Peanut Butter Fossil Cookies

The other day I made homemade peanut butter cookies for desert but I added a twist to incorporated our letter of the week! I made "fossilized" cookies.

Score for the kids!

For the impressions I used these toy bugs that I purchased sometime ago for one of our learning activities and sensory bins. I first saw this idea on another blog that I read called Chasing Cheerios, they used play doh stampers but I don't have any of those so I thought that these toy bugs would be a good option. Chasing Cheerios explains that she got her idea for the cookies through a Martha Stewert article. I checked that article out and it turns out that Martha also had the same idea in mind, plastic bugs, but she used a sugar cookie recipe. Martha's cookies look better than mine and probably even taste better but I happen to like peanut butter better than sugar cookies so I went this route. 

Some of the fossil impressions turned out pretty good and others, not so much but over all they were fun to make and well worth the time!

 And the girls really enjoyed their treat!

Just in case you were wondering what the heck is all over V's face.., we just finished dinner and she feeds herself, for the most part. quinoa, grilled asparagus and watermelon! ;)

Hero's Among Us: A Tricycle Update

Last Fall Gordon and Connie Hankins (volunteers for Pioneer and the TOT project) hand delivered Vada's new bike. They even assembled it to fit her here for us. (You can read about their visit last fall, here.) However, Vada was still a bit to small to reach the pedals, even with double the blocks on them!

8/31/12

This Spring we pulled the trike back out to see if Vada could reach and she could!

5/2013

Up and down our sidewalk we went. Over and over again! She loves her new bike!

Thanks again to an amazing organization and couple, for Vada's new set of wheels! 

Gardening With Daddy

Last year we were able to start all of our garden from seeds. My husband and I had purchased special uv lamps and built indoor "green houses" and put them up in our basement (prior to the remodel), everything grew and actually did very well. You can read a little about it here, if  your interested. This year, however, we were limited on time and space so we had to purchase most of our plants (which was kind of nice because it was much easier and cleaner than last years method) and we used some seed packs.

This year the older two girls got a "plot of land" to plant what they wanted. Jasmine wants to plant potatoes. (I'm working on that) And Kiliegh wants Sunflowers but not just any sunflower. Oh no, she wants Moonwalkers. She doesn't get much room, so I am a little nervous but at the same time, I am also excited for these monstrous plants to grow, grow, grow!

Vada is our helper. She likes practically all veggies and can't quite vocalize which is her favorite so this year she doesn't get a spot to grow her own produce. Maybe next year baby girl! She did get to help her Papa plant some of our tomato plants however and I have to say, she did quite well!

Vada is fine with most textures but doesn't care to get dirty. So we have been working on playing in the sand and even in the dirt. I was surprised at how willing she was to test out the dirt when Justin offered it to her. She was a little hesitant at first but she did get into it and maybe it was because she had been watching him dig in with his hands and knew that it was okay but for whatever reason she was very intrigued. I loved it!

She even held the whole tomato plant in her hand! What a brave girl! 

 She listened to her Daddy's instructions and put the plant into the hole that was specifically dug for it and then was praised for her good works. You could tell she felt proud. We were so proud of her as well.

Then Justin showed her how the plant needed to be packed into the ground and she wasn't so sure about putting her hands back into the dirt. She thought that she was done.

But after a minute of processing, she finished planting the tomato plant.

 And then before we knew what was happening Vada quickly grabbed the tomato plant and ripped it back up from the ground from which it was planted and attempted throwing it out of our raised bed.

I'm sure it wouldn't have grown anyway. ;)

Everything else was planted, other than the carrot seeds. But Vada still wanted to help her Daddy and he was fine with that.

To be on the safe side however, he did make sure to put the seeds we needed into the ground first before handing some to Vada to possibly throw out to the wind.

She didn't throw the carrot seeds to the wind but dropped them ever so slightly into the carrot patch.

Ten days later everything has grown and even spouted!

Catching A Caterpillar..?

When the weather is nice we walk to Vada's speech therapy sessions. Yesterday was beautiful, so we walked. After therapy we took the long way home and two blocks from being home, there on the sidewalk I saw what looked like a caterpillar crossing the sidewalk. I grabbed a stick and put it in front of the caterpillar to see if it would crawl onto it, it did. So I carried it home. 

Kiliegh, my middle daughter, is turning ten this month and for her birthday we ordered Monarch caterpillars (which I am now extremely nervous about raising), so we have the habitat hanging on our deck awaiting their arrival. When Vada and I got home from our walk I placed the caterpillar that I had found from our walk along with some milkweed (just in case) two caps full of water (Apparently a mistake on my part.), one with some sugar added (I don't know why, but it seemed like a logical idea at the time.).

Later while Vada was taking a nap I got on line and tried to find my "caterpillar". The closest thing I found was a Tent caterpillar but I knew that this couldn't have been correct because my little guy wasn't furry like the Tent was. I did learn that with caterpillars, you don't need to give them water because they get their hydration from the leaves that they eat. Good to know. I also learned what our Monarch caterpillars would look like. I have seen them before but never put them together because up until now, I didn't need to. Interesting.

Today, I did some more searching and found out that I probably didn't catch a caterpillar but a worm. A Bag Worm to be more specific (scroll half way down on linked page to read a little about a bag worm) and one who happens to be living safely and ever so splendidly on sugar water, cherries, milkweed, nectar from freshly cut flowers and water. I have no idea if it's actually eating any of this stuff but it is still alive. Now i'm not for sure what to do!