While playing, I noticed something behind Hannah’s ear – a stowaway goldfish!
She had no idea it was there.
Snack stash
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Category Archives: Fun
Quick trip recap
Hannah and I are back home after a little trip up to Grand Prairie to visit Michael and Melody. It was a quick getaway and fun to be out of the routine for a couple days. I forgot to take pictures, but luckily Melody caught this one on her phone.
Hannah’s word for Uncle Michael was “Batu” and Aunt Melody was “Minny/Menny/Mennenney.” The dogs, Ella and Tatum, are always a big hit.
We went to the high school where Michael is an assistant band director, and Hannah was introduced to several new instruments. Drumline was a little overwhelming, but she seemed to enjoy the low brass sectional. I thought it was funny that kids were calling my little brother “Mr. Jordan.” A fun lunch stop up there in Carrollton was the Rainbow Grill. It was like a time warp – low prices, friendly staff and a high chair unlike anything I have seen. It was beyond vintage. I should have taken a picture, because I tried to do a search online to find a similar image to post, and I can’t find anything close.
So it was a fun little trip – thanks M&M!
Austin Day – 6th anniversary
Six years ago, we drove a moving van into Austin, the start of our Texas experience. We were (and are) so thankful to be here that we designated June 3rd as the family holiday of Austin Day. Traditionally, we try to do something Austin-y on that day and also eat at Whataburger, where we ate our first night as Austin residents.
We had planned a surprise excursion with some friends for today, but it fell through. Brett had taken a half-day off work, so we needed to come up with something fun. It was supposed to get up to 100 degrees, so we decided something with water would be good. A famous Austin place is Barton Springs Pool, and we have never been, so we loaded up and headed that way. Nearing the entrance, we could see a line of about 40 standing outside. We could only imagine how many people were already inside if they were making people wait like that. Not a good option with a 1-year-old who is already begging “water! water!”. So we drove back down to the public pool near our house, not very exciting but no lines expected. Well, there were no lines because it was closed!
By this time, Hannah was in meltdown mode. She was ready for water and was now chanting “sad, sad, sad” from the back seat. We hurried home to make our own water fun. I recently got a “water table” which we pulled out along with the kiddie pool.
The water was cold, but this kept her happy for almost an hour (an eternity given the toddler attention span). After getting dried off and cleaned up, we headed to Whataburger. Hannah recently learned how to dip, and tonight she discovered the two-handed dip.
Usually, during our Austin Day dinners, we recall our first night here and talk about all the Austin things that we love. It seems like much less talking happens when you have a toddler at the table, so we didn’t have a very deep discussion this year.
For another summer treat, we tried out a snow cone place near our house for dessert. I got raspberry lemonade, and Brett tried cafe latte. Hannah got some of mine; maybe I shouldn’t have picked something red.
We should have taken an “after” picture; let’s just say it required a bath and some serious scrubbing to get off all the sticky red coverage.
So Austin Day 2011 was a success and we look forward to many more!
Donut Day
Apparently today is National Donut Day. I’ve heard that Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts have some free stuff to celebrate, but we don’t have either of those close to us. Down the road is Shipley Donuts, and I got a text this morning from Meghan to meet there and celebrate the holiday. They weren’t giving anything away, but it was fun to meet and eat anyway.
Everyone is absorbed in their breakfast. The kolaches are also delicious. Hannah enjoyed a plain cake donut. A noticeable feature among the donut crumbs is the fat lip she got last night when she pulled herself over while in her high chair. And yes, she’s still in her pajamas; it seemed like a festive wardrobe choice for the occasion.
So Happy Donut Day!
Colors of the Farmers’ Market
As often as possible, on Saturday mornings we hit the Barton Creek Farmers’ Market. They have a great variety of vendors including vegetables, bread, organic dairy and eggs, grass-fed beef, plants, and prepared food. This morning, in the sweltering sunshine, I was struck by the colors. (just pics from my phone)
Purple and gold potatoes – I couldn’t get the red ones in the shot.
Gorgeous cauliflower, even purple! We came home with some green beans, artisan olive bread, and two colors of squash:
Tutu time
Last week, my super-talented photographer friend Kay invited Hannah to be a part of a special shoot she was doing featuring fantastically fluffy tutus! These handmade tutus are by TamTam’s Tutus – if you’re not familiar with Etsy, you should be! Hannah had fun at the shoot with all the other girls and the fun props.
She’s modeling the layered accessory look. Then off to a tea party with Lilly.
My mom had her camera along and took these pictures, and Kay posted some of the official ones on her blog (including a super cute one of Hannah on her tip-toes). Speaking of Kay’s blog, you should head over there today because she’s having a tutu giveaway! After the shoot, we bought the one Hannah had been modeling, and she loves to wear it around the house. Perfect for any girl!
A fun day thanks to Kay Harmon Photography and TamTam’s Tutus.
