cake.)
We kind of compromised, we went to Gymsport with his friends Ada and Allyson, then we came home and made the cake. The errands will have to wait, this day was much more fun!
Because so much of our day was taken up with those two goals we had to turn to our favorite quick meal for dinner.
Spinach and ricotta dumplings in marinara sauce:

This recipe is so simple to put together and tastes great.
It was yummy, but the real star of the night was the cake:

Chocolate with raspberry filling and butter cream icing.

Rubritz Family Christmas

2012-01-23T10:28:00.005-05:00

I wait for this weekend with high anticipation every year. There is nothing quite like getting all of the Rubritz clan together.
We started out this year's festivities with a trip to Lidia's for brunch. I watch Lidia's show on PBS all the time, but this was my first opportunity to go to the restaurant.
Typically I'm not huge on brunches because I never feel like I get my money's worth. This however is not so when I am pregnant. I'm pretty sure I ate enough mussels alone to make it worth my while. haha. Lumpy definitely loved all of the extravagant food, especially the olives, pear ravioli and the desserts of course.

Adam probably had the simplest meal of all us, but he enjoyed it with gusto:

The ladies gift from Grandma is always a good thing to look forward to as well. Everyone say "TUPPERWARE"!

We do a family gift exchange in age order. This will be Adam's last year being the first to go. He received some wonderful toys for his play kitchen and a toy train. Now every morning he wakes up and makes me "toast toast". He even spreads butter on it, which Tommy and I find hilarious because we don't put butter on ours, how does he know to?

I always say whoever gets me should be so happy. All you have to do is get something for the kitchen and you are set. haha. This year I received a Silpat mat, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools, especially since Adam and I are on a big cookie making kick right now.

Tommy is probably the next easiest, get him something with Pittsburgh sports and you are golden. He has worn his new sweatshirt every single day so far, he loves it.

I had John, whose gift may have been influenced by my missing alcohol, I think my brain has figured if we can't buy it for ourselves we may as well buy it for someone else.

Tommy had Sue this year and somehow got her something that matched what she was wearing that night. Couldn't plan that better if he had tried.

Unfortunately Mike and Kathleen weren't able to join us this year, but they were able to Skype in and join in the festivities that way. It isn't quite the same, but at least the family stays connected. Hopefully we will get to see them this summer, I can't wait to meet their new baby girl.

Adam made it through present time, and that was about all. This is a very long day, especially for a 2 year old that wakes up at 6am everyday. He had a TON of fun all day, he tried staying up even longer, but he just couldn't keep his little eyes open.

Baby Girl's Shower with the Rubritz women

2012-01-22T12:36:00.006-05:00

Before the festivities of Rubritz Family weekend kicked off, the Rubritz ladies threw a baby shower for Lumpy.
Look at this amazing family she is being born into! What a lucky girl

Cousin Kate made her this beautiful snuggly blanket, which I'm pretty sure I will be using soon myself. Lumpy was spoiled with many wonderful gifts this afternoon, everyone was so very thoughtful.

Cousin Izzy drew this very flattering portrait of our family. I love how skinny Tommy and I look!

Cousin Dana made this beautiful and yummy cake. One of my favorite flavors too, marble cake. I've always liked it because you get a little bit of chocolate and vanilla.

Everyone wrote down wish cards for little girl and they were all so sincere and funny at the same time. Even though we didn't get home till almost midnight and Tommy had to open today we couldn't resist reading them all before we went to bed. I may do it every night, what could be better than falling asleep thinking about all the love your child has received that day.

This clip is of the game "about to pop". You have to put a balloon baby under your shirt, except for me of course, then walk across the room with a quarter between your knees, then drop the quarter into a bowl. My face hurt quite a bit from laughing after this game. It was great!

A well deserved treat

2012-01-13T14:45:00.004-05:00

Finally back to the blogosphere. We have been on a short hiatus because the last few weeks have been consumed entirely with packing, moving and unpacking. Once we were finally done we thought Adam deserved a little treat for being so good. It can't be easy being 2 and seeing all of your toys packed up, unable to play with them, and have your everyday routine entirely pushed aside, but he handled it like the trooper I know he is.
As luck would have it, Elmo was coming to town right when things were settling down again!

This has been a mild beyond belief winter so far....except for the few days we need it to be nice. I called, to the day, the first day of storms over a month before they happened. (The day we were to start moving.) The next set rolled in on the one morning we had to get up and get downtown. haha.
That didn't stop us though, we bundled all up (Lumpy included, look how huge I look) and took the train downtown. Part of Adam's treat was riding the train, he loves the train.

Hammin' it up waiting for the show to start:

Adam sat on the edge of his seat for the show. He could not get enough! Right now Elmo, Grover and Cookie Monster are his favorite characters and they were all featured prominently. Unfortunately Tommy's least favorite character, Rocco, was also featured.

The first half of the day was Adam's treat, the second half of the day was Lumpy's. She has been wanting deli meat for weeks now. Deli meat is of course on the "no-no" list these days.....unless it is heated back up. So after the show we went to Primanti Bros. to get her a hot pastrami sandwich. She loved every bite and kicked me with joy all the way home.

Adam, on the other hand, fell asleep. Too much fun was had and he slept through the train ride home.

See you in April....

2011-12-28T16:37:00.004-05:00

Piratefest 2011

This year Piratefest was held in December instead of January, so before celebrating the Holidays we celebrated the Pirates, who as you know, are one of Adam's favorite things.

Adam was so excited all week. I think he anticipated Piratefest more than Santa. We got out our favorite jerseys (Adam has grown out of his gear, he has to wait until the season starts to get more), and we watched clips from last season all week long. We also received an e-holiday card from the Bucs which we had to watch every day.

Piratefest is full of many games for kids and adults alike. We partook of our favorite ones, Chuck-a-luck, floating ducks, BUCCO and Jeopardy. Adam won 2 free tix, a cup and a batting helmet. The batting helmet has been worn every day since.

We also had some fun in the Pirate Charity booth, coloring a mask of Parrot Claus, putting a toy elephant under the Toys for Tots tree and feeding the wishing well.

We are not sure if the Pirates know what a fan they have in Adam. He asks about them every day, says hi whenever we drive past the ballpark and has been practicing his baseball skills at home, both with his t-ball set and the Wii.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T07:54:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas to all!

Since Tommy had to work on Christmas we actually started celebrating a week early in DuBois with the family. We had some presents and Nanny's and Grammy and Grampy's. We also made our Christmas dinner, homemade gnocchi with vodka cream sauce. The gnocchi took quite a while to make, but they were definitely worth it. The sauce was quite yummy as well, leaving up literally licking our plates....and certain people licking the pot it was cooked in too. hahaha
Then on "Christmas" morning we opened more presents with Adam and went to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant a la "A Christmas Story". All in all, a wonderful way to start our holiday.

Fast forward a week to actual Christmas Eve. We decided to do the bulk of presents on Christmas Eve this year. After a yummy dinner of McDowell Surprise Pie we put on the yule log (Netflix) and some Christmas music and had present time.

Very slowly Adam is getting the concept of opening presents. It is best to do it just a few at a time though. He was very excited about all of his presents, and always tries to play with everything equally. In some cases this means mixing together toys and gifts that weren't really meant to be played together.

Baby girl received a few gifts as well. This Shamu scarf was well timed. Lumpy had been kicking me mercilessly all day until I tied this around her, she calmed right down.

Luke also received a gift and has been terrorizing the tree all week. That can only mean catnip! hahaha. He got to open his gift first just so he would stop climbing over all of the other presents.

Of course you have to end Christmas Eve with a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Santa came and left some gifts overnight, he must be a very wise Santa because he even wrapped them in McQueen wrapping paper.

After Santa gifts, Adam and I made our favorite cranberry nut muffins. These are so delicious we had them for dinner too!

Enjoying his "Elmo tea" (hot chocolate this time) and his muffin. Afterwards we watched the Disney Christmas Parade, which of course left us salivating for our next trip to Disney.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The best thing I ever...

2011-12-16T09:28:00.004-05:00

[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread. ~M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Every year for my birthday I get to pick a new recipe to try out. I usually pick out something with ingredients I don't often cook with and/or can't often afford. This year we decided against doing a whole meal and instead took a crack at croissants.
The big purchase for my birthday treat was the butter. 10 dollars worth of good quality European style butter! Since there are only 3 ingredients in croissants it seemed like a good idea to use the best product possible.

This recipe takes at least 10 hours to complete, and that is for people who are not cooking with a 2 year old. For our family it took 25 hours, though much of that was spent resting in the fridge overnight.

How do you tell how good bread is without tasting it? Not the smell, not the look, but the sound of the crust. Listen, oh symphony of crackle. Only great bread sound this way. ~ Ratatouille

I can find no words to describe how good these taste. They were perfectly crisp and crackly on the outside, and tender, flaky and buttery on the inside. As I am unable to find any words myself, I turn to literature and cinema to help me convey our creating and eating these croissants:

How can I describe it? Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only to be aware to stop and savor it. ~ Ratatouille

Paired with a nice cup of coffee, these are definitely the best thing I ever made.

Bakin' up a storm

2011-12-14T12:13:00.003-05:00

Adam and I have enjoyed baking several treats this week, hopefully to the delight of Tommy's coworkers. (I can't leave the treats in the house or I eat them all.)
Adam and I made solid peanut butter cups, saltine toffees and sugar cookies. Adam had a great time sprinkling the sugar cookies:

My birthday treat however, gets to stay here. We made white cupcakes filled with raspberry and topped with a fluffy lemon butter cream icing. Yum Yum!

Look for someone you know....

2011-12-14T09:03:00.004-05:00

Mt Lebanon makes a holiday Christmas card every year composed of pictures throughout the year. Look carefully for 2 people you may recognize:(2:40 mark)

Happy Holidays!

Party! Party! Party!

2011-12-11T07:51:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we celebrated Ada's birthday! She had a wonderful art themed birthday party where the kids made paintings and crafts, got their face painted and received balloon animals. Actually, Adam received a balloon airplane which he is playing with right now. To put it mildly it was a blast and Adam is still talking about it.
Ada, the birthday girl! With just a tad of blue paint on her nose. Adam did not escape the wrath of the paint either, he came home with a smudge of purple on his forehead and orange in his hair.

Adam and Allyson painting away. Adam was very intent on his project:

Adam's 1st canvas. He was very careful to mix the paints to make new colors but not make them muddy. It was quite impressive to watch actually.

The birthday girl with her super cool cupcakes and Princess Tiana cake. The frosting on the cupcakes was so cool! I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but on top of being tie-dyed there was also gold glitter sprayed on.

Adam is still talking about his cupcake. The bakery they are from is one of my favorites around here because of the delicious frosting!

He's a maniac, maniac!

2011-12-06T18:59:00.006-05:00

Today we went to a local gymnasium for some super fun burn off energy time. I think Adam could happily go there every day.
The entire gym, which is used for training gymnasts and cheerleaders, was open for the toddlers, including the foam pits to practice dismounts in.
Adam had a great time jumping in, with some extra umpf from me to get farther out. To the casual observer it may have appeared I was throwing him in....but I promise he was part of the experience.

It is impossible to get 3 toddlers to pose for a picture when they are busy playing in a huge foam pit. Adam, Ada and Allyson had a great time in there though.

Adam didn't have a lot of interest in the balance beam or uneven bars, he was more interested in things that could bounce.

Such as this trampoline:

Sliding into the foam pit:

The gym had one of those great rainbow parachutes and Adam could not stop giggling when he was under it. Absolutely loved it!

Best. Day. Ever!

Lil' Lumpalina

2011-12-05T11:05:00.004-05:00

Here are Lumpalina's first pictures! She is such an active little one, and just like Adam, did not want to cooperate for her picture time.

Baby's first wave:

Yum Yum

2011-12-04T06:47:00.003-05:00

It is possible I have created a monster. Adam has to be involved in every adventure in the kitchen now, even if it is just making toast.
He likes to taste test things as we go. Two days ago he wanted to eat some raw potato, he decided he liked that. Yesterday he wanted to taste the garlic we were cutting up for our Tuscan Chicken.
At least I had the forethought to grab the camera before I let him have a piece.

'Dogs, a dog and Christmas

2011-12-03T08:39:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was family fun day downtown for us. We started off by taking the train downtown, an adventure in itself when you are two I suppose.
Our first stop was Franktuary which I have posted about before. Best hot dogs ever! We both got a locavore dog. Mine was "Chicago-esque" and Tommy got the chili dog.

Adam ordered a naked dog and absolutely devoured it:

After lunch we headed over to Fairmont to meet Edie. She is a very lively puppy, and ran right up to Adam to give him kisses. He wasn't too sure about that, but after all the kisses they had a nice game of ball.

Next stop was the gingerbread house display. There were lots of creative ones as usual. Two of our favorites were the Bert and Ernie one, and the Crayola one since Adam and I visited Crayola with Auntie Ashley this year.

Adam didn't really have much interest in the gingerbread houses because they augmented the displays with model trains and trolleys. Trains beat out gingerbread any day of the week for this kid.

Finally home were we made a tasty dinner! A potato, bacon and cheese torte! Yum, and perfect for a chilly winter night. Adam of course helped make it, and as he was eating it said "I cook". He helped make the cream sauce for the torte and supervised the potatoes being sliced on the mandolin.

We all had a great day. Adam went to bed happily talking about the train, dog with kisses and a ball, and his cooking.

It's a GIRL

2011-11-28T11:54:00.003-05:00

Kathleen and Mike's Baby Shower

2011-11-27T19:24:00.004-05:00

We celebrated more than just turkey and pilgrims this weekend. We also celebrated Kathleen and Mike who are expecting their first child in February! Yay!

The super cute diaper cake they received:

It is kind of fun to have two of us pregnant at the same time. Hopefully Adam running around like a crazy person during the party didn't scare them. haha

The super adorable cake:

Congratulations Kathleen and Mike! We cannot wait to meet your little one!

Thanksgiving, DuBois style

2011-11-27T19:03:00.005-05:00

We spent our Turkey day in DuBois with the fam. Adam's absolute favorite part was that his cousins were there too, and played with him constantly! Adam has recently become allergic to cinnamon, something we are hopeful he will grow out of, however it does create a challenge for giving him dessert after Thanksgiving dinner. Sounds like the perfect excuse to make some cute cupcakes to me. Adam made the cupcakes himself, with supervision of course, and the girls decorated them.

Here is the finished product, I think they turned out great and they were scrumptious. We had a little trouble assembling them the way the magazine said to. I was ready to give up but Lily is quite the cheerleader, both on and off the field. She stayed there with me as we tried many different ways to assemble the snowmen, until we finally hit on one that worked.

Every year it is my job to make the cranberry sauce. This has been my job since I can remember. This year though I happily passed the tradition on to Adam. He rinsed and checked all of the cranberries. Measured the sugar and water and stirred like a pro. The whole time he was at the stove he kept saying "I'm a cook" and "I stir".

A pre-dinner cuddle for Momma and Lumpy:

I get too excited about eating to ever remember to take pictures, but after our delicious dinner we played cards and charades:

That night after putting Adam to bed, Tommy and I decided to try this whole "Black Friday" experience. Neither of us have ever done it before, and we figured now was our chance since we had Grammy and Grampy to look after Adam. We didn't last very long. We got to Wal-Mart at 10pm and were home by 10:45 empty handed. We just couldn't find anything we needed. The crowds in DuBois were heavy, but not dangerous at least.

The big question

2011-11-24T09:50:00.006-05:00

I thought this time around it would be fun to try all of the old-wives tales for telling if I am having a boy or a girl. Here are the results:

Chinese Gender Predictor Calendar -

If I put in conception date - You are having a GIRL!

If I put in due date - You are having a BOY!

Carrying high - You are having a GIRL!

Heart rate over 140 - You are having a GIRL!

No morning sickness - You are having a BOY!

Craving sweets - You are having a GIRL!

Gender predictor quiz (taken online) - 60% You are having a BOY!

Wedding ring/string test - You are having a BOY!

So, right now with the gender predictions I'm running about 50/50, go figure. We will have to see if the sonogram is more helpful I suppose.

Guesses of Family so far -
Girl - 16

Boy - 3

Sharing Childhood Sparkles

2011-11-17T07:17:00.005-05:00

I think one of the most exciting things about having kids is getting to share your favorite childhood memories with them, and hope they enjoy the same things too. Adam is still to young to do many things, and some of my favorite things he just plain doesn't like. However, he definitely enjoys spending time in the kitchen, just like me then and now.
This is one of my first cookbooks. I have had it since I was 7 years old. I have a feeling we will be seeing lots of posts like this through the winter. Partially because cooking is a great indoor activity for yucky outdoor days, and partially because Lil' Lumpy LOVES anything made with sugar in it, preferably with a cup of coffee on the side. I'm thinking if I end up having a girl I will be forced to name it Lorelai.

Picking out our color of sprinkles for our Sparkles:

Adam likes to be very involved. His job is to help count and to pour whatever we were counting into the bowl. Of course he likes watching the mixer whooshing around too. On a sad note, this may be one of the last times I get to wear my chefs coat for a while, getting a little too snug. Luckily I have an apron addiction too, so I won't be without cooking gear.

Adam and Tommy were in charge of sprinkles. These are perhaps some of the worst cookies we have ever made/eaten. We let Adam pick out the food coloring and he picked lime green to go with his red sprinkles, very gross looking and not particularly great tasting.

That didn't stop us from munching on them though:

Congratulations Adam!

2011-11-16T07:02:00.003-05:00

Today we celebrated Adam's 1st successful week of being potty trained by taking him to Chuck E Cheese's for a special lunch.

Adam enjoyed his cheese and pineapple pizza very much:

Of course the real reason you go to Chuck E Cheese is for the "stage show" and the games. The stage show isn't nearly as cool as it was when Tommy and I were kids, but Adam enjoyed it.
He played lots and lots of games with his tokens. The lady we ordered with even gave him a few extra tokens when she found out we were celebrating something so special.
Adam won 204 tickets playing his games. His favorite one was a hockey inspired game, big shocker there.

Happily munching on a piece of pizza while watching one last show and holding his prize. The slinky was a big hit, but our cat is terrified of it.

Congratulations Adam! We are so proud of you for trying so hard all week to learn something so new. Keep up the good work!

Human Truths

2011-11-14T07:03:00.003-05:00

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this – ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? **** it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

20. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

21. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

I find all of these to be true, but this one is extra funny right now. I was just telling Tommy about the time my Mom took me to a play of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and I had no idea what the chicken ranch really was. Um, hello....IT IS IN THE TITLE JULIE! I'm fairly sure I was 13 or 14 when this happened.

22. I would rather try to carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

23. The only time I look forward to a red light is when my kid is sleeping in their carseat.

24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

25. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

28. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

29. There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

30. As a driver I hate bicyclists, and as a bicyclists I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate rude behavior!

31. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

32. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my *** everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

Finger Painting, kind of

2011-11-14T06:31:00.004-05:00

We have been indoors for days while potty training, so there have been many hours to fill.
Yesterday we decided to make some finger paints for craft time. Adam is always a big help in the kitchen. He helped by measuring out the water and cornstarch, lots of stirring and putting the food coloring in.
This time he was very interested in painting with a straw:

However, the fun doesn't really ever start until you start getting messy:

As a side note, I do have a nugget of parenting wisdom concerning potty training. There seem to be many ways to do it, and I'm a firm believer in finding what works best for your child/family. That being said, when you are potty training, no matter what method, don't put on Winnie the Pooh! It was very difficult to decipher if Adam was excited about seeing "Pooh" or if he had to go "poo".

Wish us luck!

2011-11-10T18:39:00.006-05:00

Today we started potty training. Man oh man, what an experience. I hope I am not the only mother to start wondering, "is it such a bad thing if my kid never uses the toilet? He can go from Pull-ups to Depends and be just fine."

