Baking Breadsticks

My friend sent me an e-mail today, and included, "I bet you're baking on this cozy rainy morning." She was right. But, nothing from the "sweet" category. I'm not yet sweeted out -- however, the scale is telling me to watch the sweets! Instead, we did breadsticks for our mid-morning snack. So simple! And, so yummy!


And, here they are!

Dip. Enjoy.

Number/ Numeral "Go Fish"

For our math today, I decided to do a little game with the girls. First, we cut 20 cardboard squares. I then dotted the names of the numbers one through ten, as well as the numerals 1 through 10. The girls then traced them.

My intention was to play Memory with them, but Allison asked, "Can we play 'Go Fish' instead?" I thought for a second and then realized, why yes! We certainly can! The only trouble is, the cards are a little cumbersome to hold, so we pulled out our Rummikub game boards and used those to hold our cards. Perfect!

Fall weather: good or bad?

This fall weather has been UH-mazing! Cool, some sun, some rain... just what fall should be! The only problem is, it makes me want to bake. And eat. And bake, again. It actually makes me want to run, too, but with my husband working so much, it's been difficult to find the time...

I love how Allison propped her umbrella on her bike here. It gave us an idea! Today, despite the rain, we went for a family jog. Allison held the umbrella for herself in the single jogger, and Natalie held it for her and Sierra in the double stroller -- both with the help of Papa's engineering. It poured the entire 4 miles, but they were such troopers and stayed (mostly) dry.

So, why did we run in the rain? Just in the past week I've consumed some of this awesome doll cake from a birthday party...

Daniel came home with this box of goodies...

And, even though I have homemade chocolate chip cookies AND homemade oatmeal raisin cookies in my freezer, we still made these yesterday:




Gotta love what Natalie came up with here:


Yes, it wouldn't be fall with out a day of decorating sugar cookies with good friends. Besides, I heard there are no calories if you eat several of the little cookies, instead of one big cookie. Hmmm... I guess we'll be doing more jogs in the rain!

The Most Important Photo Tip You'll Ever Need...

Here it is. Are you ready? Ok, here you go....

GIVE YOUR CAMERA TO A 3-YEAR-OLD! I'm serious!

EVERY picture you are about to see was taken today by Natalie. I was absolutely blown-away when I got home and downloaded them. We are about to purchase an SLR camera, and I think I may have to let Natalie use our old camera; (supervised, of course!)














There you have it. Don't you agree that she is amazing? Honestly, I published almost all her pictures...

We had SO much fun walking around Claremont today and taking pictures. I can't believe how fast time flew by. I cannot tell you how special Tuesdays have become, and how I cherish this time with my two littler ones. (Of course, I would love for Allison to join us, but I know she is having a blast, as well.)

Week 1 we indulged in pumpkin turnovers from SOme Crust. Week 2, we tried pumpkin smoothies from Jamba Juice, as it was a hot day. (They were YUMMY!) Today we went with the good old pumpkin spice latte and a spider web cookie; back to Some Crust! And now, here are some pictures of the adorable 3-year-old photographer:

My Baby is Almost One!

Can you believe it? Just a few weeks away... I'm busy planning another first birthday. This is her invitation cover. If any of you have any cute panda ideas, let me know :)

OWLS

Have you seen the adorable toilet paper roll owls over at Frugal Family Fun? If not, click HERE. It just so happens that Allison has been asking me to do a tp roll craft, so when I came across it, I was so excited! Here is our version. (Ours are a bit more "Halloweenified")

Pumpkin Patch 2010

What a gorgeous day! We got off to a late start, as Daniel and I took turns sleeping-in this morning, but that felt great! Even though we didn't arrive at the pumpkin patch until 11:30am, it was still overcast and cool.

The first thing we did was the corn maze. Daniel and I hadn't done a corn maze since the day of our first kiss! The girls were so excited, as they had just seen an episode where Mickey Mouse went through a corn maze that morning! (Daniel and I had fun pretending we were on the Amazing Race!) After a while of not finding the special punches that awarded you gold and black necklaces, Natalie decided she needed a break. Allison and Daniel continued on to find all 4 punches themselves!

Lovely necklaces, girls!


Normally, the tractor ride is only for the weekends, but since there was a school group, we were allowed to tag-along!


The tractor ride dropped us off right inside the petting zoo...

Daniel thought this little goat would make a good walker for Sierra who isn't walking, yet. I'm not so sure she thought so!

New to Live Oak Canyon this year is an aviary. The birds were amazing; (and the bunnies were cute!)

We got to see big turtles, which was perfect for ending our "T is for turtle" week!

Daniel thought it would be fun to encourage the donkey to eat his shoe. You decide who the real donkey is! :) (He gave me permission to say that!)


On our way to climb the giant hay castle, a wind started blowing the leaves down from the poplar trees, and it was so pretty. The girls had a blast chasing the leaves and trying to catch them as they fell.




The girls each got to pick a pumpkin. We came home with a big funky greenish one that supposedly makes the best pumpkin pie. We'll let you know!


The cute sister shot... not so much!

See you next year, pumpkin patch!