Live it!

*Hearts* Day

I started Valentine's day off in a fun way. I taped 3 hearts to each of their bedroom doors and wrote on each heart, something that I absolutely loved about them. They loved waking up to the love notes from Mom.  I also got all June Cleaver on them and made homemade pancakes with heart cut outs. I used my regular batter recipe and then mixed 1/2 of the batter with a touch of pink food colouring. They turned out cute and tasted great too.

 

Chloe loves to celebrate a holiday. Together (thanks to Pinterest for all the ideas!) we came up with a fun way to say "Happy Valentines Day" to all her classmates. We bought little favour boxes at Michael's and then dove into my scrapbook supplies to come up with an owl design. She was so pleased with them that it made all the effort worth it. We filled them with red and pink candies and they were a hit!

 

Tet and Birthday Cake

I spent my 40th birthday doing something super special. We took a drive up to Toronto and celebrated Vietnamese New Year (otherwise known as "TET") with our good friends and our TDH family. The main floor of a Vietnamese restaurant was rented out to us for the occassion and all the kids dressed in their Ao Dai's - so adorable! The buffet meal they prepared for us was delicious with the best spring rolls I think I've ever had. All the food was great and there was a dragon parade and the kids stomped on bubble wrap to make it sound like firecrackers.  It was Meg's first TET celebration and she loved it. We all did... and can't wait to go again next year.

 

On the way home we stopped by Pusateri's in Toronto and the kids helped me pick out a decadent little birthday cake to eat when we got home. It was as good as it looks, plus some! A sweet treat to celebrate 40 years for me!

 

The Big 4.0

...and just like that I turn 40 years old. I really can't believe at times that 40 years of "Leslie" has already whizzed by! How did it happen? I can still remember me as a 10 year old excited to be going away to camp in the summer. At 13 I remember vividly waiting for the school bus to take me off to highschool and a big old bird pooping on my favourite new leather jacket! It seems like just yesterday we were camping May 2-4's away at Marble Lake to the music of Steve Miller. Can it really be 20+ years since I graduated highschool and moved away from home to go to college all on my own?

Its funny how time can pass so swiftly - here I am at what I used to consider "old" and I feel anything but old. I feel lucky. I feel inspired. I feel brave. I feel loved. I feel like me, only better - life and experience and AGE make us better. Yes, there are new wrinkles popping up and the grey hairs require a little bit of "coverage" from my fabulous hairdresser, but I still feel like I am evolving and growing up still. I am not perfect and I never will be. That isn't what I'm striving for. I just want to keep living my life with the recognition that each day is a gift. I have many gifts and I don't take any of them for granted. My family is my most prized possession and I cherish my children, my husband and my immediate family more than anything else on earth. I look at them and 40 really feels fabulous. I'm not looking back - I'm looking forward.

Thankful for 40.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This one is perfect for today's Superbowl game. Go Patriots!

Buffalo chicken cheese dip - a new creation of mine (inspired by many I've seen out there in pinterest-land) and it smelled so good cooking in the oven.

2  chicken breasts cooked in crock pot on low with 1/4-1/2 bottle Frank's hot sauce, depending on how 'heated' you like your chicken (for 5 hours). When finished remove from liquid, shred with fork and then mix it back in with the hot sauce and 1 Tbsp butter. Add more hot sauce if you like it really spicey. Then in a medium bowl add 1/2 c sour cream, 1 regular size tub of cream cheese, 1/4 c shredded cheese, 2T blue cheese salad dressing. Mix, sprinkle with shredded cheese and green onion slices. Cook @ 400 for 15 minutes and then turn on broiler to brown cheese on top slightly.

I serve it with nacho chips and slices of baguette. It would taste great with celery sticks or most crackers too.

Note: If you don't have time to plan ahead and cook the chicken in the crock pot you could do it in the oven instead for similar (but faster) results.