Kids

WIP Wednesday: 34/52

mildlygranola, , , , , , 2 Comments

Now that I’ve finished the Study Hall Shawl I’m back to working on my caramel sweater. It’s amazing how much progress you can make when you only have one project on the needles.

20180829_1858231951081774250508025.jpg
Never ask my husband to take pictures of your knitting.

I hope to be on the sleeves by next week. I’m done with the green stripe and have about 25 rows to go until I bind off. I’m going to have a lot of ends to sew in. I know I could carry the yarn between stripes, but I think this will be a floppy front cardigan and it would really bother me to see the carried yarn. So I will just deal with ends.

After days in the 90s we are down to the 70s. It feels wonderful. The kids and I spent as much time outside as we could today. We walked with friends to a park and stopped for lunch on a patio on our way home. It is perfect out. I hope this weather sticks around.

 

Peaches & Cream Oatmeal

mildlygranola, , , 1 Comment

Last weekend, over bland oatmeal at the hotel breakfast, Kathleen and I were waxing poetic about instant oatmeal packets. Sure, they are gluey and loaded with sugar, but in my memory they are amazing.

I wanted to make something that recreated that flavor, but with less sugar and more real food. So this morning I made easy peaches and cream oatmeal.

1 c water

1/2 c rolled oats

1/2 c frozen peach slices

1/4 t cinnamon

2 t brown sugar

1 T half and half or milk or milk substitute

Put water, oats, frozen peaches, and cinnamon in a pan and bring to a simmer. Once the peaches have softened a bit use kitchen shears to cut them into smaller pieces. I suppose you could take them out and do that with a knife, but I found it easier to cut them up in the pot as they simmered away. When the oatmeal is done (I think it is supposed to be 3 minutes, but I usually cook them until the eggs are done or the table is set and it turns out fine), stir in sugar and half and half. 20180821_1025038344897483415556342.jpg

These are as good as the oatmeal that I remember, and they contain a full serving of fruit. The sugar can be adjusted based on  your mood or the sweetness of the fruit you are using. I like that I always have these ingredients on hand, so I can whip it up whenever the mood strikes. I’ll be making it again soon, as Audrey is suddenly a big fan of oatmeal.20180821_102456(0)8158907589725980936.jpg

Wading Pool

mildlygranola, , 3 Comments

We’ve been spending a lot of time in our backyard pool this week. We added a water slide, and now we play outside for hours. Today Elliot added a lawnmower so he could do some yard work in the pool.

20180803_1650273377206682500152296.jpg

Before we went out this afternoon Audrey insisted on wearing a swim diaper as a swim hat. She was so proud of herself for discovering a new hat. She only looks serious because I made her stop playing so I could get a picture of her fancy hat.20180803_1617482792739342712226780.jpg

Elliot has been stealing Audrey’s giraffe floaty and loving summer. It is hard to take a picture of him where he isn’t smiling or laughing. 20180803_163620(0)3617318727375776346.jpgPeople are thinking about going back to school and summer ending. We are pretending fall isn’t heading our way. We have at least a month of swimming in our yard ahead of us. We intend to soak up every minute.

20180802_1217521236479432994361807.jpg

Camping

mildlygranola, , , , 2 Comments

Audrey and I went camping last weekend. It was the kind of camping I prefer – the kind in a camper with beds and a flush toilet and air conditioning.

We camp with our friends at their camper in North East Missouri. It is a four-hour drive according to google. According to a certain 3-year-old it takes 5 and a half hours. We stopped four times on the way down. But sometimes you need to stop and take a hike through a butterfly garden or play at a park. Hike is probably not the right word, as it is more of a flutter. Audrey is very interested in fluttering like a butterfly, so she runs around flapping her arms, saying “flutter, flutter, flutter.”

When we got to the camper we unpacked our stuff and headed out to do our traditional first night of camping dinner: pizza. 20180727_1832419192974046420378167.jpg

On Saturday it was a little chilly for July. It was too cold for the water park or the beach, so we explored playgrounds. We visited 3 before nap time. It is the first time I can remember Audrey falling right to sleep in the camper.

For dinner we decided to head to the Hootenanny – a restaurant that specializes in pie. I had a wrap for dinner that was delicious, but the pie was what stood out. I went with a slice of butterfinger pie.

After dinner we headed to another park. We then headed back to the camper, totally exhausted.20180728_1827422743126505580072048.jpg

Our drive home was faster than our drive down to Missouri. By that point Audrey had figured out that she wasn’t going to get a bag of M&Ms every time we stopped. We had been on the road for about three hours when we got to Oskaloosa. When we are on a road trip and it is clear that the kids need to get out and play I just drive around a small town off the highway until we find a park. They are usually easy to find. In Oskaloosa I found the best road trip park we have ever found. It was huge! There was a new playground, and old wooden playground, and an old playground with a rocket slide. It was so big I might be heading there next year for a special picnic day.

