Meatless Monday: vegetarian chili with rice and broccoli

Today I was wishfully thinking of cold weather again, and prepared vegetarian chili for dinner. I even used dried beans (instead of canned) and simmered them on low for a couple of hours so the house would smell like fall . . . but alas, it was 80 degrees again today. Still better than 100+ though!

Hopefully we'll have some long-lasting fall weather soon.

More fun Fall stuff

A cool front blew in a couple of days ago, and the chilly weather always puts me in the mood for baking and making fun holiday-themed crafts.

But first, here's a cutie with a pumpkin!



I made pumpkin bread (using my recipe for banana bread), and also made pumpkin cookies based on this recipe from Oatmeal Mountain. I bought butterscotch chips to use, but the kids and I were at Walmart yesterday and I found these new M&Ms to use instead:


The M&Ms are good, but they're really, really sweet. Almost too sweet. They also didn't really taste like candy corn, so I'm not sure why they're called candy corn M&Ms?

Anyway, I smashed them up and used them in the cookies, and I really like the way they came out. I'm not a very good cookie-baker, but the cookies came out to be very light and very tasty.


The kids and I also made some cute crafts. Of course my hubby teases me that I like doing crafts more than the kids do, but I think they really liked these. :-)

The first one is a leaf/tree craft. You'll need leaves, pipe cleaners, and 2 toilet paper tubes (or 1 paper towel tube, cut in half). Poke several holes between the middle and top of the tube. Cut the pipe cleaners into thirds, then poke a pipe cleaner through the bottom of each leaf, then poke the other end through a hole in the tube.


Our leaves are all dry and brown thanks to the never-ending drought, so I plan to redo this craft if we ever get enough rain for the leaves to change colors!

We also made handprint spiders . . .





. . . and ghosts. Boo!

Pumpkin carving

Buttercup's jack-o-lantern:


Oliver's:


(Buttercup didn't get to be a part of the photo because she was busy throwing a tantrum)

Ages 7 and up? No problem!

This year the kids' birthday party was in the morning, and we were mean parents (ha ha) and made them wait until after their naps/rest time to open their birthday gifts. As soon as Oliver got up from resting, he made a beeline for the gift bag from Grammy. :-) He knew that she had bought him a new Star Wars Lego set, and of course he wanted to put it together right away!



Since it had so many pieces, I asked him if he'd rather until his daddy woke up from his nap, just in case he needed help. But of course, Oliver said, "No thanks, Mom. I got it."

And he did. I just love watching him work, he's such an awesome little guy. :-)




On a cute note, this is what Miss Buttercup was doing while Oliver worked so studiously:


Glitter glue. Lots and lots of glitter glue. :-)

Five years old

Oliver is 5 years old today! FIVE. How on earth did that happen?!

How did he go from this snuggly, sleepy newborn . . .


to this inquisitive toddler . . .


to this helpful, hard-working, Lego-building, Star-Wars-playing, imaginative, smart, funny, tough FIVE year old . . . in the blink of an eye??


FIVE. That's a big number. For a big boy. Happy birthday to my sweet Oliver. You make my heart so full and my days so bright. You are the best big brother ever, and you make your mama and daddy so proud of you every day. We love you!!

Super soapy boat

This science experiment uses the same principles as the tie dyed milk experiment we did several days ago.

You'll need:
cardstock or an index card
a sink or large rectangular baking dish
water
liquid dish soap

Cut the index card or cardstock into the shape of a boat, and add a small square notch in the center of the flat end. (See my example below)

Make sure your sink or dish is clean, then fill it halfway with water.

Place the boat gently on top of the water at one end.



Squeeze a few drops of dish soap into the space where you cut out the notch, and watch the boat zoom away!


The reason this experiment worked is because water molecules stick together very tightly and formed an invisible bond (called surface tension) that held the boat in place. Adding the dish soap broke the bond and allowed the boat to zoom ahead! The same thing happened with the tie dyed milk experiment -- the surface tension of the milk held the food coloring in place until the dish soap was added, breaking the bond.

As far as this experiment goes, the kids definitely liked the milk experiment better. The boat experiment was fun, but the boat got too soggy after sitting in the water for a minute and wouldn't zoom away again, so we could only do it once. Still really interesting though!

Meatless Monday: minestrone soup and salad

Tonight for dinner we had minestrone soup made in the crockpot. It's SO good, and perfect for fall . . . the only problem is that we don't exactly have fall weather where we live. Today's high was close to 90 degrees! Yuck. But, although I would prefer to eat it on a chilly day, the soup is tasty nonetheless. :-)

Minestrone soup
(adapted from Taste of Home Slow Cooker Classics)

2 cans of low sodium chicken broth
1 28 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
1 can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Wildtree hearty spaghetti herb mix (or you could use a mix of Italian seasonings)
1 tsp salt
1 lb frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 lb frozen peas and carrots, thawed (I used a mix of peas, carrots, corn, green beans, and lima beans because that's what I had on hand)
about 3 cups of cooked pasta

In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients except frozen vegetables and pasta. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Stir in thawed veggies and pasta; heat through.

Five months

Theodore is five months old! He's such a sweet baby, and continues to be easy and laid back. He's getting so big and chunky now, and I can carry him around on my hip (which is easier than supporting him on my shoulder all the time). He's turning out to be the worst sleeper that we've had, but thankfully his sleep isn't too bad.

These days he likes playing in his exersaucer, log-rolling in his crib, trying to scoot forward on his tummy, squealing, blowing raspberries, being outside, and trying out the baby swings at the park.





He also occasionally gets into crawling position (getting his knees up under his tummy), and he's going to be getting into everything before we know it. Another major milestone is that he's been trying new foods. So far his favorite is sweet potatoes, just like Oliver!

Of course, Theodore loves to be around his big brother and sister. Buttercup has a new game that she likes to play with him -- she'll lean toward him and whisper, "Hi!" and he'll giggle at her. They are so adorable together! I love how much they enjoy each other's company.

Here's a video of Theodore and Buttercup at the park the other day. She was saying, "Hi!" to him, and he was blowing raspberries in response. :-)

Birthday party!

Today we celebrated Oliver and Buttercup's birthdays with a joint party at one of our favorite "jumpy" places. It was so much fun and they were both so excited that so many of their friends were able to come and jump with them! Since their birthdays are in October and neither of them could agree on a theme (Oliver wanted a Star Wars party and Buttercup wanted Thomas the Train), we decided to forgo having a theme and have a costume party instead so all of the kids could get some extra use out of their Halloween costumes.

Buttercup's Thomas the train cake:


Oliver's Commander Cody cake:


The cutest and sweetest baby brother ever!






Oliver as Commander Cody and Grammy as Captain Rex: