Snow in Louisiana

It has snowed at our house all day long. In the four and a half years we've lived here, this has never happened. When it started this morning, I immediately took the kids outside - in their pajamas - to check it out. I fully expected it to have stopped by the time we left the house for the morning. I love how when I take pictures in the snow here, it just looks like it's gloomy and raining. If you look very closely, in the alcove to the front porch, you can make out some flakes.

See? There are a few stuck in Neely's hair.

And by lunchtime, it was coming down really hard. Now you can definitely tell it's snowing.

And there's the front of our house with snow coming down, and there's even a little bit accumulated in the flower bed. It's too bad there wasn't ever really enough to go out and play in it. Aidan has been dying to make a snow angel.

Aidan's Valentine

Aidan's class made Valentines on Monday at preschool. Today, they brought them home. This is, word for word, how Aidan wanted his addressed. What a booger!

When in Louisiana...

Did you think I was going to applaud the Saints? No way. I have not jumped on the bandwagon. Although, now I'm not likely to hear the end of this "Who dat?" mess for a while. Bummer.

Anyway, on to the point. I wanted to share a couple pictures of me (in case you've forgotten what I look like as a result of the fact that I almost never find myself in FRONT of the camera) and the kids in our Colts gear. And no, I did not find Colts t-shirts for my children here in North Louisiana. I had to make it...the night before Superbowl Day at the kids' school. Ah, procrastination. Some things never change.

Helper

One day, I'll have this to remind her of her earlier fervor for helping unload the dishwasher.

Experiment #2

It worked! I have no pictures, because my camera battery happens to be dead right now, but this morning I made applesauce muffins. The recipe calls for applesauce, lots of oats, and butternut squash puree. They totally have orange flecks throughout, and I expected that to throw Aidan off, but he ate them! And of course, Neely ate them. She's my awesome eater.

The only catch with Aidan is that I had to call them something other than their actual name. For example, when I make banana muffins, I add chocolate chips and tell him they're chocolate chip muffins. Otherwise, he wouldn't touch them. So today's muffins were called cinnamon streusel muffins. I just left out that yucky applesauce part. If he gets wind of a fruit or vegetable, he's gone.

This is exciting. My kids ate SQUASH for breakfast!

Experiment #1

Experiment number one was a fail. I made egg puffs with yellow squash puree baked into them. I ate one, and they were great, just like scrambled eggs, only a little fluffier, and I could only taste a hint of the squash. If I hadn't known what it was, I probably wouldn't have realized it was there.

In hindsight, egg puffs probably weren't a good idea. My initial thought was, "Oh, how adorable. They each get their own little ramekin. They'll love it!" Since I've never presented them with an egg puff for breakfast before, they were a little wary.

Neely probably would have eaten hers on a normal day (if it were dumped out of the cup and cut up to look like her scrambled eggs usually do), but she's been teething for a few days and her appetite isn't what it usually is.

After much coercion, Aidan tried one bite. If he didn't have this whole "I do not try new things" thing going on, he might have even admitted that he liked it. He sat at the table with it for a little while, but he never did eat any more of it. What did happen is that Neely climbed up in his chair and began beating it with the spoon. She's at this place where she really wants to try to use silverware, but she doesn't quite get it yet.

The only other problem with these is that the little ramekin stays hot for a good little while. Like I said before, I didn't totally think this one through. If you had kids a little bit older, it would probably work out great!

My next experiment will be muffins - something familiar, yet they'll be a little different. Hopefully, they'll go over better than the egg puffs.

I'm armed and ready...

...to try and trick my children (but mostly Aidan) into eating vegetables. I thought my pureeing days were gone when Neely outgrew baby food, but I spent the afternoon making a few to try some recipes from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious. The first experiment launches tomorrow morning at breakfast. I'll have my camera at the ready and pass along the results.