Toddler Story Time

I was feeling a little sleepy when "Baby Bear" awoke from his nap today.  So, I grabbed a pillow and laid on his bedroom floor.  I asked if he would please read me a story and he was happy to oblige.  Here is a shot of him reading to me about bunnies. 

2nd Week of Summer Vacation as a Sitter

This is a little of what we did last week:

This is a space plan of the obstacle course we made (but never used) in the garage.  The creative process was the fun part.

Here's a pic of the sign directing neighbors to our obstacle course.  I love that the word "center" is spelled "centene." 

We made name tags for all the neighborhood kids too, but I failed to photograph those.  Basically, they were star shaped and colored with markers (much like the sign). 

I know it's not much, but this was a busy week for me.  We celebrated my dear friend, Theresa, in Palm Springs for her bachelorette party.  And we had a small birthday party for my father-in-law at Tacos Jaliscos - Mmmm! 

I need to learn how to put my foot down with the 6-year-old.  The 2-year-old & I want to go to the park, but older brother doesn't want to leave the house.  Time to toughen up, Em.  (personal pep-talk). 

My 1st Week of Summer as a Sitter

The 6-year-old, Little Bear, that I watch graduated from kindergarten on Tuesday.  Yay for him, boo for me.  Gone are the days when I chilled out in the backyard tanning while the 2-year-old, Baby Bear, napped.  My break-time is now at the beginning of the day when they are still sleeping.  What I will miss most, however, is the daily trip to the park.  Baby Bear  and I had a routine that we both enjoyed.  Time to create a new one...

The first photo was taken on day 1 of summer vacation.  I call it "Child Labor."  The neighbors down the street were having their sidewalk demolished, which became the greatest attraction for the boys.  Little Bear spent no less than four hours that day watching and helping move broken cement from the lawn to the driveway.  Which was about as interesting as watching paint dry, back when I was a kid.  But, to each their own, I guess.

Side note: the French Open was on this morning and it brought back painfully boring memories of my childhood summer vacations.  Tennis and the Noriega trial ruined my afternoons!


It is my mission to bring as much arts & crafts into these boys lives as Emily possible.  I would say humanly possible, but knowing what people are capable of (i.e. Guinness World Records) I can only provide enough creativity as I find on Google, various blogs, suggestions from friends or random thoughts.  Here some examples of what we did with "our own two hands" this week:

 

• egg-cartons masks
• We collected various leaves and flowers from the neighborhood.  Later that day we glued some flora down to make collages, that were not so photogenic.  
• toilet paper roll nose makers

My budget for arts & crafts is non-existent, so everything we use is reused scrap or things we happen to have around the house. 

By the way, I am open to any and all suggestions for things to do! 

 

Baking "Beer" Bread

Technically, I modified a Honey-Oatmeal Bread recipe from my Better Home & Gardens cookbook by adding in a few "beer" ingredients. 

The orange package is the German Wheat Beer Yeast Matt did not use to make his hefeweizen home-brew, so I used it to make this bread.  I also used the Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale extract that we created when baking beer biscuits for the Super Bowl.

The downside: the prep, rise time and baking took nearly 4 hours! 

Aside from being very dense, it tastes yummy.  I have a feeling I didn't give the yeast enough time to "waken."

Will the real Tracy Morgan please stand up?

I find  Tracy Morgan hilarious!  My friend, Jackie, suggested I listen to his book on tape, The New Black (because it's waaay better read by him than reading his words).  Since I have yet to search and find this gem, Jackie recently mentioned that Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air interviewed Tracy about his life and fore mentioned book.

I have always wondered what Tracy was like when he's not "on."  And now I think I have some sort of idea.  Please click the link Tracy Morgan and enjoy the comedy and reality that is The New Black. 

"That rabbit's going to ruin my credit!" -- Tracy Morgan

Food isn't the way to ONLY a man's heart.

We like to cook brunch, with that special ingredient love, to honor our parents.  This year we showed our appreciation to my dear MIL with eggs benedict, asparagus, berries & cinnamon rolls.

Not Your Grandmother's Gymnastics

When I did gymnastics as a child I had no idea what Damien Walters does was humanly possible.    Damien Walters 2010  I love the creativity of this athlete.

(Please click on the link, as I do not know how to have the clip play directly from my site yet.)