Need to exercise?

I’ve got the perfect quad strengthening, ab working exercise for you. Not only does it do a body good, it is also highly entertaining.

Baby leg presses and extensions.

Instructions: Lie on your back. Place a baby on your feet. To work your quads, bring your knees down to your chest and press up. All the while wiggling your toes to make the baby laugh. To work your abs, fully extend your legs and slowly move them out and down slightly and then back up again, keeping your legs straight. Be sure you make airplane sounds. The baby really seems to like that.

Ready to start? Do them with me.

Rep 1.

Rep 2.

Rep 3.

Rep 4.

Not enough resistance? Need a better work out?

Just use a bigger kid….

The Great Air Potato Roundup

Each year at some of the parks in the area, an air potato roundup is held. The air potato is a non-native plant to Florida and is very invasive. It grows and spreads quickly and has been known to completely wrap itself around a tree and literally choke it to death. During the winter, the vine drops fruit, that looks very much like a potato. Volunteers go to area parks and pick up the air potato fruit off the ground to keep the vine from spreading. We had never been to a round-up before, but I thought it sound like something fun that the kids would enjoy.

We decided to go to the round-up held at the Ravines Gardens State Park in Palatka. We arrived at the park around 10:00 and got registered and received our bags to put the potatoes in and then went searching. The round-up actually started at 8:00 that morning and I guess we didn’t know that by 10:00 most of the potatoes had already been picked up. As we were walking down into the natural ravine, we kept seeing people walking up the trail with these huge bags of potatoes and so began looking on the ground for them in earnest. But we didn’t see ANYTHING. We walked and looked and walked and looked and walked and looked and nothing. As you can see from this picture of Dallin with his empty bag, he was starting to get a little bored with the whole process.

Although he did really enjoy going across the suspension bridge. Mandy on the other hand was very scared of the movement and walked across the bridge at a snails pace. After walking around the park for 30 minutes and still not seeing anything, we stopped a couple of boys with their big sack of potatoes so that we could take a look at them and ask them where they found them. They told us, “oh, just walk along the paths, they are right on the ground. They are everywhere.” Meanwhile, we are thinking to ourselves, yeah, what-ev-vah. So we walked down the path that they had come from and looked and walked and looked and walked and still nothing. We saw a few pretty azaleas beginning to bloom and some pretty red berries that Dallin told me bears came into the park to eat. But still no potatoes.

FINALLY, Nathan spots a tiny one up in the brush and pushes Dallin up to get it. He was so excited. We all were. We finally found one. So maybe we weren’t the worst air potato pickers in the world after all. After that we were able to find a few more. It was so much fun once we started finding them. Like a treasure hunt. Dallin and Mandy had a blast searching them out. Even Layton got in on the fun. While Nathan would go up into the brush picking up potatoes, Layton would take the opportunity to snag a few leaves or sticks to play with. Finally, Nathan let him pick up a potato too.

Dallin and Mandy counted their little hoard of potatoes and were so proud of their haul. We took them into the weigh station and they had gathered….wait for it……wait for it…. ONE whole pound of potatoes. Clap clap clap. Cheers cheers cheers. Clap clap clap. Amazing. Really amazing. Their potato picking skills will be legendary.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch. We all had sandwiches. Even Mandy. Only her sandwich consisted strictly of cheese. She’s just a funny girl that way. We can’t wait to go back and do this again next year. But next year, I think we are going to try to get there a little earlier so that we’ll be able to pick up a few more potatoes!

Creative Crop

I have found another blog that I really love. It is called I Heart Faces Photography. It is a community of people that love photography and each week they have a themed “contest”. I entered it last week and it is a lot of fun to participate. I don’t ever expect to win, but it is a nice way for me to connect with other people that are learning the art of photography and with some that have already perfected it. Each week they also post tutorials and tips about everything from camera usage to photo editing. This week’s contest is on cropping photos. This is the original photo:

And this is how I chose to crop it:

I think the rotation and the crop makes it much more dramatic and makes you focus even more on Layton’s crying face. I don’t know why, but this picture, instead of making me feel sorry for Layton, just makes me want to laugh. That is probably a sign that I am not the best of mothers because I sometimes laugh at my children when they cry. Really though, he is crying because he refuses to roll over and he wants me to do it for him. Don’t you find that funny?

Go Speed Reader! Go!

One of Nathan's favorite childhood TV shows was Speed Racer, so sorry for the corny title. Sometimes when things like that pop into my head, I just can't help myself.

