Mobius

We are really blessed to have a children's museum in Spokane. It's called Mobius and there's a TON of things to do there for kids. I would say it's small but packs in the greatest hits of all things kids love:


A huge water table


Bugs


A "market" where you can shop, or be shop owner


you could even pack your canoe with as many food items as possible for your trek downriver to your dino excavation, as my boys did.


A roadway complete with real traffic signals and "cars".



There's even an excavator run on hydraulics! Asher scooping out a ditch in a sea of lentils:

We don't visit Mobius as often as I or the boys would like, but I am so glad it's there. Especially with the winters being what they are here, we may visit more often!

Scone recipe

This Scone recipe. How can I even describe it? It's moist, sweet, and delectable. It can also be savory, or spicy depending on how you want to flavor it.
On Christmas morning I always make these scones, a savory batch and a cranberry orange batch. They're usually both gone before I can have one! this is not a flaky dry scone that you'll want to dip in coffee, if you like that, just cut out some of the sour cream and it will harden up. I like mine to be great on their own, with out having to dip them in anything.

If you want to make the dough for a savory batch cut the sugar in half, and in the end stage of scone making add your bacon, cheddar and onion or smoked salmon and Gruyere; or even this idea: ham chunks and green onion, then when they're done baking swipe some brie in the center while it's still warm. Hungry yet?

For the sweeter version, you can add pumpkin and spices to make a starbucks like scone, you can even add blackberries and lemon zest and make a lemony glaze for the top. let me know if you are interested in these variations and I can write one up for you.


Beki's Scones
3/4 c Sour cream (I sometimes use 1 cup to make these over the top moist, and melty in your mouthy)
1 tsp Baking soda
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar (cut this down to 1/3c for savory scones)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
1 c Butter, cold-ish
1 egg, gently beaten
1-1/4c dried cranberries (if making pumpkin, only add 1/3c, and then 1-2t pumpkin pie spice)
2 large oranges for zesting and juicing.
1/4 c orange zest, divided (some will go in the dough, some will go in the glaze)

***
Put sour cream in a small bowl and stir in baking soda, let sit and proof on the counter while you sift the rest of the ingredients. I
n large mixing bowl or mixer with whisk attachment: flour, sugar, powder, tartar, salt. stir slowly til combined. cut in butter with wisk attachment or pastry cutter. then add the sour cream stuff, and the egg.
If you're using a mixer, get your dough hook out and switch from the the whisk. again, slowly stir just until combined, this will ensure you don't have a tough scone to bite into, you want moist, and flakey NOT chewy and tough.
at this point add your mix ins (again, i am using the cranberry and orange zest, reserving some of the zest for the glaze) mix them in. then turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface, not to much flour or it will mix in and make the dough tough. shape into a disk about 1" thick, and cut like you would a pizza making a bunch of little triangle shapes. this will make about 8-10 large scones about starbucks's size. if you want the cute little sizes make 2 disks with your dough instead of one. get out a cookie sheet and spray with some spray oil, or lightly grease. bake at 350 for 12-15 mins, you want them to be set and just starting to get golden on the edges, do not over bake, they'll be dry. unless you like that sort of thing, then bake away!
when they're no longer hot, dig in and eat or pour a glaze over them like I do.

Orange Glaze
1/2c orange juice
1T orange zest
1c powdered sugar

mix together in a pyrex and gently pour over slightly warm Cranberry orange scones. this makes a lot of glaze, so you'll have enough for 2 coats of glaze

for a pumpkin glaze
1/2c water
1c powdered sugar
1/2t cinnamon
1/4t maple flavoring


I really hope you guys try these. they're amazing and always on my table on christmas morning, the perfect breakfast to grab inbetween gifts :)

calvin, is that you?

