Adventures in baby-sitting!

So a couple weeks ago we baby-sat for Dustin's brother Keenan who is just over 4 years old. His parents were going to a Rams game, so it was a little over 3 hours-- perfect amount of time I thought. Well, by the time the runt left, we were EXHAUSTED! How do parents do this full time?!

Within 5 minutes of being there, he all of a sudden takes off down the hall and into our bedroom...so I follow after him and he's in our closet. It was like he had a magnet on him and knew there were xmas gifts back there! I had a stack of stuff in the very back of the closet, most of it were all girl gifts for poor people we were buying for....but there was 1 game of Hungry Hungry Hippos in there for him. So of course he asks about this stack of gifts and I say those are xmas presents for some little kids I know and let's just go back out to the living room with dustin. He looks at me and says, "But I'm a little kid." It was so cute and I'm like- well we still need to go shopping for you, so how about you tell me what you want. So that gets him talking and moving out of the closet. Ok, hopefully he just forgets about that stuff back there now!

So we go play some board games he brought over-- Candyland, Hi-Ho-Cherry-O, and I Spy. I told Keenan that in our house when we play Candyland, that also means we eat candy...so him and Dustin were excited to much on some skittles and suckers.


Well then he decides he wants to just wrestle around with Dustin and stop focusing on games. Dustin is flipping him all around no the couch and of course, I tell them to be careful cause the brick wall is right behind them. Within 3 minutes later, Dustin slams his head on the corner of the brick wall and blood starts gushing everywhere! Keenan had blood all over his hand and I thought he was going to freak out, but luckily he really didn't scream and was just softly crying/whimpering some. So we made him put a cold washcloth on it for a while and I was worried how bad it really was....but after a few minutes he's insisting to us he's fine and he can still wrestle. We're like- NO WAY- we can only sit and play games for a while! There was blood on the couch, so I was cleaning that off and he came over and asked if that was from him and then said "I'm Sorry." Here the poor kid is apologizing when Dustin bashed his head in! So after all this, he takes me back to the bedroom closet and points to Hungry Hungry Hippos and asks if we can play that cause he has seen it on a commercial and looked fun. What are you going to say at that point...so I'm like, sure we can open that and play that.

So after a bit we played some more active games again. One was just covering dustin with pillows on the floor and mild wrestling. Then I taught Keenan how to gather all the blankets and pillows and build a tent with the table and chairs. So we do this and he tells me he's done this before with his dad and grandpa and it's called Big Bad Wolf and you huff and puff and blow the house down. So Keenan and I would sit inside the tent and then dustin would storm in as the wolf and demolish it, then we'd run and hide while the wolf chased us. We had all the lights off and drapes closed, so it was actually pretty scary for me...but he loved it!



One cute story is he picked up this replica Eiffel Tower we have on our bookshelves and he's like "WOW!" I ask him if he knows what that is and he says yes, he's seen it on tv before. So I'm all impressed this kid knows the Eiffel Tower at this point! I tell him Dustin and I just went there on vacation and it's real far away from here. He says- no it's not....come here (and pulls me over to the window). He's like- it's right there, I think we could walk there! He's pointing at a red and white like cell phone tower or something! It was hilarious.

Finally we get hungry so decide to preheat the oven for a pizza. All of a sudden I notice a ton of smoke billowing out of the oven.....I go open it up and it pours out and there was some burnt cheese (from yesterday's pizza) causing this issue. So I shut the door and turn off the oven, but our place is filled with smoke at this point. So we open the windows, open the door, am fanning by the smoke alarm....the last thing we need is for the building to be evacuated or sprinklers go off! Of course Keenan is running around asking if there is going to be a fire? At one point he ran over to the window and shouted outside- Someone call the fire department! Hey, at least he knew what to do in an emergency! And in the midst of all this he asks if he can still have pizza or what will he eat-- I'm like, we'll clean the oven and get you some pizza. Well, his parents come to pick him up before the pizza is done, so he never even got any :(

So get this-- all he can talk about to his parents and to his grandma the next day is NOT the fact that Dustin gashed his head, but that Amy set the pizza on fire and there was smoke everywhere!

On thanksgiving, Dustin's dad brought him downtown to see the parade, so we met up with them for a bit. It got freezing cold out there and started raining, so was just MISERABLE by the end....so Keenan finally agreed that he wanted to go inside to Dustin's work to warm up for a bit and just watch it from up high.

Cooking!

A few good recipes to pass along.

Chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes
I usually don't like baking desserts, but I saw this recipe on Amanda's blog and decided it looked too good to pass up! It is for chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes-- YUMMMMMMMMY!!! If you are into making your own cookie dough and icing, then please view her blog, but if you are like me and into shortcuts, then I can tell you in 2 seconds what I did.

