dude mom

Kid-Friendly Kitchen Crafts!

April 14, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

When I found out I was going to be a mom, I had visions of what Motherhood would be. You know, not just rainbows and butterflies. Or even meltdowns and panic attacks. Honestly, I had visions and dreams of coloring, painting, and other crafts! You know, typical kid stuff, right??

Wrong. Oh-so-wrong! It turns out boys are … different, to say the least! OK, OK. Before you want to punch me, hear me out. I totally was all about the “it’s nurture, not nature” side of the debate. Buuuut, try as I might to have a gender-neutral child, the rough and tumble is totally built into this kids’ DNA.

But my rough and tumbly kid still likes to do ‘craffffs.’ Yep. He’s definitely a crafty kid! However, I have to carefully plan our crafty projects because he’s still a boy. He has a fairly short attention span, so I keep him ‘tied down’ for the absolute shortest period of time possible. And the way that I do that is by choosing to do Kid-Friendly Kitchen Crafts!

Why? Because they not only produce delicious results, but they can also be prepped ahead of time and are done on a surface that can be cleaned easily — the kitchen counter! 😛

Ari’s Mimi (my mom) recently bought Ari a Star Wars apron for when we do crafts and he was so excited to put it to good use!

Our first adventure in kitchen crafts was the ever-so-popular Unicorn Bark! I saw this on Facebook a while back and I knew Ari would love to try his hand at making it!

Like so many kids activities, there was a lot of Mommy prep for a fairly short kitchen craft! I purchased four different colors of pastel colored melting chocolates from the local craft store (I prefer Pat Catan’s!) and a 6-flavor pack of brightly-colored sprinkles. That’s it.

I melted the chocolates according to the directions on the bag (which means slowly and steadily). And I had Ari waiting patiently to do his part. He had his mini-baking sheet ready for the melted chocolates! I greased the baking sheets (besides Ari’s mini-baking sheet, I had a regular sized baking sheet) with coconut oil. As soon as the chocolates were melted, I hurried and dropped dollops of color randomly and sporadically on the baking sheet. Once the baking sheet was covered, Ari used a spoon to drag the colors and swirl them together.

Once the colors were swirled together to his liking, we went crazy with the sprinkles! Post-sprinkles we shoved the baking sheets into the freezer for about an hour to harden the chocolate. The result? This glamorous looking gem!

Totally cute and totally fun! Ari absolutely loved doing this kitchen craft and we are still reaping the deliciously edible benefits!

Another one of our favorite, easy, and slightly more messy kitchen crafts is homemade pizza. For this kitchen craft I purchase some ready-made pizza dough. My personal favorite is from Corbo’s Bakery in Little Italy. I picked up a couple of them recently and then let Ari play around with one.

I spread some flour on the kitchen counter and told Ari to just spread it out. He did a great job and, most importantly, he had SO much fun! I was impressed at how quickly he learned to pound on the dough and roll it out! It was awesome!

Our pizza was lopsided and delicious! We topped it with some Trader Joe’s Pizza Sauce, Basil, and Organic Mozzarella Cheese! Yum, yum, yum! It was so delicious that I somehow forgot to snap a picture of that lopsided monstrosity. Ha!

Of all the different types of crafts we have available, kitchen crafts will always be my favorite. Next week I have a ‘slow’ week at work and I plan on getting Ari in the kitchen with me every single day. I’ll be sure to update you with our future kitchen endeavors! 🙂

Christmas 2015 // that’s a wrap!

December 30, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Guys – my holiday hangover is still in full-force. … and I didn’t even partake in any ‘party’ festivities, so to speak! Ha! But seriously, something about celebrating Christmas leaves everyone in a post-Christmas lull. For me, it’s a mix between that and pregnancy exhaustion. But I’ll blame it on the holidays. 😉

Christmas Eve-Eve //

Well thanks to my ‘schedule clearing up,’ we were able to attend Chad’s families Christmas Eve-Eve party! Unfortunately, Chad was still working, so Ari and I went at it alone. And let me tell you… any shyness that Moosh use to have? it’s GONE. Big time. GONE. He was the life of the party… and he knew it. And he loved it! And for once, I didn’t have to chase him around, because he was a “big boy” enough to play semi-independently with the other kiddo!

Christmas Eve //

Chad worked Christmas Eve until about 3:30PM or so, so Ari and I met up with my friend Kristi and her kids at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

It was amazing to see Ari ‘ooh‘ and ‘ahh‘ over Kristi’s baby girl. He’s been around her since she was born, but he has never ever taken interest in any babies. Well, perhaps it’s because he’s finally come to terms with the fact that Baby Girl will be here before he knows it!

After that little playdate we honestly did nada! We had zero plans, so PJs at 5pm was absolutely in order. In fact, Ari and I may have actually been in PJs before Chad got home! Ha!

And we finally had our first experience with the “Santa is coming!” jitters! I know this is the first of many years to come, but it was so funny trying to get him to relax and go to bed knowing Santa was ‘looming’ around the corner! Eventually, we all fell asleep. [thank goodness!]

Christmas Day //

We woke up at about 7:30-8ish. I was exhausted, but totally excited to see the look on Ari’s face! He came downstairs slowly and exclaimed “Santa came!”

It took a while to open presents because he would rip the paper off the present and then he would beg us to open it and to start playing with it right away! Ha! So it was a process of “open this,” “no, we’ll play with that when we get through all the presents,” to “OK Ari next present.” Tear it open and repeat!

After assessing the Santa/presents situation, we tried to take a nap — Ha! That was a short-lived dream. 🙂 We ‘awoke’ to my father-in-laws visit with us to celebrate Christmas! We relaxed until it was time to go to dinner. See? We were doing a mega-ultra-relaxed Christmas celebration.

And a sorry to my Jewish friends, but we totally had plans to steal your Christmas and go to our favorite local Chinese restaurant. In our defense, though, I’m fairly certain that NONE of the people that were eating at this restaurant were Jewish; but the restaurant was very busy. We ate and ate and ate. Went home and played some more. A pretty perfect Christmas day!

December 26th //

We. slept. in! Thank goodness. We all needed it. And after breakfast, we took Moosh to Cafe O’Play for their 1-Year Anniversary celebration!

Chad, my father-in-law, Moosh, and I met up with Ari’s girlfriend, Veronique, and her mommy for a fun playdate! And they totally soaked up every second together!

And before we knew it, it was time to go home and all take a big family nap! We seriously did SO much of this over the holiday break. Naps, naps, naps. You would think we would all be extremely well-rested, but that’s definitely not the case!

weekend wrap up //

May 6, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

After last weeks drama that nearly put Moosh into the hospital for an overnight stay, we welcomed the weekend with open arms — and hesitation. Cause who knew WHEN this kid would have another episode, right?

Well he definitely wasn’t feeling himself Friday. In fact, after a quick trip to Café O’Play where we pretty much just stood in the dance room, we picked up a pizza and headed home. It was definitely needed after our week. Chad went to an NFL Draft party with some of the dudes in my family and I stayed at home with my snuggle bug watching movies.

Scratch that: we watched movies together for a while; then this mama scrubbed the house from top to bottom before Mimi showed up for a weekend visit!

But let’s talk about how seriously not himself this kid looks. It definitely was NOT cold; but Moosh kept saying “Mommy, I cold! Blankie Tom, peas!” And then he wanted my Lululemon Vinyasa scarf to wrap around his head (he’s been a bit attached to it since I wrapped him in it in the hospital last week).

We ate “peetzy” and salad and watched Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo on repeat until Mimi arrived.

And then? Mass chaos! Ha!

Yep. That’s my kid running around in his underwear. Moosh finally fell asleep way way later than he should have. With promises of lots of fun on Saturday and goodnight kisses from Mimi, that seemed to do the trick.

My mom and I had planned to wake up early to get a long run in Saturday morning. But we stayed up WAY too late. And then Moosh woke up earlier than anticipated. So we improvised. We brought him with us. I despise running with the jogging stroller, but Mimi decided that we could switch off pushing him, so I agreed. Hesitantly. Ha! We got a couple miles in before having to head home. But every step counts, right?!

