Flashback Friday (no, it’s not my 80s hairdo, it’s old videos of the kiddos)

Ro says her stomach sounds like a tuba – hee! (Sept 2008, 2 yrs old):

Unpacking Christmas decorations (Nov 2008, just turned 3 yrs old). Dang, these are some busy girls:

Sparkly Spider (sparkling cider) and ratting each other out at preschool (Nov 2008, just turned 3 yrs old). They are so bubbly and cute I just want to squeeze the stuffing out of them!:

A whole lotta talkin' about nothing (Nov 2008, just turned 3 yrs old). I love it when Ro says “mashed potatoes!”:

The girls "sing" (using term loosely) (Nov 2008, just turned 3 yrs old). They pretend to dial up the tune on their play phone and then let ‘er rip. When Ro sings about loving her Drea and Baba, that’s her teddy/blankie and purple octopus. Then she looks around the room and sings about curtains and shelves. Heh.:

Not ready for bedtime (Dec 2008, 3 yrs old). Oh soooooo not sleepy. Cracks me up how they pretend to put a CD in the bookcase:

Cheers and happy friday! Now, is anyone else willing to post an 80s photo of yourself next Friday? I’m thinking we could do a Flashback Friday photo round-up of sorts. I know I’ve got at least a few pics of myself with a huge spiral perm... Sigh.

McDonald's family-time happy-time trip: musings, pictures, and giveaway

A few weeks ago, McDonald's invited 10 blogging mamas and their families to corporate headquarters in Chicago and told us to bring every question we had because we would have access to everyone and everything. And boy did we!

Read more and enter the giveaway.

I know, I know, I can’t quite believe we snuck back to Tahoe either

At 10pm Friday night, TubaDad and I suddenly decided to pull the trigger on a last-minute short trip to Tahoe. Our weekend calendars were remarkably free (never happens), plus the girls and I were dying to show TubaDad all of our fave new lake haunts. So we packed maniacally for the next hour or so, then got on the road bright and early Saturday morning. Wheeeee!

We had a little mountain thunder and lightning once we got there, so we chilled in the car, looked at the purdy lake view, and watched a movie. And we still got in some good water time at Regan Beach in between raindrops.

We ate dinner at The Beacon (my little bro had his rehearsal dinner there years ago -- love that place) then danced on the beach to a local band’s 80s songs like “867-5309”**. Ree would now like to have a band with dinner every night:

I had to laugh when some burly boat-rental guys saw the girls’ new jeweled flip flops and said “Wow, those are the prettiest flip flops we’ve ever seen.” Heh. They are cute. I had to buy Ree a pair because I accidentally packed two left shoes for her. Oops. Ran into a Tahoe drugstore, grabbed them, and ran out. But Ro took one look at Ree’s new bejeweled fancies and said “Uh, mama, you KNOW I’m going to need some of those too.” So it was back into the drugstore for pair number two.

Ro has a thing for hoods, by the way. She says “I always wear my hood so I can fly.” And any piece of clothing with a hood gets high marks in her book, including those she makes herself, like the towel toga above. Anyhow, the hoods saw a lot of use, especially on hikes. Sunday started with a morning hike through the woods by the cabin:

Then we moved the party to a beach for a little lunch picnic. Has anyone tried fried peas? They’re our new addiction:

Ro’s depth-checker stick cracked me up.

 

The girls were dying to rent a boat, so we cruised up to Fallen Leaf Lake and they sweet-talked TubaDad into renting a teeny little motor boat:

Then we plastered on copious amounts of mosquito repellant, watched the sunset, and danced on the beach.

  

The end. :-)

**PS: Come on, spill it – what’s your fave 80s song? I have seriously fond memories of Joan Jett’s stuff. Did anyone else regularly belt out “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” at the top of your teenage lungs?

I had no idea they’d decide today was the day to start reading

Well color me surprised. The girlies suddenly started to read tonight. We haven’t been trying to teach them, they’ve just shown intermittent interest before, and it certainly wasn’t something that came up this weekend. Actually we snuck away to Tahoe on Saturday, and I thought I’d have minute or two to post some pretty lake pictures tonight. But Ro and Ree had other plans. After dinner, they grabbed some of my mom’s old teaching books that were in the playroom and away they went.

What do they do, learn this stuff while I’m sleeping?

