Outside at Grandma and Grandpa's

A few weekends ago we took a trip up to the hubby's parents to visit with them and his sister and brother-in-law.  It was a beautiful fall day so I spent some time chasing Little L around the yard and taking pictures!  It was fun and I got some pretty cute shots!

Here are the outdoor pictures I took:

Checking out Auntie and Uncle's doggies!

Sitting on a log with Grandma and Grandpa!

I love this swing and I'm glad I got pictures with her on it since it might not last too much longer!

She was exhausted after running back and forth along the entry way!

Giving Sparky a kiss!

And a hug!

Fun with Play-dough

The alternate title to this post could probably be "Entertaining a Toddler!"

Little L has been blessed with LOTS of toys that you would think could keep her entertained for days at a time!  However, while she does love to play with the stuff she's got she is always up for a new way to spend her time.  Right now, I feel like she is starting to enter a stage of creativity that I want to encourage in every possible way!  So even though Little L still usually ends up with the crayons in her mouth we try to "draw" as often as we can.  The other day, though, I wanted to do something different to help her branch out even more from a creativity standpoint.  As I was looking through my Craft Finder iPod/iPad app from Disney's Family Fun magazine* I found a recipe for Oatmeal Clay.  I figured that starting with an edible clay was probably the best for Little L since you can see from the statements about drawing that she still likes to put stuff in her mouth!

About a week or so ago, with Little L's help, we made the Oatmeal Clay.  Then I covered the table chair with a towel, laid out a few place mats I had just gotten for super cheap, put out the "play-dough" and some "tools" (mini pie tins, cookie cutters, etc.) and let Little L have at it!

Little L LOVES to play with her play dough and often asks for me to get it out for her (I just stuck it in a plastic bag in the fridge and I figure it will last for a few weeks or so).  She hasn't quite gotten the hang of making stuff with the dough but she loves to pull it apart into little pieces and put it in the pie tins or she likes to stick the cookie cutters into the big piles of dough.  Either way it is a new entertainment for her and hopefully will help her unleash the creativity God has planted inside of her that is just waiting to come out!

*FYI -If you are in the market for a GREAT family magazine I would highly recommend this!  I have gotten my fair share of "parenting" magazines over the years and this one tops them all!  They have LOTS of great craft ideas (that are actually doable even for someone like me!) as well as games, party ideas and more!  Just keep an eye out for a deal and then snag it!  (I got my subscription for $3 a year and I got it for 3 years!)

Here are some pictures from our first time with the oatmeal clay!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

I am so blessed to work where I do since we get to have "fun days" on a semi regular basis!  This time around we got to go to the new Twins stadium to watch the Twins win!  (They had actually clinched the division title the night before so there was some energy in the air!)

The only thing that was a bummer was that my hubby was actually going to come to the game with us (there were some extra tickets so they opened it up to family members) but due to some unforeseen circumstances he wasn't able to make it!  :(  It was a huge bummer but I still had fun with some of the peeps from work.  Plus it is a beautiful stadium, the weather was great, and we won!

Here are the few pics I took:

We had great seats!  We were sitting on the left had side of this picture, on the first level, under the overhang, right above the Twins dugout!

These are the announcers from Fox Sports.  We stood right behind them while they were filming so we're pretty sure we made it on TV! 

With it being super overcast they actually turned the lights on around 2pm which made it feel like a night game! 

A New Fall Tradition!

On Pocket Your Dollars a few days ago they had posted that Bachman's (a local flower shop) was having a Fall Festival where you could build your own scarecrow for free.  All you had to do was bring in the clothes and they provided the hay and burlap sac (for the head)!

Since I knew Little L's attention span would be a little too short to stuff a full size scarecrow I decided to just do one of her older pjs with feet that she doesn't fit into anymore.  Plus, having the feet already closed and the zipper up the middle made it super easy to stuff!

We went a few minutes before it started so she got to run around a bit, look at pumpkins and play in the hay.  I was right that she would have a short attention span since she didn't even want to spend all the time it took to stuff the jammies!  :)   Once we I got the jammies stuffed Little L had a blast carrying around her "baby".  At least that is what she kept calling it!  Even though I did a TON of chasing Little L around we had a lot of fun and I am hoping we started a new tradition!

