Sunny Days

It's been a very cold and much rainier Spring than usual (about 10 degrees lower) so when the sun came out and it was actually warm the kids were outside running and playing in it.

The girls were using their imaginations and at some point mentioned something about they pyramids in Egypt, which impressed me until John reminded me that was the Please and Thank You episode on The Backyardigans. :) Although they were flying like planes with bunny ears and then an all time favorite played on the swings.

Tate-well he's all about the dirt. He's rediscovered his dirt box, although I'm thrilled to find him NOT eating it this year. Every time the sun comes out and even when it's cold if I let him he runs out there and just fills the bucket and dumps it out

Eventually we all gravitate and get a little dirty. I garden-they make mud/dirt cakes.

Head Shoulders Knees & Toes...New Shoes

A big surprise came in the mail this week.

Just a Few More...hens

Is it sad that the biggest news around here mostly has to do with Chickens...

Well John surprised us with a couple of new chicks on Saturday when he came home from work. I can't say we were disappointed-we love lil baby animals and chicks so soft and fuzzy are cute as can be. Too bad they can't stay that size. They also make the other 4 look Huge-although they are really only midsize. Our new Chicks will be Red/Brown-making it a very colorful clan.

Their names:

Goldilocks (hence the current color) & Shiver (cuz it was leftover from the last round of name giving).

We won't put them in with the other chickens quite yet. Something to do with the pecking order. But they do share a warming light. They seem to be ok with that much.

A night Out

Employee appreciation party at the Tacoma Rainier Baseball Game. We don't get out with just the two of us very often and it was almost awkward, I mean really fun to spend some time together. No it really was fun to be with him and to see and get to know his "co-workers" although I think he was the only one from his clinic there. It was fun to see Adam & Becky Jo and their families, and the Steele Klan, old and new friends.

My only complaint was the wind and the very cold chill factor in the air. It was FREEZING!!!

Thanks Mom Payne for watching the kids so we could have some time together!

There's an article in the Friend Magazine this month re-featuring a recipe from 1980-an orange roll called Bunny Buns.

We couldn't wait to try it out-well I guess we could since we've had the magazine for about a month now. My kids aren't fond of orange flavoring-so I just added a lil extra sugar to the dough to make up for the lack of OJ and the results were fantastic!

We even got an "Oohhh" from Tate.

The girls had a lot of fun making them and eating them.

In case you wanted to try them out here's the recipe:

Bunny Buns

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup milk, warmed not quite to boiling

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons grated orange peel

5 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Glaze: 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup hot water, 1 teaspoon butter

1. 1.

   Wash hands with soap and water.

2. 2.

   Sprinkle yeast in the warm water and set aside.

3. 3.

   In another bowl, blend milk, sugar, shortening, and salt. Cool until lukewarm, then add eggs, water with yeast, orange juice, and orange peel.

4. 4.

   Stir in flour a few cups at a time to make a soft dough. Let stand for 10 minutes.

5. 5.

   Knead dough 5–10 minutes on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic. Place it in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover bowl with a clean towel and put it in a warm place. Let dough rise for 2 hours, or until double in size. Punch dough down and let stand for 10 minutes.

6. 6.

   On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Cut dough into strips 1/2 inch wide and 14 inches long. Roll between hands into rounded snake shapes. Cut one strip into pieces 1/2 inch long, and roll into balls.

7. 7.

   Place one long piece of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Place one end of the strip over the other to make a loop; bring the end that is underneath up and cross it over the other end. Place a ball of dough on top of the bottom loop.

8. 8.

   Cover bunnies and let rise in a warm place for 45–60 minutes, until nearly double in size. Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for 12–15 minutes.

9. 9.

   For the glaze, stir powdered sugar, water, and butter together. Frost bunnies with the glaze while they are still warm.

10. 

Chicken Update

Still can't believe that Chickens have joined the family...kind of.

04-2-11

Tate prefers to hold onto the heads-we're working on that one.

Can't believe the rate at which they've been growing.

And that's not the only thing that's grown-although they haven't made it out of the garage their home continues to go up

as their more more permant-roaming home home comes together.

Tyler visits the chickens several times a day-always such a sweet girl making sure everyone is well taken care of an happy.

White Cloud

In a moment when my back was turned Tyler yelled,"Mom look at Tate" which is never a good sign. And I found this, a big white Cloud from the box of Kleenexes we'd just bought.

He was all too pleased with himself-my taking pictures pry didn't help, but it was too funny!

Spring Break March 28- April 1 2011

The description of "spring" break was a little deceiving this year. McKenna did indeed have a break from school, although there was nothing springy about it. It was indeed cold and a bit miserable where the weather was concerned. I have been trying to focus on turning Lemons into lemonade so this was the perfect week to begin implementing the concept. Overall I think we had a great time this week. I know McKenna loved being home and Tyler loved having her there-someone to play with everyday!!!!!

McKenna had one request for her lil vacation. She wanted to go to the beach and go "hiking". I use the term very loosely. So when we woke Monday morning and saw it wasn't raining we packed our lunches jumped in the car and drove to Ruston Way in Tacoma to Adam's Beach to meet our friends the Chadwick's and to have a little picnic. The kids had a great time-although the adults were a little cold. :)

Other activities and crafts we did throughout the week were:

Rock Ladybugs,

Butterflies,

and we made sugar cookies and delivered them to a couple of our friends to brighten their rainy Spring Break.

Friday rain or shine we had decided to go to the zoo with some of friends and ran into a few friends who had the same idea. We spent a lot of time in the Aquarium looking at the fish, sharks, Seahorses and having lunch.

When the rain let up to a drizzle we ventured outside to see how the animals were faring in the rainy weather. This was the closest we've ever seen the Daddy tiger-who was taking a nap out of the wet brush.

The baby tigers don't look much like babies anymore. At 10 months old the male Bali is already 100 lbs.

The snow leopard trainer came to feed the 20 month cubs(?) which was fun to see. We headed over to see the walruses & seals where our Daddy surprised us-since he only had to work half a day.

On our way out we stopped by the carousel because no zoo trip is quite complete without a ride.

Overall it was a fun week! I'm thankful for the internet and it's vas array of ideas-craft and activity it has to offer. We had a lot of fun with McKenna and we're glad she could take a break to play with us and we're really glad we had our Grandma here to share it with.

Grandma's been going to therapy a couple of times a week and can often be found doing her stretches at home and seems to be doing quite well. There's even talk of her leaving at the end of the month-which is pry good news for her (so her son doesn't torture her anymore and she can have good thoughts about him), but we don't look forward to her leaving! Tyler is often found in her room in the rocker spinning round and round while talking her ear off, or playing games with her! No night is complete until they have been able to kiss their Grandma on the way to bed. We sure do love having her around.