Dallin recently did a reading evaluation with his teacher. She used an assessment test called DIBELS to look at Dallin's reading skills as compared to the average kindergartner. The test is performed one on one with the student and the student is evaluated in four areas. Letter identification, initial word sounds, identifying phonetic sounds within a word, and ability to sound out groups of letters. Dallin scored right at the benchmark in one area, above the benchmark in two of the areas, and more than double the benchmark score in one of the areas. What is funny though is that the area he scored best in was identifying the different phonetic sounds within a word, but the area he scored lowest in was initial word sounds. Wouldn't you think if he could identify all the phonetic sounds in the word that he would be able to correctly identify the first sound in each word? I'm thinking that during that part of the test he must have been playing around or spacing out a little, which he is very inclined to do. It's not like it really even matters anyway. It is just an assessment test and the overall finding was that he is performing well. Which we kind of already knew, because he has been doing great at reading to us at home. And all the credit for that, I give to his teacher. I know I've mentioned it before, but I have been so pleased with her. She makes learning wonderfully fun and has taught Dallin so much over the course of this school year. It has been amazing watching how fast he has picked up on new ideas and how often he expresses his love of learning. I really love the way he phrases his thoughts and how he loves to plan for the future. Just the other night he told me, "Mom, I'm thinking that tomorrow I'm going to think about science. I like science. It's AWESOME."

Pass the Syrup

I think Mandy might need a little more....


I gave Mandy a pancake to eat for breakfast. She determined that I didn't put nearly enough syrup on it. So while I was talking on the phone, she took matters into her own hands. I think I might need to put a few more pancakes on there to help sop up the syrup. What do you think? 15 should do it. Or maybe 20.

She's still wearing her pink hoodie though. Gotta love that.

A Trial Campout

We are going camping with a group of our friends next Friday, so we thought it would be a good idea to do a trial campout to see how things would go. We planned a trip over to Nathan’s parent’s house to do our camping.

I told Mandy and Dallin about it the morning before we went and Mandy started packing for it right then. She wore that enormous backpack around all day and asked me CONSTANTLY when we were leaving to go camping. I had no idea that she would be so excited about the prospect of camping. We got over there and started setting everything up. Dallin loved pounding in the stakes with his “whammer-bammer-hammer”. He was really good at it too. Those stakes didn’t budge an inch. Mandy was so excited about using her new flashlight that she couldn’t be bothered with waiting until it was actually dark. Nope she wanted to help Nathan and Dallin see how to put up the tent and so shown her flashlight out into the light of day (instead of the dark of night).Layton was a big helper too. He participated with each step of the set up process and then even went into the tent after it was up to do a little inspection to make sure that it was up to his standards.

He approved whole heartedly. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows over our fire that was “very fiery”, according to Dallin. Dallin told us a scary ghost story (that really wasn’t scary at all). Then it was time for bed. Layton and I didn’t stay, instead we went back home and slept in our own beds. We slept blissfully.

So did Mandy. Like a rock Nathan said. Nathan and Dallin on the other hand had a rough night. Apparently there are a lot of animals out there. Dogs barking. Geese honking. Roosters crowing. Dallin claims that the problem was that the geese were tricking the dogs and making them bark because the geese were quacking like ducks. He also claimed that the rooster crowed right in his ear. It was also kind of chilly that night. I warned Nathan it would be, but he didn’t believe me, so he slept cold.

Dallin also slept cold for most of the night because instead of getting IN his sleeping bag, he slept UNDER his sleeping bag until Nathan told him to get into it. After that crazy night I was a little worried that Dallin wouldn’t want to go camping again. When I asked him, he told me excitedly that he wanted to go camping again because he wanted some more roasted marshmallows. He’s a boy after my own heart. Roasted marshmallows are my favorite part of camping too. It just wouldn’t be camping without them.

