Ahhh fall

The time of year when I get to spend my days filling bird feeders, planting Mum's and trying to convince my 3 year old that her shirt is not broken, the sleeves are supposed to be that long.


hmmmm this seems very familiar.

Letter(s) of the week - W, X, Y, Z

Well we'e come to the end of the alphabet! We started this project almost a year ago - I remember picking up the leaves we used for week L right before we made our project for week A.

We finished up these projects a few weeks back and have taken a break before we start preschool!! Yes we're going to be homeschooling this fall and we can't wait! I've reorganiz our toy room and made us a little classroom. The D0llar Tr33 has become our best friend.


Below are the slide shows for our last month of ABC's and I'm hoping to update this blog soon with some of our preschool activities.

W is for Whale!!
This project didn't come out exactly as I planned - but then again I never claimed to be an atrist!

X is for Xylaphone!
I LOVED this one! I was so excited when Allie over at NTFFC did this project because I didn't want to go with her Halloween X-ray. Everyone loved this one and I was really impressd how well they did following directions.

A Yellow Y!
There's not much to do with a Y - so we followed Allie's lead again and made a "Y"ellow Y.

Z is for Zebra!
We finished up our ABC projects with a "Z"ebra. No on wanted to make stripes - but they really enjoyed the white paint on the black paper!

Give-a-way

Go here for a chance to win free stuff!

Then bookmark her or follow her because she's funny as all hell!

MoM - Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins - yield 12 muffins. When we bought our house a few years back we discovered we own an apple tree! Very cool to watch them grow each year that's for sure! Although technically the apples are free (although it would be cheaper to buy apples than pay my mortgage I guess) I still hate to see them wasted. It took me a few years but I've finally found a great muffin recipe - maybe I'll sell them in my yard sales this year - cha-ching!

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
1 1/2 cups peeled chopped apples
Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 400`

Line muffin tin with paper liners, or grease.

Cream together sugar and butter. Add egg and beat well. Stir in milk.
In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and spices.
Add egg mixture to flour mixture and blend until just moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.)
Add apples to batter and blend carefully.

Fill muffin cups and sprinkle each one with a little of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it in a book we borrowed from the library called Apple Farmer Annie!

well it was bound to happen!

Lorelei got into my lipstick today - she's over three so I guess I've had a pretty good run! Thing of it is though I never wear makeup - the only reason this was in the drawer is because I used my "wedding/funeral" purse last week and it was in the bottom.

Luckily she came out to show me before chasing her siblings down with it!

MoM - Spiced Nectarine Muffins

Spiced Nectarine Muffins - yield 12 muffins. Since food prices started skyrocketing last year and my kids all started eating real food, I've been doing more and more of shopping our grocery shopping at Club type stores. A few weeks back I discovered all 3 kids like nectarines so I skipped off to the local BJ's and bought a container. Of course later that week 2 out of 3 of them decided they no longer liked them. What's a mom to do!? I didn't want them to go to waste so I googled "Nectarine Muffins" - here's what I found. It was great - I even got the above mentioned 2 to eat them. ;) I've never added the pecans because I don't have them on-hand, but I'm sure they are great that way too!

1 1/2 cups diced ripe nectarines (bout 3 nectarines) peeled
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
2 tsp sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 400`
Toss chopped nectarines with lemon juice and set aside.

Line muffin tin with paper liners, or grease.

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon and salt in a large bowl, break up the clumps of brown sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together butter, milk and egg **be sure to add the butter to the milk first or else you'll have scrambled eggs!** Stir milk mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until moistened. Fold in nectarines and pecans (if using).

Fill muffin cups and sprinkle each one with a little of the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool about 3 minutes in pan then remove to cool completely.

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it when googling for muffin recipes myself!

MoM - Banana Nut Muffins

A new week a new muffin!

Banana Nut Muffins - yield 12 muffins. I just can't seem to buy the right amount of banana's! Either we run out mid week or there is 3 or 4 left turning brown before we get to them. Here's what I do with the brown ones (Oh and you can freeze bananas and thaw them out for this!)

