Kids In The Kitchen

One of the things that I strongly believe is that kids should be in the kitchen. They should be cooking right along side you. They’re really never too young to get a start. For one thing, it builds self-esteem, gives them attention, and builds upon family relationships. I also know that if you are having problems getting them to eat, it’s the fastest easiest way to get them to eat. . . they’ll eat what they cook.

My nephew has cooked with me since he was probably less than 2 years old. Pancakes are most likely his favorite thing to eat. He does it all himself. I love to watch him cook them now. And I always stand utterly amazed at the size of the pancakes he flips over. So much better at it than me.

The weekend of the blueberry festival was no exception. He and I baked a cobbler that we entered into the cobbler contest. He helped DH grill the chicken and helped me make the cornbread. And, we made a pie from scratch- pie crust, filling, and meringue. Seperating eggs with him was a real whoot! But we only messed one up and I think that was me and how I explained to him to do it. The next morning, he made pancakes . . . of course!

Here’s some pics of us in the kitchen. . . (DH likes to take advantage of me in these moments and snap shots. . ’cause he knows I want these moments captured.)


(It’s pictures like these that makes me just love my wide angle possibilities)

Now, the mess in the kitchen. . . well it cleans up. . . Always does no matter how big of a mess we make. And, let me tell you, we had a HUGE mess after this weekend.

2008 Blueberry Festival

(Since I still need to even look at some of the pics from last weekend’s exciting outing- and deleted some of them on accident- I thought I’d go back to share the Blueberry festival from June with you. . . .)Each June, around my birthday, we celebrate the Blueberry Festival. I remember going to my first Blueberry festival back in college on the day I turned 21. There is so much good stuff to any small town festival and this year’s was especially fun. My best friend, her parents, and our nephew came for the blueberry festival. Because the festivities started so early and we didn’t want my nephew to miss the pet parade, we went in two groups. DH, my nephew, and I being the gluttons for punishment that got up really early.

 


I love this picture! It sums up the fun and element of surprise that the day held for our dear nephew. It was so fun to watch him experience all the events of the day.

It started with pancakes:

Notice the hats. . . . DH is wearing the “same” hat he’s worn since our nephew was first born. It’s about the 10th edition, I think. You know how men are when you squish their hats. . . well, my nephew can do no wrong to his hats. He’s stood on them, chewed on them, over the years. We buy these hats each time we get to visit the King Ranch. They’ve changed the camo pattern on the bill. You can see the new pattern on our nephew’s hat . . . DH let him borrow a hat.

We had a good time experiencing the pancake breakfast but I have to say our nephews makes a much much better pancake all by himself.

After that, it was time to turn in our cobbler entry. We made it just for fun and for the experience:

Well, actually, we had to wait to turn it in. . . so we made DH hold the cobbler while we took pictures:

(See that balloon. . . later in the day, I was bouncing it up and down while it was still strung to him. . . and it came untied and went up into the sky. I felt awful!)


Not the best shot technically, but here we are in the bank window together.

We waiting a good long while. . . .

Most of my nephew pictures where of the back side of all the puppies. At the time, he did not know we were also waiting for the pet parade to begin. A dog would walk by and then he would start taking pictures. We finally did turn in our cobbler.


This is DH’s allergist’s granddaughters with their dog in the parade.

A snowcone. . (It was really warm) and the car show where DH was kind and got in the shot for me. . . knowing our nephew we want him in the picture:

Petting Zoo. . . we went there like three times!

Do you see the smile below? It will be the last time he smiles while petting a cat in my presence. . . After this he started rubbing his eyes which were getting red and watery. . . then says, “Oh I forgot I’m allergic to cat litter”. I did not know it at the time but later clarified with his mom. . . he’s allergic to cats. Thankfully, we were able to avoid benadryl and had some eye drops for his eyes.

Fast forwarding. . . it rained briefly and we put our cameras away. We went to two art galleries and it was so cool to watch the wheels turning in his mind as he saw the different artwork. We came across some abstract art and he said “I don’t get it”. Neither did I and since all the pieces were named “Untitled #1″, “Untitled #2″, etc. I don’t think the artist got it either. But it was in this same gallery store that we found the hit of the day. A sculpture of deer. The “little guy” spent a long time studying it and talking about all the details. (Gonna have to explore sculpture more with him)

We then ate a fru-fru place in town which serves quiche. I was amazed that DH never flinched at the prices. We were having such a good time with a taste of the good life even if we can only borrow our nephew. Now, my nephew and I have the same food tastes and if there wasn’t undeniable proof that he did not come from my womb, then I would say he was mine. I knew he’d like the quiche but when the owner felt sorry for him, she offered him a grilled cheese before we could order him quiche. Of course, when he tried mine, he said he’d get quiche next time. I just said, “I told you so”. . . He knows that DH would never pay for something that he won’t like and I would never make him eat something he isn’t going to like. He proceeded to order a huge brownie since they didn’t have cheesecake.

The light rain subsided and we went back to the petting zoo. . then met up with our other guests. Eventually we go to pick blueberries. . .

I snapped these while we waiting in line with our nephew and my best friend.

