Madelyn's Baby Talk

Madelyn has started experimenting with her voice. I caught a little bit on camera right before it was time to eat. I'm biased, but what a cutie!!

PKK: Halloween Treats

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Kaitlyn. She lived in a beautiful castle by an enchanted forest, a magical lake, and a fantastically fun playground. Her mommy had a story that tied the rice crispy balls to Princess Kaitlyn's world, but mommy can't remember it anymore (it's two weeks later when I'm posting this) and the creative juices just aren't flowing.

So, for Princess Kaitlyn's kitchen, we made Halloween rice crispy treats to give to some of her friends.

Ingredients

• 6 cups rice crispy cereal
• 1 bag large marshmallows (10 oz)
• ~3 tablespoons butter
• 1 can Halloween sprinkles

Instructions:

Place the marshmallows and butter into microwave safe bowl.

Melt the butter and marshmallows together in a large bowl.

Add rice crispy treats and sprinkles and stir until well combine.



Lay flat on a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to harden for ~20 minutes or more (we had to figure this out on our own) so you can shape into 1" balls.

If you try to make the balls right away, you end up with a sticky, gooey mess as demonstrated below.

After hardening a bit, shape the rice crispy treats into 1" round balls.


Place in goody bag for friends and family!
Princess Kaitlyn will not have a kitchen activity next week as mommy and daddy are taking a little vacation. We will resume in two weeks!

PKK: Ants on a Log

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Kaitlyn. She lived in a beautiful castle by an enchanted forest, a magical lake, and a fantastically fun playground. One day as Princess Kaitlyn frolicked by the magical lake, she came across a family of ants carrying food back to their nest. Princess Kaitlyn bent down to watch the ants when one approached her. Antzy the ant was very friendly to Princess Kaitlyn and invited her into the ant nest below the sand.

Princess Kaitlyn laughed and said she was too big to go down below to the nest. Antzy told Princess Kaitlyn that he could fix that with a zipity zapity zoo and POOF Princess Kaitlyn was the size of an ant. She crawled into the ant nest and found an awesome maze of rooms built of dirt, sand, and muds. Flowers and seeds decorated the rooms to liven and cheer things up inside. It was like a miniature underground castle. Princess Kaitlyn enjoyed a tasty meal of sunflower seeds and hibiscus flowers petals with the ants before returning to her actual size and heading back to the castle.

In celebration of meeting the ants, Princess Kaitlyn made ants on a log when she returned home.

Ingredients

• Celery sticks (cut by mommy)
• Peanut butter
• Raisins

Princess Kaitlyn using her 'kid' knife to spread peanut butter on the celery sticks.

Princess Kaitlyn getting ready to add some raisins to her celery stick.
Adding more peanut butter.
Look mommy - ants on a log!!
Tah-dah!!! Princess Kaitlyn made everything on the plate. She nibbled on quite a bit too!

PKK: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Kaitlyn. She lived in a beautiful castle by an enchanted forest, a magical lake, and a fantastically fun playground.

As Kaitlyn left a play date with her mermaid friend Mariana, Mariana invited Kaitlyn and her friends from the enchanted forest to a concert that evening on the beach. Mariana explained that she and her mermaid friends would be performing a variety of songs for their audience.


Kaitlyn rushed to the enchanted forest to find Ferber the squirrel, Coyo the chipmunk, Cookie Piepea the bear, and the boisterous butterflies. She invited them to the concert and arranged to meet them on the beach at six o'clock. Unfortunately, when everyone arrived, they realized that they didn't have anything to sit on while watching the concert.


So Princess Kaitlyn and her friends put their heads together. They ran back into the enchanted forest and picked several pumpkins. The cut the pumpkins in half and used the bottom piece as a seat. The boisterous butterflies brought a bunch of cotton brush from the forest and suggested they use the cotton brush on top of the pumpkin for a little extra cushion. It worked! Princess Kaitlyn and her friends had wonderfully comfortable seats to watch Mariana and her mermaid friends perform for them.

Of course, these seats inspired Princess Kaitlyn's next cooking adventure... Pumpkin Whoopie Pies! Princess Kaitlyn was quick to point out that these are more like sandwiches than actual pies though. :-)


Despite not being a Martha Stewart fan...we used a recipe from her web site:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pumpkin-whoopie-pies

Princess Kaitlyn just loves her whoopie pies! At 9:00 AM the next morning, Kaitlyn asked for a sandwich. I thought she meant these ham, salami and provolone sandwiches we had for dinner earlier in the week. I was wrong, she wanted a whoopie pie. Hilarious! And no, she didn't get one until much later in the day. :-)

PKK: Lemon Rapberry Muffins

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Kaitlyn. She lived in a beautiful castle by an enchanted forest, a magical lake, and a fantastically fun playground. One beautiful sunny day, Princess Kaitlyn rounded up her friends Ferber the squirrel, Coyo the Chipmunk, and the boisterous butterflies for an afternoon of games.

