A Family Picnic

This past week the weather here in Michigan has been sunny and warm! Summer has finally really arrived! As part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days, one of my things to do is to take Penny on a picnic. So we did!

We packed up the Focus and headed over to Kensington Metro Park (one of our favorite places on the planet) and found ourselves a cozy little spot to picnic by the water and boat launch.

Even Miss Penelope was happy to be outdoors and getting some fresh air! It was fabulous getting out of the house and enjoying nature a bit.

We brought some veggie sushi, veggie chips and chocolate cake for dessert.

Once we finished the sushi, we realized we forgot to bring forks for the cake! DOH!

It's a good thing I'm an expert chopstick user. I taught Jim how to do it.After lunch, we sat on the blanket under some trees and watched swans swimming in the lake. Penny also showed me how she does the chicken dance. (never mind the giant pole sticking out of the back of her head, silly flagpole in the way of the cute picture!)

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon together. I can't wait to have more picnics this summer at Kensington!

Do you go on picnics? What are your favorite snacks to bring?

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

For the second book off of my #75 friend recommended book list, I chose to read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Well, I'd certainly seen the movie. I used to watch it over and over when I was a kid. I loved it, I loved the story, I loved how Dorothy was this meek little girl who ended up being strong and independent and stood up for herself, I loved that each of her friends brought their own little lesson to the story. I loved the witch, I loved everything. I even had a pair of ruby slippers when I was a kid, although in the book they're silver. They made them ruby in the movie because it's much more appealing to the eye, ya know?

The book I had never read before, not even once. I didn't know it was a chapter book and I had no idea how different it was from the movie. The main bits and characters are there, but there was so much left out from the movie and a few things changed around. The flying monkeys for example, they're actually good guys in the book! I had no idea!

I decided to read it to Penny, just to see if she'd tolerate me reading to her that much. And the first night alone she let me get through 38 pages of it before drifting off to her own little Emerald City. And then every night after I would read it to her until she fell asleep and she would lay with me and look at the pictures and be attentive and she seemed to really enjoy it. I can't wait to read it to her again when she's a little older and can ask questions and get into the story more. And I can't wait to watch the movie with her too!

So then I thought, wow, I really do love this story. I really enjoyed it and plan on reading it again. It made me fall in love with it all over again. :-) I think it might be cute to do a kid's room with a wizard of oz theme, so I decided to check out what Etsy had to offer that was W.o.O. related and I found some cute stuff!

These totally adorable modern take on the ruby slippers (even though in the book they're actually silver!)

How cute is this whimsical painting?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this Somewhere Over the Rainbow print. How pop art! I love it.

And then I thought, maybe Penny could be Dorothy for Halloween next year? Guess what I found? THESE.

So cute. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read it again to Penny when she's a little bit older. I hope she loves it as much as I do! And now I'm going to start A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

#9 - Try a new recipe each month

February 2011 - Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Ingredients:
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 package (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders
1 cup Kraft shredded low-moisture part-skim Mozzarella Cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Place tomatoes with their liquid in medium bowl.
3. Add stuffing mix, water, and garlic to bowl with tomatoes.
4. Stir until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside
5. Place chicken in 13x9 baking dish, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
6. Top chicken with stuffing mixture.
7. Bake for 25 minutes

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

So the first of the 11 books from #75 is Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater. My good friend, Claire, recommended it and told me that it was "like Twilight" so I'd probably like it.

She was right, I did enjoy it. And now I want to read the next one, Linger, but that will have to wait because I have 10 other books that other friends have recommended that I need to read first!

Ok, so Shiver is about a girl named Grace who gets attacked by a pack of wolves as a kid, and one of the wolves decides to save her and bring her back to her parents. She develops this obsession with this wolf, who has yellow eyes and she sees him in her backyard growing up. This obsession is love, but she doesn't really know it.

This yellow-eyed wolf is Sam, an 18 yr old werewolf, who loves Grace. He too develops an obsession (love) for Grace, hence why he saved her when she was attacked. His werewolf-ism isn't a full moon kind of thing, it's a cold weather/hot weather thing. When it's cold, he's a wolf, when it's warm, he's human.

I won't go into the whole story of it, because if you liked Twilight, you'll like this. "They've gotta fight to be together," "without you I'll die" sort of stuff. Lovey dovey mushy goodness. haha

The author did a great job writing this I think. I don't think it's inappropriate for teenagers like some other book series are (*ahem* House of Night *ahem*) I think she did a good job capturing that "first love" feeling and describes emotion in a way that makes you, as the reader, feel it yourself. When Sam describes how he feels when he sees Grace, you feel it, and you blush for her. It's how every girl hopes to be looked at by the guy of their dreams.

Overall, I really liked this and it was a quick read (two days) which is nice when you've got a little one to look after 24/7.

Next up, The Unabridged Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum!

#9 Try a new recipe each month

January 2011- Orange Beef Stir Fry

Ingredients:
12 oz thinly sliced steak (sliced into bite sized pieces)
1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon granules
2 tablespoons cooking oil
4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
5 cups coarsely shredded fresh spinach (5-6 oz)
1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained
3 cups cooked hot rice

Directions:
1. Trim fat from steak, thinly slice beef across the grain into bite-size strips, set aside.
2. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together orange peel, orange juice, cornstarch, soy sauce, sugar and bouillon granules, set aside.
3. In a wok or large skillet heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic; cook and stir in hot oil for 1 minute. Remove green onion mixture from wok, but leave oil in wok.
4. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to wok or skillet. Add beef to it. (Add more oil if necessary during cooking). Cook and stir until cooked to your desired done-ness. Push beef from center of wok.
5. Stir sauce, then add it to the center of the wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.
6. Return green onion mixture to wok. Add spinach and water chestnuts. Stir all ingredients together to coat with sauce.
7. Cover and cook for 1 minute or more until heated through. Serve immediately over cooked rice.



Overall, we enjoyed this! I've never made something like this before and it turned out really well. The only thing that we thought was that it could be made with more steak and more spinach and sauce. Once you got through those things, the rice on it's own is boring. haha. We liked it though and will definitely make it again!

101 things in 1001 days

On another blog I read, the blogger made a list of 101 things that she wants to do, and she's given herself 1001 days to do them. I thought, what a cool way to get yourself to try new things, to try things you've always wanted to. So, I've decided to make my own list. I'm only on #31 right now, so I've got some thinking to do! Any ideas?

I'll update my blog later with the list so that you guys can follow along with what I've completed and what I still need to do.

Here's the stats:

Today is Tuesday, January 4th, 2011. The last day of this will be October 1, 2013.
There are 33 months.
143 weeks.
1001 days!

These are all goals that have a means to an end, so not anything like, dreamy or intangible, but things with a set ending. For example, one of them is to finish our wedding scrapbook, means to an end, get it?

Wish me luck guys! Maybe you'll try it too?