Where's Hannah?

I went up to the playroom to check on the girls the other day but didn't see Hannah.

Then she said "I right here"

Curious George

Curious George was at Pottery Barn Kids this morning so we went out to the mall to see him.  The girls were really excited and Lily had no problem, she ran right up and gave him a big hug when it was her turn.  Hannah on the other hand wouldn't let me put her down and eventually she gave him a high five but still wouldn't let me put her down so no pictures of her.






Then the girls of course spotted the fountain and we had to go throw some pennies in.
 

My Lily

I was sitting with the girls while they ate dinner the other night and Lily was hamming it up so I got the camera out and took some pictures.  She got a new pair of sunglasses and didn't want to take them off even when she was inside.

Lily's Love

Ok, so I meant to post this awhile ago but got a little sidetracked.  Anyways, back in April some friend's of Colin's from college came for a visit.  They used to live in Richmond at one point but have moved back to California.  They have two sons Logan and Dominic.  Logan walked in the door and immediately introduced himself to Lily and they hit it off right away.  The second day they were here we went to the park and the kids had a great time.  Lily had a lot of fun with Logan and really misses him but hopefully she will get to see him again some time.

General Mills Giveaway #2

"Your child´s favorite cereals may actually help fight childhood obesity," said Dr. Keith Ayoob Ed.D., RD. "Cereal provides key nutrients that are important to overall health and cereals, including sweetened cereals, provide less than 5 percent of a child´s daily sugar intake."

In addition, did you know cereal is lower in calories and higher in nutrition than many other breakfast options like bagels with cream cheese and pancakes?

•A 2009 study of children aged 6 to 18 shows cereal eaters have healthier body weights than those who don´t eat cereal, regardless of sweetness level.

•Cereal eaters consume less fat than non-cereal eaters.

•Not all cereals are equal and it´s important to read the labels -- General Mills is proud of its commitment to reduce sugar in all of its kids´ cereals to single-digit levels per serving.

•General Mills has more than 30 nutritious cereals with 130 calories or less per serving.

 
For a chance to win this prize pack from just leave me a comment (and a way for me to contact you if there isn't one in your profile) about your thoughts on sugar in cereals for kids.  The drawing will close Friday the 24th.


*All information and prize packs are provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark

In The Kitchen

I am going to cheat a little on this one since I spent the morning in the kitchen and have some of this made already.

Monkey Bread
Apple sauce
Strawberry Frozen Yogurt
Whole Wheat Bread
Chocolate Chip Cookies

White is not a good color

I love this white shirt and bought it to go with a really cute pair of capri pants for Hannah. No, it wasn't expensive but this is what it looked like after Hannah wore it for one day. I know there is some paint on there but I am not even really sure what all the stains are.

Oh how I love my stain remover though because I managed to get everything out and it looks perfect once again.

Giveaway: General Mills Cereals

As much as I'd love to say that I get up at the crack of dawn every morning to make my kids a hot breakfast, that just doesn't happen.  We usually have a variety of cereals on hand and also eat it as a snack during the day.  Is there something in particular you look for in the cereals you buy for your kids (and yourself)? 

General Mills commissioned a survey of D.C.-area parents to uncover their children's eating habits, as well as what they deem important to help ensure their children grow up healthy. As parents strive to make smart food choices, nearly all (97 percent) agree it's important for their children to eat breakfast and four out five (86 percent) say cereal is a healthy breakfast choice. What are they looking for in options for their family's breakfast?

• 81 percent cited good flavor as important
• 60 percent want a breakfast packed with vitamins and minerals
• 59 percent look for convenient options
• 40 percent want a breakfast option that is low in fat
• About a quarter said they were interested in breakfast options that had at least 8 grams of whole grains (24 percent)

Check out more findings from the survey here: D.C. Parent Survey
Emerging research supports D.C. parents' views. In fact, a 2009 study found that children who eat cereal have significantly higher intakes of whole grain, folate, calcium, iron, fiber, zinc and several other nutrients.
Did you know?

• Cereal is one of the healthiest breakfast options you can make (See video below to learn more)
• Packed with nutrition, cereal provides a great choice for breakfast
• Studies have shown that kids who eat breakfast tend to perform better in school and have fewer disciplinary problems. They also have shown that breakfast also tends to help kids stay alert.

I am all for feeding my kids healthy cereals packed with vitamins and little sugar but that really does me no good if they won't eat it.  So, I do my best to sway them to healthier options, we try and stick to the different varieties of Cheerios and Chex for breakfast, I will let them eat some of the other more sugary cereals for snacks.

General Mills through MyBlogSpark was nice enough to supply me and one lucky winner with a prize pack that includes 10 sample sized packs of their cereals and a milk pitcher.  To enter simply leave a comment (don't forget to leave an email address if one is not attached to your account) letting me know what you look for when picking out cereals for your kids.  The drawing will close Friday the 17th and don't forget to check back as there will be another Giveaway next week.



