'Tis the Season

Of the STRAWBERRY! I love these little gems, especially when they go on crazy sale for less than a dollar a pound! I always tell myself that I'm going to make some strawberry jam with them, but they never last long enough for me to break out all the gear for that process. Either that or I'm just too lazy - probably the latter! Pictured below is one of my flavorite snacks! Toast with peanut butter, sliced fresh strawberries, and honey. Yum!
Here are some interesting facts that I learned about strawberries:
1. They are beach bums! They thrive in areas with mild temperatures between 55 and 78 degrees.
2. California harvests 83% of the strawberries grown in the U.S. on 24,500 acres. Florida is the second largest producing state with 5,000 acres.
3. Strawberries are "early risers" or one of the first fruits to bloom in the spring. Their peak season is April - June. During this time, up to 10 million pint baskets are shipped daily.
4. They are most people's favorite fruit. Respondents to a recent national survey labeled strawberry lovers as "health conscious, fun loving, intelligent and happy." Non-strawberry lovers, on the other hand, were described as "weird, boring, stuffy--picky, fussy eaters who avoid healthy foods."
5. They are not considered true berries because they carry their seeds on the outside unlike blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Each strawberry contains, on average, about 200 of these yellow "seeds" on their exterior.
6. Strawberries are a good source of folic acid (dig in, pregnant ladies!), fiber, and potassium.
7. American Cancer Institute suggests that strawberries may reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
8. Strawberry juice combined with honey will reduce inflammation or sunburn.
9. Strawberries have long been associated with love and flirtation. In France, they are traditionally served at wedding breakfasts with a soup of thinned sour cream and powdered sugar.

You can read more interesting facts and find my source from here.

A Day at the Races

Recently, our primary held a car race activity.
After a few hours of carefully wrapping this cardboard in cheap gift-wrapping paper, I thought I had a decent looking toy car. When we arrived, we had another thing coming!
Can I just say that all of the most creative parents in the world live in my ward? Seriously. This is ridiculous! I tried to talk the "competition" out of this whole affair with Brooklyn as we built the car, but nothing could have prepared me for the mighty masterpieces that awaited us in the cultural hall that day. We had a bat mobile, a Hummer with real head and tail lights, a couple of old classic cars, a Ferrari, a Jeep, and a fire engine.
There were not a few, but many cars that were built with great detail and assembled to look like real models of existing cars! A few of them were made mostly by the children and even those were pretty impressive!
This just is one small example of how our creation stacked up against the others. Here we have scale-models of a Ferari and a Jeep! I really should have used a glue gun and spray paint. It was so much more effective, as shown here! After this activity I actually realized that I don't own a glue gun. How did that ever happen? I feel somewhat crafty, how can I truly not own a glue gun?
Do you love the personalized license plates that this brother and sister had? Even the license plate frames were customized. Max's read, "Italian Stallion" and Lia's was something about a princess in training.
Here the cars are at the "drive in" movie theater. They watched a movie/slideshow of themselves. Can you see the fire engine in the back corner?
Here Ian is donning one of those "cool cars."
You've gotta love the flames escaping from the exhaust pipes!

This and That

These boys rock my world! Can you spot the blue car? Love it. And them.

The next picture shows that I don't just bake. Really, it's true! I only document my baking more often than my regular stuff. So here it is, one of my latest favorites, white chili. Big and little white beans, chicken, chili, corn, chicken broth, green chilies, and some cilantro make this flavorful and nutritious. Toppings: sour cream and cheese. We can't forget to add some fat! :)
Here's another crowd-pleasing favorite: ham and veggie mac 'n' cheese. See the spinach and carrots mixed in with the shell shaped noodles? Yum! (I think this picture was taken on the day it was eaten as a left-over. Less dishes, even better than the first round!)

Sweetness

This is what my kitchen filled up with on the eve of a very important birthday! We had cupcakes up to our ears! Some for preschool, then more for the "friend party." I can't imagine how many cupcakes we'll be pumping out this time NEXT year!

Brooklyn's Birthday Bash

Brooklyn celebrated her 5th birthday way back in March with some fun friends, games, and treats at a park. This was her very first "friend" birthday. She may need to wait another 5 years for the next one. Thank you Mom and Pip for driving down and thank you Claire (my cousin) for helping out!

We enjoyed some good ol' duck, duck goose.
I had a just a tiny bit of fun. Here I'm tagging Tate as the "goose!"
Brooklyn explained some of the rules to a game while her friends eagerly listened. Future teacher???
We had to do the traditional McKendrick birthday treasure hunt.
The treasure included gummy bears and other small treats in good ol' brown paper lunch bags.
Ian thought he was big stuff mingling with all the older kids.
Plenty of sweet treats for all!
Brooklyn here is carefully guarding the flame of her #5 candle.


This is the look of, "Hold me!" We were all partied out!

Birch Aquarium

I love these silhouettes!

February was Museum month again. Needless to say, we're already looking forward to it again next year... So many places, so little time! And, we had to revisit some of our favorites! This time we went to the Birch Museum with our friend Ariana from preschool and her mom, Ivy and sister, Aniya.

Here we are doing the "one finger touch" to feel a sea cucumber. Both of my kids were brave with touching the other things, but were a little more reluctant to feel this one. It was squishy!
Below Ian is checking out one of the many tanks of seahorses. Brooklyn remembered these from last year. How could we forget the one species that has the MALE carry the baby eggs to term? Yes, we just HAD to watch the short video again. Over and over again. It is so amazing to see several teeny tiny seahorses just burst out of the male with each convulsion. Sadly, seahorses are endangered. Very few survive to adulthood and their best self defense is a good camoflauge. Their small fins make them poor swimmers, so they just wrap their little tails around the stems of stable plants for protection.
This picture of Ian cracks me up. Thanks to the C5's (Calvin, Carol, Caden, Caleb, and Cameron) Ian has some "new-to-him" accessories that have become part of his daily uniform!
Above are some starfish without the camera flash. Below are some eels with the flash. Hopefully I didn't blind the fish... Oh well they're just eels. Yuck!
Creepy, Scary, Gross! EWE! (Not the girls, of course!)
I love this HUGE aquarium. It looks so authentically ocean! Below is a little display about the glass used to make this particular tank. CRAZY STUFF! I wonder how many mad scientists and engineers, it took to create this thing? I would think that it'd be a tough job getting it right the first time!
I like all the coral in this tank below.


This picture says it all with the heart sweater. We love life, our family, and all the beautiful creations that surround us!

The New Children's Museum (of San Diego)

Here's a peek at a wonderful tutorial on an artform using masking tape.
Brooklyn made two pictures. For the second attempt, she tried to mimic the sample.
This machine allowed kids to make their own "music." Each color was a different tone. The kids had to line the little statuettes up, then the conveyor belt processed them in a big blue box and the tones would come out in the order they were placed on the conveyor belt. The only thing is that there wasn't really a rhythm, but oh well. We're glad we got the passes to this place for Ian's B-day last year. The kids love to go back and visit. I love that they get to create art projects that don't destroy my carpet and furniture. :)