Singapore Street Noodles, Sports Camp, and Summer Fun!

On the plate:  Singapore street noodles

Soundtrack to cook to:  Pandora's Disney music station...the kids are absolutely obsessed with it and love identifying each movie that each song comes from when played.

Summer has been full of extra-curricular activities for the kiddos.  Last week, Alex had his last summer camp that was full of fun outdoor and indoor sports.  He played soccer, did many variations of tag, and played dodgeball from 9-12:30 every morning for one week.

We were thrilled to find that one of my former teacher friends had her two children enrolled in the same camp!  Alex had a lot of fun playing with them and we even enjoyed a lovely picnic together after camp let out one afternoon. 
It was really great for Alex to get out, learn how to play games, play with kids around his age, and get some quality exercise as well.

Alex kicking a soccer ball around before camp started.

Big thumbs up from our big guy!

Meanwhile, William enjoyed his gym class at My Gym.

William doing a back flip on the uneven bars.

William doing another flip!  He had so much fun in gym class.

Our silly guy playing around in the ball pit.

While William was taking his afternoon nap, I had Alex write letters to family members last week.  He chose who he got to write to, asked questions that he wanted to ask them, and even drew pictures to go along with his letter.

Our proud letter writer in action!

Another morning while Alex was at camp, William and I grabbed some delicious breakfast together at a delightful joint in Brookline called Rifrullo.

William actually enjoyed a "second breakfast" of a brownie, while I
indulged in an incredible breakfast sandwich and iced coffee.
William makes a lovely coffee date.  :-)

Afterwards, we met up with my friend Roshni and her son Rayaan for an impromptu play date at a park nearby.

William loved putting his feet in the fountain at the park.
This is the park that was by our old house where Alex
used to splash around when he was little.

William splashing around in the fountain.

Roshni and William, chasing Rayaan around the tennis court.

Last weekend, Joseph had to go into work, so I took the boys out for donuts and chocolate milk as a special breakfast to celebrate the end of Alex's summer camp. 

The boys thoroughly enjoyed their donut and chocolate
milk in the park.

After that, we took Oscar on a long walk and the boys got to play in one of their favorite places:  a rock pile.  Every time we go for a walk, they have to bring their walking sticks with them.  That morning, the boys used their walking sticks to pretend to break through the ice (like in the beginning scene of the movie Frozen).  They were even singing the song that goes along with it.  They took their "ice cutting" very seriously that morning.

Our ice cutters, hard at work.

My back has been bothering me recently and I've had to cut back on my physical activity a bit.  Being 33 weeks pregnant was starting to take a toll on my body, so I had to find ways for the boys to still stay entertained while I rested on the couch.

The boys got new smelly markers!  They had a lot of fun
that morning smelling all of the different scents that
the markers had and loved coloring pictures with them.

Our little old man, Oscar on a walk the next morning.
Gotta love our spunky senior citizen!

This past week, since Alex no longer had summer camp, he got to join me and William at gym class.

The boys loved playing on the big "hot dog."

Alex, stretching at the beginning of class.

William's turn to stretch!

Our big guy loves a good trampoline.

The boys climbing the play structure.

 Alex jumping in slow motion into the ball pit.
He loved doing this and did it about 10 times.

Alex climbed all the way to the top without any difficulty.

So of course, William had to do it, too.  Great positive peer pressure!

William walking on stilts while the teacher helped him.

Alex got to do it as well.  Before he got on, he told the teacher,
"I can do it by myself!"
Then, as soon as he got on, he told the teacher,
"It's ok, umm, you can help me."

HA!  What a silly guy.

The boys working out their abs and leg muscles by
pinching a foam frisbee between their feet while
lifting up their legs.

Alex doing a stork stance while balancing a frisbee
on his head.  I was quite impressed with his coordination.

This past week, Alex's assignment was to address all of
the envelopes in order to send his letters and drawings
to family members.  He did a great job!

 A rare moment caught on video:  William snuggling with me!
William's not a big snuggler, so I loooooved this and a nice
bonus is that Joseph was singing and playing on the piano
in the background.  We love to listen to Joseph play.

Since it was slightly rainy, I asked the boys where they wanted to go one morning that was indoors.  They both immediately exclaimed, "LEGO LAAAAAANNNNND!"  It's one of their favorite places to visit.  Can you tell?

Alex building a car in the background while
William built a tower and put it on the wobble board
to try and knock it down.

Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely lunch together.
We don't normally have the boys sit together,
but they actually behaved really well.

At Assembly Row in Somerville (where Lego Land is), there was also an awesome playground for the kids to play!  I had never seen it before, but was so excited since the weather cleared up.  The boys had a great time playing at this new playground.

