Current mood ;)

 

http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2016/09/11

5 photos from july

My cherry tomato plant's first ripe tomatoes

A sleeping lion at the zoo

 I wasn't quick enough for this bald eagle who got a little close for comfort at the bird show

A plant sculpture from the botanical gardens

My phone came with this app that will automatically create albums, make videos, animated gifs and photo effects and show them to me to see if I want to save them. This photo I did.

Father's Day

I thought I'd show some of the Father's Day stuff as well. :)

I bought a cardboard frame which I let my daughter paint and decorate as she pleased. I just supervised. She didn't really like my suggestions so this truly hers and you can tell a 3.5 year old made it which her father loved. A photo of her was added and it was taken to his office. :)

She made this pencil holder at school. So cute! Again, it went right on her dad's desk at work. :) She also made a card that her photo pops out of when opened (not shown)

She really wanted to make cupcakes so we did some chocolate ones which she decorated. :) (This was taken before I turned the plate so she could decorate the others.)

Belated Mother's Day randomness

Yes, Mother's Day has already passed by this year, but I thought I  would share what I got because I thought it would make a fun craft project on a summer rainy day. :)

My daughter made these at school and she is 3.5 so she obviously had help. ;)

First up, the zen garden and card I got for Mother's Day. The base was made from the lid of a shoe box and the little rake is a wine cork. There's a shell and little rocks to decorated.

They packaged it in cellophane and they put the sand in a separate bag for gift giving. I thought it was quite clever. :) (I also got a fitbit)

I got a strawberry cake decorated with macarons for dessert. Delicious! :)

Teacher end-of-year gifts sorted :)

I thought I'd do a quick post for those who may be stuck for ideas for end-of-year teacher gifts. School doesn't end here til July, but in the States I was told that it's nearing the end of the year.
One gift I was advised by a former teacher to give was handcream in a neutral scent since teachers tend to wash their hands a lot. I thought that was a great idea, but also wanted to do something original along with that.

For the teaching assistant (this isn't really an exact translation of what he does, but the best equivalent function I could find) or ATSEM (Agent Spécialisé des écoles Maternelles) who is male I got a keyring with "Super ATSEM" and a Superman logo

And for her teacher, I got a pocket mirror with "Thank you, teacher, for helping me grow" (loosely translated) written in French.

I think I will add something more personal like a drawing done by my daughter and a mini cake decorated by her.

I'm hoping these are things that are useful to them, but who knows. I went ahead and got them now because I was afraid I would forget to order them if I waited.

You can find all kinds of things like around the web with varying price points. Perhaps an initial or name keyring or mirror would be more personal, but those are gifts they might get at other occasions so I chose these. :)

5 Photos from the Forest

Huge trees make you feel so small

Little streams gather in corners of the forest

 The path leads up, up, up...

Very steep, almost too steep, but onward we go till we reach the end

Dandelion pre-blowing away :)

Tiptoe through the tulips or smelling the roses...

I have to admit that lately I have been out taking walks in the lovely weather we had been having. Highs to where we were in mid-season jackets and the sun was shining brightly.  We were enjoying our family walks and spring had definitely sprung.

This week, the cold came back and the skies are back to being grey and filled with ominous clouds threatening rain at any second. Winter coats are back on.

This past weekend we did make it to a Nature and Bio sort of small festival and my daughter was able to go on her first pony ride. No photos of that shared, but these photos were taken on walks around our neighborhood.

I miss living in the city sometimes, but I must admit there are definitely benefits to living out in the country. :)

Cupcake Party

We decorated cupcakes when a niece and nephew came over for snack time. I like to come up with little activities for them and last cupcake decorating, they weren't present and were interested in trying it. Last time, I had a mix I found on sale, but this time I made a homemade cupcake recipe from Natasha's Kitchen. I halved the recipe and it was the perfect amount for everyone to have 1 then each kid had one to take home. I just made a standard vanilla icing for them and they were a big hit. You know it's a good sign when kids prefer eating to decorating. ;)

I did a very quick decorating set up. The kids were ages 3, 4.5, and 6.5. I didn't want to have too many things on the table because I didn't want to overwhelm them. The crocodile gummy candy and marshmallow were more for eating than decorating. Each child had a cup with a bendy straw, napkin and plate (cups and plates from Ikea). Yes, there is a placemat and tablecloth which made clean up much easier. :)

I set up tea for the adults and we all had cupcakes to eat with it.

I forgot to take photos of all the cupcakes, but here are a few of them

Overall, it was really fun. It just required getting the kids started and helping them once in a while. The kids loved it. Did I already mention that? And it doesn't require a lot of prep. I think a more "sophisticated" version will appear for birthday parties in the future. ;)

Great Grandmother + Gardening

My daughter is very fortunate to still have a great grandparent in her life. He great-grandmother is approaching 90, but still lives on her own. She's an amazing woman for a number of reasons and I am happy my daughter is able to get to spend time with her. Unfortunately, my parents and grandparents  passed away well before she was born. She had a set of great grandparents up until 18 months ago when her paternal great-grandfather passed away.
Enough babbling, here are a few photos from her great-grandmother's garden. Yes, she still manages to garden. :)

And lastly, a bouquet of wildflowers my daughter picked (with permission) for me held by my husband :)

April Showers and "Check-in"

It's the second week of Spring vacation (yes, school vacation again for my little one). The first week flew by because we were busy and not home much, actually. I feel like the second week is flying by as well. It's been raining a lot the past few days. I just realized I complain a lot about the rain.

I can't believe April is nearly halfway over. Time is really getting away from me. Like most people, have loads on my to-do list. I hope to get a temporary set-up for my jewelry making soon so I can get to work on that. My fingers have been itching to try out some new stuff. :)

More work on the house and organizing as usual. We have some family outings planned this week as well so hopefully, I will be able to share some photos of some of it.

