Sunday Routine

Sunday is our family day all together,the whole day, a rare thing. We have gotten into a pattern, something like this...

Morning Paper
Big Brunch
Piano playing
Dancing
Wrestling
Art
Prairie Home Companion/Vinyl Cafe
Nature Walk
Church
Slow Cooker Dinner
Chess & Games
Bonfire
PBS Nature Show
To Bed

I am thankful for this slow paced day together, I laugh and laugh with NPR, the kids enjoy time with daddy and eating good food together. We dont go shopping or play with friends. Sometimes we go visit extened family. Mostly we just find refuge from the week and relax together.

Halloween parties

Alright, I've got to document these for future ideas. I am the room mother again this year and one of the big jobs is the Halloween party. I came to the room dressed as a fortune teller. We had four stations for the kids to move thru.

The first station was the organ feel. Here is my list of organs:
Brain- cooked cauliflower head
Tongue- dried apricot
Eyeballs-peeled grapes
Veins-cooked spaghetti
Skin- damp tortia shell
Heart- jello jiggler ball
Bones - long skinny carrot
Teeth - dried cannellini beans

The next station was egg creatures. I blew out eggs and dyed some of them, then let the kids create aliens, monsters, witches, mummys or any creature they could. The kids had no problem coming up with ideas for this.

The next game was a mummy wrap and marshmallow toss. They loved this classic game.



The last station I called story dice. Each child got 2 wooden blocks I had painted. Then they chose different stickers for each side. Then they could roll their dice and make up a story about the pictures they rolled. This was my favorite one.

Then we had some spooky refreshments. I had carved a mini watermelon to look like a brain (familyfun.com), vegi booty, cupcakes, cookies and my swamp punch. I cooked tapioca with some green food coloring to look just like frog eggs, then mixed with limeaid and soda water with a gummy fish swimming in it. The kids were really nervous about it.

We took a picture of each child with a festive backdrop and last of all I had made some gift bags out of polka-dot fabric I just happen to have around and put some strange things inside, like a lifelike gummy earthworm, maggot mints and squishy pumpkin. The party was a great success.

Last year was fun too. I did a Harry Potter theme and divided the class into the four houses (slitherine, gryfindor...) Then they attended 4 different "classes." One class was quididitch class and they played a broom relay game. Another class was spells and they played charades. Another class was dark arts where they made pipe cleaner spiders. My favorite was potions class. I had a bunch of class jars with funny things inside and labels. I made them smell each one.
(nutmeg nut)OWL PELLETS for invisibility
(rosemary) EXTRACT OF GRASSHOPPERS improves jumping ability
(Parmesan cheese) MOUSE BREATH increases night vision
(charred wood) CHARRED BATS FEET for excellent hearing
(moss/lichen) GILLYWEED for temporary gills
(dried date) SHRIVELFIG to promote shrinking
Then we made slime for each of them to take home. I never got those pictures back, but we had lots of fun with that one too.

Some Summer

Working in the garden



Developing our circus act



art projects

Taking walks

Burying Treasures


Enjoying nature

You gotta try this...

We started out the day with instructions from a magazine to make a small marshmallow catapult. It worked so well and I quickly figured out the engineering of it all that I wanted to make a bigger one. We found two trees close together, a few strong poles, an exercise band (bungee cord would work too) and a sand shovel. My lashing skills from girls camp finally came in handy and the catapult was launching pine cones in minutes.



Find instructions to make your own here-
href="http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/marshmallow-catapult-874571/">

New Recipes

Adults and kids loved loved loved these new recipes, so I wanted to share. The soup I made up to use up leftover rice.

Coconut Chicken Rice Soup
1 onion, chopped
Oil for sautéing
½ tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 can coconut milk
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups diced celery
2-3 chicken breasts cut up
4-6 cups chicken broth
2-3 cups cooked rice
Chopped fresh parsley

Saute onion until soft. Add remaining ingrediants except rice and parsley. Boil, then simmer 20 min or so until chicken is cooked well. Add rice and parsley. Serve.

Almond Butter Cookies
1/2 cup natural almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped almonds (or more)
Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a large bowl, combine natural almond butter, maple syrup, oil, egg and vanilla extract until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, along with chopped almonds, and stir until just combined. Let sit for five minutes. Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls, flatten to about 1/3 of an inch and place onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Makes 18 cookies.

Lilliputian Lunch

I'm learning the best way to get thru this parenting thing in one piece is to be as fun and silly as possible. A smart parent must have come up with April fools day. Around here we put bugs in shoes and mix up cereal bags. We took rubber snakes to preschool for sharing and froze cups of milk. My favorite so far was my trick on Perrie. I sent her to school with a super miniature lunch.
A cheese sandwich the size of my thumbnail, teeny weeny carrot sticks, a bowl of applesauce the size of my thumb and a mini chocolate chip for dessert. I gave the teacher her real lunch for after the surprise. I cant wait for her to come home. Im still planning dinner, this looks good- it is actually a meatloaf pie with mashed potatoes. I found it at www.famliyfun.go.com This website has lots of fun ideas. Cant wait for the kids to pull one on me.

