house & kidsl

More silly pictures of the kids...

Zoe was really enjoying trying to drink her shake like this. I want to know what goes on in that little brain!!

Yeah, I totally can't see you there.
Zoe insisted on being a robot but also insisted on eating. She's very insistent. They both walk around the house in these laundry baskets pretending to be robots. Who says laundry isn't fun?

Here are all our beautiful tulips. All the daffodils are pretty much gone. I planted marigolds & impatiens between the tulips, and there are pansies in the pots on the front step. This weekend, I'm going to plant pink begonias under the eleagnus shrub on the far right, they did well there last year and will match the impatiens. After that, the front is done, except for mulch.

Sew & Tell - quilt top & pillows

Here's a quilt top I made on a whim Tuesday morning. I was bored. It's for a certain friend having a baby girl next month. I love batik. I am getting a little sick of the brown/pink combo though. It helped that there was blue & yellow in here.

I thought it needed a little more, now it's about 36x44. Which one of these should I bind with? I'm thinking the yellowish one.

Here's a little retro sew & tell. I made this for Zoe last year, and it fits her perfectly now! So cute!!

I got this simple abundance for our living room valences, and now I'm working on pillows for the couch. The two solid ones will have those jelly roll strips as ties on the front. I think I will back them with muslin, unless I can find something else in my stash to use up.

Here's proof that I actually finished my blush baby quilt. I'm having attachment issues... meaning, I don't want to part with it!

please go visit Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday and see what everyone else has been working on this week!

pictures of the kids

Just some pictures I have been accumulating...

Zoe was driving the car from Tracie's garage to our driveway. They love to raid our neighbor's garage for toys.Zoe wearing her 'fly Army' shirt (actually I think it was Owen's... would have passed it back to Eli, but we just found it. And I think it would be too tight on him). We don't have a whole lot that's not pink so it was a challenge to match the shirt. I guess jeans would've worked too...
Zoe having a little protest about her sippy cup. She LOVES her bottle. She only gets it 2x a day, but that doesn't stop her from trying. Note the cute messy hairdo, just for Daddy.

Joshua giving Zoe a ride

She got off and got her hat and gave it to him to help her put on. So sweet. I love it when they get along.

Party in the USA

Here's a video of our party yesterday! Don't you wish you'd been here?!

And since I'm sitting here enjoying my banana bread from our party yesterday (or cake, as we call it to make it sound even more delish) I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't share my favorite banana bread recipe!

It's based on the banana bread recipe in The Martha Stewart Cookbook (light blue), p. 106. I love that cookbook, everything I've ever made from it has been great!

1/2 - 1 stick butter (I use a whole 1 b/c I'm too lazy to put butter on the banana bread before I eat it). I've never tried to substitute applesauce because I love the butter! I'm sure you could.

1 c. sweetner that's NOT white refined sugar. For example, I usually use 1/2 c. splenda and 1/2 c. sugar in the raw, brown sugar, sucanat, or (yesterday I used) demerara sugar. I have not tried stevia, agave nectar or honey since the batter tends to be pretty wet.

-Cream together sugar & butter. Then add eggs and blend well.

2 eggs

-mix together dry ingredients and mix into butter mixture

1.5 c whole wheat flour

1 t salt (I use less since I use salted butter)

2 heaping T milled flax seed (not needed, just a good way to get some flax!)

1 3/4 t baking soda

-mix in the rest of the ingredients below.

1+ cup mashed very ripe banana (about 3 bananas)1 c fat free plain or light vanilla yogurt

2 t vanilla

1/2c rolled oats (I usually use quick cooking)

bake in Pam'd mini muffin tin for 15 min at 350. 4 small loaves takes about 45 minutes. 1 large loaf or a bundt pan 45 min - 1 hour.

Other recipes I like from this cookbook are:

shrimp with ginger and scallion p.251

pesto p. 364

strawberry shortbread cakes p. 425

Party time!

When I asked Joshua, yesterday, what he wanted to do tomorrow (today), he said that he wanted to have a party with a cake. So this morning, a cake we did make!! (ok, so it's banana bread. shhh.)

Zoe wanted to get in on the cooking fun, so when Joshua and I were done, she hopped up and started cooking cheddar bunnies. She had fun with this for about 20 minutes! That's my girl, loves to eat and cook.

she just kept saying "cooking bunnies. I like cooking bunnies"

In other news, the blender has come out of retirement (thanks to Leslie for the inspiration) and the shakes are a hit once again. We used to make shakes with broccoli but now the kids eat plain broccoli like it's ice cream, so spinach will be our new shake veggie of choice. We adapted Leslie's recipe to what we had on hand...

3 ice cubes

a cup of water /splash of V8 strawberry banana fusion

1-2 c strawberries

1 banana

1/2 - 1 c blueberries

1 container fruity yogurt

scoop of protein powder

3-4 c spinach - I really can't taste it in there (unlike the broccoli) and obviously neither can the kids!

Here's Joshua making his funny shake face for the camera and Zoe being cute as usual.

Blush quilt... almost done!

I have been procrastinating about quilting this since the beginning of March when I started it and the transparent thread and my sewing machine did NOT want to get along. I decided to try it again yesterday and it worked so I just kept going until it was all quilted. I stippled with translucent on the front and pink on the back. I think Leslie and I discussed one time that we both enjoy binding quilts. I like to be able to sit on my bed with nothing but my quilt, needle & thread (and thimble and scissors too I guess) and watch (listen to) TV. It's also pretty stress free because the hard parts are all done, and it's difficult to mess up the binding. I enjoyed it last night and got about 3/4 done! Good thing, since the baby is due in less than 2 weeks!

I made the top with layer cake squares a little while ago. While waiting for my backing & binding fabric to arrive in the mail, I saw this tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and wanted to use it for the back. I wanted the back mostly plain so that the baby would have something for tummy time that's not overstimulating. I think the front would be a little overstimulating for an infant! I had fun with the applique, but my hands hurt after cutting out all those letters!

Anyway, here are are pictures. I am going to hang on to it until the baby is born. I love it so much, I don't know how I'll part with it! Good thing it's staying in the family. I hope the baby mama likes it too.

I linked up to show n tell Friday, even though this isn't completely finished... go see what everyone else is working on! I love Amy's dresden plate and Leslie's 'hooter hider.' Those are the only ones I've checked out so far, but I can't wait to see the rest after the kiddos are asleep.

I like cucumbers

Zoe saying "cheese" (she thought I was taking her picture), "I like cucumbers" and "yes ma'am"