Say hello to our new friend FIRE!

Our house came with an ugly, non-working Franklin Stove and a woodburning fireplace that filled our basement with smoke. That simply was not working for me. I LOVE a good fire in the cold months, and we unfortunately lost several trees this year, so we have plenty of firewood.

Well today, thanks to a little help from my parents (love you mom, dad) we welcomed a new family member to our house - a remote-controlled gas fireplace for our basement. And we have a nice working wood fireplace upstairs now. Just in time, too, because I just heard it said that we can expect some of the white fluffy stuff around these parts next week. Ahh...

Now, for the weirdest part. When we crawled back behind the old stove, we discovered a treasure trove! Prophylactics and beer bottles! Oh the stories this house could apparently tell!

Run, Cookie, Run!

When we moved to our new house, we were talked into subscribing to some mega-super 80 million channel cable package. Now, it's strange, because we don't spend much time watching TV at all. I mean, when we're not making butter with our toddler, or knitting sweaters, we're on the internet or painting our house! But, the salesperson was convincing, so we went for it. We quickly discovered the Kids on Demand feature and, subsequently, Nick Jr. On Demand, which brought us to the magic that is Little Bear. Have you seen Little Bear? You should.

Little Bear is this sweet, funny little cartoon with some of the most relaxing music ever. It puts our daddy bear to sleep every night, in fact. We were particularly inspired by the episode in which Little Bear and his friends make gingerbread cookies and then are forced to chase after them when they take off out into the snow. We decided we had to make some gingerbread ourselves. I used this recipe and was very happy with it. They were easy to cut out, and very spicy and crunchy.

We've unfortunately run out of new On Demand Little Bear's to watch, as well as the local library's collection. But, it's good enough that we will probably just go back and watch them all again. And watch those gingerbread men (and gingerbread stars, and bulldozers and doggie bones and hearts) disappear.

The Verdict: Toddler Butter Making

A few days back I posted some ideas for keeping your wee ones busy during these long, cold months. I have been working on testing each of them out. First up was making butter. I remembered making butter I think back in fourth grade back at old Frank Allis Elementary School when one of our classmate's mom's came in to teach us how it was done in the old days, so I was naturally inclined to want to try it again.

My tot's interest came from the book Thomas and the MIlkshake Muddle that he checked out from the library. I don't want to ruin any big surprises if you've got this one ready to read on your bookshelf or anything, but in the book Thomas ruins all the milk from the dairy by driving too fast and shaking it into a butter state. Now, if I were conducting a Myth Busters-style experiment, I would have insisted we get our butts on a train and see how fast it'd have to go to turn milk into butter. I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure Thomas would have to have been going mach 80 million over gravel to make this possible.

For our non-scientific activity, we simply poured a little heavy cream into some clean baby food jars and shook (and shook. and shook.) until the watery part separated away and left behind some yummy butter. Of course we had to peek a few times first, and taste test a little.

Here's the verdict. My kiddo is 2. He liked this activity for about the first 4 minutes of shaking it. He liked the part where we strained out the watery stuff. He liked tasting. But the hard-core shakin' your booty part, not so much. Even though we set this activity to music, it still did not hold his attention the whole time. But it was fun, and we did get some tasty butter out of it! Mmmm, butter. I'd definitely recommend it, maybe for older kids. With older kids you could even try some butter varieties like garlic or honey!

If you try it, be sure to post your results!

Toddler Indoor Activities

In winter, I vacillate between being so eager for spring I can hardly stand it and reveling in all the indoor fun I’m “forced” to succumb to, like baking, making and reinventing my surroundings. This winter is a little different, having just moved, but essentially it’s the same. The most different part, really, is that whereas last year our little one was just learning to walk and hardly spoke any words at all, this year he is a fully formed person who wants to play, explore, learn and chatter from one end of the house to the other. Coming up with activities that we all enjoy is a formidable task. And learning how to break the activity into very small chunks so as to keep the attention of a toddler, a must!

Since many of my friends are also “trapped” indoors with toddlers this winter, I decided to compile a little repository of fun indoor activities to do with a toddler in the winter, or really whenever inclement weather keeps you inside the house. These are just things that appealed to me personally – but by all means there are many more ideas out there. I just happen to gravitate toward creative or crafty projects or things to do in the kitchen.

I’d love to hear what others are doing to maintain their sanity this season. Aside from indoor play gyms and the like, what are you doing with your shorties right now?