There are a few things I hope to remember for the next time I do this.
1. Don't be pregnant! Adam gets little treats for his successes during the day, Mommy would give anything to have a glass of wine at night for her success too!
2. Make meals ahead, or be prepared to order out for meals. I am finding it IMPOSSIBLE to get meals together while also running back and forth from the bathroom (upstairs) and washing machine (basement).
3. Have a freezer stocked full of Blizzards, or at least have a husband who is willing to run out and get you one after a VERY long day.

So far the best part of potty training has been the mistakes.
In between trips to the bathroom I was trying to hang up diapers to dry. While hanging one up I noticed a very big leak cascading from a pipe. Great I thought, just what I need on such a busy day. I walked over to see how severe the hole was.....hmmmmm, there is no pipe there. Oh crap! Better run upstairs. (At this point the last of my optimism is hoping that Luke has tipped over a glass of water.) I come upstairs to a massive puddle, maybe a lake, and a very content Adam sitting under the dining room table. I wasn't even aware Adam's bladder was that big. When I asked him if that was where he was supposed to pee his calmly looked at me and said "nooooooo". That was the end of that. (Well, after tidying up of course.)

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T08:53:00.004-04:00

This year started off as a more Happy Burr Halloween instead of Boo.

What better way to warm up the house than to turn on the oven and make Halloween cookies:

I think cookies are a perfectly respectable breakfast (Adam agrees):

Saturday is our communities Halloween parade, followed by trick-or-treating at the local businesses. I had to alter my butterfly costume a tad to account for the snowy weather

Adam's costume was perfect for this chilly year though:

Happy Halloween!
We started off our day by taking Lil' Lumpy's 1st picture:

We usually go to Aunt Dee Dee's house for dinner and trick-or-treating

Adam practiced his "woof woof" all day

Adam would just walk up to a house and shout "treat"! Then leaving he would say "thank you, Halloween". What a nut! The actual day was chilly and rainy instead of snowy. I again had to alter my butterfly, but Adam was ready to go:

Adam enjoyed trick-or-treating, but after one block he turned to me and said "Dee Dee house". So we went back to Dee Dee's, where he had a great time watching the kids come up the walkway and then helping give them treats.
All of that worked up an appetite so he had a little puppy snack:

SeaWorld

2011-11-01T08:39:00.006-04:00

We could not visit Orlando without a visit to SeaWorld. Adam has been going to SeaWorld since he was just a little baby and he absolutely loves it.
Getting his first hug from Shamu:

As you have seen before, Adam has an affinity for aquariums, we can hardly drag him out of them.

Hammin' it up while waiting for the big Shamu show to start. I never get through this show without shedding a tear.

Glamour shot:

Adam was all about the rides on this trip. He did quite a few that I myself will not get on.
This one was the Jellyfish Jumper (or something like that). The went high into the sky, then started spinning, then you could spin your individual jellyfish too!

This crazy boat started off kind of normal and then started spinning around while going back and forth:

The only ride that I could do, the sea carousel:

That pretty much wraps up our trip to Orlando. We had a wonderful time and cannot wait to go back and introduce baby number two!

Disney Parks and Attractions

2011-10-30T16:51:00.003-04:00

We kind of went crazy with our Disney days, going around 10am and staying till closing many nights. On our craziest day we did three parks! Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom! How insane are we.
Adam had a blast on the attractions this time.
Here is his first ride on the teacups, a ride he will only ever do with his Dad. I have a hard time even watching the cups spin around.

The most spinning I do is on the carousel:

Adam had a great time in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play yard. The leaf slide out of the film canister was his favorite:

Out of all 4 parks, his absolute favorite was the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage. He was that kid that started cheering before the show even started, and kept on cheering long past anyone else. I'm not sure I've ever seen him so excited! (He is currently sitting on my lap saying "Mickey, Manny".)

A close tie for favorite was the Living Seas at Epcot. He did the Nemo attraction, but he was really only interested in the aquariums. (He is now saying "fish, fish fish".)

Big To-Do's!

2011-10-28T12:04:00.009-04:00

We had two big things we wanted to accomplish while at Walt Disney World.
The 1st was to get Adam his 1st real haircut. Now I have hacked away at it twice, but I don't really count those attempts as a haircut.

To keep Adam entertained and calm, Michel put 12 Mickey stickers on him, and I mean all over, his hands, shirt, shorts and knees! Adam also got a McQueen toy to play with. Tommy and I were both excited to have Michel doing Adam's first haircut since he has cut both of our hair as well on occasion.

Since Adam won't wear his Ears all day, Michel gave him a mohawk and a special dusting of Pixie Dust.
Adam's hat is personalized to say "First Haircut". It is currently being worn by my Curtis Bear.

Adam also received a certificate for his bravery at the Barber Shop:

Celebrating his new 'do:

The 2nd big thing to do was the Pioneer Hall Hoop-Dee-Doo! For those who don't know, this is important in our lives, this being where Tommy and I met, got engaged, had our Rehearsal dinner (sort of), and most exciting we now get to bring Adam!

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Adam enjoyed the family style dining. He had his own bucket of chicken and his own bowl of mashed potatoes.

He did actually go on to share the chicken with us, but not the potatoes. He ate those straight out of the serving dish with the serving spoon:

The server in the middle is our server! He is our absolute favorite, and he is definitely Adam's favorite for setting the Strawberry Shortcake right in front of him.

I didn't mind Adam hogging the potatoes, but I wasn't going to let him hog that shortcake.

Auntie Monica didn't get to eat all of her dessert because she was chosen to be the can-can dancer. She did a great job, I however did not in taking a picture.
We finished out the evening with some wonderful washboard music and spoon banging at our table:

Hoop Dee Doo!

Walt Disney World

2011-10-27T17:54:00.006-04:00

If you can't tell, Adam and I spent very little time at home during the month of October. We just returned from Walt Disney World, basically our home away from home.
And boy did we take pictures...so many that I can't figure out how to capture it on the blog.
I decided to start with our pictures with the characters.

You can't help but start off with the fabulous Mickey and Minnie, quickly followed by Pluto. (Adam is standing by me and saying "Puto, Mickey, Minnie")

He had a great hopping session with the White Rabbit:

The biggest excitement came when meeting the princesses. He wanted to give kisses on the lips to every one of them (this is not allowed), so he settled with a peck on the cheek for Aurora.

Anyone who has met Adam knows he is a little shy until he gets used to you. Behold the power of the characters. Here is a little photo montage of him telling Belle a great story.

He told her about his Mickey shirt,

his McQueen shoes,

and the tea party we went to. (Fictitious by the way.)
Finally sitting pretty with Cinderella.

He got a few kisses from the princesses, which he wore proudly all day.

We met Pooh, whom he loves. However, he spent the whole time telling Pooh about how much he loves Mickey. haha

Adam absolutely loves McQueen, but he wasn't too sure about meeting him. McQueen kept making honking and beeping noises that scared him a bit.

We spent one day at Sea World where he also met Shamu:

Part 3 - Kennewick

2011-10-17T12:20:00.004-04:00

While I was home I got the wonderful opportunity to go down to Kennewick and have a sleep over with one of my bestest friends, Brooke. We have been best friends since we were 14 years old.
Way back in the day, heading up to White Pass to go skiing:

Present day, chillin' on the back patio watching the kiddos play:

I had never realized that Adam has never played in dirt. Ummmm, he loved it! Nothing else in their yard interested him, including the other kids unless they were also playing in the dirt.

We also got fancy pedicures, aren't are toes great! I think mine look like Dorothy's shoes:

At the end of a fun, and very dirty, day the 3 boys got put in the tub:

Tommy asked me how Adam liked being around so many kids, I responded that if Adam knew how he would probably request at least 5 more brothers and sisters. He absolutely loved it!

Part 2

2011-10-16T09:22:00.006-04:00

Part 2 starts off with our trip to Leavenworth to meet Uncle Bruce. We had lunch at a yummy crepe restaurant, though Adam didn't want any of it. Go figure. It was Oktoberfest in Leavenworth so the town was hoppin'. Adam had a blast riding around town on Bruce's shoulders.

The next day Adam, my Mom and I got up to go to Thompson's Farm to see the pumpkin cannons. I used to work at the fruit market when I was in high school, it is where most of my knowledge and love of fruits comes from.

While waiting for the cannons to go off we went and picked out a pumpkin for Adam to decorate. He choose this beautiful white one and then decorated it like a cat. (I forgot to take a picture of that, whoops.)

He also wanted this big orange one, but since he couldn't carry it, he wasn't allowed to get it.

The cannons were finally ready to go...and Adam melted down. Now these machines are loud and kind of weird looking, but what got him was the warning bell John rings before firing them. Just like the butterflies, he picks the oddest things to be scared of! A huge cannon firing pumpkins, no problem, but the tiny little bell signaling their firing sequence and the world is ending.

That evening we celebrated my Mom's birthday (a month late).

For her birthday dinner we made an entire meal of Julia Child recipes. A wonderful feast of garlic soup (not sure my grandparents trusted me on that one, but man is it good), Brussels sprouts, roasted tomatoes and broiled flank steak. The piece de resistance was my Mom's birthday cake, a chocolate/coffee layer cake with Kahlua custard butter cream and a chocolate ganache. Yum Yum!

I meant to take more pictures, but Adam of course chose this time of the day to have a melt-down so I missed most of dinner. He was finally banished from the dinner table and went to watch cartoons. When we finished with dinner this is what we found in the living room:

Westward Ho! Part 1

2011-10-15T10:34:00.005-04:00

Adam and I just returned from a 2 week vacation to Washington State! It may take a few blogs to catch up on everything we did.
First up: traveling across country with a two year old. We had 3 flights and a total of 8 hours worth of layovers. The longest layover being 6 hours in Seattle. (Yes I realize that I could have driven to Yakima and back in all that time, but it was the only way the flights worked.)

Adam is actually quite a joy to fly with. We bring lots of snacks, books and toys to keep him entertained.
Our layover in Seattle was split up by lots of walks, eating and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

One of Adam's greatest joys on the trip was having a yard to play in, something we are sorely lacking at home.