So Bright is on the very edge of being able to read whatever word is in front of him. he has a little ways to go, but still, he's a big boy! on one hand I want him to be able to read, on the other, I know it will mean I have ANOTHER max on my hands. all that means is, he'll pick up a book and I won't see him for days or until the book is finished. I am excited for that stage of Bright's life, and know that it will mean I won't be asked to play legos nearly as much. Anyway, he's been "reading" a lot of calvin and hobbes. he'll pick out words like "oh no!" and "AAAAAACCCKKK!" or things of that nature and he's pretty good at being able to tell what's going on in the comic just by looking at the pictures. oh, and it's about a boy with a HUGE imagination. Sound like a little boy you know? the similarities between my first born and calvin are endless.

Case in point:




If you look closely you can see on his Mayflower box he's written almost exactly what Calvin has written and in the same "font".
he was reading the comic strip and really thought it would be a good day to serve the public his special brew (aka, lemonade).
I may start reading more calvin in hopes to better understand what it is in my sweet boy that makes him snuggle me one second, and rumble down the hallway as a roaring monster truck, the next.

Just after max visited for a week in june, the boys and I were invited to a dairy farm with some friends. we drove way out west not knowing what to expect. Not sure how I got lost, since it seemed like only one road and tons of grass, but I did. Before long I figured out where I was and found my way to Spokane's Family Farm.
upon arriving we had a little lunch on some hay bales.


The Woman who runs the farm took us all on a tour and showed off her sweet kid loving animals. Here's a donkey, he even followed us around after all that petting.




Asher and bub braved the crowd and looked for eggs in the chicken coop. no luck.


This beautiful rooster was standing guard nearby. isn't he gorgeous?


Next were the horses. Everyone was feeding them and by the time it was our turn, the horses were full and uninterested. I this one felt sorry for my boys as he came over and politely nibbled. Asher was a tad unsure, so he only held out on blade of grass in an effort to look less desirable. this only made his fingers look yummier, and the horse gave them a taste. Asher wasn't bothered much, just annoyed his fingers were "wet".


We saw some cows out to pasture, and this is where a few were coming over to say hi.
asher was saying "gwoss, smewlls gwoss. jus gwoss"


And here's our last photo. After this was taken the boys had a melt down and we left shortly after. the tour was great, but a lot of it was eduacational for the parents benefit, and the kids got tired. this was taken in the milking area. Bright said "there's lotsa tubes and stuff"

June happenings

I know, once again I have let this blog go un-updated and I feel awful. mostly because it's max's way of keeping up with us. Consistency is not something I am very good at.

June was a month filled with happenings! The boys and I moved into our new home, though it was without max (and our household goods!) we were still very excited.
I picked up some temporary furniture, cooking utensils, and such from ikea and goodwill. I was loaned several other items from family and good friends, so I was able to set up house in a campy sort of way.

Max cam for a short visit in early june. we packed as many visits with friends and family as we could, and made sure to have some quality "us" time as well.
here is bright playing with one of his besties, Maddeck, Kyle and Laura's boy.


We all spent a day shopping for a bicycle for Brighton. he had a good time picking out his new bike and Toy Story helmet and knee pads.
Here he is trying it all out for the first time.


We have a huge field on the opposite side of the street from us belonging to a middle school. Max and the boys decided to play some ball.


Asher found a box, and played in it. he's like a kitten that way.


We also took trip a down to Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. the squirrels were hungry so we obliged.




They also have rides there. here were are excited to ride. aren't we cute? and naive?


And this is when I imagined us all falling to our deaths.


a 2 year old in a rickety old ferris wheel chair with no seatbelt, flailing around in the air.not the greatest idea I've ever had. I must point out that we stayed up there while loading other passengers, so my little mind was going nuts for the longest 60 seconds ever. the did let us out, but not before "letting" us go around 2 more times. nice.