I had store bought Pillsbury cookie dough in the fridge. I rolled that into balls. I stirred up my store bought cake mix (I used chocolate fudge, she used vanilla) in a bowl according to directions and pre-heated the oven according to those directions. Real hard so far, huh?

Place the cupcake liners in the pan and fill each about 2/3 full with batter and drop in the cookie dough.


Bake according to directions or until appears done-- the cake will puff up and completely surround the cookie dough! I used storebought buttercream frosting for the top and mini chocolate chips to garnish.


They were awesome!!! (I did freeze some of my cookie dough balls and did not others-- I really liked them both ways and could not tell a difference. When not frozen, it will bake a little more into a cookie...while frozen will stay more doughy.)


Chicken Noodle Soup
So this is really not much of a recipe since I just throw whatever I want in a pot in whatever quantities look about right....but it was my best pot yet, so I'll attempt to document it.

I used a HUGE pot and filled with chicken boullion/broth. I then chopped up half a small bag of baby carrots, some celery (include those leafy tops!), turnips (awesome new vegetable I tried), and onion-- add all to pot. I bought a herb-roasted rotisserie chicken and pulled chunks of chicken off of there-- add to pot. Chopped up fresh dill and parsley-- add to pot (I think these fresh spices were key this time and I have never used dill before cause thought that would be weird, but now it is a must for me!). Add freshly ground pepper and let simmer for a while. Once the onion is transluscent and veggies soft, then I add wide egg noodles. Enjoy!


And I also have got all of my recipes torn out from magazines and from friends into an organized binder-- and I LOVE IT!

Who's going shopping?!?!

Just a few things I've found for those going out shopping this Black Friday. I personally don't have anything I'm after this year, but will probably still venture out.

1. Wal-mart announced they will price match items in other ads!

“Walmart is kicking off three days of savings, typically reserved only for the Friday After Thanksgiving, on this seasons’ must-have holiday gifts, including the strongest “price match” guarantee in the market. In fact, Walmart is one of the only retailers that will price match competitors’ ads on “Black Friday.” Customers simply bring in competitors’ ads and Walmart will match the price of any identical product right at the register, making Walmart the easiest place to save this holiday season.”

2. Shop-n-Save has a great deal. Buy $100 of gift cards at their store to participating retailers and you'll get a $20 gift certificate for Shop-n-Save. Best Buy and Kohls are retailers listed that I normally shop at, so I'll probably try to buy some this week, knowing that I will shop those stores on Friday or at some point coming up. Now I'm not a fan of shop-n-save, but it is fine for getting frozen foods, soda, canned and boxed items, etc. I'm thinking you can use this on Thursday when they offer $10 off a $50 purchase...so really it will be like getting $50 of groceries for only $20!

3. BFads.net is one of the best sites I've found so far if you know what you want to buy and looking to price compare. For example, let's say you want a Nintendo Wii-- instead of looking through each store's ad, you can search for Wii and it will return all ad entries and prices for the wii!

4. Look online because many stores will have their deals available online (unless you are going after a super spectacular doorbuster item)! If shopping online, always check first to see if your store is available through ebates. Ebates will give you cash back (a certain % unique to each store) for your purchase if you link to the store through them.

If you sign up to ebates, please use this ebates link as I will get referral money!

Good luck and have fun!!

Europe Day 15&16 Munich (Finale!)

I'm combining Saturday and Sunday together cause we really didn't do much sightseeing, we just spent both days at Oktoberfest. I have to say that by at this point in the trip we were just getting worn down, but this was the big moment we had been waiting for....and unfortunately I think I had built it up WAY too much. It was fun, but it was basically just like a huge carnival with beer tents and rides and concession stands. And I was thinking they would have a selection of great beers to try, but it was so crowded and busy that there was just 1 type of beer they bring you-- which was okay, but not great. Still, it's something to experience and I feel like we were the perfect age to do it!

We were a little nervous how the whole thing worked as I had heard MANY different things from people on the internet. We did not have a reservation, but since there was just 2 of us, I was basically assured that we would be able to find a table if we just kept asking people. Well, we went to the first tent- Hippodrom- and weren't finding ANY place to sit, so then we moved on to the Paulaner tent. It was so close, but the grounds were so packed with people that I swear it took us 30 minutes to navigate less than 1 block. We get there and start asking people that have room at their table if we can join them and luckily we come across 4 guys from switzerland who had space....and they turned out to be really great, nice, fun people to sit with! We really couldn't have asked for a better situation!

