In the kitchen all by myself: Sunshine Moofy

We needed a change of pace for breakfast. I mean one can only have so many scrambled eggs, and I wanted something easy to serve. (Easy as in, I didn't want to make breakfast. At all.) So I decided to make some muesli, aka Swiss Oatmeal. Svea calls it "moofy", "moofery", etc.

It WAS easy to make, and nice and quiet in the kitchen because my big helpers were sleeping. It was so wonderful to just scoop it up and serve it the next morning! Viggo and Svea cleaned out their bowls and had seconds. And they polished off the rest for their afternoon snack! And it was good! Nate didn't even try it. Perhaps he needs to channel his inner Swiss.

Sunshine Muesli:

2 C old-fashioned oats, unprepared
3 oranges, chopped
1/3 C raisins
1/3 C nuts (I used pecans)
2 T. honey
generous dash of cinnamon
1/4 - 1 C milk

Mix everything together and refrigerate overnight. Use more or less milk depending on how crunchy you want it. I used nearly a cup and it was nice and chewy. I used 2 oranges because that's what we had on hand, and used 1/2 c less oats. You could probably zap this in the microwave if you want it hot but we ate it cold and it was delicious.


We enjoyed our afternoon muesli with Swiss Miss hot cocoa courtesy of our dear friend Jenna :)
(Served in Berestain Bear mugs, of course.)

It was hard to get a flattering picture of the muesli. I did my best.

Mmm!

Sweet baby Elin

We love her little smiles and cooing!

We are so blessed to have this little one in our life. Elin has brought us so much happiness. We see the fingerprints of God all over her because her little life is a miracle - it was God's plan to have her be a part of our family and her life is so important to us. She is with us for a purpose.

We love you, Elin!

{ Look around and see where you can see God's fingerprints today and then post it on PamperingBeki's blog where she hosts Fingerprint Friday every week. I personally love Fingerprint Friday and was happy that I had time to post for it :) }

Artsy

It was 11:15 yesterday morning and I wasn't quite sure what to do with Svea until lunchtime.

I thought a collage might be fun. So we collaged!

I had Svea rip up construction paper into lots of little pieces. I cut up some ribbon and crepe paper and found some animal pictures in magazines.

Then there was the glue.

Whoa.

Svea chose a cow, a dog and a cat. And yes, that's a picture of corn on the cob. It's a beautiful collage - good work, Svea!

Erica comes to visit!

We had a visitor from St. Cloud come and hang out with us the other night. Meet Erica! She was in town for ING business.

Erica got to meet Elin - and me! We've been email friends but had never met in person. I kind of wanted to keep her here but she had to go back to Minnesota :(

Viggo told Erica everything she needed to know about marine life according to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Fishes, Whales and Dolphins. Erica was so nice and paid close attention!

In between breaths of explaning what fish were poisonous and who lived in the Amazon River, Svea constantly interrupted Viggo to tell Erica important stuff.

And playing with the gnome-in-the-box was a big hit!

Thanks for coming, Erica! You are welcome anytime :)

Ring-ring!

Svea gets phone calls from three very special people.

Happy baby girl

Rainy day movies

Today was rainy and dreary. It just felt like a good day for movies.

Elin, rocking and snoozing in the kitchen. All too soon she'll be a big girl. We are trying to soak up every sweet little baby moment with her.

My big helper girl at bath time. She is such a good little mommy.

A box of goodies!

Today Svea, Elin and I arrived home from running some errands to find a box waiting for us.

We love boxes!!

Inside we discovered that Grandma Daisy's knitting needles have been on fire!


Viggo counted twelve bibs! THANKS! Viggo said, "These will be perfect for Little Miss Acid Reflux!" And is he ever right.

And there was more . . . a book for Svea that we enjoyed reading together before naptime, and a new serving spoon for moi from a favorite kitchen store of mine that I unfortunately never frequent (Duluth, Minnesota's The Blue Heron). No pictures of these, but they are appreciated!

A new book for Viggo, and three pennies for his coin collection. The oldest is from 1890. Viggo was so impressed! (Can you tell it was art day at school today?)

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Daisy!

We love Linnea!

Things just aren't the same around here without Linnea!

Viggo loves his sweet little cousin.

Not only does she let him do whatever he wants without tattling or complaining, but she laughs at his antics and she wears truck jammies. What a woman!

Nate and Elin take a snooze from all the cousin excitement.

