I was busy moving things from the old freezer to the new freezer and realized that we had tons of frozen overly ripe bananas. I remembered this cookbook that my mom had gotten me for mother's day and thought to take a look. Lo and behold there was a recipe for Banana Blueberry Muffins, and I had everything I needed already in the house! The blueberries were the last ones left from blueberry picking a few weeks ago. The cookbook is The Top 100 recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox by Nicola Graimes. Some of the recipes are fantastic, but most of them are things that would either cost way too much to make on my little budget or are things that my kids would not touch with a ten foot pole. But i figured this was a nice safe one to try.
2 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup superfine sugar (I just used powdered sugar this time)
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
5oz. unsalted butter, melted (this is about 10 tbsp.)
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup blueberries (Next time I make this I plan on using frozen ones.)
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place muffin liners in a muffin pan.
Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl, stir in the sugar, and mix together. Make a well in the center.
Put the milk, eggs, and butter in a pitcher and whisk until combined. Add to the bowl with the bananas, stir just to combine, then fold in the blueberries. Spoon into pan.
Bake 20 min until risen. Cool on a wire rack.
I had one shortly after they came out of the oven and they were fantastic! And then we all had them for breakfast this morning with a big glass of milk, or ice coffee depending on age ;-)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Banana Blueberry Muffins
Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 1:41 PM 3 comments
Labels: banana muffins, blueberry muffins, muffins
City Bus Ride Adventure
We have recently moved into a new apartment in the last week, and are still figuring out how to get around to all the places that we normally would go. Well, Adam needed the car today for work, and the kids and I normally go to story time. Lucky for us, the city bus has a stop near our new apartment, and right in front of the library. Added plus, a bus ride was on our summer bucket list. Added plus plus, Notre Dame id holders and children under 4 ride for free! So Adam and I sat down last night to plan the trip I was going to take with the kids. We were going to have a transfer in the middle of the ride. No problem! This morning, I got the kids up and fed, dressed and backpacks packed with snacks, drinks, and our returning library books. And off we went! When we arrived, there was a bus leaving. No worries, the next one is suppose to be here at 9:26, just 20 min from now. While we were waiting, we ate snacks and read some of the stories we were bringing back. 9:35 rolls around and still no bus. Call Adam, and then called the company. The next bus is at 9:55. We should still be able to make it to story time on time. We did get there and made it just as story time was starting. After story time, we had just enough time to find our books and movies for the next week, walk outside and catch the bus going home! I didn't think to take any pictures while on the bus until we were almost home, hence the strange pic of L. I did bring ring pops for the kids and it was a good thing. It kept the whiny talking down on the way home. Plus it was special! I plan on trying this again next week, and now that I know what to expect, it should go smoother.
Things learned today:
-there is no 9:26 bus
-the bus comes to our apartment at the top of the hour
-the bus drivers and most passengers are friendly and helpful
-they all think L is 4 and under, so free!
-D can't sit next to the window, she pulled the stop cord as soon as we sat down. After I told them both repeatedly not to on the inbound trip. Thankfully we had not left the station yet.
-the bus route maps are confusing to read
-my kids will act up as soon as we sit on the bus
-we always have to sit all the way in the back
Overall, an interesting and cheap adventure, and I am willing to try it again!
Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 1:24 PM 0 comments
Labels: city bus, library story time, Summer bucket list
Friday, July 22, 2011
Blueberry Picking
One of the things we really wanted to do this year was go blueberry picking. We went 2 years ago, and wanted to go last year but the car broke down right at blueberry season. This time Adam was able to come with. We also opted to go later in the day, around 5, and that worked so much better. The weather had cooled a bit, and we got to pick in the shade. Now normally we would pick tons of fruit, but we were moving the next week and wouldn't have the freezer space that we use to have. So this time around we only picked about 5 1/2 lbs. We have been eating them like crazy! A few times in blueberry pancakes, but mostly straight up fresh blueberries. I wanted to make some muffins, but we will have to wait and see. There is always next year, right?
Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 9:14 AM 0 comments
Labels: blueberries, blueberry picking, The Blueberry Ranch
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Summer bucket list
I was inspired by the many summer bucket lists floating out there in the blogosphere, too many to name really. And there were so many fun ways to display them. I found summery scrapbooking paper in my stash, and punched out a bunch of circles. I wrote all the fun things that I either thought of myself or saw somewhere else on them, and then tapped them around the kid's bedroom door. As we do an activity, we take it down and tape it to their bedroom door.
Our list is:
Put on a puppet show
Paint rocks
Hunt for fossils
Flash light tag
Mini golf
Have a bon fire
Camp out
Go see Cars 2
Play on slip n' slide
Have friends over for pancakes
Make ice cream
Make root beer floats
Go to a fair
Make brownies
Visit science museum
Make sun prints
Write to a pen pal
See a parade
Surprise daddy with a picnic lunch
See a drive-in movie
Visit an art museum and try a new media
Play hopscotch
Go see a baseball game
Superhero day
Discover a new park
Make a colorful rice box
Make s'mores
Pick strawberries
Pretend outdoor laundry
Take a bus ride
Make care packages
Make homemade pickles
Field day with friends
Visit the local greenhouse
Things we did already:
Melt ice cubes
Go letterboxing
Build sandcastles
Have a lemonade stand
Go see fireworks
Go to the beach
Make and play with play-doh
Catch fireflies
Pick blueberries
Water balloon fight
Go to a splash pad
Make plant rubbings
Feed the ducks
See an outdoor concert
Do the Mentos/coke experiment
Visit the Farmer's market
Most of these are free or very cheap! I know that we won't be able to do all these things, especially since we are moving next week. But we hope to do many of them, and I am giving us until the middle of September to get it done by. What is your list?
Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 4:10 PM 1 comments
Labels: fun things, Summer bucket list
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Color Nature Hunt
Yesterday we celebrated the June birthdays in the moms group with a fun color hunt! I totally stole this idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog!!! She has so many fun ideas, that when I saw this one, I knew we needed to do it. So simple too! You just gather paint chips from a home improvement store, and punch holes in them. (We found the large ones at Home Depot!) I happen to have a nice size flower punch that a friend gave me, and figured that would look pretty. And as an added plus, I now have 240 pretty little flowers to use for another project!!! I also found the ring clips to put them together with at Hobby Lobby for very cheap. Look in the office supply area.
When we do the month birthdays with the group, we typically do cupcakes. Well I saw this cake, I think originally on craftgossip.com, but then re-found here at Whisk Kid. She made her cake and frosting from scratch, but I didn't have time for that when I made it. I used 1 cake mix box, and divided that into 6 bowls. It came out to one scoop of 1/2 cup, and then 1 scoop of 1/3 cup per bowl. I'm no good at fractions to tell you total what that may be. The layers were a bit on the thin side, which for a bunch of kids, was just fine. If you want the layers thicker, I say use 2 boxes. I also used canned frosting, I know, gasp! I used 2 cans, put them in the mixer, added a tablespoon of meringue powder and 3 tsp. lemon extract. It was very yummy and refreshing to go with all that cake. My picture is a little too blurry, but you get the idea!
Books we read:
Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 9:22 AM 0 comments
Labels: color hunt, craftgossip.com, frugal family fun blog, paint chips, rainbow cake
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Eric Carle's Birthday
I started to celebrate Eric Carle's birthday with our group last year. Last year, I found a link to a color your own Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. And because most of the kids were younger, it was perfect. I also made a Very Hungry Caterpillar out of mini cupcakes last year. I included the pictures from last year, because I guess I never blogged about it. Sorry about that. This year I found a fantastic idea from a great blog I just discovered. It's Meet The Dubins, go check her out. She has great craft ideas, and fun lunches!!
So this year we did a balloon print of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I was a bit bummed because we got rained out of 2 locations, but we went ahead with it anyway. Follow the blogs directions because she explains it very nicely. I did do one thing differently. Because we were outside at a park, I put about a 1/4 cup of uncooked rice at the bottom of each balloon. This kept it from blowing away!
All the kids had fun making these, and we were all reletavley mess free.
All were Eric Carle books
My Apron
The Very Busy Spider
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
1, 2, 3 to the Zoo
Does a kangaroo have a mother, too?
