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!!!*