Valentine’s Day is for lovers…and crafters…and eaters (14 ideas for celebrating)

January 30, 2014 By

I have decided there is no more polarizing holiday than Valentine’s Day. When I took an informal poll from my Facebook friends about how they celebrate the holiday, I felt like a Seahawk in a field of stampeding Broncos. I received a few helpful suggestions but mostly I was lambasted at even the thought of celebrating.

And that made me pretty sad. Whatever your relationship status, Valentine’s Day should be about love. Not just romantic love but motherly love. Sibling love. Love of self. Lover of chocolate. (Note: the last two are unremittingly linked).

So, whether you’re the Grinch that sulked on Valentine’s Day or you’re a lover at heart (ha, get it?), don’t miss these 14 ideas that will keep you swooning.

Click to keep reading.

Filed Under: Foodie, holidays Tagged With:

Mannering the Table

January 29, 2014 By

I recently posted the following status update on Facebook:

My kids think they’re on Fear Factor. Tonight’s episode: bell peppers. #OhTheDinnerDrama

They have only a few vegetables they will willingly eat. However, I made chicken noodle soup and they couldn’t get enough of it. I didn’t bother to point out to them that it contained (gasp) celery, (gasp) carrots and (gasp) onions, which are classified as vegetables. As he downed his last drop of soup, Bode let out a nice, satisfied burp, which I took as a compliment.

Jamie thought otherwise.

Bode: “If I burp, that means I’m full. Or finished.”

Jamie: “Or rude.”

I’ll take it.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Ying and Yang (as overheard in the kitchen)

January 28, 2014 By

9-year-old Hadley: “Bode, what ARE you doing?”

7-year-old (going on 50) Bode: “Taking precautions.”

Unrelated on a different day: The kids decided to play horse.

There was a definite winner and loser in this game.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

Colorado Family Travel: Breckenridge’s Ice Castles, Skiing and Dog Sledding are an Adventure of a Lifetime!

January 27, 2014 By

My husband and I dream of owning a cabin someday and Breckenridge has long been at the top of our list.  Only a 1.5-hour drive from Denver (I-70 traffic snares notwithstanding) this authentic mining town has everything I love: a world-class ski resort, the Blue River (a tributary of the raging Colorado River), an idyllic Main Street, gourmet dining, glittering boutiques, endless hiking possibilities and it is part of an 80-mile network of paved, motorized bike paths that connect other Summit County resorts like Dillon, Keystone, Copper Mountain and Vail.

We have spent long, languid summer and fall days in Breck but here’s my confession: we have never been there once the snow flies. And if you love winter like I do, you know that Breckenridge is one of Colorado’s best family vacations.

When you have young kids, no vacation is perfect but we were fortunate to have a nearly perfect trip with huge winds (the downside), huge snow totals (the upside) and knocking off an activity has been on my bucket list since I was born. Maybe I started dreaming about it in the

Dog sledding in Breckenridge, Colorado

womb because this trip was what dreams are made of.

If you’re looking for a fantastic getaway in Colorado’s mountains, these are my top recommended activities.

Click to keep reading about our fabulous adventures dog sledding, Ice Castle-ing, shopping and skiing!

Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel, skiing, travel Tagged With: , , , , ,

Just say “no” to rabbit food

January 22, 2014 By

We have been following a healthy eating regemin for several months now.  Sure, we still have our indulgences but overall, our eating habits have improved. And get this–the girl who used to get sick every six weeks hasn’t been sick in ages. Turns out what we put in our bodies has a huge impact on our body’s immune system (who knew?) and avoiding processed junk bodes very well for mine.

Something I’ve been eating a lot of for lunch is roasted veggies with a quinoa and bean combination. Y’all can eat yours raw or steamed but I’m all about roasting them in succulent gourmet olive oils and seasoned vinegars. And funky combinations, too. Roasted tumeric rutabaga. Garlic-roasted honey parsnips and carrots. Sweet potatoes with cinnamon-pear balsamic vinegar. Roasted butternut squash with garlic olive oil, apples and onions.

The other night, I made a salad. I haven’t been eating many salads because they make me hungry but I figured Our Best Bites’ Thai Chicken Salad was beefy (or chicken-y) enough to account for a meal. It wasn’t. Though I served a multi-grain roll on the side, Jamie snarfed his down and promptly went into the kitchen to make himself an omelet.

