Super-Snow Day

We are in the middle of the biggest snow storm we have had all season! We have about 10 inches in our yard, and it is still dumping. After delivering our mishloach manot, Izzy and I did a little baking to fight off the cabin fever. We used a great new banana bread recipe from one of my favorite cooking Web sites, Once-a-Month Mom. Yummy!

There was a Jolly Holiday, and Purim was its Name-O

Tomorrow night, La Casa Leffler will celebrate the uber-fun, carnivalesque holiday of Purim. Truly an example of the Jewish-holiday-paradigm: "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat," Purim commemorates the miraculous story of the Jews of Persia escaping annhilation at the hand of the wicked Haman. In addition to hearing the story of Mordechai and Queen Esther (Megillah Esther), Jews celebrate with a costumed, festive meal (often in a communal setting), charitable giving, and by sending gifts of food to friends, neighbors, and the needy (mishloach manot).
I am a girl who loves themes: we eat themed meals at La Casa, have themed birthday parties, and--for Purim--we do themed costumes and similarly themed mishloach manot.
This year's theme: robots.

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We got the idea for our robot creations from Pinterest (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Pinterest?), and will go out to our friends and neighbors tomorrow. (A big "domo arigato" to Cathy Weaver for the cute idea!)

Clean Up! Clean Up! Everybody Do Your Share...

 

This week has been so busy at La Casa!  Having President's Day off on Monday allowed me to get a few items checked off of my to-do list.  In fact, "Making a To Do List for Izzy" was one of the items that I checked off of my own.  

A few weeks ago, I saw the best idea for a kid's chore chart on Pinterest, using magnetic chore "buttons" and a few items from the Dollar Store.  Even though he's only four, Izzy loves to keep track of his accomplishments, and enjoys monitoring his own progress (this IS my child).  He also loves magnets.  What a great afternoon craft for us, and a meaningful, visual way for him to remember his routines.

Blogging Successes...You Know it Don't Come Easy

I am, essentially, an idea-kind of girl who (if I am going to be really honest) has a little trouble with the follow-through.  Despite my efforts, I often find my best ideas thwarted by my inability to "hop to it;" as a result, I frequently find myself behind the curve, or simply paralyzed by the fear that I will fall behind and so I never get started.
In this vein, Blogging Success #1.
I found some monthly and weekly blog planning printables at InfarrantlyCreative.net, and printed them a couple of weeks ago, but had yet to actually DO anything with them, other than shuffle them from pile to pile on my desk(s...home and work).  But today--TODAY!--I sat down with my breakfast and my printables and actually mapped out the next two weeks of blogging.  As you may know, I love a good plan, be it for menus, what to wear, what to do with my kids--and now for my sweet home on the Web.  I even got an empty binder from my crazy binder cubby, and started a "Bloggin'" binder, which will house my blog plans as well as other resources I may employ here.  I guess that saying "You don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great" may be my new mantra.
Blogging Success #2: I LOVE Pinterest (check my boards out at pinterest.com/vvdenver79).  Earlier this week, I was checking my e-mail--read: deleting a bunch of junk that is delivered to me daily, and trying to cull out the good stuff--and almost deleted one of those Pinterest e-mails: "so-and-so is now following your board blah-blah-blah."  ALMOST.  But this one was different.  My new followers were none other than Susan and Janice from 5MinutesForMom.com!  This is a major Mom-site, and these fabulous ladies are real players in the Mom-Blogosphere.  I was so excited and honored that they found one of my boards and chose to follow it; it gave me a boost of motivation about my own little blog.

Elli is proud of his mommy for getting started!

I have the ideas, now I just need to stay with it, and keep bloggin'...

A Boy Eating Fish Eggs

The boys are growing (ridiculously fast!), and every day, I am astonished at the things they are doing.

"Spinach salad!"

Recently, Izzy--who, up to this point, only ate produce if it was pureed and squeezed out of one of those baby food pouches, would warily eyeball anything that grew on a tree or from the ground, and ask of everything served to him, "Does this have fruits (meaning vegetables) in it?"--underwent a metamorphosis.  

Ladies and gentlemen, my son became a ferocious, stomping, romping, plant-eating triceratops. 

Physically, the boy still looks like my Izzy, but his entire attitude with regard to food has changed.  He regularly requests "salad" (spinach, lettuce or whatever greens are handy) with meals, because that what Triceratops eat.  He has even gone so far as to try a green bean, cauliflower, and edamame with little fuss.  

Musical wonder that he is (even as a triceratops), Izzy made up a song about "spinach salad," replete with dance moves and simple, yet catchy, lyrics, basically consisting of saying "spinach salad," over and over with varied vocal intonations.  See the photo (left) for Izzy's big finish to the Spinach Salad performance.

