Possibly one last trip…

to the zoo for the year. Total spur of the moment decision on Monday. The weather looked fairly nice in the morning so we decided to head out to the zoo for our possible last trip of the year. Possible last trip with just the two of us.

It was GREAT! The zoo was pretty empty so it was similar to having our own personal zoo. Of course the first thing Emily wanted to do was see the elephants so we headed over to the River’s Edge. We didn’t see another soul in there until we made it to the elephants. I have to admit, it was pretty amazing. No crowds, being able to see without straining and letting Emily meander as much as she wanted (she wasn’t in a stroller).

We also saw the tigers, the bird house for the first time (usually she doesn’t want to go in there), rode the train, rode the carousel and walked quite a bit. We were there for about 2 hours and didn’t see as much as we normally do. That was to be expected though since Emily was a little tired and Mommy walks pretty slow these days. The most important thing is that we had a good time. Just the two of us.

Not sure if there will be any nice days in December but if there are and we have no plans, we might try to take another trip over there. I really want to go in the evening to see all the lights. They were in the process of putting them up and it looked like it would be neat to see.

Keeping busy…

It’s been rainy off and on and it gets dark too early. That leaves me trying to find something to do in the time after Emily wakes up from her nap and when Daddy gets home. Can’t play outside most of the time…Not always enough time to do much running…

This past week, we have done two mini-projects. I thought I would get more Thanksgiving crafts done but that has not been the case. Laziness, lack of planning on my part, etcetera, etcetera. Many, many excuses…. One thing we did do was make a hand and foot turkey.

I traced Emily’s hands on colored construction paper and cut them out. For her feet, I used beige. Didn’t have brown. Out of the scraps, I cut out a beak, gobbler and feet. Emily didn’t like the beak I made so she cut one herself out of green. Gives it some pizzaz, don’t you think?

 

The other thing we did was break out the bead set that Emily got for her birthday. She has been bugging me to make a bracelet and I just haven’t made the time do to it until recently. She did pretty much all of this herself. She picked out the beads she wanted to use and put them on the stretchy rope/string thing. She is very proud!

Gymnastics- yay!!!

Emily went to one of the most awesome playdates earlier this week. Our playgroup had a session at Flipside Gymnastics. For an hour the kids got to jump on a trampoline, balance beam, rope swing and much more. She had a blast! She’s never been in a class like that and she really enjoyed herself. Need to work on her listening skills a little but she did well otherwise. She has no fear and was the first child to go on the rope swing thing. Didn’t blink an eye!

This outing really made an impression on her as she has been doing somersaults ever since. She says she is doing “nymnastics”. Can’t quite remember the name, as she always asks me where she went on Monday and what did she do. I might have to look into some type of classes for her through the Parks Department!

Gobble, Gobble

Let me start off by saying “I cannot sew”. I do not own a sewing machine and can only hand sew enough to cover my butt. Literally. I would love to learn some day and do great things. Ok, maybe not so great but cool things at least. Some day.

I saw this really cute idea on The Crafty Crow but it was for a reverse applique. A what applique?? And it used a sewing machine??? I thought that there surely had to be an easier way and investigated. I was right. Michael’s is great because I was able to find the applique paper and the material there. I didn’t have the red material or was too lazy to find it but I think it turned out pretty well.

Now let’s see if she will actually wear it!

Baby Potato Head’s room

Emily told me the other day that her baby brother’s name was going to be Potato Head. Even though she knows what his real name is. Needless to say, it has stuck because I couldn’t stop laughing so she won’t let it go. I’ll give her 2 more months of fun! 😉

Stephen and I finished the nursery on Friday. We need a few more things for it but we are pretty much all set. Just insert baby and we’ll be good to go. Let’s just hope that it’s truly a boy otherwise a girl better like transportation!

Hard to see…but this is above the crib. “Every good and perfect gift comes from above….”

Swirly crayons

I got this idea from No Time for Flashcards. Love that site!!!!!

The gym is full of broken crayons. I got tired of picking up the teeny pieces the other day so the babies wouldn’t eat them so I decided to do something about it! I brought all of the junky pieces home and decided that Emily and I would make new crayons to take back to the gym.

Emily helped me break the nubs and peel the labels off. She also helped me put the crayons in the muffin tin. It was pretty neat to see them swirl around in the end.

Pre-heat your oven to 300.

Peel the paper off your crayons.

Break your orange crayons into little pieces.

Pop them into the greased muffin tin.

Into the oven it took about 12 minutes to melt. 

Swirl the wax and let cool.

Tip if the crayons aren’t releasing from the muffin tin , put them in the freezer for a few minutes and they will pop right off.

One bowl Apple Cake

I have made these a couple of times and the recipe is definitely worth sharing! I hope you enjoy because this cake is sure tasty and easy to make!

Recipe found from here.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups finely diced, peeled and cored apples
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup flour

Make:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Into large bowl add diced apples and sugar. Let stand for about 15 minutes.
• Pour in oil and egg. Stir.
• Add dry ingredients. Stir.
• Add vanilla and walnuts. Stir. It will be quite stiff, don’t worry.
• Pour into a well greased and floured 8 inch square pan. Bake for 45 minutes @ 350 degrees.
• Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a cake rack.
• Dust top with confectioners sugar before serving.

My only variations are:
-I always double the recipe (otherwise, we have to make it again the next day).
-We omit nuts…my kids don’t appreciate them the way I do.
-I only peel the apples if there’s time. No one seems to care either way.

 

Super Sib!

Emily took a sibling class this past Saturday. It was pretty cute. They used a puppet, named Molly, to talk about having a sibling. Emily is still talking about “my friend Molly”. They talked about why babies cry and what it means to be a big sister among other things. Emily got to tour the “Mom and Me” wing and see a baby in the nursery. I am not delivering at that hospital but they are pretty much the same so she will have an idea of what to expect when she comes to visit after Zachary is born. It was a pretty neat class. The kids got to take home a backpack with a book, coloring pages and a cd.

Holding the “baby”

She had a good time, really. This is just what happens when you don’t nap at Grandma’s the previous day.

Turkey pumpkin

We didn’t get around to carving pumpkins this year. You know what they say about good intentions??? I had to do something festive with them so decided to make turkey pumpkins again this year. It was fun and Emily really enjoyed doing making them this year. I think they turned out well.

Leaf it to Emily

Playing in the leaves. That’s all Emily has wanted to do for the past week. Unfortunately, our tree in the front year is a late faller. I was able to scrape up enough leaves at the end of the week so she could get some jumping out of her system. She had a blast!!! And would you believe- the next day brought a huge new pile of leaves??? Of course! That’s how it always happens. She and Stephen played and raked on Saturday while I was running errands. No pictures of that fun though. But I am picking up leaves out of every room. The fun lasts forever!