Green Menu

We had a delicious green soup tonight in honor of St. Patricks Day. Everyone LOVED it and I couldn’t get enough of it. Can you guess what it was made from? It grows in my yard.
Did you guess stinging nettles? That right. And it was very tasty. Did you know that nettles contain the highest plant source of iron? It is an EXCELLENT source of vitamins, minerals and protein. It is literally a super-food and they are FREE! Stinging nettles lose their sting when cooked. They can be used in place of spinach or kale in most cooked recipes. They are best when picked young in early spring. You have got to try this. I do have a sting or two to show for it as I didn’t use leather gloves when picking it, but soo worth it. We also had edamame, salad, vegi booty and fruit rainbow shish-kabobs for dinner. Here is the soup recipe I made. I think this may become a tradition.

Nettle Soup
1 onion, chopped
2 TBL butter
1 lb potatoes, cut up (I used yukon unpeeled)
6 cups chicken or vegi broth
1/2 lb stinging nettles
1/2 tsp thyme
sour cream, yogurt, or cream for garnish (optional)

Saute onion in butter about 5 min. Add potatoes and broth. Boil then simmer for 15 min. Add nettles & thyme and cook until tender, about 10 min. Puree soup with an immersion blender or in a blender. Season to taste and serve.

I don’t think this is the last you will hear of me & my nettles.
Nettle Lasagna...Nettle Pesto...Nettle muffins...

home away from home

All this nice weather has got me thinking...my yard needs more kid elements. Wouldn't these playhouses be fun?




I am gathering some ideas and materials. Lets see how much time I have to get anything done! Got any plans yourself?

(playhouses from http://aplaceimagined.blogspot.com/)

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.-Plato

Boys.
Four-year old boys.
Someone forgot to give me the owners manual,
Specificly the troubleshooting chapter.

Did I feed him enough, or too much?
Did he sleep enough, or too much?
Is he bored or not getting enough attention?
Does he need to go run around for 2 hours or take a nap?
Should I sign him up for soccer, tai kwon do, art, music, wilderness survival?
Is this behavior normal? Should I be worried about this?

Many days we run the gamut of emotions here and I am often at a loss as to what to do. How do I tame this wild horse, but still keep his passions and confidence? Hmmm, maybe I will read up on taming actual wild horses.

Momentary Lapse in Reason

Ah life, so hard but so good. These little ones are keeping me busy, but I am loving every minute. My sweet Perrie is growing up, and she knows it. It is a full time job just keeping Owen fed, clothed, clean, rested and happy.



And Callie, my pretty baby, just squeezes my heart every minute. How did I ever get by without her? I love watching her mind develop and explore everything. She is so tiny but runs everywhere. It is very hard to get a good picture of her because she never stops moving. Anything with sparkles goes around her neck, and she already has many hats and glasses. She loves cats and dogs, like goes crazy screaming to see them. She adores her big brother and always tries to hug him, but he doesnt want anything to do with her. She is allowed to touch his shoe, that is about it.



This thing called life is really amazing when you stop to think about it.

holiday in a minute

The holiday season got underway right out of the shoot with Christmas parties, piano concerts, caroling, birthday parties, anniversary (11 yrs!) and lots and lots of family. It was jam packed fun.
Christmas Eve was spent with my extended family. There are 9 cousins on that side so the kids were well entertained. We had our first annual ornament contest, (thanks Erin.) We were all given a glass ball ornament and had to decorate it somehow by Christmas Eve. Then we voted an a few categories. It was awesome to see what came, and the kids were some of the best! Below is Perrie's, David's, Mine & Owen's ornaments.



We are a large adult group so decided to play a gift exchange game, similar to the white elephant game, but with new gifts. This was the first time trying this one and I think it went pretty well. Dave came home happy as a clam with his gift, which he had to bargain, beg and plead various people for. It is pink footed pjs, with bunny feet.(I stopped being embarrassed along time ago)

Christmas Day was spent with Dave’s family for a feast, games, and visiting.

Some of Owen’s favorite gifts are a stomp rocket and walkie talkies. We gave Perrie a creative puzzle set to design and had all the cousins playing on Christmas and some adults too. It is called Trapecolo.

For New Years Eve we had ice cream sundays, watched Night at the Museum and banged our pots and pans (east coast time) Each of us said something we wanted to do in 2010 and something we want to get better at.


Owen wants to drive a jeep and learn how to drive better.
Perrie wants to learn a new instrument and get better at art.
I want to visit my relatives in Utah this year and get better at doing yoga.
David wants to buy a gun and get better at shooting
(I’m cringing, this will not happen!)

A popular blog suggests having a one word theme for the year. Display this word in your home or workspace and ponder it. I think mine will be CREATE. Create a home, love, friends, good food, funny blog posts, art, quilts…. I think that word will do nicely. Happy New Year.