Know What You're Making for Dinner Tonight?

Please allow me and Cal to make a suggestion. In keeping with our goal to make dinner together, I've been trying to come up with some easy, basic recipes to throw together. I got the idea for BBQ chicken pizza from Reed's colleague, who had us over for a BYU football game and served delicious homemade pizza.

But first, we started with a pumpkin pie. I just used the recipe on the side of the Libby's can. Didn't even make my own crust. Like I said, BASIC. But with expectations as low as mine, things usually turn out just fine! :)

Here's cal stirring the pumpkin pie mix:

And here's where I tried to take the whisk away from him:

"Don't try that again, Mommy."

The recipe for the pizza is just as easy. First, start with a pizza dough recipe. I have one I like, but I'm not married to it. Find one that you like.

Four ingredients: 1. Cooked, shredded chicken, 2. BBQ sauce, 3. Mozzarella cheese, 4. Red onion.

Bake at whatever temp & time the pizza dough itself calls for. All the toppings are, of course, pre-cooked.

Doesn't it look yummy?

Cal's pumpkin pie wasn't too shabby, either:

I am definitely not a gourmet cook, but I love consistently making a yummy meal, even if it is simple. This one was a winner, and the process of making it brought Cal and me a little closer together. And in a world of egg-smashing Tuesday mornings, we need those happy moments!

Making Dinner Together

There is an annoying tendency among Mommy-Bloggers to paint a rosier-than-reality picture when talking about life. So maybe you'll be extra skeptical about the happy times we've been having together as a family lately. So be it.

I've been trying to have Cal help me make dinner every night. It's a fun way for us to work on a project together, and I can tell he feels really important for being allowed to help. Also, it's nice knowing he's not making a mess in the other room (because he's making a mess with ME!).

This particular night, Cal and I made a special Italian dinner for Daddy, just because we thought it would be fun. Here is a picture of Cal counting out the meatballs:

On a side note, I LOVE basil. That was part of a Caprese salad. If you haven't made/eaten Caprese before, it is (a) one of the easiest things you can possibly make, (b) so flipping delicious, and (c) makes you look a little bit fancy. I highly recommend it.

We were really proud of Cal, because he dug right into his vermicelli pasta and meatballs. He tends toward pickiness. (Well, in truth, all he wants to eat is juice, but I get scared saying that because people always seem to reply, "That's a sign of autism." I'm POSITIVE Cal is not autistic--believe me, I've asked about the juice thing.) Anyway, he's been a better eater lately, and I think it has more to do with me being a more confident mommy-cook than about his preferences changing. We do, however, still have to say no to juice several times a day.

After dinner, we made a family activity out of the dessert: Apple-pie Caramel Apples. YUM. Here is Cal, counting the apples:

"One, two, three.....one, two THREE!" (Not six yet, just two rows of three, but I'll take it.)

Look how silly, chubby and proud he looks right here:

I can't even stand it, it makes me so happy.

We let him lick the caramel off of the mixing fork:

And then gave him a proper taste of dessert:

The recipe turned out well, and I'll remember this night as a truly fun time the three of us got to spend together. I know not every night will be like this one, but if I put a little more effort forward, and if I learn how to say no to other less important things, our family can have nights like this more often. And to me, that's a goal worth striving for.

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight, Heather came over to help us carve pumpkins with Cal. Can you believe that tonight was Cal's third time carving pumpkins? He was certainly much more involved this time around. We started by cutting a hole in the top of the pumpkin:

Cal immediately saw the danger in the situation and took appropriate precautions:

Next, we removed the guts...

Finally, Meg and Heather cut out the face.

"Sup?"

Heather's dog Winnie was very cooperative throughout the entire photo shoot. Cal...not so much.

We warned Cal not to touch the pumpkin because it was hot. Fortunately, he had a solution: blow on the pumpkins until it cooled down again.

Trunk-or-Treating

This past Saturday, our ward had its trunk-or-treat activity. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, "trunk or treating" is an event held at my church where you park your car, decorate the back, and pass out candy as the kids trick-or-treat from trunk to trunk. I'll be honest, when I was little, I thought trunk-or-treating was a tad lame. I mean, I totally went and had a good attitude (those of you who knew me as a teenager are probably surprised to hear that), and even have awesome memories with friends--particularly Kerry. But I don't know, it never felt like REAL trick-or-treating.

Years later, on THIS side of the activity, I am so relieved that trunk-or-treating is not like real trick-or-treating. So much safer, more controlled, and actually MORE fun--it's like trick-or-treating with 100 people I know! I don't know if Cal felt the same, however...

We made the mistake of putting Cal down for a nap just before the activity. As you can see, he was pretty resentful about being woken up and shoved in the car:

"I'm going as a surly teenager this year."

Also, I know his costume isn't a prize-winner, but darn it, I thought he looked cute as a little punk skeleton. His hair was spiked (thought it's kind of fine, so maybe you can't see it), and he wore his new black sneakers. I thought he looked pretty cool.

The grumpiness, unfortunately, lasted beyond the car trip. Here are pictures of both Reed and me trying to cheer him up before the festivities began:

Not happening.

All the kids did a little costume parade. Cal participated, walking around with me and Daddy, but with a scowl on his face the whole time. It was only when the first candy was plopped into his little "Happy Halloween" pail that his mood instantly improved.

"Wait, you just gave me candy...I see how this works!"

The rest of the activity looked like this:

I call this next one "Nerds Shot":

I also like that you can see my favorite part of his t-shirt: all the junk in his belly! (Nerds shot aside, he was not allowed to eat very much of his candy, a fact that tormented him.)

As the festivities were winding down, Cal ran into his friend Caleb, who was dressed as a pirate parrot, and the two passed a good 20 minutes running after an eyeball bouncy ball:

This next one better captures the sheer momentum of the activity:

I love that Cal has a little group of buddies to play with :)

Halloween Activities!

I'm trying to turn little things into activities Cal and I can do together. This week, with Halloween so close, it feels like there is a lot of ways to have Mommy-and-Cal fun.

Here are some of the ways we changed the house to make it special for Halloween:

Cal definitely dipped the spider (above) in his carnation instant breakfast shake this morning.

Cal's new best friend, Bat.

My wonderful mom sent me home from Redlands with all these fun decorations.

Thank you, Mom!

The Jack-o-lantern has a little battery-operated light inside. Cal is VERY interested.

We've been celebrating Halloween in other ways, too, namely, funfetti Halloween cupcakes!

Cal gets really focused when mixing. I love it!

Cal was really interested in arranging the cupcake liners, and I was happy to let him work on it for about 10 minutes:

Then he took a few out and rearranged them. Very thorough, Cal:

Today, we frosted them. (I highly recommend turning cupcakes into two separate activities. One day, mix and bake, and the next day, frost and decorate. Two stones, one bird.)

Here's Cal with his little baby knife.

At first, I just shook some sprinkles on his plate and let him sprinkle them onto the cupcakes a pinch at a time:

Then he got a taste of one (they don't even taste that great!):

And the activity was pretty much halted in its tracks:

Here is our plate of [heavily-sprinkled] Halloween cupcakes:

A while back, our friend Megan (yes, another Megan) told us about how they let their two-year-old son make a "special" tiny pancake for his Daddy on father's day. Reed thought it was the sweetest, coolest thing and talked about it a lot. So ever since then, I've made an effort to encourage Cal to make "special" things for Daddy. Here is a picture of the cupcake Cal made for Reed, and it is extremely special:

Happy Halloween, Cal! Good job decorating those cupcakes!