Kid-Tested Recipes

A recent search for our grill's manual, led me to a whole stack of kiddie cookbooks and recipes on file I'd kind of forgotten about. Lately I've been letting Ella pick one recipe each week that she wants to try (we usually make it on Friday). Here are some of the favorites we'd recommend:

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(This one's purely for fun-- ain't nothing healthy about it!)

Haystacks or Birds Nests

1 2/3 cup peanut butter chips

1 Tbs. shortening (not butter, oil or margarine)

3 cups chow mein noodles

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Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Place chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and zap (on high) 1 minute. Stir. If necessary, keep microwaving in 15 second intervals until mixture is melted and smooth when stirred. Immediately mix in chow mein noodles. Drop mixture by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared tray. Let stand until firm-- use fridge to speed progress. Store in covered container.

(Admittedly, I was not a fan of the overripe, mashed bananas in this one, but my girls gobbled it up!)

Monkey Mash

1 or 2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup raisins

sliced apples

Peel bananas and mash. Mix in peanut butter, raisins and cinnamon. Spread on or dip in apple slices.

(These chewy cookies were such a hit, Delia continues to ask, "Honey?" each time we start baking something!)

Honey Bee Cookies

1/2 cup butter softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

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Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter, sugar, honey and egg on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly, until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop dough by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Leave enough space between them, they'll spread! Bake until set and light brown around the edges, 7 to 9 minutes. Let cookies stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. We sprinkled our cookies with a little cinnamon/sugar (2 Tbs. sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon) as soon as they came out the oven.

(This is actually a recipe from Teri that we make regularly. TRY IT!! It makes a bunch and lasts much longer than the stuff you buy. It's cheap and safe if you have a play dough eaters. And there is just nothing like playing with soft, warm play dough!)

Homemade Play Dough

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2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 cups water

4 Tbs. oil

4 tsp. cream of tartar

food coloring

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients, including food coloring. Stir in a large sauce pan over medium heat. When mixture pulls away from the sides and forms a ball, remove from heat. Turn mixture on counter and knead 10-15 times.

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Sending Traffic Your Way, Kris! :)

If you want to read the beautiful story of my nephew Cole, straight from his mother, click here. My hilarious sister-in-law Kris has recently started her own blog. Her link is over to the right, if you ever just need a good laugh!

Two Places

As a friend of mine says, last night I had to put on my super hero cape and figure out how to be in two places at the same time. Ella concluded her year of Awanas last night with a brief program and awards ceremony. Dave organized a much anticipated Council vs. Youth Group softball game. Both events went from 6:30 to 8:00.

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I decided, obviously, Ella was the priority. So first stop was for her. It was cute to watch her and her Awanas buddies in their blue vests running around the sanctuary. Then we all sat down to do pledges and hear each age group stand on stage and sing a song/recite a verse. Ella received a certificate and a book. Since her group, the Cubbies, is the youngest, they got to go first and we were able to slip out early.

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Half the fun of Awanas for Ella was the carpool she shared with her buddy Jared each Wednesday night. Experiencing "Cubbies" together each week bonded them even more. Jared cried when we snuck out early.

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Then off to the ball field, just minutes away (small town geography helped immensely in my Super Mom duties last night!) Dave's youth group plays softball against another CRC's youth group every year. The rivalry was getting a tad unhealthy, though, so Dave came up with this new plan to give everyone a much more fun time. The competition was fierce-- and it began last Sunday when Pastor Bruce, from the pulpit, invited the congregation "to come witness our high schoolers learn a lesson in humility and prowess!" Many of the students' dads are Elders and Deacons so the family rivalry was running high. It was awesome to see a huge crowd from the church come out the ball field to cheer on their favorite side. As it turns out, the youth group did have to taste defeat, but we were all winners for sharing a night of laughter and fellowship!

Delia was SO into the game. She never took her eyes off Dave and waved at him exclaiming, "Daddy throw ball!" each time he was in the field. Dave was the pitcher for his youth group.

It was a chilly night, we giggled with Jetta's girls over how many VMs we could get to fit under my one blankie (I think we had 8 at one point!).
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I'm bragging about my powers in getting us to hit two events in an hour and a half, but really it's my family I'm so proud of. Dave planned a phenomenal event that someone told us was "great for our church" and Ella completed a whole year of lessons and verse memorizing and can tell us all about sin and Jesus and heaven.

