Cooking and playing…

"Cooking and baking is both physical and mental therapy."
-Mary Berry

Mommy held the house together solo this week while Daddy was in training for work, so more time was spent keeping the house from burning down than taking pictures.  We were still able to get a few this week though, including some of Ashlyn with her current fascination with baking.  Ashlyn made bags of sweet breads, muffins, and other items.  Most of it was done without a recipe, or by loosely following one, so I’m not sure how much of it will actually get eaten.

Isla has also started her own adventures in food.  She is now making her own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  As you can see from the pictures, she is very proud of herself.

And here are some random pictures of the kids playing together at various times over the week, whether making slime, playing a quick game with Daddy, or bouncing together at a bounce house place.  Not pictured are the kids fighting over slime ingredients, Isla scrambling up the game while it was still being played, and kids pushing each other over in the bounce house.  We’ll just stick with the happy pictures.

Spring Break fun…

"It's better to do more than less because it's yummy."
-Ashlyn

Ashlyn’s cooking has focused on the baking side recently; she enjoys merging art and cooking to make creations loosely based on recipes.  Sometimes she forgoes a recipe entirely, to interesting results.  To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day Ashlyn made a green cake

Entertaining three kids over Spring Break can be a challenge.  Luckily, Grandma stopped by this week with a T-shirt maker and let the kids design their own shirts.  Isla selected dragon flies, James went with a shark, and Ashlyn chose horses.  It was a fun activity, although keeping Isla from getting Nutella over everything wasn’t easy.

A trip to a trampoline park was a lot of fun.  It wasn’t very busy right after it opened, which let the kids have nearly free reign over all the trampolines so they could bounce everywhere without injuring themselves or others. 

On another day Mommy took the kids to the Perot Museum.  It was a nice idea since they haven’t been in awhile, but it was packed due to Spring Break and it made it difficult for the kids to do everything.  They still had fun.  Ashlyn loved programming robots, James flew like a bird, and Isla climbed over everything.  Good times.

Planting, giraffes, and hamster meals…

"No one can reap the fruit before planting the trees."
-Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Ashlyn got on a tiny food kick this week and decided to cook for Cinnamon.  She made pancakes, soup, and even a small sandwich all with hamster-friendly ingredients.  Cinnamon was appreciative of Ashlyn’s cooking skills and gobbled up everything put in front of her.

With the weather getting warmer, it’s time to plant the garden.  This year the kids each got their own planter and we made them put in the soil, place the seeds, and add the water.  Ashlyn and James both chose carrots.  Ashlyn also planted lettuce so she could make a salad and James wanted catnip because he thought the cats would like it.  Isla only wanted pretty flowers.

To round out the week we took the kids to Fossil Rim in hopes of feeding giraffes.  We got lucky, when we got near the area with the giraffes they decided they were hungry and came out to our van looking for food.  Each of the kids got the opportunity to feed the long-necked giraffes and it was easily the highlight of the weekend for the kids.

Blowers, puppets, and a visit…

"I love their chicken nuggets.  They inspire me."
-Ashlyn

It was a rainy week, which meant playing inside.  Isla is not one to let something like the weather bring her down so she turned the loft into a puppet play area.  Mommy was drafted to help with the play.

During one of the sunny parts we went out in the backyard to run around and burn off some energy while Mommy sanded a table.  Instead of running, the kids rolled a chair into the backyard and used a leaf blower to spin themselves in circles.  Afterwards they used the blower to annoy Mommy.  Good times all around!

Saturday was even more fun for the kids when Nina, Papa, and Pepa came over for a visit along with Ben and Sydney.  The house turned into a free for all but it was worth it at the end of the day when the kids quickly crashed at bedtime.

We also slept well, knowing that our house was protected by Super Isla.