Colin Laughing

Sunday Picnic

The kids wanted to have a picnic today. I said, why not?

I kept telling Jonah to get his shoes on before we went out, he kept putting on everyone else's shoes so I told him he had to get his own. When we finally made it outside he still didn't have any shoes on. I told him to go back in and put his shoes on so the rocks didn't hurt his feet. When he came back out these were what he was wearing. Funny boy!

Glow Bath!

I saw this activity over at: Play at Home Mom (my new favorite blog) and decided we had to try it out. It was no surprise that the kids LOVED it!!! If you want to try it out, you can buy at package of 12 small glowsticks at the Dollar Tree.

We decided to add bubbles!!

Olivia said, "Now I am going to make them dirty!"

Water beads!

I read about these on several blogs and had to check them out. I bought them at JoAnn Fabrics. This brand is called Aqua Gems and they cost about $5 a package. If you haven't heard of them they are little water retaining polymers (like contact lenses) that are intended for flowers. They are supposed to water your flowers while looking beautiful. They are non-toxic and make for a great sensory activity. If you have younger children you want to keep a close eye on them though because they are a choking hazard. You can also buy them at Walmart for $2 a package, but there aren't as many and they come in separate colors. They can be found with the fake flowers.

They started out really small like this.

After about two hours they started to expand.

After 6 hours they were fully hydrated and the fun began!




My kids loved them and I will definitely be buying them again!

Why I Haven't Posted for a While...

A day of firsts...

Alina figured out how to ride her bike today all by herself! She is awesome!




Then Jonah climbed the ladders at the playground. It's so fun to watch my kids grow.

Scrumptious Lemon Muffins

I found a muffin recipe last week for chocolate chip muffins that turned out great. I was, and still am, excited about it. Being 21 weeks pregnant, I get cravings. Two nights ago the urge came on to make muffins again but this time make them lemon muffins. Armed with my new recipe I went into the kitchen to see what I could whip up. They were amazing. Even my husband who is not a cake person admitted they were pretty good. So I figured I'd share my recipe.

Lemon Muffins

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

1 cup (240 ml) milk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Zest from 1 lemon

Juice from one lemon

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients and butter. Stir just until moistened. Over mixing will cause dense muffins. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. (Personally I prefer spraying my muffin pan with cooking spray over using cupcake liners.) Bake for 15 minutes then insert a toothpick onto the center of one of your muffins. If the toothpick comes out clean your muffins are done. If not put them back in for 3 minutes and test again.

The muffins in the picture have a streusel topping. You can find a recipe for that easily enough online. Next time I make these though, I am going to make a cream cheese frosting for more of a cupcake. Enjoy!

Here is the original recipe for chocolate chip muffins:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/muffins/ChocolateChipMuffins.html#ixzz1HFfZPS9N

Blue Coconuts

A few weeks ago we were asking our kids what kinds of things they'd like to have in a house. Alina and Journie said things like a slide that goes from the upstairs to the downstairs and a big play room. Then we asked Olivia.... She said, "Ummm....a castle....with blue poke-a-nuts." We smiled and giggled at her funny request for a castle with blue coconuts. Where did that come from and since when did she have any interest in coconuts? We even recounted this story to friends. Then today as I was getting her dressed in this shirt we were talking about the horse and she says, "Yeah and he's even got poke-a-nuts!" Then the truth dawned on me....Poke-a-nuts are not coconuts but polka-dots. She wanted a castle with blue polka-dots. While still a little amusing it was not quite such a strange combination as a castle with coconuts. I laughed and laughed. Then asked her to say coconut and she said, "Coconut.". Then I asked her to say polka-dot and of course it was, "Poke-a-nut."