RaptorMama

If you live in Central Texas, it’s almost a requirement that you take plop your kid into a field of bluebonnets and take pictures.  I was getting worried since I kept looking for a good field without much success, but then I hit pay dirt.  Or rather Libby hit pay dirt and let me tag along.  🙂

I played around a bit with some photoshop filters.  Is it too much?  I like it, but then I messed with it so much that I’ve lost any perspective.

Kate was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.  I think it helped that she got to wear her Christmas dress.  I think she would wear it every day if I would let her.  🙂

I couldn’t believe how thick the bluebonnets were!  It seems like they’re pretty scarce this year.  A really tall yellow flower has taken over a lot of the bluebonnet fields.

I *may* have resorted to bribery to get this last shot.  Don’t judge.  🙂

I think her mind was blown when she realized that you could get sprinkles on a donut.

 

Um, this thing is the bomb!  I <3 it.  My friend Stacy gave it to me for my birthday, along with the cookbook, storage case and extra popsicle sticks.  Basically, you leave it in your freezer for at least 24 hours and then it can make popsicles in 10 minutes.  Since it freezes so quickly, you can make really cool designs and stuff too.  Check it out.

   

We sliced some strawberries very thinly and stuck them to the sides of the mold.  Since the mold is so cold, they stick to the side almost immediately.  Then we poured in some limeade.  That’s really all there is too it!  The popsicles were very easy to get out of the mold.

Kate approves.  Note the drip guard.  Genius.

Then we decided to try some fancy ones.  We put some limeade in and waited a few minutes for the outside to freeze.  Before the inside could freeze, Michael sucked it up with a straw and then poured in some cranberry juice.  Awesome!

Then we decided to try some sangria ones.  We stuck some more strawberries to the sides and then alternated wine and limeade layers.  Why yes, that is a baby medicine syringe.  It worked great.

   

We were too impatient and didn’t wait long enough in between layers so there were no stripes, but the wine did freeze!

I have to tell you, I had really high hopes for this wine popsicle.  Meh.  I think wine is not meant to be frozen.  The rest of them were fantastic though.  Michael even made one with iced coffee.  I love that I can buy organic juice with no HFCS and make my own popsicles.  I love that I can add real fruit to them.  I love that Kate can help and actually see them freeze because it’s so fast.  Two thumbs *way* up.

I also may have just ordered the tool kit and the character kit.  They’ll be here this weekend.  🙂  I managed to restrain myself from upgrading the shipping so they would be here tomorrow, but it was a near thing.  Luckily we get 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime.  🙂

I just got this

for my birthday. It’s chilling in the freezer now. I’m so excited! Thanks Stacy. 🙂

So, we live in Texas, also known as the surface of the sun.  It may be only March, but it’s already getting too hot to play outside.  We set up the kiddie pool today because the water table just wasn’t cutting it.  🙂

Santa brought Kate a really cool playscape this year for Christmas, but the plastic slide is getting too hot for her to use.  We decided to try and shade the slide so Michael headed over to Home Depot for supplies.  He’s so awesome y’all.  It came out way cooler than I was expecting.  He even made a place for Kate to have a little planter box.  She is thrilled.

On the recommendation of my mother-in-law, we decided to put some morning glory in a few little pots.  They are supposed to do well in full scorching sun.  ::fingers crossed::  I tried to have Kate help put soil in the pots, but most of the soil ended up on the deck or on her face.  Eh, she had fun doing it.

   

Then we added the seeds and some water.  (Duh.)  We did 4 pots.

Here you can see the pots in place on the slide shade contraption.  The pots slide right down into it.  ::love::

Kate is super excited to have some plants in her “house.”  She’s in charge of watering them every day.  We’ll see how long I can keep them alive.  🙂

Just found the crafting area in the Children’s Museum. So cool. 🙂

So my sister-in-law had her twin babies this week!  Very exciting.  🙂  We haven’t gotten to see them yet as they’re in the NICU getting a big bigger, but we have high hopes that they’ll be able to come home soon.  ::fingers crossed::

Kate and I decided to make some lactation cookies this weekend and drop them off.  Now I’m not going to claim that these are the tastiest cookies in the world, but they are edible.  I never made them while I was nursing Kate, but whenever I ate oatmeal I would be drowning in milk so maybe there’s something to them.  🙂

I asked Michael to print the recipe off for me, but he scoffed at my poor formatting and redid my pitiful pages document.  (side note: pages is like word but awesome.)  Here’s the link to the recipe in case you want to make some cookies of your own.  Some of the ingredients are a bit out there (brewer’s yeast?) but I was able to find everything I needed at Sprouts.

 

 

I’m working on Project Life today. Sill loving it. 🙂

I use almost exclusively hipstamatic pics from my phone like this one. I live the square size! I also love capturing everyday moments. I take a lot of pictures with our DSLR, but I always have my phone with me. Michael takes a lot of phone pictures too and I think it’s nice to add in his perspective since the big scrapbooks are mostly from my perspective.

It’s been too pretty to stay inside, so we set up the water table today.  Kate even got a bit of ice cream after dinner.  With sprinkles, of course.  🙂

 

My friend Kate sent us these awesome tongs for our Kate.  (Thanks!)  I gave her a muffin tin, the bowl of pony beads and the tongs and she went to town.

She insisted on only sorting the pink beads.  🙂

I love this activity.  Using the tongs helps develop her fine motor skills and sorting is always good for the ol’ brain.  We’ll be doing this again soon I think.

We got Kate a few pony beads and some pipe cleaners this week.

   

It was a hit! She had a blast threading the beads on the pipe cleaners.  She’s been threading wooden beads on shoelaces for a long time now, but it was nice to change it up with the pipe cleaners.  The stiffness of the pipe cleaners made it really easy for her to work with.

The fact that they were sparkly didn’t hurt.  🙂

   

We worked with her on making patterns for a bit, but as you can see she lost interest towards the end.  🙂