Seven Quick Takes

1. When we were vacationing in Montreal, we ordered a Nutella pizza for dessert at an Italian place. Claire was beyond thrilled.

So for the feast of her patron saint on Monday, we recreated it at home. I made enough dough for a half-size pizza, brush it with a little melted butter and baked it at 500 for ten minutes. Then I topped the crust with 1/4 cup of Nutella, sprinkled on a little powdered sugar, and served it with fresh strawberries. Maggie was a pretty big fan too.

2. Remember how swim lessons didn't seem like they'd work out this summer? Well, in a surprising but very exciting turn of events, we've been very busy learning to swim this week! Adam's Aunt Gail is a swim instructor in Florida, but she's in Seattle for two weeks helping out a fellow swim instructor friend. She's been really generously squeezing the girls into empty spaces in her schedule. Maggie is just getting exposed to the water (she's too young to do much, especially since she's not a crawler) but Claire has been learning a ton! Way more than she would have ever learned at the Y.

3. We had arranged a babysitter one evening this week so we could go to our newlywed small group at church. When swim lessons unexpectedly kept our mornings busy, we asked her to come over an hour earlier so we could have a dinner and groceries date at Costco. What a glamorous life we lead, right? It was actually really nice and something we would for sure consider doing more often. I told y'all last week about my plans to spend the bare minimum on groceries and this trip's total was $86.57 for:

Produce - bananas, apples, strawberries, cherries, corn

Pantry - two loaves of whole wheat bread, two jars of natural peanut butter, one pound block of Tillamook cheddar, four cartons of orange juice

Toiletries & etc - diaper wipes 

 

4. Of course, this is has meant that I have to make a lot of stuff from scratch that I'd normally just buy. This week, I used Tess' fantastically easy pie crust recipe for quiche and Molly Wizenberg's for granola. I also made a double batch of applesauce. And instead of throwing away the rest of the parsley bunch (I just need a bit to make red beans & rice) I whipped up some pesto.

5. Adam's camping trip was a success! He and three friends stayed in a camp site near Mount Rainier national park. They left after work on Friday, spent all Saturday hiking, and were home that evening. It's kind of pretty over there...

6. I think Claire is slowly phasing out naps. She only napped twice this week! I'm wondering if that was mainly due to not getting as much physical activity - we were at swim lessons most of the week, but we spent much more of the morning driving than actually swimming. In the winter it will be harder to get enough running-around-time as well and I'm worried that naps might not last until she turns three in March. It's really not the worst thing. She's shown no desire to climb out of her crib and happily chats to her doll for an hour before I finally give up on napping. And then she goes to bed earlier at night, so the kid-free time evens itself out. I'm hoping I can enforce some sort of quiet time when naps are phased out completely.

7. I'm finally climbing aboard the internet-consignment train. I sold two things on Twice for a $25 credit, so I'm off to spend the rest of nap time browsing their site and deciding what to spend it on.



Have a wonderful weekend, you guys! Go see Jen for more quick takes.