Four-Year-Old Photography

If you have ever wondered how your children see the world try giving them your camemra for an hour or so.  They will photograph the things they see, as they see them.  Here are a few of my four-year-old's pictures from our day at the tulip festival.

I was really impressed at the quality of these pictures.  I think part of the reason they turned out so well is the weather was so nice and sunny, perfect picture taking weather.

More of his pictures are featured in my post "Tulip Festival Favorites" as he had taken more pictures that day than I did and they turned out so good.

Some of the beauty in these pictures is all the close up shots, when you are three feet tall you're much closer to the flowers and that really came through.

Little Nerds

I will admit, I've always been a nerd.  All through school I was one of those studious people that hung out at the library and that was my main focus was getting those grades.  I must admit that mentality of learning and working hard at it has served me well, though I have come to understand that learning has its proper place in our lives and it is the application of that knowledge that makes us who we are.

I was not at all surprised (and a little excited) to learn that I have two very nerdy little boys.  They love to learn new things, use big words (big for them), they ask the darndest questions and they are always making connections that don't really work but I can see their logic which fascinates me.

So for all you nerds out there, be proud of your nerdyness.   Go explore your interests, expand your knowledge base and share it with your nerdy friends (and your nerdy children). :)

FIRST Robotics

My husband found a FIRST Robotics competition at Qwest field one day so we went to check it out.  First we had to stop and admire the huge red crane in the parking lot.

 We found out that they give the kids the description of the competition for the year and they have six weeks to build a robot.  The high school near us had a team there and it was fun to see how excited these high school students were about robotics and all the skills they were learning along the way.

The challenge this year they had to have the robots collect and shoot basketballs for points.  I was really impressed with the kids competing.  They also had to learn to present what they'd done.  I'm looking forward to having my kids participate in the FIRST robotics program.



Cheesecake Take 2

I love to bake but don't often venture out on a limb on a somewhat difficult recipe.  A couple years ago I had decided to attempt a homemade cheesecake for my husband's birthday.  I have a friend who worked in a bakery in high school and she gave me a recipe with excellent directions and my first attempt was a success.  It has kind of been a tradition since then to make a cheesecake for my husband's birthday every year.  This year I decided to try the marble cheesecake recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.  I used the Cheesecake Supreme recipe for the chocolate swirl

 The above picture is the disasterous result of the first attempt.  I used a different recipe for the crust than the recipe and forgot to put the 1 Tbsp of sugar in the crust.  Then I realized as I was putting it in the crust that there was no way I was going to get it to swirl and I hadn't left enough of the mix without chocolate (you could do it all chocolate and it would still taste amazing).  Then I left the flour out of the cake part.  I didn't realize this until after I had put it in the oven.  I had come to terms with the fact that it was just not going to be a great cake but thought it would still work.  I stuck it in the oven and went outside to work in the yard.  BAD MOVE!  I burnt the cake.  I was super bummed when I pulled it out and it was super dark on top (it is supposed to be lightly browned).  So I headed to the store to buy more ingredients and try again.  On the bright side, I knew exactly what I did wrong so I knew it wouldn't be hard to fix.

The second cheesecake was very nearly perfect.  I did a vanilla wafer and almond crust and made sure not to overcook it.  I was shocked at how good it tasted and despite the dryness of the first one we still ate it all.

Update (9/30/12):  I meant to put the recipe up for this one and am just getting around to it today.
This is the Cheesecake Supreme recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with a different crust.
Crust- 1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
           1 Tbsp granulated sugar
           1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds (350 degrees for 5-10 min to toast)
           3 oz (6 Tbsp) melted butter
Mix ingredients.  Press into bottom of springform pan.  Butter sides of pan "like crazy." Bake 350 degrees for 10 min.

