I need to do a post soon on why two and a half is my very favorite age. This girl is the sweetest thing I’ve ever laid eye on.
Archive for August, 2010
5 Aug
Shameless product plug post
This summer has been crazy hot. As such, we’re spending quite a lot of time inside. It’s not easy to entertain a two kids under six when you can’t just say, “Please go be outside for bit so Mommy doesn’t have a breakdown.”
So, we’re employing some rather creative measures. There’s a tent—a real, live, actual camping tent—pitched in our dining room. Also, limits on TV? Gone.
Perhaps the best coping technique, though, is the simplest: popsicles.
My Mom gave Ava and Olivia this fabulous frozen box that makes homemade popsicles in under seven minutes. (That’s just enough time to say, “Are they done yet?” 112 times. I want to respond with, “When I was your age, we had to wait FIVE HOURS for popsicles.”)
In any event, seven minutes is super fast, especially when you consider all of the fun things you can do with this contraption. You can let the outer shell freeze, then pour out the liquid and replace it with juice of another color. Voila! Filled popsicles. You can make layered popsicles: also popular with the under six set. And, you can use vegetable juice and no one will be the wiser.
Lately, we’ve been making strawberry-lemonade popsicles. Despite warnings about low-sugar juices not freezing well, light lemonade works perfectly.
I’m expecting my royalty check to arrive any moment from Williams Sonoma. I’m going to use it buy more juice. And maybe some lawn chairs for our indoor campsite.
4 Aug
Smith family quilting weekend
I joined my mother-in-law, Karyl, and my sisters-in-law, Debbie, Jess and Laura, for a quilting weekend in Nebraska last Friday through Sunday. Doug spearheaded meal preparation and childcare (with the help of Bryan, Josh and Jason, of course) leaving the girls to hours of uninterrupted sewing.
We look pretty serious in these photos Bryan snapped, but the entire weekend was relaxing and very memorable.
3 Aug
Margarita cupcakes
What do you get when you combine a cake mix with tequila and lime juice? Margarita cupcakes! No rocks or salt required.
2 Aug
Ava’s B&B
I hesitate to say this out loud for fear it will come to a screeching halt, but we’ve had some pretty relaxed weekends lately. Some of them have even involved children that sleep until 8 am. Beyond that, Ava’s taken to making us Sunday morning breakfast. Last weekend, she served up eggs in toast, which she made entirely herself. I had to flip the slices of bread, but it was a small price to pay to for such a delicious start to the day.
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