An end to a wonderful day. My loves:

Cornish (courtney's) BFA Show 2010

MY SISTER GRADUATED FROM CORNISH!!! YAY! I am so proud of her and how her art and vision has evolved over the years. She is SO amazingly talented and I love her eye for simple meaningful moments in our lives and being able to capture them.
Her Show was Friday night May 14th, 2010. Elizabeth and I decided to take a trip to Isushi and chat until it was time to go, it was a fun date. we were able to chat one on one which is unusual since we usually have kids all around. The Show was in Seattle at the schools studios, which is just a building with 3 wall spaces for "studios". They transformed them all into a beautiful gallery setting, upstairs the walls were light blue, white and grey, downstairs was same, but then in an offshoot room was the "black room". It was THE place to be showing, it was the most gallery like of the whole place and very professional and nice looking. Court was in the further end of the room. Since it was black and anything besides the art was not well lit, it was quite hard to get a good photo of people. I managed to get some blurry ones, so you'll be able to get the feel of her space. here's the best one I could manage of her in her space.


Here's her pricing list, comment book and business cards. Also a sculpture piece (camera with moss) which I love and am VERY tempted to purchase:



This is the best photo I could get of her whole space:




Here's me checkin out the light table she built:



some cool peeps:



This piece was done with smoke on paper. Pretty amazing up close.



This piece was made up of tons of different angles of people's bodies.



these drawings are made of just graphite pencil on paper, and they're about as tall as bright is. really awesome.



besides court's stuff this might be one of my favorite pieces in the whole show.



Even Jim showed up!



My final sentiments:

Bright's Birthday party!

Yesterday we celebrated bright's 5th birthday. He requested a few different presents for his birthday: Legos, robots, and buttercups. sweetie pie.
He ended up getting many legos and a few other great presents. As he opened each one he was so happy and excited. I was proud, there was not one "next" or "oh, it's just ____".
He requested a wallace and gromit birthday, with a wallace and gromit rocket cake. I had my work cut out. I love cooking so this was more of a fun challenge than work, so I really enjoyed it. it definately looks homemade, but Bright was so excited as he watched it take shape, he kept saying "yay! look at my cake!"

Here's the Rocket cake:



I also attempted a treat that I have made ebfore just in another shape for his 4th birthday (robot heads) and he loved them so much he asked for them again this year. I decided to make Gromit heads made from Oreo truffle center with white chololate coating and tootsie roll ears. it was time consuming, but super fun and rewarding to see my result.

ta da!


once everyone arrived we all sat outside because it was SO gorgeous! I was so happy to have a nice day with the kids playing outside, and all of us parents watching and chatting. it was so relaxing.
here's a group shot (nathaniel, jonna, elizabeth, ross, toby, coco, brian, hayley, and stella's hair in front of coco)



The kids all had a fun taking turns riding the sled behind the buggy and chasing the sled (you can see asher waving from the seat with grampa, that's what he did the entire time, waving and yelling "HI!!"). Rainy got on the buggy on her own at one point, and Ross took goldie on it for a short time.



we all sat chatting about nothing inparticular when suddenly one of the chickens decided Toby's head would be a good place to roost for a moment. Toby didn't think so.


After a while we hung the #5 pinata, and all the kids took turns hitting at it. It took all the kids taking 2 turns to get it open. The funniest to watch was Stella, she was so un coordinated: hitting at the air and almost hit some of the kids! most of the kids just found it right away and just whacked away. finally I just took the pinata and poured out the candy. they ran around crazy trying to find it all.



After that we played outside some more then had cake and opened presents. Coco's camera has the rest of the photos, so it will be a bit before I can get those. Bright was so grateful and happy the whole day. it was really nice to see all the kids get along so well and have a fun time. Honey, You were missed for sure. there wasn't 5 mins that went by without me wishing you were here to snuggle with under the tree, or to listen to your funny conversations with Ross and your bro, or to enjoy our sweet little bub together. Can't wait to see you.

MONSTER TRUUUUUCKS!!

