3 and 5 months - All about Greyson

I haven't done an updated post on what Greyson has been up to, so here it is. 

We had to go to the Dr. twice this month. He came down with Mono (hmm, who has he been kissing) and then had some type of throat virus. He still weights 29 lbs (same as the three year old check-up).

He just started MDO summer school. The teachers are glad to have him back (they really like him) and he is relieved to be with them as well. He was a bit apprehensive about changing rooms and teachers, so I'm glad we don't have to change until the fall.

We flew a kite at the park this month. It was a first and he loved it!

He told us that he was getting too big for his fire truck bed. We bought him a new pillow-top mattress and brought it home. He laid down and immediately said in his little kid excited voice, "It feels just like a marshmallow. I get to sleep on a marshmallow. I'm so excited!" It was so cute. 

Trying out sleeping on a marshmallow.

Mother's Day weekend at the Farmer's Market.

Car wash

Found him sleeping like this. =)

First popsicle.

SDC 

First night to actually try the new mattress.

His "new" toys. He played with these cords and a few routers for a good hour (in 1 setting) and two other times. He loved putting the cords in and then pinching them out. Luke talked to him about how the two box things "talk" to each other and he has been enthralled with it. I'm outnumbered. 

Sick baby with a fever (although Luke is the one who looks sick in this picture). lol

Sick baby.

Greyson's favorite game (in his underwear). lol

Two Yummy Recipes

Frozen Breakfast Burritos

I got this idea off of Pinterest, but I modified the recipe quite a bit.

Recipe:

7 Eggs, Scrambled

1/2 bag red potatoes, diced

1 green pepper

1 cup baby spinach

8-10 slices of cooked bacon

1 onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

cheese

1. Roast potatoes (brushed with olive oil and salt/pepper) in oven at 400 for 20 min or until done. Cook bacon. Sauté baby spinach for 1-2 minutes.

2. Dice green pepper and onion. Sauté for three minutes. Add garlic with 1 minute to go.

3. Cook eggs.

4. Warm tortillas for 15 seconds. 

5. Assemble all  wraps. Flash freeze wrapped tortillas for 1 hour. Take out of freezer and place in freezer bags.

6. Take out of freezer and cook on med-high for 3 minutes. Enjoy!

We loved these for breakfast. I loved them because all I had to do with grab them out of the freezer and put them in the microwave. I added tons of veggies to them and they were just super good. 

Corn Fritters served with a light taco salad

Recipe from Feasting on Art

These were AMAZING! I paired them with a ranch/salsa dressing on top of a taco inspired salad. We all gobbled everything up. Definitely a must keep!

{Corn Fritters with Roasted Peppers, Cilantro and Feta}

Yield: 12 fritters

1 cup frozen corn, drained
1/4 cup roasted peppers, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped, extra for garnish
1 teaspoon cumin
1 green onion, chopped
pinch of salt
pinch of dried chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup semolina
1/4 cup feta, crumbled
1 tablespoon olive oil
fresh lime, cut in wedges

Mix the corn, roasted peppers, cilantro, cumin, green onion, salt, chili flakes and freshly ground black pepper in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the two eggs. Mix into the corn mixture and stir in the semolina. Crumble the feta into the mixture and carefully stir until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Drop 3 tablespoons of the batter into the pan. Cook slowly and flip once the fritter becomes crisp and golden, around 2 to 3 minutes. Once cooked through, about an additional 1 to 2 minutes, remove from the heat and place on a large plate. Cover with aluminum foil to keep warm and repeat with remaining batter until all fritters are complete.

Serve with wedges of fresh lime and extra cilantro.

Stirling, Scotland (Day 3)

First thing in the morning, we took the bus from our hotel to the car rental place. Both of us were a bit nervous about the driving, but we did it. We got the car and drove about an hour out of Edinburgh to Stirling.

Doesn't driving on the wrong side and being on the opposite side of the car look fun?

Our first stop was the William Wallace Monument.

(You can see the monument right behind me.)

We parked at the base of the monument and had some coffee before we walked up. The walk was really easy, but getting to the top of the monument was crazy! It had a spiral staircase with about 150 (VERY SMALL) steps. There were three different levels inside with lots of information on William Wallace. 

