Fab at five

My baby turned 5 yesterday. It's so hard to believe that it has been 5 years since this little fiery redhead burst his way into the world two weeks early. He just couldn't wait for 2005 to roll in, I suppose. That's just him - always ready for new adventures. His fierce independence and strong will certainly shook up our quiet little home. But that's what I love most about Finn, aside from the most charming grin ever! 


The birthday tradition around our home is the birthday boy, or girl, gets to choose the menu for his or her birthday dinner. How ironic, that with one severely dairy-allergic boy, that this one would be so in love with cheese it has become a little worrisome. We don't often have cheesy-type dishes for dinner around here, but as birthday tradition dictates, Finn chose his favourite lasagne and caesar salad for dinner. So in honour of Finny's 5th, I thought I would share the recipe. I also thought I would leave you with this fun song from the Evaporators called Addicted to Cheese and dedicate to all you other cheese addicts out there. Happy New Year everyone!


Vegetable Lasagne
1 bunch of broccoli blanched and roughly chopped
4 green onions sliced
1 C chopped mushrooms
1/4 C finely chopped basil
2 C ricotta cheese
2 C grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese, saving enough to sprinkle on the top
Salt and pepper to taste
1 jar tomato sauce
12 lasagne noodles (enough to make three layers)
Boil noodles. Mix together broccoli, green onions, mushrooms, basil, cheeses, and salt and pepper. Spoon enough tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish to cover. Place enough noodles on the bottom to cover and scoop half of vegetable mixture onto noodles. Add another layer of noodles and cover with remaining mixture. Add final layer of noodle and top with tomato sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 mins. Remove foil and bake another 15-20 mins. 

Oh Christmas twig...

We put up our Christmas twig last week. That's right, our Christmas twig. A humble limb that was rescued from our yard, debarked, spray painted silver and dressed up to resemble a festive evergreen. This is the third Christmas this silvery twig has sat in the corner of our living room, taking up little room (which is a bonus for our tiny space) but emitting a more brilliant, concentrated glow. I wasn't so sure about this here twig when Nate first dragged it in from the yard after it fell to the ground during a wicked winter storm. He insisted it become our Christmas tree that year and promised to dress it up right for the holidays. Who am I to argue the creative process - I gave in. He's in charge of decorating it each Christmas and I'm really starting to enjoy its crooked stature and quirky naturalness. A tree only a mother could love. Happy holidays everyone.

Christmas card swap

I swear we are going to be sweeping up silver sparkles well into 2010, but what fun we have had getting our handmade Christmas cards ready for the Kids Craft Weekly Christmas card swap! Nate cut out the trees from some beautiful dark green kimono fabric I have had sitting around forever (unfortunately, my bad-lighting photography doesn't do it justice!) and Finn drew on the tree trunks. After the brief photo shoot, Nate decided they weren't quite done and added silver sparkles to the bottom of each. The sparkles added a really nice touch to the cards (he has such a great crafty eye!), and a nice new shimmer to the kitchen floor! Now the cards are off in the post heading to such exotic locations as Australia, Indonesia, and Ohio, adding sparkle to kitchen floors around the world. And now we wait to receive our cards from said exotic locations. Oh, I can't wait to see what other crafty kids from across the globe have done! Don't you just love getting mail?! Fun mail - not the kind of mail that either requires you to fork over your hard-earned money to keep the lights on, or the junk mail that tells you that two can dine for $9.99. But real mail that someone actually took the time to write and drive all the way to the post office to mail out. This activity has me thinking about forgoing the traditional I'm-going-to-lose-a-few-pounds-and-get-healthy New Year's resolution (I'm not going to lie, it never really worked anyway!) and trade it in for a more attainable resolution of bringing back letter writing. Watch your post boxes in 2010!