Monday, February 27, 2012

DOB


[The Donnis Trio for your listening enjoyment.]


Date of Birth: 02/27/7* :)

I've had a nice day of peace and sunshine. 

I had a class this morning and gave all my students pedometers for my birthday. :)


I also ran 6 miles. 
It was rough. 
It is clear today but very windy and very cold. 
The body part hollering the most during the run were my ears. 
They're so sensitive.

Looking forward to picking up the two loves of my life there...



We're headed to Chipotle for dinner.
They all made me a gluten-free ice cream cake which I cannot wait to fork in to.

I'm sure we'll end the day as we usually do: piled on Owen's bed for a couple rounds of UNO.
And I'm sure Owen will say what he says every night, 

"Mom, you go last because you're the oldest."

And Woody will try (not very hard) to stifle a smirk and a chuckle and I'll thank Owen for reminding me that I'm the oldest. :)

But, I am the oldest in this dear family of mine that I love with my whole heart.
And I'm feeling uber-thankful and grateful for another year with them.




Thursday, February 23, 2012

snowflakes and a woodpecker




(Today's post is to be enjoyed with Bjork.)

Last week I volunteered in O's class and was able to help out with snow flake making.
The 1st graders had pieces of paper they were to cut into snowflakes...pretty basic.

But it was pretty tricky for them because the paper, once cut and folded up, was pretty thick. That and the kid-friendly (read: dull) scissors made for a frustrating task for a lot of them.

So, I saw this post on the Artful Parent and wanted to give Owen (and Maya too) a more enjoyable experience.

I had a bunch of old coffee filters in the garage next to all the water color paints we hadn't seen in awhile so we got to it.


We also put together the little woodpecker toy I mentioned a few posts ago.

Totally excellent. 
(I was the most excited about the woodpecker. He's now hanging in the doorway as you enter the kitchen and he makes me happy.)







This weekend we'll be making bird seed feeders and hopefully planting a bunch of flower seeds.

Photos coming soon...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Thin Mint Showdown


Listen to this song while you read this post.
This is my new thing.
I loved the music-inspired dishes that I dished about in a recent blog post (tee hee) so I'm applying that brilliant idea to my little ole blog here.

OK, but really this is about the Thin Mint Showdown.


Inspired by Beyond the Plate's link to Free Range Cookies, I decided to give Gluten-free Thin Mints a try.

And it was perfect timing, as our three boxes of the Girl Scout version arrived the same day (from one of Woody's co-workers). 

[So, I didn't use their gluten-free flour recipe.
I have my own (from here) that I use for my regular flour substitute.]



The girl scout recipe is filled with sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and other less than terrific ingredients for your beautiful bods. 



The gluten-free version has very little sugar and lots of organic, wholesome, dark chocolate, brown rice flower, a little salt, a little (baking) soda, an egg, and a dusting of powdered sugar to roll out the dough. 



(Girl scout to the left...g-free to the right.)


I made Woody a super big one:)




What did OM think?
They both gave me thumbs up.
In full disclosure: O voted for girl scouts, M voted for my version.
Give 'em a try!
They're d'lish!!!!

Monday, February 20, 2012

watch out Roger...









Owen's serve is coming along nicely.
He really loves his class and it's extra nice because there are only two other kids in the class so they get a lot of instruction (compared to Maya's soccer class with 12 kids)

Way to go O!




Sunday, February 19, 2012

Thursday, February 16, 2012

little round-up of interesting-ness out there in the world wide web


I've said it before and I'll say it again.
I love this movie.
So much.
It's on my birthday wish list. 

So when I read this really great post it made me super happy. (Although, not to be rude, but duh. Of course that's what makes the movie so fantastic).

[You have to press play and listen to this while you read the rest of the post. 
Really, you have to. It will make you happy.]







I think the whole music-inspired dishes idea is so super great. Love it. 
I'm making these next and totally getting my Bee Gee's on.




Heather Ross, stop it
I can't take anymore uber-achieving craftiness.
Really
Enough.


These are the BEST valentine's I've ever seen.
Totally awesome D!


This interview on Fresh Air was fantastic.


These are the luckiest kids ever.
How excellent.


And, my favorite (mini) performance from the Grammy's...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

my valentine...


I love him so.

happy valentine's day.

 (their V-Day loot: thanks G'ma Ging & G'pa Bark)


Owen's class grew quite a bit this year plus we had to make one for the Principal, PE Teacher, Music Teacher, Librarian, Janitor, Secretary, and School Counselor (we think. we asked O who Mr. Diehl was on the list of people to write the valentine's for and O said he was someone that helped kids when they were crying. we asked him if he'd ever talked with Mr. Diehl and he said yes. one time Mr. Diehl commented to him that his hummus [for lunch] looked good.) :)






I also made heart-shaped chocolate-cherry muffins.
They rule.









 (maya was very excited about how tasty these turned out and was proclaiming that she wanted these for her birthday cupcakes)





Wishing you a day filled with loads of love and sweet, chocolate-y goodness!