Hidden gems: Canandaigua Lagoon

Canandaigua once had a theme park and hid many things in the ground. Over the last several years they have been going through some huge cleaning project and creating a space that is just amazing to visit. 

One of my favorite places to walk is right behind Wegmans. It is a beautiful secluded areas that you do not expect to turn out as amazing it is. 

 Justin and I went for a walk after dropping the kids off at a sleep over. We walked these paths on our dates and still after all this time we still find really cool and interesting things.

 I am pretty sure Justin was annoyed with my need to take a hundred pictures of the snails trying to get that perfect shot. 

This is a perfect place to fish if you are into that kind of thing. 

This was the first time we have ever seen a beaver and we had no clue there were beavers in that area. I spent 15 minutes chasing the beaver before it slapped its tail and scared me because I was not expecting it.

Marble Maze!!!!

So we have a pack we are starting up this fall. I have been on the hunt for inexpensive ideas for our recruitment events that are still fun and captivating. I was reading a book on Stem learning and decided this was the right direction. We spent less than $5 in supplies. 

You will need a small thick chunk of wood

nails

paint

rubber bands 

a marble

We used a scrap piece of wood and not realizing it the wood was bowed which honestly just adds to it. 

The longest I took was measuring out the boarder and marking my squares. 

Then I started painting my squares

The center is all done and drying right now.

Starting my boarders.

Then I painted the trim and back.

I painted a white trim to help break it up a tad.

 I decided I wanted a sealer to help protect the board in the upcoming years. This is not required but will help protect the tracks.

 Each corner needs to be nailed so you can change the tracks as often as you want.

Then add the rubber bands. Feel free to make it as easy or as difficult as you would like. Gill-G quickly attached himself to this game and has us feeling like we should make more for home. Check out the kids blogs about making each their own.

Starting a school portfolio

Yasser starts second grade and Gill-G is officially Kindergarden this year (he is starting at 4) while Hulk man hides in the shadows destroying things. We have decided instead of having a paper hard copy portfolio, we are doing personal blogs. Yasser came up with Yasser Adventure and Gill-G has Gill-G's School. As a group our goal is to document our school work daily through their eyes in the blogs. They plan on doing videos as well. So keep an eye out and check out their personal blogs.

Festa bake potato

I love using left overs because it saves money. But this is honestly amazing and I would be willing to cook it just to cook it. The topping would be amazing in Nachos or soup. Since the weather has not really warmed up yet, I have been all about soups and comfort food. Hence the baked potato. Also baked potatoes have a million different ways you can prepare it. Now there is a million and one.
Then again you may want to eat this by the spoonful and not care about the potato.

So for the potato, this will take the longest. I wash my potatoes and toss it with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. I cook it at 375 until I remember I am cooking potatoes it can be anywhere from 30 mins to an hour. Once I completely forgot about the potatoes and made charcoal and only remembered it because of the smoke pouring out of the oven.

About 30 minutes in I start preparing my mixture. I had left over roasted chicken and diced it all up with Soyrizo ( I buy this from Trader Joe's and it is amazing). If you want it to be real meat use chorizo. I blanched some leeks a few weeks ago so I pulled out a handful and tossed that in with onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste. When everything was warmed up I added about half a brick of cream cheese. If you want to add some cheddar or pepper jack it was just add to the amazingness of this mix.

Now we remember about the potato and start layering it. I start with the cheese because every potato needs cheese no matter what kind of filling is in it.

Then we toss on the mixture. 

Add some sour cream and a touch of seasoned salt with pepper. Now to sever some mouth watering food. 

Gill-G's travel case

Gill- G has high functioning Autism. We never had an issue accepting it because it helps define who he is. We do not feel sorry for ourselves and we do not regret anything. I love him dearly and accepted it long before we knew he was Autistic. Gill-G was going on  27 months before we started testing and it would be another 3 or 4 months with speech therapy before he would even start talking. He would occasionally have melt downs and bite himself until he bleed.  There is a never ending curve of learning because he is learning and developing too.
Just because you know one kid with Autism does not mean you know Autism because Autism has many faces and no two are a like.

But this article is not about living with Autism, it is about living with allergies. Autism just plays a minor part because it affects the way he thinks. 

We have a special baggie in my purse to carry things for Gill-G. 

Inside we have some important thing in case of emergency for when we go out with Gill-G.

This case is easy enough you can get into it but difficult enough that it should slow the children down. 

One side contains an all natural sunscreen because he burns easily and a lotion balm I found on Avon.  The lotion balm is great for the extreme itchy days and we can't get to the lotion or coconut oil and it does not make a huge mess. Normally we also have a small supply of band aids but someone has not replaced it.

The other side contains epi pens and a letter. I also plan on adding Children's Benadryl Liquid Allergy Relief - NEW Larger Size (8 Fl Oz X 2) We had some in there but with allergy season we grabbed it and forgot to refill it. The letter was written for us by our developmental Doctor. This give us the protection if someone hears Gill-G screaming" stop hitting me or you are hurting me" and calls the cops. You would be surprised at the things that can happen. 

Left over Ramen soup

I have been working towards simple whole foods that do not cost a lot. This was more of a left over meal recreated to something delicious.

Start with a broth.
I started with chicken stock and infused it with garlic, cilantro, and ginger. You can even add lemon grass stalks and star anise turn it into anything you want. Use beef broth or veg broth. Try mixing it up. This dish is very versatile and the broth is the base.

I used left over rice noodles from my Vietnamese meals. But Ramen noodles are amazing in this dish. Feel free to try udon or soba noodles.

Next are the toppings. I love baby bok choy with onions, garlic and ginger. I plan on adding more veggies next time. We added a small amount of our left over Ropa Vieja and a touch of soy sauce.( I plan on showing a step by step guide to my Ropa Vieja so keep an eye out because that meal can feed a small army and still have left overs. ) Serve with lime wedges, sprouts and Thai Basil for an extra WOW factor. This is my left over version of Pho.