Our next big adventure was to attend the Central Washington State Fair, one of my favorite fall activities.
This year had a butterfly garden, which the adults loved....however Adam wasn't as sure. A Monarch flew straight at his face and he let out a scream that stopped the entire building. Hilarious and mortifying all at the same time!

He found a corn pit, something he dearly loves, but it wasn't very fun convincing him to come out of it.

The new "it" thing in fair food this year was fried butter, so we of course just had to try some. Now you obviously can't just throw butter in a fryer, instead it is a pat of butter folded into dough and then deep fried so that the butter melts inside the dough. Made even more healthy by jam and powdered sugar on top.

As you can see, Adam hated his.

Adam also tested out his first Elephant Ear. I'm pretty sure it was half of his size.

Other highlights of the day were the animal exhibits. This llama and Adam took a good long look at each other.

Adam enjoys talking to all of the animals he sees. Here he is saying goodbye to the bunnies.

Birthday week concludes...

2011-09-15T20:00:00.006-04:00

In our family we often celebrate birthdays for at least a week. Adam's came to a spectacular close with a few "celebrations" at PNC park.
The first big thing he got to do was an autograph session with the Pirates players. He was lucky enough to get 2 pitchers, which is his favorite position. They weren't starters, only relief, but he was still mighty impressed.
Adam with relief pitcher Chris Resop: (I wasn't very good at catching the perfect smile from Adam but trust me he was in heaven!)

And with relief pitcher Daniel Moskos. For some reason they are both glowing, but both happy at least:

Our favorite part of Sunday games is kids get to run the bases. Adam takes this very seriously, as you will see when he almost misses tagging 3rd base:

On Tuesday he was invited to batting practice with the Bucs! To quote Adam, "whoa"!
Like the goof ball I am, I forgot his autograph ball, but luckily one of the players tossed him one. (Well actually they tossed it to Tommy, but you get my point.)
He was so awestruck he couldn't even pose for a picture. In case you are wondering, yes that is McCutchen just an arms length away!!!

His first autograph came from his favorite Pirate player, the Pirate Parrot. If you ask him who his favorite player is he will almost always say "Parrot".

Unfortunately about half way through he wasn't paying attention and fell down, hitting his head, which caused the crying to begin. Our favorite player Derrick Lee to the rescue!
Derrick came over and talked to Adam until he cheered up, then he signed Adam's ball.
As if this wasn't enough, on his way back to the locker room Derrick gave Adam his practice bat. It is taller than Adam, possibly the same weight and full of sticky pine tar. If I hadn't hidden it Adam would have taken it to bed with him.
Now every time they announce Lee coming up to bat Adam gets up and cheers.

The only sad part of the week was the game on Wednesday. Yes, you are counting correctly we went to three games this week.
On Adam's 25th visit to the ballpark this season, the Bucs were mathematically eliminated from having a .500 season. This is a little sad, but we are still ecstatic. Last year that day happened somewhere in July, to be so close to the end of the season is a huge improvement. Obviously no matter what we are huge Pirate fans. I'm a little worried that we will all be a little depressed when the end of the season comes, however Piratefest is in January so we just have a few months to wait until we get to see our beloved Buccos again.

Adam is turning 2!

2011-09-08T18:04:00.005-04:00

We had a small birthday party for Adam this weekend while at Grammy and Grampy's house with family and a few DuBois friends. It was of course Pirate Baseball themed.
Adam still gets very little joy out of opening presents, so it actually turns into people sitting in a circle watching me open presents. haha

He does the best with tissue paper:

Auntie Stephanie got him an adorable chef set complete with oven mitt, apron and chefs hat. He immediately took the hat and yelled "hat"!

Full disclosure, he did the same thing when he opening up Krissy's book.

All of Adam's birthday treats:

My favorite, and Bridgie's too, were the strawberry cupcakes filled with a creamy chocolate ganache. Adam picked out strawberry and chocolate swirl for his cake flavors.

Yummmm, diving in!

He had a great time at his birthday, playing ball, playing with new presents and eating as much as he could!

Ahhhhh!

2011-08-17T08:11:00.003-04:00

We are getting close to the time for Adam to get a big boy bed so while walking through Ikea the other day we told him to go pick out his favorite bed.
Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for how excited he would get about it, so this is actually the second take. To imagine his first time choosing this bed picture him running to all of the other beds, then all the way around this one and finally screaming "ahhhhhhh" and jumping head first onto the bed.
This take is when he ran to the toy section and had to come back a second time. He still choose this bed.

Four Generations of Rubritz

2011-08-16T08:22:00.003-04:00

Dana & Patrick's Wedding Celebration

2011-08-15T08:29:00.003-04:00

This weekend we had the extreme pleasure to attend Dana and Patrick's wedding in Bedford Springs. The entire weekend was picture perfect.
Their beautiful ceremony (which hopefully wasn't ruined too much by Adam yelling out "applesauce" and "uh oh" when he dropped his Cheerios).

A beautiful picture of the bride as she headed back down the aisle with her new husband:

Tommy and Adam hamming it up before dinner:

The couple's first dance:

Adam tore up the dance floor all night long! He was absolutely captivated by the live band as well.

We had an absolutely wonderful time celebrating such a beautiful union and it is always a riot to get all of the Rubritz gang together. I must say as a collective group we are quite the dancers!

The A Team

2011-08-10T16:38:00.005-04:00

Today Adam and I went to Phipps Conservatory with some friends for story time. I have always enjoyed Phipps, it is so serene and relaxing in there. Story time was held out in discovery garden, surrounded by fun plants and fountains.
Here are Ada, Allyson and Adam ready to hear stories about birds:

A pre-story time snack:

Where there is a button to be pushed, Adam is not far behind:

Adam's favorite room was probably the butterfly room. Especially the displays with all of the cocoons. We saw a Monarch coming out if its cocoon and I'm pretty sure I've never seen Adam so excited.
After going through Phipps and having a nice lunch on the patio we headed down the street to the carousel. Adam had NO INTEREST in getting on one of those animals, odd since he loves animals so much. He also freaked out when they rang the bell to start the ride, but other than those two problems he greatly enjoyed the carousel.

Allyson had lots of fun choosing her animals to sit on:

Exploring the Great Outdoors

2011-08-01T17:08:00.005-04:00

These last few days have introduced a new challenge. I have found myself in need of being able to get somewhere fun so Adam can burn off energy....but without scorching either of us in the sun. All of the playgrounds here seem to just be in the open sun and its just been too hot for that.
Today our solution was to go for a hike in Bird Park. The woods provided plenty of shade. I applaud the city planners of Pittsburgh for building in so many green spaces. I only live 5 miles from downtown Pittsburgh yet look at our hike today:

Adam was my little trailblazer. His favorite part seemed to be following the squirrels and then asking "where did go" when they ran up the trees.

Climbing up one of the hills we encountered:

Wii Baseball

2011-07-30T07:05:00.005-04:00

We spent a lazy morning at home the other day since Tommy had to work late, but we still wanted Adam to have some fun playing. Enter Wii baseball. Now of course it is obvious that this kid loves baseball, but it is not contained to just watching it or playing with his t-ball set.

The following clip is what happens when the game is done. Not when we turn it off, just when the wii says the game is won. He gets little enjoyment out of the fact that it is usually him that won. Notice how when he doesn't feel he is being listened too he uses words and signing, as is maybe we are just missing the point.

Sandcastle

2011-07-20T07:02:00.003-04:00

Day 4 of our staycation was devoted to Sandcastle water park. After much deliberation we decided to wait one more year to take Adam to Idlewild, hoping he will get more out of it. So this year was Sandcastle's turn.
I wasn't too sure how much he would get out of a water park either, especially after his recent fear and loathing of pools.
That is definitely all gone.

The only times he cried all day was when we told him it was time to get off the water slides and go warm up a bit. (This kid gets oddly cold in water.) He absolutely loved the water slides built specifically for toddlers, showing absolutely no fear. He slipped a few times and went under, but even that he rebounded from quite quickly.

The wave pool he took a little longer to warm up to, but in the end he decided he loved it. We worked on lots of doggie paddling in all of the pools. The arms he does pretty well, but the feet need some help.

Heinz Field Tour

2011-07-19T16:30:00.003-04:00

Our friends Denise and Ryan are in town from Utah. They decided they wanted to go on a tour of Heinz field, and to be able to spend more time with them we decided to go to. That was pretty much my hopes of the tour.
And then I geeked out!

My geekification started when we got to go down to the field! Not on the grass of course, but right up to it. This is where Troy Polamalu walks!
Going into the locker rooms I enjoyed the pictures they had up of "football rules". I'm thinking unless you are Pee-Wee Football (and probably already by then) you already know these rules.

Ryan had prepared us that we would probably only be able to visit the away team locker room, not the Steeler locker room. He has been on these tours in other stadiums and it is usually this way. Our tourguide said the same thing....and then said the Steelers love their fans so much that they wanted them to be able to visit the HOME TEAM locker room!
FULL GEEK MODE at this point! I'm going into the room that Troy gets ready in! Tommy was excited to sit in Heath Miller's locker and I of course for Polamalu's! They don't have the names on the lockers because they kept disappearing. (Shocking! I would have taken Polamalu's if it had been there.)

We also got to go in the hallway the head down to make their game-time entrance. The players walk single file and always touch their good luck sign. This sign was a gift to the Steelers by the steel workers that built Heinz Field. The sign was made from recovered steel from the old 3 Rivers Stadium.

One of our favorite parts of the tour were the pipes. Normal ones like "hot water" and "chilled water"....and then the most important one of all:

Adam enjoyed the Press Box most of all. He kept asking for the big screen to be turned on. I have no doubt in my mind that if they had listened to him and turned it on, he would have then asked for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to be played.

Such a wonderful tour...and that was only the start of the day. Afterwards we headed home for a quick nap, then to Habitat for a DELICIOUS dinner and to a Bucco's game. Due to the rain we only got to see 1/2 of the 1st inning before a rain delay but we had a blast anyhow.

Triple B Farms

2011-07-19T16:25:00.003-04:00

Ever since hearing about it, I have wanted to go to Triple B Farms. A cute little farm with animals and lots of fresh fruit/veggies.

I liked all of the chickens. (Their eggs are for sale in the grocery store on the property.)

Adam's love resides with the goats. It was a struggle getting him to leave them. We did husk our corn at the farm so it could be fed to the goats and cows.

Being goofy at dinner:

Pool, pizza & party day!

2011-07-17T09:25:00.006-04:00

Every summer we get together for a weekend of family fun hosted by Aunt DeeDee. We start off with lunch and pool time, a perfect combination of fun!
One of my favorite parts of this is sitting down to lunch. There is quite the discussion every year, and what is even funnier is we always end up in the same seats every year. I love it!

After the yummy yummy lunch we headed down to the pool. Adam had a blast playing catch with his cousins! He was a wild man, which is nice to see, it seems his fears of the pool have passed for this season.

All bundled up in his Muppets towel, getting warm again.

Though this is so much fun....the day isn't done yet. Afterwards we head to Dee Dee's house for Lily's birthday party and pizza.

This year I got to make a cake for Lily, which is such a treat for me. Since it is summer and we had fun at the pool I decided to go with an island theme:

My only real goal for making the cake was to not end up on Cakewrecks. (If you don't follow this blog you should, it is great. I have a link on the right-hand side of this page.) My other goal in cake making is to someday be worthy of the Sunday Sweets posting on Cakewrecks.

Each girl got her own hula dancer cake:

All in all a very fun day, one that I look forward to every year. I think it is always so nice and special to be able to have a fun-filled low key day with your family, as far as I am concerned it is days like this that make life so great.

First Harvest

2011-07-12T20:43:00.002-04:00

Today Adam and I harvested our first veggies from our garden. My favorite are the rainbow colored carrots!

Oh Boy....

2011-07-12T15:55:00.003-04:00

Things are never dull with a kiddo around....even if you are asleep and they are awake.
Let me explain.
The other night (morning) Adam decided he was going to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. For no apparent reason other than he was tired of sleeping and ready to play.
So I got up, took him downstairs, got a cup of water for him, put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, put up the baby gate and I went back to sleep on the couch. (Adam knows to wake me up if something is wrong or if he gets really hungry.)
He did let me sleep, but not without trying to get my attention apparently. When I woke up I had the following items sitting on my chest:
His favorite Elmo book

His tub of Crayola Model Magic we got from the factory:

Luke's food dish

As a side note, we were recently told by the vet that Luke weighs too much. Adam is the reason why, he gets very agitated if Luke's food dish in empty. So, when he noticed it empty that morning he must have come to tell me about it with evidence in hand.

Pool Day!

2011-07-10T08:42:00.004-04:00

Last year Adam and I went to the pool A LOT and he loved every minute of it. As the temperatures have slowly crept upward this summer I have looked forward to going again. Not surprisingly my hopes were dashed when I took him to the pool last week and he was petrified of the water!
So began the tightrope walk of getting him over his fear without scaring him out of the water for good.
We tried on Saturday to reconcile Adam and the pool....after a bit of trying, lots of tears and "looks" from the other parents, it worked.
Adam knows it is always a good idea to stay hydrated at the pool:

Now we can hardly keep him out of the water. He ran in so fast he fell down, whoops.

Though Tommy and I were fine, Adam kept getting cold, turning blue and shivering so we spent a lot of time trying to warm up too:

After a long day at the pool Adam fell asleep in the living room:

Move over Mt Vesuvius

2011-07-06T14:45:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately Adam got sick last week so we have been spending a lot of time indoors. It was nothing serious, but did result in a rash that gets even worse in heat and sunshine. So of course, the sun has been out and 90 degrees all week.
Instead of going to the pool we have been forced inside. So, to liven up the afternoon we decided to make a volcano!
I formed the base of the volcano but Adam took great care in arranging the volcano's wildlife:

He choose what color our lava should be (blue), and helped me measure out the baking soda. I poured in the vinegar and boom! (OK, maybe not boom but it did erupt.)

One eruption was not enough so Adam kept adding in more baking soda, having no concern as to the welfare of his jungle animals at all. haha

Wow Mom, look at it go!

Happy Birthday Tommy & U.S.A.

2011-07-05T10:26:00.003-04:00

We had a fun filled family weekend celebrating Tommy's birthday and the 4th of July. We kicked off the festivities at Aunt Dee Dee's house with a BBQ. Yummy burgers, all the fixings and great company. Dessert was Tommy's birthday cake
A CHEESEBURGER!

After stuffing ourselves with burgers, salads and cake we headed downtown to the Regatta. Adam was very upset that we only walked around the ballpark and didn't get to go in. He did however enjoy watching the speedboat races.

The next day we had a family BBQ with just the three of us so that Tommy could try out his cool new BBQ gear.

After lunch we headed downtown to watch the Pirates beat the Astros...in a luxury suite! We were not expecting that, but we had a FANTASTIC time! Adam loved sitting in the swivel chair and watching the game. I loved being able to keep score, something I have not been able to do since having Adam.

They brought the Pirate Parrot up too and Adam ran up to give him a big hug.

Summer of Science

2011-06-27T08:48:00.003-04:00

Adam and I are all about Science this summer, from crafts in the kitchen (Monster Mush anyone?) to visits to the Carnegie Science Center. One of our projects was a rubber egg! Tommy had never heard of this, but I remember making them when I was a kid.
Take an egg, put it in vinegar for a week and out comes a rubber egg.
At first Adam did not want to touch it at all:

Mom, I'm still not too sure about this:

Oh Mom, you were right! This is fun!

The second after that picture was taken he thought it would be fun to throw the rubber egg to Luke. This is what resulted:

The shell is dissolved by the vinegar, and the outer layer "cooked", however the rest remains liquid.
ISN'T SCIENCE FUN!

Lisa Clay Styles Memorial 5k

2011-06-25T12:00:00.003-04:00

This morning Adam and I participated in the 1st Annual Lisa Clay Styles Memorial 5k. This charity race is being held in remembrance of a local Mt Lebanon mom who was hit by a car while out jogging with 2 of her kids. A very tragic reason for the race, but the proceeds went to one of her favorite charities, a school for children with autism.
Here we are lining up to start the race:

Here are the actual runners up front after the gun sounded.

Here I am more in the back of the pack, and in the back of the pack I stayed but I didn't care.

This was by far my slowest 5k, coming in at 40 minutes. Tommy is giving me a pass on being so slow since I was pushing Adam (added 40 pounds) and didn't have my pace runner with me. Tommy and I always help each other keep pace, it was very different doing the race without him.

The only downside of the race was Adam ended the race with a loogie hawked on him. What can you do? He had a good time, eating his cheerios and cheering "Whoa" when the fast runners came back past us.
Afterwards we headed over to make some crafts and have our after race snacks. This particular race had Blitzburgh Crunch (my favorite ice cream) and bananas.

Monster Mush

2011-06-17T14:57:00.003-04:00

Today I decided to pass down the time honored tradition of making Monster Mush to Adam. Shauna, Alissa and I invented this dish when we were kids. I assume on some rainy afternoon in the summer when we were stuck indoors because the pool was closed.
First things first, a chef must get his mise en place:

Next, Adam was a big help in scooping out the ice cream, and adding the food coloring. (Both good lessons for counting and colors too!)

While waiting for the water to boil, he couldn't help taste testing the ice cream.

Adam is a true pro at stirring, a task he takes very seriously.

He finally got to have his first taste of Monster Mush for his afternoon snack. He absolutely LOVED it, eating every last bite. Aside from being delicious it is a good chance for him to practice his spoon skills.

Thank you Huey!

2011-06-13T22:30:00.004-04:00

We had the extreme luck to be given tickets to Saturday's Pirates game. We didn't get to meet the band, but we did sit with his roadies and such.

The 7 o clock games are kind of hard for Adam, since they start pretty much at his bedtime. We spent a lot of time walking around and playing at the playground. We finally got him calmed down, watched the Buccos pull off a win....then the fireworks started.

This is a kid who was watching IllumiNations at 1 month old and who loves thunder, it didn't even dawn on me that he would freak out at fireworks.

But freak he did, so we ended up leaving. We of course still got to watch the fireworks show, Adam went catatonic in his stroller as we walked back to the car. Both Tommy and I agree that it was a very well done show. This is coming from two people who were paid to watch fireworks at different points in our lives. They shot off fireworks from the field, Clemente bridge, a barge in the river and off of PPG Place. Very impressive over all.

If anyone hasn't guessed already, we enjoy going to Pirates games. This Sunday was Adam's 14th game this season. There are many things I enjoy about going to these games, but one of the best is the fans. This video I took was taken in the middle of the 8th inning after striking out a Mets player. Pirates fans cheer when we get to first base the way other teams cheer when they win the World Series, and I LOVE IT!

2011-06-12T08:36:00.003-04:00

Upper St Clair library hosted an art in the park day for kids last week. Adam started off in the park part and then headed for the art.

He made a Froot Loops bracelet....and then promptly ate it.

Painting water on walls has been a favorite activity of his for ages now.

But real paint can be fun too!

All followed up with a big boy lunch at Chick-Fil-A, his absolutely favorite restaurant.

Liver Life Walk 2011

2011-06-09T13:28:00.003-04:00

It certainly looked like everyone had a great time at the Liver Life Walk this year. Look how great everyone looks in their new shirts! Thanks again to Brooke for designing them.

The theory is for us to wear the same shirts every year so Adam's definitely has some room to grow into. Still pretty cute though.

Aunt Dee Dee bought Adam a nice treat which I'm sure he devoured.

Adam and the girls are all still growing like weeds. I think Adam has finally surpassed the baby elephant.

Upper St Clair Community Days

2011-05-27T09:11:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we headed to Upper St Clair to see the parade and festivities of Community Days. Brooke and Juli walked in the parade with their Brownies Troop. Emma and Lily were busy getting candy and Chick-Fil-A coupons from the passing groups.