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup mashed banana (usually about 2 bananas)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 400`

Grease muffin pan.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl; make a well in center.
Mix milk, egg, oil, banana and walnuts in a small bowl. Pour mixture into well.
Mix batter just until moistened; do not overmix.

Spoon batter into greased muffin cups.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean and muffins are golden brown, about 15 minutes

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it when googling for muffin recipes myself!

Letter(s) of the week - S, T, U, V

I am really falling behind on these posts! We have still been doing out projects - fewer and fewer pictures though now that Sadie and John are participating because they need more help and it's just me.

Here's the last month's worth of projects - enjoy!

Under the "S"ea(horse)!
These were so much fun! It took me a while to get something that even resembled an actual seahorse though - you'll notice the difference in shape on each, I got better the more I did.

Go hug a "T"ree!
These didn't come out exactly as I hoped - but everyone knew they were trees so that's all that really mattered.

Time for an "U"mbrella!
This one was so fitting seeing how it's been raining in my neck of the woods for almost a month straight - and I don't live in Seattle! I gave everyone a blue, green and brown crayon for the background colors, Lorelei made sand, grass and sky all in the correct places on the paper! I was so proud of her. Everyone loved adding on the little rain drops. John was super excited about this one and pointed to the fridge all week saying "brel-brel".

"V" is for "V"ase!
I was so happy to see this project on the blog I visit just before we got to letter "V" because I had no idea what I was going to do. There's not much that starts with V that my kids are going to recognize!

MoM - Sugar-crusted Raspberry Muffins

I love to make muffins! They are one of my favorite things to bake and there is an endless list of recipes out there. One of the blogs I read does a segment called "Muffin Tin Monday" - it's a cute creative way to get kids to eat. While making muffins last week this idea dawned on me - Muffins on Monday!

I thought I'd spill that over to the blog - since no one reads it now maybe someone will stumble across me when g00gling muffin recipes.

Here's the first recipe - I hope to add a new one each Monday!

Sugar-crusted Raspberry Muffins - yield 12 muffins. We loved these last year and I can't wait until our raspberries are red so we can make them again this year!

2 cups Flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

Heat oven to 400`

Line muffin tin with paper liners, or grease.

In a medium bowl, combine 1 3/4 cups of the flour, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the baking powder and the salt. Add the butter and combine.
In a second bowl whisk together the milk, egg and vanilla.
Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined, the batter will be lumpy.
Toss the berries with the remaining flour an gently fold into the batter.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Bake 17-20 minutes

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it when googling for muffin recipes myself!

I made the cut!

One of my blogs listed under that Funny $hit catagory is this one. I now notice vanity plates more than ever - which isn't saying much in NH since they are EVERYWHERE!!!

The other day I drove by a plate that I thought was good enough, I actually went home to get my camera and drove back by! I'm excited to say I made the cut! Check out my find here.

Letter(s) of the week - P,Q,R

While I've fallen behind in the updates, we have in fact been working on our Letter of the Week projects! We are having so much fun outside that the actual letter is the only project we've been doing - by the time we finish an get back to "A" it will probably be winter again so we can add more in then, for now we are loving the outsid weather! (except today as it's pouring again!)

"P" is for Pizza!
This was my favorite - anc believe it or not it was MY idea! And if that wasn't cool enough, I shared it with the writer of the blog where I borrow my ideas and she enjoyed it - so much that the next time she does "P" she'll be using my idea! Cool! This was a great one for Lorelei because she loves to use her scissors but can't realy cut things out yet. With this she was able to cut out the "cheese" "green pepers" and "onions" all by herself - although she was a little concerned that the onions would sting her eyes :) I also snuck in a color lesson by having her add in the "ingredients" by color rather than name.

All hail the "Q"ueen!
Sadie and John got back into the action for "Q" week - and what a great job they both did! Sadie amazed me by putting the little jewels on the crown all by herself - and she didn't even eat any (until later when she found one on the floor). Lorelei drew her own face this time and was so proud of herself!