Seriously, congratulations baby girls. This is a huge step and your daddy and I are so proud of you. We are a teeny bit sad that this will soon mean the end of our beloved air spelling, but honestly we are truly ecstatic for you!

PS: We weren’t at all prepared for this, so you’ll notice that the video was really haphazard and the girls are wearing PJs with their hair still scraped back in the quite stylish “please don’t drag your freshly washed hair in your dinner” ponytails. And we didn’t think to separate Ro and Ree so they could each read in peace. Actually I don’t totally regret that one, because my fave moment in the video is at 4:54 when you see my hand come out of nowhere and cover Ro’s mouth to pull her back in her chair. Hee!

Do you remember the first time you painted your own fingernails?

I don’t remember when I did, but I’ll sure remember Ro and Ree’s first time. They wiggled and giggled and were just tickled pink that they got to do it all by themselves.
I have an embarrassingly massive plastic tub full of polish to choose from. Shoot, some of those tiny bottles are probably from college and really need to be tossed out, but the girls adored spreading them all out and inspecting each one. The choosing process took at least 15 minutes, and involved Very Serious Discussion. So cute. Ro chose Go Go Green for her left hand, Red Comet for her right hand, and Sunset Prisms for her toes. Ree chose Prompt Petals for her left hand, Red Comet for her right hand, and Modern Art for her toes. And they were both prouder than proud. Little honeys.

It was a fun way to while away a lazy summer morning. We’ve been taking it slow and easy this week. Enjoying the summer and each other.

TubaDad said “Hey those carrot crackers weren’t half bad!” Heh.

Whooeeee, Ro and Ree were extra rambunctious yesterday. We played outside for hours, there were mishaps with the sand table and the garden hose on the slide, then I found a recipe on Weelicious for carrot snack sticks (neat web site, by the way) and figured we’d give it a whirl. The girls are always up for anything that involves hearty stirring and shaping dough, and I’m always up for anything that uses those wonder-twin powers for good. And the cracker/stick/snack thingamabobs turned out really well. Here’s the Weelicious recipe:

Carrot Snack Sticks (Makes about 30)

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Carrot, finely shredded and thin
2 Tbsp Oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the first four ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Using your hands, add the carrots to the flour mixture coating the carrot pieces with flour.
4. Add the oil and work with your hands to bring the dough together.
(You really have to be patient with working this dough together so that the flour absorbs the oil. If you are concerned that it is not coming together, just add 1 extra tsp of oil to the dough and work it with your hands forming a ball until it comes together.) (M3 note: we ended up adding 2TB extra oil and 3TB extra water, a dribble at a time, before the dough would hold together for us. Our carrots weren’t finely shredded though, and we had 6 hands flailing around in the bowl.)
5. Form the carrot parmesan dough into a flat rectangular disk and allow to rest for 1-2 minutes then roll out 1/2 inch thick on parchment paper or a dry clean surface.
6. Using a knife, cut the dough into sticks, 2 inches long by 1/4 inch wide. Freeze dough. (M3 note: we didn’t freeze it, no one has any patience in this house)
7. Bake on a Silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.

Alrighty, here’s how we did:

Gathered the ingredients. Check check checkety check. Ree left, Ro right: 

Grated some carrots in the mini-food-processor (I think this didn’t get the carrots finely shredded enough, but it was fun and there were ample opportunities for brawls and spats over button rights, which amused me):     
Added the carrots to the dry mix:

Added the oil, but it was still way too crumbly (I think because our carrots weren’t shredded finely enough), so we added a little bit more oil, then some water, then a bit more oil. Ended up using an extra 2 TB oil and 3 TB water. Still tasted fine:

Ahhhh, now we finally got a nice ball of carroty/parmesany dough:

We let the dough rest for a few minutes (Ro thought we needed to blow on it a little, while Ree thought she needed a manicure):

Then rolled it out, cut it into little strips, and popped it in the oven:  

Hey they actually came out! We sprinkled a little salt on top after baking, too, because we’re nutty like that. Please ignore the misshapen lumpy pieces. I’m sure if you’re cooking them without the twin factor yours will be beautiful:

Mmmmmmmm!

Everyone agreed, these were yummy! I think I’ll go snitch a few right now. My congrats to the little chefs!

PS: Ree’s cheeks are still bright red but she’s feeling great and doesn’t have any fever. Ro’s eye (the one that got bruised in Tahoe) is all better and today is her last day for antibiotics. Whew. Ok, I think we had our fair share of odd illnesses for a while now. Oh, and the little black and white top and dress are on sale at Carter’s right now. Just sayin…

Have you ever heard of Slapped Cheek Disease?

It’s also known as Fifth Disease, and apparently we’ve got it. By “we” I guess I mean little Ree. She looked odd to me yesterday morning, and by afternoon was starting to have red cheeks that I kept an eye on. At dinner that evening I kept pointing out her cheeks to TubaDad, and he said she probably had a sunburn. Ha! Not on my watch.

Anyhow, I remembered hearing something about Slapped Cheeks once and Googled it so I had all the info, then when Ree woke up this morning I knew for sure. A quick call to the pediatrician’s office, and they confirmed the “Mama and Dr Google” diagnosis and said we don’t need to come in to the office, just keep an eye on things. Here’s the scoop and a few pictures so you know what it is if your kiddos get it:

- Slapped Cheek Disease (or Fifth Disease) generally occurs in children between 4-10 years old. Most adults have already been exposed and are generally immune (but if you’re pregnant or have a compromised immune system, you should alert your doctor that someone in your family has it).

- One to two weeks after being infected with the virus, the child develops a low-grade fever, a week later the child gets a bright red rash on the cheeks, then about 3-4 days later the child might develop a red lacey rash on the rest of the body. The rash can last 5-7 days and sometimes comes back and goes away for up to three weeks.

- It’s contagious up until the red cheeks/rash show up (so Ro has already been exposed and might get it, ugh, what else is new in twinland?)

- It’s mild and harmless in most cases. Any low fevers or achiness (Ree has neither, actually it doesn’t seem to be bothering her at all) can be treated with acetaminophen.

Here’s what it looked like today. See what I mean about there being no question?:

And here’s a shot of the two girls together so you can see what her face normally looks like:

Can’t resist mentioning the cute little PJs, even though this is really a post about a lame disease. Heh. They’re on sale at Carter’s and Kohl’s right now: 

Hope this helps! If your sweetie turns up with oddly red cheeks, ask your pediatrician about Slapped Cheek Disease and don’t freak out.

Rice art is fun (and cool looking!)

The girls were begging for another Rainy Day Project today (no, it’s not raining today, not even close, Ro and Ree are just tickled with the idea of projects), so I pulled out Rice Art. This was a big hit with the little ladies!

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put 1/2 cup of uncooked rice in each bowl (we used brown rice because that’s what’s taking up space in the cupboard not being eaten by our picky little rice connoisseurs). This is Ree, btw:

Add 5-8 drops of food coloring in each bowl (you know we tend to excess, so we probably put in 8-12, there’s just no telling): 

Add 1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar to each bowl (it helps to set the colors, or so I hear):

Stir gently (so you don’t fling rice and food coloring all over your kitchen and your mama):

Spread each color flat on a baking sheet. I made four little liners out of tin foil for easy cleanup and so the piles of rice would be easy to pour back in the rinsed bowls later:

Bake for 45 minutes to get it all nice and dry and twinproof and all:

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for the rice to bake and cool off, do NOT do what Ro did and apply semi-permanent stamps all over your body. Sigh…

Then draw some shapes on cardboard (the bigger the shapes the better) and cover parts of your drawing with glue. We used rubber cement, because the girls had used all of the Elmer’s glue in an unfortunate patio-glueing incident last week, and it was REALLY easy to use, but I don’t know if it will hold up as well as Elmer’s once dry. Then sprinkle colored rice on the glue (one color at a time), dump the excess back into your bowl, and voila:

This project was so fun that the girls left all their supplies on the art table and did some more rice art the next day. Ro is in the pink polka-dotted shirt this time:  

I think they turned out really well, and clean-up was a breeze, the girls actually did it all.

Our Rainy Day Project list can always be found in the left sidebar, if you need it. Cheers!

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My friend Leda and her family are in the process of adopting an adorable 8-year-old little girl in China with Thalassemia. They’re fundraising to bring her home right now, and if you’d like to help in any way, please visit her site Fund for Faith to make a donation or purchase neat adoption-themed items that have been donated in Faith’s name.