Princess Kaitlyn had picked a bunch of raspberries and lemons from vines and trees in the forest and as such, decided to have a little fun with her bounty. She explained to her friends that the butterflies would each ride in a raspberry while Ferber, Coyo and she pulled the raspberries in a race using the lemon rinds and reigns that they tied to the raspberries. Next, they would compete in a raspberry rolling contest to see who could roll their raspberry the fastest to the magical lake. Finally, upon reaching the lake, Princess Kaitlyn and her friends had to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze the lemons by jumping on them to get all of the juice into a big barrel. Whichever team completed all these events the fastest would win a lemon raspberry muffin!

Of course if Princess Kaitlyn told the story, she would say she won. However, when mommy tells the story, Princess Kaitlyn wins one event, and Ferber and Coyo each win an event. They all congratulate each other on their efforts and excellent team work with the butterflies. Since they all won a race, they shared the muffins. :-)



Here is Princess Kaitlyn whipping up a batch of muffins...

She mixed 2 cups All-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tbsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. kosher salt together in one bowl. Mommy mixed 2 eggs (lightly beaten), 1 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup canola oil, and 1 tbsp. lemon zest in different bowl.


Princess Kaitlyn added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. After all the ingredients were combined, Princess Kaitlyn folded in 1/2 cup of raspberries.
She added a couple of extra raspberries to each muffin tin after we poured the batter in.
Princess Kaitlyn was ready to put her muffins in the oven.
Princess Kaitlyn had her mommy actually place the muffins in the oven for approximately 19 minutes at 400 degrees. Princess Kaitlyn enjoyed her reward/prize from her races after her nap.

FYI: These muffins were adapted from Parents magazine. They say there are only 166 calories and 7 grams of fat per muffin when filling tin 2/3 full, which we did.

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This is just a cute picture of my girls playing together!

Fall Michigan

It was time for a fall trip to Michigan to visit family and friends. The girls were troopers given the long drive and all the visits we made. Granted, they had a lot of fun along the way. We went to an apple orchard, made applesauce, Chex mix and cookies, enjoyed several playgrounds, rode bikes, built a campfire and made smores with reeses peanut butter cups, visited a children's museum, went bowling for the first time, spent time with family and friends all over the state, and much, much more! And yes...now we're exhausted! :-)

Apple picking with Grandma Linda, Pa Clinton, Aunt Niki, Madelyn and mommy. Kaitlyn really enjoyed this adventure.

Kaitlyn picked an apple high up in the tree with mommy's help.
Kaitlyn sampling the apple to make sure it passes the taste test. These apples would be used in Princess Kaitlyn's kitchen later on our visit.
Madelyn relaxing at grandma Linda's.
Madelyn is out like a light in grandma Linda's arms.
Kaitlyn learning to peel and core the apples with Pa Clinton. She concentrated very hard and actually worked up a sweat after finishing 20 apples.
Kaitlyn had fun seeing how the apples turned out after using this fun contraption.
Kaitlyn adding nutmeg to apples. Check out the tongue - cracks mommy up! She gets that from daddy when she concentrates.

Daddy and his girls after getting home from a work week in DC.
Pa Harry visiting with Madelyn.

Kaitlyn playing with her baby sister. Ahhh, how sweet!
Aunt Niki and Pa Clinton making 'Chex' mix with Kaitlyn.
The Stewart's came for a nice visit. Kaitlyn had fun building and city with Grandma Linda and knocking it down.
Visiting with Grandma Laurie, Madelyn fell right to sleep. She was so comfy!
Shocking, Madelyn's out again. I think we kept her busy.
Grandma Laurie, Uncle Tim, daddy, Madelyn, Kaitlyn and mommy out for dinner.
Kaitlyn went bowling for her first time in Michigan. Great idea Mr. Mike! We met Mr. Mike, Mrs. Tricia and their two girls at the bowling alley. It was lots of fun!!
MacKenzie bowling - too cute!
Now Kaitlyn's turn...
Both girls trying to figure out the bowling contraption for kids. Hint: you set the ball on top and push it down. Rolls much faster than the kids just pushing it themselves.
Mr. Mike and Taylor and daddy and Madelyn. It's hard to believe that we all have kids now. Not long ago, we were carefree and in college. :-)
Kaitlyn and MacKenzie giving a good-bye hug.
Smiley Madelyn.
Madelyn using the exersaucer for the first time after we got back home.