This week we are staying in Des Moines, which I’m looking forward to. I love to travel, but four nights out-of-town last week wore me out.

I hope you had a fun weekend too.

Friday Review

mildlygranola, 2 Comments

It was a busy week. On Sunday we went to the park. John pulled the kids in the bike trailer and I ran to meet them. It was really hot, so I sat on a bench trying to stop sweating and ended up talking to another mom watching her kid play. I don’t normally have a conversation with people at the park, other than polite chit-chat. On Sunday I talked to the other Mom about parks. She suggested some of her favorites around Des Moines. I made a list and hope to try them all. I wonder if this means I should start being more social at parks.

On Monday I decided to try the park most recommended by Sunday Park Lady. That park, Quail Cove Park, is in West Des Moines. There were two playground areas and a half mile trail. We checked it all out. One of the playgrounds is for bigger kids, which didn’t stop Audrey from climbing to the top and terrifying me.

I really liked the park. As an added bonus, it pretty close to John’s office. It will be a convenient way to wear the kids out before a trip to Trader Joe’s, Costco, or lunch with John. It also has flush toilets, which is something I really look for in a park.

On Tuesday we went to the grocery store and played outside in our yard. It was a pretty low-key day for us.

On Wednesday we went to story time at the Des Moines Public Library. They had a craft for the kids, they made tool boxes and colored tools. The craft was a huge hit with both kids. They played with their paper saws and hammers all day. When I saw the craft I did not expect them to play with it all day. Elliot ran away from me while I was checking out DVDs. Luckily I could see where he was going and I found him jumping off of benches and playing with puppets.

On Thursday we headed to the wading pool at the park closest to our house. It was a little chilly, but that didn’t stop the kids from playing in the water for an hour. We stopped by the playground on the way home, where Elliot showed me his terrifying new-found climbing skills.

Thursday afternoon we had about 15 minutes free between errands and dinner. We drove right past another park Sunday park lady recommended, North Karen Acres. We stopped to check it out. Audrey saw the pirate ship and yelled “THE RUSTY HEAP” a sign that we read a lot of Ned The Knitting Pirate (his ship is named the Rusty Heap). The kids had a really great time playing at that park. Elliot threw his biggest fit ever when it was time to leave. We will be back to visit. It is right by the Aldi we go to, so there might be some Aldi/park time in our future. 20180719_1636308274963177810840137.jpg

Today we played at a friend’s house. He has two little boys. The kids played well together for about an hour and a half. I was actually able to sit and have a conversation with my friend. I love it when that happens.img_20180720_124541_4442399213523935107956.jpg

We don’t have anything planned for tomorrow. I hope we get out to a park. Maybe we’ll even fill up the pool in our backyard and watch the kids play from the comfort of the patio.

I hope you had a fun week! Do you have any parks in the Des Moines metro you would recommend?

Pudding Pops

mildlygranola, , , , , 2 Comments

I’m kind of a food snob. I think it’s because John and I spent so many years in our 30s with good jobs before kids. We went out to eat a lot. When I cooked I had the luxury of quality (expensive) ingredients and time. The things I loved as a kid I no longer like. Things like cool whip and boxed pudding don’t appeal to me at all.

I believe pudding should be homemade. It should involve egg yolks, whole milk, half and half, sugar, and corn starch. It should be a project. I also believe in having the kids help me in the kitchen (well, mostly Audrey because Elliot can be a challenge in the kitchen). Fancy shmancy pudding and kids don’t mix, so for the sake of kitchen help I occasionally reach for things I don’t particularly like. Like boxed pudding.

Do you remember back when Bill Cosby wasn’t a sexual predator? I do. We watched him every week on the Cosby show and we ate pudding pops. They were delicious. They still are, and they are also really easy to make (Step 1: make pudding. Step 2: freeze it).

Audrey helped me pour the milk and stir. She took the job very seriously. At one point she stopped stirring because she forgot to put her apron on.20180713_1618042333065902660222817.jpgElliot taste tested the pudding. He took his job seriously too.20180713_162242826647738028744168.jpg

I poured the pudding into the molds. I think I waited too long, as the pudding had started to set up and it was a very gloppy job.20180713_1625457881662914017156109.jpg

When we were done we ran to the store. Audrey was so excited about cooking she wanted to wear her apron. She was very proud of herself.20180713_170709(0)-12986365372933638748.jpg

I hope that having the kids involved in cooking now will keep them interested in cooking. Elliot really wants to help, but he destroys so many things. I need to find something easier than pudding for him to help with. Do you have any ideas?