Candy Sushi

It must be great fun being a grandparent. They get to spoil their grandkids rotten, and not have to worry about it. It is up to me as a mother to teach my children that "yes" is not always the answer in life. Sometimes, it's a hard lesson, especially in the grocery store, going down the candy isle....

I don't know what it is, but whenever my mom takes the twins to the grocery store, Ashley always comes home with a bag of marshmallows. I guess she's a creature of habit. Well, both my kids are, but when it comes to picking out something sweet at the store, Luke gets something different every time. But with Ashley, it's marshmallows. And they take up A LOT of room. So I decided to use them up. I thought, well.... I could make Rice Krispie Treats. I could make s'mores. I could make fudge. I could make Candy Sushi!

Brent and I eat sushi a lot. Well, I do, Brent will only eat the cooked stuff, like California Rolls. Not sure if that's REALLY considered sushi, but the kids know what it is anyway. So when I told them we were making sushi, they got excited. Little did they know it was going to be candy sushi. Here's how we did it.

First, you have to make Rice Krispie Treats. We started out by counting the marshmallows. (I used 48)
And of course got to eat a few.


I followed the recipe on the box. I added a few extra marshmallows to the recipe to ensure that they wouldn't be crunchy (that and I had SO MANY!!!). After they cooled, I cut them into neat rectangles to make them easier to roll, and placed them on parchment paper.

Once cut, I arranged the candy (twizzlers and gummy worms) on the edge of the rectangle and rolled, tightly, one complete turn.


Cut off the excess. Be sure not to roll too much or it will be too thick.

Tighten the roll, then wrap with a fruit roll-up and squeeze. I couldn't find green fruit roll-ups, which would have looked better, so I used the multi-colored ones. Guess I could have made green, I just didn't have the time. They were still just as cute.

Cut into bite size sushi rolls. Use the extra pieces of Rice Krispie trimmings to make Nigiri style sushi. Here I used Swedish fish and strips of fruit roll-ups.
If you want your kids to REALLY get geeked up on sugar, melt a little chocolate to look like wasabi and soy sauce. ha!
Then eat and enjoy. I didn't try them, they looked WAY TOO SWEET for me. But Luke and Ashley loved them! They're already asking to make more.


I am thankful for teaching moments like these. I'd much rather teach them counting and cooking then "no".

Cousins

Cousins, is there anything really like them? I have 25 first cousins. If you think of some of your best memories growing up, did they include your cousins? Mine did. There is just something special about them, they are your blood. I can not imagine my life without my cousins, I am very grateful to have them in my life.

This past weekend, we took Luke and Ashley up to my parents house in Nashville. They got to spend the entire weekend with their cousins, and I got to spend some time with my brother and sister. It was so fun to watch how they played together, laughing, running, hiding, laughing some more. It reminded me of the times we all played at my Grandparent's house. My ears were ringing by the time we left, but I would much rather hear the sound of children running, laughing and screaming over crying any day. 5 kids sure can make a lot of noise. (4 of which were under the age of 5). But, boy did they have fun. None of them wanted to leave, and there were even tears when they said their goodbyes. I remember that feeling of sadness saying goodbye to my cousins when we would leave to go back home to TN.

One of my favorite memories as a child was taking a bath with my cousins in my Aunt Mary's GINORMOUS bathtub. I swear they had a Jacuzzi in there bathroom. Well, the little kids got to do that this weekend. Although my parent's bathtub isn't as big as the one I remember in Aunt Mary's house, this one did just fine for the kids. The only problem was (well for the adults at least), I put in too much "no more tears" into a jetted tub. Whoops.....

NOT SURE WHO THIS IS.......
Next time, I'll only put in a drop...

Early in the morning, it was cold! So, Jacob would lead all the little kids in a morning warm up routine. The funniest part was the music. The CD my mom happened to have in the CD player was the "Mama Mia" soundtrack, from when She, Beth and I went to the play. So here are 5 kids dancing, screaming and running to songs by ABBA out on the deck. Hysterical. (Good thing the neighbors were out of town! It would not have been pleasant to wake up to "Mama Mia, here I go again, My My, how can I resist you?" Or "Dancing Queen".)


of course the workout included a little musical chairs...



And with Labor Day weekend, comes College Football!!!!! WAR EAGLE! We all got dressed in our Auburn clothes, well except for Luke, he's into that other school for the time being..... And went for a walk on the trails behind my parents house. It was so beautiful and peaceful out there.



