What a great day to go on a bike ride. It wasn't so hot but still warm enough to be in our shorts! We played in the sand for a bit and waited for the sprinkler to come on but I guess it is too cold for that now. Ya know, 85 is just too chilly for the Texans. They need it to be at least triple digits out to get wet!

Muffin Tin Monday

I know, it's not Monday but that's OK!

Today's theme is shapes. We have circles, hearts, rectangles, ovals, triangles, stars and even a diamond. The tomato juice can is in the shape if a cylinder!

There is a great website where these all started here at Sycamore stirrings. Lots of other muffin tin ideas here!

Freya decided to take a few pictures today. Here is a picture of Suki and me. Suki likes to lay under my desk when I sit at the computer. As a matter of fact, her head is on my toes as I type...

And here is one of me. She lined me up perfectly in the camera!

Watercolor painting

Freya would be absolutely thrilled if we had painting or play dough time every day. Today I broke out the water colors and gave her a little lesson.

Items you need:
paper towel
small glass of water
water color paint box
assortment of brushes
thick paper card stock will work for this if you can't find water color paper

set up your table as shown.

Make sure that you wet your paper before painting and also your water color paints. I usually just run both under the tap water quickly.

First talk about how we dip our brush in the water, dab it on the paper towel then put it in the paint box. This will help to keep your paint box from quickly becoming brown.

Then they can paint away. Usually when they start they like to push the brush down and scribble like they would with crayons. It is pretty important to point out that we pull the brush instead of pushing the brush so that we don't ruin the bristles.

Then to change colors, we always put the brush back into the water, dab it on the paper towel then get our new color.

It may seem complicated but my 3 year old Freya was very happy to do each step. And she was delighted when I pointed out that if we pull the brush we can make lines!

We haven't talked much about what happens when we mix the colors. That is next!

My favorite book about painting is Paint Day, Bing! We love this because he paints with water colors and they we're always reminding him Don't Spill the water Bing! I love how the water gets dirtier and dirtier at each page.

We had a great soccer weekend!

Chloe had her first goal this Saturday! I can't believe I missed it. I was at a conference and not only did I miss her first goal EVER but she scored twice! Talk about making a mom feel the guilt.

Jonah had a game on Sunday and made 3 goals. He was great and really worked well with the team. After he made 2 goals, he was kind of hanging back and not pushing up. When he was subbing out he told me that he wanted to give some of the other kids a chance to score. How sweet is that?

Here are Freya and Raita on the sidelines.

Freya caught a lizard. It's missing it's tail and is tiny but amazingly still alive. She had it in the house and was hiding it in her pudgy little hands. I told her to take it outside and she pitched a fit because she really wants to show Chloe. So we put it in a jar with holes in the lid. We also had to feed it grass. We read Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse last night and I am wondering if she thinks it is the magic lizard in the book. HMMMMMM



And on to pumpkins and baking.
My dad use to always make us pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They were the absolute best cookies. You just make your standard CCC and then add half a can of pumpkin to the batter. I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Chloe really wanted to take a picture of the batter. It looks pretty disgusting but I am telling you, these are better than pumpkin pie.

Teeth.

My son has been keeping his teeth for the past month or so. For some reason he has just been losing them like mad. I think he lost 3 in one week and very effortlessly. He would just be sitting there, tilt his head into his open hand and then hand me a tooth.

Here is his stockpile of teeth. I am not sure what his plans are for them. Is he setting up the ultimate tooth fairy trap? It's hard to say considering he is almost 10 and is on the cusp of not believing.

He saw me reading about this Tooth Fairy Jar. Maybe he'll want to try it out this time. It would save the tooth fairy from trying to find every single loose tooth under his pillow before his eyelids pop open. If the tooth fairy blows it this time, she is getting a good ass kicking. The tooth fairy has been able to stay incognito this long she better do a good job keeping in stealth mode.

If he chooses to use the jar this time, I just hope the jar isn't filled with battery acid. Hopefully the incentive of big money keeps him in check. What does one get when they offer the tooth fairy 6 teeth in one night?

Mural Complete!

Mural is done!




What a huge sigh of relief. I hate the fact that I can't just hang out and get stuff finished. But I guess that is the way it is when you have kids.

After many trips and my brother's help it is finally done.

We added two buildings to the left of the mural as well as the Clock from the It's a Small World Ride. And down below there is a little guy that was taken from another one of Mary Blair's paintings. There will be no doubt when walking into this room as to where the picture came from. Oh, and see if you can find the hidden mickey ears.

It's kinda hard to get a picture because it takes up an entire the room.
Again, here is the original I went off of.

Zilker Botanical Gardens

This was the last trip we made before Uncle Brian had to leave for Portland. There is supposed to be a display of dinosaurs but they had to take them down because if IKE. A few were up but most were sleeping somewhere else and we didn't get to see them.

While we missed the dinos, it was worth the trip to smell the fragrant flowers.

Yesterday we all went fishing. It was kind of windy but we did manage to catch a few fish. Raita and Chloe caught a blue gill.

While we were dealing with that catch, we heard Jonah yelling. He caught a small mouthed bass all on his own! Both fish were too small too keep but it was fun.

Even Freya had a chance fishing. She was sad that she didn't get to catch a fish.

Today we went kayaking with Uncle Brian.

It wasn't too hot, about 93 or so. That definitely made the breeze appreciated. Brian and Jonah handled the two man pretty well while Freya sat between my legs on the single.

Last time we went, I had Jonah to help me. Needless to say, it was a bit more difficult for me this time around without his help!




We saw lots of wild life; Blue Herons, turtles, ducks and the occasional fish jumping out of the water. Can you find the turtle and the heron in the last picture?

Today my friend Bethany brought us to Jungle and Java. It's basically an indoor play scape with tunnels, slides etc. There is a full coffee bar with food and snacks. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I got to have a latte so I can't complain either!

It's nice to have another option that is close for us northern Austinites.

Freya was able to convince Eli to go into a few places that seemed kinda scary to him. She is pretty fearless.

Even baby Noa had fun hanging from the railing.

Cheesy Bran Muffins

Yep, the bran in here will counteract the stopped-upedness of the cheese. We make these minis and keep on hand for the kids' lunches. They also pair well with chili or soups etc.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bran
1 TBL baking powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4oz (1 stick) melted butter
1 beaten egg
2-3 TBL of ground flax (optional)

Put dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Put cheese in flour mixture and mix together.
Make a well in the bowl of dry ingredients.

Mix butter, milk and egg in a separate bowl.
Pour wet ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients.

Mix together using more more than 15 strokes. (the batter will still be lumpy)

Spoon into greased mini muffin pans until 3/4 full.
Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container. Muffins can be frozen in a sealed bag for up to 1 month.

Since Freya has started school, I have been using Tuesdays as my do everything day. The day to do the laundry, clean bathrooms, plan and shop for meals and bake up the woo-hoo for the week (or hopefully 2 weeks!) etc.

Today we also made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. The recipe is the basic recipe, I just change it up using half whole wheat and half all purpose flour. I also always add some ground flax to it for added nutrition. Today we had some Texan Pecans so those went in there too. I always make a large batch because inevitably one of my friends has done me a favor and I love to say thank you with baked goods.

Speaking of oatmeal, I found this great recipe for Amish Baked Oatmeal. I followed the recipe except I put half the sugar and added some raisins. Next time I will try honey or agave instead of the sugar. It was fabulous! Prepare it the night before and put it in the fridge. When you wake up, pop it in the oven and it's done when you get out of the shower! The kids loved it. We put it in a bowl then topped off with milk. Chloe said it tasted like oatmeal cookie cereal.