Rainy day "R"ainbow!
I had two ideas to choose from for "R" week - we went with a "R"ainbow since it was such a yucky rainy day yesterday. Lorelei did wonderful! I was amazed how quickly she picked up the pattern and put each strip on perfectly! Sadie tried to put them down the "right way" at first buy ended up ripping them all off later. John had no concept of the pattern and just smashed them on - perfectly of course!

We had a great time with these letters and can't wait for next week's "S" - we have so many to choose from!!

5 years on

I can't believe that if things had worked out just a little different I'd have a 5 year old.

I don't think about "her" much anymore - in fact my actual due date was the 10th. It's not that I don't still hurt from the loss, I just can't dwell on it now - there's too much good to spend my time thinking about.

I still wonder a lot though, especially this time of year and in September.

This year was a little harder than the last few - 5 years is such a milestone. Plus the knowing that the 4 other couple friends we had at the time now have a 5 year old. Playing soccer or taking swim lessons, enrolling in kindergarten or taking piano lessons.

I don't know what our lives would be like with a 5 year old. I don't know how different things would be. I don't know if we would live where we do now or have as much debt as we do. I don't know if I'd be a SAHM or still be working. I really don't know much about how our lives would have been.

But I do know one thing, if I had that 5 year old, I wouldn't have my 3 year old or my 18-month old twins - and that's all that matters anymore.

but you said tomorrow!

While my oldest is finally pee potty trained, she still refused to go #2 unless she's got on her night time diaper. So basically she holds it all day and will either go right before bed or right when she wakes up.

We've been trying any bribes we can think of - the latest is that she will get to go to Chuck $ Cheese.

A few days ago she did produce on the potty. We made a big deal out of it and I told her that if she poo'd on the potty again tomorrow Daddy would bring her to Chuck $ Cheese.

Now every time I ask her if she wants to try to poo on the potty she tells me "But you said I had to go tomorrow mumma!"

Letterboxing

I'm not sure why I'm bothering with this - anyone who reads this blog I've either talked to about letterboxing, e-mailed about letterboxing or actually gone letterboxing with!

But since I'm bored tonight and all the kids are in bed I'm blogging anyway :)

I think I have a new obsession - if I didn't have 3 kids to drag around with me I'd be doing this all day! Letterboxing is kinda like a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt with hiking mixed in. Check it out here or here.

My friend Ann totally stole it from me and is kicking my ass with the boxes she's found. But we did get out together with the kids yesterday - below is a little slide show of our day. Oh and apparently SLIDE changed their options or something 'cuz I have no idea why that song is playing - but can't figure out how to remove it! *thanks Ann!!!*

What a differance 17-months and 3-days makes

Today Sadie and John are the exact same age Lorelei was when they were born - 17-months and 3-days (case you didn't get that!)

I can't believe how much has changed in that time. It's just unreal to me that so little time has gone by but so much has changed. I was getting out some clothing for Sadie from storage and Sadie is now wearing the clothes Lorelei was wearing when Sadie was born - WOW!!!

I'd post some now and then pics - but my MACbook crashed again so I'm now the proud owner of a Gateway laptop, lovin' it but I haven't yet figure out how to get my old pics loaded. Oh and I keep forgetting to spellcheck (my MAC did that for me) so please forgive me.

Anyway here's a few of the most recent pics of the kids. I just love them!!!

Oh and we'll be getting back to the Letter of the Week soon enough - we've been enjoying the time outside now that the weather is nice!

Well that makes a lot of f*cking sense!

I went to my local W@l-M@rt yesterday in search of a new spring jacket for Lorelei.  She's now in 3T and no one gives hand-me-downs that big - it starts out great but then people seem to forget that you always need new clothes.

Anyway!  

I dragged the kids to the store and started looking in the baby/toddler section - mumbling to myself wondering why I couldn't find any jackets.

The sales lady comes over - OK in truth she just yelled over from her seat in front of the bottles and sippy cups she's apparently counting - "What kinda jacket you lookin' for hun?" 

