Friday Fun (4/25)

The boys were asleep during Friday snack time so Sylvia and I ate some pie on our own.

Friday Fun (4/18)

We picked up some free "birthday" cupcakes (using Sylvia's HyVee coupon that we misplaced back in November).  Both boys fell asleep on the way to HyVee so my big girl went into the store all on her own to pick out cupcakes and "buy" them.  She was very brave and proud, knowing that if she hadn't gone in we wouldn't have had cupcakes (I wasn't about to wake sleeping boys).  We enjoyed the cupcakes at church before heading in to watch a Veggie Tales movie.

Friday Fun (3/28/2014)

Yummy chocolate chip cookies on a Friday after school.

Friday Fun / Pi Day (3/14)

We invited Grandma and Grandpa over for Pi Day and enjoyed some peanut butter cup pie from Perkins.

Friday Fun (3/7/2014)

I took the kids to HyVee for Friday fun day.  Eric picked out his free birthday cupcakes and a HyVee employee also gave the kids free cookies (that we saved for later).  Drake slept through the cupcake eating so he got to have a cookie while we did our grocery shopping.

Friday Fun (2/21/2014)

lots of fruit and cookies...like The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Friday Fun (2/14/2014)

Puppy chow, licorice and balloons for Friday fun on Valentine's Day.

Friday Fun

cupcakes and twisty straws

Day 100

We finally made it to the 100th day of school after many snow days.  Sylvia's class decorated these hats and had a special packet of worksheets that she was very excited about.  We even had our own 100 Day snack at home.

Friday Fun

Donut Holes!!!  

We had a couple of friends over for respite care.  Looks like their toes and fingers made it in the picture :)

Friday Fun

We made snowman shaped rice crispy treats with glaze.  The kids got to use edible paint to decorate their snowmen before eating them.

Friday Fun

Sylvia and Drake must have been hungry because their blueberry donuts were gone before we took the picture.

Sylvia's Cake

Sylvia is still interested in baking and wanted to try her hand at another cake.  This time around, we tasted the batter as we went and adjusted the ingredients based on taste.  I helped her think about what would make it thicker or thinner, sweeter or more bitter, etc.  It turned out better (less baking soda) than her previous cake.  We had leftover frosting around from December birthdays and she and Eric shared the job of decorating.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 T baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 T vanilla

Sylvia's First Cake

Sylvia helped me do a lot of things to get ready for Eric's birthday last month. She wanted to bake him a pretend cake but I suggested we go ahead and make a real one. I let her come up with the recipe all on her own. She loves being in the kitchen with me and I was impressed that she had such a good idea of how to make a cake. It actually turned out looking like a cake although there was a bit too much baking soda for it to taste yummy. She let Eric help frost it and we all tried a piece. Dan wasn't around at the time so he tried a piece later on. I thought he must have liked it better than I did because he ate his whole piece. He didn't realize that we only expected him to take a bite and said he forced himself to eat the whole piece.  What a great dad.

 

 

Cake
1.5 cups flour
2 eggs
2.5 T baking soda
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 shredded carrot
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Bake at 350 degrees for 33 minutes.

Frosting
1 cup plain yogurt
3 T brown sugar
8 drops blue food coloring

our garden

One of Dan's first summer projects was building these raised planters for our new garden.  We did a little container gardening last summer since we knew we'd be moving and were excited to have an actual garden this summer.  We planted carrots, white beans, green beans, lettuce, acorn squash, butternut squash and tomatoes.

 

We've had tomatoes coming in off and on all summer and the kids love picking them.  Eric has had a little trouble remembering to wait until they're red.

 

We had quite a few ready at once so Eric picked them all and then lined them up.  Any day now we'll have more than we know what to do with.

 

We picked a few carrots here and there to add to recipes or munch on. 

 

In late August we went ahead and picked them all. We ate a few raw and then cooked the rest for Drake.

 

Sylvia was so proud of this big carrot she picked.

 

Enjoying some carrots straight from the garden.

 

Drake also got to enjoy the two acorn squash we got this summer.

 

Sylvia was in charge of checking for beans and picking them.  Here she's munching on one while her and Eric show of the butternut squash..  She'd often eat them raw while out in the yard.  Earlier this month we picked 52 green beans and cooked them for dinner.  Sylvia and Eric

 

Our kids have loved helping out in the garden this summer.  I love that they're so excited to eat all the veggies we're growing.  Next summer, I'd like to plant even more...after I convince Dan to build another raised bed or two.

Muffin Tin Monday

Sylvia and Eric have enjoyed muffin tin Monday the past few weeks.  We look through the fridge and cabinets for little things to fit in each space.  Our muffin tins have included carrot sticks, chow mein noodles, grapes, marshmallows, cashews, pecans, cheese, raisins, craisins, frozen peas, blueberries and cherry tomatoes.  It's such an easy way to make lunch fun for them.

Sweet Potatoes and more...

Drake tried out food for the first time when he was 6 months old.  He's did a great job and has been eating once a day since.  So far he's a fan of the sweet potatoes, bananas and butternut squash.  Next up, green beans and carrots.

This boy is starting to notice all the things within his reach.  He grabs at my glasses and jewelry, he reaches for things on the table and he pulls the grass when he's in the backyard.

He's not quite ready to sit up on his own (without tipping over) but he's practicing.

Swinging has become one of Drake's favorite things to do outside.

If you look closely, you can see two little bottom teeth.  These have been around since Drake was about 5 1/2 months.  He also has both lateral incisors on top.

Drake started scooting around back in June and this video was taken June 27.  He's already mastered getting around the house although he's not up on his hands and knees yet when he crawls.

Snow and Hot Cocoa

Since there wasn't much snow this winter, we tried to get out any chance we had. These pictures were taken back in February during the last real snowfall.

Erickson has entered into the cheesy smile phase.
Using a sandbox shovel to enjoy a "snack" of snow on the deck.
Sylvia loves building snowmen and although we didn't get a lot of snow this winter the snow we did get was usually good for building snowmen with. She did this one all by herself. A little later she made another one and needed my help putting it together after she made all three of the balls. I'm so proud of her for not worrying about whether it looks perfect or not and just being happy with what she has created.
Sylvia and Erickson do pretty well playing in the backyard by themselves as long as I'm peeking out the window at them. This day, I was able to get out for a little bit during Drake's nap. It sure was fun to watch then enjoy the snow.
My kids enjoy swinging even in the middle of winter. I love how well they (usually) get along.
What's better than some hot cocoa after playing outside in the cold snow? Both kids enjoy helping in the kitchen now so they made their own hot cocoa.

I couldn't decide between these two so I had to include them both.

Corn on the Cob

Trying out his first corn on the cob back in August.

Summer Veggies

Sylvia and Dan did some container gardening this summer. Here are the fruits of their labors.

Sylvia showing off her green beans along with her new elephant watering can.


Surrounded by her container garden full of tomatoes, carrots, basil, and green beans.

The yummy dinner we made with homegrown tomatoes and basil.

Sylvia was so excited to eat all the vegetables from her garden. She now loves tomatoes. We can't wait to have a full garden in our new backyard next summer.