4.30.2009

No baby birds.

I'm sad to say there will not be any baby birds hatching on my front porch. :( After Robin laid her 4th egg I never saw her again. I debated whether or not to leave the nest up in hopes that she would come back or to take it down. I decided to leave it up.

2 weeks had gone by and there was no sign on Robin coming back so I peeked in to see if maybe by some miracle the eggs hatched all on their own but there was no such luck. Unfortunately, all I saw were the same 4 unhatched eggs.
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So I took the eggs out of the nest and cracked them on the fence. I don't really know what possessed me to crack open the eggs. Maybe it was my inner destructive psyche releasing itself or the overwhelming curiosity of knowing whether or not there were baby bids inside those eggs. I am glad to report that there was only yoke in those eggs and I found peace knowing that Robin did not ditch her eggs because she was spooked by us but because her eggs were duds(which is the case in 40% of all nest eggs).
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So in the end of all of this sadness for me and the girls, something good came out of this: I was able to use the egg shells in my composer and Isabela got to bring the nest in to show her class.

4.26.2009

The Flower Garden.

The plan for this weekend was to dig up the eye sore that we called a front garden and make it beautiful. Ryan and I knew that we did not want to do this year after year so we knew perennials were the plants for us. So yesterday we make the trip to Lowe's. We walk into the garden area and were instantly overwhelmed by the variety of flowers and shrubs available. Ryan decided to talk to an expert who gave us an idea of what to do with the space we needed to fill. Luckily Ryan took measurements before we left so he was able to draw a diagram of the front garden and we mapped out where each plant we chose would go and how much room each would take up full grown. 2 hours later we felt confident that we picked the perfect flowers and shrubs and we make our journey back home to unloaded the plants, soil and mulch.
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Today we started the garden. We(and by we I mean Ryan)raked out all the old mulch and rocky dirt to make our work surface smooth. Next, Ryan laid plastic around the foundation of the house.
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Then we measured out our work space and placed our plants where we wanted them.
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Then the digging began!
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After the last plant was planted Ryan called me out to make sure everything was where I wanted it before he began covering the area with mulch. I gave him the O.K. and he was off. I swear once this man starts something he does not stop! Even though I was not a great planting partner I did bring him out a shirt when his back started getting burnt and I brought him endless amounts of water.
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And the finished product. Didn't he do a great job?
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Right now it does not look like much but I am confident that it is going to look fabulous once everything is full grown. YAY now we have curb appeal!

Weekly pics of the girls.

Its been awhile but here ya go.

Olivia and Alex. Best buds.
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Isabela. My wierdo.
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Olivia.
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Ellie.
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Craft Weekly- playdough

I have not posted a craft in 2 weeks I think. Not that crafts were not made, they just weren't documented. On Easter weekend Isabela and Alex dyed eggs while the rest of us were at a Passover Seder. Why was Isabela not with us? She has influenza and strep throat, that's why. Last weekend we went and picked up trash around the neighborhood. Not necessary a craft but when I asked the kids what they wanted to do that is what they requested so that is what we did. So that takes us to this weekend.

The craft for this week was making playdough. Earlier in the week the girls asked to play with playdough so I went downstairs to where we keep the playdough and brought it all up to the kitchen. What did I find when I opened the playdough containers? Dried up playdough, that's what. So I quickly went online to try and find a playdough recipe that was quick and easy and included stuff I already had around the house. In my search I found that most playdough recipes requires cream of tarter or alum. I have never even heard of cream of tarter or alum so those recipes was a no go. I finally came across this recipe:

Playdough:
1 cup cold water
1 cup salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
food coloring
3cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
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Mix up all the ingredients(minus food coloring)with a fork.
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Let the kids knead the dough for a bit.
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When you get a nice pliable dough you can add in the food coloring. This was fun for the girls. They pretended the food coloring was blood.
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Once mixed let your imagination run wild!
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Warning! This stuff is extremely salty and does not taste good to most people. Isabela on the other hand is NOT like most people.
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The whole process was really simple. The girls really enjoyed playing with the dough and this was a project that lasted them several hours which resulted in a nice break for me. And the best part was I could throw away the dough when they were done playing and when it dried the leftover mess was easily swept up.

4.24.2009

MIA


Sorry I have been MIA for awhile. Between sick kids, holidays, and a Father In Law in the hospital I have had very little time to sit down at the computer. I do have tons of material so I hope to get things up and running again this weekend.

4.11.2009

Tree Faces.


The other day I was driving the kids to school and I noticed a face on someones tree. I thought it was totally cool so I came home and did a google search for "tree faces" and I found that there are all different types of tree faces you can buy. I am going to have to get some now. Here is a link to some cool tree faces.