Filling- 3 8 oz boxes cream cheese
             1 cup sugar
             2 Tbsp flour
             1 tsp vanilla
             2 eggs
             1 egg yolk
             1/4 cup milk
             2 ounces semisweet chocolate
Mix cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla with an electric mixer. add eggs and yolk all at once, beat until combined.  Stir in milk.  Melt chocolate and combine with half of filling mix.  Spoon  mix into pan. (I put alternated a dollup of chocolate and then vanilla next to it.  That made it easier to swirl.)  Butter sides of pan again. Bake at 375 degrees. 8 inch pan 45-50 minutes. 9 inch pan 35-40 minutes. Top should be slightly brown.

Tulip Festival Favorites

One of my favorite parts of the tulip festival is that they are selling the tulips so there was a magazine that showed all the different varieties and names of the flowers. The redish flower with the yellow fringe is a Fringed Tulip and this variety is called "FABIO."  It just made me laugh.

There was another group of tulips that were botanical species tulips.  This variety is called "Clusiana." It says they are "closest to the wild tulips originally found in Turkey.  There was a really simple beauty to this flower that I loved and imagining them growing wild made them even more appealing to me.

I also loved the look of the Parrot tulips the petals looked kind of like feathers. This variety is called "Salmon Parrot."

What a day.  The next time I go I'm sure I'll have to buy some tulips even if I check them out and end up buying the bulbs off their website TULIPS.COM  there are just so many flowers to love.  I would really be interested to see what happens with them in future years as some of my tulips have cross pollinated and are different than the original flowers.

A Very Happy Daddy

Our garage has been a bit cluttered since we moved here.  Every once in a while we'll clean it out and declutter but it is usually pretty full of stuff which makes it a wasted space.  My hubbie's birthday was coming up and we'd talked about how we needed to get the garage cleaned out so he could use it for a workshop (and work on projects for our home).  So Uncle Sandy helped me pick up a peg board and a few other things the day of his birthday.  He was very excited and spent the following Saturday out in the garage putting up all his tools and moving things around.  He had this goofy smile on the whole time and seeing him so excited just made me happy.

Here's the mostly finnished product.

The amazing part is that there is so much open space once we cleared out the garbage and put everything else away.  I'm looking forward to Summer projects now.

Easter

Look at these handome boys in their Sunday best.  There is just something special about seeing them dressed up and excited to go to church.  I must admit their enthusiasm is a great blessing on days when my motivation is lacking.

I felt a little bad when at church everyone was asking my kids what they got for Easter.  My four-year olds answer was nothin'. Our family tradition has been to save the baskets of treats for a family night treasure hunt the Monday after.  I cut out pictures from adds for the clues and they follow one clue to the next and after about eight clues find their treasure.  It's great as you can do it with young children who aren't reading yet.  I have many fond memories of treasure hunts we did as a child.

 My parents sent the kids an Easter treat (thanks Mom!) and Amanda, Christian and Uncle Sandy did an Easter egg hunt for the kids later in the afternoon.

My favorite part of the whole day (besides visiting with all the family) was the Primary sharing time where they put symbols of the Easter story in plastic eggs and the last week of the Savior's life unfolded as we  opened each egg.  It brought such a great spirit into the meeting and helped us all get focused back onto the Resurrection.

I'm so grateful for the Savior that He was willing to give His life for me.  I find great joy at Easter time as I'm reminded of the great gift of the atonement and the resurrection.  I love the scripture that says, death where is thy sting, Christ truly overcame death so we could live again.

Tulip Festival, Mt. Vernon WA

Every once in a while I feel the need to run away for the day.  A sunny day came along and a friend of mine invited us to go over to the Tulip Festival.

 I used to think that flowers were general useless and impractical.  About three years ago someone gave me a tiger lily plant for my birthday.  After the flowers had finnished I put it out on my balcony and the next spring it started to grow.  And thus was born my love for flowers and plants in general.

 Since then I've grown vegetables and flowers in flower boxes on my apartment balcony and when we bought a house we filled the flower beds with tulips, daffodils and irises. We've also put in a garden bed for vegetables.

I have grown to love plants and really enjoyed this day filled with beautiful flowers. I had no idea there were so many varieties of tulips and walking through the fields was surreal.   It weather was so nice we all got a little sunburn and it made for a very memorable day.