Get Injured, Get Presents

Many of you were so quick to send Delia (and Ella) presents when she broke her collar bone. I wanted to write this post to show you how much the girls have been enjoying your thoughtfulness!

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Grandpa and Grandma were cute in sending a Target gift card with instructions to pick out a "nice, quiet toy, like a book or stickers..." We got the girls this Play-Doh set where they can make crazy creatures by pushing eyes, limbs and hats into the dough. This is a perfect activity for Delia!

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The Garden of Whales story arrived from Uncle Kyle. Delia loves to page through and pick out the killer whales in the beautiful illustrations. As she gets older, she'll appreciate the story about protecting and saving endangered whales.

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The princess tattoos came from Auntie Kris. These had to be applied pretty much the second they were opened and an epic battle for the Cinderella one ensued.

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Auntie Karen and family sent Delia a box of Shamu goodies. While she was clear that the cuddly Shamu puppet was for Ella too (to entertain Delia with), Ella adopted that Shumu as just hers and now sleeps with it every night. Delia is down with this. It's fun how they each have one now. A sure way to solicit giggles from Delia is to make puppet Shamu eat her nose.

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We play with the Little People plane every day and it will be useful in teaching Delia about what's going to happen as we embark on our Midwest all-VM-family vacation in July. Her sweet daddy really wanted to get her a new toy after she got injured.

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So, thanks everyone for turning our trip to the ER into another Christmas! :)

At Least She's Listening

Here's a conversation I had with Ella while she helped me with the laundry:

Ella: Hey! Our dryer has a light in it! Isn't that neat?

Mom: Why do you think we have a light in our dryer? Are the clothes afraid of the dark?

Ella: I don't know Mommy. I guess that's just the way God made our dryer.

Her response cracked me up because this is something she hears from me constantly. Some of the most recent questions it answered were, "Why do flamingos stand on one leg?" and "Why do bats hang upside-down?" and "Why can't whales smell?" and "Why do bees have stingers?" It works well when I have no clue what the answer to her question is!

Some Giggles to Brighten Your Day

Perfectly timed with my complaining in yesterday's post, my friend Penny dropped off 4 bulging bags of toys and clothes her daughters had outgrown. My girls are finding the There's a Wocket In My Pocket story utterly hilarious on their new Leap Frog toy.

Delia Distracted

I am currently involved in one my hardest parenting challenges yet: getting a very active toddler to take it easy and shun her monkey ways for a whole week (at least). Delia's injury requires that she be calm and safe and as still as possible. To prevent the constant "NO!" rebuke, Dave and I have always parented Delia with a "pick-your-battles" philosophy. Dancing on the coffee table: okay. Scaling the entertainment center shelves: not okay. Everything she is used to doing to burn off energy, from wrestling with Lily, to riding the scooter around the patio, to jumping on the couch is now off limits. The way I handle this is with non-stop supervision. I learned quickly that if I take even 5 minutes to answer the phone or put the laundry in the dryer, Delia will be on top of something (like the bathroom counter). And while I do love to play with my girls, ceaseless Little People, puzzles, baby doll, etc. are exhausting! The key is distraction-- for both of us. Today we took a nice long time baking some blueberry muffins (and Delia involved in the eating of our product is what is allowing me to type this now!). I do write this lightheartedly, I AM so thankful she seems to feel just like her normal self and have no pain at all.

What We've Been Playing

After Friday's experience, Ella has a whole slew of new words to add to her vocabulary: collar bone (she calls it "the bone on your collar"), x-ray, hospital bracelet, triage, etc. We've been playing lots of "Emergency Room." We've had to make Ella her own bracelet, pretend x-ray her and wrap her make-believe broken wrist dozens of times. I know she's feeling a little left out because today in Children and Worship she requested prayer for the ouchie on her elbow. Hey, whatever she needs to cope with this! Both girls are doing great.

First the Happy Post

Get ready for lots of zoo posts because yesterday we became members of the Oakland Zoo! If you regularly read this blog, you know a few things about us. One, we are always on the lookout for a good outing or day trip. Two, we love, love, LOVE the zoo. The bulk of Delia's vocabulary is animal names and sounds. She can spot any dog, cat or bird that comes anywhere within the vicinity of our house and points out every cow we pass while driving. I call Ella "Fern" (from Charlotte's Web) because she and anything furry seem drawn to each other. She talks about becoming a veterinarian or pet shop owner when she grows up. Our girls are such animal fanatics, Dave and I regularly lament the fact that they will not grow up experiencing a world-class zoo right next door, as we did. We really like the about-an-hour-away Oakland Zoo and thought this was a good idea. Come visit us and we'll take you too!

Now the Sad Post

Unfortunately, while we were at the zoo, Delia had a minor accident. She broke her collar bone when she fell off the back of our Sit-n-Stand stroller. She was holding onto a cooler that slipped and she went down with it, landing squarely on her shoulder. We instantly knew something was really wrong when she was inconsolable and wouldn't let us touch her. She's normally totally resilient-- laughing off even the biggest falls. We decided to head home right away. Though it was Delia with the broken bone, Ella was the one who cried for most of the drive home. Nope, not because she was sad for her sister, because she did not want to leave the zoo! We called her doctor and were told to head to the hospital. The 5 hour wait in the ER was killer-- especially when Dave and Delia had to turn around and go right back at 9:30 pm. Delia traded her incorrectly-given sling for a clavicle strap and all is okay now. She slept straight through the night and is showing decent mobility today and doing just a bit of whining. Dave kept using the world "brave" over and over to describe how she handled this entire process. Delia will rest, wear the strap constantly (wish us luck with that!) and be as good as new in a couple weeks. Of course, we feel terrible for our sore little honey, but really this was inevitable. Delia got those, um, active genes from her father. I suspect this is a girl who will have lots of "scar stories!"
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Strawberries!

A stop at the newly-opened strawberry stand was on our list of errands today. LOVE this time of year!

Free

The other day I was driving with the girls when the Newsboys song "I Am Free" came on KLOVE. Ella heard the words and exclaimed, "I LOVE this song! This is MY song!" As she continued to listen she peppered me with questions like, "Why do they have to be free to dance?" or "Are the people who sing this free?" I tried to give her an understandable-to-a-3-year-old explanation of what it means to find freedom in Christ. I was so impressed at how into this song she was getting! After a while, though, she came out with, "I won't be free for long, soon I'll be four."

Of course, what could I do but bust out laughing? We're still working on those "th's." :)

Click here to watch a video, if you're unfamiliar with this song.

Love Affair with a Whale

Here's a bit of Delia trivia you may be unaware of: she is completely, unequivocally and obsessively in love with Shamu. This started before our San Diego vacation in our efforts to expose the girls to and educate them on what they'd be seeing. The actual meeting of "Ah-moo!" completed this crush. The best $10 we ever spent on this girl was the purchase of a stuffed Shamu from Sea World, which she cuddles with each night and carries around much of the day. The killer whale is her favorite rubber bath toy, favorite page in the Baby Beluga story and favorite piece in the ocean toy set we got from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. At the library a few weeks ago, Delia's Shamu radar went off and she came running up to me with some random National Geographic movie about Orcas she somehow located on the VHS shelf. So, of course, in her Easter basket was the This Is the Day book-- which we've already read 100 times. And yes, I am starting to brainstorm ideas for the Shamu-themed 2nd birthday party!

Egg Hunt

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We were so pleased to, once again, be invited to share Easter with our CA VM Family. This is such a lovely day, we just drive home sighing happy sighs. The fun begins around 4:00, so we all are able to do our own dinner (Dave rotisserie grilled a marinated turkey-- yum, yum, yum!) and get naps in. The day consists of afternoon tea, dessert, walks through the cows, fellowship, a giant egg hunt then a ham bun supper. This year was breezy and beautiful so we also got out the kites and watched the kids whack around the wiffle ball. Ella even got two good hits!

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The highlight is most definitely the eggs, though. With waaaay more eggs to find than kids to find them, the hunters go home with shopping bags loaded with loot. The eggs contain everything from candy to loose change to peanuts. Since our host had a massive, field-like backyard we just scattered most of the eggs in the grass. To see this through Delia's eyes was hilarious. She wandered around a bit confused, picking up the eggs we pointed out to her. She would shake it and excitedly exclaim, "Nummies!" She then sat down, opened it and ate what was inside. Her haul was not as abundant for this time wasting strategy, but what heaven that must have been for her!

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While Ella was looking forward to getting her Easter basket, wearing her new dress to church and hunting for eggs with her friends, she impressed us by always reserving the most excitement for "Jesus rose from the grave! He was dead on Friday and now he is alive!" I loved how she not only understood the meaning of Easter, but was genuinely happy about it.

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All in all, it was another perfect Easter to remember and file away with all the other perfect Easters we've had in our country home.

Happy Easter!

"Oh praise the one who paid my debt, who raised this life up from the dead!"

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"Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow!"

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Happy Easter, friends and family!

Spring Break (Number 1)

Ella and Dave had a bit of a spring break clash this year. Ella is off this week. Dave (or his students and thus his youth groups and classes) is off next week. It ended up being impossible for us to escape anywhere even for just a few days over our contradictory spring breaks. We decided to instead enjoy the week off from Awanas and preschool with one intentionally special activity each day.


Monday we visited Meilani.

Tuesday we dyed Easter eggs.

Wednesday night we went to Cold Stone (FYI "nummies" equal M&M's, a term the kids got from Pastor Bruce. His bribery is so effective, in fact, that Delia thinks his name is "Pa-Boo-Nummies." That's what she calls him.)

Thursday we fed the goats and llama, played at the wooden park and checked on the baby chicks at the feed store.

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Friday my grand outdoor plans were cancelled when the unseasonably late rain and cold front moved in (watch for them next week over Dave's spring break...). Instead we stayed inside and had a game tournament. I think Ella may soon be ready for Trains! :) And of course, church tonight-- that's always a treat we look forward to.

Beauty Shop

It's taken this girl 18 long months, but Delia finally has just enough hair to participate in the game of Beauty Shop with Ella. And what drenched-from-the-squirt-bottle, more-tangled-than-when-we-began, barrette-decorated beauties we are when Ella is done with us!

"Little Us"

My college roommate and I have officially multiplied to six. Today we took a day trip to meet the newest member of our Girl Party-- Baby Giada. Dorina was a gracious one-armed host with an Easter egg dying project for the girls, even in the midst of nursing, carrying snoozing baby in the sling and changing teeny-tiny diapers. She has always been the multitasking master of keeping all those balls in the air. We tried to help a bit by bringing Dorina, who has been exposing me to different foods the entire time I've known her, an authentic Dutch lunch-- Dutch soup, thick bread and almond bars.
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Ella was very excited to play with her good friend Meilani, but also enjoyed gently holding, kissing and cuddling Baby Giada.

A sleeping angel! Giada graced me some of her new and giant gummy smiles while I held her. Though she's grown considerably in her 7 weeks of life, she still felt pretty small and fragile in my arms.

We spent the afternoon at a really neat park by their house. As we watched Ella, with her short blond bob, and Meilani, with her dark flowing locks, run around squealing, Dorina exclaimed, "It's little us!" It's so special to watch our daughters share friendship too! I expect Delia and Giada will bring us the same sentiments as we watch them play in the future.

New Shoes

Unless it's a gift, Delia does not usually get new clothes. Her size and season matches up with Ella's perfectly, making hand-me-downs such a blessing. She was having a little trouble with the shoes Ella wore the summer she was 18 months though, so last night I took Delia shoe shopping.

Dave thought this was such an indication of how Delia is growing up in personality and communication and got such a kick out of the story, he told me I had to blog it. I plucked about 7 pairs that I thought were appropriate off the shelf and starting trying them on her. After each pair she would shake her head vehemently and say, "No, no, no..." No to the strappy, butterfly sandals. No to the flowered, canvas gym shoes. No to the purple, waterproof sandals. No to the pink, velcro shoes. When we got to this last pair, her eyes lit up and she said "Yeah!!" She thrust her foot out for me to put it on and wouldn't take the shoes off, wearing them home. Of course this was the most expensive pair, but even Dave said, "How could you resist that?"

As you can imagine, we are very used to Ella having quite an opinion about what she will and will not wear, but this is Delia's first display of it!