*All information and prize packs were provided by General Mill through MyBlogSpark

Bulk

That about covers it.  This was my first order through a coop for bulk food and baking supplies.  One 45 lb. pail of hard white wheat berries, one 45 lb. pail of soft white wheat berries, 5 lb. pail of honey granules (use instead of white sugar), 5 lb. pail of sucanat (use instead of brown sugar), and 5 lb. pail of dehydrated refried beans.  I grind the wheat berries in my wonderful grain mill and we now have freshly ground flour to cook and bake with.  The refried beans do not sound very appetizing but they are actually quite good.  You cook them just like you would rice with a 1:1 ratio and they taste just like the ones that ocme out of the can but much healthier/better for you.  The dehydrated honey granulas and sucanat are much healthier for you than sugar and you can't tell the difference when it comes to using them in baking.

The Beach

We made our first trip of the summer down to The Beach last weekend. The girls had lots of fun and didn't want to leave. We spent most of the time on the beach but did manage to get them into the pool for a little bit. We woke up to lots of rain on Sunday morning so headed home earlier than planned.

The pictures aren't that great because I was smart enough to pack the "good" camera but forgot to put the memory card in it. We will be going back next month so hopefully will have some better pictures then.

Change for a Change

Here is the a link to Tiffany's post for this week's Change for a Change post.  I will be headed to the store tomorrow to do my shopping and drop off.

In The Kitchen

My list for this week

Whole Wheat buns
Strawberry Frozen Yogurt (made from fresh strawberries that we picked)
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Apple Sauce

Lily's 4th Birthday

I'm still having a hard time believing it but Lily turned 4 on Sunday.  She decided she wanted to have a Rapunzel party and this was also the first year we invited her friends from preschool.  We invited the 8 girls from her class and I figured that since it was Mother's Day that we would probably only have a couple that could come......I was wrong, 6 of the 8 invited were able to make it to the party.  I did my best to make a Rapunzel cupcake tower and we decorated paper laterns for an activity.  It seemed liked they had lots of fun and I know Lily had a great day


She got lots of great presents including her first bike, a giant Tiger, some barbie, Dora, and My Little Pony toys that she and Hannah have been fighting over non stop since.

In The Kitchen

I am trying to post a little more often so I thought I would do a weekly post on the recipes I am going to try and make during the week.  I usually start the week off with a list and some times I make everything and some times I make nothing but I usually make at least one thing each week.  This week on my list I have :

Granola
Chocolate Ice cream
Strawberry Frozen Yogurt  The girls ate all the strawberries before I got a chance to make the frozen yogurt
French Bread  Didn't get a chance to get to this one this week, adding to next weeks list
Banana Bread

This may seem like a lot of stuff but my freezer is my best friend.  When I make banana bread I make it in mini loaf pans and my recipe makes 5.  The girls and I can usually eat one loaf in a day so I leave one out and put the others in the freezer.  The ice cream and frozen yogurt will last us awhile but I had heavy cream and yogurt I need to use up so I will make these now and we will eat them over the next month or so.  For the french bread I will just make one loaf and Colin and the girls will probably polish this off in two days.  The granola is for me and I like to eat it plain as a snack or I will mix it in some vanilla yogurt.

Do you shop at Kroger and have $3?

I know I do.  A few weeks ago while looking for the Kroger sales information online I found a link to this Blog.  Each week Tiffany posts Change for a Change and highlights some great items that can be found cheap at Kroger.  She posts a small list and after coupons the total amount for all the items is right around $3.  Tiffany highlights these items because they are items that would be great for donation to your local food bank.  For only $3 a week you can fill up a grocery bag that could help families in your area.  My Kroger store happens to have a donation box right by the registers when I check out so it's easy to buy the items and drop them off right in the same place.  If you don't have a Kroger store near you Tiffany also posts deals for Publix stores as well.

Easter 2011

We had lots of fun on Easter.  The girls had two baskets each to find when they woke up in the morning.  Then we got all dressed up to go to church which did not work out so well.  Hannah lasted maybe a whole 10 minutes total actually inside the church, she and I spent most of the time outside.  We came home and after Hannah's nap headed over to Lovie's for an Easter egg hunt.  I think Hannah actually found more eggs than anyone else.

This picture pretty accurately shows Hannah's mood for the whole day. She has most definitely hit the "terrible 2's" and I am more than ready for it to be over.

Birthday Arts and Crafts

I saw this balloon wreath on a blog a couple weeks ago and since Colin and Lily's birthdays are right around the corner I thought it would be really cute.  One straw wreath, 300 balloons and floral pins later we have our own balloon wreath for the front door.

Please excuse the dirty front door but despite that I love the wreath and think it turned out really cute.

