First Day of School!

Today went really well as far as N's first day of school goes, but it wasn't without the typical quirks. N is very excited to get started with First Grade, so he went right to be bed without leaving his room last night....Or so I thought...I later found out he stayed awake in his room drawing "art work" (his term) on his legs with ink pen. He was up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning excited for the big day. His first order of business was getting himself dressed before he left his room. I set clothes out for him to wear, but he didn't see them so he chose his own. He wanted to wear long pants (to cover the afore mentioned "art work"), so he pulled a pair of jeans off the "too small" shelf of his dresser to wear. He insisted on wearing them until I reminded him of a Berenstien Bear's story where Papa Bear wore pants that were too small. Papa Bear attempted to bend over to pick something off the ground and split the seat right out of his pants. N remembered that story and quickly changed into a bigger pair on one condition, that L and I would not watch him change.. Okay, maybe he's getting modest, that's okay.. I'll oblige.Nope, modesty wasn't the reason...Ink pen art on his thighs was..But, I didn't see it 'cause I wasn't watching him change his clothes. At the time I didn't know his thigh were covered in swirls of ink pen, so I didn't understand why he fought so hard to keep on his original choice of pants on and why he didn't want L and I to see him change..Now it's later in the day and I saw his decorated legs and have put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Anywho. All of this and we hadn't even walked downstairs to eat the pancake and sausage breakfast that N claimed was burnt and yucky. I ate it and thought it was fine. 

N was so excited to get to school he was ready to leave a half hour early. This actually worked in our favor because it gave us ample time to take pictures and meandor into the school building without being rushed. N said hello to several kids as we walked into the school that he remembered from Kindergarten. He also said Hello to a few kids he thought he knew but apparently had the wrong names and got a few funny looks. Oops, no biggie. We made it into the gym where the kids sit before the bell rings. N found the row of first graders with ease and sat behind a former classmate. L and I sat in the stands and took pictures of N and waved at him several times. When it was time for the first grade to head to their classrooms I went onto the gym floor (with all the other parents) to get a few more snapshots and give N a fist bump before he headed off.

This year I'm happy to see N get back to school. A part of me is sad summer is already over because we did have lots of fun, but a big part of me is happy to see him get back into the routine of school and all the fun things they do at school. It's good for him. I gotta say I'm pretty proud of my Big Guy for being confident in himself for knowing his way around the school and knowing the routine. I just hope his confindance doesn't get away from him.  I didn't get choked up when I watched him walk out of the gym towards his classroom like I did last year because he's a  big kid and I know he's gonna be just fine...And his complaints of "burnt" pancakes and yucky sausage for breakfast at home made it a little easier to wave him on...wink, wink. ;)

L and I headed to a "Boo-hoo Yahoo" breakfast playdate after we took N to school. This time last year I was on the "Booh-hoo" side of the fence because I had taken N to his first day of Kindergarten. This year I was leaning a little more to the "Ya-hoo" side of things. It's so funny how much difference a year can make because so many of the Moms in the moms group with kids going into first grade felt the same way. L and I had fun seeing friends at the park. Lots of people brought breakfast items to share, so there were plenty of snack to eat. The park has a great playground, pavilllion and picnic tables. The kids played and the Moms visited. It was a really nice time. We stayed for about an hour and a half then we had to run through Wal Mart for a few things before we picked N up from the bus stop. N was happy to tell us about his day while we ate lunch. Not only was today the first day of school, but one of his classmates brought goody bags to celebrate his Birthday! The goody bag had lots of little trinkets in it along with one sheet of about thirty small tattoos. I didn't see the sheet of tattoos until about fifteen of them were already on N's arms and stomach....N had gotten ahold of a wet towel and had tattooed himself while I was cleaning up our lunch mess. I should've known something was up when the living room was so quiet! So, not only does N have thighs covered in ink pen art, but he has arms full of small tattoos. Great! We're making a great first impression on his new teacher! 

Today was a half day. Tomorrow is a full day. N is excited to eat his first lunch as a first grader....mainly because he says the first graders get to eat before the kindergartners. If today is any indication of what this year is going to be like, this could be an interesting year!

S'more Please

There are certain times of the year when I miss some of the normal gluten and dairy filled foods I used to it. A traditional s'more made with graham crackers, a chocolate bar and a marshmallow is one thing I really miss in the summer time. This year it seems S'mores are all the rage. Remember when cupcakes and cupcake pops were the fad food? Lots of people were getting creative with cupcakes and cupcakes pops and blogging about it. So fun. Well, I get the sense that S'mores and all the variations of S'mores are the new cupcake. Like pink is the new black...did I say that right? Anyway. I've enjoyed seeing what people have done with chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers/bananas, cookie dough on pinterest. So, we've tried a few variations ourselves the last few weeks.

We started out with the banana, mini choco chip and mini mallow wrapped in foil and grilled. We started ours on the grill, but finished them in the oven. And while our's did not look as pretty as the ones on Pinterest, they tasted super good.

Our next shot at S'more was one I altered to be GFDF from a recipe I saw on Pinterest. I use the following.

One box GFDF sugar cookie mix
Two dark chocolate bars
Mini marshallows

Mix the sugar cookie mix together as directed (using almond milk and DF butter). Spread half the cookie dough on the bottom of a greased 8x8 pan. Place dark chocolate  bars on top of cookie dough. Then add a layer of marshmallows on top of the chocolate. Then "hide" (as my boys said) the mallows with the remainder of the cookie dough. I cooked this at 325 for about 35 minutes. For some reason GFDF baking mixes tend to instruct you to bake things at 325 rather than 350. Not sure why. I'm sure it's something scientific.At any rate, the S'more cookie bars are absolutely delicious!!!

I still have one more S'more recipe I'd like to try and that is to dip the super huge marshmallows in dark chocolate and cover them with crushed graham crackers (for the gluten eaters) and crushed cinnamon chex (for the non gluten eaters). I got to thinking, the large marshmallow could be somewhat of a candied apple deal where you can cover them in just about anything you want....chocolate and mini choco chips, chocolate and M&M's....chocolate and chopped cashews...Caramel and cashews..You name it. My only concern would be if the mallow could hold up to the weight of the things your putting on it...Sounds like something to experiment with!