Despite the blustery March weather I took the kids on a walk this afternoon.

It was meant to just be around the block, but it turns out that once you get around the block you come to a park, and Wes can’t pass up a park. And pushing a stroller with Carissa in it, I couldn’t keep him from running to it.

I showed Wes how to jump over the lines on the road.

Carissa getting a clothes change.

Wes and Carissa playing.

Well, you know if I make something for dinner that I feel a little awesome about I will post it on my blog. And if you go back and see how many times this has happened, you’ll see that it’s pretty rare.

But here’s one!

I looked in the freezer and saw I had a frozen Marie Callender’s pie crust leftover (from Thanksgiving) and half a bag of frozen pre-cooked chicken (from CostCo). I decided to try a chicken pot pie. My first ever. I hate that canned cream of chicken soup stuff that some recipes call for, so I wanted to make the filling from scratch.

I based my recipe off this one.

But since I didn’t have fresh celery, onion, cooking sherry, a second pie crust for the top, or even carrots that weren’t past their prime, I modified it a lot. And guess what? It still tasted darn good.

The recipe I used made enough filling for two pies, so I could have halved it. But I’ll include the full amounts I used, even though I ended up with extra leftover.

Simple Chicken Pot Pie

1 frozen pie crust

Prick with a fork and pre-bake in oven according to package directions. (Mine was 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes). Meanwhile:

6 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
baby carrots, sliced thin

Melt the butter in a big saucepan over medium heat and add the onion and garlic powder and carrots. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the carrots start getting tender.

1/2 cup flour
1 can (2 cups) chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk

Whisk in flour and cook for one more minute (should be boiling and thickening). Whisk in chicken broth and milk. Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Mixture should thicken.

1 cup frozen corn
2-4 cups cut up or shredded cooked chicken
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Add the corn near the end of the simmering time along with the chicken and seasoning. Taste and adjust as needed. Pour into the pre-baked pie crust and bake in 400 degree oven for 10 or so minutes (until the crust is more golden brown).

Wes is 3 1/2, and he must be practicing writing letters and shapes at school (I haven’t been helping him at home). I took some video of him practicing on some paper (and a little on the table).

This is the first video I took of him writing. I’m not great at figuring out what he’s actually writing. Now that I watch the video I wonder if what he’s saying is an “E” is maybe supposed to be a “B”? Also, at one point he draws a circle but it’s not until the next video that I figure out what word he’s saying (“eh-kull” = “circle”).

I start to figure out what he’s saying and doing in this one. Do you like how at the beginning when I’m trying to figure out what he’s saying he just looks at me like I’m an idiot (and I kind of am)? He does circles and a square in this one, plus a few random letters and I think maybe even some numbers at the end. Who knows.

Wes likes balls. He really likes tossing them in the air. The other day he discovered he could toss a ball on top of the shelf in the living room and, because it’s slanted, it’d fall back down to him. In this you can hear him say “Whoa!”, which I think he must’ve picked up at preschool, because he says it a lot now, and also “There it is!” I’ve just noticed that he’s regularly saying phrases–and they’re pretty intelligible! Today he said, “There you go” when I handed him his milk cup (“Dare-you-do!”). So brilliant. Oh, and Carissa makes a cameo appearance.

And here’s a couple of me giving the kids dinner. Wes likes to sit on the counter to eat and watch/help (i.e., get into things) while I prepare food, and I often Carissa on the counter next to him in her Bumbo chair. I like having the kids there with me, and it makes it easy to feed them together like this. Wesley’s thing is that he wants to eat the same food Carissa does (baby food). And he tries to get her to eat what he’s having. (Today I looked away for a minute to put a new trash bag in the can and when I looked back Carissa’s mouth was lined with oatmeal–Wesley’s oatmeal that he was supposed to be eating.)