Down on the Farm

After hearing about the OC Fair Centennial Farm Discovery Days this morning, I made an impromptu decision to head there with the girls.  We had fun.  They have all the farm animals including calves, kids, chicks and adorable piglets.

I think only horses and turkeys were missing.  M mooed when she saw the cows and tried bleating at the sheep.  She really like the animals.  D and T planted radish seeds that they brought home and we put in our garden. 

The farm also had a produce bin for people to take the fresh picked fruits and veggies in lieu of donation.  The kids could then walk around the farm and find where they were grown.  They had huge, gorgeous heads of lettuce that I wanted to get, but didn't have a bag for.  Unfortunately I couldn't handle it with the stroller and the kids.  I really wish I had been able to though.  It looked so tasty.  Instead we settled on a leaf of swiss chard and a radish.  The girls and I munched on the swiss chard while we walked around to find where it was growing.  They thought it was bitter but ate it anyway.  We tried the radish at home because I needed to wash and cut it.  They were much more willing to eat it because they saw how and where it grew.

It was a fun morning.  If I had a chance to do it again, I would definitely bring a bag for produce, go earlier (arrive at 9 instead of 10) when there are fewer school groups and not forget my hat. 

Pool Day

We are currently staying at my in-laws.  They have a beautiful pool.  So my husband's mother and I invited my sister and her two kids up for the day to swim.  It was fun but we probably won't try it again until next year.   I am exhausted.  Three adults, three 3 year olds, one 17 month old who is everywhere and into everything, and a 7 month old that decided to skip her naps today.  It was a long, tiring day.

We started the morning off cleaning, tidying and baking.  I made some zucchini tots and the twins helped me make coconut macaroons.  The tots tasted good but I think I'd halve the amount of eggs and bread crumbs I put in.  I wasn't really measuring that accurately so I'm not sure how well that reflects the recipe.  The macaroons were quick and easy to make.  It was one my mother-in-law's recipes, so I'll have to make sure to get a copy. 

My sister and the kids arrived around lunch time and we all ate before heading out to swim.  Baby M even joined us in the pool.  She liked it this time since the water is much warmer than it was at the beginning of June.  We have two inflatable Cars car floats.  She spent a bit of time floating around in one and little H briefly stayed in the other, but keeping her in one spot for long doesn't happen much these days.  D and T also climbed into them.  I didn't think they would fit but they still do.  They didn't stay in them that long though.  They prefer swimming around in their life jackets. 

The toddlers got to practice what they have learned in their summer swim lessons.  The girls have mostly forgotten theirs over the past two weeks.  But at least I know better how to approach teaching them to swim so they were not wasted.  Big H just came from a swim lesson earlier this morning and he really does well.  Not yet ready to really swim without floaties, but he is getting there.

As pool time encroached more and more into nap time and the whining and tears started, we got out and rinsed.  The kiddos watched some Cat in the Hat while we organized the swim gear and my sister packed up.  Unfortunately being Friday, their return trip took twice as long because of traffic.  It was also too late to put the girls down for a nap and expect them to sleep at their usual bedtime.  So we had some grumpy, fussy girls this evening.  But they are currently sound asleep and I get a chance to update my blog.  Nothing is ever perfect; it's all about tradeoffs. 

Dora 3rd Birthday Party

Funny how the month of June just flew by like that.  On the 21st, we celebrated the twins' 3rd birthday here at my mother's house.  The girls love watching Dora and I don't mind letting them since it is one of the more interactive, educational shows out there.  I decided it would be a good theme for the party.  Only, I didn't want it to be all Dora, all over the place.  I wanted the decorations to be more subtly Dora and concentrate more on the activities now that they are at the age where they can participate in party activities. 

We don't really know any local toddlers around the same age yet and my friends in San Diego with little ones have too far of a drive to make it worth their while.  So it was a nice family party with just the cousins.

I made a map for the three toddlers and we went through it like on Dora.  "Birdhouse, prize box, cake and presents!" and repeat two more times in your best map voice imitation.  Making the map was easy and quick.  I simply searched for what I wanted on google images and copied and pasted them into Paint. 

 

I tried to stick to a orange/purple/pink color theme for decorations but almost anything could be argued to work with the Dora theme.  So the green table cloth that Oma found in her collection and the flowers/bug decorations from Little H's 1st birthday party that my sister brought all worked out perfectly.  For food we had quiches with asparagus and tomato, deviled eggs, a veggie and cracker platter with hummus and shrimp with home made cocktail sauce.  The fruit and cake came later. 