No car

We are stuck at home today since our new to us minivan is at the dealership to have a couple recalls fixed.  Lily keeps asking me where we are going today and I have explained each time that we are not going anywhere today as we have no car. 

Lily:  When are we going bye byes?
Me:  We don't have a car, we are staying home today.
Lily:  Well, we have feet, we can walk.
Me:  Where do you want to walk to?
Lily:  We can go outside and walk to the car store and get a new car and go bye byes.
Me:  Ummm.......I don't think that is going to happen.

Apparently to Lily new cars grow on trees just like money.

Swish

This is how Hannah sucks her thumb. She puts her right thumb in her mouth and lifts the left arm into the air. If she is wearing a long sleeve shirt she will pull her sleeve up just passed her elbow and actually tuck the other fingers on her right hand into the sleeve. She always has her fingers pointed like that, like she just made an amazing three pointer.

I'm So Stylish

Yes, that is exactly what this child said to me while wearing this outfit. I asked if I could take a picture and she said "sure" and proudly posed for me.


It saddens and amazes me every day how old she is getting.  Just looking at this picture I can't believe she is almost 4, but at the same time I love our conversations and how they've changed the older she gets.

Dr. Seuss

I bought this Cat in The Hat outfit for Lily over a year ago and she loves it.  The two small pictures on the right are from last fall when she first got it and the big picture on the left is from last week.  I had to get in touch with April again and ask if she could make another shirt because the first one had gotten to small but the skirt still fit.  Lily was so excited when the new shirt came and she could wear her skirt again.


April makes lots of beautiful childrens clothes if you want to check out her etsy shop.

10 on 10 - March

Lily eats cereal for breakfast 98% of the time. Unless there is a donut in the house she will pick cereal over anything else. After she finishes her cereal she always asks me if she can drink the milk. I don't know why but she always asks first. Oh, and she normally doesn't get a juice box for breakfast but I couldn't get the big container of apple juice open when packing her snack for school so I opened the juice box to mix with water for her cup and gave her the rest.



All dressed for the day and ready to take Lily to school.



I just can't help it, I love this "cheese" face so much and will probably cry when she starts to actually smile for pictures.



We had a pretty rainy dreary day here with lots of rain on and off all day.



Hannah turned 2 in January and is still rear facing in her carseat. She is well within the size requirements to still rear face and it is so much safer for her to sit this way. I don't know how much longer we'll keep her this way as she is starting to fight being put in the seat quite often but I want to keep her like this as long as possible.



Dinner tonight for the girls and I was Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. They were pretty good.



I also made some chocolate chip cookies tonight and burned them because I was watching the pancakes and forgot about the cookies.



Here is a little FYI for you. If you have some cookies that cooked a bit too long and are crunchier than you like just add a piece of bread to the container and the cookies will absorb the moisture form the bread and are much softer.



I also made some rolls tonight too. They are just frozen dough you let sit on the counter for a few hours and then bake. They are really good and usually don't last too long in our house. I managed not to burn these.



We decided to turn the dining room into a more usable space for the girls this weekend. If we weren't trying to sell the house we would turn it into an all out playroom. We got the cabinet to hold all their art stuff (markers, crayons, coloring books, play doh, paint), and covered the table in paper and moved it to the corner to give them plenty of room. We can easily put all the stuff away and move the table back if someone wants to come look at the house and now we can eat dinner without having to worry about glue and paint all over the kitchen table.

A Year of Laundry Detergent

Yup, I bought a years worth of laundry detergent this week. Well, as long as my math and estimations are right it should last us about 21.33 months. If I had just gone to the store and bought one of these bottles as we needed them it would end up costing us $72. I spent a whopping $16.99 for them and that includes the cost of buying the coupons that I also used.

I still have some bottles in the laundry room from the last time I stocked up so we really are set for a year and I won't have to worry about laundry detergent for months. I tried to think ahead a bit as our washer and dryer are dying a slow death though we are hoping that they last at least another year. Just in case the washer does give out on us for good and we get a new one I made sure that some of the bottles are HE so I will use those last.

My Cinderella

Colin was cleaning out some files this weekend and shredded a bunch of old papers.  On Monday Lily was upstairs playing and I went to check on her and she had gotten into the shredded paper.  There were maybe a couple of toddler sized hand fulls of paper in a two foot by two foot area on the carpet.  I was not happy and told her she needed to clean up the mess.  I went back to check on her 10 minutes later and she had gone from two hand fulls to the entire bin of shredded paper ALL OVER the entire room.

Now I really wasn't happy and neither was she when I informed her that she would be cleaning up the whole mess on her own with no help from me.

 

I again went back to check on her to see how she was doing and it looked like she had barely touched it.  She spent the rest of the night picking up all the paper and eventually Colin took a little pitty on her and let her finish up using the vacuum.