The Seriously Serious Chef

The Seriously Serious Chef (Reed) has advanced past just bringing his own stool to the island to help cook. He's now started meal planning. (Praise the Lord! I hate meal planning worse than cooking.)

We were in the grocery store the other day and he literally jumped out of the cart trying to get to the "make your own strawberry shortcake" display. We didn't think much of it when he demanded to hold the package of shortcakes, but when he screamed hysterically as Jason took the cakes for a second to be scanned, we knew something was up. Not only did he carry the shortcakes to the car, he refused to get in the car without them. Then he held them the whole way home. We even stopped at Sonic, but he wasn't letting go of those cakes.

I finally got them away from him (when we got home) by promising to make strawberry shortcake right away. Which pleased the Master Chef immensely.

Oh , and if you're wondering if JR eats strawberry shortcake, the answer would be no. He informed us he'd take his strawberry shortcake with just "cake and whip cream". When we informed him that he could only have the cake and whip cream with a strawberry there was wailing and gnashing of teeth like you wouldn't believe. Obviously he gets his dramatic flair from his daddy.

Egg-n 'Em On

I've always celebrated Easter at my cousin's house. (And when I say "always" I'm talking the last 20+ years, so yeah, always.) We made the trek down to Texas last Easter and learned that a weekend trip full of airplanes and rent cars with this pack of kids is not exactly easy or relaxing. We made the decision to stay here, but realized we have no Easter traditions of our own, and had no idea how we should spend the day.
Jason wanted to have an Easter brunch after church so we headed out to the Sky Ute Casino. Yes, I'm painfully aware of the irony of going to a casino for Easter Brunch, but they have a nice buffet, and it's not like we spent the afternoon at the slot machines.

We knew just an Easter brunch wasn't enough for this family, so a few days before Easter I emailed some of our neighbors to come over for an egg hunt. It was a beautiful day and with 11 kids coming over, the bouncy house, and all our riding toys, it turned into a little party. (And you know how we love a party!)

We started off with two dozen cascarones (confetti eggs). None of the kids or parents had seen them before, so JR was excited to show everybody how they worked. And of course, the kids loved them.

Kyle loved them so much that when all the cascarones were gone, he went and found the plastic hiding eggs and started smashing them on his own head. Of course he was showered in candy instead of confetti, but he liked that just as much.

After the celebratory cascarones, it was time for the egg hunt. Here's the egg hunt starting line.

And now for the absolute best part. I have no pictures of the egg hunt or the rest of the party. I was actually enjoying talking and visiting so much that I forgot all about taking pictures. Now that's a sign of a fun day!

Photoshop

After we finished the Easter Bunny at 6:55 (I know. JR is still under the impression that the Easter Bunny and Santa's gifts are going to be on par.) we started getting ready for church. As soon as JR saw his outfit, he ran and cowered in the corner screaming "Nooo!" I was utterly appalled at the thought of a Tony Hawk skateboarding T-shirt as Easter Sunday attire. (Especially with no little girls to dress up.) But after some high-intensity-military-like negotiations, we agreed that he could wear shorts if he'd wear the rest of the outfit.
And yes, JR (like his father) still can't take a picture if there's one drop of sunlight in the sky. (Not to worry, Jason's squinting picture to follow.)


I fixed the squinting problem. But then Kyle and Reed decided they needed balls as props.

This was the one and only family picture we took. Jason couldn't handle the sun in his eyes either, so we gave up after one shot.

Now, you might notice that I'm wearing a sleeveless dress while the rest of the family is in sweaters and there's snow in the yard. Well, being that I was raised in The South here's a few southern Easter dress lessons that I still abide by:

A. You will have a new dress. It must be in spring colors, no black.

B. You need an Easter bonnet. Little girls also need new patent leather white shoes, a new white purse, and white gloves with lace around the cuffs.

C. You will wear your new Easter dress even if "a norther" or "cold spell" has blown in.

And it seems the rule here in Colorado is if the temperature is above freezing, summerware is perfectly acceptable. So the way I see it, I passed both the southern and Coloradoan fashion rules on that one.

Stay tuned for photos from the 1st Annual Ingy Egg Hunt!

One Last Peep

Okay, so I've only got a few more hours to talk Peeps before Easter is over, so I'll hurry this along. We hosted an egg hunt/mini Easter party for our neighbors this afternoon, and here's one of the things I served. The pictures I saw of this on the Internet were much cuter than how mine turned out, but the kids loved it. I'm talking loved it. Big hit.

Peeps Blue Raspberry Sparkle

Happy Easter!

"Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen!" Luke 24:5-6

Fishy Friday

I'm blogging to you from Red Lobster. (Snicker all you want, but you know the cheesey biscuits are little doughy bits of heaven.). There's not a lot of seafood restaurants to choose from in the landlocked Four Corners, but as you can see from the excitement on JR's face, it's Lobsterfest time here in Farmington, NM. (JR isn't as excited about the lobster as much as he is the menu since he thinks it's 'special for the Ingersolls' being that's what his father told him.) And in Jason's world, Red Lobster probably is hosting Lobsterfest just for him. Oh gotta run! A cheesey biscuit with my name on it just arrived!

Like Peas and Carrots

We've turned a corner. JR has started trying fruits and veggies! We are so excited and proud. He's been enjoying his new found love of health food so much that he wanted to put peas and carrots on his cupcakes last night. Woohoo for veggies!

Healthy and Delicious!

And of course, April Fools!

I'm certain I didn't have any of you going for even a second. Not to worry, things are still absolutely the same here. JR won't touch a fruit or vegetable with a ten foot pole. He even helped make the cupcakes and kept saying, "Are you sure they aren't real peas and carrots?" This is a Martha Stewart recipe (peas are Runts, carrots are Starbursts). Martha failed to mention that when cooking with kids (I'm guessing Martha doesn't do a lot of cooking with small children) that you can actually overstir/beat cake batter. But when you've got 3 sous chefs, (I'm seriously thinking I can turn over the cooking duties to them in the next year) everybody has to have their turn or the wailing and gnashing of teeth is too much to take .

The serious chef.

At every moment his little hands aren't busy he's saying, "Cook, Mommy! Cook, Mommy!"

The not so serious chef

The powertools chef

It's also impossible to keep cupcakes away from small hands when they know how to move chairs and use them to climb.