I want to be like Pioneer Woman - Smores Cupcakes

Ok, so you all know that one of my favorite blogs is Pioneer Woman, right? Well I decided that it would be fun to try to do a documentary style photo log of a recipe like she does. I didn't think she would mind me copying her style because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? What to cook though? With Layton's birthday coming up, I decided maybe I would try some sort of cake for him. And since we are going camping the weekend before his birthday with a bunch of our friends, why not make cupcakes to take there to celebrate his birthday a little early. And what better cupcake could there be at a camp out than a smores cupcake? I tried looking for a recipe for them, but couldn't find one that was simple enough or had the ingredients I wanted to use. So I kind of combined a few different ideas from a couple of recipes and came up with a "semi-homemade" version of my own. Here are the main ingredients:



1 Chocolate boxed cake mix. 1 box Graham Cracker Crumbs. 1 Bag Marshmallows. 5 Hershey Bars.


You'll also need 6 tbsp of butter and 3 tbsp of sugar for the graham cracker crust and 3 eggs, water, and oil for the cake mix. I started by mixing up a graham cracker crust according to the instructions on the box. I found though that you will probably want to add about 1 tbsp of butter extra to get it to the right consistency.


Line the cupcake pan with paper cups. Then put about 1/2 a heaping tablespoon full (I'm not sure that is even really a measurement, but for my sake, just pretend it is) into each cup and press it down to create the crust.


Make the cake according to directions on the box.



Then spoon the batter over the graham cracker crust to fill the cups about 2/3 of the way full.



Break apart the Hershey bars.

Take a bite for yourself to make sure the chocolate is yummy. Give a little piece to the baby pulling at your leg because he is crying for you to hold him and maybe the chocolate will pacify him for a few minutes. Oops. That last bit of instruction is for me not you.




Put two rectangles of Hershey bar on each cupcake.



Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until the cake is done. Let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes and then remove from the pan to finish cooling.


Look down at the baby pulling on your leg once again and take pity on his pleading eyes and chocolate smeared lips and pick him up and love on him while you let the cupcakes cool for a little bit. Again that was just for me.

The intent of this cupcake is to roast a marshmallow over a campfire and then smash the roasted marshmallow on top and enjoy an ooey gooey cupcake while camping. But if you decide to make them at home, simply cut a large marshmallow in half and place it on top of the cupcake. Put in on a sheet pan or whatever and then put it under the broiler for about 2 to 3 minutes or until the marshmallow is nice and toasted. Then serve immediately.

So what is the verdict? Were they good or not? I used Dallin and Mandy as my taste testers and I think that they agreed that it was finger licking good. I will be making them again to take on our camp out next week, so I'll let you know what everyone else thinks of them.

Notice Mandy is still wearing that pink "cute" shirt. I don't know what's up with that girl. But don't you just love the face she made while eating her cupcake with her eyes closed. That girl loves her chocolate.

This was a really fun exercise. I learned a little about my camera. All the shots were made without a flash, which I have learned can be pretty tricky indoors. I had fun trying to document every step through photos. And because it was so fun, don't be surprised if you see a recipe show up on here every now and then. Don't feel obligated to make it. Just humor me and let me pretend to be a great cook like the Pioneer Woman every once in a while. I would totally love it if all of you that have a blog would humor me even further and post a recipe occasionally on your blog. I've said it many, many times before - I LOVE new recipes! And if it is a tried and true recipe from one of you, that makes it even better.

Dripping

Honestly, could it get any crazier around here? I sent Dallin and Mandy into the bathroom to turn the water on and get in the bathtub. Nathan and I were watching Idol and I just wanted to hear what the judges had to say about this one performance before I went in there to wash them. Layton always goes in there too and stands at the side of the tub and plays with them while they are in the there. Just as the judges were finishing their critiques, Layton comes crawling into the living room looking like this:

Apparently, Mandy thought it would be funny to dump a big cup of water right on Layton's head. I should have known something was up when I heard all that laughter coming from the bathroom. When Mandy and Dallin are laughing together and not arguing, it is usually a sign of some kind of mischief being made.

A Flower Photo Shoot

I bought some flowers to use in a sharing time at church about the blessings of God's creations. Since I had the flowers on hand, I decided to play around with my camera a little and take a few photos of them. They are certainly not professional quality by any means, but I was pretty happy with my first attempt at flower photography.

7 days and counting

Remember that post I did about Mandy changing her clothes like 7 or 8 times a day. Well, now she has gone to the other extreme. Now she wants to wear the same shirt every single day. She has worn this same shirt every day for the past seven days.







The only time she takes it off is at night when she is sleeping and when I made her take it off a couple of times so that I could wash it. Is that odd or what? But do you want to know something even stranger? She still changes her pants 5 or 6 times a day. It is only the shirt that has to stay the same. And it's not like this is even a new shirt. She has had it for months. In fact she was wearing it in that other post. Kids are so weird. Or maybe it is just my kids that are so weird.