A boy eating fish eggs (tobiko)

Fortunately, his other "gourmet" tastes haven't changed: Izzy still loves meat, bok-bok (chicken), and his very favorite: sushi with miso soup. 

In other dining-related news from La Casa: Elli is almost five months old, and working very hard at sitting up by himself.  Though not quite able to sit unassisted yet, Abba (Daddy) suggested we try the high chair, so Elli might be able to join us at the table without one parent missing out on the meal while it was still hot.  We tried it first on Shabbos last week, and it seemed to be a hit with the little Bear.  Since, we have let Elli sit with us for every meal (if he is awake), and he is loving it: sitting up like his big brother, playing with toys on his tray, seeing all of us, and staring longingly at our food have become a real source of entertainment for the baby...and a opportunity for mommy and daddy to eat meals with the use of both hands!

Yogurt Rewards

For the last four years or so, I have been buying Stonyfield yogurt products--partly because I love yogurt, and appreciate their company's commitment to sustainable, organic yogurt production, but mostly because I LOVE their Stonyfield Rewards program.  If you aren't familiar with the program, it works like any other rewards program: you buy their products (the packages of which are marked with codes), enter the codes to ear points, and redeem the points for great free stuff.  Over the years, I have earned books and toys for my boys, lifestyle magazine subscriptions, as well as TONS of FREE yogurt and kosher toaster pastries.  Quite a deal for our family, since we go through about a dozen yogurts a week.

Sadly, I was just on the Stonyfield Web site, and discovered that the rewards program is ending at the end of April.  I know the old saying that all good things must come to an end, but I will admit that I had a moment of internal wailing (think Charlton Heston, Soylent Green-style acting: "No, not the rewards program! Why, Stonyfield? WHY?").

The point of this post? To tell you, dear reader, that if you have any Stonyfield Rewards points, you better redeem them before April 30, 2013.  I am guessing that the company will start to run low on the really good rewards before then, so eat your yogurt and redeem your points soon.

Refritos

Recently, I visited the local natural grocery store to meet up with a contact for Izzy's last preschool fundraiser.  Although I wasn't there to shop, I felt weird going into a grocery and NOT buying a thing (grocery shopping being the closest thing I currently have to a real hobby), so I went down a couple of aisles, just to see if anything caught my attention.

If you know me at all, you know that I love Mexican food.  You also know that I am a big fan of fiber (and its related effects).  What you may not know is that, unless you are going to invest an entire day in making your own, finding KOSHER refried beans that don't cost a fortune is nearly impossible.  So, when I saw Taste Adventure's Quick & 100% Natural Refried Beans (O-U pareve certified!), I was more than a little excited.  I bought a box to try (at about $2.50 for eight servings, as opposed to $4.00 for 2.5 servings of the standard organic, kosher canned variety).

Look! O-U Pareve certification...are we one step closer to
Baba's dream of opening a kosher Mexican joint
(Casa Hadassah) in Denver?

Although they are dehydrated beans (if you, or any of your friends ever worked at Taco Bell in your youth, you may have memories of such a phenomenon), these little fibrous deilghts are so yummy.  I have served them twice; once in veggie quesadillas, and once with my husband's Famous Mushroom and Green Chile Enchiladas, and in both meals they were delish!  Everyone Needless to say, I will be making consistent stops at the natural grocery store to stock up on this awesome find.

My Son, the Musical Genius

Izzy at his first rock-and-
roll concert: Bob Dylan
@ the 1stBank Center
Broomfield, October 30, 2012

Since he was very small--really, since he was born--Izzy has expressed an interest in music.  But there's no Raffi or Imagination Movers in this house.  He likes the Beatles, he can spot a Led Zeppelin tune in five notes or less, and his number one main man is Bob Dylan (he knows all the words to a sizeable catalogue of Bob Dylan songs).  Not only unusual, but unusually good taste.

With Amanda Malone
of Red Wagon Music

At around eight or nine months old, he also took a particular liking to the violin, as he had the opportunity to regularly see some kids who played violins in lessons. So, at the end of 2012, Izzy began taking private violin lessons himself.  He has had five lessons, and is already able to play the first line of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," as well as pick out the sound of violins in recorded music.  I realize that, yes, I am biased (did you ever hear that joke? How do we know that Jesus was Jewish? His mother thought he walked on water...), but I am truly surprised and amazed by the things that this kid knows about, enjoys or can do.  He is some kind of wonderful.

La Casa es su casa

La Casa Leffler is back.

La Casa Leffler at Zoo Lights for a big fourth birthday

You can expect more from La Casa in 2013: more tales of our family adventures; more photos and videos of the two most handsome boys around; and more posts on projects around La Casa Leffler. You can also look forward to Menu-Planning Mondays, and posts about how everyone in La Casa Leffler is getting organized, getting fit, and getting it together.

We are so excited about sharing 2013 (and beyond) with you!