Archive | February, 2015

Storybook Costume

26 Feb

February has been Celebrate Books month.  Each Wednesday has been something special.  We have had books and bagels, where parents and grandparents were invited to school to eat bagels and read  some books with their kids.  Yesterday was my favorite, “Drop Everything and Read” and the kids got to wear their pajamas to school.  Last Wednesday took a bit more work on my part because it was- dress like your favorite storybook character day.  Yes, it kinda felt like the horrible week before Halloween all over again!

We went through their book shelves and Aleah wanted to be Amelia Bedelia and Sophie picked Madeline.  Here is some of the work:

unnamedunnamed-2

We could not for the life of us find a wide brimmed sun-hat for Madeline to wear but we made it work =)

unnamed-1

As Amelia would say, “It was plum fun!”

As Amelia would say, “That was plum fun!”

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Homemade Granola Bars

23 Feb

I am trying.

I am trying to make healthy things for my family.

I am trying to make healthy things for my family to eat but it is so hard!

We go through days using all organic, non-GMO, no sugar, super healthy food, but then we fall off the band wagon and go through McDonalds. What is wrong with us?  Ugh, I hate it.  Yes, yes, don’t be hard on yourself… it is hard when you have kids and are traveling and don’t have time blah blah blah.  But seriously.  I want my family to consistently and constantly eat healthy food.  Of course we would all sweeten our birthday cakes and everything else with maple syrup instead of sugar but we aren’t all made of money, right?

Look at the ingredients of this Nature Valley granola bar, it makes me mad sometimes-

unnamed-3

So in an attempt to take one more step away from packaged food I decided to homemake granola bars.  Woohoo.  This is better and more handy than simply making granola because it is portable and awesome.

I found this stellar recipe that involves ONLY 5 INGREDIENTS!!!  Isn’t that amazing?  No corn syrup, no granulated sugar and my favorite- no ingredients that I cannot pronounce!

unnamed-1 unnamed-2 unnamed

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 cup packed dates, pitted (deglet nour or medjool)*
  • 1/4 cup honey (or sub maple syrup or agave for vegan option)
  • 1/4 cup creamy salted natural peanut butter or almond butter
  • 1 cup roasted unsalted almonds, loosely chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (gluten free for GF eaters)

Head over here at Minimalist Baker for the complete instructions.

Just one small step in the right direction.

Tags: , , ,

Snowpant Straps

11 Feb

We love winter.  We spend a whole lot of time outside in the white fluffy stuff and cannot have our gear holding us back from the fun.  Hudson’s cousin, Lincoln, gave him a great snowsuit when LIncoln moved to California from Wisconsin (they are currently wearing shorts out there and playing in the sand).  The one problem with this snowsuit is that the legs ride up when he sits down or rolls around on the ground throwing a fit.  So after messing around in the snow for a few minutes the pants were always riding up and his cold little calf skin would poke out =(

So I took some fleece and used the stretchy side to make a little stirrup.  It took approximately 2 minutes to sew these straps onto the bottom of his snowsuit and will make a world of difference for the rest of winter.

unnamed-2

We can warmly go for sled rides and even make snow tunnels without our little calves getting chilly

unnamed unnamed-3 unnamed-1

and eat lots of snow because it is so delicious.