Art Wall Update

Here is Clara’s most recent art work… Its all been updated, so I’m posting it.  I’m trying to do a good job of updating the pictures as she makes them, but this is the first time they’ve all been new since I first put the frames up, so I’m not really doing that good of a job.  I am trying, though.

Raspberry/Blueberry Muffins

We have a ton of raspberries and blueberries to pick right now.  We already have two and a half gallons of frozen ones and I’ve made a few batches of these yummy muffins as well.  We have been having them for snack after going out to the backyard and picking for a few minutes. They are whole grain and oh so yummy.  I highly recommend making them with berries that have been freshly picked, dumped out of a bucket and rinsed.  Clara helps me make them, but mostly wants to eat the dough.  She calls them cupcakes, not muffins, because that’s more fun.

Ingredients:

1 C. oats

1 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 C. brown sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 egg

1 C. + 2 T. buttermilk (I’ve been using milk with 2 tablespoons lemon juice because its too much of a bother to go buy buttermilk)

3 T. canola oil

2-3 C. blueberries and/or raspberries

Directions:

1)  Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Make sure that your toddler helps and promptly flings flour all over the counter and floor.

2)  Add liquid ingredients and mix quickly to try to keep little fingers from eating too much dough. 

3)  Add berries, stopping half-way to the bowl to allow for tasting.

 

4) Pour into muffin cups that have been sprayed with cooking oil spray.  Halfway through, succumb to whining and give toddler her own spoon full of batter.   When all muffin cups are full, hand bowl back to toddler to lick despite all parenting books’ advice that raw eggs are never to be eaten.

5)  Bake mini-muffins for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, regular size muffins for 25 minutes.  Go outside to play while baking so that the cries of “Cupcakes!!” do not become too overwhelming.

Everything I ever needed to know, I learned at Camp Silver Creek

1)  Be crazy and silly for no reason… its super fun!  At camp, people will do anything that they are asked to do (well, within reason)… men dressing up as girls, campers singing for their mail, having to sing “Happy Birthday” to yourself, grown-ups eating with no hands, whole groups of people blindly sitting on wet sponges, whole cabins running around in painted cardboard armor… That’s what makes camp fun!

2)  Good will always win out over evil… at least in Camp games where you can see a white horse (ridden by a woman in a wedding dress) being chased at a gallop across a field by a band of black horses and their evil riders?  The evil-doers are always overcome by the good campers.

3)  When you’re really tired and feel like you just can’t go on… keep going and jump in the lake.  You’ll feel better afterward. That’s what you’re supposed to do after a good long overnight hike… Shelburg falls anyone?

4)  When in doubt, eat more bacon.  ‘Nough said.

5)  A bit of paint will change anyone into an alien, Hogwarts student, carnival freak… pretty much anything they might want to be.

6)  Swimming can and should happen any time of day, multiple times a day.

7)  Places that seem scary at night most certainly are the coolest places ever in the daytime… besides, they filmed Star Wars there and the Ewoks loved it.

8)  If you need a little quiet time, arts and crafts will always be there for you.

 

9)  Life is nothing without someone to give your magic penny to.

10)  While it seems that everything changes, really, everything stays exactly the same and we are the ones who are changing.  Silver Creek, with its lack of electricity and technology, classic games and activities, and beautiful, timeless forest is the epitome of this.  There are few places left where we can go and truly understand this today, and I, for one, am grateful to have this experience every year.

4th of July!

We had a lovely 4th of July (I know this is a little late, but we left for camp the next day).  First we went to a little neighborhood parade and had a wonderful time.  The parade’s biggest hits were two cars and a pony, which the kids couldn’t get enough of.  Then they ran around in the street.  What could be better?




The only fireworks that we got to see were these sidewalk chalk ones that I drew on the road. Remember when you used to use your boring class time to cover notebook paper with these? Good times.

Then we went to the Schraders’ for their annual barbecue/picnic and had a really good time. Clara napped in the car on the way there and on the way home. Her favorite part was the cupcakes.

Overall, a low-key, fun Fourth. Maybe next year we’ll be able to stay up for fireworks and Clara will actually know what they are. In playschool before the fourth we made these fireworks with the kids and then we had to show them a YouTube video of some fireworks so that they knew what they were making. Which was a huge hit, by the way. They all ran around yelling “BOOOM!” after it.

Juicy!

Clara has very recently fallen in love with words.  There are just some that she loves to say, and of course some that are ridiculously funny.  I am loving it.  It all started with the word burp, which ended the book A Birthday for Cow.  I would read, “Burp,” then Clara would repeat it again and again with more and more uncontrollable giggling each time.  Then the word “toot” started to elicit the same reaction and I thought that maybe it was only bodily sounds that she found so funny.  That was until yesterday. 

Clara loves watermelon.  She loves it more than any other fruit and almost as much as chocolate.  As I was cutting up a watermelon yesterday, Clara was snatching pieces out of the bowl next to me and shoving them into her mouth.  Juice was rolling down her chin and all over her shirt.  I said, “That’s some juicy watermelon, isn’t it?”  Clara’s response?

“Juicy!!!” followed by a gale of laughter.

“Juicy!!”  More giggles.

“Juicy!!”  Howls of laughter.

“Juicy!!” Practically rolling on the floor.  

This went on for about ten minutes.  It was adorable.  I’m glad that it’s just cool words that are so funny and not physical functions.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  For a two year old.