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Put on your yarmulke it’s time to celebrate Chanukah

Posted on December 14, 2009 12:41 pm by TheAngelForever

Friday night was the first night of Chanukah. We lit our menorah at home, gave the boys their gifts from Bubbe and Grandpa and allowed them to play while dinner was in the oven. For the longest time, we had no clue what JL’s parents could get the boys for Chanukah. We thought about asking for money toward season passes to Six Flags, but knew that they would likely prefer something else.

One day, it suddenly dawned on me, so I called JL to tell him my thought. NHL had a difficult time using the Nintendo DS, perhaps we should look into the Leap Frog Didj or Leapster. We opted for the Didj because it was more age/grade level appropriate. Then, it was time to find something for the little guy. For some reason, we had never seen the Leap Frog ClickStart until this year. It has been around a while and is a first computer for toddlers. This seemed like the perfect early learning tool for him. It was compact and looked easy to set up.

We got an amazing holiday deal on the systems (package deals) and a few extra games. The boxes arrived minutes before we were going to light the menorah. The boys kept clawing (literally) at the boxes trying to get inside. NHL was even more eager when he saw that they were from Leap Frog – kids that can read take the fun out of things! Here they are just after they finally opened the boxes.

We set the little guy up and he just "played" by clicking and pressing on keys. He really liked the Tree game because he could connect that by pressing on the keyboard it made the computer talk and the puppy move to catch the fruit. At first, NHL was really frustrated with the Didj. The machine kept turning off as it was getting set up. He was not happy about trying, learning and practicing something new. This quickly changed. By Saturday, there were huge spans of time that we would find his nose at the Didj playing away. Even the adults had fun testing out the Star Wars and racing game. Of course, we also took the ClickStart and JSL was able to show that to everyone.

After dinner on Friday, we went over to Nana and Papa’s house. We lit the candles with them (see above menorah photo) and the boys got another present. NHL received Rush Hour Jr and loved it. He enjoys puzzles and this was a fun challenge for him.

We allowed the boys to play with their toys for a little while. Then, we decided to have my birthday cake that was postponed thanks to all of the events from Wednesday. Since I knew a storm was coming, I asked for an ice cream cake since it would not go bad if we did not have it that day. These were not the typical Carvel cakes, they were specialty ones. One was Strawberry Shortcake and the other Cinnabon. Both were quite delicious.

Soon after the cake, we packed the boys up and went home. The little guy wanted to play his "Pup Pup Puter" before bed. We let him try it while big brother got ready for sleeping. Then, they both went to bed. They had to rest up for fun with Cousin S who was coming in for our family Chanukah party the next day.

Disclosure: All items were purchased by us or relatives and are linked up to our Amazon affiliate to share with other people who may be interested in the items.

Categories:
birthday decisions food glorious food holidays jsl nhl photos play time yummy

Cooking with TechyDad

Posted on November 9, 2009 11:03 am by TheAngelForever

As many of you may know, my hubby also blogs. TechyDad has a regular feature on his website called Cooking With TechyDad. Here he shares items that he has made for our family, along with a lot of photos of the cooking/baking process.

Recently, his new passion is to use purees in items to try to sneak in some extra veggies for our family. Would you have guessed that these two sweet boys are picky eaters?!

This week, TechyDad is kicking off Sneaky Weeky. Today, he posted about preparing purees a la Missy Chase Lapine – otherwise known as The Sneaky Chef. Be sure to head over this week to check out some of the recipes that our family have enjoyed. The best part is, I know our boys are getting extra vegetables into their diets eating foods that are healthy for them.

Previous Cooking with TechyDad recipes include:

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Mashmallow Dessert Pizza

Slow Cooker Bean Soup

Mock Crab Cakes

Tie-Dyed Cheesecake

Eggplant Italian (for the slow cooker)

There are several others. You can find them by looking under the cooking area on the website. I hope you enjoy browsing and know that many more delicious recipes are coming soon. Remember, as a taste tester I know!

Categories:
bloggy friends food glorious food jl photos TechyDad yummy

Picking 35 pounds of apples

Posted on October 25, 2009 8:07 pm by TheAngelForever

After we picked up NHL from Hebrew School, we went home for lunch. Thanks to the events yesterday, we opted not to go to Six Flags today. Once we were done eating, I suggested that we see if the apple orchard was still allowing pick your own. We went online to check things out and sure enough they were. Today was actually the last day of the pick your own season.

So we packed up the boys and went to the orchard. In just about an hour, we managed to pick all of these apples:

That would be three bags that were not quite filled all the way, yet totaled approximately 35 pounds of apples! Yes, we are now coming up with recipes to use all of these apples in. Of course, the boys and I chowed down on five very large apples that were probably a few pounds right there.