4.10.2009

And Then There Were Four.


YAY!!!!! Im so proud of Robin. She has been sitting in her nest all day today and I thought that the eggs had hatched 2 weeks early. She finally flew away so I got out the stool and held my camera up to the nest and snapped a shot. You could only imagine my surprise when I saw that she had laid another egg. Four eggs!!!! Way to go mama!!!

Some facts about Robins.

Today I did some research on Robins nest and eggs and found out some interesting facts.

1.) It takes from two to six days to make the nest, with an average of 180 trips per day to find materials. Males sometimes help gather nesting materials but the female chooses the site and builds the nest.

2.) The female robin incubates her eggs for about 12 to 16 days. She sits on the eggs for 40-minute periods. Then she stands up, turns the eggs and flies off to feed or for a break. The male stands guard and sometimes sits on the eggs.

3.) An American Robin can produce three successful broods in one year. On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young.

4.) You can tell the eggs are about to hatch or have recently hatched when the mother bird refuses to leave the nest no matter how close you get to them.

5.)The chicks are fed by both parents. They eat about 35 to 40 meals a day. The parents keep the nests clean by carrying away or eating the chicks' fecal sacs.

6.)The father becomes more involved in feeding and nest maintenance as the chicks get older because the mother might have left to build a new nest for the next brood. When they are about 13 days old, the chicks leave the nest. They stay in their parents' territory for a few weeks but leave after about a month.

Robin is sitting on her nest right now. When she leaves I will click a pic to see what position her eggs are in today. I cant wait to see the eggs hatch!

4.09.2009

We have eggs!!!!

So after seeing Robin in her nest I have been checking and checking to see if she laid her eggs and guess what? We have eggs!!!!!
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I cant wait to see them hatch and watch them grow into adult birds.

Aunt Karen's Apple Kugel.

Last night at sundown the the 1st night of Passover so I was super busy making my families favorite Passover dishes, Matzo ball soup, potato latkes, and apple kugel. Odd combo for one dinner but that's how we like it.

Ingredients:
8 matzos, 4 apples, 1 C. golden raisins, 6 eggs, 1 C. sugar, 1/2 C. oil, 1 tsp. salt, and 2 tsp cinnamon
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First, break up the matzo in a bowl and cover with water. Quarter, core and dice apples and put them in a bowl of cold water. Put both bowls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
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Next, mix the eggs, and sugar and beat until smooth. Add oil, salt, cinnamon, raisins and apples. Stir until apples are coated.
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Pour in the soaked matzo.
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Lastly, pour mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and top with butter pats. I used my homemade butter. YUM!
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Bake in a 350* oven for 45 mins. and voila! You have apple kugel!
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We eat this over the course of several days. It is great hot as a side dish to your passover meal or cold for breakfast.

4.07.2009

Mama bird Robin has taken residency.

After days of not seeing a mama bird in the nest on our porch I thought it was vacant. That is until today.
I was going out to get the mail and who did I see? Mama bird!!! I slowly walked back into my house, got the camera, and took a pic of her through my dining room window.
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Then I went out through the garage to get a frontal shot of her but she got shy and flew off. A couple of hours later I looked out the window and she was facing the house so I got a face shot. As soon as she saw the flash she flew into the tree where I got another shot of her. She is, as I suspected, the Robin that has been living on our porch light all winter long.
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I think Robin is a suitable name for her dont you think?

4.06.2009

Homemade Butter.

I was chatting with a few online friends this weekend and our resident Canadian brought up the idea of making her own butter. After watching a couple tutorials on making butter it seemed so simple that some of us decided to give it a try. Here is my tutorial:

Ingredients:
Quality heavy whipping cream-I used cream from a local dairy, a pinch of salt-I used Kosher salt but any salt will do, and a container- you can use glass or plastic, just make sure it it big enough for the liquid to expend into cream.
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9:45 a.m. Pour cream into container, add salt and the shaking begins!(see the action shot of Olivia? She lasted 30 seconds,lol)
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10:15 a.m. soft peaks.
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10:30 a.m. whipped- notice the color change?
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10:40 a.m. separated. This happened VERY quickly, like, at 10:33 it just went from whipped to water and chunk
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10:45 a.m. whipped butter!!!!
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update: apparently I missed the rinsing step at the end so next time I make some buddah I will add in the last step :)

4.05.2009

Craft Weekly pine cone people

This month I decided to base the girls crafts around Earth day. So this Saturday we went around the neighborhood and collected pine cones and sticks to make pine cone people. This craft sucked and lasted all of 3 minutes.

1st I made one and showed the girls the steps
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Then I let them make theirs. This is what they made.
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They were much happier playing outside with daddy. Oh well. You win some and you lose some. Better luck next week.