Spring has definitely sprung. Hopefully, the rain will let up soon. :)

Spring forward

Having a rough time this year with "losing" an hour this year. It happened this past Sunday and France and a few days on, my sleeping is still off. Not sure why. Definitely looking forward to the weekend to be able to hopefully sleep in. :)

Easter Monday

A few photos from this Easter weekend :)

On Good Friday (it's not a bank holiday in France like in the States, Easter Monday is), my daughter came home from school with this cute thing she made in class

On Saturday, we colored Easter eggs in the morning

Had cute little "nest" cakes for dessert

Then, made fuzzy chicks in the afternoon

Her Easter outfit arrived earlier in the week along with a coral tulle skirt that was on sale so I couldn't resist :)

And, last, but not least, the Easter basket post-hunt ;)

Bread machine "adventures" 2

So, I've made the dough for homemade cinnamon buns a few times which makes it ridiculously easy as all I have to do is roll out the dough once it's ready. I used 1/3 cup+ sugar in the dough instead of 1/4 cup when I make hamburger buns. Then, I do a second rise after I roll and cut them out and put them in the pan. The last time I did them in the evening and let them rise in the oven.

I also made some banana bread as a test. I don't know what I expected, but it came out pretty well.

The recipes is from Allrecipes. I used more banana than was called for, mashed it, and added vanilla. When it was still warm, I felt like only the vanilla could be tasted. The next morning, the banana flavor was stronger. My husband and daughter loved it so I will definitely be making it again soon.

Organizing and Crafting

It's been a very long time since I've posted anything crafty. I've done a few things here and there with my daughter, but I really miss creating things on my own. My "me time", if you will. I've mentioned we've had some set-backs with the work on the house. Plus, I've been ill and obviously, parents don't really get a day off. So, I've been using what energy I have to take care of that which doesn't leave much time for "extra" stuff. This isn't me lamenting these "first world problems". Once my back pain is better, I will hopefully be able to finish unpacking/organizing things the way I'd like.

 

Splash (Again)

Yesterday afternoon, my little family of 3 went out for a long walk. The weather was nice but the ground was still a bit slushy from all the rain earlier in the week. There were puddles everywhere and our daughter was enjoying splashing around in them à la Peppa Pig, wearing her rain boots, of course. Somehow, my husband and I started chanting "Splash! Splash! Splash!" while she was doing 'cause we're weird like that. ;)

Then, he mentioned, "Speaking of 'Splash', I'd love to see that movie again. I remember really enjoying it. You know the one with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah? I saw in the cinema when it came out."

Of course, I remembered and loved that movie. I also recalled that Tom Hanks called her Madison in the movie which is also my daughter's name. Thinking of the film brought back nice memories, but that was a long time ago. Would I still feel the same if I rewatched it all these years later?

This is something that I've come up against before: Do I preserve the memory of watching something I once enjoyed? OR, do I take the risk of "ruining" the memory and see that it wasn't as good as I remember? This has happened so many times with movies, television series, etc., I can't even count. There are certain things I won't even watch, games I won't play, especially from my childhood, for fear the memory of them will be ruined. But, then I've also rediscovered some things and shared and loved them even more by seeing them again.

Ultimately, we've decided we'll try and find some time to watch Splash this weekend. I mean, what's really the worse that can happen? ;)

What I Ate 2

Breakfast 

I had a hot water with lemon when I got up. Then a plain yogurt and 2 kiwis

Lunch 

Tabbouleh salad with smoked salmon

 Snack

Green tea and an orange

Dinner

Spinach Ricotta Lasagne roll-ups

Goodnight Moon

I think most reading parents have a book or five they've read so many times they have it memorized. Among my personal favorites is Good Night Moon. We had lost our copy and bought another one and that copy got so beat up that we unwittingly put it away. As we've been organizing my daughter's room and moving things in, I uncovered our other copy. My little one was ecstatic and said she wanted us to read it at bedtime. When I told my other half, he was also excited. He said he really missed reading it to her. Growing up in France, he had not heard of Good Night Moon before we had our daughter, but I assured him it was a must have for her. Needless to say, it has become a family favorite and we are all happy to continue the tradition of reading it. :)

I found this video reading of the book in case you haven't heard of it.

Organized Schmorgarnized

I've somehow missed out on the planner "craze". I mean here's an excuse to buy pretty stickers and decorate pages all in the name of keeping things organized which definitely speaks to me. Only, I have pretty much stopped using my planner and started plugging things into my phone. This is weird to me because I prefer writing things down  and I don't really trust my phone to remind me of stuff or maybe I don't think I'll remember to probably schedule the reminders. At any rate, I go back and forth about the best way to organize things be in a planner or otherwise. This is probably time that would be better spent actually organizing things. ;)

Bread machine adventures

Last week I broke out my bread machine to make pizza dough for my calzones. My husband excitedly requested homemade burger buns like I used to make now that the bread machine was dusted off. This week I decided to make that happen and quickly found the recipe I used at Food.com. They came out really well and my other half and daughter were delighted. I made her a mini burger which she ate it piece by piece. She's not really got the concept of sandwiches yet and tends to take them apart and eat them that way. :) And, no, this is definitely not health food by any stretch of the imagination!

Buns

Hubby's burger

The buns were the perfect texture and not too sweet.

Day 29 Feeling Fine ;)

It's the last day of Blog every day in February or Blogbruary as I awkwardly titled it. I am happy that I actually did post a blog every day this month. I was honestly surprised that I didn't use more posts from this list since I like the questions plus I assumed I'd be more stumped for content. I'm definitely planning on posting more from now on; hopefully, a couple times a week. I enjoy having the blog posts to look back on. :)