Girls' Pick

We had a fantastic trip to the library, especially since we haven't been in a few weeks due to illness and house guests. I'm still waiting to get past the library's one month waiting period for my card, right now I'm limited to only 5 books.

 ONLY 5!!!!!!!!!!

I have a really long list of books that I'm waiting to check out from the library and I'm counting down the days until I can go crazy! Anywho, here are tonight's picks...

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Char's Pick: Dr. Seuss's Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We own at least 15 or more Dr. Seuss books but I still always find one we haven't read at the library. That guy was a book writing machine! This one was a little long and drawn out. It's about a king who want's to have something that nobody else has, so he wishes for something new to fall from the sky, he gets Oobleck. This book has a "careful what you wish for" moral that I think would be great for elementary aged children, my girls didn't quite understand.

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Lexi's Pick: Polo: The Runaway Book by Regis Faller. This book was a surprise because it's a book with no words! I love books that can tell stories with just pictures. Another awesome thing about this book is that it is part of a series! Polo (the little dog guy) is in a few different books, having tons of fun picture adventures. This was a great book, the pictures were fun to look at and the girls couldn't wait to turn the page to see where Polo ended up next. The story is that Polo gets a book as a present, then the little yellow dot guy (up there ^) takes the book and Polo goes after him to get it back. He has an awesome journey filled with new places and new friends. I will definitely be looking for other Polo books the next time we go to the library! I hope you get a chance to "read" this book with your kids!

Make Something Monday: Chalk Dust Art

This is a post straight from my children's art blog

Dilly-Dali Art

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Recently we were playing with sidewalk chalk and I noticed

it  sure does make a lot of dust,

we should play with the dust.

So that's exactly what we did!

I decided to turn this into a color mixing activity as well as a shape activity

Start with the 3 primary colors

make sure you press really hard,

you WANT to make dust,

layer another color on top.

You know

...red and yellow...

...red and blue...

...blue and yellow...

I set out plastic forks, spoons and knives

 for the girls to play with.

Forks made lovely lines in the dust,

just like a zen garden

Charlotte's tool of choice was a plastic Play-Doh knife

You can make whatever designs you like

then 

just rake them out and start over again!

The red and yellow weren't mixing well enough in my opinion,

 so I added more yellow

The more you play with the dust,

 the better it mixes together

We experimented with making prints in the raked dust

it makes a really neat 3-dimensional effect

I knew it was time to begin cleaning up when the girls started smearing the chalk

all over themselves

Just wash it all away

The mixed colors really show up when water is added

and since the kids are already going to need a bath

let them splash around a little

:)

French Bread

Today on the dinner menu was good old Spaghetti & Meatballs, yum yum! So I decided we needed some bread to go along on the side. I looked at focaccia and ciabatta bread recipes but I only had ingredients on hand for french bread, so I set out all the ingredients and Charlotte and I got busy in the kitchen! 

Sprinkle yeast on warm water to dissolve

Yeast dissolved in water

Adding the sugar to feed the yeast

Mixing in the flour

Patting the top with flour

Turn the ball of dough in a greased bowl once to coat

After an hour of rising

Punch the dough down

30 more minutes of rising

Form into a loaf, let rise for 30 minutes, then brush with egg white

Bake for 25 minutes, wonderfully crispy!

Buy some garlic spread or make your own (like we did) with butter, garlic and homegrown basil, salt to taste, broil it and serve with your yummy spaghetti and a salad.

We made the meatballs and sauce but not the salad, that is one of those all-in-one bad deals, yummers!

Everybody was begging for seconds!

Let's Eat Cake!

Holy Heck! 

I missed my blogiversary! It was August 1

 A whole year on the blog has gone by already, WOW! 

Thanks to all my readers for reading my blog!

 Here's to another great year! 

Can't wait to see what's in store for me!

Girls' Pick

The girls are sick this week so instead of heading to the library, we read books we already own.

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Char's pick was, Pinocchio, this is the original story of Pinocchio...not the ooey gooey Disney version. Your should read all the original fairy tales that Disney has turned to sap, you'd probably be surprised with how they turn out.

Lexi picked, Oh, the Thinks you can Think. It's a nice story about being able to think up whatever your little heart desires. Not only does it encourage you to think up this and think up that but it throws in questions as well to get your mind wheels a-turnin' Would you do this? Would you do that? and What would you do if this AND that happened? It is definitely a book that gets both my girls thinking silly thoughts and carefully considering the questions at hand. We love this book, it's a favorite for sure!

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