Labour Day Story from Google

https://plus.google.com/101939083253376960013/stories/a075371f-5ff1-3599-b8a1-4d91788ecdf3148394f235b?authkey=CKajw-3prOqvDQ

Fun in the Sun!

Well, yesterday we had a long day. I started the day with a half marathon. I literally ran from Boone to Blowing Rock.  The kids and Chris met me at the finish line which was a horse stable. We got to see some horsies and listen to them neigh.  A really liked that though it kind of scared G.  After that we went to our old park and played with friends. After friends we took Chris to Beer Fest. (The beer brewing science is a subdepartment of the chemistry department at ASU and so Chris has several friends who teach there) He went and sampled several local brews and helped with take down of the event.  While he was there the kids and I went to coffee at the top of the stairs (A's 2nd favorite coffee shop) and played in the park. After we got pizza we played in front of the library. It was a lot of fun -- there is a statue there and we made up stories that the girl was "reading" and we acted them out in the grass. The instructions were, "You can't go off of the grass" so A sat down on the concrete to take her shoes off (go her being adventurous!) and told me she was still on the grass since her feet were still on the grass. We acted several parts of stories for all the people walking by and just had a lot of fun.  Today we went to church in town and will see about going back.  We can easily walk there and they have a LOT of family stuff so that is enticing. We shall see.  We also went to the pool and played. A wanted to go in the big pool and since Chris was there we could split the kids up and make that happen. She did NOT want to get her hair wet and went up and down in the air several times making big splashes, but not getting her hair actually wet.  No pictures from the during, but from afterwards in the car. G liked the wading pool and tried to walk. He's fairly steady on ground, but water was a different story.  :)

Sunrise in the stadium where the half marathon started

G climbing around the first park of the day (google did auto-awesome this )

Not sure about reading with the girl at first

slowly warming to her reading

and reading over her shoulder while requesting I read the words on the page...

After the pool!

Guacamole!

What does a typical family do on Friday? Make guacamole of course. We found some fantastic avocados from Costco last weekend and they have made fantastic guacamole. A had helped mash and G just wants to eat (and eat and eat).  The mashing and stirring are great developmental skills that I'm supposed to have A do using toys...

Overall we had a decent week with it being the first week of Chris staying late to reach his Thursday night class.

We had the FDA stop by and do their audit.  Once again no major citations! That means we are doing well from a compliance stand point so as long as we can manufacture stuff I get to keep my job.

G 9 month check up

We went to the Dr last week for our nine month check. A was super helpful and read to G. G was his super wiggly self as he was prodded and poked. He is a whole 28 inches long, 18.1 pounds with a head circumference of 42cm. This amounts to him being a little underweight, a little tall and normal for head circumference. As the doctor was trying to get developmental skills G was showing them off. He crawled, creeped and generally showed off for the doctor.

A is starting preschool next Tuesday. We aren't sure how to fell about it, but the daycare has no actual daycare slots so we had to do it. She will be with some of her cronies and her teacher seems nice enough. I hope the teacher is ready for dealing with the force that is A. 

Meet Max!

Max is our turtle. He has 10 legs and swims in the ocean with us girls. Max likes to eat cereal and his favourite color is pink. He wants pink candy.

Family Time

Today we left the dreary, foggy, misty weather behind and went to the big house. A calls the Biltmore House that.  She really wanted to go to the farm and see the animals to start, but we had to go to the house as well. In leaving from our new house we discovered it takes just over an hour to get to Asheville, not bad as this means we can go more often. We left after breakfast and made it before lunch. We went to the farm first and played with some kids and chickens before going to the mercantile. A couple of the kids were around three months old, so they were the date old kids we saw at Easter. They also had some 9 well old kids there. We watched some horses and a chicken lay an egg. A was really excited about it all. We went up to the mercantile to play and A didn't want to leave. She and G played for over an hour with the variety of this there.

While out and about we discovered why G's teachers think he has a rash all the time. He gets heat rash like no one's business. It took him 20 minutes in the backpack to have it starting on his neck and chest. At least I feel comfortable saying that it isn't contagious. It also make me want to move somewhere cold.

We got to go through the top of the Biltmore house. They had the tower rooms open so it didn't take nearly as long to go through the top portion as it normally does. There were lots of pretty dresses that we got to see.  In every room A determined that she would sleep in the bed with me, Chris would sleep on the couch out chaise, and G would sleep in the bassinet since the first room had a bassinet in it. It was rather sweet.

We got to play in the gardens today. I find it interesting that we spend less and less time in the house with each visit. With our children getting older and no longer content to just be carried they prefer to run. Hopefully this fall we will get to do bikes.
Here are some fun pictures of us playing around the estate today 

Scotchies

Well, I'm waiting. In waiting on Chris and A to get in from the lake and for cookies to be done. I've been thinking about how to increase my oat consumption and cookies my grandmother and I used to make seem to be perfect for the job. They are called scotchies.  Basically barely enough flour, a couple of eggs, a lot of oats and as many chips as the mixture will hold is what it ends up being. So using my grandmother's cookie sheets, Google, and my new kitchen I put together a passable recipe. We will know more once Chris gets home. I've had a couple of the rejects from the first sheet and I think they are yummy. Here is the recipe and a couple of pictures.

1.5 cups of flour
1 heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup butter
.75 each of brown sugar and white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups butterscotch chips
3.5 cups of oats

Cream the butter. While creaming the butter, mix the dry stuff together. Add in the sugars and cream some more. Add in the eggs. Beat on high and add the vanilla. Add the dry stuff to the moist stuff. Add in the oats and chips by hand at the end. Bake at 375°F until browned. 

Stuff I did faithfully as my grandmother taught me:
- Measured out the cookies on the sheets using tablespoons ensuring each was the same size so they would cook the same
- put the cooked cookies on paper to cool on the cooling rack after checking the bottom to make sure the cookie is done
- freeze some for later
- eat some dough
- I enjoy baking with A, since she isn't here I notice that she is gone

Stuff I realised I changed since baking with grandma:
- I'm willing to experiment (more of this and less of that type of things) more than my grandmother would
- I make larger cookies even though I use the same spoons
- I use parchment paper instead of wax paper. I even line the sheets to bake so that they are easy to clean

I'm sure there are lots of differences in the end, but my cookies are well on their way to being done and I have a few more dishes to do before my travelers get home.

Everyone here is doing well.  G is taking unassisted steps if he wants to. Normally he lunges at things. He eats a ton and is working on eating is out of house and home since the day care doesn't like any food brought on to be house prepared.