Bunny Ears

This is a bit indulgent on my part, but Chloe was just so cute I had to include these Easter pictures.

The twins got a bunch of sweet gifts and Happy Easter wishes from the family. One of the items in a package from JoJo was a set of pink and blue bunny ears. Chloe loved them.

She like them so much she thought Leo needed to wear them too, so she tried to help him get the bunny ears on his puppy head.

She even put them on the next morning when she got up. PJs and bunny ears a perfectly coordinated outfit. Such a fashionista.

Egg Hunt Success

This year is the first time the twins participated in the Easter Egg Hunt. It was organized by our neighborhood home association, but they asked parents to volunteer to help pull it off.

Carl picked up coffee and I volunteered to hide the eggs. Between me and two other Moms we hid about 450 eggs for a little over 30 kids. As we got to the park to hide eggs some of the older kids (you know 7 and 8 year-olds) started sneaking around to check out where we hid the eggs. I know I seem like the crazy egg nazi, but some kids asked to help hide eggs and I guess I should have let them but it seems wrong to be the hider and hunter. Anyway, we had so many eggs a ton of them were just laying out in the open grassy field and not really hidden.

After "hiding" eggs I headed back home to get Carl, my Mom and the twins for the big hunt. Since there were so many eggs just laying on the ground I couldn't keep Chloe from grabbing one before the hunt even started.

To start, they had all the kids line up at the far end of the field to count down before they could take off. Once again as the crazy egg nazi, does this really seem fair to pit the 7 and 8 year-olds (who basically cheated and watched the eggs being hidden) in a foot race against toddlers who just learned to walk. I don't know how Chloe and Connor even walked away with any eggs.

Connor did great at the hunt. He held onto GiGi's hand to get started and then grabbed eggs and dropped them into his little basket. Too cute!

Chloe did OK with the egg hunt. Once she found one or two eggs she lost interest. However, she fell in love with the Eater Bunny.

Overall a complete success for our very first Easter Egg Hunt!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party at the Arboretum

We live very near the Dallas Arboretum. Not only do we love to visit, but I am a volunteer there. Usually I work in the information booth, but today they requested special volunteer service from me. The Women's Council of the Arboretum had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party fund raiser and I dressed as Alice.

They actually closed off the regular entrance to visitors, set it up with tables and tents to have the fancy event up at the front of the Arboretum. There was a little bit of a drizzle, but the event looked beautiful.

Everyone who attended wore hats and these guys made pretty fancy ones.

Everyone seemed really excited to see the Alice in Wonderland characters and I'm happy I could help out, but next time I'd rather attend the event and have a glass of champagne!

Lucky

Yesterday we hosted our second twin play group. My intention was to take pictures and blog about the play group, but seriously, things are just a little more complicated with three sets of twins running around. Of course there were two other Moms there and Maria, thank heavens, but there were still kids everywhere in addition to watching my two to make sure they were doing OK. So I didn't get any pictures. You can "close window" now if you wanted pictures, all I have today is observations.

First of all, I love how open my son is to new experiences. He squealed when the kids arrived for play group. Not to leave Chloe out, she was excited too, but Connor yelled like Brave Heart and prepared for the onslaught with a happy sneer. At our last group we had more girls, but this one was dominated by boys. They were a few months older than Connor but he was happy to join in and show them how to destroy when the time came. All and all a wonderful play group for Connor.

The surprise, break-out personality from this play group happen to be Maria. She loves the twins and is very protective and proud. As we played in the back yard, another mother brought out crackers as a snack. Maria quickly arrived with apple bites for all the kids and water for Connor and Chloe. I think she just preferred a healthy snack.

There was one other adorable girl at play group wearing a yellow dress and leggings, perfect for spring. A butterfly flitted around her and landed on the patio beam right next to her. I commented that the butterfly was attracted to her and her pretty yellow dress. Then, after a beat, Maria delicately snatch the butterfly by it's wings and brought it to Connor and Chloe to show them, telling them how to say "butterfly" before letting it fly away. She has a tiny bit of favoritism. I love it!

We were at the Arboretum last week and they had a petting zoo. The kids could grab a brush for goats and sheep and in a little bucket off to the side, they had a bunny (I do have a picture of the bunny).

When Connor and Chloe stopped brushing the other animals and headed over to the bunny, Maria reached into the bucket and gently shook the bunny so he was awake and active for the twins. Again, I love it. I would never do it, but Maria will not have a sleepy bunny on her watch.

My children are incredibly loved. I'm so happy to spend this time with them but also enormously grateful to have the help of someone who finds them as precious as I do. I'm a lucky woman in so many ways!