Mimi agreed to babysit Moosh while Chad and I went on a day-date to see the Avengers: Age of Ultron. The movie was amazing! Yes, yes… I’m a total dude-movie nerd. I love all of those nerdy comic book movies. But it really was good. And funny. Also? Robert Downey Jr?? LOVE that guy.

While we were at the movies, Mimi took Moosh (or is it the other way around — Moosh took Mimi?) to Café O’Play in an attempt to wear him out and get him to nap. Well, he was worn out. But he refused to nap. Which was extremely inconvenient because we had suite tickets for the Indians versus the Blue Jays that afternoon. So a nap of some sort was nearly required to prevent crazy-baby meltdown. But the little dude did extremely well. We even got to meet the hot dogs! Moosh loved Mustard, could care less about Ketchup (weird considering he eats ketchup as a main course these days), and was downright terrified of Onion! Ha!

Mimi and Chad had fun watching the game. Moosh and I mostly just played. Cause for me, a ballgame is more about the experience of the ballpark than paying attention to the game. SPORTS! Ha!

I’m super bummed that I didn’t get any photos of our food. We visited the new Right Field District and I was in awe of the food and drink selections! My mom ordered a sandwich from Melt, Ari got ice cream from Sweet Moses, and Chad and I split nachos and a taco from Barrio. And GLBC on tap for the win!

On the way home we indulged a little more with some Rita’s Ice. Moosh wanted “Boo ice!” which means blue ice, if you haven’t figured that out. 🙂

Moosh obviously didn’t fall asleep on the way home. And he went to bed really late. Like 10:30.

And Sunday morning he was up at an ungodly hour. 6:00 am. This kid sleeps til 9:30 on the reg, and decides after a day of no napping and staying up late to wake up at 6am!? Sigh, kid, sigh.

Mimi and I took him to Café O’Play for an hour or so before calling it quits! Kids had fun but was nutso! So we grabbed lunch from Planet Sub and headed home.

PS. I’m not certain how I feel about Ari’s most-recent obsession with Monsters Inc. and Monsters University. So he just does this “Roar!” face all of the time. Sigh. It’s cute; but not when he’s meeting new people. KID you do NOT greet people with a roar! Ugh!

We totally bailed on a family party (sorry fam!) so that our teeny family could rest. We were all exhausted and Mimi wanted to get home to Poppy before it was too late. Honestly, we needed it. We slept and slept and slept! It was perfection. The night ended with a clean house and happy hearts.

The perfect ending to a perfect weekend. 🙂

better late than never // our weekend wrap up

April 29, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Friday //

My BFF from high school, Carli, moved down to Akron over a year ago. As mucha s we SAY we’re going to get together now that we’re living down the street from each other, we just haven’t been able to as much as we’d like. ‘Cause life happens, y’all. But Friday night we had a date! We planned on hitting up The Office Bistro for a glass of wine and dinner, but the hostess was incredibly rude so we just left. (Note: this is not my typical experience at this restaurant; but her attitude completely justifies us leaving without a second glance).

I told Carli that I had had great experiences with Craft Beer Bar, right next door. Sure there was beer (hey, Bodhi!); but there was also an incredible spread of food.

I will say, Shawn and Dustin did not disappoint! Dustin was insistent that we try some of their new menu items and pretty much force-fed us. Ha! The potato pancakes (in the upper left hand corner) are not yet on the menu, so we were lucky to get a “sneak peak.” And they were delicious! As soon as we were completely full, thanks to the Bacon Queso (upper right), Poutine (lower right), and the Mac and Cheese (lower left), Dustin came out with yet another surprise — an orange creamsicle ice cream sandwich. I honestly don’t know the menu name for this dessert yet because I was in a serious food coma by the time it came out.

While we were out I got a call from my husband that he had a work emergency, so I quickly rolled home — ha! — so that he could run out to Cleveland for a night of work. Unfortunately, he was out ALL night and didn’t get home until 6am. I swear if we didn’t have events scheduled for Saturday, my poor husband wouldn’t have gotten out of bed. And I don’t blame him one bit.

Saturday //

We had a bit of a lazy morning. Between Chad working all night and Moosh sleeping in bed with me, we were all kind of exhausted. We did manage to make it to Crafty Mart, a local artisan and maker show located in downtown Akron, in time for Chad to go to a kombucha-making workshop with the Bearded Buch!