My Grandpa Wilde was a farmer so meat and potatoes were his staple. My mom recently told me of a time my grandma made him a (gasp) salad. He took one look at it, stormed out the door and went to his mom’s for a “proper meal.”

Jamie is not the kind of guy who will ever complain about my cooking but I knew he wasn’t pleased.

“What’s the deal, James? What’s wrong with our healthy and delish dinner?”

“I’m not saying anything is wrong with healthy stuff. What I’m saying is rabbits are small creatures.”

 

 

Filed Under: Foodie, Humor, Jamie

The Ice Castles in Breckenridge: An Overload of Frozen Magic

January 21, 2014 By

I love to surprise my kids and they love being surprised, which is a win-win for everyone.

A couple of weeks ago, we had one of our favorite winter vacations ever in Breckenridge, Colo., a charming resort that is the very definition of Ski Town USA. I’ll have many more details to come on our adventures dog sledding and skiing but it was our first day that was my favorite.

Now, keep in mind we’d just spent a very exhilarating afternoon dog sledding but Jamie and I had one more surprise up our sleeves. The kids were tired and it’s tough to compete with mushing.

“Mom, so where are we going for our surprise?”
“I’m not telling. Be here’s a hint: the movie, Frozen.”
“Ice castles? Are we going to see ICE CASTLES?”

My kids nailed it on the first guess. And much to our delight, the giant Ice Castles in Breck are a cut right out of Disney’s musical fantasy where you’ll swear you’ve been swept away in an eternal winter with magic at every turn. Disclaimer: mangy reindeer named Sven not included.

This is Brent Christensen’s fifth year building Ice Castles and his third go-around in Colorado (previous years were in Silverthorne and Steamboat). Conveniently located at 150 W Adams Ave. in downtown Breck adjacent to Blue River Plaza, the 1-acre frozen kingdom gives you yet another reason to visit this world-class resort town.

So, how do they do it? According to Christensen, each ice castle takes thousands of man-hours to make. More than 5,000 icicles are “grown” each day to be harvested and sculpted together. Newly placed icicles are then drenched in freezing water once or twice each day. The blend of icicle placement, changing temperatures, water volume and wind result in an astonishing and ever-changing variety of ice formations. Each ice castle uses about three million gallons of water to build and maintain. Wasteful? The Ice Castle is located next to a natural water source (the Blue River) and so all of the water returns directly into the environment to be used again by wildlife, people and plants.

I’m Canadian so I know snow and ice but there is something awe-inspiring about seeing the castle all lit up with the lighting actually frozen inside of the ice. My family visited late in the day when the ice takes on glacial tones of deep blue.

Blue Smurf Family

Smurfette

With the Ice Castles’ winding passageways, it was the perfect place to play hide-and-seek or, even more fun, Ditch the Mom.

I rounded the corner to see these three devious faces grinning back at me.

We bundled up in our ski clothes and returned later that night (your ticket is valid all day) to a luminous crystalline display.  I pointed my iPhone up and snapped back-to-back photos of the ever-changing play of light.

Ice Castle Rainbow

Ice Castle Pretty in Pink

We loved “warming” ourselves by the fire.
If it is possible to do that through a wall of icicles.
The Ice Castles are  an ephemeral work-in-progress and will continue to be expanded upon throughout the season. At the time of our visit, the “artists” were working on a ramp that would lead to the top of the castle with a slide for a quick and thrilling way down.
My kids’ favorite part was a tunnel that cut through a wall of ice.  I’m not really claustrophobic but when I saw them shimmying through the tiny space, visions of Pooh Bear danced in my head. Getting stuck in ice was not my idea of a good time but I ultimately sucked it up because I didn’t want to be that mom who wouldn’t try new things.
My fears were unfounded–though the tunnel’s quarters were narrow, I slithered through just fine. Initially starting out on my stomach I flipped to my back which I later regretted when I started the slow downhill slide and was ejected onto the snowy floor.  I reassured myself that if I did get stuck, surely a blowtorch would help me out.
Though I’m unsure if that is a good or bad thing.

 Cost

General Admission, age 12 and up:    $10. Children 4 to 11: $8. Young Children under 4 years old:  Free. Military / Seniors: $8 (must show ID). Season pass: $30

 

Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel, outdoors, skiing Tagged With: , ,

Giant pumpkin growing: the season that never ends

January 15, 2014 By

Lest you think pumpkin season is over, I’m here to tell you it’s never over. Last month, Jamie had a holiday party with his buddies from the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers Group.

It’s not uncommon to see him sorting through his extensive pumpkin seed collection because he gets year-round seed requests from all over the world.

He recently had some packages from Amazon delivered. I didn’t bother to query about the first but when the second one arrived, I asked:

“What’s in the packages?”
“You should know better than to ask me that this time of year.”
“Oh really? I thought we weren’t getting each other gifts because we’re saving for Maui.”

Busted. He had purchased new grow lights and a seedling heat mat.

Nope, you can’t make this stuff up.

A curious phenomenon regularly occurs in our house: dishes go missing. It took me a while to realize what was going on and it started when my cookie sheets disappeared for a month. I don’t know about you but a month without baking cookies due to missing cookware is equal to grand larceny.

Where were they? I eventually discovered he had been using them to dry out his seeds in the storage room.

A few months ago, I had commented to him:

“I wonder what happened to all of our small dessert plates? We only have one left. Do you think the kids did something with them?”

“Probably.”

Then, the other day I discovered this in my kitchen sink: my good dishes had mysteriously returned, covered in dirt.

I didn’t ask, he didn’t tell. Sometimes it’s just better not to know.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

How You Know You’re Raising a Geek Part 1,204

January 14, 2014 By

I’m going to start a series on How You Know You’re Raising a Geek. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s quite delightful and never boring because Bode’s mind is always working, thinking, evaluating and analyzing. I find it fascinating because I just don’t work like that. I can look up at the pink clouds and think, “Wow, they sure are pretty today and look like cotton candy” and he’ll make some comment that clouds turn pink because sunlight travels at a greater distance through the atmosphere at dusk. Ummm, OK, kid.

One of his favorite things is quizzing me about everything and everything, particularly his space books.

“Mom, how many dwarf planets are there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Mom, we’ve been over this before.”

The kid is learning that my long-term memory is about 20 seconds before it is deleted from my internal hard drive forever. I fear the day he discovers Trivial Pursuit.

He got the book Time for Kids Top 5 of Everything, which is perfect for a human kid computer with trivia quizzes on everything from the five youngest Presidents to the most popular names for dogs. As he was reading the book, he announced “They got it wrong.”

“Got what wrong?”

“The moons on Jupiter. They say they are 53 but there are actually 63.”

“Bode, I think they thoroughly researched it and you’re mistaken.”

But he was insistent so I Googled it and sure enough, there are 63 moons on Jupiter. Take THAT, Time magazine!

And then a recent incident. He was asking me how many minutes are in a day and then how many seconds (thank goodness for calculators) but then as we were walking to the bus, he asked if we could go to the library so he could check out some books on recycling and maps.

That kid of mine is ‪#‎7GoingOn70‬.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Geek in Training: The Schedule Edition

January 13, 2014 By

I have a lot of blog posts in the pipes about Bode these days. The reason? Pumpkin season is over so I can’t mock Jamie, Hadley has been pretty low-key juggling volleyball and school but that boy-man Bode makes me laugh. Constantly. The funny thing is he isn’t trying to be funny; he’s just being himself. But his big, bad self is a 50-year-old dude wrapped up in a 7-year-old package.

Case in point: he got a cold last week. Before bedtime, Jamie gave him some cough medicine and a few minutes later, Bode came into my room and whacked my bed.

“What do you need?”
“NOBODY TUCKED ME IN.”

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I don’t want to drag myself out of my warm bed but their childhood is fleeting so I always do it and never regret saying prayers with them and their bedtime kisses.

After I tucked him in, he was hacking away and I informed him I was going to let him sleep in and when he woke up we’d determine if he was well enough to go to school. A few minutes after I tucked him in, he summoned me back to his room.

“I have figured out my schedule for tomorrow.”

“Your schedule?”

“Yes. At 8:15 a.m. I will do my spelling test and then at 8:30 a.m. we will do reading. Next is a 5-minute break and we will start math.”

And you know what? He stayed home sick and stuck to his schedule. Heaven forbid he should miss a day of school.

I’ve got a newsflash to my little geek in training: Just watch TV, Dude.

XO

Your Mom
She Who Cherished Every Sick Day Home From School

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Hygiene, Shmygiene

January 9, 2014 By

What you don’t want to hear after your son is bundled up and needs to go to the bathroom:

“Don’t worry, Mom. I went without taking my gloves off!”

Filed Under: Bode, Humor
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