Teeny Tiny Froggy

I was putting the girls in the car at David’s house and I felt something on my foot.  I thought it was a leaf until it hopped off.  It was this little frog.

I scooped him up so I could show him to the girls.  (Actually my 36 1/2 week pregnant self squatted onto the ground and grabbed him from under the car.  Are you impressed?)  Joanna wanted to hold him too, and I would have let her if she hadn’t already been strapped in the carseat.  Holding the frog outside is one thing, losing him in my car is quite another.

I put him down in the grass.  Hopefully he found his froggy family.

Even though oxygen is flowing, your mask may not inflate.

We were taking care of Didi this morning, and Natalie found a pair of Continental wings.  She held them up to her shirt and said “help me.”  She kept them on too!  (They’re just sticky.)

Garage Door Dancing

Every time we open and close the garage door, Natalie has a boogy dance she does. I have another video of just her, as well. This time Joanna was getting in on the action too.

School Days

Natalie insisted on “carrying” her nap mat out of her class on Tuesday.  I let her until we hit pavement.  She’s so funny.

The last couple of Wednesday mornings the girls and I have worked in the nursery.  I got to be Joanna’s “teacher,” which she loved.  And I really love that she loved it for I know that may not last forever.

Anyway, she just looked so stinkin’ cute in her dress up stuff that I had to take a picture!

I put the girls in their “new” denim dresses for school today in celebration of the first day of fall.  That and I’m getting kind of sick of looking at their summer dresses.  I like ‘em, but I’m ready for a change, you know?

Joanna LOVES to check the mail and put things in the mailbox for me.  And I love that she loves that.  And I love that we live on a cul-du-sac.  (And, this is sort of an aside, but I CANNOT BELIEVE I’VE LIVED THIS LONG WITHOUT PARKING IN MY GARAGE.  I cannot describe to you the unbelievable and delightfully wonderful change it has made in my life.  And I’m not exaggerating.)

She’s really only barely tall enough, but it works!

Can’t forget to put up the flag!

If I could only get them to look at me AND smile.

My explicit instructions: “Look at me and smile.”  I guess she figured that facing me while actually looking at her sister and sort of smirking followed those instructions.  :)

That’s better – so cute!!

Here I was looking at my children live instead of in the camera.  Oops.

They both have sort of dazed looks on their faces.  And very fake smiles.

Even though it doesn’t look like it, I think Natalie was saying “happy” here.  I was telling them to look happy.  And then my camera card was full and it was time to go to school anyway.  I’m sure they’ll be cute later too.  :) 

I love that I get to miss my girls a little while they’re at school.  I know Joanna LOVES preschool because she can tell me that she loves it.  I’m pretty sure Natalie loves it too because of how she acts.  She hasn’t cried yet when I drop her off; she just walks in to class, ready to go!  She’s taken a nap every day (such a difference from her big sis!), and always waves and smiles at her teachers.  I know they get to do things at school that they don’t get to do at home and that makes me very happy.

A Dream

I ran into my friend Amy yesterday (and I stole her tiny baby to snuggle), and she was telling me about a dream she had.  She dreamt that I had my baby and we named him Robert Daniel (and planned to call him Daniel).  Also, he was 32 inches long.  Ha!

Instant Oatmeal

I had a desire to make some instant oatmeal (like the packets you buy at the store) after seeing some recipes on my favorite blogs.  Instant oatmeal isn’t that much less work than regular oatmeal if you ask me, but Matt used to LOVE to eat that every morning (back when I let him buy the packets), and I think he might go for this.  I used this recipe from Money Saving Mom and this recipe from Tammy’s Recipes as “inspiration” since neither was exactly what I wanted.  This is what I think I did, since I was kind of playing around and not exactly measuring everything.

Ingredients:

1 small canister quick cooking oats

1 small canister old fashioned oats

1/2 cup dry milk powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix the oats all together in a big bowl (I actually had the small canister of quick oats, but I measured about 6 cups of the old fashioned oats out of the big canister).  Take out 1 1/2 cups of the mix and pulse them in whatever you got that chops stuff really small (I used my Magic Bullet; food processor or blender would be good too) until you have a powder.  Add the powder back in to the oats along with the milk and cinnamon.  Stir really well or put it into a container with a lid and shake.  You can portion it out if you want, but I just put mine into a container with a lid so everybody can eat as much as they want.  For the girls this morning, I put 1/4 cup of the mix into a bowl and poured boiling water over it.  I’m thinking it’s about a 1:1 ratio of water to oatmeal, but that’s a guess.  I added applesauce to theirs for flavor and to cool it down.  It’s ready to eat right away!  They both cleaned their bowls and asked for more.  Some people would probably prefer more cinnamon in the mixture, but for me a little goes a long way.  I can taste it in this without it being overpowering.  I ate some after I made it yesterday plain and I liked it!  Another thing I like to do with the girls’ oatmeal is add chopped frozen strawberries (or other berry) and maybe a little honey.  The strawberries cool down the oatmeal while the oatmeal thaws the strawberries.  Perfect!

I would say I prefer old fashioned oatmeal cooked in milk (actually half milk half water for me) on the stove, but this does take less time and you don’t have a pan to clean!  I’m pretty sure you could do this in the microwave too, although I prefer heating water in a kettle on the stove.  I was thinking that a slightly older child could do this in the microwave without adult help, and that might be nice!  You can customize the flavor exactly how you like it, and there’s nothing in it I don’t want my kids having.  I just checked Quaker’s website for the ingredients to the instant packets, and this is what’s in them: WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, OAT FLOUR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, GUAR GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, REDUCED IRON, VITAMIN A PALMITATE.  Ummm… ew.  Although Matt does really love them.  :)  I’ve always thought they were grody, and I don’t think the girls have had them, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, I think this kitchen experiment was a success, and hopefully it will make for a few easy hot breakfasts!

Reading this, I realize it’s awfully rambling, but I’m just living with it!

Special Moments

Now that Joanna is in preschool, she gets to go to Special Moments once a week.  They go into the sanctuary, sing songs and listen to a devotion.

Because I could, I spied on her very first Special Moments this morning.  She never knew I was there.

The pics are blurry because kids move a lot and I didn’t want to give myself away by having the flash on.  It likely wouldn’t have even helped at this distance anyway.

Joanna’s in just about the middle of the picture here, wearing pink:

There she is closer-up.  She’s of course sitting next to her best friend Anna.

Miss Ellen is reading them the creation story.

Anna is up front here because she had a September birthday!

Closer up, but blurryer.

I think Joanna did a good job of listening and sitting still (hard work for a 3 year old!).  She really loved the music but kind of tuned out the story.  There were a lot of distractions in there!