Ben & Josh, Fire Fighters

There's been a big interested in fire engines, or "woo woos" as Josh calls them, for quite some time in our house. Josh has a substantial collection of toy fire engines and fire engine books. To add to the mix my mother has sent over an authentic fire fighter costume for Josh to wear for Halloween, which I will confess that we're not planning on celebrating here in New Zealand. Here are some photos of both the boys trying out the new outfit.

30 days of yoga

I decided, on the last day of August, that I wanted to make a goal of doing yoga every single day for the entire month of September. I was realistic and made the goal respectable- a mere 15 minutes every day would be sufficient. 30 days later and I've only got 2 excuses, one of them was a wine induced headache that wouldn't go away and the other was a child throwing up (a short 3 minutes into my yoga practice that day- needless to say I didn't make it back to the yoga mat). I will admit that there were a few days where Dan and I did some relaxation yoga before going to bed, which was probably more breathing and relaxing then stretching or working out, but I pulled out the yoga mat and dedicated at least 15 minutes to the cause. The biggest gift of the exercise has been how enthusiastic the boys have been about participating. Ben started his day off today asking if we could do some yoga. Josh yells "'oooga"' and sticks his arms in the air. He likes to do downward dog with a toy in his hand and often rests his head on the floor because his arms aren't long enough. Ben loves making up the names of new poses, through the month we've done the Monster Truck Pose, the Triceratops pose, the Transformer pose, to name a few.

Making cards

Family Photo

This is a family photo that was recently taken at a fundraiser for Mini Muscles. Dan and Ben were on their way to the ski resort and somehow we all got talked into taking a family photo. I keep smiling at this photo, because it's so not us, but oh well, guess we have to have an awkward family studio photo in the archives, right?

Gingerbread Cookies

Deceptively Delicious Brownies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray

3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

1/2 cup carrot pureee

1/2 cup spinach puree

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 Tbs trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

3/4 cup oat flour, or all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/s tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat an 8x8 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame.

3. In a alrge bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla,,, and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.

5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars.

Gooey Volcanoes

Science mad Ben has been picking out experiments to test out from his collection of new science books. Today's project: "Gooey volcano" from Richard Hammond's Blast Lab book.

The directions call for making a volcano out of jello and then injecting baking soda and vinegar into the volcano w/ a baster. Our first volcano was a flop- so Ben turned it into a dinosaur land. Take two was a little bit better, but not much... but since the poor little guy was so excited, we decided that a volcano didn't really have to look like a volcano, right?