The Battle Rages On

The battle to get Etta accustomed to eating something other than breast milk rages on. After six weeks she finally likes rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, and sweet potatoes. She is still highly skeptical of apples and pears; the look she gets on her face when eating either one is that of someone who has just realized that they have swallowed a fatal poison. I gave her peas for the first time today and since she didn't give me 'the look' I have to assume that she tolerated them and maybe even LIKED them. Hooray for progress!

Yes, the peas were really that green.

Okay, so I'm kinda crazy . . .

So, this year I decided that Valentine's Day was going to be a fun family holiday aimed at creating a little bit of magic for Aven. She's at such a fun age and any deviation from the norm is very exciting for her. Since I really hate the corporate greed aspect of Valentine's Day I also decided that all gifts would be homemade (this came as a slightly unpleasant surprise to Ian- sorry Ian.)

So, after spending WAY too much time on Pinterest I came up with my three gift ideas:

A pack of cards for Ian. 52 cards with one thing on each card that we love about him. I had to translate Etta's and Grace's comments, but it all worked out.

I gathered all of Aven's old, broken crayons, chopped them into smaller pieces,  and made them into heart shaped, multicolored crayons. Fill a silicone baking mold with crayon pieces and bake at 225 for 15-20 minutes.

And for Etta May, a heart made of white fleece and red felt.

As if homemade gifts weren't enough I also decided that we were going to have a fun and fancy Valentine's dinner on Valentine's Day, because saving it for the weekend is for chumps. Also, it's not like I work full time and have two small children (what was I thinking?!).

We served the following foods in heart shapes: black bean burgers, carrots, and strawberries. Avocado is a little hard to make into a heart shape, so we just ate it as-is.

For dessert we had frosted sugar cookies and Ian's present to me: delicious homemade chocolate truffles in various flavors (raspberry, strawberry, anise, and mint).

 I would personally like to thank all the coconuts out there. I couldn't have made those cookies without coconut margarine and coconut milk. Coconut milk was also instrumental in the making of those truffles.

It was a lot of crazy preparation, but in the end it totally paid off. We all had a great time and it was so nice to have a celebration in the doldrums of late winter. I will definitely do my best to make this type of Valentine's celebration our family tradition.

Day Off

I took a personal day and went skiing with Ian for the first time since Spring of 2011. I was amazed, as always, with how free I feel when I ski. I don't know if there is any other time when I feel so light. Enjoy some cell phone pictures of our absolutely beautiful day at Brighton:

Looking toward Heber from the top of Snake Creek.

In the pow on Milly side.

On Millly side.

Milly really does have some of the best views on the mountain.

Ian.

Me, on the lift.


Can't wait to do it again.