Make It My Own Scallops

So the recipe is call "Seared Scallops with Pancetta over Avocado and Wasabi." It actually sounds wonderful and if I was in a restaurant I'd order it. However the Swan household is not a restaurant and we don't strive to cook like one. There are two things I'm considering as and shop and make this meal: 1. How much does this cost and 2. Is this easy enough for me.

So this recipe became Seared Scallops with Charred Thick Cut Apple Wood Smoked Bacon over Guacamole Sauce. I got the scallops at Central Market. There were on special, but 4 jumbo scallops costs a little over $14. I looked over the pancetta, but it seemed so delicate and too expensive for any possible mistakes.

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend and mentioned I was trying this recipe and she said bacon sounded better than pancetta. I love bacon, so I went with that instead.

When I was growing up my Granddaddy was a big cook and he charred everything. Even the crispy charred bits of anything he made tasted like his love. I especially remember his crispy bacon. That's what I was going for but Carl thought it looked burned and it did. Even though the bacon was a little blackened it still tasted pretty good. Since I hadn't splurged on pancetta I could afford to toss out the first batch of bacon and start over, but I decided to go with my charred version.

The recipe called for fresh avocados and wasabi for the foundation sauce. I didn't want to half avocados and go to that much trouble, so instead I have a couple of Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie packs (Chloe loves guacamole) and I added lemon juice to that to thin it out a bit and used it as our base sauce.

Then I simply seared our scallops and dinner was done.

I've reluctantly included a picture. Since I used to be part of a team that shoots food photography I know this isn't the most appetizing shot, but it did taste good. I probably will make it again, the only change is I might try to add the wasabi to the guacamole. I'd call this dinner a success, but not an everyday meal.

Not Yet a Chef

Since I've been home we're watching the budget. That means I'm having to something I'm not very comfortable with or very good at: Cook.

For awhile I just kept making the 3 things I knew how to cook and variations on that

1. Spaghetti (or variation of chicken alfredo)
2. Tacos
3. Baked Chicken (varied based on the sauce)

Obviously it gets a little boring so I started searching for easy recipes to branch out our dinner options a bit. This week I've made Chicken Scaloppine and Seared Salmon on Wilted Spinach. Both turned out pretty good and the Chicken Scaloppine has been a great leftover for lunch.

Tonight I'm going to try Seared Scallops with Pancetta from a recipe off the Food Network site.

I'll let you know how it goes and maybe snap a shot of my version to see if it ends up looking anything like the one above.

Wish me luck.

Survived the Weekend

I snapped this shot of Chloe reading this morning so you can see she's as great as ever, but she did have  rough weekend. Our weekends are always full and entertaining, but this weekend was a bit more rough and tumble for Chloe. I'm just glad she made it through the weekend without a trip to the hospital.

Carl and I have been trying to find ways to fit exercise into our schedules, so on the weekends I like to take the jogging stroller to the lake for a run. We then spend some time at the playground before heading home.

This weekend we met another toddler, Jake, who was playing on the slide with us. He was a big boy for his age and was climbing up and down the stairs to the slide. Carl was up top with the twins and I headed to the bottom to catch them as they came out. Right when I was at the opening of the slide I hear a commotion, Carl yells, the other parents gasp, and then after a few moments I hear Chloe wail. She'd fallen down the stairs.

There were too many kids, tumbles happen, and she turned out to be just fine. It scared her (and us), we had to walk around and cry a bit and she ended up with a little bump on her head. It really could have been so much worse, I'm grateful she's OK.

Then that afternoon, we're playing around the house and Connor knocks over one of our side stacking tables which falls right on Chloe hitting her in the head. More screaming and tears, but she was fine once again except for a little bump on her cute nose.

You don't want your kids to get hurt, but bumps and bruises, falls and scratches happen all the time. You can't put them bubble wrap to keep them from getting hurt.

Carl and I promised each other to be more diligent about watching Chloe. Then Sunday, we're in the nursery putting on the kids shoes to head out and we have another accident. I have this goofy rain stick, it about as tall as a walking stick but thicker. It's hollow with beads inside that sound like rain when you turn it over. Connor had a hold of the rain stick and we were letting him play with it while we put shoes on. He let it go and it made a perfect arc so the tip of the other end hit Chloe on the head. Again we had wailing and tears and this time the rain stick left a hugh welt.

The welt went away before we even made it out of the driveway, but poor Chloe had a tough weekend. I'm glad we didn't do any permanent damage!

Dr. Visit - 18 Month Check Up

We had our 18 month visit with Dr. Neely today and the twins are awesome. Totally healthy and right on track.


Chloe = 21 lbs and 31 inches tall

Connor = 23 lbs and 32 inches tall

To keep the kids distracted the doctor gave them tongue depressors and of course they became amazing toys. After the doctor checked everyone out we had to wait to get our immunization shots, so Connor and Chloe decided to take up drumming .