How to Make Homemade Apple Chips

 
Yummy! A crunch, sweet Valentine’s Day that's not loaded with sugar – what a delicious, simple and healthy afternoon treat these were! Package ‘em up pretty and I think they’ll make a lovely gift for someone special.

Valentine’s Baked Apple Chips

Thinly slice apples (really thin, or you’ll be cooking these for HOURS). This would have been a good time to whip out the food processor but I was lazy.

Lay out your slices and put your kid to work with some heart shaped cookie cutters. If there isn’t too much “core” or seedy bits, the punched out hearts can be baked too! Dip all the slices in some freshly squeezed lemon juice to prevent browning (optional). Claire loved the dipping…and licking her fingers after each dip (guess, we’re keeping these for ourselves!)

The food photography is just for you Caca, step by step LOL!

We baked the apple slices on some parchment for an hour and 10 minutes in a 250F oven. Some of the thicker slices took a few minutes longer. Once they are lightly browned, pop ‘em out of the oven and let cool. They’ll crisp up in no time and are totally delish.

They also make fantastic love goggles:

Ireland Week 2

I'm writing this entry sitting on the train about to depart for Galway. Apparently, I've timed my visit to Western Ireland to perfectly coincide with another storm, many of the passengers are on cell phones discussing the unusual weather this fall, much of which I've seen on my visit! We've witnessed the front page news hurricane that hit the southern coast of Ireland when we were in Wexford, an early icing in Dublin that made for a treacherous playground trip, and now this! I'm hoping all this fuss about the storm bound for Galway is just the another overreaction on the part of the Irish who only know fair weather. I've decided to call all of this stormy weather "rainbow opportunity weather." Case in point:




Brey was a gorgeous town with a cliffside path and beautiful views of the sea. Unfortunately, I turned back after a few minutes because of insane winds and rain. On the way back down to the car a rainbow appeared! We were able to see end to end but just couldn't seem to find that pot of gold. This is one of the few times I've seen both ends, and yes it was a double rainbow! If you missed the pop culture reference search YouTube for "double rainbow" and enjoy one man's exuberant reaction (that may be too light of a word) to a double rainbow over one of America's National Parks.




The sun peeping out from behind the storm clouds made for some interesting lighting. The tufts of grass just seemed to glow. I found a small footpath to follow down the hill and came upon an unmarked ruin, perhaps a home or church?





The waves were ridiculously huge and violent, what a site! Watching the sea birds in the wind was fantastic, they barely had to flap their wings.




Galway adventures to follow, Claire and I have just arrived for our little solo trip and will be walking about the city and doing some day tours in the west.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

On Life and Death

Claire meets her great-grandparents for the first time (more here)

I wrote the post below when we found out Claire’s great-grandfather had few days left in life. I was torn about taking her to the wake, and eventually decided with my husband to take her. What a great decision! The deacon who spoke to us in the evening said he loved to see children at wakes because they are a symbol of life, love and family. I wish I had a tape recorder for his talk, he did a beautiful job turning a few of my handwritten notes into a well spoken eulogy.

Dan and I took Claire up to the casket after explaining that Pop had died and is no longer breathing or laughing. We told her that part of him now lived in God’s house. I avoided the whole “oh, he’s just sleeping” thing because I think that explanation can be terrifying for children. Who wants to go to “sleep” at night after seeing a loved one looking strangely still in a casket? So we opted for the truthful route gently explaining that all things live and then die.

Claire took a look into Pop’s casket said goodbye to Pop then promptly asked for her puzzles and toys and ran around the room with her cousin having a grand time. Kids are great, aren’t they? So accepting and resilient. We’ll miss Pop but I’m so happy that Claire really got to know him and will keep him alive in her memories. Not every kid gets to meet their great-grandparents, let alone spend nearly 3 happy years with one of them. I’m grateful for that indeed!

father’s day 2008, all the guys in Claire’s life

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written 12.July.2010

As Claire gets older I find myself thinking more and more about choices we make as parents. Not questioning our choices per se, but realizing the magnitude of our parenting decisions and their implications for our precocious little toddler.

Case in point, death and dying. Treated as a natural part of the life cycle, I don’t think it is a scary thing for a child to witness, especially a gradual decline in the elderly.

