Breakfast muffins and kids

 

 I thought I should post a picture of two of the kids.  This first picture is Jack and another boy in the homeschool group at our monthly meeting.  They were playing a Mexican jumping bean game.

Audrey washing her carrot

  

  
Ayden was checking the garden.   He, like the other two, loves to be outside.  He loves to eat the cherry tomatoes too!

And I will end the post with a recipe. . .   I made these Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins from "Annie Eats."  They are a pretty healthy breakfast muffin: whole wheat flour, oats, applesauce, low fat buttermilk, 1 egg, and only 2 TBS of canola oil.  (hmmm, next time I think I will use the coconut oil instead.)  If you want the recipe, click on the link above.  For some reason, I had to cook mine for much longer, just looking at them, they seem to need more oats.  I used a jumbo muffin tin, so I expected to have to cook it longer but not THAT much longer.  If you make these, just cook them for the recommended time and then use a toothpick to check if they are done.  If not, keep adding 3 min at a time.  Ours were pretty gooey but they were cooked and delicious.  The kids gobbled them up!

I used spark people's nutrition calculator,

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe   12 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 148.1   Total Fat 3.7 g       Saturated Fat 0.6 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 1.2 g       Monounsaturated Fat 2.0 g   Cholesterol 15.8 mg   Sodium 162.4 mg   Potassium 135.7 mg   Total Carbohydrate 35.1 g       Dietary Fiber 3.6 g       Sugars 14.6 g   Protein 3.6 g   Vitamin A 0.7 %   Vitamin B-12 1.0 %   Vitamin B-6 1.9 %   Vitamin C 0.8 %   Vitamin D 0.8 %   Vitamin E 3.5 %   Calcium 5.5 %   Copper 6.7 %   Folate 3.1 %   Iron 5.9 %   Magnesium 8.3 %   Manganese 42.6 %   Niacin 1.2 %   Pantothenic Acid     2.7 %   Phosphorus     11.6 %   Riboflavin 3.4 %   Selenium 0.7 %   Thiamin 8.8 %   Zinc 5.0 %

Audrey's New Swimsuit!

I can't tell you how easy this swimsuit was to put together!!!  I have been looking at many tutorials for swimsuits, but this one seemed to make the most sense to me.  That particular post is just the directions to assemble the suit.  She also did a blog on how to create your own pattern; which is what I did.  I just took Audrey's swim suit from last year and added 2 inches to the middle so that her new suit would be 2 inches longer than last year's suit.  She is so skinny that I didn't need to add to the width.

The bathing suit probably only took me about an hour to complete and I love the final product!

Garden update

Yesterday, we started eating out of the garden.  It wasn't much, but we ate!!!  These are my bean plants.  We harvested 2 beans yesterday :o)

As you can see, the cucumber plant is filled with flowers.  We have a couple cucumbers growing already.

Cherry tomatoes.  Bryan and I each ate a tomato.  They were warm, sweet, and oh so juicy.  I can't wait for more to rippen!

Jack was so excited to eat a carrot. 

Audrey lucked out with a pretty large carrot.  Aren't they beautiful?

Creole tomato is turning orange.  That is going to make a yummy blt (at least that is what Jack is looking forward to).  We should be able to use that lettuce in the lower garden.  The mound of dirt is the potatoes.  And that huge bush of marigolds grew from three tiny seeds.  God is amazing isn't He?

Audrey enjoying her carrot.

Audrey's Easter Dress

 

I saw this adorable dress on Shwin and Shwin's blog and loved it so much that I wanted to make one for Audrey.  I made some modifications, so now it is definitely a "Krohn Kreation!" 

I have been dying to try piping in a project, so I made a scoop neckline and put piping in the front and back of the neckline.

Also, so many of these little girl dresses use buttons.  Buttons and Audrey don't exactly mix because she doesn't hold still for long so I needed to make the dressing process quicker, so I put a zipper in instead of buttons.

 

Lastly, Shwin and Shwin only put the ribbon on the front of the dress.  I like the wrap around look, but as you can see, I had some issues getting the ribbon to lay flat in the back.

I followed the Cottage Mama's template and steps for the top, which I love because all of the seams are fully encased.  The dress looks very high quality.  And since the dress is made from seersucker (which is pretty thin), I also lined the skirt.

Car Seat Safety

I would like to take a moment to share my two cents about car seat safety.  I know that car seat laws say that you can turn you child around at a year.  With your first child, it is exciting to turn your kid around!  They are growing up, they are so cute, and now you can see them when you drive!!!  I turned Jack around on his first birthday.

But then I started doing research.  I looked into many many different car seats.  First, I looked at Britax, because everyone says they are the safest.  But here is the problem with Britax: they have 2 different car seat standards--1 for Europe and 1 for the United States.   If you can get you hands on a European Britax, then you have a really safe car seat.  The testing standards are much higher in Europe than the US.  Unfortunately, the car seats sold here only pass the US standards (which isn't that bad, but not the best).

7 pound Ayden and 20 pound Audrey.  Both rear facing in their Sunshine Kids seats

Somehow I stumbled on the car seat company Sunshine Kids (now called Diono).  These car seats are the narrowest on the market--you can fit 3 across in the car.  They are made from steel--not plastic, so they don't have an expiration date.  And best of all, kids can be rear facing from 5-45 pounds.  As you can see from the picture above, Ayden is cradled quite comfortably and the sides of the seat are low, so Audrey (still today) is very comfortable in her seat.  Oh, and these seats fold flat so you can carry them like a backpack.  We have used them on airplanes quite easily.  If you want to use your car seat on an airplane, it MUST have an FAA sticker on it.  The flight attendant will check for this sticker as soon as you walk onto the plane.

The number 1 thing I would recommend every new parent get is the best car seat you can afford.  Amazon carries these car seats http://www.amazon.com/Diono-Radian-Convertible-Seat-Storm/dp/B005MQRAXM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332856400&sr=8-2  or you can buy them directly from the company http://us.diono.com/en/car-seats/radian-rxt

For those of you interested in crash test data: http://us.diono.com/en/safety-center/radianrxt-crash-test-results

EDIT:  The latest news that I found on Yahoo  http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/aaps-new-car-seat-guidelines-change-rear-facing-booster-rules-2466904.html

Mardi Gras. . . For all my northern friends

*Disclaimer* I am still just a northerner, so my southern friends might not want to read this, I am sure that I will botch some stuff up :o)

I don't know about you, but I always thought Mardi Gras was a one-day affair.  Maybe y'all are much smarter than me.  But I make no assumptions.

Mardi Gras is nearly a month long event.  The parades start three weekends before Mardi Gras, this first weekend even includes a kids parade "Little Rascals." Oh, and before I go much further, I can tell you that there are so many parades because each parade is hosted by a different "krewe."  The next two weekends are filled with parades all over the area.   Parades are an expensive business.  The people that ride in the parades pay a lot of money to ride AND they buy all of their "throws." The weekend before  Mardi Gras is crazy--there are parades on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday!  There are parades during the day, there are parades at night. . .

This box is filled with beads.

And not all parades involve nudity.  It is only the parades in the French Quarter that get really gaudy.  And from what I am told, it is all tourists that engage in the crazy behavior.