Happy New Year to everyone!  I am off to celebrate an early new Year’s Eve with my little people.  We have noise makers, hats, confetti and horns and are rarin’ to go! 

Sam is making a special dinner for us and we have our customary appetizers and shrimp platter for snacking on later.

Be safe and have a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

This was the half melted snow that was left in the back yard.  It’s all gone now.  As you can see, I need more “winter Interest” or, shall I say, some winter interest?

Day after Christmas and a million toys later.  What do they play with?  The after Christmas sale storage box.  We sure could have saved a lot of money.

Ross could care less about eating.  He simply does not enjoy food.  There are much more fun things to do and he will eat only when necessary.  He prefers veggies over anything else and does not care for meat.  He eats his veggies in stages.  After broccoli was a long-time favorite, he now only eats peas.  He is not a fan of fruit and will only eat applesauce or fruit mixed with yogurt. 

After years of trying to get Ross to eat pasta with tomato sauce, we have always lost the battle.    He will eat pastini with olive oil, or pastini in beef broth, but red sauce?  NO WAY.  Lately he has been branching out.  The shape of the pasta is a big deal too.  He would each spaghetti and pastini but mostaccioli, wagon wheels, fiore, or any other shape for that matter was off limits.  Lately he has explored wagon wheels and fiore and has deemed them “good”.

So it’s usually pasta with broth or olive oil and a bowl of peas, chicken nuggets and peas, blah blah blah.

Today, when I asked him what he wanted for dinner, he asked for spaghetti and meatballs.   With real spaghetti sauce.  Red Sauce.  Tomato sauce.  Made with tomatoes.  I tried not to look too shocked.  I didn’t want anything to ruin this opportunity.

We ran out of meatballs.  Sam had made them for Rossi but he wouldn’t eat them so everyone else did.  No worries, we always have homemade sauce on hand.  So spagheti with red sauce it was!  And yes, if you look closely you will see the spaghetti king is sporting a fabulous bright and shiny black eye.  Courtesy of a run in with a table.  The table won.

Here is proof he ate it.  He does not like to be messy so after a while I had to cut the strands - but he ate it - and will likely do so again, when the mood strikes.

What card carrying half- Sicillian doesn’t like tomato sauce?

The New Year traditionally says out with the old, bring in the new.  With new toothbrushes in their stockings from Santa (and a recent visit for a cleaning at the dentists office) in our house it’s out with the old toothbrushes and in with the new. 

There was one condition.  Before tossing the old Power Ranger toothbrush, a photo to memorialize it had to be taken.  And while we were at it, photos of the two new ones, Spider Man (courtesy of Santa Claus) and a new, albeit manual, Power Rangers (how did Dr. B know?).  Each has its’ own appeal.  And lest we forget Francesca’s new Dora toothbrush.  Every time she passes the bathroom she wants to brush her teeth.  I could think of worse things.  

So now, without further ado…. I bring you….. TOOTHBRUSHES, The Post!

farewell fond Power Ranger friend.

Hello Spidey!

and a new Power Ranger - thanks Dr. B!

Now if only I could get them to floss.  Come on all you marketers -  how about some character-based, licensed kids floss?  And now if you’ll excuse me, I have an old toothbrush to dispose of.

My apologies to Monty Python…Right now our back yard is covered in snow.  But the photo above is from the summer of ‘07, and shows the beginning of the rear border (North side).  Not much there but some Hostas and Allium.  Hopefully, next spring will bring the Alliums planted this fall and some Hydrangeas.

This is from summer ‘08 (rear brder South)  and shows the purple Coneflowers, Sedum (Autumn Joy) and the Spirea “Little Princess”.  I also planted more Hydrangeas, Mums and Coneflowers.  I won’t be too disappointed if the Mums don’t come back.  I love Mums in containers but once I planted them - meh.   I do want to get more Sedum though, it flowered beautifully.

These are my Peonies (after bloom) in the far South rear border.  The old plant stand was there from previous owners and looked rather ratty.  After thinking about ripping it out and deciding it was too much work, (it’s mounted in concrete) I gave it a shot of spray paint.  It’s hard to see with the poor quality of the photo (sorry, no Photo Shop) but it’s not half bad.  Next spring I plan on filling the pots with flowers and greenery that spill down and I think it will give the corner some interest.

That’s Bishops Weed on the bottom of the plant stand, a real spreader but fortunately it’s contained.  I also scored some big rocks from my neighbor and will be replacing the broken edging in this area.  Hydrangeas are hoped for as well in this area. 

It may not look like much but if you saw the “before” you’d think it was a dream garden.  We had overgrown volunteer bushes (hope that’s the right term, I’ve heard it in reference to plants before) and the Hostas were lined up in a row, with trees coming up everywhere.

All this gardening thinking was prompted by a giveaway at Carolyn Gail’s “Sweet Home and Garden Chicago” blog (http://sweethomeandgardenchicago.com).  I was the lucky winner of some Muck gardening shoes and can’t wait to get them some use come spring.  Thank you Carolyn and Muck!!!  I also received some gardening catelog  postcards recently and will be ordering a slew of catelogs.  I love me some shopping, and couple it with gardening and I’m in Heaven! 

Here’s to Spring gardening plans.

Presents, presents and more presents,

Hope you and yours had a Merry Christmas.  Have a Safe, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Cousins

Happiness is a new bike!

Pretty princess

oh so heavy!

“No, Moose - it’s mine!”

Cookie break - sugar plum fairies and sweet dreams to all!

Ross turns five Christmas Eve, but last weekend we had a birthday party for him.

They dug for dinosaur bones and did dinosaur crafts,

they made and expolded volcanos….

they went on a nature walk,

and visited the animal room.  A good time was had by all!

Waiting to see Santa

More flour on his shirt than on the board……

Francesca gets in on the action……

the fruits, er… cookies of their labor….

mmm, which one do you want?  I see mine right there! Save some for Santa!

It’s so cold outside - I can’t tink of anything better to do than some holiday baking.  Think they’ll last until Christmas?