Don't Fret Lurkers! I Have Not Abandoned Ye!

I do have a Pancake Sunday post for you
and I do have a 5-a-day books post for you
and I do have wordless wednesday post for you
and I do have a light vs dark week post for you

I will find the balance!
The art blog is taking off so I'm trying to keep that updated as well as I can but I will be back here to update soon.
I need this blog because I can say random things like "poop" and nobody will care because it's my personal random blog about my life...and we say "poop" in my house a lot...

Um, btw...are you following my art group blog yet?

Dilly-Dali Art

do it! do it! do it!

Pancake Sunday 4.24

Puff Pancake 

with

Cinnamon Apples

This was a quick "see what I have in the cupboards" pancake. It was really delicious. The recipe called for cardamom but that's not a spice I generally keep in my cupboard so I just replaced it with cinnamon and the taste was just fine

I even caught hubby eating a slice of this pancake and he usually never eats pancakes on Pancake Sunday!

5-A-Day Books: Week 2

Guess what, I am writing this on Sunday to be posted on Monday because I am going Screen-Free this week.

Week 1 went great, Charlotte got 2 of the books pretty much down pat (The Little Red Hen and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?). She has a few hangups here and there but she knows the stories well enough to move on to new books this week. I will keep a few in my list to return back to in the future. I think I will keep Dr. Seuss's ABC in the line up this week because she shows interest in trying to read it but gets frustrated after a few letters, Put Me in the Zoo she showed no interest in reading at all, so that will be saved for later down the line, One Duck Stuck may come back in a couple of weeks, she's actually more interested in counting the animals in that than she is reading it.

So here is our list of books for week 2:

Once again, if you would like to join this challenge go to The Imagination Tree and let Anna know!

Screen-Free Week: April 18-24

"Anyone can participate in Screen-Free Week by simply refraining from using screens for entertainment during the week of April 18-24, 2011." screenfree.org

I will be going screen-free this week, for entertainment purposes that is...I will still be checking my emails and I think I will allot myself one hour each night after the girls go down to get a quick update on social networking and news. I will not be responding to anything though unless it is urgent.

You can make screen-free as strict as you want to or make it as lax as you want to, just as long as screens are off in your house more than they usually are. I mean, cutting cold turkey is hard for a lot of people. I will definitely be struggling without my Blackberry, I swear if I was a pirate with one hand cut off, I'd have a Blackberry installed instead of a hook.

So anyway, I'm going to try to get as much updated internet wise as I can tonight and then I'll be off enjoying life with my girls for a whole week screen-less!

So in the words of Screen-Free Week's Facebook page:
"Signing off to celebrate Screen-Free Week April 18-24! I’m turning off screens for 7 days and turning on LIFE!"

Pancake Sunday 4.17

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

with

Cinnamon Maple Syrup

These pancakes were super yummy yummy! I would have never put banana together with cinnamon...I always want to pair it with caramel...but it was tasty! Anyway, these pancakes were super delicious, I'm glad that there are extras for tomorrow's breakfast! I will definitely be making these in the future and I most definitely recommend you message me for the recipe!

Lexi tasting the sour cream

Fluffy eggs

Char stirring in the sour cream

Sifting in the dry ingredients

I added cinnamon and sugar to a few of the pancakes

Bananas and cinnamon maple syrup on top

Delicious! Everyone asked for seconds!

Wordless Wednesday: Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

The Imagination Tree: 5-A-Day Books Challenge

I was very excited when I woke up to find that The Imagination Tree had posted a challenge on her Facebook page.
I've always wanted to try a blogger challenge but always seem to find them after they're already started or already done.
This one is simple, something we already do a lot but with a twist!
It's a 5-A-Day-Books Challenge!
Here's all you have to do:

• Pick 5 books 
• Read them everyday for at least a week

That's all!
It is suggested to choose short simple books and at least 2 or more books with rhyming words or a repeated refrain, which is easy enough!

So for Week 1 here are the books I chose:

If you want to join me and The Imagination Tree in this challenge pop on over to this post with your list of 5 books and check out all of the other books already posted for ideas for next week! 

I can't wait for the end of this week to see what kind of affect (if any) it has on the girls. Charlotte already tried reading a few of the books by herself this morning, she does know a few parts from each book so I'm really interested to see how she'll be reading by Sunday. Keep an eye out for an update!

Pancake Sunday 4.10

Orange Cloud Pancakes

with

Berries 
(frozen)

After doing Pancake Sunday for a few months now I've come to realize that a pancake recipe with "cloud" in the title seems to always have whipped egg whites and an egg type batter. I'm not really a fan of the egg-ier pancakes because they don't seem as fluffy to me, I'm just not a fan of the texture...it's kind of more like an omelette BUT Charlotte picked these pancakes out based on their picture and the fact that she loves oranges (I am not a citrus fan) so I made them for her, at least she helped! These pancakes were only okay in the taste department and a blah in the texture department, will not be making these again...thinking about how I could make an orange creamsicle type flavor, that would be an orange flavor I would enjoy!

ANYWHO, here they are!

One happy pancake "nom"er

Something Had To Give!

So yesterday I posted about how awesome my day was and I was just having a whirlwind of sweet things happen and I was being productive!

All the productivity stopped last night after I got the kids to bed, my server stopped connecting on the internet (I don't even freaking know what that means!) so I couldn't post the awesome blog I had just wrote and couldn't waste time on the internet so I went to bed...at 9:30...but somehow didn't fall asleep until around after 1 something because Char woke up crying about monsters at 1 and I was still awake. I woke up late this morning, kids were both grouchy, messes were made, things were dropped, accidents happened. It was chaos! Thankfully, nap time happened nice and easy, I got my server connecting again (I couldn't tell you how) I posted my blog from yesterday, laundry is being finished, dishes are done and now I'm going through my older blog posts and doing some linking and light editing! And also still working on the Dilly-Dali Art blog with older art posts! When the kids wake up we are going to make homemade graham crackers from a recipe someone posted on Facebook yesterday, will post about those later tonight, hope they are delicious, I love graham crackers!

Yay me!

P.S.

YAY!

I've Been Up To Some Schtuff

O.M.G. if I told you all the things I accomplished today you guys would pass out from sheer exhaustion just from reading about it! I LOVE when I wake up in the mood to get crackin'! Things were tossed without even thinking twice, I whipped through rooms like a cleaning tornado and I even had time to bake some bread (which I pretty much ate half of...homemade bread is so dang good). 

I even got the girls to bed an hour early.

Holy Crapoly!

Like I said in my previous post, April is time for getting back on track and getting into that warm weather mentality of finishing errands/chores/tasks early and spending the rest of the day outside playing. We did spend some time outside and it was marvelous. The weather was perfect. We got out the sidewalk chalk and played hopscotch and drew pictures. It was pretty clear that my big girl is, well, getting bigger! She drew a few pictures that actually looked like what she said they were and she had no problem telling me which numbers went where when I was setting up hopscotch (which is perfect for teaching numbers btw) I absolutely love warm weather!

It's a "lady ghost"

A few other things I've been up to, going through some of our older art projects and putting them on the Dilly-Dali Art blog and working on some curriculum for next week! I was planning on going to the library tomorrow but thanks to the awesomeness of Facebook I saw that they are closed tomorrow! ARGH!

Wordless Wednesday: Charlotte Was A Busy Artist