I have had this recipe for homemade peppermint patties (recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe) on my "must try list" for almost a year now, and finally got around to making them today.
Mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty, but oh my, the flavor is amazing! And WAY better than store-bought peppermint patties. With dark chocolate on the outside . . . with no wheat, or oats, or peanuts inside . . . a totally no-guilt pleasure (BTW - eating sugar does NOT make me feel guilty).
And the best part, the girls think the mint is "too spicy" and they're not really Ken's favorite treat, so it looks like the majority are all mine, mine, mine :)
And I think I'm going to be needing the entire bag of treats to handle my nearly 3-yr old, who has abruptly transitioned into the "Terrible Threes". Today, Sophia got mad at me because I had to change her diaper. So, in retaliation, she took all the clothes out of her dresser and threw them on the floor. A few hours later, this was repeated after another needed diaper change: clothes all over the floor again, but this time, I found her naked, buried under the covers in her bed, sound asleep.
I may have to make a batch of these mints every few weeks to keep me smiling ;)
Ken had Monday off, so we spent the afternoon at Schilter's Farm playing around and picking out pumpkins - and enjoying the non-rainy day. Amelia loved anything related to the hay - parked hay wagon, hay maze, hay jump, hay wagon ride. I was trying hard not to sneeze ;)
The girls also loved the animals. Sophia loved the small ponies and Amelia thought it was pretty cool to be able to hold a baby kitten. My favorite was definitely the baby kittens . . . too bad they don't always stay that cute and small.
Sophia and I were a bit fearful of the roosters walking around the farm. I kept my distance and my eyes on them. But here's Sophia looking tough while driving a tractor.
Amelia's favorite part of the farm was a big fast slide they had - it was so fast I couldn't get a picture of her on it. But here's one of her near where we picked our pumpkins.
A fun family day followed by whining and an early bedtime. So, all in all, a successful day!
I've been taking the girls to story time at the library as part of my at-home pre-schooling. Amelia claims not to like it and doesn't want to go back, but she always participates when she's there . . . which is more than she's ever done in the past. I'm hoping to compromise with her to go every other week.
Last year, I knew for months what the girls were going to be for Halloween. This year, I've been stressing for months because I had no idea what they wanted to be. So I started asking them, and when their answers were consistent, I went with it . . . and then told them it was too late to change their minds ;) So in the last few weeks, I've been working on Halloween costumes, which included dying shirts to match pants and tutus I bought. Unfortunately, the dye did not turn out at all like I hoped. My only consolation is that the girls don't seem to mind . . . and they'll be wearing the costumes at dusk/nighttime, so hopefully no one else will notice.
Amelia's 2nd ballet class started today - and she was so excited. Afterwards she told me she already knew everything and wondered if her teacher knew anything else to teach her ;) I love that she's all lined up, in position . . .
And I love that there is a little boy in her class. Good for his parents!
Sophia loves to dance as much as Amelia and has shown interest in taking a ballet class. So we bought her a leotard, skirt and ballet shoes and told her she could take a dance class in the Fall. But then when we went to register her for a class, we found out she wasn't old enough - by 4 weeks - so we couldn't do it. Sophia took the news okay, but still talks about taking a dance class. Today when Amelia's ballet class started, we found out we could get Sophia in a class anyway, but then Sophia told us she didn't want to go. But she looks like she wants to go, right?
General Conference is this weekend - and I am loving it. Here are the girls waiting for it to start before they headed to the ballet class. Last Gen. Conf. I was over-prepared for activities for the girls to do while watching conference. This time, I pulled out all the stuff from last time, but added to it a buffet of snack foods. That was a bigger hit than the activities - letting them graze for 2 hours at a time - and when they were eating, they weren't talking - so I think it was a win/win. And even better, they were eating healthy snacks!
The first time I went to Leavenworth was a little over 9 years ago - on our honeymoon - and that was all a bit of a blur, due to my "3 days . . . 3 Emergency Rooms" experience. So I was really looking forward to going back to Leavenworth - even if we were bringing the kids with us.
Just before we got to Leavenworth, we stopped at a fruit stand called Smallwood's Harvest. It had a bunch of really fun things for the kids to do - all FREE - swings, pedal cars, etc. And the kids were having a great time. They also had a hen house . . . so I took Sophia down to look at all the pretty hens. Out in front of the hen house, was a rooster - not penned in, so I gave it some space . . . I've heard roosters can be a bit mean. Sophia and I were about 20-30 feet away from the rooster, looking at all the pretty hens, when suddenly I felt something hit my ankle. And there was this mean, albeit pretty rooster, attacking me.
I immediately picked up Sophia, started screaming at the rooster and took off running. Then I realized it was chasing me . . . . so I stop running and start kicking it, all while still screaming at it . . . but it just keeps attacking me . . . so I start running again . . . and finally make it back to Ken. "Did you see the hens?", he asks. Oh yeah, I saw them! I've got blood pouring out of my right ankle and scratch marks all over my left leg. Thank goodness Sophia didn't get hurt . . . just scared . . . and rightly so. I couldn't believe that had just happened. So I go to the fruit stand to ask them if I can have some bandaids because "their rooster just attacked me", and one of their employees/owners tells me it isn't even their rooster. Apparently somebody just dropped it off there the day before. Great! Attacked by a random rooster from who knows where. By this time the bleeding was under control but my ankle was starting to swell. I spent most of the evening with an ice pack on it . . . it's a good thing we hadn't planned any hiking or extensive walking while we were in Leavenworth. I joked about going to the Emergency Room in Leavenworth, but frankly, I couldn't get myself to do it. It just seemed like an experience I didn't want to do twice. But enough about me, how about some fun, cute happenings? On our walk into town the next morning, we discovered goats along the sidewalk (safely penned in), so we stopped for a photo op. Sophia did not want to get close to the "wildlife", and I don't blame her ;)
The flowers around town were beautiful. This was a great time of year to go - the flowers were still gorgeous, the crowds were minimal, and the leaves on the surrounding mountains were just starting to turn colors.
Here's Amelia's picture of Ken and the flowers.
Apparently we're not so good at getting our picture taken when there are 3 girls involved who all like to talk or can't seem to smile at the same time. Amelia has been asking for a "rainbow swirl" sucker for months now. I usually find some good excuse not to get her one, but I figured our vacation was a perfect reason to get one. I think the idea of the sucker was better than the sucker itself for Amelia - it took her 3 days of eating it and she's still not done. Sophia and I, on the other hand, got something on the softer side - salt water taffy - yummy!
Right in the center of town is a gazebo with Bavarian music piped in. Sophia immediately started dancing . . . and kept wanting to go back that way so that she could dance more. Wouldn't she look cute wearing some lederhosen?
We enjoyed walking around the town - checking out shops, stopping for treats, and getting drinks from doggie water fountains ;)
We played a little mini-golf . . . it was perfect weather - sunny, but not too hot. Amelia loved the mini-golf . . . when she wasn't exploring the golf course . . . and wants to go back. She finally started to get the hang of it around the 12th hole and seemed to enjoy the last 6 holes the best.
This was Sophia's first time. She was excited about the first 2 holes, then threw down her club and spent the rest of the time exploring the golf course. She did come back to finish the last 2 holes, but 18 holes was WAY too many for her.
We also went to a Salmon Festival at the Leavenworth Fish Hatchery. It was a perfect family friendly event - lots of crafts to do, fun fish games to play, and not too big. All in all, we had a great time in Leavenworth and we'd love to go back . . . but I'll be skipping that fruit stand. When I asked Amelia what her favorite part of the vacation was, she told me it was playing on the playgrounds. Oh yeah, we did that too - every time we came upon one.
And as of today, my ankle is still swollen (although now only the size of a walnut, rather than a softball) and I went into the ER in Olympia to get a tetanus shot after we got home. Stupid rooster!
Today during Quiet Time, the girls chose an "Angelina Ballerina" video we had borrowed from the library. The last episode was of Angelina learning about the Chinese dragon dance. As soon as the show was over, Amelia asked if we could make our own dragon to have our own dragon dance. Not to dampen their enthusiasm, I quickly said yes, and we got right to work. Amelia drew the head, Sophia drew a body piece, and I drew a few extra pieces. Here they are displaying their creations.
And thanks to Youtube, I found perfect Chinese dragon music to go with their creation.
The "complete" dragon
I'm not sure where they get it from, but I'm grateful for creative children . . . and try hard not to dampen their enthusiasm.
I just realized that I haven't posted about Labor Day yet - almost a week ago. Not that it was super fantastic, but I have the pictures, so I might as well post them, right?
When we got to the beach (Ocean City State Park, WA), it was overcast and slightly drizzly. (BTW - I just love all of the ways to describe rain in the NorthWest.) The girls didn't mind and soon after we got there, they wanted to jump the waves. Good 'ole Ken - he's such a good Dad - he took them down to the shore and held their hands while they jumped the waves. I chose to sit and watch - staying dry and warm.
Sophia was also super excited to fly the kite. Here she is pointing to it up in the air.
And here is Amelia's 5-sec. video of Sophia flying the kite.
The girls both loved collecting and playing with feathers they found on the beach.
I tried not to be grossed out by all the seagull feathers . . . but I had to stop Amelia from picking up a feather that was still attached to the dead bird - yuck!
We haven't been to that beach before, and we probably won't go back. For one thing, there was much too much traffic ON the beach. Apparently you can drive onto the beach and there was a steady stream of cars, trucks, and horse riding tours going back and forth. Not something I want to watch out for when playing at the beach. And I was surprised that there were no bathrooms near the parking lot, and since the walk from the parking lot to the water was through the woods and over the sand dunes, it didn't exactly make it convenient for potty breaks. I guess it's a good thing both girls are still in diapers.
We were at the beach for about 3-4 hours and the sun came out during the last hour we were there. And then it was perfect. . . a perfect ending to summertime fun at the beach . . .and then on our way back to our car, Ken realized he had lost his wedding ring at the beach. Sigh! That's the 2nd ring he's lost at a beach. Perhaps we should have a new rule that wedding rings stay in the car or at home when playing at the beach. At least that ring was less expensive than the 1st one.
