bad guy goes to jail

Do you have The Cute Book? If not, you might need to go get it. This little felt craft book has been in constant rotation for the last few years. I find it in beds, in the bathroom, under the couch. It can not stay on a book shelf. Someone is always reading it, and making plans.  I have sewn many creatures from it for both boys and girls. And some of my kids have used when they began sewing for themselves. It is that simple, and that cute.

This is Bad Guy. In the book he holds a cigarette to show how bad he is. But, since we did not have any smokes around, my son decided that he needed a jail.





Bad Guy's jail is made from a cracker box and duck tape. The top is open because he is so bad, he just comes and goes as he pleases.




Jail is sorta like time out for bad guy. It does not last long and he always ends right back there.

melt the rainbow

This is all over pinterest. We could not resist and finally broke out a canvas, hot glued on a few packs on crayons and started melting. This was way more satisfying and meditative that you might imagine - we started noticing how to direct the wax, let it cool and remelt it. So much fun! I kept stealing the blow dryer from my kids. 
My only tip - do this outside or in a garage. Inside is not such a good idea...

stuffed animal avalanche

Do your kids sleep with so many stuffed toys, they hang off the bed all night? Can you spot the one real animal? (This reminds me of the closet scene in ET).

biggest popover ever

Move over waffles, these German pancakes have kicked you out of top billing! I am always on the lookout for a healthy and fast hot breakfast (or tea time snack) and this is it! It is ironic that I have made popovers alot (which is basically what this is) and annoyingly they stick half the time for no apparent reason. This solves the problem of the sticking as well as not having to clean out the muffin tin. Double score! I told you I am always looking for ease.

what you need

6 eggs

1 cup of milk (or soy)

1 cup of flour
2 T butter (I use salted for a little salty edge which complements the sweet sugar dust)

Use whatever topping you want. I can not get beyond a squirt of lemon and slight dusting of confectioners sugar. But you could use maple syrup, Nutella, hot apple sauce, cinnamon and sugar, fruit jam - you get the idea! Any sweet flavor profile will work on this.

what you do

Preheat the oven to 400 with a big cast iron pan inside. I have seen this done with a regular casserole pan too - but have not tried it. The cast iron is pretty amazing!

Mix the eggs, milk and flour. A blender is great for this.

When the oven is preheated, take out the hot pan and melt the butter in it. Swirl it around.

Pour in the batter and cook for 20 minutes.

Call your kids to watch you take it out of the oven. It will be huge and then will slowly deflate. A little theatre with breakfast always starts the day off good I think.

That is is! I cut it up into slices and serve. My kids really love it.



Do you make these? What is your favorite topping?

circus training

After an arduous walk through our dreamy woods, we stopped and spent the better part of an hour learning to walk on round tree trunks. Falling and then improving our skills, we finally decided to join the circus.  It is days like this when I am so grateful for the abundance of time we have together. Our schedule always has enough leeway for some spur of the moment trick training.

When is the last time you lost yourself in spontaneous play with your children?

{this moment}

image from the week. no words. via soulemama.

raise some snails

I think I have mentioned here that we are a nature loving family. My son in particular has a keen eye when it comes to spotting little creatures in the wild. When he was not yet 5, we were in Costa Rica and our guide was trying in vain to find us some interesting invertebrates to look at - but it was Elliot who able to find the thinnest, wispiest stick bug. He spends hours just looking. He has caught a 1 inch seahorse in the Gulf and found and identified lady bug eggs in our orange tree when he was 4. When we hike, no rock goes unturned. His ability to focus his attention on the tiniest creatures astounds me.


My favorite entomologist is now raising garden snails. This has turned out to be fascinating and rewarding. The set up was a cinch. 


We used a very large, not airtight canister, piled some pebbles in the bottom for drainage, topped with some good garden soil and a rock for climbing. We also threw in a cuttle bone which is good for the snail shells. We feed them a piece of fruit or vegetable every day or so and then remove it.


They are thriving and have even laid some eggs which we got to see hatch. They burrow in the ground for most of the day and at night ease up the walls of the jar. It is quite meditative to watch them move. This is my sort of pet - low maintenance, high pleasurably.


Have you raised snails? Would you? Would you let then crawl all over your arm and feed them:)?