Part of community days was my favorite family farm, Gifillan Farm, being open to the public. There is a great trail around the farm that Adam and I go running on all the time, and we love to say hi to the cows as we run. Adam was ecstatic to finally get to feed one of the cows. The farmer helped Adam feed the cow a biscuit. Adam definitely inherited my love of animals, not Tommy's fear, he marched right up and said "moo".

That being said he enjoyed feeding the goats even more because their little lips tickle you as they eat the grass. It took some cajoling to get him to even leave the goats.

I have had a love for John Deere Green for years and years, and I am now happily passing this love onto Adam.

Other parts of the day included watching a sheep shearing demonstration, milking a cow and making a fun bird house craft.

A world of no....

2011-05-27T08:09:00.003-04:00

Adam has a new favorite word. No. It would make me kind of sad sometimes if he weren't so cute saying it. Ask him pretty much anything right now and the answer is a "no", usually with a smirk and an innocent little head tilt.
Tommy to Adam: "Adam do you know what no means?"
Adam to Tommy: "No."

This post may not be for everyone....you are hereby warned

2011-05-22T09:23:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday the Carnegie Natural History and Art Museum took part in National Museum Director Day by opening their doors for free. We love free!
The last time we visited I noticed something odd about the way the birds are taxidermied. Most museums tend to try to make them look like they are still alive, maybe in flight or searching for food. Not this museum. This museum lays them down flat, eyes closed like they are sleeping. This is already a little bizarre I think, and then I came upon the following exhibit matching the animated bird with its taxidermied counterpart. The juxtaposition was so interesting I just had to share:
Zazu from The Lion King

Tweety Bird

Toucan Sam

The bison was done as though it was just walking around. Adam doesn't seem to care either way, I am not sure that he is linking them with living animals yet.

Liver Life Walk

2011-05-19T09:48:00.004-04:00

Rapidly approaching is our annual participation in the Liver Life Walk at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
We participate in this walk in fond memory of Glenn Pifer, who passed away in 2006 due to liver disease.

Unfortunately I never met Glenn, but I love listening to the stories that Aunt Dee Dee and Tommy tell me. He is always described as a very loving husband, father and friend. This year Brooke has designed a wonderful shirt for us all to wear that is a perfect match to Glenn's interests of cooking, his dog and Penn State.
If you would like to support our team, Glenn's Gang please visit the link below:
http://go.liverfoundation.org/site/TR/LiverLifeWalk2011/LiverLifeWalk?team_id=29720&pg=team&fr_id=2550

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T20:16:00.003-04:00

As previously posted, we spent our Mother's Day raising funds and awareness for breast cancer. This was hands down the largest Race for the Cure we have ever been part of, estimating at least 20,000 people, most likely more.

We had a conversation on the way there about whether we were going to jog or not...a conversation that we had for no reason. The path was so crowded we could barely walk, yet alone jog. All in all though a wonderful race day and lots of celebrating life.

After the race and a quick clothes change it was off to the ballpark, where it was also breast cancer awareness day. The teams showed their support by wearing pink shoes, gloves, sweatbands and bats.

An added bonus for the game: THE PIRATES WENT .500!
It was a nail biter of a game but the Buccos pulled in off in the bottom of the 8th with a 3 run home run.

Susan G Koman Race for the Cure

2011-05-06T07:07:00.005-04:00

This Mother's Day Tommy, Adam and I will be participating in one of our favorite fundraisers, the Susan G Koman Race for the Cure. Hats off to the Pittsburgh chapter for planning this event on such a meaningful day. (Though it is always good to remember men can get breast cancer too.)
Please help support us raising money for this wonderful cause:

http://pittsburgh.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/PIT_PittsburghAffiliate?px=5448473&pg=personal&fr_id=2088
Last chance to donate!!!

Adam was a "tad" smaller last time we participated in this race.

Crayola Crayon Factory

2011-05-01T19:41:00.003-04:00

Ashley's and my big adventure for this trip was to visit the Crayola Crayon Factory in Easton, PA. Tommy didn't want to go so it was just us girls and Adam.

I was a little worried Adam would be too young to enjoy it, but thankfully I was wrong. He absolutely loved it. He colored, got a fresh made crayon from the factory demonstration and painted Tommy a paper tie.

He also made a disco ball for his bedroom. Ashley did the cutting, I did the gluing and Adam pointed where he wanted the decorations to go. We saved all of our tokens and traded them in for Model Magic. Which as far as I can tell is like a combination of Play-Doh and Floam.

Above the Crayola factory was a canal museum where Adam learned how to operated locks and push his boat to the coal station and town. I dare say this was his favorite part of the museum.
Afterward we headed down the block to the Purple Cow Creamery for some very yummy handmade ice cream.

To top off our Crayola weekend Ashley and I made a crayon cake! Funfetti of course.

Franktuary!

2011-04-30T19:55:00.005-04:00

Franktuary! Franktuary!
No I have not lost my mind, this is the hot dog shop we ate lunch at before heading to watch the Bucco's play the San Francisco Giants. This shop, if you haven't somewhat caught the connection with sanctuary, is located underneath a church in downtown Pittsburgh.

I ordered a Locavore naked. This is hands down the best hot dog I have ever eaten in my life. I put a little bit of relish and spicy mustard on it. We also had yummy old time sodas with it.

Then a quick walk over to the ballpark to watch the Bucco's fall to the Giants. However, since Ashley is from San Francisco we weren't all that sad about it. All in all a wonderful afternoon. If you are ever in the downtown Pittsburgh area I highly suggest trying out Franktuary.

Time to Dye Eggs!

2011-04-28T08:32:00.003-04:00

I have been looking for a good excuse for Adam to try out his new apron that he received from Grammie for Easter. What better than to dye Easter eggs.

Adam dyed 4 eggs all by himself and he absolutely loved it. He also put one of his bunny marshmallows in the dye! haha His hands are still dyed yellow.

Our finished product. We also tried to do the shrinky wrappers on the eggs. Unfortunately my eggs were too big so it only fit on one....then when it shrank it cracked the egg.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T18:33:00.004-04:00

We decided to spend Easter afternoon with the Buccos. Though a tad drizzly it was a wonderful day to be at the ballpark to enjoy America's favorite past time and our favorite way to have family time.
Every child received a Pirate Bunny today and Adam has hardly put his down since he received it.

Adam enjoys sitting in the chairs but is still too light, so Tommy has to hold the chair down so it doesn't fold up on Adam. I doubt this will be a problem for much longer.

The Buccos take the field with a group of kids. All of these kids looked so excited, especially the one who got Cutch's autograph.

After the game all kids got to run the bases. Adam LOVED IT! He touched every base and was excitedly telling the other kids "run, run".

We ended up at Arby's for Easter dinner. Our normal place to eat after the games closed early since there weren't very many people coming in. The security guard was a little sad we didn't come in earlier but he understood when he heard Adam ran the bases.

It is just too cute....

2011-04-23T22:14:00.003-04:00

This picture is just too cute not to post. Tommy took this last weekend after Adam finished lunch. I think this picture is simply happiness personified.

Happy 4th Anniversary

2011-04-23T21:44:00.003-04:00

Today Tommy and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We don't typically get overly romantic for our anniversary...and this year was no different.
This year we woke up at 7am, made yummy sour cream coffee cake and then headed out for a fun-filled sports day. All day Tommy told anyone who would listen "How did I get so lucky to marry a woman who wants to go to sports all day". Haha.
First stop: game 5 against the Bolts. For the playoff games that are not broadcast on NBC the Pens set up a screen outside where you can go watch for free. Sign us up! It was a gorgeous afternoon (so gorgeous we actually had to make an emergency run to the store for sunscreen).

Adam seemed to enjoy this way of watching his beloved Penguins even better. He would watch the game a bit, then get up and run around, flirting with any girl that would look at him.

This hockey game was one of the most painful I have ever watched, but we made the best of it. Included in our quest for the best, Adam ate his first Twinkie! haha

Even after the abysmal loss, I was still not ready to go home. So we decided to go to the Pirates game too! What a crazy family we are! Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the game because the storm they had been predicting all day finally hit at 7pm. We are going to the game tomorrow so we decided to bail and save Adam's energy for kids day.

Dye-ving Eggs

2011-04-14T20:48:00.004-04:00

Adam and I decided to do something a bit out of the ordinary for our Easter eggs this year. This months Family Fun magazine had a great twist on dyeing eggs to make them into divers. The moment I saw this I knew Adam and I had to do it. Then I remembered one of my other favorite books of the moment, Food Landscapes by Carl Warner. If you enjoy food as whimsy this is the book for you.
Without further ado here are our Dye-ving Eggs:

For it's 1, 2, 3 Strikes your out...

2011-04-14T07:45:00.003-04:00

Sunday marked our 3rd day in a row to visit PNC park. What a wonderful weekend we had. While Friday night a freezing cold, Sunday was its polar opposite. 80 degrees and sunny with just a few fluffy clouds in the air.
Sunday is also kids day at the park and Adam received his very first mitt. He really likes it and has played with it every day since. He also had the opportunity to hit a ball off a stand and he was so proud of himself. I see a t-ball set in our near future.

Adam is very excited to be doing more big boy things, which includes getting more time out of the stroller. He walked all the way to and from the ballpark, which for someone his size is actually quite a trek.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks....

2011-04-10T20:48:00.003-04:00

Tommy and I have gotten a tad off track on our running this past year. We find signing up for a race gets us back on track so when we heard about the Pirates Charity 5k Home Run we signed up right away.
A bit of a chilly April morning met us this Saturday but that didn't keep anyone away, around 2100 ran in this inaugural race. I heartily applaud all of the organizers, the race was pretty much flawless, which is saying a lot especially since they have never organized a race before.

We had a chance to talk with the organizer of the race last week and she said a big draw for people was the chance to finish a race at home plate. Can't argue with that, it was a lot of fun and gave you that extra boost of energy to run around the outfield to home plate. We finished in 35 minutes, considering we haven't run regularly for over a year we were both quite happy with that time.