Our spots – Lux Bakery
I don’t have a strong sweet tooth, but I can’t resist a cupcake. They’re too cute! Our favorite cupcake spot – Lux Bakery and Cafe. We usually go for “real food,” they have a very diverse selection of sandwiches, but we enjoy their cupcakes as a special treat. We custom-ordered the adorable flower cupcakes from them for Hannah’s first birthday.
Recently, we had to say goodbye to the Korean student that we had been “hosting” for the school year. Sally loves sweets and baked goods, so we took her to Lux for a little goodbye party.
Our selection of Red Velvet, Chocolate and Chocolate Mint. Goodbyes are hard, but cupcakes make them a little sweet!
Girls’ night out
I didn’t get a blog entry up yesterday – I was too busy having fun! For a Mother’s Day gift, Brett wanted me to get a nice hotel room and spend a night relaxing on my own. I liked this idea but decided I would get bored all by myself. So I invited Meghan to join the adventure. Sorry, no pictures; too busy relaxing.
First, we headed up to the Arboretum area in North Austin. After ascertaining the wait at three restaurants in the area, we picked The Cheesecake Factory and were seated at a nice, comfy booth. We split the fried zucchini, crabcakes, and avocado rolls (yes, all fried, yummm), then shared a slice of the Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake. Everything was tasty and perfect for nibbling as we spent the next two hours on girl talk – with no fits, no incessant “all done” signing, and no Cheerios thrown on the floor.
After that, we headed to our room at the Renaissance Hotel. Since it’s UT graduation weekend, finding a room for this particular night was challenging, but luckily this is a large hotel with a room with two fluffy white queen beds waiting for us. After a short trip to the hot tub only to find a weird guy there, we popped in Pride and Prejudice and relaxed in excessive fluffy-ness while sighing over Mr. Darcy.
When I looked at the clock this morning, I was pretty sure it must have broken overnight – 10:00?? How is it possible that I could have stayed in bed that long? Thanks to our ridiculously thick curtains, we had no idea of the bright world outside, and with no distractions we had indeed achieved the now-unheard-of goal of sleeping in.
We enjoyed brunch at La Madeleine and then headed home, back to real life. As fun as the night had been, we missed our kiddos and were a little curious about what shape our houses were in. But we’re already tossing around plans for next year and are thankful for good food, friendship, rest, husbands who took over, and the little humans who made us mothers.
Rainy day amusements
It drizzled today. Gray, wet, blah. Hannah was so bored that she decided to amuse herself by undressing during naptime.
Clearly the girl needed better entertainment. Luckily, we got the invite to hang out at Meghan and Cody’s house. Hannah calls them Bidden and Diddy. My fellow recipe rogue Meghan was whipping up some banana muffins (her own recipe, of course, may get posted later with permission) and she enlisted the kiddos to help.
They thought this was pretty fun, but eating them was the best part! Another fun activity at Cody’s house – taking turns hiding in the closet and then giggling extensively.
Any suggestions for our next rainy day?
Homemade playdough
In my previous life as a preschool teacher, playdough was part of my everyday life. Not only is it fun and encourages creativity and imaginative play, it helps with fine motor skills – those little fingers strengthen muscles as they squeeze and shape.
I have made three or four playdough recipes, this one most recently. It has lasted for months and is still soft and pliable. Thanks to Jan Frimpter for the recipe.
PLAY DOUGH
2 c. flour
1 c. salt
4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 Tbs. cooking oil
2 c. water
(optional) food coloring for color and flavoring for smell
Mix dry ingredients, then add liquid. Mix together.
Stir constantly in quart size saucepan over low heat until a big ball forms.
Remove from heat immediately and you’re ready to play!
Hannah enjoyed sticking the straws into blobs. I used blue food coloring and some lemon extract, and the color came out nicely but the lemon smell faded quickly.
Group cooking – Chicken nuggets
My friend Meghan and I have something important in common – we’re recipe rogues. We enjoy looking at recipes and then tweaking them based on what’s on hand, what’s affordable, what we think would taste better, or all of the above.
We also enjoy cooking together. Today Meghan came up with chicken nuggets, a great kid-friendly food we planned to freeze and then pull out when needed for a quick lunch. Using this Chicken Nuggets recipe as inspiration, we were able to produce several pans of delicious, homemade morsels of tastiness. We will not be able to freeze any for the future because, um, they didn’t even make it 24 hours before being devoured.
You can also see the remains of the honey-mustard sauce Meghan whipped up. This put them over the top!
There are several advantages to group cooking. With more hands, we were able to finish some steps in half the time. This balanced out the fact that our attention was also divided with the toddler supervision necessity. The recipe rogue component – we soaked the chicken in buttermilk before coating in butter and breadcrumbs (homemade!) and left out the paprika (a generally useless ingredient in my opinion).
Definitely will be making these again and exercising more self-control to freeze a large quantity. They are easy, delicious, and all-natural – far surpassing those processed Tyson things on every level.
grit & grace 