We’ve been fans of the Bearded Buch for a while now; and Chad has been itching to make his own Kombucha at home; so a workshop with the ‘buch guru himself?! Hecks yes!

While Chad was in his workshop, Moosh and I walked around Crafty Mart where the first stop was the Akron Art Museum! The art museum is one of my favorite places in Akron, so the fact that they open their doors for these local vendors to showcase their craft just is that much more awesome.

But it was definitely one of the most popular Crafty Mart locations. And my dearest, dearest, Crafty Mart — as a patron, the one piece of advice I would give you is that as this event grows (which it has!), please locate this event in one single location! 🙂

But one of Mooshie’s fave places is the Akron Art Museum. He ADORES this place. We bought a few things and headed over to Musica, a local music venue. Musica. Oh dear Musica. You are a beautiful location. I would love to see a show at this venue. Scratch that. My early 20-something-year-old self would love to go to a Taking Back Sunday show at your venue. Cause this gal finds herself in PJs by 6pm these days, let’s be real.

I didn’t get any pictures at Musica because it was way too crowded. Way too many vendors in such a tiny space. I think this does the vendors a disservice because people, such as myself, aren’t lingering nearly as long because they are getting quite claustrophobic. After one purchase, we popped out into the alley for some air.

Post-Musica, we ended up at Summit Artspace. It’s a little “off-the-beaten-path,” that’s for sure. It’s a spot I’d heard of in passing, but I didn’t really KNOW what it was.

Apparently this spot is one of Akron’s best kept art secrets. I’ve likely heard of it in passing, but I had no idea that it was a space where local artists have their own little ‘shops’ inside to showcase their art. It’s fantastic to have this, but sad that I had no idea it existed up until this point.

But back to the art and the vendors… I was majorly impressed with the fact that this space was a bit more open. Plus, they borrowed an idea from the way the Cleveland Flea is set up and had vendors on one floor and food and drinks on another (just like the last holiday flea). A HUGE thank you to Nuevo (remember that amazing mod mex restaurant we went to for our anniversary??) for providing tacos á la carte (along with amazeballs guacamole and homemade chips!), Thirsty Dog for the beer, and Stray Dog Cart for the ‘dogs and the (free for kids!) cannolis!

This is exactly what we needed to ‘rest’ until we were ready to do more shopping. I hope next time there are even more food/beverages available.

After Chad was done with his Kombucha workshop I took a terrarium workshop with Land Of Plenty. It turned out beautifully and wasn’t nearly as difficult as I imagined it would be!

Sunday //

I was supposed to go to an event in the early afternoon, but after such a busy busy Saturday and severe lack of sleep, I decided to stay at home with my boys and get things done instead. It was just what we needed. <3 Sometimes you’ve just gotta listen to your body/family. 🙂

It was a wonderful weekend, but unfortunately our week has begun with a sick Moosh, hence the not getting this post up until mid-week! Sigh. Blog fail; parenting win.

The next weekend is just around the corner…

anniversary // number 3.

April 28, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe that we have been together for 6 and a half years. Honestly? Our three year wedding anniversary is JUST THAT. The anniversary of our vows. But we’ve been exclusively, wholeheartedly, together for six and a half years.

At the last minute, we decided to call a friend to see if she would be willing to babysit Moosh. If not, no big; but to our surprise (and excitement) she was available for a babysitting/playdate sesh! Before Steph, our friend and sitter came by, Chad came home with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers I have ever seen.

My heart was in awe of these flowers. For the first time in my life I was sad that flowers wouldn’t last forever. Because these flowers were so gorgeous that they were meant to last forever.

Then on to dinner… It’s rare that Chad and I get a dinner out without a toddler. When we left the house we reminded each other “OK, remember — EAT SLOW; CHEW YOUR FOOD; RELAX.”

It’s harder than one might think. To be honest, sometimes the best way to feel like I’m having a “child-free” moment is with an adult beverage. And what better beverage to have than a marg from Nuevo, the local Modern Mex restaurant in Akron? They make everything from scratch — even the juice for their awesome (and often spicy) margaritas!?

