Because I am a control freak, Nate, Zoey, and Alli have a schedule for the summer that includes chores, swimming lessons, craft time, writing, reading and free time.
Maybe it is kind of anal retentive, but I think kids (and probably everyone) need some kind of daily structure. If mine didn’t have it, I’m afraid they would just sit in the house watching TV and playing the computer all day long while their minds turned to mush. Plus, it’s not like they follow it strictly. I have this sneaking suspicion that they rush to do whatever chores it is for the day 5 minutes before I walk in the door from work.
We are blessed by how well Zoey and Allison get along. Even with the times that they are fussy with eachother.
Zoey does a great job of playing pretend with Allison. Here they are pretending that the invisible bubble is trying to attack them. Right now they are in bed, but I can hear them laughing so hard over who knows what.
We had some homemade strawberry shortcakes tonight. Thought I would practice taking pictures of food (because I don’t take enough).
We all went to see WALL-E tonight. It was a really cute movie. Allison absolutely loved it.
The theater we went to is pretty old. When you step into it is is a little like the theater in the movie, "The Majestic".
The girls are so excited that things are starting to grow in the garden. Today, they picked a few jalapenos. Allison decided that she needed to take a bite out of one. She quickly spit it out and said, "I need milk!"
You know how sometimes jalapenos are spicy and sometimes not so much? I tried a bite of Alli’s and it was like fire.
It’s summer and there are no sports going on right now. You know what that means right?
The kids are back to posting on their blog. It might not be daily, but to keep their creative writing skills going while school is out we made them a deal. If they want to play on their computer (which they do almost every hour they are awake), they have to first write a blog entry.
They have some plans in mind for their little site. So be sure to head over and check it out. Everyone loves an audience and my kids are no exception.
This is the cake that I used as the base for the Black Forrest Cake we had on Greg’s birthday. I got the recipe from Allrecipes and it had so many high ratings, I had high hopes that it would be delicious. Even though it didn’t come from a box, it was so easy to make. It was also really tasty. Based on the string of successes we have had with made-from-scratch cakes, I don’t know if I will use a boxed cake again.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 3 – 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
If you have keen eyes, you can see the tiny baby bird heads poking out from their nest. What you can’t see in this picture are the crazy adult birds that were calling in the reinforcements. Seriously 20 birds swarmed in to attack me. It’s like they were calling out, "Protect the babies!!!!"
Tonight Alli and I made a yellow cake from scratch. She had a blast getting all messy and making a photo album by taking pictures for me.
Reading about other people’s sleeping problems reminds me that I haven’t given you an update on the night time habits of Allison in a while. That’s because ever since spring break she has been sleeping in her own bed. Sure, she snuggles in with us every once in a while, but eventually decides that there isn’t enough room to stretch out and heads to her own bed.
I’ve been half afraid to write about it because I was sure it wouldn’t last. Now that it is lasting, I have to admit that sometimes I miss snuggling in for the night with that little stinker.
