Fun in Boston

The Welch tribe had a busy weekend! On Saturday we headed down to Boston to celebrate Brian's 50th birthday with the entire Welch clan. The Welch family are known for their great parties and open mike nights. This party was no exception. Anne threw an amazing party at a French brasserie in downtown Boston. Henry and I stayed for the cocktail hour and the beginning of the open mike session but had to make a speedy exit as soon as it got to be too much for Henry. So, we headed back to the hotel while the rest of the gang partied on. On Sunday Ellen had us all over for a delicious brunch. Henry enjoyed his time so much in Boston that he could hardly sleep (4:30 wake up call on Sunday morning after going to bed at 10 pm!) and chatted up all his aunts, uncles and cousins. Henry is so lucky to have five older cousins who will show him the ropes and be wonderful babysitters some day (ha!). Grandpa and Grandma Welch will come up to our house tomorrow for Thanksgiving so we didn't get too sad when we had to say goodbye. We are really looking forward to their visit.

Happy Birthday Brian! Enjoy the photos of Henry and his extended family.... Thanks for such a wonderful visit everyone!

Rainy Day Fun...

Rainy days with a baby are fun! It's the perfect excuse to stay inside and play all day. This morning Henry and I awoke to pouring rain and wind. So, instead of bundling up and facing the weather outside we decided to have an indoor play day! Last night Matt and I began the "child proofing" project. We ordered all kinds of heavy duty fancy gates and outlet covers. We took a trip to Babies R' Us and got a mat (as well as many other fun, irresistable items) for the kitchen floor so Henry can spend time rolling, crawling and moving around the kitchen while we cook, eat, hang out, etc.
If the rain lets up we'll head out to story hour at the library a little later...For now, we are cozy, listening to some music and enjoying this lazy, rainy day together. Not a bad life at all!!! Hope you are all enjoying the day as much as we are.
Enjoy the pictures of Henry playing and eating his yummy pears and plums.

PS: We also got some very exciting news this morning...Auntie Lauren and Auntie Robin got engaged! We are so excited for them and can't wait for their special day..let the countdown begin!! Congrats to a wonderful couple!

Popham Beach

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Maine... I think it reached 60 degrees! Matt and I wanted to show Henry one of our favorite spots on earth..Popham Beach. So we packed up the car and headed north about an hour. It was a perfect day for a hike on the beach. There were tons of people out walking and playing in the sand. We even ran into some friends who were also out enjoying the day. We took Henry on a nice, long hike by the ocean which of course made him very relaxed and sleepy! On our way home we stopped in Bath to have lunch at a nice, little pub. It was such a perfect fall day! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. Enjoy the pictures of Henry getting so big and looking more and more like a little boy these days.

I have included two recipes which I am making today (both from Stonyfield Yogurt webpage)...perfect for a fall harvest feast. I am really looking forward to gathering up all my recipes today to get ready for Thanksgiving. We are hosting here, so it should be an adventure!



Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Wonderful with veggies, pretzels or your favorite crackers, this creamy dip is rich with the robust flavor of roasted peppers.
makes: 16 servings
Ingredients
1- 6oz jar of roasted red peppers
1 small onion, peeled and halved
Cooking spray
1 whole head of garlic
1 cup Plain Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup fat-free or reduced-fat cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Remove the skin from the head of garlic and wrap in foil. Place the garlic and onions on the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes turning onions over half way through. Remove onions and set aside. Return garlic and cook an additional 15 minutes.

Let garlic cool for 10 minutes. Separate the cloves and squeeze the garlic out, discarding skins.
Place roasted red pepper, onion and garlic in a food processor, process until fairly smooth. Add cream cheese, cumin, ground red pepper and process until smooth. Fold in yogurt. Spoon the dip into a bowl and stir in parsley. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Yields 2 cups. Serve with whole-wheat crackers or sesame breadsticks.

Spiced Apple Cake
Even a novice baker can make this delicious, quick and easy cake. Use any crisp and tart apples, like Cortland or Macintosh.
makes: 12 servings
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup Stonyfield Organic Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt
4 cups Granny Smith apples (4-6 apples) cored, peeled, and chopped
1 cup walnuts
Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare a bundt pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients and set aside. In a medium-size bowl, whip eggs until frothy (3-4 minutes). Add oil, orange juice and yogurt. Mix together. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold together until well combined. Fold in apples and walnuts. Pour batter into cake pan. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool before removing from pan. Serve warm with a scoop of Stonyfield Organic Gotta Have Vanilla Frozen Yogurt.

Henry is an Eater!!

Well Henry is now officially an eater..of solid foods. He's unstoppable with sweet potatoes and carrots. He even managed to get some peas down tonight. Enjoy the fun pictures of him enjoying his carrots tonight. It was an all around hands-on experience for Henry (as you can tell from the photo). We have had a nice week so far. Highlights include going to our weekly music class, going on a hike with friends and finally making it to the new Trader Joes. Today Matt was home so we enjoyed the day as a family. We took Henry out to one of our favorite spots, Two Lights State Park and hiked around by the ocean. The waves were huge! Afterwards we took him to the playground. This was Henry's first time to a playground and boy did he love it. We put him in the swing and by the look on his face we couldn't tell whether he would like it or not. But, after a few minutes he was smiling and giggling. We look forward to taking him to the many beautiful playgrounds the city of Portland has to offer. Henry is beginning to adjust to the daylight savings, but the first few days we were getting up very early! We're happy that he has figured it out and is now waiting until at least 5 am to stir. This weekend we are looking forward to taking Henry to another one of our favorite spots in Maine, Popham Beach, for his first ever hike on this spectacular beach. We will also have our friends Anna and Bill over for supper on Sunday, so it should be a fun weekend all around. Stay tuned!!

Henry Visits the Big Apple!

Well, we made it back safely from our big trip to the Big Apple this past weekend. Henry was a champ! We left Portland Friday afternoon and arrived at Momo's late Friday evening. We had a nice breakfast with Uncle Lars and Aunt Jill early Saturday morning before heading into the city to see Papa. Papa took us to Chelsea Market where we walked around and bought some delicious food...if you live in NY and you've never made it to Chelsea Market, it is a must! What an unbelievable place... On Saturday afternoon my good friend Kelly visited with us. She had a blast meeting Henry and we all had some good laughs. Aunt Lauren came over Saturday evening to share a wonderful meal with us. Henry always loves his QT with Auntie L! On Sunday morning Henry woke us all up at 4:15 am because he thought it was 5:15 of course! He isn't quite adjusting to the whole daylight savings thing yet...On Sunday we cheered all the wonderful runners on in the New York City Marathon. What a beautiful day for a run! Henry had so much fun going on the subway, walking through Central Park and seeing the 2-3 million spectators out for the marathon. Needless to say, Henry slept the entire trip back to Maine on Sunday night. He was wiped! And, so were we! It was such a fun trip and thank you to Papa for being such a wonderful host.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These were some yummy muffins I made for the halloween parties last weekend. Thought I would pass the recipe along. I love to bake at this time of year. I just picked up some supplies to begin my Thanksgiving pies. Can't wait!


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes

Belated Halloween Pics

Here are the pics from last weekend...hard to believe it's almost the end of another week and I am just getting on here to blog! Time flies when you are having fun playing and hanging with Henry! We had a blast at all the Halloween festivities last weekend. We took Henry to a couple of Halloween parties and it was quite a sight to see all the little babies dressed up in different costumes-so cute! On Saturday night we went up to Freeport to the Pumpkin Fest where they had hundreds and hundreds of pumpkins carved and lit. They even had a pumpkin house...it was really cool! On Sunday we headed down to Mass. to see John, Leslie, Erin, Killian and their boys. It was so nice to see them all and it was the first time Henry had met Leslie, so that was neat. We helped carve out pumpkins and had some delicious soup with them. After our trip down there we helped our friend Bill celebrate his 30th birthday. It was a full weekend, but a totally awesome one. Tomorrow we head down to Manhattan to stay with Papa for the weekend. It should be a great weekend with the NY Marathon on Sunday. Can't wait! Hope you are all having a good week so far. We'll post pics from this weekend when we return.