Monday, September 12, 2011

Quick Quote

In the car the other day Josie was asking us questions about dreams and nightmares. We have always tried to really break things down for her and get her talking when something is bothering her. And we always try to get to the feelings behind whatever is going on. She told us about a great dream she had with butterflies, ladybugs, princesses, candy and a whole bunch of other glittery, girly goodness. Then she told us about nightmares with monsters with big eyes and trees that come alive. It was all very sweet and serious business but then she said something that absolutely cracked us up. 

Lou: "What else did you see in your bad dream?"
Josie: "A building that had feet and got up and walked around. And then the whole city got feet and got up and walked around and stepped on me."
Lou: "And how did you feel when you had that happened in your dream?"
Josie: "FLAT...and squished!"

Mmmm....Duffins!



Last weekend Josie and I  made "duffins" out of Kiwi Magazine. We've been cooking a lot more from scratch lately, and the idea of a dessert that was part muffin and part donut (and all duffin) sounded too good to pass up.

I've been looking online for the recipe to share with you all, but apparently they have a month lag from the print to online recipes. So check http://www.kiwimagonline.com/ in a few weeks and I suspect it will be there. We made a few substitutions to eliminate the dairy by using Vanilla Rice Milk instead of regular milk and Earth Balance Spread instead of butter. We also used apricot jam and strawberry jam for the filling instead of raspberry as suggested. The apricot was our favorite.

Josie brushes on the butter so we can roll them in sugar

Roly looks on (and gets excited about "duffin boo-boo milk" according to Josie)

Fanning them with a magazine to cool them  down

Posing, very proud (and ready to eat!)

Sun-flowers and Sun-art

Here are a few photos of our sunflowers in full bloom! We have big plans for our sunflowers next year and will have loads of seeds (if anyone would like to plant some in your yard). It's amazing how much you can learn from a tiny packet of seeds. Nature is so incredible.
Loads of big busy bees!
The garden and the sunflowers thriving

Our house from the street: swingset, garden, sunflowers - yep, that's pretty much us! :)
I also wanted to share our fun art project. I remember using this paper in photography class in Junior High. Thanks to The Runyans for getting this for Josie from her birthday wishlist. We are having SO much fun creating nature prints!

Step One: Collect "interesting things" from the yard and lay them out on the sunpaper

Step Two: Stop to push an invisible fairy on our fairy swing while the sun works its magic

Step Three: Remove the objects, rinse paper in lemon juice & water

Step Four: Behold your masterpiece!