 







 

After eating, we painted birdhouses.  All shirts came off so their would be no permanent messes. I got the birdhouses for a dollar each in the craft section of Walmart along with the acrylic paints and little paint brushes.  Being a full 8 months older gave Big H the edge in painting his bird house.  The girls mixed their paints a lot making their houses a muddle-colored mess.  Big H's turned out really well though; he was very careful to clean his brush between colors.  They all had fun painting.

 

 

 

After the birdhouses, we moved on to the prize/punch box.  I followed the tutorial over at Diapers and Heels.  It is a great idea for this age group instead of a piñata, although I supposed a piñata would go with the Dora theme better.  All the kids, except baby M, got three turns punching into the circles and pulling out prizes like flutes, maracas, whistles and bubbles (all Dora themed from Party City).

 

 

I baked two square strawberry cakes with a cool whip frosting.  I mixed blended mulberries into the frosting to give it a nice flavor and pink color.  I also piped a yellow T and D on the cakes so they would know whose was whose.  They each got three candles to blow out, but Big H jumped the gun and blew out D's.  She didn't exactly realize that he had done it.  She just looked surprised that her candles went out before she blew them.  Then when we congratulated her on blowing out the candles to avoid a fight, she looked suspicious until she decided she must have blown them out after all.

 

 

My big three year old girls!



Apricot Jam



Yesterday we found time to make some apricot jam.  It was an all day process because we could only work on it while baby M was sleeping.  The girls were big helpers pitting and cutting up the apricots.  D was so cute.  She kept telling me repeatedly which bowl the pits go in and which one the apricot pieces go in, just to make sure I put them in the right one.  And she was very proud of her new cutting skills.

 

T wasn't interested at first because she was so busy pretending M's blanket was her ball gown (I've been reading them Cinderella) that she didn't have time to help.  But after 10 minutes or so she had finished playing dress up and came to see what we were doing. 

After the girls and I pitted enough apricots, I blended them a little in the food processor and put them in a pot.  Then baby M woke up so that was the end of jam making for awhile.  About two hours later, baby M took another nap and I was able to finish the jam. 

I used a no sugar/ low sugar pectin which I have never used before.  I hope I did it right and that the jam will set.  I only used 1/2 a cup of sugar and a few squirts of honey for 6 cups of fruit, so we'll see how it turns out.  In the past I have used more sugar than fruit with liquid pectin and equal amounts of sugar to fruit for powdered pectin.  It will be so much healthier if it sets right. 

Now we are in Yorba Linda visiting Leila and Pho Pho.  The girls got to go swimming for the first time this summer.  They had fun kicking in the water and splashing on the shallow shelf area of the pool.  Tomorrow we will have more adults handy so they can go in without their life jackets and go in the deep end with us. 

Science Time

My husband's parents came for Thanksgiving week and it was lovely.  Two extra people helping around the house and keeping the girls busy.  Not a vacation for me but I was definitely able to take some long breaks.  We were very busy with family pictures, story time, a visit to the Museum of Discovery, Thanksgiving dinner and a trip to the Zoo.  The girls had such a nice time getting spoiled.

We are back to our usual routine.  The girls are delving deeper into the murky waters of the terrible twos.  I'm tired and losing my patience with them more than I wish.  They just aren't listening much and throwing more fits over little things.  I know it will get a lot worse once baby sister arrives before it gets better.  But at least it is Christmastime and I love Christmas!

 

This morning we tried out a 'science' activity.  They created a chemical reaction by mixing an acid and a base.  Of course the particulars of that did not matter to them.  They liked playing with an eye dropper for the first time.  And they liked how the baking soda foamed when they dropped colorful vinegar onto it.  Since it is December, I choose red and green food coloring for the vinegar. 

 

 

D needs to work on her timing with squeezing and releasing the eye dropper bulb.  But T got the hang of it and didn't need help from me after the first few tries.  There was very little mess and they had fun.  Success!

October is Here!

I have pulled out my small box of fall decorations and put them up: leaf garlands for the wreath out front and the mail box, a pumpkin I knitted a few years back that the girls liked playing with, and Halloween cookie cutters that I don't have energy to use this year.  Not much, but enough along with a white pumpkin sitting out on the front porch to make things festive. 