Have you seen my cat?
The Secret Birthday Message
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 3:58 PM 0 comments
Labels: balloon print, caterpillar, Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Happy Birthday L! You are 5!!
My little boy turned 5 on the 20th! This is so crazy for me to even think about. He is a big boy now, and will be starting school in the fall. I don't know if I am ready for that. When Adam and I got married back in 2004, we knew we wanted children right away, and we knew that we only wanted 2. It didn't faze us if we had both boys, both girls, or one of each! We also knew that the odds were in favor of both boys, since his family for a few generations now are mostly boys. Well we found out we were pregnant the day after Adam ran his first marathon, and the day we received 2 foreign exchange students that didn't speak 1 word of English. I knew right away, this was going to be interesting. We went through tons while waiting for this sweet boy to make his appearance. Finally it was Father's day 2006. His due date. I had a Dr. appointment on that Friday before, and they said there was no sign of labor yet, then the next day we spent in the hospital because I hadn't felt him move for a few hours. (Paranoid, yes! It was our first baby, and you just don't know things then.) So Sunday we had a cookout for Adam's parents and my dad for father's day. When everyone left, my mother-in-law stopped me and said, "Sometimes you just need some company over to help get things going." Little did we know, but that was the truth. About a half hour later, I started to feel some contractions. Not knowing what they really were, I just thought they were Braxton Hicks. I had never had any of those, so just chalked it up to that. They were really all over the place. But they kept going all through the night, and getting stronger the next day. When Adam got home from work at 5:30 that Monday, he demanded we go to the hospital just to check things out. We didn't even take the overnight bag because we thought it was nothing. Silly us! By 6:00 I was checked into the hospital and told I was in labor. Now the contractions were still all over the place and not really regulating at all. It would be every 45 min, then 4 min, then 30 min, then 17.
We called my brother-in-law Travis to bring the bag for us. The nurses told me that I wasn't leaving until I had this baby. I got a little freaked out when I heard that. I didn't think I was ready for this. But Adam stayed by my side all through the night. The next morning, they gave me pitocin. Yuck! It just made the contractions stronger but not regular. So I broke down and got an epidural. The Dr. that put it in was extremely mean!!!! They made me get up and go to the bathroom before he would give it to me. Well while in there I had the worse contraction yet! Plus I started to freak out about getting it in the first place. The Dr. starts yelling at me saying that if I don't hurry up, then he is leaving. He was screaming at all the nurses too! I come out and sit on the bed. He then yells at me because I had a large mole on my back where he wanted to put the epidural. He says that is he had a knife and time he would have just sliced it right off. I was NOT liking him!!! The epidural ended up not working at all for me. They even came in and upped the dosage, but still nothing. I was feeling everything!
By 1pm, my Dr. came in to check me. I was still making slow progress. She told me to lay on my left side and that if we didn't make any progress by 1:30, they were going to have to do an emergency C-section. That scared me even more. So I made sure I moved to my left. Well within 5 min of that, I felt the need to push, but didn't know that was what it was. The nurse came in, took one look at my face, and called everyone in right away! Within 10 min, L was born to a room full of nurses. I had been there so long that EVERYONE came to cheer me on!
They took him over to clean up right away, and the nurse yelled, "Oh my, who has red hair!!!" We got a nice laugh at that, but then they rushed him out of the room. I was too exhausted to realize what was happening. A min. later, a Dr. called on the room phone. She said that L was having a difficult time breathing, and they needed to take him to NICU to hook him up. I asked if I could hold him before they took him. She agreed because it wasn't too bad. They brought him back just long enough for Adam and I to hold him and take one picture. About 5 min later, the Dr. called again. They said that as soon as they hooked him up, he had a great big cough, and was fine. They kept him there for 3 hours just to make sure. Adam went down to check on him and brought me back a Polaroid picture. All I could see were giant hands and feet on such a little baby!
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| We ran into the Weinermobile on our way for donuts on L's birthday. |

Posted by Hippie Mama Kelly at 3:38 PM 0 comments
Labels: birth story, birthday, donut cake, L, Weinermobile




























