Our Favorites

Here are a few of our recent favorite things:

When the Fireflies Come. We got this book from the library a few weeks ago. Not only do the kids love it, but I do too. Often their favorites are not necessarily the "best" books or the most well written. But this book is great. It somehow manages to capture what summer felt like as a child. It reminds me of the emotions, smells, and fun of summer. Damien and I both totally feel nostalgic every time we read it.



We love Catfish and are always looking for good recipes. I made THIS from allreceipes.com (my favorite recipe site). It was really yummy and Damien even approved so it must be good.


If you have kids who love the movie "Cars" this is the game for them. We picked this up at the boutique and the kids been playing with it nonstop since. It's sort of a silly game but who cares when the kids love it so much. Any game where the instructions tell you to make "spitting" noises at certain points during the game is perfect for boys.


This book, parenting with scripture is coming in handy now that Orin is getting older and is able to understand more. It's nothing profound - just a topical book with scripture and some questions and teachable ideas for each topic. I have to admit that I'm not great at memorizing scripture and when it comes to discipline I usually don't have a good scriptural explanation for why what they did was wrong. So after time outs I try to sit with them and read some verses on how we should act in those situations. I just look look up the "topic" we are dealing with (anger, respect, hitting, lying, etc...) and there are a list of verses. It my own cheat sheet and I love it.


Licking the bowl when we make chocolate cookies is always a favorite!

Orin and Caiah call these "Mama Banola Bars." I'm not a big granola bar fan, but these are very yummy. And apart from the small amount of semi-sweet chocolate chips and brown sugar, they are really healthy too. My kids certainly don't lack for whole grain. I got the original recipe from Allrecipes.com but I've changed it quite a bit to make it much healthier and tastier. Here is the recipe: (By the way, I usually half the recipe from a 9x13 to a 9x9 which is why the measurements seem weird. But you can double it easily.)

1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (I mix wheat germ with Bob's Red Mill 8 grain cereal to make it even healthier)
1/4 cup Rice Crispies
1/4 cup shredded coconut (I can't stand coconut but you can't taste it all all once it's cooked and even Quaker Oats granola bars have coconut)
1/4 tsp. salt (I usually don't add it because we all get way more salt then we need in our diets)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use less sometimes and it's plenty)
1/4 cup canola oil (healthier than veg. oil)
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 egg (I just whip the egg in a bowl and pour half in)

I mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet. Then I dump it into a 9x9 that I spray with cooking spray. I pat it down a little just so it's even on the top. I cook it for 30 minutes on 350 degrees and as soon as it comes out of the oven I use a sharp knife to cut it into bars and let it cool. The boys (all three of them) scarf them down!

Orin opening his new Hooked on Phonics was a favorite part of this week. He was literally more excited as he opened it than when he opened his birthday presents in April. Of course, he's also the kid who will pick carrots over cool whip so we shouldn't be surprised. He's such a strange child. ;-)
Watching Orin's favorite movie Wall-E. It's more fun to watch them enjoy it than watch it ourselves.
Orin's teacher is so sweet. She had made some homemade grocery bag parashoot men for use in the classroom and apparently Orin loved playing with them. She left a note in Orin's box saying that he really loved them and included instructions on how to make them. We've been enjoying the ones we made at home for the past few days. He so lucky to have such a thoughtful preschool teacher.


Crafttime is always a favorite part of our week.