 

The girls and I also baked pumpkin granola (using our own pumpkin puree).  It made the house smell so good.  It has pumpkin, apple sauce, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice in it and really just smells like fall.  I loved the scent while it lasted. 

 

The girls were big helps mixing everything up for me.  It was less stressful than last time I tried to make cookies with them.  They still made a mess but tried eating less of it.  Also having everything ready to put in helped--preparation is key when it comes to toddlers.  We have been eating it on cereal and with yogurt.  It is yummy but I think I'll put a little less maple syrup in it next time. 

 

This morning I made some pancakes using my usual recipe but substituted the rest of the pumpkin puree in for the egg.  They were delicious, moist and fluffy. I want to have them that way all year long now.  I put the extra in the freezer as usual.  So we'll see how well they hold up to that and heating in the toaster. 

Pumpkins!

I am a sucker for pumpkins.  Usually I can hold off buying them until October.  But this year when I saw those cute little pie pumpkins, I caved.  I bought two, one for each of the girls. This was last week.  And either I picked a bad pumpkin, repeated dropping on the tile floor or the cozy corner of the kitchen where they patiently waited to be cut into did not suit one of the pumpkins.  It was partially rotten when I checked them this morning.  I saved what I could of it and tossed all the seeds, but after roasting it, the flavor was still off so that whole one is ending up in the compost pile.  Its friend though tastes delicious. 

 The girls got to help by taking out the pumpkin seeds for me.  They lost interest pretty quick.  Still, it is nice to include them in the kitchen/cooking activities and it kept them busy for a short time.

 

Maybe with more practice they will be bigger helps this fall, and if not, there is always next year (or the year after).  After I finished up gutting the pumpkins for the girls, I quartered them and put them in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes.  I didn't want to oil them because I want it to be just pumpkins in the puree.  That turned out fine, nothing stuck to the pan.  I put the seeds in oven for the last ten minutes with a little salt and olive oil.  Next time I'll try 13 minutes because they weren't as crisp as I like them to be.  I was trying to avoid burning them like I have in the past. 

 

 

The flesh is really easy to scrape off the pumpkin skin once it is cooked.  I whirred it in the food processor until smooth and separated it into two plastic zip bags for the freezer.  Now I will be able to try out a pumpkin granola recipe and bake some cookies.  We will get more pumpkins when we go to the pumpkin patch and those will be destined for pie.  I'm so glad making this puree was easy and good.  It will make things that much easier this holiday season.  And with baby C on the way, I need to have things like this prepared ahead of time. 

Museum of Discovery

Last Tuesday we met a friend and her two boys at the Museum of Discovery here in Little Rock.  It was our first time going.  I hadn't planned on getting the year the family pass because I figured having one to the zoo would be enough.  The past few weeks though I have come to the realization that I won't be able to push the stroller around the zoo so easily in the next few months as my belly gets bigger and bigger while I get more and more tired.  That and the zoo trips, being outdoors, are restricted to good weather.  We have been really lucky to have a nice, mild summer with plenty of cool mornings for zoo trips.  But I will now have some place to bring the girls when it is too hot (like this week) or too cold in the winter.

The museum is really nice and interactive.  The girls played with things that demonstrated science, not that they got it or were the right age for a lot of the things.  But it at least introduces them to things that they just don't get otherwise.  We also got to go to the story time (no stories involved--a science experiment instead).  It was great!  They learned about polymers, which went right over their heads.  But they got to play with a bunch of things made from polymers and stick a colored pencil through a Ziploc bag of water with out it leaking.  This is stuff they just don't get at home.

This weekend we went back, this time with my husband.  It is right around the corner from The River Market.  So after we picked up some fresh fruit and veggies, we headed on over.  The girls got to watch the shapes that sound waves can take as they adjusted a sound dial.

 

They both got to create designs in sand as the table spun around. 

 

 And of course, in the body room, they got an anatomy lesson from daddy.  He told them all about their spine (which we've practiced before because it's in the song 'This Old Man').

 

 

Catching scarves that have been sucked through tubes and spit out at different spots is so much fun!  It kept D busy for a long time, although Miss T lost interest before long and kept trying to climb the stairs instead.  The museum also has some small animals like mice, ferrets, snakes, frogs, insects which the girls liked looking at.

 

And then there is a playroom, where there is a lot to do and I can conveniently sit down and keep an eye of them.  I think the investment in the family pass will definitely be worth it this year.