When we drove there, we were not too sure what to expect. Would there still be plenty of apples? Did the frost we had ruin the apples already? Would a lot of other people be there and cause crowds while we explored the orchards? Did we dare go and risk a sudden turn of the weather?

Well, here are the answers to all of the questions:

1 – There were plenty of apples on the trees. Check them out:

2 – The frost was not kind to the look of the apples, but there were plenty that still taste quite amazing. There were a lot of apples that were on the ground.

3 – It was pretty empty at the orchard today. We only saw a few people here and there once we were out among the apples and trees. Most of the time, the only people we saw were hauling their bags of apples to the stand to pay and leave.

4 – The weather was gorgeous. There were absolutely no clouds in the sky. Who knew the fall could be so nice?!

The best part of the adventure was watching the boys (all three of them). They had so much fun and the little guy’s reaction to all of the apples was priceless. At almost two and a half, this is the first time he has gone apple picking. More photos of the kids picking the 35 pounds of apples coming soon.

If you have a great apple recipe (or more) to share, I wold greatly appreciate it. As you can see, we have a lot of apple baking/making ahead of us this week.

Categories:
food glorious food fun my boys photos weather weekend yummy

New Yoplait Delights & Gift pack giveaway

Posted on October 1, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Please raise your hand if you enjoy something sweet and delicious every so often, or more! Both of my hands are up and waving around. I admit it, there are days that I crave a treat, but typically try to find something else to satisfy this feeling.

Recently, I was asked by My Blog Spark to review the new Yoplait Delights Parfait. Since I had seen them advertised and was intrigued, I signed up. I was sent a gift package (giveaway for readers below) and a coupon for a free package of my choice.

The Yoplait Delights come in a package of four 100 calorie servings. They are available in four tempting flavors including:

Chocolate Raspberry

Triple Berry Creme

Lemon Torte

Creme Caramel

Our grocery store had a wonderful sale, so I picked up the three flavors that they had in stock at the time. Here is a photo of the ones my family tried:

Our thoughts:

The boys and I eat a lot of yogurt. Our refrigerator is always stocked with them as healthy snack alternatives. The first Delights that we tried was the Lemon Torte and none of us believed that we were eating yogurt. The texture was smooth, creamy and the top just melted in our mouths. It seriously tasted like a bakery treat on a spoon. Next up, we tried the Triple Berry Creme. My oldest son, NHL really loved this one. He actually asked to take one in his lunch box because it tasted so good. Of course, I obliged and TechyDad also took one to work. Last night, I finally tried the Creme Caramel. I was looking forward to this one the most. I love caramel and thought this sounded the best. It was good, but not my favorite. There was a caramel flavor, but without the gooey caramel thing going for it, it just was not quite the same. I know that once we can find the Chocolate Raspberry flavor we will also taste test that one.

We will definitely be purchasing more of the Yoplait Delights Parfait packages because they are a nice. The bonus is they are only 100 calories, taste great and do not break the budget.

Where to buy:

You can purchase your own Yoplait Delights in your grocer’s dairy section and be sure to print out a $1.25 off coupon before you go. Nutritional information for each of the flavors can be found on the website here.

Giveaway:

One lucky winner will receive their own "Delight Your Day" gift pack that includes a spa mask, wrap robe and slippers along with a coupon to pick out your own Yoplait Delights to try.

Rules for Giveaway:

MAIN RULE – Answer the following question: What snacks do you find most delightful during the day?
1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
1 Bonus Entry – Follow me on Twitter @TheAngelForever
1 Bonus Entry per day – Tweet about the giveaway. Be sure to include @TheAngelForever and Wanchai Ferry frozen entrée in the Tweet. Please leave a direct link to your Tweet in a separate comment for each daily entry. Example Tweet (feel free to use): Chance to try new Yoplait Delights and win a gift pack from @TheAngelForever http://bit.ly/3qyHED
1 Bonus Entry – Which flavor of Yoplait Delights are you most interested in trying?
1 Bonus Entry – Add TheAngelForever to your blog roll and leave a separate comment.
1 Bonus Entry – Add me to your favorites on Technorati. Be sure to leave your user name for me to check in.
1 Bonus Entry – Look around my blog and leave me a comment on another post. Please let me know which post you went to here so you get the bonus entry.
1 Bonus Entry – Head over to my hubby’s blog TechyDad and leave him some comment love. Be sure to let me know which post on the comments here for your bonus entry.
3 Bonus Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog about the Yoplait Delights giveaway. Be sure to leave 3 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today October 1st and ends at 10:59 EST on October 9, 2009. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only because the coupons are not valid outside of the United States.

Disclosure: This review and giveaway was made possible by My Blog Spark. They provided me with the gift pack and coupon to purchase a package of Yoplait Delights. The opinions of this review were mine and I received no other compensation.