happy easter!

Missing my bebes today and the usual Easter festivities. The ham’s in the oven but there’s no one to dye eggs with :(

That one was a few years ago. I remember Andrew kept trying to knock the mugs over so he was not involved..

Here's what Shawn and I sent them this year for a little Easter fun:

A homemade game of memory. We split them up and drew half each, can you guess whose is whose? ;) I backed them with green cardstock. These kids are way too good at that game to have any sort of head start with see-through cards. Here’s Laina beating up on Shawn.

My dad used to let Drew get three flips per turn but promptly nipped that in the bud after Drew innocently asked him one day, “PePa do we have to keep playing until you win?”

We had a cooking fiesta last night after FINALLY going grocery shopping. I learned a great trick in all my blog reading about keeping a “stock bag” in the freezer. We’ve been putting leftover chicken bones and miscellaneous veggies in there (like the ends of carrots and celery that you would normally just throw out). So after scooping up some more ingredients from the store, we made a huge batch of chicken stock. I’ve always thought about making my own but never thought about it when I had the stuff on hand. It’s actually really easy, just takes a long time (poor planning = straining out chicken bones at midnight..). We froze it in a couple different size bags to use later. I’m thinking I’ll be making a soup with the leftover ham bone too.

While the stock was simmering, Shawn was busy with his favorite food: hotdogs. Well, this time it was bratwurst but they are both very dear to his heart. He grilled them up and fixed them three different ways. One with sauerkraut and horseradish mustard, one Caribbean style with grilled spiced mango, and one “classic” topped with ketchup and grilled mushrooms and onions. Delicious. I think I’m at my hotdog quota for life. Actually, that ham does have about two more hours of cook time...