Doesn't this look like the perfect way to start a beautiful spring day.
Or, how about a garden themed brunch for a group of giggling girls.
All you need is a metal flower shaped cookie cutter. Pop it into your pan and pour the pancake batter into the center, making sure you spread it into all of the petals. Tip: spray the cookie cutter with a little Pam so that before you flip the pancake you can slip the cookie cutter off first with a pair of tongs.
It was a little drizzly. It was very cold. And it was mostly overcast.
But that would never stop us from heading to the beach. The kids love to play there rain, hail or shine.
So we decided to head to Carmel River State Beach. This beach is not for swimming, but it is dog friendly (as long as they are on a leash), there is a 2 mile hike (not that we went on that) and it is adjacent to the Carmel River Bird Sanctuary. We played on the sand and took a walk along Scenic Drive where we passed quite a few people walking their designer dogs, an artist hard at work behind is easel and a ton of wildlife.
And of course it would have been very wrong not to stop off for some ice-cream after a trip to the beach.
or tyre tracks as my family back home would say. Somebody is sure to yell at me for spelling it 'wrong'.
Upon receiving an invitation to a little friends birthday party over the weekend and finding out that he likes cars and trucks I had the kids make very special wrapping paper for his gifts.
That's right, tire tracks. So fun. I purchased a pack of Cars tire stamps from Target for under $4 (4 per pack - located in the party section).
Another idea I had was to tie another little gift onto each parcel.
So here is a fun little experiment your kids can do at home. I call this the "Tire Track Experiment".
Take assorted tires and ink pads and let your kids explore the different patterns tires can make. The tires we used were from a Lego set, a random tire that had fallen off a car (I put a lollipop stick through the center), a toy car and the Cars stamp. I'm sure if you have a little boy in the house you have a lot of odd tires laying around in the mountains of cars and trucks they have collected.
This would make a great (shhh and educational) party activity for a cars or trucks themed party too. Or even just for your kids to play at home. Don't we all love rainy day activities. Use assorted stamps and print tire tracks on paper. The child who matches them all / the most tire tracks together with the stamps wins and receives a small prize.
You can view other wrapping paper my kids have decorated (from left over packing paper) here, here and here.
You can view a few photographs of the party we went to here (of course you won't find any of the other children seeing as my general rule is to not post photographs of other kids due to privacy)
at all of those little projects that have building up. Repairing hairclips, gluing wooden train tracks back together, mending holes. And the list could go on. That is what I have been up to this past week or so.
One of those projects that I had been meaning to do FOREVER was to bring new life to these wood tray tables.
I have been dragging these around with me for over 10 years and 4 house moves. Jay used them when he was little to put his coloring pages on. And, as you can see, to work his magic with a paint brush.
They needed a little repairing and a makeover, and the twins needed little tables to put in front of their chairs in the play room. I am tired of cleaning up spilled drinks and snacks that have been balanced precariously on the arms of their chairs or sat down on the floor next them only to be kicked over or trodden on. I'm hoping this will alleviate the problem.
So, after tightening screws and removing the paint and pen marks, I glued a sheet of oilcloth to the top of each table to give it a pop of color and cover the marks on the top.
You have already seen how we display the twins artwork at home, but recently they have done some artwork that I have been so proud of that I thought it would be great to display it in a new way, and in one that they could show off.
Marisol drew this picture of a princess back in December.
We were stuck on a plane for what felt like forever as it was in line waiting to be de-iced. To keep her amused, and knowing that she had just recently taken on a love of drawing people, I asked her to draw a Princess, then she used stickers from her sticker/coloring book to embellish her drawing. I was so proud of her. She must have made about 5 or 6 of these as we sat there.
Then, one day last week whilst I was sitting at my desk in the office, the twins both sat on the floor to draw beside me. They had used stencils once or twice previously, but Flynn really took a liking to an alphabet one.
