Play Date, Leftovers Rebooted, Bouncing Around, and Pumpkin Picking!

On the plate:  White chicken enchiladas

Soundtrack to cook to:  Best of My Love by the Emotions on repeat.  This song gives me life, brings me out of a funk, makes me boogie, and is the second song in the soundtrack of my life.  Love it.  Listen to it and love it, too!  :-)

Woo hoo!  Fall is officially here, and yes, yes, yes, I am one of those "basic" chicks that absolutely LOVES everything about fall.  I love the crisp, cool weather, pumpkin and pumpkin spiced everything, and the gorgeous foliage.  Love it...love it all.
I was 38 weeks pregnant last week and still had a few things to do on my check list.  Plus, I wanted to take the boys out as much as I could (since I won't be able to in the next few weeks).
First on the list was a visit to the doctor's office.

With baby girl coming soon, I wanted to make sure that
all family members got the flu vaccine.  Here are the boys
sitting wonderfully in the waiting room at the doctor's office.
I was so proud of them that I had to snap a picture.

During William's nap, Alex came downstairs to hang out with me for a bit.  He loves to snuggle (which I LOVE) and talk to his baby sister during this alone time.

Here's Alex showing baby sister her sleep sheep.

Then he wanted to talk to her.  He likes to talk to baby sister
and then watch to see if she moves around.  It's very sweet.
It's so heart warming to see how excited he is about her arrival.

 Alex, speaking sweetly to his baby sister.  I had to hold back
my tears.

Last Wednesday, we had a play date with one of Alex's friends from his Kindergarten classroom.  We had Oscar and his lovely mother Heather over for lunch and shenanigans.

Alex, Oscar, Heather, and William enjoying lunch together.

After lunch, the kids decorated sugar cookies together.

Here's William, hard at work spreading the icing on his cookie.

Afterwards, Alex, Oscar, and William decorated pumpkins together.

Alex and Oscar decorating their pumpkins with funny-faced
stickers, fuzzy mustaches, glitter glue, and sticker gems.

William was totally into it.

Alex was so proud of his pumpkin and all of the boys
really loved the fuzzy mustaches. 

The kids had a great play date with their new friend and loved running around the house playing Ninja Turtles with each other.

That evening, the boys watched the movie Monster House.
Seeing William's reaction to the movie was absolutely priceless!!

 Mr. William Wiggle Bottom and Silly Alex, playing
around at dinner time.

Our sweet boys walking to school together, hand-in-hand.
It's nice to see their relationship blooming.

Our handsome little men.

My challenge for last week (dinner wise) was to come up with a menu of what to do with ~2-3 lbs of pulled chicken that we had left over from the party.

The first night, I made a barbecue chicken pizza.  I use whole wheat pizza dough that I got from Whole Foods and then put any veggies that I want along with barbecue sauce and cheese.  Then I bake it at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. 

So delicious, simple, and dinner is ready in no time!

The next night, I made a recipe for white chicken enchiladas.  I've never made enchiladas in my life and I was amazed at how simple they were to put together!  Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, I almost always order enchiladas because I love them so much.  I was so thrilled to find out how easy they were to make and look forward to making this cheesy and delicious dish again!

Ingredients:

• Small, whole wheat tortillas
• 2 cups, shredded cheese, divided
• 2 cups, shredded cooked chicken
• 4 snacking peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 box cremini mushrooms, chopped
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour (I used whole wheat)
• 8 oz chicken broth
• 1 cup Greek yogurt (I used 0% fat)
• 1, 7 oz can of diced green chiles
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/2 tbsp cumin
  

Saute the snacking peppers, onion, and mushrooms together with a little bit
of extra virgin olive oil.  Season with salt, pepper, and cumin.

While I'm cooking dinner, these kiddos are usually running around the house.
This particular evening, the boys were battling with their light sabers.
Here's our little jedis in action.

While the vegetables are sauteeing, combine the shredded chicken
and 1 cup of the shredded cheese in a medium mixing bowl.
Once the vegetables have cooked for about 5-7 minutes, mix
the vegetables into the chicken and cheese mixture.

The next moment I looked up, the boys were having races on their chairs
around the house!  There is never a dull moment here.

Place some of the chicken mixture onto the center of a small tortilla
and roll the tortilla so that it is closed.

Place the tortillas seam-side down in a greased casserole dish.

In the same pan that you cooked the vegetables (because I like to have
the least amount of mess possible), put the 3 tbsp of butter and 3 tbsp of flour
into a pan over medium heat.  Stir the mixture for ~1 minute.

Whisk in 8 oz of chicken broth.

Then stir in the Greek yogurt and diced chiles until the sauce is thickened.

Pour the sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese.

Place the casserole dish into a 425 degree F oven for 20-25 minutes.

Here ya go!!  Dinner is served!  It's creamy, cheesy and really easy to make.
The dish was kid and adult-approved!

This past weekend I had to get the kids out of the house so that Joseph could prepare a presentation that he had to give.  Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and cold, so that ruled out all outdoor places.  So, I got the kids in the car and headed over to the trampoline park for a little fun.

Our kiddos climbing among the foam cubes.

 The boys love playing in the foam pit.

They had a blast throwing balls at each other in the dodge ball area.

Our goofy guys.

 The kiddos playing in the dodge ball area.

Here's William laying down and lending Alex a helping
hand to get up the angled trampoline.  I thought this was so sweet!

After about 30 minutes of jumping around, the boys
were getting pretty tired.  Here's our little men laying down
on the trampoline in the middle of a lively game of dodge ball.

 Joseph, goofing around with the boys.

On Sunday, the rain had finally stopped, but it was a little chilly.  The boys and I got bundled up and we ventured out to Lookout Farm in Natick to pick out our pumpkins and some Asian pears as well.

Alex and William on the train, ready to go to the orchards.

The boys walking around the Asian pear orchards.
We had to walk pretty far to find some trees that had fruit on them.

Woo hoo!  Success!  Alex was excited to start picking.

So was William!  (Which was perfect, because the
two of them could definitely use a snack at that point in time.)

Alex and William enjoying the fruits of their labor.
(Har-dee-har-har-har)

 Alex and William thoroughly enjoyed their Asian pears.

They loved the pears so much that they had to eat a
second one before we went to go pick out our pumpkins.
The pears were super juicy and delicious....I had two as well.  :-p

Our sassy Weewum.

Me and the boys riding the train back to the pumpkin patch.

Our handsome pumpkins!

Love these kids!

The boys with the beautiful pumpkin patch in the
background.

The boys chose two big "Daddy and Mommy" pumpkins.

Then, they chose little "Alex, William, Baby Sister, and Oscar"
pumpkins.

That evening, we had to do some last minute homework.  William had to decorate a teddy bear for his school that represented his heritage.

Here's William using the glue stick to get ready to
paste some tissue paper to his bear.

I had him divide his teddy bear into fourths.  Then, he decorated
the teddy bear with the colors of the flags of his heritage.

Here's William proudly displaying his hard work!
He decorated his teddy bear with tissue paper that had the colors of
the American, Philippine, Greek, and Taiwanese flags.

It's been so great to have this time with the boys.  I absolutely love the relationship that they're developing and can only imagine how much more fun, and undoubtedly crazy, it will be once baby girl arrives.  :-)
Until next time...

Love and kisses,
Nikki