Noah's Ark - Games & Friends

We had such a great time at Katie Belle's 3rd Birthday Party yesterday. Yesterday, I a few party pictures. but here are the friends & fun that made it a real party! Miss Betsy & Miss Suzanne had our activities so well thought out. They are some fun ladies! We started out with some crafts, like these shirts, which the kids sponge-painted.Then off to some storytelling & parachute games.
And then onto some singing & dancing...And then time for lunch and cake!
Happy Birthday Peanut!!!

Noah's Ark 3rd Birthday - The Setting

Today we celebrated Katie Belle's 3rd Birthday with our Noah's Ark Birthday Party!!! I was so inspired by all the beautiful Rainbows and Rainclouds on the internet; and while we didn't do most of these ideas, I did snag a few. More pictures tomorrow of all the fun activities and the birthday girl!!! Adorable cookies made by my friend Kristen. Little Noah's Ark labels from 10 Candles.How cute is this cake? It was part of my party package. Lucky me! Lucky Katie Belle!I found the brand new 80's fabric on ebay for like $10. And how weird is it to think the 1980's are now considered "retro"?
Above...pretty self explanatory. It's a fruit rainbow! Below is a terrible picture, but it's a Noah's Ark snack. I had some honey peanut butter for the kids to dip into.We finally made our recycled crayons! Heart-shaped rainbow striped. They are tons of fun to color with. And the cute invitations from Something Typed. I love etsy for invitations. Pay for the digital file, snag some envelopes from my drawer & print as many as you want! We had a great celebration of Katie Belle today!!!

9 Month Update

She even more on the move! Crawling, Cruising, Pulling Up, Loves to try to eat paper, has accepted that whole "teething thing" like a champ, loves to just watch and laugh at her brother & sister, & eats cheerios like they're going out of style. She hasn't conquered our stairs yet (which KB climbed at 8 months). And sadly, she does not like beets.. See that shiny tooth?

Summer Crafting Update

Where has the summer gone!?!? Wow....a few months ago, I declared that this was going to be our Summer-Of-Fun. In doing so, I researched tons of crafts (See all 4 parts here.) Plus, I scheduled lots of other stuff & we had several weeks of travel (to the beach! to the mountains!). As a result, the summer has just whizzed by with hardly any time for crafting! We have done a few of the projects, though. Have you? We did other projects as well, but here are some of our fun times...Above: Cicada Sun Prints. We forever can remember these pesky little creatures that invaded our yard!
Above: Preparing to make our own crayons out of broken crayons. This was a really fun one!
Above: Finger Bag Paints. I had high hopes. This was not very much fun. (In other words, 15 minutes of prep resulted in 2 minutes of play.)

CSA 2011, Week 11

This week we recieved: Melon, Corn, Green Bell Pepper, Squash, Kohlrabi, Dill, Cherry Tomato, Heirloom Tomatoes, Peach, Beets, Green Zebra Tomato, Cucumber, Purple Podded Pole Beans and Carrots.

I know it's not Soup Season, but I am a sucker for soup. Especially this one right now, because I have everything on hand! I had every single thing from the CSA or my garden, except for the red bell peppers. And the vegetable broth, but I had some homemade broth from my freezer!ROASTED RED PEPPER & TOMATO BASIL SOUP: Just roast & blend. Tasty. (And It's 100% vegetables!)

2 Red Bell Peppers
2 ¼ lb tomatoes
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
2 large potatoes
salt & pepper
olive oil
basil
thyme
2 cups vegetable broth (you can also use chicken broth, which...let's be honest...makes it even more delicious.)

Quarter peppers, tomatoes & potatoes. Cut onion in thick slices. Put in casserole dishes with garlic. Coat in olive oil, salt & pepper. Roast at 450 degrees for 50 minutes. Puree in blender with vegetable broth & herbs. (If desired, you can also puree yours to be a more smooth consistency than mine pictured above. Feel free to add more broth if you like it to be thinner, too.)

CSA 2011, Week 10

It's time for lots of cherry tomatoes! Here are some recipes that I'm going to be trying out soon. Last year, I roasted cherry tomatoes and froze them in small batches. Then, I added them to baked potatoes. Yum!

Here are some cherry tomato recipes I plan to try in the coming weeks:
Bowtie Caprese Toss
Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Roasted Cherry Tomato & Basil Pizza
Roasted Tomato Tart (I've made this, it's good!)
Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita
Angelhair Pasta Alla Checca (from the "Family Dinner Cookbook")

And I'm also going to try this recipe for Dragon Tongue Green Beans.

CSA 2011, Week 9 (Plus, a FIVE Year Glance of Seasonal Eating)

Here's what we received this past week (on July 3, 2011, pictured above): Corn, Beets, Squash, Cucumber, Blueberries, Pattypan Squash, Green Beans, Carrot, Garlic, Green Pepper. Cooking with fresh veggies is becoming easier & easier as the years of CSA cooking go on. Now, I look at my basket and have a very good idea what to do with it. Here is a look back at what we've gotten around this time in previous years.
2010 Share, Pictured Above. And here is a look back at the whole range of produce from 2010.
Pictured above is what we received this time of year in 2009. And here's a look at the whole year, 2009.
June 2008, Above: I didn't photograph the whole year, but here's what we received one week in June of 2008. And look! I even took an occasional picture in 2007! This from June, 2007.

Car Rides & Kids

When I realized that our summer travels to Florida and Colorado meant a lot of time in the car (16 hours round trip to the beach, 40 hours round trip to the mountains), I began stowing away little entertaining items for our trip. At yard sales, consignment sales, etc, I found little portable goodies and small toys to pass the time.

Let me back up...we do have a DVD player, but I like to wait until the hair-pulling-out-stage to turn to electronics. So I borrowed movies from friends and loaded up, but was hoping to watch very little tv. (We watched 6 movies. 3 on the 20 hour ride to Colorado, 3 on the 20 hour ride home.)

Here are some of the things that kept them busy!
*Books on CD from the library
*Surprise Ink Books, similar to this (These were the hit!)
*Sticker Books
*Hid stickers throughout magazines and have the kids search for them
*2 of those magnetic moustache thingies (Thanks Yolanda!)
*2 Cheap Target Harmonicas (also a hit. go figure.)
*Crayons
*a few Jumbo Push Pops (they last a long time) and other snacks
*Travel Bingo (They were too young. This was a flop.)
*An I Spy Travel Toy that I bought a few years ago, like this one
*And last of all, My Fun Book (pictured above): I made one for each kid, which included a map of the US which highlighted our travels, Coloring Pages, Writing & Math Pages, Mazes, Find the Picture, Dot-to-Dot Games, travel scavenger hunts and more! It wasn't fancy, but kept them entertained for a while!

Here are some other tip pages for traveling with kids: Here, Here,Here or Here. Do you have any tips for traveling with kids?