Photo Fridays 08.24.12

Our little climber...she is into everything now!

What's Cooking: Campfire Pizza

Like our last camping trip, I wanted to try food beyond your typical hot dogs and such. I was going to prepare the barbecue chicken and potatoes we did two years ago, but just didn't have time. What I did have was everything we would need to make campfire pizza!

This is a pretty simple recipe with simple ingredients.

Cooking spray

Frozen pizza dough*

Tomato sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Toppings

*You can use store-bought dough, or you can freeze your own already made dough. All you need to do is follow your favorite pizza dough recipe. After you allow your dough to rise wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag. Simply take the dough out of the freezer the morning of the day you plan to use it and put it in the refrigerator. Our dough did really well in our cooler and was fine on our second day at camp.

Divide the dough into four balls. Prep four pieces of aluminum foil with cooking spray. You may also want to spray your hands a bit to keep the dough from sticking to them. Form four personal pizzas onto each piece of foil.

Top each pizza with sauce, cheese, and toppings.

Place pizzas over your campfire (the fire should be pretty strong).

 

Rotate pizzas every 3-5 minutes. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove from fire. Allow to cool a bit before eating.

Camping Fun! - Day 2

The girls were up with the sun. We did what we could to keep them quiet until quiet hours ended at 7:00. We had breakfast, walked for a bit and then headed out for today's activity (after picking up coffee, first).

We went to Plymouth Long Beach. We got there before it got crowded and enjoyed collecting pebbles, playing in the sand, and walking in the frigid water. This was Lily's first beach experience. She spent most of it in our arms or on Jonathan's back. But she still had a chance to sample some of the sand and salt water.

We headed back to camp where we made preparations for our fire and dinner. Fridays are pizza and movie night for us, so we thought we'd stick with tradition (minus the  movie). I'll let you know how it went in a separate post.

Bedtime went easier than last night. Abigail was the first down, followed by Lily and then Sarah. All was quiet by 9:00. Jonathan and I enjoyed a quiet hour by the fire before we called it a night.

Lily woke up twice, but went back down pretty easy. All three girls slept well and even slept through the beginning of a thunderstorm with pretty heavy downpours. Soon after the rain stopped we packed up and took the tent down. We headed home around 8:00.

We had a great time camping! We'll hopefully do it again, and likely at this same campground. We may even stick around to do a bit more exploring. It is a large state forest with bike and hiking trails and ponds for swimming.

Camping Fun! - Day 1

We finished off Jonathan's vacation week by camping for two nights at Myles Standish State Forest. This was pretty much two years after our first camping trip.

Check in wasn't until 1:00 on Thursday, so we took things easy getting ready. We only encountered a little traffic on the way. I was relieved when we made it to the park entrance, but didn't realize it'd be another 6 miles to check in. A long while and lots of Lily crying later, we made it to our site and set up camp.

Jonathan set up a fire and we had your typical camp dinner of hot dogs and s'mores.

The sun began to set and we could tell the girls were tired. Lily easily went down at 8:00. The older two took a little longer. Sarah eventually woke Lily up, just as I was close to falling asleep, and that began our long night.

Jonathan was able to get Lily back to sleep while I took care of Sarah. I could hear Sarah's breathing and knew she had conked out. Ahhh, what a beautiful crisp evening filled with a hum of crickets and other creatures. But then I heard Lily again around 11:30 or so. Jonathan attempted to lull her back to sleep. I attempted to feed her. She proceeded to break quiet hour rules. Finally I told Jonathan I'd try and feed her in the van and put her back to sleep. She ate fine and fell asleep. So there we were, reclined in the passenger seat "sleeping". We lasted from about midnight to 3:00. I was getting cold and so decided to try the tent again. She went down fine in the pack n play. Then I hear the shuffling of little feet and hear Abigail telling me she didn't like her sleeping bag anymore. She crawled in with me and then complained about the lack of room. Eventually she decided her sleeping bag wasn't so bad after all. Lily woke up again. Jonathan gave it a shot to no avail. I fed her again. She fought sleep and broke quiet hour rules again. And so on.

I really wanted that sun to come up. This was turning into a long night. So, you may wonder, how does a sleepless Mommy pass the time? What a silly question. She writes a limerick, of course!

There once was a girl named Lily

Who must have thought camping was silly

Cause when she got there

Her "sleep log" was bare

And it wasn't because she was chilly

Here's a post bad night of sleep picture of Lily for your enjoyment:

Nine Months!

Lily is 3/4 of a year old now. She is looking less and less like a little baby.

She is scooting around like crazy and now occasionally crawls on her knees a bit. She easily transitions from sitting to scooting and back to sitting again. And now she's decided to start climbing! Needless to say, she is into everything.

Lily had her first ear infection last week. Let me tell you, it is not easy giving her medicine. She is also sporting two bottom teeth. I'm hoping these are what is causing her interrupted sleep at night.

So that's our little Lily update. More to come in a month!

Vacation Kick-Off

Jonathan is on vacation this week. We hope to do a lot of fun things but also relax (if the girls will allow it ;-). We started vacation off right with an outdoor concert. My Dad's bluegrass band, Ask Me Later, played in North Andover's summer concert on the common series for the second year in a row. The girls had a blast last year, so I expected the same this year.

The weather was perfect, not too warm and with a nice breeze. The older girls spent most of the concert running around with Bridget and dancing. Auntie Laura taught them how to play London Bridges and also did a few rounds of Ring Around the Rosie. Lily spent most of the concert wiggling and scooting around looking for a prime piece of grass to eat.

Once again we had a great time and wouldn't mind more "gigs" like this outdoor one. This was a great kick-off to Jonathan's week-long vacation.

Photo Fridays 08.10.12

Date Night?

What is Date Night you may ask? Well, for me and Jonathan it typically means dessert and a movie on Netflix (and, oftentimes, I end up falling asleep during the movie). When you have three little ones it's hard to get out much. And for me, it's hard to stay awake!

Jonathan surprised me with a date night out last Thursday. He made arrangements with our friends Jennifer and YiFeng to stay at our place while the girls slept. I had a feeling something was going on when Jonathan asked me if I had any milk stored for Lily and if we were going to have any leftovers from dinner (for Jennifer and YiFeng).

Jonathan whisked me away to Boston where we had a nice walk along The Boston Harborwalk. We then went to get ice cream, but not until a quick trip to the ATM because the shop only took cash. We ate our ice cream by one of the fountains on Atlantic Avenue.

I think it is so critical to spend at least one evening a week with Jonathan for "date night". If we don't set aside time once a week to invest in our marriage we will easily become distracted with our girls, our work, our to-do lists, etc. Thank you Jennifer and YiFeng for making last week a special one where we could get away for a few hours!