Day 1479 | The Little One
/He does some weird stuff.
He does some weird stuff.
Chase has been asking to ride a school bus for as long as I can remember. Today his dream came true—with his baby brother! These two had a great trip to school this morning. In fact, riding the bus was Chase’s favorite part of the day!
This is the new normal around here: bussing in the morning. We’ll see how long the excitement lasts around.
The boys tried roller skating for the first time today. I wouldn’t call it a successful attempt, but it was an attempt! I don’t think they fully understood the appeal. Maybe you need to go twice to really let it sink in. I‘ll keep you posted.
Max is back! We’re dog sitting one of our favorite little pooches this weekend. The boys are more excited than ever. And I think Max *may have* picked his favorite person. That’s right, the guy pictured above. I totally get it. He’s my favorite person, too.
What happens when your afternoon snack matches perfectly with your self-made tie dye tees? Photo op, obviously.
Look at these little sweethearts. 4K and 1st grade don’t have anything on them. I’ve got a good feeling about this year.
We’ve been stuck inside on the official last day of summer with non-stop rain. Yes. That means more board games. It also means a lack of photos. Instead, enjoy this picture from this weekend when we had a fun visit from Uncle Matt and Marisa. And the boys love their new skeleton pjs—thanks, Grandma Bibi!
Think happy thoughts for the first day of school tomorrow!
We’ve had a big project going on in our backyard over the past few days (I’ll wait for the final product for the big reveal), so the boys and I have had to find things to keep us busy.
As a way to fill time, we did some treasure-hunting at two local thrift stores. I’m not going to lie, we found some great stuff: a few toys and two board games. I’m not kidding you, these items have consumed practically every moment of the boys’ attention since their purchase. Best $14 I’ve ever spent.
One side note: the game of Battleship takes forever.
Chase tried for about 30 minutes straight to get across these circular, rotating monkey bars at a local park. I couldn’t believe his level of determination.
After trying for so long, he started to get a bit tired and frustrated and needed to take a break. Once we decided to head home, Chase declared he was going to try one more time...and he did it! Kudos to this guy for not giving up!
I really like making cookies. What I don't like is how many of these cookies I end up consuming. Therefore, I rarely make cookies. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I did.
Luckily, since we're living the week of extravagance leading up to school starting, I decided to be crazy and let the boys pick out a new cookie recipe to try. And it's a good one. We found a solid brownie cookie recipe and then decided to kick it up a notch by adding M&M's. Chase even did all the ingredient collecting and most of the mixing (even cracking his first egg...all over his hand, but still!).
They are super delicious. No doubt about it.
Ingredients:
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips 60-70% cacao
1/2 cup butter
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder not Dutch-processed
1/2 cup mini M&M's
Directions:
Melt bittersweet chocolate chips and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until melted and well-combined. Remove from heat, and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugars, vanilla, baking powder, and salt on high speed 5 minutes, or until the batter is thick and creamy. This step is key, so make sure to beat the mixture for the full 5 minutes.
Reduce the speed to low, and mix in the melted chocolate until well-combined.
Stir in flour and cocoa powder just until combined.
Add mini M&M's (saving some for sprinkling on top). Stir in to combine. The batter should be the consistency of a thick brownie batter at this point. Cover the batter, and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Drop batter by rounded 1.5 tablespoon-full onto the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart and sprinkle with remaining M&M’s, about 7 or so per cookie (push them in a bit so they stay put).
Bake cookies 8-10 minutes. The cookie will look set at the edges but still be a little wet looking in the center. Don't overbake, or the cookies won't be crackly and fudgy. The shiny, crackly crust will develop as the cookies cool on the baking sheet.
Today was the boys’ choice. We’re inching towards the official end of summer and I wanted to give them a day where they could pick the activities.
Here’s what they chose:
Not too bad for a day in the life of a four and six year old. And I enjoyed them living their dreams, too. A win-win!
Look at these little models! We’re doing our best to enjoy these last moments of free time before school and the routines start up again.
**Thanks to Ashley for the sweet photo.
It's been a lovely week-long break from blogging. Things that have happened in our world since we've last talked:
There. Now you're all caught up. Let the daily updates commence.
It's been a long time since my last official blogging break. I need this. The summer is winding down (less than two weeks left!), I'm swamped with graphic design work, my house is *less than* spotless, and my to do list keeps growing. I'm going to enjoy this break and be back on the 28th ready to share our final activities of this completely ordinary and extraordinary summer vacation.
In the meantime, enjoy this graffiti mural collage from our trip to Denver. Chase and Robbe *made* me take all these photos of them. None (except for the one of our whole family, of course) were forced. They really loved the graffiti. Click on the photos to enlarge.
We made it back to Wisconsin after a quick visit to Blue Bear and an uneventful day of travel.
A big [HUGE] thank you to Matt and Marisa for being the best hosts our little family could ask for. It was truly a relaxing and rejuvenating vacation for us and you two are the sole reason that was the case. Thanks for taking such good care of us, hauling us all over the city, feeding us, and tolerating two wee ones in your space for the last five days. We’re already planning our return trip (but we’ll give you some time to recover).
Today was another busy one: breakfast out, bike race cheering, playground playing, a stop for celebratory donuts (to celebrate losing a first tooth), a birthday caper, electric scooter riding, a family pizza party, and a movie. Whew. We’re all tired. And full of sugar. Vacations are the best.
It was a big day around here. We started with a trip to a candy factory and then we headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to admire their rock collection (among other exhibits). We also took in a 3D Panda IMAX movie (a first experience for the boys and me)—everyone loved it. Oh, and don’t worry, we also stopped into the gift shop to collect more rocks for our house and some mini-geodes (because Robbe has been asking about them for months).
We headed back home for some rock-crushing (afterall that’s what geodes are for) and grilling before the biggest news of all: Chase lost his first tooth!! I facilitated the removal with some floss and it was about the craziest thing I’ve done as a mom. It popped right out and flung across the room. Luckily, Chris captured it on film:
it was a big day in CO. We headed to the mountains this morning to experience our first “14er”. It turns out that it’s pretty cold at 14,000 feet and we were significantly under-dressed. After making it through the cold, Chase came down with altitude sickness and ended up throwing up...twice. A total dream for a trip to the mountains. Ha!
After a quick siesta, everyone recovered and we had a lovely afternoon and evening. We managed some playtime at a park across the street and enjoyed graffiti art and dinner in the Rino neighborhood of Denver. And, for the record, the boys LOVED the graffiti. It may have been the first time in their lives that they requested to be in a ton of photos. Oh, and there was ice cream. Of course. Finally, the evening ended with two close euchre games—and Marisa and I even won one. It was a good day.
We made it to Denver to visit Matt and Marisa. We’re thrilled to be here soaking up some mountain time, eating yummy food, and just taking a break from reality for a few days. This is going to be great.
The boys wore these costumes all day. Seriously, all day. If watching your four year old run around in a blue unitard from morning until night doesn’t brighten your spirits, nothing will. I highly recommend it.
small city | BIG DAYS
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