We tried getting their picture, but it was just too hard to get all of them to look at the lens at the same time. We tried everything, even bribing them with lollipops. I think this was the quietest they were all weekend!



All in all, it was a great weekend. I enjoyed my time with my family. It stinks that we all live so far apart. I wish I could have spent some time with my cousins as well. Seeing my kids play with their's makes me really miss mine. Luckily, I got to hang out with my brother and sister.



I am thankful to have wonderful cousins and even more thankful that my kids get to experience the bond that cousins share.

Preschooler Squared

Hmmm. Don't even know where to begin this post. How did we go from this,

to this???


It is so hard to explain how I feel today. I feel like my heart is sitting at a little church over the bridge here in Tequesta. My babies started preschool today. Although, so many mothers are excited, I am beyond words. I am not excited, I am heartbroken. I can not possibly explain. I went through so much to have these babies here with me on earth, why would I ever want to let them go? I understand (boy do I understand!!) the need for a break, getting away, and having some alone time. But this is just different. I'm not upset because I'm worried about them. I know they are going to have so much fun at school. It's more the "milestone". They are growing up way too fast!

It just seems like yesterday, that I had the scare of my life when I went into labor at 24 weeks. I never prayed so hard in my life. "God, I will do anything if you will just protect my babies. Please let the doctors stop this labor. I want them so bad and already love them so much. I will do everything in my power to be the best mother that I can be. Please save my babies". And he did. For that I will forever be grateful. Then the fabulous bedrest for 13 weeks. 1 five minute shower a week, no standing, no sitting, no watching scary or tense things on tv, just lie down, and stay calm. Looking back, I know the only reason I was able to do that was because of the love I already felt for my children. It was and is even more so today, overpowering. Having twins definitely has it's challenges, as do having singletons, I'm sure. I LOVE that I have twins, don't get me wrong. There is nothing better in the world. I get to experience all the love and kisses double! However, I am not loving one bit the double pain I feel today. I already miss my babies and can't wait to go pick them up.




I know I will soon enjoy this free time to get things done. It's just today, I can't concentrate. I am doing a load of laundry in our broken washing machine right now. For the first time, I am thankful we haven't replaced it yet. I welcome the loud noise it is making. The second I walked in the door without Luke and Ashley, I thought, "Whoa... It's WAY TOO QUIET HERE". So I started the laundry and sat down at the computer to write on the blog.

This blog has been very therapeutic in a way. I love writing on it and now I will have more time to do so. I already feel better after getting my feelings out on here. I was talking to Brent the other night about starting a whole new blog, since Luke and Ashley are preschoolers now and no longer "Toddler Squared". I'm trying to come up with a creative title for the new one, but I am just not that creative! So if anyone has a good one, let me know! The content will remain the same, Family, Food etc. (ha! actually, that might me kind of funny, "Family Food" Like Family Feud? no? ok.) But my entries will remain about Luke and Ashley and what is going on in our lives, as well as some good recipes and photography. After all the point of this blog is to keep our family and friends who live so far away up to date and for Luke and Ashley to one day look back and read it. I have been trying to change the settings so it is easier for you to leave comments. I tried to fix it so you don't have to have a google account to leave a comment anymore, but who knows. I am overwhelmed by the number of people who read the blog and send me emails in response. I wish all of you could read what I can. That's another reason I'm trying to get the comments section worked out. I may have to go to an entire new sight. For anyone who blogs, if you have a suggestion, let me know.

I will end this post with what I am thankful for. I try to end every post with this. Today, I am thankful for so much. My college roommate and close friend, Ashley, sent me these flowers yesterday. She has two great kids of her own and truly understands the feeling of letting your kids go. She knows me well, and knew how flowers would brighten my day today. Thank you Ash.
I am thankful for my wonderful friends and family who have listened to me cry over the twins starting school. Although some of you don't "get why I'm so upset" I think it is a common feeling among mothers, and that is something that is understood.
Most of all, I am thankful for my 2 beautiful, healthy children. And I thank God EVERY DAY, for putting them in my life. How did I get so lucky??

Taffy Time

We were a little disappointed this morning, because we were supposed to meet up with friends and the plan fell through. So we quickly came up with Plan B.... Taffy Pulling!

If you want something fun to do in the kitchen with your kids, this is it. If you want something healthy, then read the blog entry about Fruit Roll ups on April 23rd. Be prepared, this is not healthy at all, so turn away now if you must!

We had lots of laughs making the taffy, however, I'm not sure I would actually give any of you what we made. It ended up on the floor more times than I can count, but it sure was fun. It took Luke a few minutes to get over the "slimy hands" but after I said, "lick it" he was fine. BOYS.... Then he asked, "how far can we stretch it?!" Turns out, Taffy can stretch F.A.R.! I know I'll be finding taffy in weird spots for days to come. Oh well, totally worth it! Here's the recipe.

We called it "Laughy" Taffy:
2 1/2C white sugar
3T cornstarch
1C light corn syrup
1 1/3C water
2T butter (plus lots extra to butter hands)
1t salt
1 small envelope of unsweetened, fruit-flavored drink mix (like Kool-Aid)
1/2t vanilla extract

Butter large cookie sheet well, including the sides.

In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Add corn syrup, water, butter and salt. Stir well until butter is melted. Bring to a boil and stop stirring. Cook mixture until candy thermometer reads 250 degrees F (120 C). This takes a long time.

Once it approaches 250 degrees, watch very close because it cooks quickly at the end. Immediately remove from the heat. Carefully stir in vanilla and drink mix. Stir well, or you will get dark spots in the taffy. Pour mixture into the buttered cookie sheet. Allow to cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes.

Once taffy has cooled enough to handle, butter hands and begin pulling.

And pulling

And pulling


And pulling
After the taffy has been stretched long enough, it will become more opaque and lighten in color. Pull into long ropes and cut with buttered scissors.



Wrap in wax paper and twist the ends.


Enjoy! I know we did! What a great way to spend a day that started out so disappointing.

I am thankful to have the time to spend with my children cooking in the kitchen.

Idiosyncrasies

Brent and I are about to go away for our long summer vacation. We are heading to the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. We usually go to a different island every year and I am especially excited about this one. We are staying at the Cuisinart Resort. (Yes, Cuisinart as in the kitchen tools.) The resort even offers a Caribbean cooking class that I will be taking. I am so excited! I absolutely LOVE taking cooking classes, especially in different countries. I took one in the French Riviera several years ago and it was one of the best cooking experiences I have ever had. I often use a lot of the French techniques that I was taught and can not wait to see what the Caribbean chefs have to offer. I have NO idea what to expect! I will soon see!

Although I am very excited, I feel the need to warn our parents who will be taking care of Luke and Ashley while we're gone. I am not ONE BIT worried about the twins, it's more the grandparents! They watch Luke and Ashley every summer when we leave, but every summer it is different. When they were babies, they needed to be on a strict schedule. It was most important for the grandparents to follow the schedule to make it through the week with their sanity in tact. Now I'm not as obsessed with a schedule. As long as they eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, take a bath and sleep at night, they will be fine. No, I'm not worried about the schedule. I'm worried about all their idiosyncrasies driving our parents crazy... and they WILL.....

-Like Luke: I can ask him 3 times what he wants for breakfast and he'll say "pancakes", so I'll make him pancakes. When I set them down in front of him at the table, he'll have a fit and say, "I don't WANT pancakes, I want cereal!"

-And Ashley: Whatever you do, do NOT give her a lot of juice at the beginning of breakfast. She will guzzle the whole thing, then ask for more and be too full to eat breakfast. Give it to her in small portions.

-My mom experienced this one when we went to Cumberland Island, DO NOT BREAK LUKE'S BANANA!

-Luke still prefers to urinate outdoors and not in the potty. BEWARE in public!

-They will both change clothes about 10 times a day.

-They will find band aides and cover their bodies with them.

-They like their sandwiches cut in quarters.

-If you turn your back for 1 minute, they WILL destroy the house.

-Their favorite thing to say is "poopy diaper", and this is NOT allowed at the dinner table nor in public. (Although, you will have to bite your tongue to keep from laughing.) Luke just says it out of the blue sometimes and Ashley laughs and laughs. I just don't get these two sometimes.

There are so many, I could never write them all down. To our parents, just know, if they make you feel like you're doing something "wrong", you're probably not. If you can figure out how to get them to stop being so obsessive about any of these things, I would be forever grateful! And as my grandmother told me when the twins were born, "don't worry about the mess, just play with your babies" Have a great time! We are so excited for our trip and know the twins will have a great time too.

OH! And one last thing. The frogs are extremely loud at night! Especially after it rains. Hopefully, they won't keep you up. If you get lucky, you may see one swimming in the pool in the morning.

Brent and I are thankful to have parents who are willing to watch our kids so we can go away and have some responsibility-free time. Thank you so much!