Banana Sundaes

My kids love to make banana sundaes for a quick, nutritious, and fun snack or breakfast.  They are simple to make, and can be tailored to suit your personal tastes.  They always have fun making them for themselves and for each other.  Today, Boy made them for him and his sisters.

Cut up 1 banana per sundae.  Today we topped them with homemade granola, sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, ground walnuts, chocolate syrup, and jelly beans.  We have used a variety of toppings including, but not limited to, slivered almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, fennel seeds, yogurt, pumpkin seeds,...  the list is pretty much endless.  Our must haves being bananas (of course), nuts of some variety, and chocolate syrup.

Sprinkle all your toppings on the banana - however much you want.  Delicately drizzle (hahahah!  This is Boy we are talking about) the chocolate syrup on the top.

Top with a small and colorful fun thing - jelly beans for us today.

Looks good enough to eat!  Mmmmmm....

Raining Owls

It's raining here.  A nice steady all day sort of rain.  I love rain.  It makes me happy.  And, today, it's a welcome break from all the outside stuff we've been doing.  Also forced me to actually take Munch shopping to get black leggings for her dance recital this weekend.  (Something I have a hard time agreeing to if it is NOT raining out.)

I thought it would also be a good time to share with you my new favorite bag - my owl bag.

I love it!  And I made it myself.  I didn't follow a pattern.  It's basically a glorified tote bag with boxed corners.  The finished bag measures about 14 inches tall by about 16 inches wide and about 3 inches deep.  I used cotton quilters fabric for all the pieces with a fusible fleece between the layers for added sturdiness.  The handles are old climbing webbing covered over with the striped material.  The webbing runs all the way down and around the bottom of the bag (hidden between the 2 layers) for extra sturdiness.  I wanted to be able to carry books or other heavier things without worry.

Aside from the owls (I love owls), the inside is my favorite favorite part!

And...

And even more fun - I made a key clip!!

I hemmed all the pockets - top and bottom - and then sewed them into each panel before sewing the liner up together.  The zipper pocket was made using the basic idea behind this zipper pocket tutorial on the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog.  It was not as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I added a magnetic snap for some closure.

All in all, I am very pleased with the way it turned out!  I love all the pockets, the materials, the zipper, pen pocket, the key clip, and the owls.  Did I mention the owls?

Did I mention that I love owls?

Toothfairy Comes Through Again!

Munch lost another tooth on Saturday.  I, of course, knowing full well that the tooth was loose for about 3 weeks, was not prepared for the inevitable event.  So, after she went to bed, I made these headbands:

Using this tutorial from The Long Thread.  Munch loved them!

Busy Bees

We have been quite busy as of late.  Our garden has been getting lots of lovin', but not enough yet.  Is it ever really enough?!  But, I LOVE my garden.  Absolutely love it!!  And sometimes I actually photograph it.  These pics are from last year, but are the essence of the way my garden grows every year...

Welcome to my garden.  This is the gate my brother in law made for us.  It needed a bit of work this year, so I'll have a new and improved gate picture coming soon.

I like to have a space in the garden to cool off, relax, and enjoy the garden goodies.

For the last 5 or so years, we've been incorporating more companion planting into the mix.  Here you can see my tomatoes planted with cosmos and basil.  And in the background you will find calendula, onions, and cabbage.

Some lively flowers to brighten things up.  (See that bench?  There is another just like it and a smaller one in the garden.  I want to paint them this year.  I'm thinking a bright magenta or raspberry color.)

And attract beneficial insects.

Mama....  Where are you?  No more pictures, please.

This year, I made us a picnic quilt so we can lounge around the garden even more.  I used this old fleecy blanket as the middle layer, fun new fat eighth rolls that I could not pass up while waiting in line at Joann's, and vintage material from the 70's my mom gave me when she moved from her house to an apartment.  Fun stuff, I tell you.

We don't have enough sunlight in our yard to garden where we live.  So we usually pack up and make an afternoon of it, if not a whole day.  Now the kids have even more places to hang out when they get tired of caring for their plants.

Whoa!!

I thought I'd make some potato salad for this weekend.   

But the potatoes had ideas of their own, and started climbing out of the sink.

One by one...

Yikes!

Up an' at um'

My little Sweetpea, going to be 3 at the end of July, woke up for the first time dry!  This is a big moment for me - nighttime potty training.  I am not one for having my sleep interrupted, but I am also getting really tired of washing diapers.  We've used cloth diapers on our children exclusively since the beginning - over 10 years ago.  There was a brief period of time in between kid 1 and kid 2 where I did not have to wash any diapers at all.  But since kid 2 came along over 6 years ago, I have been washing them weekly without fail.

Also a strange event this hot and muggy morning - I have already done one load of laundry AND mowed the backyard.  It's not even 10:30!!  AND I have not had my morning tea!!  Just for the record, I am sooo not a morning person.  At All.  But for some reason this morning, I feel so very energized.  Wonder how long that will last...

Ladybugs and Caterpillars Take Over Our House

We have had an invasion of ladybugs and caterpillars over the last couple of days!  They are just appearing out of nowhere!!!

My son, who my youngest has dubbed Boy, receives Your Big Backyard Magazine every month (totally awesome magazine, as is Ranger Rick).  This month, they featured a ladybug craft.  Boy, being so utterly fond of a good craft asked (read insisted) on going to the craft store to get the necessary materials.

Now having all the materials, we sat down to make them.  After fussing with several puffy balls and glue and goggly eyes and more puffy balls, I remembered why I never made crafts with them.  Nothing every sticks to them in the right way with normal glue your kids can use.  And they don't have the patience (neither do I) to hold them until they are near dry.

Being the quick thinker that I am (ha!), I replaced the glue with thread and taught Boy, who is 6, how to thread a needle and sew the ladybugs together.  This whole time my oldest daughter, Munch (10), was busy making about 85 ladybugs all on her own - the nice thing about a 10 year old.  And my youngest daughter Sweetpea (2) was lining puffy balls up in cool rows - wonder where she gets that!  Sitting there staring at the incredibly cool rows she was making gave me the idea for an alternate craft - caterpillars!  They would be so much easier to string on a thread, and they would be so very cute to boot.

We strung them up.

And made little antennae.  Before putting the head on, we sewed the antennae onto the last ball, by wrapping the thread around the pipe cleaner in 3 or 4 places like so:

Then came the head.  And of course, the googly eyes.

Just too cute!

They multiplied like bunnies.

And took over our dining room alongside the sheep made earlier using this really cool tutorial from The Inadvertent Farmer - check her out, she has Great ideas!!

All underneath our flying bees, made using this tutorial, again from The Inadvertent Farmer.  Check her out, she's really cool.

After 2 days, the craft stuff is still out, and the bugs are multiplying like crazy!  We will be completely overrun very soon.