Mom's night out

Hey,  who said I forgot how to rage?

Me time

What makes me love Chris more?

1. He's the best husband

Last night, Chris set up a ladies night out for us girls and we had a blast!

After I rolled in at 3am, he let me sleep in. Heaven.

2. He's the best father.

THEN he took the boys solo to their favorite place, the GW basketball court! (I napped again!)

When we told Gavin where they were going, he signed "basketball game", yelled "Dada!", and ran to the door. "Car!!!"

Here is Ethan at Gavin's age, two years ago, on the very same spot!

Brothers united in the love of sports. And their Daddy!

The verdict, I think it's a tie for #1 and #2!

 

I love my morning commute!!

Five mornings a week I drive forty minutes to an hour round trip dropping off Ethan to preschool, and it's one of my favorite parts of the day! Ethan and I are both excited about all the projects we will each tackle or friends we will see over the next three hours. We excitedly chat the whole way there. Meanwhile, the drive coincides exactly with Gavin's nap! So while we chat or sing, here's Gavin in the backseat!

You might recall my mentioning our school's drop off procedure (and the anxiety it produced my first day!).

The staff comes to the car door and unbuckles Ethan from his carseat, moms are strongly discouraged from getting out. Ethan now walks into school all by himself now, shaking the hand of the Director to say "Good Morning."

I love this now. LOVE. Why the change of heart?

Gavin continues his nap uninterrupted! He gets a full morning snooze and is a happy and rested boy the rest of the morning! And I get to catch up on NPR, uninterrupted by a three year old!

What do I love even more than the morning commute you may ask?

When Chris does it and Gavin and I snuggle and nap together!

Mommy-Free Magic Muffins

Every Friday, a group of friends and I rotate "Mommy-Free Time."  This is the best SAHM invention I've ever heard of, closely followed by our babysitting co-op where we swap babysitting.  Every Friday morning, we rotate whose home we drop the kids off at, and rotate care-taking responsibilities.  It sort of just happened that the mom's started frequently making the same mini-muffins every Friday morning.  The kids just gobble these up!  It's funny, even the ones with the most separation anxiety cling to mommy's leg when the enter the door, but literally look around and tearfully request, "Muffins?"  Seriously, they are such a tradition now that when a friend hosted a Easter Egg party, she stuffed the plastic eggs with what else? These muffins!  (Again, most of our kids haven't met Jelly Beans yet, so they were satisfied ;)

 I look forward to this time so much every week.  I plan extravagant outings... like getting the oil changed!  Okay, that doesn't sound so exciting, but the experience of AVOIDING being at the auto shop for an hour with a restless toddler is sublime.

So this today was my turn to host, and as Chris was working extra crazy overtime, I had to step in for our Head Chef and bake them myself.  Here's a shot of them and the recipe in case you want to try the Mommy-Free Magic Muffins for yourself.

Mini Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe (Makes 30 Mini Muffins)
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Large Eggs, whisked
1 Cup Sweet Potato Puree, cooked*
1/2 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Canola or Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place the first 7 ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl whisk the remaining ingredients.
4. Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients just until they are combined (be careful not to over mix the batter).
5. Place 1 tbsp of batter in each cup of greased mini muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes.
6. Serve.
* To make sweet potato puree, bake sweet potatoes (or yams) in a 400 degree oven for one hour, allow to cool, slice in half lengthwise and mash flesh with a fork until smooth.
** You can place muffins in labeled freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months.