Cooking wiht F&B

F&B have developed an affinity for cooking with Mommy or helping in the kitchen. It is a surefire way to make a 10 minute meal take 45 minutes to prepare, but they are totally loving doing it.

So far, they have made "Meatball Minestrone":

Ben adding spices to the soup

Ben stirring while Faith adds the veggies

The final product simmering.

And they've made cheesy rolls:

aka crescent rolls with slices of cheese rolled up inside.

Faith liked these because she got to use a knife to cut up the cheese.

Today, they made raspberry popsicles:

Blending the yogurt, banana, raspberries & a pinch of sugar.

The final product, which we can try tomorrow!

The Last Week or So, in Pictures

It should come as no surprise that *I* am exhausted. In the 10 or so days since my last post, the children have kept me extremely busy. In theory, it's vice versa. I'm keeping them busy, but I'm the only one that is showing signs of fatigue.

We had a bug day--we made bug jars and read books about bugs. If you know my children at all, you know it is safe to say that we would never collect bugs in a jar!





We went to the Dallas Museum of Art for a kids' day. They made African shakers, tried out some interactive exhibits, and we toured the Asian & African Art gallery. The Egypt relics were Faith's favorites.





We went to the Lego Store at Stonebriar for a Make & Take event, they made boats out of lego!

We ran the Komen 5K Race for the Cure!

We did science experiments with sponge creatures that were smooshed into pellets that melted in hot water. Then we made under the sea scenes with the sponge creatures (because sponge painting would not be fun for me).

We broke out stencils and worked on making line drawings out of them. Ben got bored quickly, but Faith loved it and did an awesome job.

Not pictured, we had a playdate with Abby & her brothers at their house, a swim playdate with Audrey & Gracie at our house, we had Life Group on Thursday, we had Wednesday night church activities, I had a conference in Fort Worth, we went to Peter Piper Pizza with Uncle Alex, Auntie Nica & Angelina.

This week, Faith has Adventure Kidz stuff on Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, so I'm on my own for entertaining the boy. Today, she went to Hawaiian Falls and I took him to PPP for an activity. Tomorrow, she is off to Main Event, and I'm sure he's not going to just let me sleep.

Bike riding!

We took a little foray to Target this afternoon to get the boy a bike. He has outgrown his cute little Diego tricycle and his also cute little Tot Rod electric car. Since Faith got a bike for her birthday, he needed something to drive on too.

I tried the "frugal" way--no luck on my mommy board, FOL or Craigslist. We even glanced as we drove by a few garage sales today (since bicycles can be easily sterilized). However, patience isn't exactly my strong suit, so we gave up around 3pm and headed to Target for a cute little two wheeler for him.

Got it home, put it together, only to discover that I could not figure out how to attach the handlebars. We had to wait for Shaun to come home and fix them. The kids took a little night bike ride instead!

Tales from our summer vacation, so far ...

As of Wednesday, Ben was officially out of preschool for the summer, which means no one in our house goes back to school until August.

As of Thursday, I started counting down the days until school starts in August.

So far, we have:
-gone swimming, multiple times
-gone to the park, twice
-gone to Lowe's to build a project of some sort
-gone to Michael's to stock up on craft supplies
-hosted a first birthday party for my dear friend's twins which was a weekend long playdate for the kiddos
-gone to the library
-gone to a book fair and gotten new books
-the week before, we went to Scarborough Fair
-and so on ...

I just walked into my living room. They were jumping from chair to ottoman to couch.

One of us is not going to make it through the summer. Think anyone would notice if I ran away.

1 month later

OK, updating isn't going so well when nothing exciting is going on.

Faith & I are officially done with school till the fall, she is now a second grader. Ben is not done with school for a couple more weeks, he is less than thrilled about that fact.

Volleyball for Faith is over, softball for Shaun & I is still going on, Mother's Day has passed with a tea at church for the girls and family time with my boys.

Maybe I'll update as summer starts, assuming anything interesting starts happening around here.

Cheeseburger in Paradise!

Faith was invited to a cookie party today bywith one of the little girls from her church class. The invitation said to bring a cookie to share, so Faith & I made "cheeseburger in paradise cookies"!

Tell me these aren't the cutest cookies ever! Even better, they are absolutely no-bake!

The Rest of the Nana & Dave Week

My parents leave tomorrow morning and the kids are already all set to miss them. Both of them were upset tonight before they went to bed.

However, we did get to have quite a bit of fun while they were here. We all went to the Fort Worth Zoo (we haven't been in a good year or so and my parents have never been at all), we shopped, swam in the hot tub and pool, bbqed at the house, took the kids to Peter Piper Pizza, etc.

Thankfully, we only have a few weeks left of school, then summer vacation begins. We have some fun stuff planned, then the kiddos and I will head home to Canada in July for a few weeks, yay!

Oh, and possibly my two favorite pictures from the zoo: