Last Splash at Frog Pond, Hopkinton State Park, Pancit, Drumlin Farm, Lost Dog, Lookout Farm, and Apple Plum Crumble

On the plate: Pancit (Filipino noodle dish) and a low calorie apple plum crumble

Soundtrack to cook to:  Counting Crows August and Everything After.  Oddly enough, they were playing this album at Alexander's P.E. class and I became very nostalgic and was finding myself completely unashamed of rocking out to every song during Alex's class.  So....I had to download it and rock out to it at home. :)

Alexander modeling that he has to hold his hands
and wait quietly if he wants his food to arrive
at a restaurant.  (A genius parenting move, courtesy
of Joseph's parents - and trust me, it works!  Feel
free to copy this move with your children as well.
"Sweetie, the food won't come to the table unless
you hold your hands like this, and sit quietly.")

The unofficial end of summer has come and gone and BAM! as soon as Labor Day is over, I swear, the air starts smelling like fall and the temperature changes just as dramatically.  Thus, I just had to take Alexander to Boston Common's Frog Pond for one last splash and ride the swan boats in the public garden as well.

Me and Alexander on the swan boat.  

The beautiful view from the swan boats.

After the swan boat ride, Alexander and I walked
around the public garden.  He decided that he wanted
to take a break, have his snack trap, and sit on a bench
overlooking the ducks.  It's so funny, as much as
this kid loves to run around, he also loves to sit
on benches.

We made our way to the Make Way for Ducklings
statues and apparently, Alexander was giving
someone the "side eye and raised eyebrow."
Lol, he's truly his mama's boy. :-P

Alexander preferred to sit on the little ducklings
rather than the mother duck.

On our way to Frog Pond, we passed the carousel
and just had to ride it (for fear of a complete toddler
melt down).  He chose to ride on the zebra and
proceeded to shout, "Yeeeeee-hawwwww!"

Me and Alexander, enjoying our mommy and son
date on the carousel.

Splashing around in Frog Pond

Since the weather was still nice during the last week of August, I decided that we should also have one last visit to the beach.  I wanted to visit a new beach that wasn't an hour away and wouldn't be too crowded.  A teacher friend of mine had taken her son to Hopkinton State Park and raved on about it, so I decided that we'd visit there, rather than our usual beach.  

It was the perfect temperature that day - not too hot, but not too cold, and the beach was not crowded at all.  It's not a huge beach, but it's perfect for young kids (plus there are no waves for Alexander to be afraid of).  It was a great day!

Alexander playing at the beach.

He loved digging up the sand, putting it in his
bucket, and making sand castles.  Unfortunately,
the water wasn't that warm, so he didn't go much
further than knee-deep into the water.

Alexander loved splashing around in the smaller puddles!

Recently, I got nostalgic and was craving foods from when I was a child.  One of those dishes that I absolutely LOVED to eat as a child was my grandmother's pancit.  Pancit is a Filipino noodle dish that has chicken (but can have other meats such as pork), cabbage, carrots, garlic, and celery.  It's actually a really easy dish to make, and I loved sharing this food memory dish with my family.

Take 3 small packages of rice noodles and soak them in warm
water for ~20 minutes.  This is what they look like before.

This is what the noodles look like after soaking for 20 minutes.

Cook 2 lbs of chicken breast.

Add in 1/2 head of cabbage - sliced thin, 3-4 carrots - cut in coins,
1 onion - sliced, and 4 ribs of celery - sliced.  Season with salt and pepper.
Add 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1 cup of chicken broth (or water).
Put the top on the Dutch oven and cook for 20-25 minutes -
stirring every 8-10 minutes or so.
Once the vegetables are cooked through but still crunchy,
toss in the noodles and stir with a pair of tongs.  *You may
want to add more soy sauce to this at this stage, depending on how
salty you like things prepared.  Just remember that a little bit goes
a long way. 

Mmmm!  Here we go!  A deliciously light and healthy trip down
food memory lane (for me at least).  It's so simple to make and is
absolutely delicious.  Just as a heads up though, this made a LOT
of pancit, so you may want to cut back on the noodles to half as
much if you don't want to be eating it for 3 days straight.  

Since Joseph had the entire weekend off and the weather was nice, I wanted to take the family to some outdoor places for fun.  Alexander used to attend a farm class at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, MA and had such a great time seeing all of the animals.  So, we ventured to Drumlin Farm so Joseph could see it (since he had never been), and Alexander could see the animals again (because he LOVES animals).

Alexander and Joseph checking out the birds.

"Owls!  Hooooooooo!"  (Alexander's words).

Alexander got to pet a various collection of animal pelts.

Joseph and Alexander, checking out the cows.

Alexander looking at the wild turkeys -
he's not fond of them either.  Wild turkeys
seriously roam Brookline and terrorize
people by chasing them down the sidewalks
and streets - it's no joke.  Joseph and I are
not fans of these creatures.

Alexander pointing out the big mother pig.

As soon as this picture was taken, we discovered from a phone call from our security system that our door was open and our dog had escaped!!  Our beloved, 6 1/2 year old dachshund named Oscar apparently was spooked by the alarm going off and the police coming to check out the house.  It was the worst 3 hours of our lives, as our dog (whom we refer to as our first born), was off on his own little adventure around the neighborhood.

