Sweet baby face!!

It's a shame to wake him up to get the other kids from "school" and school....but thankfully he's so sweet that he never really seems to mind. Sweet baby!!

Playing outside

After Theodore and I drop Buttercup off at preschool, he and I usually play outside for an hour (or longer) until his lunchtime. He used to like running on the sidewalk down to our neighbors' house, where we would play for a while before coming home again. But lately, he really likes playing in our back yard!

This morning he started off playing with the rocks under the playset. Scooping, filling, and pouring, over and over. :-)

This morning, he didn't play in the rocks for too long before heading up the porch steps to find something in the toy box. First, he played with the (broken) toy leaf blower, then he played with the fire truck for a while. 

 Then, he asked for the broom, and surprisingly, played with that for the longest time, ha ha.  

I love this picture. :-)

While he was sweeping our dirt for us, we heard the train horn!

In this picture, he was asking for more train horn. :-) 


And then suddenly, we heard the train horn again! He was so excited. :-)  I love that sweet baby! :-)

This was really cute -- every time he was finished playing with one toy, he would sing the "clean up" song and bring it to me to put away before he picked out another toy to play with. :-)

 He also found this puppy to pull along behind him.

The puppy had to swing, of course!

In this picture, he was saying, "Three, go!" 

 "Puppy swing!"

 "Where['s] puppy?"

"Puppy!" 

"Hi, puppy!"

 "Love puppy!"

Then he left the puppy in the swing and headed to the playset to slide for a minute or two. I'm not sure why he's making this sinister baby face! He's so funny. :-)

 And finally, we ended our time outside with running through the leaves. :-) What a fun morning!

Minestrone soup (crockpot recipe)

This has become one of my favorite recipes over the past month. I've already made it 3 times! It's yummy, full of vegetables, and everyone seems to like it.

Minestrone Soup (adapted from Taste of Home)

2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) low sodium chicken broth

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes

2 cans (15 oz each) kidney beans, drained

1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans, drained

8 oz water

2 or 3 small Italian squash or zucchini, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds

1 or 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped

2 tbsp dried minced chives

2 tbsp dried parsley flakes

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper

2 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp dried basil

2-3 cups cooked whole wheat pasta

1 package (16 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

2 cups frozen peas, thawed

In a slow cooker, combine the first 14 ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. 

About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the pasta, thawed spinach and peas. Enjoy!

Bonus pictures of the cute baby boy (who's not quite a baby anymore, but will always be the baby).

Snowflake craft

This is a fun, easy craft to do on those chilly winter mornings when it's too cold to go outside. (Too cold for the mamas, anyway -- my kids want to go outside no matter what the weather is like!) 

First, take 10 pipe cleaners. Separate 1 from the bunch and lay it in the opposite direction of the other 9. Twist that 1 around the middle of the bunch a couple of times, making sure that it's tight.    

Separate the pipe cleaners and fan them out like this: 

Add beads, and voila! A super easy, pretty snowflake. :-)

 

 Oliver even stopped his Lego-building to make one. :-)

 


I like the cluster of fish beads that he chose for the center. :-)


Buttercup was having too much fun with glitter and stick-on foam letters to make one. :-)

 Theodore didn't make a snowflake, but he did have fun learning how to string beads on a pipe cleaner, thanks to help from his NaNa. :-)

Pretty!