Our Molly

This is our wee Molly's usual look.  Her big eyes open wide and staring all around.

Are you surprised about something Butter Bean? 

I often joke that she's still in shock about the family she ended up in. But this time it was the joy of an apple that caused that look. I handed her a big chunk of the fruit during dinner.  She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I figured she'd enjoy tasting the fruit.  And she really did!  She was all kinds of excited as she shoved that apple into her mouth as much as she could and held on tight to it with both hands.

The last few days she's been sick with a cold.  Blech. She keeps catching colds and ear infections and such!  It really stinks to see her feeling so crummy.  A week or so ago, her daddy said, "I'd rather be sick four times than Molly be sick again."

And if anyone knows how much Ryan absolutely *detests* being sick, then you will understand what a sweet sentiment that was.

The Fire Station, Memorials and a Blueberry Pancakes Recipe!

Yesterday was all about Cub Scouts.  Emmett is trying to finish up the last few things he needs to do to earn his Wolf Badge....by tonight!  Yeah. We're cutting it down to the wire.  

Luckily my husband knows

some of the guys at the fire

station, so we popped over

there for a quick tour.  

Emmett didn't want to try on

their gear, but Sam was

game.  And he loved it. He

couldn't stop grinning! 

Until I tried to take a

picture, of course. 

And then he gave his

famous non-smiling smile. 

Emmett did let me put

the helmet on him though.  

The kids had to climb

all over the old fire

truck.  And try to

wind the siren.   

And I had to snap

pictures.

Lowell, our fireman tour

guide, showed us

around the little

practice house. 

The kids pretended

to be asleep, I told

them there was a

fire and then crawled

along the floor,

checked the door,

pretended it was hot and

then crawled to the

window, unlocked it and

jumped out.  Lowell was

outside to make

sure they got out alright. 

After getting suckers,

fire departments badges

and some smoke alarm

batteries, we headed

over to the war memorials. 

Emmett needed to visit

an important place in the

community and that is

what he chose. 

But it was cold!  So,

we quickly looked

around.  I marveled

at all the names of

those who have passed

away.  The kids

marveled at the cool

statues. 

Next we zipped home and after getting the sick baby happy, I helped Emmett make dinner.  He needed to help prepare dinner, set the table and clean up.  He chose to make blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and fresh pinapple.  Yum! 

 

We have a gas stove and I was showing Emmett how to turn the burners on, how you need to turn the knob to Lite and then when the flame comes out, then turn it to one of the numbers. I explained how you needed to be careful because you don't want to let the gas into the house and how it's dangerous. A few minutes later I told him to turn one of the burners on.  He put in on Lite but then quickly turned it to a number, letting some gassy smell out. 

I turned it back off and explained why he needed to let it Lite first and such again and asked, "Can you smell that sweet yucky gas smell?"

Suddenly Zoe pipes up from behind us, "Sorry, mom that was me." 

ha ha ha!  We all laughed quite a bit at that. 

I found the blueberry pancakes
recipe on allrecipes.com.




Todd's Famous Blueberry
Pancakes
(we tripled the recipe)

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, thawed

Directions

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. In a small bowl, beat together egg and milk. Stir milk and egg into flour mixture. Mix in the butter and fold in the blueberries. Set aside for 1 hour.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Dying Pasta

Today was my turn to teach the little mom-taught preschool group I do with a bunch of girlfriends. The theme for the month is art.  And I've always wanted to try dying pasta.  So, I googled it and a short time later had a marvelous collection of bright noodles...

This was so easy.

All you need is:

Plastic baggies you can seal closed

Dry pasta in different shapes

Food coloring

Rubbing alcohol

Simply throw a bunch of dry pasta in a baggie, add about a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol (more or less depending on how much pasta you put in the bag...I tended to dump too much alcohol in and then it was all too runny, but it dried. Just took longer), drops of food coloring (how much depends on how bright you want your pasta) and then seal it and smoosh it around, without breaking up the pasta. 

Then you spread it out on a baking sheet to dry.  The rubbing alcohol helps it dry faster.

I just used the pasta I had on hand.  We dyed small shells, big bowties, rigatoni, macaroni and the teeny tiny ditalini that ended up looking like small beads.  I might use it to try making jewelry with Zoe. It should be easy for her to string onto some cording. 

My 6 yo, Sam was home "sick" from school yesterday.  He has a cold, but I think he probably would have been fine at school.  But I let him stay home and have a nap and veg out.  He and Zoe also helped dye the pasta.  They loved it!  It was fun for them to pick some food coloring and see the pasta change color.

Then this morning the preschool kids had fun gluing the pasta to cardboard....

One little girl was sick, so I'm planning on taking a Pasta Collage Kit over to her. 

First we used tacky glue and the kids dipped the pasta shapes into it and then tried to put them on the cardboard.  Mmmmm, no, this didn't work too well.  You would think it wouldn't be too hard for them to dip and stick.  But they ended up with hands covered in glue.  I mean really covered.  And then they started trying to pick it off. 

So, then I tried watering down some glue and we used sponge brushes to spread the glue on and then they stuck the pasta into the glue or sprinkled it on like glitter. 

Here's Zoe's cute little cousin attempting the brush technique...

Yep. The brush definitely worked better.  But next time I would simply use Elmer's Glue.  It would be runny enough and easier to work with than that thick tacky glue. 

And here is Zoe proudly displaying her Pasta Collage (she started feeling kind of crummy toward the end of the project so she stopped working on it, but after this picture she wanted to get busy again and put a lot more pasta on it! Yeah. It's really covered now.)....

I like to give the kids a lot of unstructured play time.  So, I cleared off our big coffee table and covered it with lots of big wood blocks and little toy animals, food, people and parts. They had a grand time creating little worlds with the bits and pieces. 

We also read some books and talked about the illustrations.

 We read I Got Two Dogs, A Vistor for Bear and Sailor Moo.   As I was holding Sailor Moon up I said, "Is this art?" and one child said, "No. It's a cow." 

When I began reading A Visitor for Bear, I realized the kids probably didn't know what a visitor really was.  So, I explained it was someone who comes to see you.  The little boy in the group (Yes. There's only one...luckily being outnumbered by girls hasn't seemed to bother him yet) spoke up, "I don't like..." and here I thought he was going to say he doesn't like visitors.  Nope.

"I don't like people to put me in jail I'm going to be spiderman for Christmas."

Pause.

"I mean Halloween."

Don't you just love the random nature of small children? 

Mmmmm! Roasted hot dogs and marshmallows!

 This weekend we got rid of our cats.  Wooh-hoo!  Alright, now don't get me wrong.  I really like cats.  I like having pets and I like our kids having pets.  But.  Our kids don't take care of them!  So, it's just one more thing I have to police.  And our cat had kittens last year and we never found new homes for three of them.  So, yeah. Four cats.  Except the momma didn't like her kids and she didn't come around often.  But we caught them all, loaded them up into two boxes for the trip over to Tropic and their new home, one of the barns on Ryan's family's farm.  And he even built them up a bit of a house with a bunch of bales of hay before we let them go. 

After that we headed out to the hills around the old coal mines for a cookout with Ryan's parents.  Emmett, needed to plan and cook an outdoor meal one for one his achievments for cub scouts.  And you wouldn't thing January was a great time for a cookout, but it was a great day!  It got a bit cold when the sun started to head down, but we had a nice warm fire.  There's nothing like a roasted hot dog, right?  And some nice and brown marshmallows?  Mmmm mmmm. 

                  Zoe loves her Grandpa
                 Franz and is often found
                    leaning against him or
                        sitting in his lap.

See, doesn't that look good?

Obviously she's a bit of a fan!

Oh, and she liked the marshmallows, too.

I think what the kids love best about cookouts though is the exploring.  They scamper and run over the rocks and trees looking for secret hidouts and forts and such. 

 

Ryan was worried Molly was cold so he tucked the cute little monkey in his coat.

My favorite part is that we're together.  And there isn't any TV or computers or housework or anything else to distract us from each other.  We talk and laugh and, of course, eat. 

Sometimes we also have to put each other out when we start on fire.  And when I say we I mean Me.  Yep, my the hem of my jeans started on fire. I got a bit too close to the coals.  Luckily my sweet husband noticed and let me know.  But since he's always being funny and teasing me....I didn't believe him.  Then I saw the smoke.  He was also nice enough to put me out.  And while doing so he had to inform me I was "really hot." 

*groan*