Here's hoping that we keep our momentum up and find some more races to run soon.

Take me out to the ball game...

2011-04-10T09:57:00.004-04:00

The much anticipated 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates season has begun! Our first game was Buc Night where tickets, hot dogs and popcorn were all 1 buck. It also happened to be a very cold and drizzly day. We decided to brave the weather and headed on down, bundled up more for going to a December Steeler game than an April Bucs game.

Adam felt very proud to be walking with his Dad on the concourse.

The key for Buc night is to get there early. The lines for hot dogs get to be 3 or 4 innings long once the game gets going so we go early and eat our fill.

This is one of the few night games we will attend during the season. The game starts pretty much when Adam is supposed to go to bed. This time Adam made it to the 4th inning before falling asleep.

This time we lasted until the 6th inning and then called it a night. The game ended up going 14 innings and didn't finish until after midnight with a mighty Buccos win of 4-3.

The Tale of the 26 hour bread

2011-04-03T20:46:00.004-04:00

So, can anyone tell that I enjoy cooking?
In my newest food magazine, Cook's Illustrated (thanks Ashley), there was a recipe for whole wheat bread that is majority whole wheat. This issue came just days after we decided to start making all of our own bread. Perfect timing!
This recipe uses 3 cups of whole wheat flour and only 2 of white, which for homemade wheat bread is fairly high in ratio.....the way to do that apparently is to take 26 hours to make the bread! I started last night at 8pm by making the biga (flour, yeast and water) and soaking the whole wheat flour in two cups of milk overnight. The biga I have heard of before, but I had never heard of soaking the flour for hours before using it.
Biga:

Soaked wheat flour:

Then my Kitchen Aid (thanks heavens for it) kneaded the dough for 10 minutes. The force of the dough was so strong that I had to put the mixer on the floor in fear that it was going to break my table!

By 6pm the following evening I had these 2 beautiful loaves of whole wheat bread. The entire time Tommy kept saying "this had better be REALLY good bread"....and you know what, it is. I don't know that I will use this recipe every week but it is definitely a very yummy and very healthy bread that we will enjoy.

The Zoo (again)

2011-04-02T15:02:00.005-04:00

Off to the zoo again. It was a grey looking day so of course lets head to the zoo. Truth be told it is my favorite time to go, the grey skies make the zoo practically empty and Adam runs around to his hearts content.
Adam loves to stop and say "meow meow" to the new tiger cubs. They are getting so big!

Sliding out of a Baobab tree. Adam's fleece pants caused a few sparks of electricity on the way down.

I'm a meerkat! It took a few tries to convince Adam to crawl into the meerkat tunnels. By the time I finally had Tommy had put away the camera.

Adam's favorite part of the zoo is still the aquarium. He just loves waving to all the fish, some of them a good deal bigger than he is.

Adam's 1st batch of cookies

2011-03-31T16:33:00.004-04:00

How to fill the day has become a question I ask myself every morning now. Today I decided Adam would make his first batch of cookies, with a tad of help of course. I think my next project needs to be to make Adam an apron.
Lots of good learning in this project. We counted up to the number six as he put all of the ingredients into the bowl. He took every step of the cookie making very seriously, that isn't a frown on his face, that is his concentration face.

After we had all the ingredients in the bowl it was time to mix it together. These cookies are from Mr. Rogers and are titled "Get out the Mad" cookies. We weren't actually mad today, just bored, but the mixing by hand could get some anger out. There are no eggs in the cookies, so if your child snatches a bite or two its no big deal.

Since these were happy cookies (not mad cookies) we decided to put some sprinkles on. Adam's favorite colors right now are pink and yellow. The only rough part of making these was putting them in the oven. Since Adam had done everything else he thought he should put them in the oven too. For obvious reasons I had to do that part myself, he cried while I was doing it.

Look at this kid, hammin' it up for the camera. These are not the greatest tasting cookies in the world but we had a blast making and eating them.

Fish Fry

2011-03-31T16:19:00.003-04:00

This year one of my Lenten goals was to go to a Fish Fry. This is a fairly new concept to me. I have no memory of every seeing such a thing held at churches during Lent, yet alone advertised on everything from the Internet to the transit systems.
Last Friday we headed to St. Anne's for their fish fry. Tommy's method of choice was he figured it must be a good one if they advertise on the T.
My strongest memory of the meal is that the second I stepped out of the car all you could smell was fish. Haha.
Here is my fish fry tray, made totally complete by the use of real school lunch trays.

Adam enjoyed his meal, but enjoyed running around the gym when we weren't eating even more. They had some wrestling mats stacked up in the corner, so he of course made a beeline for those.

A good day

2011-03-23T22:33:00.003-04:00

No matter how tired I am, there are some days when, after putting Adam to bed, I come downstairs, look around and realize what a great day we had. Look at this wonderful mess! I think we may have played with every single toy today.

Not to be forgotten are his organizing ways. We have now moved on from green wooden blocks to yellow mega blocks. He will only organize the yellow ones this way, no other color is allowed on the radiator. Where do kids come up with these things?

Drawing Class update:

2011-03-21T14:42:00.004-04:00

Here are some of the pictures I've been working on in my drawing class lately. I am bouncing back and forth between pencil and watercolor pencils.
Here are a couple of kiwis on a simple napkin. All of these are food, so I usually just have the one shot to draw them. These were breakfast the next morning.

A quick sketch of a lemon:

And an onion:

They are all very simple, but that way I can get a good chunk of them done during class and they are easy to transport back and forth from the high school.

Night at the Museum

2011-03-21T08:10:00.003-04:00

This month, due to a generous grant, Thursday nights at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art are free! Can't pass that up so we put on our rain jackets and headed out.
Adam loved both parts of the museum, but I think the chance to touch geodes and actual dinosaur bones won.
Here he is at the bone yard where kids can dig up fossils on their own. Due to all of the sand in the structure they have to wear goggles to protect their eyes.

Adam was ecstatic to touch a real dinosaur bone!

The Strip

2011-03-09T14:27:00.004-05:00

It seems like an odd choice to do on a rainy day like today, but we decided to head to the strip. We got there right around lunch time so the first thing to do was find some food. I spotted a restaurant that I had read about a few months ago, Pho Van, a Vietnamese noodle restaurant. (Pronounced "fuh"). This is my Pho Tai:

We gave Adam some of our meals but he wasn't eating the noodles, something I know he loves. Guess why....he saw us using chopsticks and wanted to use them too:

A local artist is busy painting murals along the buildings of the strip. This one is of the different shops on the strip.

I dare say I have found a market that rivals my love for Pike Place. In fact they even surpass it in some ways. These next few pictures are inside of Wholey's. You can certainly find fish at Pike Place, but it isn't this fresh:

They have the fishmongers standing right there to catch and clean a fish for your supper tonight. Being the first day of Lent, Wholey's was certainly busy.

They even have animatronic pigs singing Old McDonald for you:

Mardi Gras

2011-03-09T08:42:00.005-05:00

Happy Mardi Gras! We just couldn't pass up a reason to celebrate and eat. For some reason I just wasn't in the mood for the more typical New Orleans meals so I decided to draw my inspiration from the Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland. For those who haven't been, it is one of the premier restaurants in Disneyland park and is set in a Louisiana Swamp where you watch pirates (guests) head into Pirates of the Caribbean. Their most famous offering is the Monte Cristo sandwich, which Adam gobbled up with gusto:

They also serve a nice Cajun shrimp salad at the restaurant as well. We didn't end up making the mint juleps, maybe next time.

No Mardi Gras is complete without a few beads. I still have all of my beads from the time Tommy and I actually went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Adam and I played with them all day:

We ended the day with a scrumptious treat of King Cake. This is actually the first one I have ever made and it was DELICIOUS!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2011-03-02T18:44:00.005-05:00

Today we celebrated Dr. Seuss' 107th Birthday!
We started out by having a dinner of Green Eggs & Ham, and Pink Ink Drink to wash it down. We listened to the story of Green Eggs & Ham during dinner as well, narrated by Jason Alexander.

Adam enjoyed his "pink ink drink" immensely.

Adam and I made a birthday cake for Dr. Seuss as well. A book shaped cake with his most famous character, the Cat in the Hat. (The edges are paper and a book binding)

To The Frick

2011-02-27T09:35:00.004-05:00

What to do on a gloomy Thursday in Pittsburgh? Why go to The Frick of course. The Frick is a local museum housing art, architecture and classic cars and carriages belonging to the Frick Family. The Frick Family amassed their fortune by being business partners with the illustrious Carnegie Family. (Apparently the partnership did not end well, I don't know much but I have a book requested at the library to learn more.)
I don't have any pictures because cameras are not allowed in the museums, but the collection was very interesting. This family had some SERIOUS money! A few items I saw were statues from the gardens of Versailles, some of Marie Antoinette's furniture and a plethora of paintings from many distinct art periods. The traveling exhibit was 4 centuries of French drawings, very interesting as I am currently taking a drawing class.
Adam behaved WONDERFULLY at the museum. Some of the docents even came up to comment on it. He just quietly stared at the artwork, somehow innately knowing this was not a place for touching.
All of the "museuming" works up quite an appetite so we headed a few blocks away to a restaurant that had been recommended by many people. For good reason too! The atmosphere was very relaxed and chic with bistro food.

Adam ordered the restaurant's specialty Brugge Frites with basil mayonnaise. The waitress was doubtful and offered to bring ketchup instead, but as you can see he loved the basil:

Tommy ordered a bleu cheese bacon burger which was very tasty:

I ordered a french dip sandwich with horseradish spread. We all left very full and very happy.

A day in the life of Adam

2011-02-22T14:15:00.003-05:00

Every day with Adam gets more interesting. His personality is really starting to develop which is so exciting. I love seeing him grow into who he is going to be.
For a while now, order has been very important to him. It isn't necessarily order that makes sense to Tommy and me, but it makes sense to Adam. Here are a few of the items Adam organized today.
The green blocks get organized everyday. He likes to walk them around them house and organize them into lines.