Alex banging on the bongos.

William wanted to play in the water, so he took off
his shoes and socks and splashed around.

Alex shaking the maracas.

 Playing at the playground at Assembly Row.

The boys had a great time!

And now to spice things up a little bit with a delicious and nutritious recipe!  I looked in the fridge and saw what I needed to finish up in our vegetable drawer and thought of a fun way to use our pork tenderloin that we had cooked the night before.  I didn't want the family to get tired of leftovers, so I took the pork tenderloin, veggies, and some noodles and made delicious Singapore street noodles!

Ingredients:

• 16 oz rice noodles, uncooked
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 8 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 8 ounces boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced
• (Or you can use 3 cooked pork tenderloins (or any leftover meat you may have))
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 head cabbage, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup carrots, julienned
• 1 package enoki mushrooms (I added this)
• 1 bunch scallion, cut into 2 inch lengths 
•  1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

Sauce ingredients:

•  1 tbsp vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
• 1 1/2 tbsp Madras curry powder (2 tbsp was too much)
• 1 pinch turmeric
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup vegetarian oyster sauce
• I didn't have oyster sauce, so I used 1/2 cup chicken broth with 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp sriracha sauce (I omitted this because it's too spicy for the kiddos)
• 2 tbsp ketchup

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.

• 1 tbsp vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
• 2 tbsp Madras curry powder
• 1 pinch turmeric
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup vegetarian oyster sauce (or chicken broth with fish sauce)
• 2 tbsp ketchup

Put the rice noodles in a large mixing bowl.
Pour boiling water over the noodles and let the noodles
sit in the boiling water for 3-5 minutes.
Drain the water from the noodles.

Drizzle the noodles with ~2 tbsp oil.

Sous chef William brought his chair, knife, and cabbage
from his play kitchen into our kitchen and told me that he wanted to
help me cook dinner that evening.  He loves to help out!

In a Dutch oven, saute together the cabbage, carrots, garlic,
scallion, and enoki mushrooms in some extra virgin olive oil.

(If you're not using leftover meat, then cook the meat in the
Dutch oven first until it's cooked through, then toss in the
vegetables and cook for another 8-10 minutes.)

If you are using leftover meat, chop it up into bite-sized pieces
and toss it in with the vegetables to warm the meat through.

After the meat and vegetables are cooked through completely,
toss in the noodles, sauce, and cilantro.  Stir until the
meat and vegetables are completely mixed through with the noodles.

Serve and enjoy!!
You'll love the spice-kick from the curry mixed with the
delightful crunch of all of the vegetables.  So delicious
and so quick and easy to prepare.

That next day I had to find an indoor play place for the kiddos to frolic around, so I surprised them and took them to Chuck E. Cheese!!  (We hadn't been there in a while and they were absolutely thrilled when we pulled up in the parking lot.)

The boys, ready to dig into some pizza before they played games
that afternoon.

I had to make sure I got a picture of me balancing my
coffee cup on my belly.  Here I am at 33 weeks pregnant.
I'm not really that big, but the camera angle looks like it.

I had Alex take a picture of me that morning so I had
proof that I wasn't that ginormous.  :-)

On August 27, the boys and I met two of Alex's friends from school out for a play date and picnic at a fun park in Wellesley.  Alex and William had an absolutely wonderful time running around with their friends Avangeline, Chloe, and Owen.  The weather was perfect and it was so great to see the kids get along so well.  It was also great to catch up with Jennie and Tammy (the mothers of Alex's classmates) and nosh on some delicious Jimmy John's for lunch.

Our picnic set up for the morning.

Another mother and her child joined our table...we had no idea
who they were.

Alex and Chloe playing "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."

William was "Captain Smee".

Alex and Chloe playing hide-and-seek.

Jennie, Avangeline, Owen, and Tammy on the see saw.

Then the other kiddos wanted to join in on the fun.

Alex, Avangeline, Chloe, and William on the see saw together.

And miraculously we got ALL of the kids on it together!!

Alex, Avangeline, William, Chloe, and Owen having a fun time going
up and down on the see saw.

Our garden has been acting kind of funky this summer and our yield has definitely been affected.  However, we definitely have a surplus of basil and enjoyed our first heirloom tomato of the year.

I sliced the tomato thin, sprinkled it with salt, pepper,
extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and 3 thin-sliced basil leaves.
A perfect summer salad!

Summer may be winding down, but we're still squeezing as much fun out of it as possible.  Lots of fun times and wonderful memories to be made!
Until next time...

Love and kisses,
Nikki