Bright is in love, with monster trucks. His first love is Thomas, and all things automobile related. But when it comes to trucks, Monster trucks rule. I mean, it was like a natural thing; one day when he was nearly 2, we saw a book at the library and he was instantly drawn to it. From then on it was a love affair, talking about them playing with them, making the hot wheels get smashed by them. It seems he (and most boys I think) was hard wired to like them. For me, I don't see the draw, big truck HUGE tires, ok but not a big deal. Where's my nail polish and USweekly?

When he had just turned 4 we saw a show advertised, but I was still nervous to take him. I knew it would be loud, and I was worried we would spend lots of money and he'd want to leave just after it started ( a' la circus show 2008 where he got worried with all the people around). This year I felt he was old enough to be SO excited and into it, that it would over shadow his fear of the crowds or nervousness with the potentially rowdy crowd. Now Max and I had originally wanted to make this a family outing, but then somehow the Air Force got involved. So it soon became a "date night" for me and Bright. we went to Dinner and had onion rings (his request) and chicken and BBQ sauce. I later realized the dinner we had was ALL too fitting for the evening we were about to experience.
I dropped of Asher at the neighbors house and Bub and I headed out. The venue was only about 5 mins from our house, wich was perfect since it started pretty late. There were a lot of kids there, but WAY more adults than I expected. we sat next to your typical Monster truck patron: older man, lots of hair, hell's angels type, double fisting coors next to his old bar fly "gal". To complete the look: leather vest, black jeans and "vest" t-shirt dispite the sub zero temps outside. So I decided to get into character as the bubbly ex cheerleader mom, how could he hurt me then? He, of course could not be more nice or quiet.
Bright was so into all the things happeing down on the track. We got there with enough time to find our seats and sit for about 10 mins before the show started, any earlier than that and it would have been miserable (for me) since he asked when it would start aabout 1,000 times. just before the show we bought some Dippin' Dots Ice Cream (freeze dried) and a big foot t-shirt. Bub said it was the best thing he's ever seen.
once the show started he was very quiet and just took it all in. which I know as a very good sign. it means he's soaking it all up. we stayed and watched until intermission (9pm) and then left. here's a few highlights:

BIG FOOT!!


the cutie pie wore his ear muffs the whole night, he was so excited to go he wore them in the car on the way to the show :)



here's one from the wheelie contest:

Ahh, innocence...

This morning Bright and I did his school work, and afterword he wanted to keep writing letters and make words. He was pretty much just writing random things here and there, you know, nonsense words; laughing as I tried to read them and how funny they sounded. "BAE" he giggled at. Then he wrote one that was actually a word. As he wrote it, I watched..."B"...."O"... ok, what's he writing..."O"...oh no, don't do it bright...



We both laughed really hard at this. Then asher ran around the kitchen yelling "booooob! boooooob!"

Asher's Birthday

Asher is 2! He's knee deep in defiance and tantrums, and we couldn't love him more. his favorite phrases are "hold mama" and "ree ree hung-ee, mama" (really hungry) and of course, "no" is a favorite. Time outs are becoming more of a common thing and he's very dramatic when he is angry, often throwing cars down on the ground, and screaming through a clenched jaw (red face and all). surprisingly he's good at sharing, as long as you give him a minute to part with the toy (a hug and kiss for the toy)
Favorite past times: playing cars and trains, what else? he's typically obsessed with Thomas and friends, something bright passed on. His favorite toy is his "lady" train whom he calls "own lady" because it's his own.
For his birthday we decided to do a small family thing on the actual date, then a friends party on saturday. He's got a few friends from the church nursery, and both studies I go to, so I thought he'd have fun having them on his turf.I made cupcakes and adult type appetizers, we had balloons and streamers (most of which were ruined or on the floor by the time friends came over) and his new veggie tales cd was playing.

before i show pics of the party I wanted to share these photos. there's a ton. but they are all a physical expression of what (I think) is in a toddler's mind. These were all taken in about 1.5 minutes while he sat in his high chair, post-cupcake.

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So that's our stinker. those photos pretty much sum up each and every day for me. A rollercoaster of epic emotional feelings. can't wait to share them all with you when we come "home".