"Spring jackets for this one" I reply pointing to Lorelei  

She grunts while she stands up and says "Oh we ain't got none of 'dem in yet" 

I look around at the bathing suits, tank tops and shorts and say "Really?  You've got bathing suits in already but no spring jackets?  That sure makes a lot of sense huh?"

I f*cking hate w@l-m@rt!

Back to work!

In case anyone noticed I've been on vacation - Cozumel, Mexico.  Great place - and I didn't have to worry about the spring breakers 'cuz it's more of a family place.

With the exception of one crazy night involving a group of 19-year olds, blue drinks, sleeping on the bathroom floor and a full day of recovery - the trip was boring.  Nice and boring!  I slept late, read 3 books, got a great tan and somehow lost about 10lbs!

But I'm glad to be back, I missed my lovey and my kids!

Random pics

I noticed I don't have any pics up here unless the kids are doing projects or covered in paint.  So here's a slideshow of some recent random pictures. 

funny things my kid did today

L - "I wanna have some chocolate 'cuz I peed on the potty"

Me - "OK you can have a piece of chocolate"

L - (horrified) "NO MUMMA!  I no wanna piece of chocolate I wanna whole one!"

L - "Mumma what this?" - said while taking a tampon out of the box.

Me - "Oh you don't need that, those are for ladies"

L - "Oh like Lady and the Tramp?"

Me - (snickering) "Yea just like Lady and the Tramp"

L - "Oh, 'den 'dis one Lady, and 'dis one Tramp and 'dis one Scamp" - said while removing a super, regular and lite - in that order.

Ahhh spring

The time of year when I get to spend my days filling bird feeders, planting seedlings and trying to convince my 2 1/2 year old that her shirt is not broken, the sleeves are supposed to be short.  

Ahhh toddlers

Letter of the week - O

No wonder I get no google hits - dam I'm boring!  :)

We worked on Letter "O" this week.  Everyone liked making the "O"ctopus, although John did get a little pissed when the tissue paper got stuck to his fingers.  Lorelei and I made the "O"wl this morning - I printed it out on Wednesday but she was not interested, so it sat on the counter until she was.  I was very impressed with her!  She did it "right" today - now I know I'm not supposed to make her do it right, it's supposed to be about learning.  I know that and I usually let her do the projects how she wants - however this morning I showed her how to put the glue just on the side of the wings so they would stick out and she said "Oh, OK mumma!", same with the tail!  I was impressed - we'll see how it goes next week!

We're going to skip a few weeks on this - we'll be doing some St. Patty's Day projects for a few weeks and then mumma goes on vacation!  I'm sure daddy will do some projects so I'll be sure to get those up when I get back.

an unfortunate perspective

Hubs and I went out for dinner with his mum and the kids tonight.  This is the first time we've been out with them to a real restaurant - the twins are 15 months and our older daughter is 2 1/2.

We were seated in the middle of the restaurant, with booths on the side of us.  A couple around our age came in before our dinners arrived and the woman gave us "the look".  I knew before she even opened her mouth she was going to ask for another table.  Sure enough she did - rather loudly I might add.

Now my first instinct was to be pissed - my kids are good!  They behaved well and the people that ended up sitting at that table even said so (of course they didn't know the 2 1/2 year old took a crap under the table (yes in her diaper!) but hey whatever!).  My MIL said something about how she must not like kids and gave a little giggle.  Hubs and I looked at each other and said almost in unison "or maybe she just lost a baby"

I wish I wasn't in that club, but I am.  X3 if anyone doesn't know.  It's a shitty club with a shitty membership card - that you carry in secret, but the other members know you've got one.

It's an unfortunate any of us have to look at things this way - I'd be much happier if I just thought she was a bitch.

Letter of the week - N

I couldn't think of anything that exciting this week - so we made some "N"emo "N"'s.  Who doesn't love Nemo right!  We also made some cute "n"ests which are sitting on our window sill in the hopes spring will come soon!!

Here's the slideshow - sorry I'm tired again!