Thankfully, after 3 hours of scouring the neighborhood and surrounding areas, my sister Kristen came to the rescue by screaming at the top of her lungs while simultaneously squeaking one of Oscar's beloved Bobo toys, and she found him about 200 feet from the house.  Thank goodness our little guy was safe, unharmed, and completely unaware as to why I was bawling my eyes out when he came back home.  What.a.morning!  Oy vey!!  Thanks for saving our little fur child, Kristen!  

The next day, my sister came over to hang out and help me out with Alexander because Joseph was on-call that day and into the next morning.  I was 32 weeks pregnant, and starting around that time, things had been proving to be more difficult for me to do on my own.  

My sister and I love to go to "pick your own" fruit farms, and I know that Alexander loves going to these places as well.  So, we found ourselves back at Lookout Farms where we picked apples, peaches, and blue plums.

As soon as we got off of the train, Alexander
ran up to an apple tree, picked and apple,
and took a big bite!!  It took us completely
by surprise.  He enjoyed the apple so much
that he ate the ENTIRE apple (seeds and all).
Trust me, I tried to take it away from him,
but was immediately met with a very
emphatic protest from the little guy.

Alexander and my sister Kristen, picking apples.
Some of them actually made it into the bags! :)

He was still eating the same apple when we
finished picking apples and got back onto
the train to go to the next picking destination.
This little guy loves fresh fruit!

The next stop was peaches!  The farm actually
advertised that there were very few left.  My
sister Kristen and I decided to check it out
and were surprised to find that there were
many peaches left to be picked and they were
incredibly delicious!!  I normally am not a fan
of peaches, because I don't like biting through
the fuzzy skin (I know...I have quite a few quirks).
However, I found myself eating peach after
peach once we got home because they were
that good!

Alexander enjoyed them as well. :)

The next stop was the blue plums.  The
trees were full of them and there were enough
on the lower branches that Alexander was able
to pick quite a few of them himself.  He liked
the plums, but not nearly as much as the apple
or the peaches.

Alexander decided to play amongst the vines
while we were waiting to get back onto
the train in order to go see the farm animals
and have lunch.

Alexander looking at the farm animals.

While I was buying a ticket for Alexander
to go and ride a horse, Kristen took
Alexander to go climb a mountain of hay.

King of the mountain!!

While we were waiting for the line to ride horses to die down,
we decided to go on a hay ride around the farm.

Yikes!  I'm biiiiiiig.  This was me at 32 weeks.

Alexander and my sister Kristen.  

The "lookout" namesake for Lookout Farms.  Absolutely beautiful.

Alexander loved checking out the view.

Alexander riding a horse and saying, "Yeee hawwww!"

After the visit to the farm, we went back to the entrance to purchase our picked apples (and get a few other little goodies at the store).  At the entrance was a statue of a donkey and a pig and Alexander kept saying, "Ride it the donkey?  Ride it the pig?"  How could I say no?

Alexander was very happy to ride the donkey.  :)

Alexander riding on the piggy.

After a nice nap, it was still such a beautiful day, so I decided to take Oscar and Alexander to Larz Anderson park to run around.

Oscar and Alexander taking a rest from running
around the large hill at the park.  Alexander will
kick his soccer ball every once in a while, but he
mostly prefers to just hold it.  

Alexander, looking pensive, into the sunset.
(Pondering the meaning of life, I'm sure.) :)

This little guy LOVES to hold his soccer ball! :-p

We had so many apples and plums from picking fruit that I decided to quickly whip up a low calorie plum and apple crumble.  It really was quick, too!  The preparation took about 10-12 minutes, and then it baked for 30 minutes.

I decided to cut up about 5 small blue plums and 5 apples.  Then
I placed them in a greased 11x17 casserole dish.

To make the crisp, I combined the following ingredients:
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Once the crumble mixtured is mixed thoroughly, spread the
crumble mixture over the fruit and bake in a 350 degree F
oven for 30 minutes.

The end result!  A bubbly, sweet, and spicy apple and plum crumble!
It was sooooooo yummy and the house smelled just as delicious!

Alexander couldn't wait to dig in after dinner.
Normally this kiddo will NOT eat food that
is too hot.  However, I suppose for this dish,
he was willing to stick it out like a champ.

He loved it!  We actually had it over some
vanilla yogurt for breakfast the next morning
and it was super delish!

Alexander has been really into Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham.
Since Alexander isn't a huge fan of eggs, I thought I'd make
him his own version of green eggs and ham for breakfast.
He was quite enthusiastic about it in the beginning, but
our dog Oscar ended up eating the rest of it at the end.
Oh well!  We'll just keep trying. :)

Potty training has proven to be very successful!
So much so that we have Alexander in regular
underwear!  *Knock on wood*, he's only had one
accident thus far, so let's continue to keep our fingers
crossed.  We still take him to the bathroom every 2-3
hours, but he's had dry diapers at bed and nap time
AND has asked to use the bathroom on three separate
occasions!  Woo hoo!!

Here's our little guy playing at the park.  He's quite a character!

This little guy loves to laugh and tell jokes.
He's a handful, but he's a lot of fun!

It's been a really great summer, but when Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks start putting out their pumpkin spiced coffee (my absolutely FAVORITE!!  I literally squealed with joy when I saw that they had it), it's time to get out the fall decorations.  Not that I'm a huge decorator by any means, but what little I have, I'm always excited to get out and display.  I absolutely love the fall!  Its temperatures, smells, and foods always make me feel all warm and snuggly inside.  Plus, the fall (this year) means that we're that much closer to welcoming our little one!  6 more weeks!!  Can't wait!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki