In The Kitchen: Tuesday Night Edition

Addie and I were invited to attend a fun “Spooks-n-Spiders” Halloween party this week at the home of one of the little boys in her preschool class.  Since the party was on Wednesday, we decided to move our “Thursday Nights: In the Kitchen” session to Tuesday to make some fun “spider” treats to take along.  (And it just so happened I was off this Tuesday evening, so it worked out perfectly!)  The treats were super easy to make, somewhat healthy in the midst of the traditional Halloween candy fest and quite cute if I do say so myself. 

Here is my little helper making sure we have all of our supplies…

…adding the “glue” (peanut butter) to the “body” (cracker)…

…carefully counting the “legs” (pretzel sticks)…

…time for the “eyes” (M&M’s)…

…and ta-da, a cute and edible spider treat!

We also made some Witches Brooms out of pretzel sticks and fruit roll-ups but those were a little more tedious, so Addie did not get to help as much.

A funny story about this weeks “In the Kitchen” adventure that I have to share…

For those that know me, well you know that I prefer things to be symmetrical and somewhat “correct”.  Addie and I talked about how spiders have eight legs and that we needed to put eight pretzel sticks on each cracker body.  Her first “spider” she created had eight legs crammed on one side and none on the other.  I tried to ignore it.  I really did!  But my type A personality got the best of me and had to fix it.  So then we talked about how we should put four on each side to make it even.  I always try to incorporate some math and/or reading skills into our weekly cooking sessions, so I showed her how four legs on one side plus four legs on the other side still equal eight legs.  Not only are we counting, but now we are making equal sets and adding as well!  We apparently counted over and over to four so many times and made enough equal sets that by the end of it, she was convinced that spiders have only four legs.  Oh well, we still had fun!

In the Kitchen

Addie and I have started a new Thursday Night Tradition (you can call it a tradition when it’s happened two weeks in a row right?!?).  The boys head off to karate, so Addie and I head into the kitchen to “bake” up some breakfast treats for the upcoming week.  Last week we made about 4 dozen muffins, this week a double batch of waffles.  The kids really seem to enjoy having something more than cereal or poptarts from a box for breakfast and it gives Addie and I a chance to spend some quality time together.  For whatever reason I can’t seem to make myself sit down and “play” with the kids when we are at home.  My to-do lists always seem to be a mile long.  So instead of feeling guilty that I never “play” with Addie on our days off, we’ve started making a game of all the household chores I do during the week.  Sometimes the bathrooms aren’t always as clean as I would like and you might want to think twice before eating one of our “Thursday Night” treats (I’m pretty sure I caught her licking the spoon between scoops a few times during our muffin baking session) but she has fun, we are able to incorporate some academic skills into the mix and more importantly we are cherishing our time together while she is still young.

Stirring the batter

Time to scoop

Every great chef needs to taste test their creations!

Just Us Girls

What do you do when you find you have a few minutes to spare between errands and just happen to have your lunch boxes packed and in the car with you?  Stop by an old park favorite and have a picnic of course!  Addie and I did just that today.  I think she enjoyed having some time for “just us girls”.

Showing off her butterfly shaped sandwich.  The things we do to get our kids to eat!

This is the face I get when I ask her to say cheese in the middle of a bite.

Our little princess…wouldn’t trade her for the world!

Time to slide	Time to climb
Fearless	Busy, Busy, Busy
Back…	…and forth!

Oh the small pleasures in life!  We should all be so lucky to spend a day pretending to be 3 again!

Day with the family

Every once in a while the stars align and we end up with a Saturday where not much else is going on and we can actually spend time as a family.  This was one of those days.  The weather was a perfect 85^o and you just could not ask for better.  Crystal too the opportunity to go for a run first thing in the morning and when she got back I went for a ride.  After getting back and a quick shower, we loaded the kids up to have lunch in Gruene.  Sandwiches and a live band is a great way to spend a lunch.  The kids found a little play house to have fun in.

On our way back home we decided to stop by the Snake Farm.  Not only do they have about a hundred snakes that you don’t want to touch, but they have a lot of other animals too.

Western Diamondback that wanted to strike Addie.

Rattlesnake Pit

We didn’t get a picture of it, but the best part was watching an alligator catch a pigeon out of a tree and eat it.  He was fast.  Sadly, the alligator has caught more birds this year than I have. 

Little Ballerina

Addie is doing ballet again and is really excited about it.  She gets herself dressed days in advance and is upset when we tell her the class is not until Saturday. 

Help me support the National MS Society!

This October I am riding in the National MS Society’s MS 150 Ride to the River.  I have done this ride for several years and it is always a great time.  However, the real reason I continue to enjoy and support this ride is because of the support given to the National MS Society.  I believe in the work they do and want to be an active part of it.

Help support Me and the National MS Society!  Click Here!

Thank you for supporting me and the National MS Society and I am looking forward to counting you as a sponsor for my ride!

Thanks & Gig 'EM!

Blake

How to train a whale

From our SeaWorld trip today, a behind the scene’s look at how to train a killer whale.  I always wondered how they did this.

Baby Shamu (19 months old)

Eating backstage at the Shamu theater.

Grandma also got the kids some fish so they could feed the dolphins.

And he was finally tall enough to ride his first real rollercoaster!

Kiddie Park

Today the kids and I met some friends down at the Kiddie Park.  It may not look like much, but the kids always seem to have a great time.  It’s also a neat adventure to teach them a little history about the area.  The Kiddie Park has been around since 1925 and the Carousel was even featured on a postage stamp in the 80’s apparently. 

Here they are living it up on some “old-fashioned” carnival style rides….

Driving the boat!

Shooting the bad guys!

Shooting his sister!

Riding the WILD & CRAZY bus and  more boat action with friends!

All in all is was a fun day at the Kiddie Park.  The summer sun stayed behind the clouds just long enough for us to enjoy the morning on the rides, share a picnic lunch with friends and one last round of rides before heading home.