Picking blueberries:

While we waited for the shuttle back to town, my nephew and I played with macro photography.
 

Love You Tube

While I was posting the entry below, I thought about how we need to hurry over to Wal-mart to buy those tubes before they’re gone as I think they’re starting to get rid of their summer things. So, I emailed Cody about it. He replied back that he thought the weather might be too cold. I reminded him our trip last September and how hot it was. I also looked up and shared with him that the average temp there is 89° and the high temp is 108° for September. Needless to say, he replied back “OK”

So, feeling full of gratitude that we can email back and forth like that at work, I sent back one last message that simply read “I love you”.

And you know how he replied?

“love you tube”

That’s so my husband. It’s dangerous emailing back and forth with him at work because I often am literally laughing out loud with no one in my office.

Vacation

So, yesterday, I told you all about the wedding and our decisions that we have to make around it. Still have not booked the hotel yet but I did discuss it with Cody yesterday. We’re in agreement that we need to stay in San Marcos. We just need to find the hotel.

Then, we took a look at the many directions we could go. I think we’ve decided on going a bit west. . . well “bit” for Texas- as in compared to going all the way West to El Paso, it’ll be a short drive. We’re thinking we go west to Sonora and see the cave there. It’s different from many of the other caves that can be toured in Texas in the way its formations are and I’ve wanted to go for 10+ years now. Then, I think we’ll camp at a state park near that’s between the two locations that should have tubing in crystal clear blue water but much more like lots of nature trails and “hunting” blinds for wildlife photography. Sounds peaceful and relaxing.

The cave (from the website):

 Reduced: 79% of original size [ 642 x 182 ] – Click to view full image

The state park is along the Llano River

It feels good to have some type of plan in place. For the most part, we’ll play the rest of the trip by ear. But, I do want to run to Wal-mart and buys us a couple of tubes.

Wedding #2

This “summer” we have two weddings to attend. If you’ve been hanging out with me on the Conversations on the Porch Swing threads, you know that I often characterize them as the tale of two opposites. But, the grooms are my husband’s two best friends.

The first wedding was last month and the next wedding is in September. While planning for the first was simple since it was nearby (though more out in the tullies than we thought), this next wedding is what feels like halfway across the state near Austin (though that’s not quite accurate). But, we’re really excited about going. Of course, it’s 288 miles according to mapquest to what’s often considered the center of the state.

This in turns means that we have to make some serious plans for getting there and lodging. Problem is that even as of yet, I don’t feel completely confident I can make those plans. We will definetely be attending the wedding but I don’t know how many of us there will be. . . give me another month or month and a half or so and I bet I could tell you. It also means we don’t know how long we can be gone. If, by what seems to be a small miracle, we have children placed with us by then, they’ll still be in school.

We’ve managed to make our leave plans fit around the uncertainty and have left our self time to take a little vacation after the wedding. . . if we don’t have kids. Our bosses know that our plans are subject to change.

So now, I need to figure out the lodging. . . and really pretty soon. The wedding’s in a town that only has bed and breakfast’s. . . I don’t think that’s going to work both cost and #’s/ flexibility wise. So, we can either stay in Austin (ugh big city) or one of the two smaller towns between there and San Antonio. One is more expensive but often has great concerts (remember our Gruene Hall trip), the other has cheaper lodging but sometimes more traffic.

That kinda leads me to the rest of our time off and vacation ideas. I’m leaning towards staying in the cheaper of the two towns. This would leave us more money for the rest of the trip (which if extended, we’ll likely be camping). So, What do we do with the rest of our time if we have it???? We can certainly find things to do around there. But, then I realized we’re halfway across the state. . . which means a lot of other places suddenly became quite closer. Unfortunately, Debby’s is not one of the closer places. We’d also then be a straight shot to one of our favorite places in Oklahoma. (Which is like 350 plus miles from Austin area). So, since it’s looking more and more like we’ll be making this trip the two of us, what do we do? Where do we go?

My New Digital Slr And No Adoption News

There’s no news on the adoption front. The wait was about to drive me crazy and still threatens to drive me crazy. Last month, I found that fixating on a new camera really helped. I needed something to fixate on to help me get through this. I weighed the options and a new camera and photography seemed like a good choice. It’s not something that I would cast aside once we got kids. In fact, it would be better for me to get a DSLR and learn it now, so that when we have kids, I’ll be better at it. So, after much discussion, DH broke down and let me get a new Digital SLR.

I have had so much fun taking pictures. And it really has given me something new to concentrate on. Here’s a slide show of the shots I took last month:

The first few are shot with my brother’s Canon XTI
The rest. . . with my Nikon D80 and either the 18-55 VR lens or the 55-200 VR lens.

Picture Locations in order:
SFA Arboretum
The Long Way Home
Our Yard
The SFA Arboretum
Tyler Rose Garden
Tyler/ Caldwell Zoo
My Parents House
Tiger Creek Refuge
Tyler/ Caldwell Zoo
The Long Way Home
Our Town
The Long Way Home
Me at Home (Mixing brownies from the comfort of my chair)
The Trail Downtown
And The Long Way Home

Can you tell I like to go the long way home to take pictures?