Only at our house…

My sister got these two books some time ago for Lillie.  In one, it mentions apple bobbing.  I don’t mind apple bobbing per se—I mind sharing a barrel, bin or bucket with others whom are also…apple bobbing.  By noon one day, Jake had been given the beat d0wn for the umpteenth time and he decided to put Lillie’s queries to rest.  We apple bobbed at lunch.  It was quite fun and a good couple hours of entertainment for the goose.  Perfect.

   Lillie taking her first shot at apple bobbing.

Jake showing her how it is done.  Dang--he looks good even when he is soaked and is hanging onto a big ole apple!

Lillie deciding she just has to be more prepared in order to get out the apples.  Does she get swimming goggles?  Nope.  Those are the goggles from her work bench area-which in all honesty have been with the bath toys for months.  You never know when you are gonna need to protect your eyes.

del.icio.us Tags: Poor Puppy,Bad Kitty,Nick Bruel,apple bobbing,fall,autumn

Hydrangea Experiment

Another project for the goose.  I thought we could do a little science and see if the colored water could change the basic Hydrangea.  A little capillary action if you will.  This was quick down and dirty I–gotta-plan–something–or-this–kid–will–go –nuts-  AND use what we had on hand.  If I had it to do it again I  would use celery or carnations and I would get a little book from the library to go with the theme.  Nothing changed on our Hydrangeas…bummer.  But the little white flowers we stuck in there last minute changed to the color of the water around the edge—thrillsville for the Lil.  *Sigh*  It is the little things in life.

Blueberry Crumble Cake and a Busy Summer

It has been quite some time since my last post.  What have we been up to you might ask—hey I said might.  Here is a little run down…

• The cat disappears
• Swim lessons
• New septic —oh yeah fun times—I will leave that one alone
• Jake almost loses part of his ring finger—again… I will leave that one alone
• The cat returns…a month later!
• A trip to the OBX
• VBS
• 2 month vaccinations for one child
• 4 year vaccinations for the other child—that trip was FULL of drama
• Leaving one preschool and joining another
• And a myriad of other things but this list making has reached an obnoxious level.

The good thing is we are slowly getting into a routine and Lillie

and I continue to cook and craft.  Here is a blueberry cake we made with a few modifications.  I think anything blueberry deserves a good crumb topping—and I am not talking the “healthy” kind with all those oats.  Who needs oats when you can just have buttah!  Oh yeah. 

Need crumb topping ingredients—soooo easy!

You need:

• Butter
• Sugar (brown or white)
• and Flour

I would play with proportions but roughly speaking a stick of butter cubed and mixed with pastry cutter (or just the back of a fork) into a cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of flour—but play around  with proportions until you get consistency you like.  It is always fun to zing it up with some cinnamon and nutmeg and if you must…rolled oats.

del.icio.us Tags: blueberry,crumb topping,how to make blueberry cake,summer fun

Black Bean Salsa

This is the easiest little dish I learned from my friend Melissa.  It is quick and easy and makes a nice amount to share with a crowd.  I love it and think that I am going to give a whirl sometime soon with my homemade salsa instead of the canned.  On a side note… It is so wonderful to have my homegrown tomatoes coming in!  Eat your heart out mealy hot house tomatoes!

2 cans of black beans  rinsed and drained

1 can of corn  drained

1 cup of pre-made salsa

1 clove of garlic minced

1 red pepper chopped

1/2 cup of cilantro chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon limejuice

3 spring onions  the white and green part

dash of salt

So easy and serve with your favorite type of tortilla chips

**If you want to add a little heat you could add:

Chopped jalapenos

Medium or Hot Salsa

Hot sauce

del.icio.us Tags: How to make black bean salsa,black bean salsa,homegrown tomatoes,easy recipe,quick recipe,share

Lemon*ie* Goodness

My husband made dinner tonight (I know…I am so spoiled) and he picked out this Rachel Ray recipe.  In the middle of cooking it—he says “what is lemon curd?”  I start to describe and he says “oh well-guess we will just skip that ingredient.”  Next thing I know he is whipping up some homemade lemon curd!  Isn’t he the coolest?  Even though the curd recipe didn’t have a chance to sit for a week-the dinner was still delicious and the house smells phenomenal!

Technorati Tags: lemon,lemon curd,lemon curd chicken,Rachel Ray,wonderful husband

4th of July – late again. Do you sense a trend?

I love a long holiday weekend.  Extra time with the family, get togethers with friends and cooking out on the grill.  Lillie and I kept busy with some projects that I thought I would share. 

I decided to brave the tie dye experience.  I can’t believe that I have never tried this before now but really what better way to say I am an American then (than??  Oh crap…I am American!  No knowledge of grammar, spelling or as I am sure you have gathered…punctuation.) with some gaudy tie dye apparel?   We just used some older clothes for the project.  Everyone dug up an old white tee and I even found an all white onesie so Caleb could join in the fun.  I limited the palette to red and blue and we kept some of the tee white and ta-dahhhh!   Our patriotic look to sport on the 4th was complete.  It was fun…and MESSY!

 

We remembered to wear our plastic gloves so our hands wouldn’t get dyed but I forgot about my feet and didn’t wear shoes.  Genius.  Lil really got into the color and I was worried her shirt would look too purple from the colors mixing but I was pleased with the end results.

  

 

And here is a quick project that cost under $5.  JoAnn flip-flops for a buck and a tiny amount of fabric.

I thought this would be a good project for Lil to practice tying knots…she petered out after about two fabric strips so it became my project.  So if you want to try it at home just cut your fabric into strips and tie onto the thong portion of the flops and voila!

Firecracker Flops 

 

Technorati Tags: 4th of July,firecracker,how to tie dye,tie die,fabric flip flops,American,gaudy,grammar

Father’s Day… a bit late

Life has been a bit whirlwind lately so I am behind on just about everything in life.  Thank goodness for my friend MaryLea at Pink and Green Mama!  She posted a wonderful idea via facebook that I just had to try out with my little one for Father’s Day.  Sadly I had waited till the 11th hour to do anything so this was perfect!  She  located this on the wonderful blog, “The Magic Onion”

We started off with our supplies.  Watercolor paints from Prang.  Bare wood frames from Michaels—these only cost about a buck.  I added Mod-Podge since I love to have things sealed up and shiny.  I swear I am part crow!  And what would an art project be without glitter?  Incomplete I say!  I had to select Martha’s glitter.  It is just so fine and like pixie dust-grown up glitter.

So to make the easy peasy lemon squeezy project…

• Soak your wooden frames
• PAINT—this is the really fun part for the kids!  Make sure the color is really saturated and vibrant.  If you want to rub some paint off for the grain of the wood to show.
• Dry time
• Mod-Podge and glitter it up…again this is the fun part for the “kids”.
• Last but not least find a cute photo and pop it into place. 

In hindsight I would have most likely used a black and white photo in this colorful frame but it our end result was still darn cute.