Here are the pics!

So I know it looks a little creepy without a real face, and I have been meaning to put one on but just haven't gotten around to it so it is just sitting on our front porch faceless!  Maybe someday I'll give it some eyes, a nose and a mouth!  We'll see!

Baking with Mommy and Little L

The other day I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies to help warm up the house (and maybe because I have a little bit of a sweet tooth!)  But seriously, the house was super chilly and instead of cranking up the heater I figured we could just do some baking.  So, I got things set up and Little L started helping.  Unfortunately, as I was in the process of measuring everything out I realized I was 1/4 cup short of brown sugar.  I figured, well, maybe they just won't be as sweet...I'll just keep chugging along and hope everything works out ok.  Searching for the brown sugar had gotten me a little frazzled though so I wasn't thinking and before I beat the sugar, butter, and vanilla I added the eggs.  You know, the eggs you are supposed to add one at a time, slowly mixing them into the already beaten butter/sugar/vanilla mixture!  Needless to say, I ended up beating those eggs up and pretty much beat the snot out of the functioning proteins...(that's a little food science for all you just to show that I actually do know at least a little about what I am doing at work!)  I figured at that point though, I might as well just bake them to see what happens.  At least the batter tasted good!

YUM!

Mommy's Helper!

Reaching for a whole spoonful of batter!

And just in case you were wondering...this is what cookies look like if you have beat down eggs that can't function!  

Then on Sunday, the hubby's mom and dad were coming over to see Little L, grill some burgers and hot dogs and watch the Vikings.  I had gotten some great deals on Betty Crocker Dessert Bars so I figured we could make up a batch of Mississippi Mud Brownies for our dessert (and once again warm up the house without turning on the heater).  Little L was quite the helper and I must say that just making boxed brownies went much smoother than the chocolate chip cookies from a few days before (and they turned out just like they were supposed too...super yummy!)  Although I think Little L thought the batter tasted pretty good this time too! 

A Day with Grandpa

Right before my dad had to fly back to CA he left his cabin to come spend a day with us (and to have me get up at the CRACK to get him to the airport...more on that later...)

I wanted to make sure we got some quality Grandpa/Granddaughter time in so we started our morning at the park.  Here are some pictures from the fun they had and you might notice that Little L looks like she wet her pants in a few pictures...it had actually rained the day before so the park was pretty soaked and even though we brought a few paper towels with us (thanks to a suggestion from my hubby) it just wasn't enough to dry stuff down!  Oh, well!

Merry go round fun!

Sitting on the "stepping stones"

Little L loved going back and forth and back and forth and back and...well, you get the idea!

Little L climbed all the way to the top with some help from Grandpa!

Checking out what stuff looks like from the mountain top!

I LOVE this pic!  You can see how much fun Little L is having (plus you can see how much fun Grandpa is having in the background!)

Tree huggers!

Little L getting carried like a sac of potatoes!

After the park we went and did a little shopping at Toys R Us where Grandpa treated Little L to a couple of great gifts!  He got her a super cute Mickey Mouse that talks and one of those fold out toddler couches with the Backyardigans on it.  Little L LOVES to sit on her couch with Mickey and watch the Backyardigans (thankfully there are 3 full seasons on Netflix so we have LOTS of episodes to chose from).    If you've never heard of the Backyardigans they are a cute little group of next door neighbors that play make believe together in their backyard.  Its fun and cute and I love that they sing such fun songs!  Little L likes to dance along with them!

Then we went and had a yummy lunch at Red Lobster!  It was their endless shrimp deal so the hubby and my dad went all out!  I got my the same thing I always get...the coconut popcorn shrimp!  Yum, yum!

With full tummies we went home for our naps and then it was off to church!  It was open house so we had lots of great music and a timely message as always!  Then it was home and basically straight to bed since my dad's flight was leaving at 6:15 A.M.!  (Which meant leaving our house at 4:15 to get him there on time!)  It was a fun trip with my dad and I know Little L had lots of fun with her grandpa!  Thank goodness we have ichat so they can "see" each other at least once a week until he comes back!