Then on Sunday we went back and watched this HUGE parade-- we actually only watched less than half cause the parade was like over 3 hours long and I just started getting bored! We met a super nice retired couple from the states that day on the train and joined them for the parade. They were touring Europe for like 45 days or something insane that we were jealous of! We then just wasted time walking around the fairgrounds and killing time until we had to get our luggage and head to the airport for our flight back to paris.

Entrance to the grounds-


Inside Hippodrom, which is where celebrities will be. This year I know Hayden Panetierre and Kim Kardashian were there- go figure I didn't find anyone famous.


Here's just a few shots to show the crowds and atmostpher and all the rides and tents!





Here was our tent-- we actually got a spot outside on some picnic tables they had setup.


The pretzels were enormous!!


And enormous beers to go along with that!



They sold these cute iced gingerbread cookies everywhere-- I bought a few for souveniers for friends.


I got some video footage, but don't know yet how to post that, so here is a still pic showing the people at our table. They would stand up occasionally and sing this song...but unfortunately we had no clue what they were ever saying, so couldn't join in!


And then it was goodbye Munich!


We arrived in Paris and just stayed at a hotel in the airport-- next morning we got our flight home and it was back to the Lou!

I must say that overall this trip was awesome and we can not wait to go see more countries!!!!!

Europe Day 14- Munich

It's Friday and we start the day by taking a tram/bus to Nymphenburg Palace, which is just a tad outside of the city. This was the summer residence of the palace (Residenz) we toured yesterday.



The place was enormous and it was really amazing that besides the palace, it had a HUGE garden/park area (490 acres) with all sorts of little buildings. Here was the view standing on the terrace of the back of the palace. It was also much windier/chillier than expected, so dustin was such a sweetie and traded jackets with me cause his was much warmer. I couldn't believe he actually fit into my fleece-- and of course I had to get a picture of how ridiculous he looked!



So we started tackling all of the little buildings and exploring the park. First up was a building I believe they used for when they were hunting-- they would stay at this place. You can notice in the bedroom there is a door that blends into the wall-- a lot of the bedrooms at these palaces had those and were so the mistress could slip in and out of the bedroom. the last picture is what the kitchen looked like.




Here's a few shots of the area-- some of it was basically like a walking trail and more wooded, while other areas were huge open fields. We even spotted a deer!




I can't remember what this next building was used for, but I took a picture of the bathroom/washroom. You can see the water spouts on the wall, so not really sure how this whole setup worked.



This next building was a japanese style building and everything was decorated with a definite asian inspiration.



Lastly, we went to the chapel building. The inside was small, but incredible-- every inch was decorated with shells and rocks. It was beautiful and my pictures just don't do a justice!




Luckily one of the buildings was converted to a restaurant, so we stopped for some food and I FINALLY insisted to Dustin I was ordering my Diet Coke, even if it was like $5 for 4 oz. or the tiniest portion ever. But every last drop tasted heavenly! We decided to get a light lunch since it was late and we wanted a decent dinner. So we see they have a snack menu, so dustin orders the sausages off the snack menu and I got a salad. His snack was FOUR sausages and fries!


Lastly, we finished a part of the main palace that stored all of the carriages/coaches used. It was really cool to see how many they had and all the different styles.


We then were just playing by ear what to do in the afternoon and decided to go to Dachau. We got there mid/late afternoon, so we knew we didn't have much time. We started with a museum that was indoors cause that closed earlier than walking around the outdoor parts. Well unfortunately we went waaaaaaaay too slow because we weren't even halfway through when they closed. I found it very interesting and wish I would have known there was so much more to see and would have gone faster. We walked around for a bit outside, but there really wasn't much to see out there. Rows of buildings used to stand here, but they got rid of all of them but 2 that were setup still as models of what it looked like inside.



My view from the inside looking out-- always bars on all the windows.


There was a trench around the entire outside perimeter, along with tons of barbed wire, concrete walls, watch towers, etc.




We then went to Altes Hackerbrauhaus for dinner, recommended by rick and was decent. More just awesome traditional german food!


Afterwards, we checked out Jodelwirt (also one of Rick's recommendations) and was glad we stopped in. It was a very TINY place and definitely seemed like where the locals hang out....they would be playing music and everyone singing along and shouting things out! We got one of the last seats in a corner by the bar area so decided to stay for a drink and I was hoping to order dessert. So we ask if they have a dessert menu and the girl is like, "uh, normally we do, but today is special celebration and we only have pig...so if you want some pig for dessert, that is what we have." Obviously i'll pass on that! But then they were so nice to us and said they would specially make something for us...so I got the Apple Struedel with ice cream and it was THE BEST I'd had there-- exactly what I had been searching for!