What is the right age for Disneyland?

I feel like I hear people all to often saying 'we are going to wait until the kids can remember' to take their kids to Disneyland.  To hit the free under 3 years of age limit, we took our kids a few weeks before their 3rd birthday.  It is now a month later and the triplets still talk about mickey mouse land and it is one of their favorite topics to play around.  Yesterday they built Disneyland, they put their FP castle & pirate ship and many other memories from their trip into their mickey mouse land.  They even took had a doll house 'hotel' nearby their park.  Sure, going as a teenager to Disneyland for the first time has its memories but I did not fill my days after running around on the playground or in my room talking and reliving my time spent at Disneyland.  Now I ask you - what is the right age? Is it worth the parents money for their child to remember it or to play and live the excitement from their day Disney regularly?  For me personally it just makes me smile to see how much my kids truly enjoyed their day at Disneyland by hearing them talk about it and reliving it, it was worth every penny and every minute. 

Granola!

Being a fan of granola and thinking I might actually eat breakfast more often I decided to see if I could save money and make some.

Following the below recipe from this website, I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to make granola.  Also it didn't cost much since I was able to buy the ingredients in the bulk food section.  Since making granola is a no brainer, it is a great recipe to make with kids and I'm excited about future batches and using some creativity.  I've eaten with plain yogurt, added it to the kids cereal and we also took some to the park to munch on overall a winner in this household.

Homemade Granola Recipe:

3 cups (300 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)

3/4 cup (75 grams) sliced or slivered almonds

1/2 cup (45 grams) raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup (45 grams) raw pumpkin seeds

1/2 tablespoon (5 grams) wheat germ (optional)

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons canola oil or 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup (120 ml) pure maple syrup (preferably Grade A Dark Amber)

1 cup dried fruits (cranberries, cherries, apricots, dates, figs, and/or raisins) (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Either butter or line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine the rolled oats, nuts, seeds, wheat germ, ground cinnamon, and salt. 
In a small bowl, stir together the oil (or melted butter), and maple syrup. Pour this mixture over the dry ingredients and toss together, making sure all the dry ingredients are coated with the liquid. Spread onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 30 - 45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally so the mixture browns evenly. (The browner the granola gets (without burning) the crunchier the granola will be.) Place on a wire rack to cool. You will notice that the granola may still be sticky when it is removed from the oven but it will become crisp and dry as it cools. Make sure to break up any large clumps of granola while the mixture is still warm. Once the granola has completely cooled, store in an airtight container or plastic bag in the refrigerator. It will keep for several weeks.
Makes about 5 cups.
Note:  Once the granola has cooled completely you can add a variety of dried fruits; cherries, cranberries, raisins, and apricots are popular choices.

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/HomemadeGranola.html#ixzz254mA7lxW

Milk shakes, back to the basics

Summer heat, lack of inspiration and kids without much of an appetite led me back to my childhood and a favorite snack, milkshakes!  Easy, cool and a yummy afternoon treat how can you go wrong?

Get your blender ready.....
Toss in a handful of Ice
Milk, it is a milk shake after all, I would say I put up to about 2/3 of the ice with milk
handful of strawberries or other fruit

When I was a kid I liked making banana milk shakes but the bananas always seemed to be green, having no patience I would just throw in a little sugar to off set the bitter, green banana taste.  With all the diets and low calorie recipes out there I'm pretty sure a simple ice, milk, fruit shake keeps the calories low and taste high.

Banana, Nutella Bread

A favored banana bread recipe in our house nutella - swirled banana bread.  It's decadent so not repeated as often as it is craved.  When I was whipping up a batch this afternoon I was inspired to put stripes of the Nutella mixture instead of swirling it, because, well stripes are fun.  No matter striped, swirled, mixed in, this is good bread and a must try if you haven't.  I unfortunately did not get a picture of piece of the bread, the vultures (aka husband & kids) got to it before I had a chance to remember.  

The Gear. On the go with triplets! Part III

After the kids outgrew their snap & go car seats they simultaneously outgrew their Tripledecker stroller.  There are toddler seats that you can purchase to use in the Tripledecker, you can even use the toddler seats that attach to a bicycle.  We opted to not go this route when I found this amazing stroller.  When I say amazing, I mean life saving, awesome, easily lets me go anywhere with my triplets.

Without further ado.......Valco, Twin Tri Mode Ex stroller with Joey attachment. 



Why I love this stroller -
1. lightweight, it is a jogging stroller after all
2. folds easily, unsnap each side and then step on it
3. takes up little room in the car, it does carry 3 kids after all
4. accessibility, if a door is handicap accessible this stroller will fit!

Love, love, love.  The kids are 3 now and I still use my Valco stroller for regularly outings and the occasional stroll through the mall where I need to keep them contained.  If you have triplets and want independence to be out and about with them this is a must!   It seems like an expensive set up but we got the Twin Tri Mode off of Craig's list for $250(!) and then only had to buy the separate Joey seat.

Refreshing cocktail, a reminder of relaxing spa time

Cucumber water, cool, simple, light a great spa refresher.  How to bring it home to an equally described drink in cocktail form?

Muddle (squish up w/back of the spoon) 2 slices of cucumber
1 shot of HENDRICK'S Gin
Tonic

over ice and voila, seriously I'm not a G&T girl but I LOVE these Cucumber Gin & Tonics, so delicious!

Easy, edible thank you

I love my 'I'm so brilliant' moments. Our landlady helped watch over our two cats while we were on vacation last week and we were at a loss as how to thank her. She's older and has her own business and done well for her self, translate has everything she wants/needs and doesn't need some silly souvenir from our vacation.  The sun is shining, finally, and it is a beautiful summer day so I decided to bring a little taste of summer to her and made an Edible Fruit Bouquet.


 

It was super easy to put together.  I ran by the Dollar store and bought a really cute painted, terracotta pot and some wood skewer sticks then on to the grocery store for fruit.  Admittedly, I did buy canned pineapple as I thought it would help me get it done faster since it would already be in a nice round shape but they were too thinly sliced and hard to work with.  Also, the raspberries & kiwi didn't hold up well, they were too fragile.  What did work was cantaloupe for adding bulk, mainly in the middle of the bouquet, strawberries, orange slices & blueberries. 

I ran cling wrap over the top of the pot and secured it with a rubber band which I then tied a pretty bow around it to cover it up.  Poking the skewers through the cling wrap worked well and added a little security to hold everything together.  I'm not sure how to change this for the future if I make another.  Also, the flower pot I bought was great since it was a pot & saucer in one so it added weight to the base, I imagine just a pot might tip over easy.