Cookie Cutters

I’m not much of a gadget girl when it comes to technology, I’m happy to use whatever phone Will picks out for me, I can barely work his ipod and the Garmin is a complete mystery.

What I like are simpler, handy kitchen things. I love kitchen gadgets, machines, special spoons, knives etc. I like to collect antique kitchen things and also things that are hand made – such as wooden spoons.

Rolling pins, spoons old and new and a butter churn:

I especially love to collect things like rolling pins, mixing bowls and…cookie cutters. I am not a particularly talented artist at decorating cookies but I just think cookie cutters are really fun and they are an inexpensive and relatively useful thing to collect.

Two little birds and a lion with a red handle. These came from Will’s Grandmother.

 

We have a few events coming up this summer which got me thinking about shopping for some new cutters to add to my collection and I found this neat website called American Tradition Cookie Cutters. Not only do they have a ton of great, really reasonably priced cutters but they give a discount to bloggers!

Cutters I have my eye on:

Texas

Armadillo

T-Rex

Elephant

Giraffe

Elephant

Owl

(Each of these is just 90 cents!)

And their “Deal of the Week” – which is a 7 piece set of Sea Creatures for just $5 bucks! (Might come in handy for certain about-to-be-3 year olds who are asking for an Ariel birthday party!)

Not to be purely selfish I also think these would be awesome for goody bags for birthdays, Christmas stockings, and housewarming presents or for a hostess gift.

Swim Lessons

It is interesting how different children from the same family can be.  Raising children is not like cooking – you can’t just reach for a certain ingredient and add it, you know?

If I could do such a thing, I think I would take a pinch of Bella’s confidence and pass it to Jacob (my Worrier), and I would take a dollop of Jacob’s love for rules and his sense of responsibility and pass it to Bella (Miss Reckless).

I guess where all this is coming from is because of swim lessons this week. Jacob is doing a fabulous job, he is so excited and happy and is really enjoying himself. My what a change from last year! He is my cautious child, he doesn’t mind bobbing underwater or picking up a ring, but does not want to swim with his face in the water. We’re working on that. 

Practicing kicking using a noodle:

   

Jacob has his lessons first; I spy on him from the kiddy pool but try to stay out of sight. I think he does better that way. Wednesday night I was spying on Jacob and playing with Bella when something crazy happened. Bella came down the slide and went under for a minute like she always does but then instead of bobbing up, she stayed under and SWAM TO ME. I saw her do it and couldn’t believe it! So she went down the slide again and this time when she came down I stepped back a step, and then another and then another and she swam, just held her breath and kicked her feet and swam to me – just like that!

So, by the time we got to Bella’s first swim lesson, she had already taught herself to swim! I am still taking her to her lessons, it is non-refundable and there are many skills she doesn’t have like gliding, floating on her back, etc. Of course I will still be watching her like a hawk – but it does make me feel a little teensy bit better to see that she can make it over to the side of the pool on her own.

Me looking cheesy & yes that is Abby Beasley back there practicing her super-man glide!

Thursday night Jacob had a great lesson but it was bittersweet afterward because he isn’t yet actually swimming.  He made some friends at the kiddy pool but then they all left to go to the diving boards and big pool and he couldn’t go and his face went all crumpled and sad. And then he sees his sister swimming and I just ached for him because I could see him trying so hard. It is a mental thing because he doesn’t want to put his head under (even with goggles) I know he will conquer that fear in his own time.

Life in the Garden – Part III

Our garden and flower beds this year are simply amazing.  Will works very hard to keep the weeds out and everything properly watered, fertilized and happy. He has a way with growing things.  I just love to go with my camera and take pictures of all the different flowers.

Taken in May – you can see all the little buds, just beginning to open:

Here are the same flowers in June:

I love that there are so many different colors – from deep purple to pure white. Jacob and I think they look like fireworks.

 

 

Our strawberry plant had ONE berry:

Shortly after this picture was taken the berry got too wet and had white mold all over it and so no one got to eat it. So sad!  The plant is still doing fine, but so far no more blossoms.

In May – cherry tomatoes

Big Heirloom tomato

Blossoms that will become tomatoes (I hope)

And now in June:

I can’t show you the cherry  tomatoes because they are in our bellies!

The other day I was checking on things and spotted this spider setting up shop in my rosemary. He is a black and white zebra striped spider and his web runs in a horizontal zig zag (for scale – the web was about the size of a quarter)  I’ve never seen anything like it before. Truthfully he was kind of creepy and I was glad he was gone the next day. Thank you for keeping out bugs creepy guy!

Just pretty:

Walk to Wellness

Walk to Wellness Woot! Woot! I just completed participation in a walking challenge at my work called Walk to Wellness. The challenge was to walk for 650 minutes in 42 days. I just met the gaol with 8 days to spare. I'm really excited to have spent nearly 30 minutes a day walking (dedicated excercise walking, not walking to the fridge!)

End of Soccer Season

Memorial Weekend we reached the end of our first 8 week soccer season.  I can’t say enough positive things about FFPS – Jacob went from basically having no soccer skills (sorry son!) to being a pretty good little player.  We are excited to sign back up – but in the Fall when it will hopefully be cooler. The only draw back I can think of is just that it was so fun for Jacob now he has a whole list of sports he wants to try!

 

At the start of each game the kids say “Go Gators!”

The weekend before, Will’s parent’s came out to watch Jacob play. Jacob’s classic wink.

 

 

Action shot!

 

It was so, so hot out on the field.  Of course Bella finds a spot perched on someone’s ice chest (the umbrella wasn’t ours either – she’s a mooch!)

 

Goalie throw! (Did I already blog about how at the first practice Jacob thought that being goalie meant he was in Time Out? He asked me afterwards what he did wrong to get sent there!)

 

I was thrilled that Amegy bank sponsored the team, do I have the best job or what?

       

Bella ADORES Coach Becky, whenever she would come to the sidelines Bella would go up and love on her.

 

Full uniform. We got lucky – all the teams wear black shorts with white stripes regardless of the color scheme of the jerseys. Ours matched great, some teams were pretty ugly (lime green and blue with black shorts!)

 

After the last game we had a team pizza party at Double Dave’s.

Notice Bella in the background, “helping” coach hand out the trophies.

Will and I were mortified when Jacob got his trophy and said loudly “I don’t like it!” – oh gosh. And this after asking ALL day when he would get it! You have to know Jacob, he just gets weirded out by anything new sometimes. He got over it and spent the rest of the weekend with the trophy in his hands (we even had to bring it to his grandparents so he could show it to them)

Truth be told, I’m happy to have my Saturday’s back for a while but I am so glad he played.   Jacob is really excited to take gym when he starts Kindergarten in the Fall. I told him this morning that they would cover all sports in gym and he was like “What? Really! Even kickball and basketball?”  I swear I don’t know he ended up loving sports so much but I am really glad that he does. I was such an uncoordinated wreck in gym class but it doesn’t look like either of my kids inherited that – thank goodness. Between gymnastics at school, playing at home and swimming both kids are lean and strong – I hope that it will continue!