This was what he drew:
I had been stock-piling plain white t-shirts (long and short) recently in assorted sizes when I had found them on clearance and thought this would be a great way to showcase the kids artwork.
So after doing a little minor editing of their drawings on the computer, I printed each onto t-shirt transfer paper then ironed the image onto a plain shirt.
I decided that Marisol's needed a little bling though, afterall it is a princess shirt.
The end result:
Garland Ranch Regional Park is definitely one of the more beautiful hikes we have been on. When we arrived we were a little worried that it was going to be crowded seeing as the carpark seemed to be exploding with cars, however there are so many trails in this nearly 4,500 acre park that we actually saw very few people.
And I apologize in advance, but you are about to be inundated with photographs. I did cut it down though, I originally took over 90. There were so many little things to see that I couldn't help but stop frequently to snap a few pictures. I even got a little upset with hubby at one point because he wasn't stopping to notice all of the beautiful little flowers or fungi sprouting out of the moist ground after the recent rains. His response "we'll just see it on your blog later". I think he was still a little bitter that he didn't get to watch the hockey. This beautiful sunny day was just too good to pass up though.
Tell me, can you see my little man watching the waterfall? He looks so tiny in comparison.
We didn't even see a 1/4 of the park today, so I really look forward to getting back there to explore more of the trails. The kids did great however on the 2.92 miles we did hike.
Tip: We have downloaded the Trails - GPS Tracker on hubby's iPhone so that we can start tracking exactly how far we go on each hiking expedition.
It must be a boy thing.
Cause running around in the rain on a muddy field and having 14 guys jump on top of me and grind me into the dirt just because I caught a ball really isn't my thing. But it apparently appeals to my other half.
Yes, that's right, my husband has a little thing for a sport named rugby. I will never understand the reason why, but aside from the injuries and the whining about being unable to walk for a week after playing, he seems to enjoy it. I feel like I should be letting out a little "Tim The Tool Man" Taylor grunt on his behalf right now.
In fact, he loves it so much that I was a single gal on Valentine's Day this year as he spent 4 days in Las Vegas with our teenager for the USA Sevens. Yes, I'm still milking that one for all it's worth.
It's official. I finished Course 1 of the Wilton Cake Decorating at Michaels. I even got a Certificate of Merit to prove it. Don't laugh, I may just frame it and hang it next to my Budweiser Honorary Beermaster certificate.
I'm really looking forward to Course 2 beginning in March.
There is a little story behind this cake.
It all begin with my searching for a cake pan in the shape of a four-leaf clover for St. Patrick's Day. Unable to locate one in any local stores I decided I would just make the cake I'd envisaged, all by myself. Having taken 3 cake decorating classes went to my head a little apparently and I thought I could just do this. Obviously my cake cutting skills are not up to par yet, so my four-leaf clover very quickly became a mouse based on Marisol's favorite dancing mouse Angelina Ballerina.
Our weekly hike had to be canceled today due to the rain, but we still needed to get the kids out of the house so we took them to the Agricultural History Project Museum, on a drive along the windy road of Hecker Pass and up into Mt Madonna County Park and then to the Wings of History Museum. These are very small museums. So small, that on this rainy day we were the only family at each one, which definitely worked in our favor. The volunteers working at each were fabulous. Both museums are free, however we did leave donations at each.
You can view the rest of our photographs here:
Agricultural History Project MuseumI recommend both of these Museums if you are homeschooling your children. You can cover both in an afternoon, they are educational and the volunteers working at each are a wealth of information.
I found both of these locations on Trekaroo.
I think this fairy wand broke when it ran out of magical wishes.
Unfortunately it would have been all but impossible to repair without pulling it apart completely. So I decided to re-purpose it.
Whenever I'm in my office Marisol likes to come in, borrow pen and paper and lay down on the floor to draw next to me. I thought it might be nice if she had her own very special pen to draw with whenever she comes in.
To transform her beautiful wand into a pen this is what I did: