How can you not love Play Dough?

Granted, you have to be in the right frame of mind for play dough. There are times that I just don't want to deal with the mess.  But most of the time it's a win-win. Kids are occupied and happy and parents have some "free" time to do something else if they wish. My favorite is listening in to their creative play. Today Kenzie was making "little sweet apples" and later she made plates & plates of delicious cookies!

Here is my favorite Play Dough recipe.  It comes from an old Family Fun Magazine and makes quite a bit. What you see in the above picture is only half of the following recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups of white flour

1 1/2 cups of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

3 1/4 cups water

6 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Food Coloring

**Optional: A few drops of your favorite essential oil to make it smell yummy. 

Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. In a separate bowl, mix the liquids, adding drops of food coloring (and essential oil if using), until you reach your desired shade. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and stir (don't worry about lumps--they'll work themselves out). Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture holds together and gets too stiff to stir (it will stiffen even more as it cools), about 5 to 10 minutes. **Let it Cool.  It will be pretty warm. If necessary, knead the dough to work out any remaining lumps.

Then let the creativity roll!

An afternoon at the Arboretum

Some of the spring beauty at the Arboretum. It's amazing!  I always feel like I've traveled to somewhere else when we visit the Arboretum.

This year they're showcasing different artists through replica "houses." This one is Picasso's.

This one is Georges Seurat's.  Amazing!  The afternoon we went the Arboretum was packed, so I only have pictures of these two. But I'm hoping to get the others on another trip.

We decided to split up because we were running out of time and Kevin & Kate wanted to see a different part of the gardens.  So Kenzie and I had a great time hanging out.

These aren't the best pictures, but I like the idea of them. There is a big grassy area where Kenzie and I kicked off our shoes and played. She wanted me to give her an "airplane ride." So this was my view. :)

It was a beautiful day! I'm so glad we were able to go.

Catching Up #2 Halloween

Justin and I were invited to a Halloween party and we decided to dress up as our High School personalities!   Just kidding.  Justin really wanted to dress up as Paul Sr. from Orange County Choppers.  I was going to dress up like a rocker chick and even considered spray painting my hair black, etc.  But when I thought about it.  I already had everything for nerd costume for free!  

You would not believe the strange looks that people gave to Justin when they saw his "tattoos", which of course were just sleeves.  Many people would look and then quickly look away like they were so uncomfortable.  It was so funny!  Once most people learned that they were sleeves they became much more friendly and then talked about how cool they were.  Go figure!

Justin actually won his company's costume contest at work!  $75 Visa Gift Cards, not bad!

Where's Kelly?  She was actually at a dress rehearsal for her musical.  Seriously what was her teacher thinking.  Needless to say, I didn't get one picture of her.  Sniff, sniff.  She did dress up, sort of like a rocker.  Maybe I will have her put her costume on sometime and get a picture of her then.  O.k. really, that probably will never happen but for some reason posting it makes me feel better. :)

If you can't tell, Kate went as Pebbles Flinstone, which she loved and none of her friends even knew who that was.  What has happened to our cartoon classics?!

I was really grateful that Kevin and Kenzie's costumes from last year still fit and they were happy to wear them again!  I don't know if they will ever know how much I appreciate that and how much easier it made this holiday for me. 

We were totally sporting our Trader Joe's bags for collecting candy.  Yes!  They are finally coming to the DFW area this winter.  I   can   not    wait!!

Our kids got sooooo much candy this year.  After a week of eating more than anyone needed, we still probably have 10+ pounds left!  It's almost disgusting!  The kids ate their fill this weekend and the rest I am taking to school.  I have to get it out of the house--for all our good!

I hope you had a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Catching Up #1 Company Fall Picnic

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of attending Justin's company fall picnic.  The company he works for recently purchased a new building and to celebrate, they had the picnic at the new location.  It just happened to be an old corporate YMCA building and has tennis courts, indoor pool, rock climbing wall etc.  Sadly, the building had been vacant for a while.  The pool was empty, etc. so it wasn't really ready for anyone to go inside, but the grounds were beautiful and even though it was in the 80's we had a great time.

Kelly took this picture and it is straight out of the camera.  I just love it!  Looking at it makes me feel happy, hopeful, and grateful.  Good job Kelly!

Try as I might, I couldn't get Kate to smile normal!

Livin' it up!  We usually don't drink a lot of soda and so these girls were loving this!  

I had never heard of the game "Washers" until moving to Texas.  It's sort of like horseshoes, I think.  I've never played either one so I could be totally wrong.  You have these large metal washers that you're trying to throw into a box about 15 feet away.  You get so many points for where it lands, and or if you knock out an opponents washer, etc.  When Justin told me he'd signed us up to play in a washers tournament I told him that Kevin would be a better partner.  I turned out to be right and Justin and Kevin won the whole thing!!  They got a Chipotle gift card and used it for a fun Dad and Kevin night.  Great job guys!  I am so proud of you!

Kelly took my camera for a little while and took some pictures of the area, and her feet. :)  It was fun to see what she had come up with.  As you can see it's a beautiful place.  It was nice to do something fun on the weekend instead of the crazy running-around-to-get-things-done that we usually do.

Some of the other activities that they had (that unfortunately I didn't get pictures of), were a scanner scavenger hunt and pumpkin decorating.  With the scanner scavenger hunt you had to use your cell phone to scan various digital codes (the ones that look like black and white tetris blocks), to get answers to different trivia questions.  It was pretty cool.  All of the kids really got into the pumpkin decorating too.  They must have cleared out Micheal's for all the cool crafty stuff they had available.  I'm telling you.  I think that's my favorite way to do pumpkins.  No mess and the kids can do the whole thing themselves.  It's definitely a new favorite for me.  Especially when it's way too hot for Halloween.  Our pumpkins actually lasted a little while longer this year.  Maybe I will get a picture of them and post it later.

All in all it was a great day!

Indian Summer

Thanks to some wonderful, wonderful friends we enjoyed a weekend at Holly Lake Resort.

Thankfully we did not see one alligator! Despite that, I felt a little nervous about it the whole time.

Canoeing with the kids.  It was a beautiful morning.  We were sad that Kelly and Dad weren't there yet. They came up later due to Kelly's drama rehearsal.  This was a lot of fun.

When you can't get the ball in with your club....

Just use your hands. :)

It was a beautiful weekend.  We had a great time getting away and hope to be able to do it again soon.

Summer Baseball

No, they are not the red hat society team. :) Because it's summer league, all teams got red hats and then the same t-shirts, just different colors.  It turns out our shirt is purple--so yes, red socks, belt, hat and purple shirt.  Oh well.  The boys don't seem to mind and Kevin has had a blast playing.

  At first it was hard and he wasn't enjoying it too much.  But every week he has improved and now is loving it! He's made more base hits and actually scored a run last week.  (He's gotten a few RBI's but it's not the same as runnning across home plate yourself).   We have our last game this week and I'm kind of sad that it will be over.  We lucked out and got one of the most amazing and patient coaches ever!!  I hope that Kevin can get on his team in the spring.  It was iffy at the beginning, but now I feel like it was definitely worth it!

Thinking of Nana

 

We Love you Nana!  (Yes, Papa we love you too.  Sorry we didn't get to see you!)

Day at the Arboretum--Part Two

A visit to the Arboretum, especially in the summer time would not be complete without a visit to our favorite corner--Toad Fountain.  Here is the beautiful, Crape Myrtle lined walkway leading to the fountain.

Watch how Kenzie, in a matter of minutes, works her magic and ends up with this little boy's umbrella.

I love the expression on his face, "I'm not sure what just happened and I have no idea what I should do now!"

Notice what side of the chain fence Kenzie is sitting on.  Yeah, they put that up to keep the kids out of the center.  Obviously she could care less.  Oh the things you can get away with when you're little!

On our way home.  As we were preparing for this outing Kelly stated that she was too old to play in the fountain and didn't want to bring her swimsuit.  It's hard to tell in the above picture, but she is soaking wet.  Once she got there she realized that you're never to old to play in the fountain. 

Even though is was extremely hot and humid we had a great time!  We are grateful to have such a beautiful place, not too far away to visit and enjoy.  Yeah for summer vacation!!