book+activity: Crêpes by Suzette

After the fun of last week's book+activity, (gotta come up with a catchy name if we're going to keep doing this...) when we came home from the library with "Crêpes by Suzette" by Monica Wellington, my fellow sweet tooth Elijah and I had the same idea. We wanted crêpes!

The book follows Suzette's crêpe cart as she makes her way through Paris selling her delicious pancakes. It is charmingly illustrated with collages, mementos and photographs that the author collected on her trip to Paris. It made us hungry, and me want to travel.

Eva devoured a banana crêpe like a little boy in the book, but Eli wanted a chocolate crêpe, topped with cream, as ordered by the school children. When I put it in front of him, he announced "I'd better take my shirt off for this!"

The crêpes were yummy, and the best part? We have leftover batter to make more in the morning for breakfast. Maybe with lemon curd, Elijah mused...

book+activity: Who Made This Cake?

The summer reading program is in full swing at the ABQ public library, and we've been visiting frequently.

I picked up this book in the returns pile and knew it'd be an instant hit with my tractor-loving Elijah. It's about a Lilliputian bakery enlisted to make a birthday cake for a little boy. The little people use heavy duty construction equipment to complete their orders. Elijah adored it (and so did I.) The illustrations are clever,  appealing, and very imaginative.

After reading this, Elijah grabbed his tractors and asked if we could "build a cake." Of course! We baked cakes for strawberry shortcake using the tractors.

I didn't notice this at the time, but look at his shirt! A backhoe. It's one of his favorite's. (Thanks, Oma and Poppi!)

The cake in the book was decorated with strawberries and whipped cream, and much to Elijah's delight, we did the same.

Figures that we ran out of flour and had to race to the store so they would finish baking by swimming lessons.  Elijah could hardly wait to be done with lessons so he could show his Daddy the Tractor Cakes and read the story with him.

Note Elijah's hand? It's scooping to demonstrate the movement of the excavator's bucket.

"Who Made This Cake?" is by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrated by Junji Koyose.  I didn't notice at first they were Japanese, but kept thinking the illustrations and concept seemed so Japanese. I was right! :)

Meeting Zachary

A late post... but better late than never!

This past Memorial Day weekend we visited Ike, Abigail, and our new little almost 3 month old nephew Zachary. It was a great time being with family and playing with the little man.

Eva loooved her baby cousin. She kept saying "Baby? Baby?" and kept trying to sneak into his room when the little guy was napping.  She was thrilled at being able to "hold" him.

Cousins!

Our little beach girl!
After her initial encounter with sand "Wipe? Wipe?" (Clean my hands!) she realized how much  she loved playing in the sand. Just give the girl a bucket and she's ready to roll!

This is our best tip for "Beach with Little Kids."  Dig a deep hole for the kids, and wonder of wonders, they stay right there.

Definitely handsome.
And smiling at his Aunt Jamie.

peanut butter play dough

Eva is still putting EVERYTHING in her mouth... We did manage to wean her of the pacifier to just in the car and bed. This was a big deal. Eva adores that pacifier. She's great about it now, though, even pointing to remind us to take off the pacifier when she wakes up. Still, with her hand-to-mouth habits, art supplies are a little tricky. She sat coloring beside Elijah who was working on his letters. I was impressed with how well she was using the (washable) markers until she smiled at me. Purple teeth, purple tongue, purple lips... and purple drool. Maybe not. And there was a bite out of the felt-tipped marker. Huh.

So today's art is entirely edible. I'm bringing back the PB play dough I used to make with Elijah to trick him into eating a little protein! :)  They loved it. As I suspected, a great deal of it went into Eva's mouth, though as it was just peanut butter, powdered milk and a little honey, I didn't mind a bit.

A big hit! Especially with the play kitchen toys.

Shave Ice Celebration

We had a big week. Elijah had his first VBS at a church by himself, and the kids started swimming lessons. These were big deals, stretching, growing times. Elijah was so nervous that many tears were shed. If I had known how intensely he would feel these things, I wouldn't have planned two new experiences in the same week. We prayed every morning and evening, and Elijah told us he was feeling braver and braver. We were so proud of our little man working through his nervousness.

Eva started the week of her parent-tot swim lessons screaming through the entire 40 minutes, and ending the week actually kicking, splashing and jumping to us!

At the end of the week we celebrated his bravery at the new shave ice place with Eli's buddies Caleb and Leah. You can see the relief in his face!

Note Eva's concentration... She absolutely refused to even taste the ice when offered to her from one of our spoons. We finally figured out that she did NOT want to share. She wanted to hold the cup and spoon herself. We got an extra cup so we could put a little bit in for her to eat all. by. herself.

Knock Knock!

Elijah has discovered Knock Knock jokes, though we have no idea where. It certainly wasn't me! He thinks they are hilarious. He just doesn't quite "get" them...

For example, here's the joke he told last night to Oma and Poppi via Skype:

E: Knock knock!
O+P: Who's there?
E: Front end loader.
O+P: Front end loader who?
E: Front end loader in a lemon!! (He laughs hysterically, we laugh dutifully).

Huh.  We're working on that. Oma and Poppi supplied him with a few funnier (though admittedly less original) for his repertoire.

Eva has a knock knock joke, too, of her own invention.

Lil E: Knnnnock knnnnnock!
Us: Who's there?
Lil E: Daddy!
Us: Daddy who?
Lil E: Hi Daddy!
She tells this one a couple of times a day.  Elijah thinks this is pretty funny and laughs every time. Eva thinks Elijah is the funniest guy around, which definitely encourages our budding comedian. :)

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sent from my mobile phone

Elijah's prayers

Elijah's spontaneous prayers this morning:
"Dear Jesus,
Could I have one more brother and one more sister?
Hear my name,
Amen."

I'm interested in how God answers that one... :)

And then he says, "I forgot... and please send water to the Jemez where we got our Christmas tree to put out the fires. And help the fire fighters.
Amen."

I just had to remember these sweet prayers.

Rockets in the desert

Elijah and I went with our friends Jason and Merick to launch rockets at the monthly Albuquerque Rocket Societies' event out in the desert of Rio Rancho.

Some folks at the launch had some pretty large rockets that were going up to 5000ft or so. 

Eli and Merek enjoyed watching the rockets go up and trying to find them in when the parachutes deployed. 

This was the largest rocket that went up. 

Jason had made his own rocket body out of carbon fiber and machined parts of the engine mount. He was experimenting with a few different materials on the flight that he could leverage for future rocket activities. 

Jason had embedded a little transmitter in the nose cone and was using a directional antenna to help find the rocket. Unfortunately there was a mechanical failure and the rocket body and nose cone separated. Thankfully we happened to stumble upon the rocket body on our way back to the launch site. 

Eli did a good job looking for the rocket out in the middle of nowhere. His only challenge was dodging the cacti that were taller than him.