We played out in the snow today, since Adam doesn't have any boots he had to wear his shoes which of course leaves them very wet. I put them on the radiator to dry out but this is not where Adam thought they should go. Here is where I found them a few hours later:

I give Adam a cup of water to just carry around everyday. That way he can get a drink of water when he needs it. He is of course, quite fastidious about putting the cup away when he isn't using it. It took me quite a while to find it this time:

This is simply a picture of Elmo that we have been drawing today:

"I for one welcome our new computer overlords"

2011-02-18T10:00:00.005-05:00

Watching Jeopardy is a family activity we do everyday. Adam has enjoyed watching this program from a very young age. At first he responded to the blue fields it made on our TV, now he actively participates in the show.
We have been looking forward to the IBM Watson challenge for quite a while. I was amazed both at what Watson could do, and couldn't do. Tommy and I were a little disappointed not to see some of the harder categories during the games, like rhyme time and before and after. None the less we really enjoyed the 3 day challenge and hats off to Watson for winning.

When I say Adam participates I am not kidding. He will drop whatever he is doing to come watch Jeopardy the second he hears the theme song. He gets very excited at certain categories and he is very polite in clapping for the contestants. He claps every time they are interviewed and every time someone finds the Daily Double:

A random week in February....

2011-02-18T09:16:00.003-05:00

Though Tommy and I don't exchange anything with each other for Valentine's Day, I can't resist making some yummy treats. So I made some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting, then Adam and I made some chocolate candy toppers to stick on top.

Tommy also bought Adam his first Wii game this week as well. It is an Elmo game and comes with its very own wiimote cover with Elmo's face. It is way advanced for Adam, but he loves seeing Elmo.

We also took a WONDERFUL walk to the library this week. I must have been smiling like a goof ball because some of the crossing guards commented on how happy I looked. haha
Anyhow, while at the library I was picking out some cd's for us to listen to and Adam walked over to the young adult books. Which was fine, until he started to pull a book off the shelf which he is not allowed to do. I walked over to find:

I just had to check it out. Shauna, Alissa and I used to devour these books when I was a kid, and we were just talking about them on Facebook last week. So of course my kid would walk right over to them and pick one out.

Giant Eagle Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T14:02:00.004-05:00

Most of our friends know that Tommy and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. So I went about my chores as usual today, which included going grocery shopping at Giant Eagle. I couldn't resist taking pictures of some of the displays they had set up.

They of course had the obligatory candy and flowers section, and the bakery had many offerings of course...but the other displays I found were much more creative.

In Pennsylvania only state run stores can sell liquor or wine, which is usually front and center for V-day as well. Giant eagle had a huge display instead of whipped cream, chocolate milk and sparkling apple and grape juices. Brilliant!

But the best display award goes to the meat and seafood department. They had a whole display of surf and turf ingredients packaged in heart containers. They also had the chefs on had giving leasons on how to prepare the meal as well.

Yes! It's done!

2011-02-10T11:21:00.003-05:00

I have finally purchased my new meat thermometer! I was in desperate need of one.
Here is a chicken roasted the Julia Child way. Don't you just love it? It sits on its side for the bulk of the time in the oven, just lounging like a sunbather:

Here is the finished product. Isn't it beautiful? Trust me it was very very scrumdidilyumptious!

Here is a video of my new thermometer counting down to the chicken being done....in French! This is one high tech thermometer that estimates cooking time left, has coded colors for what temperature your meat is at and is preset with USDA cooking requirements. It even has a reminder to baste....in French! haha You can choose English, but that didn't sound nearly as much fun.

Superbowl Sunday

2011-02-07T11:17:00.006-05:00

It has been a long hard journey, but I think I'm finally becoming a Steeler fan. Make no mistake, when push comes to shove I am for the Seahawks all the way....but living in a Steeler family and in Pittsburgh has given me a new appreciation for this team.
Unfortunately, the Steelers did lose but I still think it was a fun game to watch. As far as I'm concerned that game was Football 101, you can't win the game if you can't hold on to the ball. I don't care what team you are or which game it is, it is hard to win when you have 3 turnovers.
Of course, for me Superbowl Sunday is very much about the food too!
I have been waiting for a good occassion to make this cake:

Adam and I went to Brooke and John's house to watch the game. There aren't too many pictures of us because once the game started I was more interested in it, but Adam and I had a great time.

Of course I did find time to take a picture of the food! Many yummy snacks were eaten.

Man Cave, Shman Cave

2011-02-03T15:42:00.005-05:00

All the rage right now is the "man caves", but I say "puh". Nothing beats the fort that Adam and I built today.

Of course any good cave must have guards at the door. Ours come in the form of Luke and Dinomite.

Raise the roof!

"Mom, I've got this corner finished!"

Drawing Class 201

2011-02-03T15:32:00.003-05:00

My drawing classes have finally begun again! I am having a great time as usual. I have the same teacher again and 3 of us from the last class signed up again.
This semester my teacher is letting me explore the world of watercolor pencils. I have never particularly enjoyed watercolor because there is a very narrow window of error. However, my preferred oil paints just don't travel very well or work very well with Adam running all over the house.
The drawing isn't perfect, I didn't spend a lot of time on proportion because I wanted to have lots of time to color/paint with the teacher there. All in all though, I am enjoying the watercolor pencils.

Piratefest 2011

2011-02-01T08:02:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday we went to Piratefest! Our whole family is now ready for baseball season! The lines for autographs were a little long, but I thought the rest was fairly manageable. They had lots of games you could play to win a Pirates prize, the money going towards Pirate Charities. They also had a pirogi eating contest, but it was a lottery and Tommy unfortunately didn't get picked. In hindsight we are kind of glad, the man who won ate 18 pierogues in 3 minutes! Yuck!

Our friends were able to come with us as well which made it that much more fun. Here are Jackson and Adam playing bean bag toss at the Giant Eagle booth:

Jackson and Adam both colored some wonderful pirate masks as well:

The Mommies and the boys took some pictures in the Pirate Charity photo booth. Adam was not fond of it and started squirming immediately which all but knocked Ashley and Jackson out of the booth. We'll have to practice on sitting still this season.

Picasso move over!

2011-01-28T12:32:00.004-05:00

What to do on a snizzly day like today? Play with finger paints of course. I've been wanting to try out my new neon food coloring since Christmas and today felt like the perfect day. So I made a batch of finger paints (don't worry when you see so much in his mouth, they are non-toxic) and got some paper out....let the fun begin!
We started off fairly civilized:

Then the fun really got going!

The next picture made a mid-day bath a neccessity:

"Mom, my first masterpiece is complete!"

All done. At this point he is saying "up" over and over. I didn't really want to pick him up, hahaha! Straight to the bath with you my child!

Rubritz Family Christmas

2011-01-26T08:27:00.005-05:00

This past weekend the entire Rubritz Family (minus Tommy) converged on Hagerstown for Rubritz Family Christmas. Yes, Christmas is still going! haha
This is our stick-figure family:

We started off the weekend by going to lunch at a wonderful German restaurant. Paul and Jake ordered some of the largest beers I have ever seen! The food and company were both wonderful!

Another staple of the weekend is the Tupperware White Elephant exchange. These three lovely ladies are showing off what they won. I myself commandeered some holiday party supplies!

The two best reactions during the gift exchange go to Adam and Izzy!
Here is Adam opening his present. Seconds after this picture was taken he burst out crying, unfortunately my camera wasn't quick enough to capture it. He has since decided that his dinosaur pillow isn't so scary and he constantly hugs it.

Izzy's reaction was the polar opposite, with her moving so fast my camera couldn't keep up and her exclaiming "this is the best day ever!" after receiving some super cool Michael Jackson gear.

All in all it was a very fun weekend and I was excited to finally get to attend Rubritz Family Christmas after years of missing it.

Tommy, Julie and Adam

Happy Valentine's Day (part 2)

Happy Valentine's Day

Mmmmm, Crock-pot cooking

Let's Go Bake a Cake.....

A new addition to the family

Support our troops!

Let's compare shall we....

Dance Class

Adam says "Ta-da"!

Rubritz Family Christmas

Baby Girl's Shower with the Rubritz women

A well deserved treat

See you in April....

Merry Christmas!

The best thing I ever...

Bakin' up a storm

Look for someone you know....

Party! Party! Party!

He's a maniac, maniac!

Lil' Lumpalina

Yum Yum

'Dogs, a dog and Christmas

It's a GIRL

Kathleen and Mike's Baby Shower

Thanksgiving, DuBois style

The big question

Sharing Childhood Sparkles

Congratulations Adam!

Human Truths

Finger Painting, kind of

Wish us luck!

Happy Halloween!

SeaWorld

Disney Parks and Attractions

Big To-Do's!

Walt Disney World

Part 3 - Kennewick

Part 2

Westward Ho! Part 1

Birthday week concludes...

Adam is turning 2!

Ahhhhh!

Four Generations of Rubritz

Dana & Patrick's Wedding Celebration

The A Team

Exploring the Great Outdoors

Wii Baseball

Sandcastle

Heinz Field Tour

Triple B Farms

Pool, pizza & party day!

First Harvest

Oh Boy....

Pool Day!

Move over Mt Vesuvius

Happy Birthday Tommy & U.S.A.

Summer of Science

Lisa Clay Styles Memorial 5k

Monster Mush

Thank you Huey!

Liver Life Walk 2011

Upper St Clair Community Days

A world of no....

This post may not be for everyone....you are hereby warned

Liver Life Walk

Happy Mother's Day

Susan G Koman Race for the Cure

http://pittsburgh.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/PIT_PittsburghAffiliate?px=5448473&pg=personal&fr_id=2088Last chance to donate!!!

Crayola Crayon Factory

Franktuary!

Time to Dye Eggs!

Happy Easter

It is just too cute....

Happy 4th Anniversary

Dye-ving Eggs

For it's 1, 2, 3 Strikes your out...

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks....

Take me out to the ball game...

The Tale of the 26 hour bread

http://pittsburgh.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/PIT_PittsburghAffiliate?px=5448473&pg=personal&fr_id=2088
Last chance to donate!!!