I took his hand and followed...

Quote: Childhood is like sand in a sieve...

You're a man of high position, esteemed by your peers. And when your little tykes are crying, you haven't time to dry their tears... And see their thankful little faces smiling up at you... 'Cause their dad, he always knows just what to do....  ... You've got to grind, grind, grind at that grindstone... Though childhood slips like sand through a sieve... And all too soon they've up and grown, and then they've flown... And it's too late for you to give...  

~Bert (Mary Poppins)

Wordless Wednesday: helping daddy at work... ♥

Date night: 05/28/09....

Tonight was date night, so we went to Chili's for dinner....

And once again, God provides...
& we were able to enjoy an inexpensive, yet wonderful night out...
just the two of us!!

Thanx to a generous gift-card from LBC's LEARN....
and this "$5 off two entrees" coupon (courtesy of 8coupons.com & fatwallet.com )

We were able to get away with a delicious dinner (+ 2 drinks - a splurge for us), for only $1.29!!!

B (of course) had steak... the Flame-Grilled Ribeye, to be exact...

While I had the oh.so.tasty Quesadilla Explosion Salad...

Fajita-marinated chicken, mixed cheeses, corn relish, cilantro, diced tomato, crispy tortilla strips and ancho-chile ranch drizzle. Served with cheese quesadilla wedges and our citrus-balsamic dressing.

Which I now *highly* recommend! OMW... it was excellent!! - SO good!!

Thank you Lord.

Sidewalk Chalk

We had a beautiful afternoon in the beautiful outdoors, playing with one of my childhood favorties... sidewalk chalk!!

As tradition... I traced around KB, and made her a chalk girl....

We started to make a second one - a ballerina girl....

But got interrupted by this...

After the rain passed, we went to the front yard, where B had just finished trimming...

and collected these pretty flowers for the kitchen table....

Toddler crayons...

What does one do with a whole bag of old, unwanted, crayons... some that are perfectly good - just extremely illogical for small hands... and others that are broken and of no use to anyone??


Why, recycle them into toddler crayons, of course!!!

Like most families with toddlers... no matter what the child's temperament. you always end up with a bunch broken crayons.... Fact of life. Those thin, elongated little buggers, are just not designed for a toddlers chunky hands, or their beautiful, spontaneous spurts of swirling energy & creativity! So what's the solution? These beauties...

Here's how it works....

You’ll need:

• Crayons - (you can purchase them cheaply at the back to school sales.... or just use ones you already have! - I would highly recommend using higher quality [Crayola] crayons though!!)
• Muffin pan or candy molds (preferably one that you don’t mind getting a little crayon on! Also, some prefer mini muffin tins... I used a regular sized one.)
• An oven

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.

Peel off all the paper from the crayons...

(for the new ones, I found it much quicker to remove the paper in one smooth motion if I carefully ran the exacto knife down the center of the paper and peeled the paper back -- for the old ones with stubborn wrappers, a minute or two soak under running hot water worked well.)

Break them into small pieces... & arrange them in each cup of the tin.
(I did like colors together, but multi-colored ones would be fun, as well!)

Bake just long enough to be melted, so you can’t distinguish the crayon shape anymore
(^These^ are not quite there yet!)

Turn off the stove...
but leave them to sit & congeal a little, before moving the pan.
(**this is especially important if you are doing multi-colored crayons!! -- Failure to do so, will cause the colors to amalgamate... and you will end up with brown crayons!!!**)

Let them cool and solidify....

Pop them out of the tins....

(If you have trouble with this, you can put them in the freezer for a bit)

And Enjoy!

Apparently they make good stacking toys too! ;)

Did you have trouble with a clear layer of wax forming on the top of your crayons?
See my Addendum post, here.

Date Night: 04/09/09...

Just a few snap shots from our date night this week....

We went for a lovely sunset walk on the beach, and then to Sweet Tomatoes for bogo dinners! (yum!) . It was beautiful! ... I love where I live!!

Four Generations...

Dad & Grandmother came by this afternoon, to drop off some various items... and while they were here, Grandmother asked it she could take us out to lunch. We went over to Troyers Dutch Heritage (a favorite!), and while we conversing over our delicious meal ... we realized that we had all FOUR generations together! So, we took a picture....

[Great] Grandmother Behrens-Averit, Tiph, KB, and Dad/Grandpa.

Breakfasts with our Champion...

As difficult as it's been (mostly financially) to still have B out of work... there have been a few nuggets of treasure we've discovered, in spite of our misfortune. We've enjoyed quality family time... park days... eating meals together,around the kitchen table.... and B's gourmet breakfasts! That's right.... I've discovered that, when given the time, my husband loves making breakfast.... and he's really good at it, too! I am a night owl, so normally breakfast isn't my thing..... but I have been blessed to enjoy an almost daily feast of eggs scrambles... sliced fresh fruit... coffee... juice.... and sometimes even biscuits or something! I think I am becoming spoiled... it's all SO yummy!

Silly Sister Shopping Spree..

One of our favorite pastimes... window shopping tonight... trying on random outfits... and not buying ANY of it!! These awesome dresses were from GAP... and were SO elegant & comfortable! - it's too bad we couldn't afford them.... heehee...

Tada!
Umm... don't ask... I have NO idea...

So cute!

Sisters!! <3