Claire’s great-grandfather has been in failing health for the past month or two. She visits with him and has not turned off or spooked by the bi-pap machine that helped him to breathe last month. She was a little apprehensive about the “elephant mask” as we called it, but quickly warmed up to her great-grandfather, albeit a slighter and sleepier version then she remembered. We’ve brought drawings for Pop to enjoy and explained about Pop’s “boo-boo” in his lungs which makes it harder to for him to breathe. Claire’s been talking about Pop not feeling “berry good” and is obviously thinking about him throughout the day but doesn’t seem saddened or threatened by the change.

Now that he is weaned off the bi-pap machine and in the hospital being made comfortable in his last days I continue to take Claire to see him. I’m sure she can’t help but notice he’s skinnier and less and less alert but she clings to his hand and smiles at him and Pop seems to really enjoy the time with her.

There seems to be such a disconnect with death in today’s industrialized world. The animals we eat in the grocery store are shrink wrapped and unidentifiable so Claire’s only experience with death is batteries that run out of juice and the occasional mouse that Ray gets.

Of course I’m torn about the whole wake thing. Of course it provides closure but for someone so young would she understand? Should her last memories of her great-grandfather be of him alive and risk having her think dying just means “disappearing?” Or should we allow a goodbye and a viewing of his body explaining the whole spirit/body thing?

Any thoughts or advice?

Busy Busy Busy!

Anybody still out there?! I took an unexpected blog-vacation but will be back posting photos and sharing adventures as soon as my camera finishes charging up. Claire and I have been busy at the farm and working our own mini-agriculture experiment at home. Life in the past two months has been busy, Pop was in the hospital but is doing much better and we welcomed another cousin into the world, beautiful baby girl Jessica. Check out the site Laurie and Matt have set up, you might notice the cousins look just a bit alike! http://jessicaannlange.shutterfly.com/ Lots of traveling these past few months and lots of pictures to come, promise!

A Walk in the Park

We visited Long Island this past weekend and Claire got to spend some quality time at the park with her Auntie Laurie and Uncle Matt. One nice thing about “stop-sign Island,” as Dan likes to call it, is that there are many parks within walking distance.

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After a nice nap on the couch (much needed after a long sleepless ride!) Claire was packed up and sent off to play while Daddy worked on Pop-Pop’s garage. I of course had to trek along to play paparazzi! Claire sampled all Rath Park had to offer: swings, monkey bars, slides and many new faces to people watch.

What a lucky catch this shot was – Claire gleefully tossing sand and Aunt Laurie grimacing as it hits her. Note the disapproving auntie look in the photo following immediately afterward. You MUST click on these photos and zoom in to see the detail of the flying sand and Laurie’s reprimanding look. You can totally tell that daycare was her former gig.

Taking some time out for a romp through the park was just what this kid needed after a long car ride and busy week. She conked out on the way home and Dan and I had the most peaceful ride back to NJ. Ahhhh…sometimes things sure do work out perfectly!

Thanks Auntie Laurie and Uncle Matt for doing such a good job tiring Miss Monkey Claire out! Next time we visit we’ll have to head to the beach and see what Claire thinks about the waves and seagulls! Don’t miss the slideshow of all the images, click here to view. Enjoy!

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Claire's been sick - like 104 fever sick...but I won't use that as an excuse for not updating the blog since that only happened this past weekend. Things have been a bit crazy. Dan and I created a HUGE diaper cake for my sister's baby shower and made the cutest little favors too. That occupied a ton of bloggin' time. Here are some cute photos to tide ya'll over. Claire's driving a classic, my 20 year old VW Rabbit convertible. I'd venture saying that it's cooler than Grandbob's new one, heehee.

Shhh! Don't tell my grandfather he appears in these photos without his shirt on, he'd kill me! I have a few more sweet ones of Claire and Pop that I'll have to post later.

When it rains...it pours

After a long hiatus, we're back. Claire's great-grandmother passed away on the 13th so we spent some time on the island helping out Pop. I was very close to my grandmother, and although I'm sad at her passing I can rejoice in the fact that she got to meet Claire. At the wake, Claire babbled at Nanny - I think she would have liked that :-)

To add to all the drama, Grandma Ca Ca took ill as well. She's still in the CCU but it looks like she'll pull through. Today she's getting a trach which should make it easier for her to be weaned off the ventilator. She is conscious though, and has been madly scribbling notes requesting books and that I not trip over anything in her room. Apparently my ninja speed makes her nervous.

Life has definitely been crazy these days. Today it's finally going to be warm enough to walk and I am going for a looooong one.

