Gardening 101

I might be a TAD behind, but the extra burst of cold kept me from starting my seeds. This year, I have 2 lovely assistants. Eager to learn, and best of all, play with dirt. What could be better as a kid? Your mom gives you a bucket full of dirt and a few spoons...the possibilities are endless!

First we gathered supplies. An old coffee can full of dirt, spoons, old egg cartons, and seeds.

Next, we filled the cartons with dirt. Malia did very well with this! Ella.....well, she kind of slung the dirt around. But that's ok!

Then we added seeds

Ella lost interest

Once we were done, I took them into the laundry room, watered them, and lined them up on the handy dandy new ledge david built!

Now, we wait :)

 

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Quinoa...

I have had a hard time liking quinoa. It's just....kind of boring.

In an effort to eat better, and TRY to eliminate pre packaged food (easier said than done), I thought I'd give it another try. I had made rice-a-ronie a few days before. Terribly delicious, sodium filled side dish. But, I got to thinking, maybe I could take the same cooking method for rice-a-ronie, and make my own using quinoa. Worth a try!

I chopped up a bunch of veggies. Onion, garlic (crushed), carrot, bell pepper, broccoli, zucchini...whatever I had in the fridge.

Sautéed the onion, garlic, pepper and carrot in olive oil.

Added the broccoli last. I don't like mushy broccoli. Then added the quinoa, a little salt and pepper and sautéed until the quinoa was a tad golden brown.

Added low sodium veggie broth and simmered until all the liquid was absorbed. Just like rice-a-ronie.

 

I apologize for the terrible lighting. But here is the finished product. It was delicious!! You can also do this with rice (preferably brown rice) I have found at least one way to enjoy quinoa!

 

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Discovering discovery place

Oh man! What a day! My girlfriend and I planned a whole fun filled day for us and our kids yesterday! And, it was just that! Fun, and FILLED! We planned on meeting up at discovery place, letting the kids have at it, then back to our place for din. Doesn't sound like much, but have you been to discovery place? With 3 kids under the age of 4???? Yikes.

It started out with me mistaking discovery place with discovery place kids. What's the difference you ask? Well, discovery place is in charlotte, discovery place KIDS is in HUNTERSVILLE. UGH. The girls and I got to huntersville and waited. And waited and waited and waited....then tried to find Rachel while on the phone. We were on the same floor, in front of an elevator, just in 2 different cities! HA! Once I realized my massive brain fart, I re-loaded the girls in the car (a job in its self) and went the extra miles down to CLT. Thankfully, traffic wasn't bad at all. Another added bonus, Rachel got us in for free with her membership! YAY!

Now, I don't have the greatest photos. Malia was running around like a rabid animal, and Ella was scared of the 10 million kids in there. There had to have been 15 field trips going on!

Here we have Malia at a large water table. It was really neat. (I didn't get a photo of the whole thing...I'm funny about taking pictures with other peoples kids in it, maybe they don't want their kid in my pic!)

 

This was like a giant light bright! It was so neat! Both girls liked it!

On to the aquarium. Ella was particularly excited about this. High pitched squealing, pointing, ooh' s and aww's!

Jellyfish. This is Eli with Malia, Rachel's son. He is 5 months younger than Malia. They had a lot of fun together!

Giant chalk board. Isn't that cat Ella drew amazing? HA! Jk, it was already there.

This was really neat! The long tube had forced air, all the paper on the ground you pick up, put it in the tube and it flys up and out the top, making it rain paper!

Finally, the kids were near their end. All fussing, grouchy etc. so it was time to go. It was fun. And ehausting! Time to head back to concord to relax a bit. In the near future, I will take the girls to discovery place kids :)

 

And, hey! How about that sunshine!!

 

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Cold enough to build an igloo

Well, maybe not THAT cold, certainly don't have any snow for one. But seriously, I want a 70 degree SUNNY day. This cold gloom feels like the beginning of January, and I'm not one for moving backwards!

So what's up with this so called "igloo"? Well, some of you might remember Malia getting a "construction fort kit" from uncle Joel and aunt heather for Christmas. Being that it was yet another rainy cold day, we had to figure out a way to make the indoor a bit more exciting. Malia suggested we get out her fort kit. In addition to building with blocks and Legos, she is also rather passionate about forts and tents. Seriously, passionate! So, the building began. Forgive me for forgetting to take pictures of the process. I always think about it after the fact.

Here are the bare bones. As you can see, Malia is setting up a nap time mat. She's sleeping in here as we speak. This was fairly easy and fun to do! Even for me! (I did build this around myself....getting out was a challenge! Oops)

Walls and a ceiling in the form of sheets and a blanket were used to enclose the igloo.

 

Thanks for doing all the work mom, but this is a sisters only igloo....get out!

Another rainy day sucess.

 

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Girls day out

What is up with spring? Playing hard to get? I mean, we are all over winter. It can go back where it came from! It was cold and rainy again today. Not good conditions for outside play. I can tell when the girls are tired of being cooped up in the house. They are hard to please, grouchy, fight more than normal...

While at the park a few months back, a grandmother told me about a place called "kidz play here". You pay a small fee, you and your kids are welcome to play as long as you like. I figured today would be a perfect day to try it out.

 

The girls were in HEAVEN! It's also a preschool, so there were a lot of kids there. It doesn't seem like it from the pics. But believe me, they were there!

A little lunch date with my gals.

A huge train set! (You don't see many photos of Malia because she's off making friends in the gym!)

Treehouse complete with books and pillows for sitting.

And this...this thing that they have at every play yard everywhere. The one Malia has no problem climbing to the top of, then looses all sanity and can't get down. But, not to worry, she got down with a little help from mom. (These things are not made for adults. I think she knows this and gets a kick out of me trying to get in there to get her!)

All in all it was a good time. The staff was nice and the girls had a good time! A cold, rainy day sucess!

 

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Story time

It's official, I'm a stay-at-home momma! Something David and I have been aiming for since Malia was born. All our hard work has paid off and we are able to do this. I'm so thankful and blessed with this opportunity to be with my little ladies daily! I would say "I'll miss harris teeter", but they made it very easy to leave! I've been part times for a while now, so I've really eased into being home 100%. It's very different from working a day job. I've been used to hard physical work for so long, adjusting to a highly mental job, and feeling like I'm getting things accomplished has been a little hard to grasp, but I'm getting there! I love being home!

You've all heard me say it probably a million times! I can't help it, it's hard not to brag on your kiddos! Ella LOVES books. Malia loves them too, but if Malia has a choice of books, or blocks in front of her, you better believe she's going for the blocks. She's quite the builder. But, Ella. You put any number of toys in front of her and she will go for the books every time. Maybe it's her age, but I need to nurture her fascination! Here she is sitting in her rocking chair in her room reading book after book. In Ella language of course. Her favorite book is "brown bear brown bear".

(Please excuse the movement of the video, Malia was leaning into me)

Here is a quick clip of her for your viewing pleasure!

 

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