Strawberry cake - yum!

A few weeks ago Val from Yarnigras posted a recipe for a strawberry cake she likes to make for her family. Both Nature Girl and my husband love strawberries so I tucked that recipe away for later. When my in-laws came to visit last week I decided to make the cake for desert. I didn't layer my cake so it's not as pretty as Val's, but it was absolutely delicious!!! My husband loved it. Me too, I have to admit I ate a piece for breakfast one morning. Yummmy!
Nature Girl like the frosting but didn't eat much because it wasn't ice cream cake. I should have remembered this. I made birthday cakes for the first 4 years of her life decorating entire cakes with little stars of frosting to create pretty cakes. Despite getting claw hand each time from the hours of decorating she would only eat ice cream and not a single piece of cake. For her 5th birthday she got an ice cream cake and her 6th birthday was a cheesecake. It takes me a while to catch on but eventually I learn! Anyway, when I asked her if she liked it she said it was missing something. I asked what and she said it needed chocolate sauce all over it. I think it was perfect as it was and didn't last long before it was all eaten. That's a sure sign it's good! I think the frosting would be delicious on cupcakes too. Click here to see Val's post and get the recipe.

I'm Not Listening to You

Nature Girl is spending a few days with Grandma and Papa in NY. Number one I can't believe she is big enough to go off to another state without us but she is. Number two she doesn't even miss me even though I miss her terribly. I was just sitting her thinking about her and was reminded of these pictures I took a few weeks back. Here's the story behind the pictures:

I'm Not Listening to YOU!

Like any good parents we've tried to teach Nature Girl manners and to respect adults. We've taught her that she can't cover her ears with her hands when she doesn't like something we have to say, though occasionally she does try it. When her cousin E. stayed with us for a few days she got upset with him. They had been arguing and she had had enough. They're both stubborn and she wasn't making any headway with getting him to see her point of view so she didn't want to listen to him anymore. Since she couldn't put her hands over her ears she devised a new way not to listen to him. She put on the safety head phones her dad had given her. It worked but her cousin was greatly insulted!
Of course like any blogger would, I swooped in to take pictures before helping to mediate the argument. I told her to give me her best mad faces, then I used mosaic maker to put together this I'm Not Listening to You collage. We talked for a bit and agreed that there were better ways to settle arguments. They went off and happily played for a few more hours. Best part is, after a few hours of harmony her cousin E got upset with her and did the same thing to her with the headphones. She was beyond insulted. It was too funny!
So for my little Nature Girl even when you're mad, grumpy and unwilling to listen I still love you with all my heart!!! I can't wait for you to come home!

Lunches?

I've enjoyed being home all summer! Now, as much as I'm fighting it, fall is headed this way. That means school is just around the corner, in fact classes start in a week. Nature Girl will enter first grade and for the first time will attend school for a full day. This will be a big change for her. We've done our back to school shopping. She's equip with her school supplies, a new backpack and lunchbox.

A full day of school means she'll need to have lunch. I work in a school and can't imagine that the school lunch will be any better than the lunch at my school, so she'll be bringing her lunch. That said, here's the problem, I don't know what to send! She eats peanut butter sandwiches, ham sandwiches, bagels, salad, fruits, veggies(not peas or green beans,) mac n' cheese, tomato soup, grilled cheese, cheese sticks, yogurt and cereal. She's not much of a meat eater but loves fruits and veggies. But what does one send for school lunch? It has to be something that she can open and eat independently without having to heat it. We bought a reusable water bottle and a thermos for keeping things cold or hot.


Being a teacher I should know what kids bring for school lunch but I don't. At school I have bus duty not lunch room duty, so I'm lost here. What would you send to feed this sweet little face?

A Dumb But Funny Read!

This summer we've been working on getting Nature Girl to read more. She loves to be read to but doesn't really like to read herself. We're trying to change that. We've been working with lots of easy readers that she can read independently. But today I spent lots of time just reading to her instead.
As a teacher I'm always finding and buying new books to read. I bring them home to share with Nature Girl too. We both love books! Today we had a great time reading four books in The Dumb Bunnies Collection by Dav Pilkey. These bunnies certainly are dumb but they're laugh out loud silly too! We had some good laughs reading about their adventures. Dav Pilkey is the author of Captain Underpants, Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot and the Dumb Bunnies. My students at school love Captain Underpants. Though I have all of the books I haven't read them, I was avoiding the toilet humor with Nature Girl. We have enjoyed the Ricky Ricotta books and now the Dumb Bunnies. If you like goofy, silly humor, you're sure to love the Dumb Bunnies.
So what have you been reading?

Banana Bread

I had some left over bananas after making waffles topped with bananas, strawberries and whip cream for breakfast the other morning so I decided to make banana bread. I own tons of cookbooks but the one I reached for was this one my mom made for me. Can you believe she wrote and illustrated the whole cookbook by hand? I have lots of cookbooks but this is my favorite because I know all the love she put into making it! Not only did she make one for me but she made one for each of my siblings - that's four handwritten cookbooks!

I love the first page of the cookbook! If you read it you'll see that cooking with 4 children was a challenge especially when the utensils were outside in the sandbox being used as shovels and the bake-ware doubled as a sled on the snowy hill! True story! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.
This cookbook is something I treasure! I hope one day to make one for Nature Girl. I think it needs to include photos of us in our matching aprons as we cook! She drew a picture of us in matching aprons in the Mother's Day book she made for me this year. But I digress!
I've shared a zucchini bread recipe from this cookbook a few years ago but this time I wanted to share the banana bread recipe with you.

So here's the recipe for making banana bread. The recipe has a cooking time of 45 minutes but I found it took about an hour to bake. It makes one loaf. Enjoy!

Cat Mail

When we got back from vacation in Vermont Nature Girl had surprise mail. Nature Girl was excited to find that she had gotten cat mail from Christy. Christy & her son were our very first swap partners ever.

Christy sent this book called Everything Cat for Nature Girl. Can you tell she loves it? She's hugging it. Now we can read all about why cats purr and many other interesting facts. We've started reading a little bit every night and are enjoying it.
By the way while in Vermont she used her own money to purchase another stuffed/robotic cat. I think that brings the total to 22 stuffed cats! I am planning to make her go through her toys and stuffed animals so maybe she'll be willing to part with a few cats, though I think that is unlikely!

A Hoot!

Nature Girl drew and painted this sweet little fish during summer camp. I think it's so cute! I added her conch shell for the photo as it went perfectly and leads into a story.


While we we're in the Bahamas Nature Girl bought this conch shell. She picked this particular shell because the man selling it told her it was his party shell. On the boat ride back from the island she practiced until I finally asked her to stop for the sake of all the other passengers on the boat. Of course it wasn't that loud because she hadn't really gotten the hang of it until now. She was a little disappointed at first because it was supposed to be a party shell but it didn't sound like one when she used it. Like most things it just takes a little practice. Here's a short clip of her practicing here at home. It makes me laugh! Of course you might want to turn your speakers down.