We are so pathetic. We were so excited for our big night out that we knew pretty much exactly what we wanted by the time we arrived. The margarita came and we were ready to order.

First up, guacamole. Chad makes a mean guacamole, so when we go out and order it, I want something fun and different. So we ordered the White Bean, Rosemary, and Garlic guac.

Chad was nervous that the guac would be too “beany”… I think that’s a term he actually used. Actually, I lie. He was worried about that. But I made up the term “beany.” It wasn’t. It was delicious. The perfect flavor combinations of avocados and other veggies. My preference with guacamole is a bit of spice, via jalapeños. This guac did NOT disappoint!

My entrée order was no surprise to my husband… that’s the beauty of being together for so long. He looked at the menu and knew EXACTLY what I was going to order — the Smoked Pork Poutine Tacos — House Smoked Pork Shoulder, Pickled Veggies, Root Fries, Queso, and Pork Gravy!

Everything was perfect. The pork, the beans, the rice, the guac, and the margs! Everything. was. DELICIOUS.

Like I said, we tried to eat slow; but we knew what we wanted before we even arrived. So our dinner was complete within like 45 minutes of arrival. We looked at one another like, “Umm, now what?” We didn’t want to go home right away; but we didn’t have much else going on. So, don’t judge us, we went to the local Market District for Gelato. YEP. We went to a GROCERY STORE for gelato. That is a big fat suburban win, folks. Ha.

We were home within 2 hours of leaving for our date — and we were totally taking our time. Pathetic, but I love it — because we were able to make it home in time to not only put Moosh to bed, but to give him some gelato before he went to sleep. Ha!

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better evening with my better half. <3

weekend wrap up //

April 23, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

I would like to say that we have grand weekends full of fun and adventure. However, that truly is not the case. In fact, a wild weekend for us means an evening at Café O’Play and PJs by 8pm. For serious.

Let’s be real though — this is my life 99.9% of the time… and that .01% of the time? I’m faking being a functioning adult; I’m pretending to be a childless 30-something.

But this past Saturday we went balls to the wall, friends! Chad had to work so Moosh and I took an early morning trip to Columbus to see my sissy and my mama!

Sadly I have like ZERO pictures from our day — because wrangling a sleepy two-year old while flying solo is a LOT of work.

But here’s what we did:

We stopped at Starbucks and Target. Because, first, coffee; and second, because this mama didn’t anticipate 80+ degree weather. Thanks, Mimi, for running into Target and grabbing the first (yet, adorable) shorts/shirt outfit for Moosh. He looked very… dapper!
We checked out my sisters new place. Well, they aren’t moved in yet. In fact, they are in a temporary location because their new home is being built. But it was exciting to see that they had the foundation and basement done. Moosh loved walking around the property. He INSISTED on walking by himself… which made me very nervous. But he did great. Even though he did take a tiny tumble once.
Post-house visit we ventured to the North Market, where we found rockstar parking (thank GOD, cause let’s be real — I wasn’t going to walk a million years to visit this market — awesome as it may be). Here’s what we ate: Pretzel sticks from Brezel; Ari’s favorite bubble tea from Bubbles; lunch from Best of the Wurst; macarons + lavender shortbread from Pistacia Vera; and we rounded it out with a bag of amazing belgian waffles from Taste of Belgium.
It was basically a food coma. And it was LOVELY. PS. I didn’t eat all of the food at once; I definietely brought TONS of food home with me.
… and then I stopped at The Daily Growler, which is my JAM! Thank you for the CBC Bodhi, friends!
Moosh slept for the WHOLE RIDE HOME. That’s TWO WHOLE HOURS. He hadn’t napped in days; but he slept HARD in the car (thanks Mimi, Jimmy, and Shauna!).

Sunday:

We went to Café O’Play on Sunday to get some energy out of the Moosh. Turns out he kinda lost it shortly after we got there (Ohhhh, life with a toddler!). So we all went home for lunch and a nap — and we ALL enjoyed that 2 hour nap. Isn’t that the best thing about Sundays.
Last but not least, I cooked a delicious dinner, courtesy of Plated. Wrapped up a perfect Sunday!
Yes we are totally boring people. But that’s OK. 🙂