Unfortunately, we missed posting on Valentine's day, but here are the photos of Claire celebrating (you might recognize some from the "Eat your heart out" banner). I also wanted update the blog with some photos of Aunt Annie hanging out with Claire.







You can view all *60* of the photos from our Valentine's day shoot in the slideshow below, or snag 'em individually from my picasa web gallery here:

Valentine's Photos

"Where are her socks?!" And other musings of the Greats...

I know I'm late posting this, the masses (especially my sisters) are screaming for new updates and photos.

This weekend we made the trek to Long Island to visit with the Greats. Amongst the comments of how cute, smart, strong and beautifully dimpled Claire was, Nan and Pop managed to sneak in a few tidbits about how COLD this baby must be!

"Where are her socks?"
"Doesn't she wear a hat? Babies should wear a hat inside too!"
"Turn up her sleeves, they're wet and she'll catch pneumonia."
"Isn't she hungry? She only drinks milk!"

Mind you, their heat is set to 75 and this baby is sweating! I spared Nan the drama by keeping Claire dressed, but we sure did have a good time teasing her (Claire likes to go outside after a bath and feel the ice in her head!).

You should have seen the look on my grandfather's face when I took the baby's socks off for the jumpster...not quite as eye bulging as when I set the jumpster up on the molding, but amusing nonetheless. It took them a loooong time to relax after Claire started bouncing...but pretty soon out came the video camera and the encouragement to bounce more.

By the way, if you visit them expect to see this video. They've shown it to everyone who has even come near their front door in the past few days.

We had such a nice visit and Claire really hammed it up for her great-grandparents. I must make it a point to mail them more photos - the Claire shrine is looking a little sparse. Ha!

There are a few more cute photos in the original album found here. Enjoy!

Claire's Weight!

Yesterday was our doctor's appointment - and ta-dah - Claire weighs 10 pounds and 14 ounces. If you look back at the original post where I added the poll you'll see Grandma CaCa guessed that exact weight. There's no conspiracy here, that's her legitimate guess!

Here were the results:

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9 pounds and holding strong - 8% (1 vote)

10 pounds - 41% (5 votes)

11 pounds - 41% (5 votes)

12 pounds - 8% (1 vote)

13+ pounds - 0% (0 votes)

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Pop bought a few lotto tickets with 10 and 14...keep your fingers crossed. No new pics of the baby, but here's a cute spread of our kitties. It's baby themed, you'll see!

60th Anniversary

We took the baby on her first long car trip as we headed to New York to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Claire's great-grandparents. Dinner out with baby went really well, thankfully she slept through most of it and I doubt the diners nearby even noticed there was a newborn nearby!


Nan and Pop enjoyed seeing "Princess Claire" again and spent some time snuggling with her in their home before we left for dinner. "Dress that baby in a hat!" was the mantra for the night.











Here's Joanne singing to the baby. With four grandchildren (triplets!), she's had plenty of practice!

Nan & Pop Come to Town

The great-grandparents were in town to meet baby Claire. In addition to posting how sweet they thought she was (very) and how much they enjoyed their time with her ("she's so precious!") I thought it would be fun to post some of the rather interesting songs Nan sang to her.



See-saw, rockity door
Who's there?
Claire
What do you want?
A glass of beer!

Your guess is as good as mine as to what "rockity door" is. As for the glass of beer...who knows? Claire enjoyed Nan's singing and I suppose that is what counts most.




This picture of Pop holding the baby should impress all those who know him.

This man did not hold his own daughter until she was able to walk and his granddaughters until they were about 9 months old. It took some cajoling to get him to hold his wobbly-headed great-grandbaby but it was worth the effort. She LOVED his hat and quieted whenever he came by to peek at her.


This is Claire shaking Pop's hand - too cute! Another favorite song was:

How do you do my partner?
How do you do today?
We will dance in a circle,
I will show you the way!
Boom Boom!





The "boom boom" at the end has to be reinforced with a tickling poke to baby's tummy of course!

Here's Claire about to enjoy her first dessert...well not really but it was fun to pretend seeing as how the cake was nearly as big as she was.

Sunny Sleeper

Claire was napping in her cradle swing this morning (hip hip hooray!) and the sun was hitting her so nicely I had to snap a photo. How pretty! Notice the "touchdown" position of her arms.

Look at me sleeping, how cute am I? The great-grandparents are coming to visit this afternoon...we'll post photos later of Nan & Pop meeting their great-grandbaby.