This was the view from the very top:

It was gorgeous up there. Both of us would have loved to sit up there for awhile, but the wind seriously knocked you over.

We both really loved the monument. Both the inside and the outside were just great. 

We grabbed lunch before we headed to Stirling Castle. We were a bit confused with the GPS on getting to Stirling Castle, but we finally got there. 

 (Luke wanted a picture of the car.)

Stirling Castle is up to the left of where the car is parked and our little Bed and Breakfast is down the road behind the car about a mile. 

The tree picture is shot from the castle grounds overlooking the area. 

I can't remember who, but one King had a ship brought in this room for his guests to dine off of. The room looks small in the picture, but is was pretty large. 

This picture was taken from a guard viewpoint. It overlooks the cemetery and Stirling town.

Overall, we enjoyed Stirling Castle but it wasn't our favorite. It was definitely more commercialized. Different rooms had different set-ups with stuffed people portraying life at the castle. After seeing a few castles, Luke and I realized that we definitely like the castles that are remote and just wild. 

After the castle, we went to Castlecroft (our Bed and Breakfast). We didn't know what to expect, but it was great. We were quickly checked in and offered refreshments. We sat in a nice living room and relaxed drinking french press coffee and eating these AMAZING caramel shortbread cookie things.

After that, we headed to the River House for dinner. It was supposed to be a nicer restaurant (recommended in Frommer's and by the Bed and Breakfast) and it was very nice. We enjoyed ourselves. 

(The restaurant overlooked this small lake/pond.)

We crashed when we got back to Castlecroft. 

Our Easter

I made the guys take a few pictures before going to Church. They look excited, but they weren't. lol.

Greyson got to do his annual Easter Egg Hunt with his tractor. He still doesn't think he can hunt eggs without it. =)

Good thing Grandma Marcy has a tractor as well. 

Edinburgh, Scotland

I'm finally tackling our Scotland pictures. I'm going to split them up in posts by days/location, as I think that will be the easiest.

We flew in to Edinburgh on Sunday and were able to do an early check-in at the hotel around noon. That gave us most of the day on Sunday to explore. We walked the Magnificient Mile (which our hotel was directly on), ate at a Hog cafe (which was recommended in our Frommer's book), toured an old church, did a Scotch Whisky Tour and toured Edinburgh Castle. Sunday was super busy, but fun.

 The hog sandwich place was amazing. It was off the mile a block or so and was lined with people. They had about six seats in the whole place. Super cheap and delicious. We were both glad that we decided to try it.

The Scotch tour was definitely a good one. It gave us an introductory in to making scotch and we had a tasting at the end. It's definitely not to my liking, but Luke likes it. 

 

 

 This was the church that we went it. I can't remember the history behind it, but it's super old. lol

 This is a picture of Edinburgh Castle from the shopping district. We spent about 2 hours at Edinburgh Castle and enjoyed it. Looking back over the trip, this was our least favorite castle.

On to Day 2 in Edinburgh:

We visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse first thing. It is where the Queen and Royal family stay when they are in Scotland. 

We both really liked the Palace. The whole thing (well, the parts you could walk through), had original furnishing and lots of plaques to read. Very informative and just plain neat. 

The above and below pictures are part of the Palace. Where we are standing there used to be an Abbey before the Palace was built.

After that we grabbed a strawberry shortbread creme filled sconce (the best I've ever had) and decided to climb Arthur's Seat. It was supposed to have the best views of Edinburgh. 

 The above picture shows Arthur's Seat (or what we thought it was). Funny thing... we climbed that and I huffed and puffed the whole way. Some other people were climbing it as well, but there was a bigger mountain thing right behind it too. Well, there were lots of people on that one. We didn't figure out till we went back to the hotel, that the bigger one was Arthur's Seat. I would have never made it on the actual one. Climbing is just not my thing.

View from the top.

After climbing, we headed back in to the newer part of town. We hit up a coffee shop, restaurant and some stores. Frommer's had recommended Paper Source and Tiger Lily as cool shops and I loved them both. 

That pretty much concluded our time in Edinburgh.