The Science of Bubbles

I have been meaning to post this for awhile now, and was hoping to have a picture of my kids with bubbles. Life happened, and I just haven't taken a picture. I googled "bubbles" under their image search and was reminded that Bubbles was also the name of Michael Jackson's chimp. This made me laugh and I decided it would be the perfect picture for my post on bubbles.


I had no idea that when I became a parent, I would have to learn the ins and outs of bubbles.

Over the past 2 years, I have learned the hard way that there are many different bubble machines. I just recently discovered there are many different kinds of bubble solution. Who knew!?

Thanks to a dad that posted a review of the Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Polly Pig Blower, I learned that Gazillion Bubbles solution solves all our problems.

All these times I thought our machines were breaking--it is possible that the bubble solution we were using was not quality enough.

Case in point, we had just purchased the Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Brown Dog Blower and had burned through the complimentary bottle of bubbles pretty quickly. I refilled the bubble machine with some bubble solution I had on hand. All of a sudden, no more bubbles. Very lame.

Anyways, I went online and found the review, ordered Gazillion Bubbles. I was very happy to see that the dad's review was accurate. I refilled the bubble machine with Gazillion Bubbles and "magic!" it worked again.

And all this time Mike and I thought bubble solution was just dish soap and water. Apparently there is a science to it. And when they named their company, Gazillion Bubbles, they were not kidding. The Brown Dog emits gazillions of bubbles.

Just file this under, "things they don't tell you when you get started raising kids."

And nope, I am not getting paid by Gazillion Bubbles. :)

Words from the "Wise"

Here's some stuff that Peter has said recently:

• on Easter Sunday, he wore a vest--something he doesn't normally wear--and he said, "wow, 2 shirts!" He then began running around the house saying, "I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor." Apparently he thought he was a doctor because he was gussied up. 
• He was walking around the house, wearing pajamas on his head and saying, "I'm married, I'm married." 
• He pronounces "macaroni" as "macaraconi" 
• He loves for us to tell him stories about cats, animals, going to Omi and Gramps' house, going to the park with his friends. He often will tell us "stories" too. 
• He loves an episode of Olivia that involves Olivia's grandma and tai chi (don't ask). He often informs me that he would like to watch "Olivia's gram-ma". 
• When I tell him stories, he says he wants to hear about "Kai Kai" and "Tai Chi." I don't really get the connection, but he loves his little friend, Kai (and he also loves Kai's grandma so maybe that is where it connects) and he loves that Olivia episode. I'm often talking about "Kai Kai" at the park doing tai chi. That's something I never thought I would be discussing with my 3 year old. 
• At night, when I say "goodnight," he tries to stall by asking me about everyone's status. "Where are all the babies?" me: "They are sleeping." "Where are all the birdies? Where are all the dogs? Where are all the cats? Where are all the grandmas and grandpas? Where are all the people? Where are all the animals?" This is is all spit out rapid fire as fast as possible and I reply, "They are all sleeping and Peter needs to sleep too." 
• When asked what time it is, he says, "30 o'clock."

Chocolate Chip Dutch Baby

Horrible, horrible name for a recipe. But what a delicious, delicious breakfast item (I am not sure it qualifies as a breakfast item, but it was in the breakfast section of my cookbook, so I am going with it.)

Best thing about it is that it is a pancake. With chocolate chips. And it requires no flipping. I haven't exactly inherited my mother's talent for flipping pancakes. She makes the best pancakes. Mine are messy and go all over the place. So I was super excited to see a recipe that allowed me to cook the pancake in the oven. And add chocolate chips. And Kahlua.

You can't really go wrong with all of those things!

Check out the recipe by clicking here

Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad

I recently had some friends from church over for dinner and made this menu. My friend asked me to post it, so I thought I would just post it here.

I love Taco Salads and make several different variations throughout the summer. I love this one because it is spicy but not too spicy. Super yummy. And the accompanying Watermelon Mango Salad with Mint is super refreshing. Enjoy.

r e f r e s h...............

Okay....it has been a little while. The holidays came and I wanted to put some pictures up but I never got quite around to it. And then I decided that I didn't really like how my blog was evolving.

I have been reflecting on the kinds of things I want to express here and as you can see...I wasn't really able to settle on one thing, hence the new title.

I love my kids, and I could just keep posting pictures of them, but there are other aspects of my life too that I wanted reflected. I love to cook. And I could just post recipes and talk about them but that would get repetitive. I love God and studying theology. That could swallow up 2 blogs. Or maybe more.

So I decided to just write about a little of this...and a little of that. Nothing fancy. Just whatever has inspired me for the week.

I recently watched one of my favorite movies, Julie and Julia. I got inspired to start writing here again after watching a particular scene. I couldn't find the scene on youtube, but did find the excerpt of the script:

Julie (voiceover): And then I came home and got a big vote of confidence from my mother.

Mom: Remind me why you're doing this...

Julie: Blog.

Mom: Whatever it's called.

Julie: It's a regimen, Mom. Like doing sit-ups.

Mom: Well, it's just adding pressure.

Julie: What pressure?

Mom: You have a full-time job, you have a husband, and now you're going to get sick from blogging.

Julie: It's sort of like being in AA.

Mom: What are you saying?