Teach your kids to make pasta

Making butter with kids

Make your own lollipops

Making Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Making Homemade Finger Paint

Cork Race Game

5 Instruments to Make with Kids

Whiny Whinerson

Fair warning: this post is a big whiney-whinefest. I am just getting a bit of complaining out of my system at your expense. But you can just click away onto some other blog, something more uplifting, positive and interesting. Because right now I'm self-obsessed. I've been sick with a cold for two weeks, and frankly, I'm done with it. Today I went into a place, we'll call it Speedy Clinic, to see if I could get to the bottom of the mess. Here's how it went:
Doc: "So, what seems to be the problem?"
Me: "Um, my face hurts, I can't bend over without feeling like I'm going to die, I am exhausted and as you can tell, I sound like Elmer Fudd on 6 packs of cigarettes"
Doc: "Hmm. Let's check your temp."
[Doc checks temp and blood pressure. Exclaims "Beautiful blood pressure!"]
Doc: "Do you take any medications, vitamins?"
Me: "You mean aside from the 6 beers I drink per night? No. Just a multi-vitamin"
Doc: "Do you have allergies?"
Me: "Sure, in August I get hayfever."
[Doc checks inside nose and ears.]
Doc: "Well, you have allergies. I see classic 'allergy shiners' under your eyes.
Me: "Are you sure those aren't just bags under my eyes because there's 10 tons of snot in my sinuses?"
Doc: "Just take some Claritin and some Afrin and you'll clear up nicely."
Me: "But I haven't had allergies since August. That makes no sense."

But, in the doctor's infinite wisdom, she continued to assure me that the allergy meds and Afrin would solve world hunger, bring peace to the Middle East and make me look 10 pounds slimmer. So I tried it. And it failed miserably. That's my whine. And now off to bed! Ha-choooo!

Please Spring, Spring Already!

We've had a couple of warmish days and man, is it torturous when it goes back to 35 degrees like it has this week. This photo was taken last weekend when it was 55 degrees and sunny. Oh, where, where did you go sun? Anyway, it's all good because we'll just stay inside and make risotto and play with our dumptrucks, right? Right!

Don't forget -- tomorrow we celebrate Earth Hour at 8:30 PM local time. It's just an hour, but symbolically it is really meaningful. My giant skyscraper office building is getting in on the action, so I figure I can, too. We usually light some candles and enjoy one lo-fi hour of relaxation. Pretty nice.

Happy Friday!

Firsts: Snowman

This winter has been full of firsts for our wee one: first steps, first trip sledding, first real "words" and now, first snowman! We've had plenty of snow this year, but this week we had the first "wet" snow that really makes snowman construction easy. So we made some snowballs (Pumpkin can say ball now) and grabbed a few sticks for the arms and a pine cone for the nose and some charcoal for the eyes.

Even though we worked pretty quickly, wee Pumpkin was in tears by the time the camera made it on scene. He definitely prefers the solid, uneven ground of the sidewalk to the snowy backyard. We're working on making him a bit more outdoorsy. The problem is that he loves being outside, but he often just stands there, afraid to move. Ah, well...someday (we hope) there may be an end to the snow and cold. Right now it seems endless, but I still have hope.

What's the weather like near you? Ready for daylight saving time in a few weeks? I am!

My Starbucks Wreath -- for Spring!

It might be a bit of wishful thinking putting out a spring wreath just a day after we got four inches of snow, and when the temp outside is just hovering around 16 degrees, but it felt good. It felt hopeful and cheery and optimistic about the fact that winter has worn out it's welcome. We're ready for the crocus to bloom and the sun to warm the grass into greeness.

I stole this idea from my friend at McSmithleyville who made this gorgeous wreath, apparently a spin-off of something Starbucks had over the holidays. I didn't have time to make a Christmas wreath (and in fact I have an old standby white button wreath I use each year), so I made this one to grace the door and usher in the Spring.

We had a busy, birthday bonanza weekend and I'm still reviewing all the photos. I am now officially wiped. Did you have a relaxing weekend? I hope so!

Fun on Ice

We took a cue from our friend at Tapir's Poop today and visited the Art Shanty Project. It's basically a bunch of tricked out shacks set up out on one of our suburban lakes. At one, we gave confession to a carp and at another we opted not to take a dip in the freezing waters and get warmed by the sauna ice house. It was, as we knew it would be, a quintessential Minnesota experience, chock full of hipsters, old hippies, kids, dogs and those who just love winter and/or love the challenge of building and surviving out in the cold. Just as we left we saw someone start unloading big boxes full of hot dog buns. Dangit, I guess we missed the ice-side cookout.

If you want to see more about the art shanty project, check out the search I ran on Flickr.