Shhh!

We miss this little face at the table!

Maren takes a family pic of us. Thanks, Maren!

Uncle Nate was hoping Linnea would love the Baby Bungee Bouncer as much as Viggo and Svea did as babies . . . but Miss Linnea was just not in the mood to be suspended from a doorframe!

Linnea is comforted by everybody!

Svea and Linnea sport Viggo's hand-me-down space & rocket jammies.

Svea was being a goof as usual.

Sharing some love with Viggo.

We miss you, Linnea! Come back again soon and bring that crazy dude Kevin with too! :)

All wet

It was very rainy the other morning while we were getting ready to head for the bus stop. Viggo and Svea were prepared! Aren't they cute in their little boots? :)

Sisters, sisters!

Happy together.

What a smile!

There's a time to be happy . . .

. . . And yes, a time to be sad :(

But we prefer happy! Elin is giving us lots of smiles and grins, and those make up for any thunderclouds around here :)

Smashed Potato Picnic

It's been a long week. And tonight I really didn't have any energy to make dinner. These two weren't much help either:

So it was time to break some rules. I made smashed potatoes (why bother peeling!).

Mmmm. Boil, mash, add hot milk, butter and salt, and serve with more butter . . . that's easy enough.

And then I realized I had stuff all over the dining room table. Fabric. Paint. Craft junk. To avoid having to clear it all off, I thought it would be fun to have a picnic in the family room. I put in my all-time favorite Disney movie, Swiss Family Robinson.

Confession: I had a crush on Earnst. I know that Fritz was the hunk but Earnst was so funny and dorky.

Because we can all appreciate a man who can dance with a monkey and ride an ostrich.

Look at all those bowls of mashed potato goodness! And watching the kids watch Swiss Family Robinson was so fun. First there was major concern on everyone's part about the safety of the Great Danes swimming through the waves at the very beginning. Then when Svea saw the tiger creeping through the brush that is supposed to be so scary and threatening, she said, "Hi, tiger! Hi, boy!" That girl is just not afraid of anything. When the treehouse made its appearance Viggo said, "Wow! They built that all by themselves!" And then, "Are those real pirates?"

Yes. Those are real pirates.

Maren is here!

On Friday morning I was sitting in the dining room eating breakfast and heard some wild giggling coming from the family room. Maren and Viggo decided to give some new life to old Easter eggs by drawing faces on them! Even better, the egg halves fit perfectly into our Little People cars :)

Look who's here! Maren and our sweet niece Linnea!

Nate bought Viggo an Adrian Peterson jersey while shopping the sale racks at Sears the other night. So here is our little Vikings fan enjoying some popcorn while watching the game with Nate. (We've been calling Viggo "Peterson" all weekend and it is so fun to hear him say, "My name is NOT Peterson!")

Here we are husking corn.

Linnea was a big helper.

As Svea was peeling off the husks on an ear she got really excited when she found the kernals inside. "The corn is hidin' in dere!" She's so funny. Then for dinner Svea had one hot dog (with bun), an ear of corn, five slices of watermelon, two cookies and a pile of Linnea's Cheerios. Maren nicknamed her B.P. (Bottomless Pit)

Cousins together! Viggo has LOVED having Linnea here. Svea has loved it too, but I think she's ready to have her roommate Viggo back. We put Linnea and Maren in Viggo and Svea's room and Viggo is camping out upstairs. I thought it would be fun for the girls to share a room, but . . . Linnea was crying the yesterday afternoon while trying to fall asleep for her nap and I had put Svea to bed in there too. When I went in to give Svea some water, she had her stuffed polar bear over one ear, her hand over her other ear, and her head buried into her pillow. When I asked her if she wanted to come and take a nap with me she said, "Yes!" and practically jumped into my arms. So as much as Svea enjoys playing with Linnea, the room-sharing thing could be better. Maybe that's why she looks so tired in this picture?!

First day of school!

Viggo is going to kindergarten!

He was up, dressed and ready to go to the bus stop 45 minutes before we had to get there.

Me and my guy.

Nate took a little time off to go to work later to see Viggo off, and then he came home earlier to meet him at the bus stop. Just another good reason why I think Nate is so wonderful :)

Onto the bus! He never turned back, he was so excited to get on it!

Here comes the bus bringing him back home after a long day away!

He survived his first day. Actually he loved it. There goes my last flimsy excuse to homeschool!