Julie: It gives you something you have to do every day, one day at a time.

Mom: How do you know this lingo? Honey, are you an alcoholic?

Julie: I'm saying it's good for me to have short-term goals.

Mom: Well, that is silly. That is just plain silly. Who's reading this blog?

Julie: People. People are reading it, I'm sure.

Mom: Well, it's something you decided to do, and you can decide not to, and not one single person's going to mind.

Julie: No, don't you get it? I just started. I can't stop. I have to finish--it's all I've got.

*Mom hangs up the phone*

Julie: Hello? Hello?

I liked her comment about it being a regimen. Just sounded interesting to me. And I loved the part where her mom says she might get sick from blogging. Hilarious. :)

Well, I definitely don't intend to cook through Julia Child's cookbook. And I don't intend to post here everyday. But hopefully I will find myself here more frequently than the past.

Working

nothing like a nice pipe and a handsome tie with some pajamas

it's a lot of work being 1!

daddy makes his jackets look so comfortable. this is a bit big.

Summer Revisited

I couldn't in good conscience put up our fall decorations in our home without providing a summary of our Summer. I know that all of my blog readers were just DYING to see all of these pics.....

Most of the summer was quite mild in weather, although as I write this I am sweating bullets.

I made another pie....Peach this time...

Working on a birthday present for Omi.

He was not as excited to be working on the present.

Mike had a couple of weeks off for his vacation, so we had a chance to do things we wouldn't normally do as a family. Here we are at....I can't remember what the name of this place is. But it is a Chuck E Cheese knock off and they had a fish tank that Peter fell in love with.

Here he is, talking to his little friend, "Nemo."

Dad got to spend some quality time with the boys....

We took a trip to Rancho Mirage again and this time we stayed in a condo. It was so much fun! Here the boys are doing what they do best...watching a movie. I think it was Bolt. We watched Bolt, Toy Story 2, and Over the Hedge.

We also spent a lot of time in the pool because it was 112 degrees! Funny. It is almost that hot right now.

Matthew loved floating around in this floaty thing. Peter loved to just hang out on the steps and play with pool toys. He didn't really like "swimming" around the pool. But it was still really fun!

He and I also discovered Ping Pong one morning while Matthew was napping.

And there were plenty of ducks to feed near our place.

Sometimes he would eat the bread instead of feed the ducks.

Matthew, relaxing....

Peter, relaxing....

After our trip to Rancho Mirage, we dropped the kids off at my parents' house and we headed to Santa Barbara for 2 nights. It was really weird to be without the boys, but we had a really good time.

We had this crazy sesame ahi tuna appetizer for dinner one night. They served it in this weird candelabra thing. It was cool.

We also saw a movie at a drive in theater, which was fun. We saw, "The Other Guys." It got really foggy in certain parts so we're still not quite sure what happened in certain scenes. :)

We love this place! Shoreline Beach Cafe in Santa Barbara. Tables are right on the beach. You can put your feet in the sand while you eat. And best of all, you won't be too poor after eating there because it is not too expensive.

We ended the summer with celebrating birthdays. First we headed up to Oakdale to celebrate our sister in law's 40th birthday. We put Matthew in a new carseat for the 7 hour drive so that he could enjoy some movies with his brother.

Matthew did not make one peep on the way there or the way back. He was very content eating fish crackers. So cute! Peter did pretty well too, but he did get a little antsy at the end.

Here is Peter using the Ipod for the first time. He is watching Toy Story 2. He thought it was pretty cool.

Riding around Oakdale with cousin Josh

cousins.....Peter definitely loved spending time with Josh and vice versa

And Matty and Hannah B had a lot of fun together as well....

We went to the Oakdale Cheese Factory and got to feed some ducks, llamas, and goats.

You could buy food pellets for 25 cents, but apparently the animals also liked eating dry leaves.

Planning his next move on Nana's collection..Nana wasn't there on this visit. She was visiting relatives in England. The boys definitely missed her!

We had a pool party for Karen at a friend's home.

We're so thankful we were able to celebrate Karen's 40th birthday!

I am going to try to start a tradition of taking their picture on this couch every time we visit. Hopefully Peter is a little more excited to have his picture taken the next time...

We got to spend a lot of time with Uncle David. After we left Oakdale, he came down to our place and worked for a couple of days. It was fun for our boys to get to know him better.

We also had a couple of spontaneous beach visits during the summer....

And we ended the Summer by celebrating Matthew's first birthday! Here he is opening his first present from Jasmine (a toy phone) on the morning of his birthday.

Matthew and Jas

I won't type out stuff like, "it is hard to believe it has been a year," because that is what everyone says, right? I am just thankful that we have a healthy and very smiley boy. We are so grateful for the Lord's mercies to us during this past year. Transitioning into a 2 kid family was more challenging than we anticipated, but we are definitely figuring it out and getting into a groove.

I know...the chocolate syrup looks like something you might find in a diaper....but they loved it!

I'm 1!!

I made some blue cupcakes...

what am I supposed to do with this?

do you want some Gramps?

Here we are surveying his birthday presents.

He loved the ball popper from Omi and Gramps!

Evidence that he is part of the digital generation....everyone's birthday wishes on Facebook...

So....the summer is over....fall is here..kind of...now I can go finish decorating. :)