Rainbow Cake

Rainbow Cake

I remember these from my childhood. Three colours equals three bowls for three children to lick afterwards. Nana resurrected the idea at our place for a birthday cake. There was so much licking to be done, I don't think our two kids got to it all! Icing was whipped cream with chocolate shavings on it.

Great preschool craft

Making a tree for fall craft -  

Take a paper bag, squish it together while standing it on its base, then cut 'branches', and twist them too, then stick coloured [fall] leaves on it (squished up bits of coloured tissue paper) - how fantastic. Nana and Mr 4.7 made a couple more on the strength of the simplicity of it. These sorts of brown paper bags are extremely common in the USA. They're the traditional lunch bag, although the more reusable ones are possibly more common now.

Number 3

Just to make it official, I think this blog will change direction a bit, now that Miss 0 has joined the family. Looking at what I've got lined up, it may turn into an ode for small quiet moments, and domestic things. I guess we'll work it out together!

Brownie fail

Half an hour before the guests arrived... First time for everything! We served random lumps of brownie anyway.

Baked Beans

In very exciting news from tinned baked beans land, we seem to be doing ok with the Trader Joes version of baked beans, which comes across as a bit less sugary, salty and spicey than others. It is still an American taste (molasses), so either we've gotten used to that, or we're a bit desperate (I went off our home made baked beans, long story), or they are sort of ok.
The exciting bit is not that we like them, although that is good, it is more that they're tinned, so we can keep them in the cupboard and make a dinner in about 10 mins. The kids eat them too, which is bonus.

Sunflowers and squirrels

The squirrels have a taste for sunflower seeds it seems - they are gnawing the heads off my sunflowers and eating all the seeds. I actually saw a squirrel under a bush with a huge sunflower head. This is the remainder of the first one that I found abandoned down the road.

More colour!

It probably doesn't show, but these trees are about a quarter yellow already.

More colour on the trees! It is finally cooling down a bit.

Baking biscuits

One of my things for the last three weeks has been biscuits. Initially snickerdoodles, then choc chip biscuits, once I realised that I could buy choc chips from Trader Joes.
Mr 7 and I had another cooking session yesterday. He is tall enough to stand not on a chair but on a little step (sniff!). He enjoys sharing the biscuits with the neighbour children when they're playing on the reserve out the back.

The dining room chairs

The old chair

The new chair look

For two and a half years I have been looking at our craigslist dining chairs and table, and muttering under my breath. During that time, the chairs got more and more broken and stained and uncomfortable. So it makes sense that 4 weeks before our baby is due, I decide I really need to get going on the project...
Having two full days without Mr 4.5 has really helped in terms of concentration time.
Everything has been harder than I thought it would be, and several of the chair seat frames look like they're beyond repair for me, without basic carpentry skills or tools, but the two promising ones are now covered, and waiting for scotchguarding, and then in theory, I'll screw them back into their frames and voila! Beautiful new seats!
Mr 7 kindly informed me that he liked the plain blue covers they had before, not the flowery ones. I explained that we get the flowery ones because mum liked them. He isn't convinced, but doesn't seem to want to make an issue of it.
Thanks must go to my long suffering husband, who provided general encouragement, absolutely no judgement on the length of time from thought to deed, and has admired the finished product.

Our Moth!

Sometime in the last 24 hours, one of the chrysalis' hatched, and we got a beautiful moth! Which we let go outside, and Mr 7's comment was, "I hope the birds don't eat him". We countered that with the happy life the guy got eating all mum's basil as a caterpillar. Personally, I hope the birds did eat him, just so there won't be more caterpillars on my basil.

Renn Fest

We know we are starting into Fall/Halloween/thanksgiving/Christmas, when Renn Fest starts (also, Navy football!).
We pre-bought our tickets and ended up there in a heat/humidity wave, with two children that had just played soccer. Maybe not the best plan in the end, as they both got very tired, very fast. Combined with the heat, we ended up very tired, dusty, sweaty, and a little flat. This year was also the year the kids became super aware of all the things they could do, if only the parents would part with more money. So, no browsing in shops for me.

We watched the Wheel of Danger (death?) man again, Cu Dubh, another band called Wolegmort (we liked this one better, Cu Dubh seem a little flashy), and a Joust, that was shortened due to the heat. Just as well, because one player got knocked off his horse, dragged for a couple of metres or so, and although he finished the show (but not the joust bit), he probably won't remember details.

Buying in bulk

This is why they have specials at Target... so tired husbands can buy not one 12 pack, but 2! Because if we bought two, we got a giftcard to spend later! We won't need paper towel for a while.

Fall Soccer

Fall soccer has started, and we are resigned to the fact that until the end of October, we are Doing Soccer... Mr 7 has 2 practises a week, plus a game on Saturdays, plus some sort of extra training on Saturdays. Mr 4.5 has 1 practise a week (on the same day as one of Mr 7s practises, but at a field five minutes away...) and a game on Saturday, usually at a different time to Mr 7s.
We are very careful about busyness as a family, but I can see that even if you only have one sport (ie, soccer), the number of children you have will also play into your busyness.
Mr 7 seems to be playing for the trophy at the end of the season, and snack after games (it is mostly sort of junk food, as far as our household is concerned). Another bonus is the number on the back of his shirt, and playing on a full field, with the opportunity to play defense (lurk at the back of the field).
Mr 4.5 is playing so he can be cool and have soccer practises like his brother.

Labor Day Weekend

This is the official end to Summer - although we started school two weeks ago. I was surprised that with the emphasis on individual achievement, there was even a Labor Day, but I have been reassured that most blue collar industries have a union, they just don't feed into a 'labor party' but more into the Democrats, politically speaking.

As per usual, we used the long weekend as an opportunity to do Lots of Jobs. But what I noticed, when doing some jobs at the mall, is that many people here seem to use their public holidays to Go Shopping - and there are plenty of "Labor Day Specials" to encourage this.