Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Lunch

I fixed a new recipe for lunch today and it was almost universally a great success. Flik said he didn't like it, but I'm pretty sure that's because he refused to taste it. Lilo also was not impressed. But all the others ate multiple bowls- O'Malley, Boo, Sully, Roo, Stitch, Bianca, Aurora, and newbie Pixie girl I have no name for LOVED it. I love when that happens. So I thought I'd share the recipe~ it's Chicken and Wild Rice soup and we ate the entire pot. Which was huge, even though I left out a couple ingredients. I didn't have any pimiento, although I did throw in a bit of red bell pepper, and no almonds, red onions, or turmeric. But still. Really tasty. Adding it to the repertoire.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

PSA

Quick before I forget-

The kids have been really excited about mixing colors and helping me cook lately. I served BRIGHT GREEN biscuits for breakfast. So if you're changing some crazy diapers in the next few days, that would be why. No need for alarm. :)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mobile Boy!



I cannot believe Sully is already walking. Nine months old and watch out world!! :)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Christmas Slideshow



Every year for Christmas I do slideshows for the parents. Usually it's got one show with all the pictures of their child, and then a sort of "best-of" with a couple pictures of each child so they can see playmates and more of what goes on during the day. There was just a new update to iLife, so I can finally turn them into movies and put them on the blog!

Here's the favorites collection- maybe not all necessarily the BEST pictures, but lots of the ones that make me smile.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Perception

I take the kids out walking around the neighborhood whenever the weather cooperates. They like to walk down the alleys and see which backyards have dogs, and we talk about all kinds of things regarding plants and animals and just whatever they see.

The area I live in is a pretty typical suburban kind of place- the backyards all look fairly similar. Fenced, grass, yard toys and/or dog, maybe a garden. The usual. And then there's this one house that we always have to stop and look at. One panel of the fence is made of trellis material- that latticework stuff so you can see into the whole yard. The place looks like a jungle. We can hear water running, although we can't find the place it's coming from. It looks like they haven't mowed in a hundred years. Trees are all over the place and one has fallen over. There are random birdbaths and birdhouses in various spots. It's fun to look at but I never could figure out why they didn't just MOW, for the love of pete! It's pretty unkempt and wild looking.

And then it all became clear with the new sign on the fence one day when we walked by:

"Backyard Wildlife Habitat: This property provides the four basic habitat elements needed for wildlife to thrive: food, water, cover, and places to raise young. It has been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as an official Backyard Wildlife Habitat site."

I had no idea such a thing existed, but I love this!! Now we can look at it with new eyes and talk about the different areas and what their purposes might be. We were even able to talk to the owner the other day while he was outside raking leaves and he explained some of the rationale behind the placement. Very cool. What we thought was a birdhouse is actually a BAT house.

Funny how you can go from thinking something is bad and needs to be cleaned, to thinking it's amazing and exactly right, just by understanding the situation. Seems like a good lesson to learn on many levels.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Practicing With a String Bean

Ever read Bread and Jam for Frances? One of our favorites. There's a line where baby Gloria is eating green beans and Mother tells her to eat them up, because it's always good to practice on a string bean.

Here we have three stages of bean eating:

1. Tinkerbell: This is my first bean at daycare! I am so happy to be sitting up here with those big kids and I have NO IDEA that I am supposed to be putting this stuff in my mouth!


2. Chip: Really? Beans? Is that the only choice? I think maybe I will throw it on the floor. (Which he did, right after I put the camera down. Must ham it up for the camera.)


3. Stitch: Holy cow these beans are good they are the best thing I ever ate please give me more after I shovel these in my mouth kthanks....

Friday, January 8, 2010

Belated Introductions

We have Tinkerbell!! We have had her since, oh, October. I've been woefully neglectful of the blogging lately. And actually that is why I haven't blogged about other stuff as much, because I keep thinking I shouldn't talk about other things before I introduce Tink.

Tink has fabulous dimples and awesome chubby cheeks. And not so much hair. :) Her mama laments this fact and wants to borrow some of Sully's, on account of he has tons to spare. Funny story about that~ Boo, Sully's big sister, is really good with all the little babies. She was talking to Tinkerbell and looked at me with this sort of perplexed, it's-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue face and said... "What is... wrong?... with her?" I could tell it was the same kind of look that I get on my face when I can't place what's different about somebody- did they get glasses? a haircut? what's the deal?

So I explained that she looks very different from your brother, huh? Sully has lots of hair and Tinkerbell doesn't have very much, and so that is why her face looks different.

Boo is smart. She totally got it, and then got worried. "She is still VERY cute." :) She's so adorable to realize that she needed to tell us she wasn't trying to be offensive. Practically impossible, by the way. Boo is never rude.

But back to Tink, since I've derailed yet again.

She has been here awhile and is not even the youngest baby anymore, so I have LOTS of catching up to do! Three months worth of pictures, which I can't even begin to do justice to in one post. But here are a few of my favorites:

O'Malley loves her. "Mommy! She yike me a YOT! I hep FEED her!"

Wish I had gotten a bit closer to catch more dimple, but isn't the smile awesome?

Sweet little pumpkin!!