Laundry Day (not that I've started mine)

Lately Mia has been asking when she gets to have her pictures taken at the mall.  Cracks me up because she must hear her friends talk about this?
This morning was set aside for her 5 year portraits.  We were all set to try out a new building but the guy that said he's always there was not there.  So we grabbed a few outside and called it quits.

Stuart Boy

Stuart Boy, originally uploaded by LydiaJo.

Makin That B-day Cake

Did your Mom have this cake book when you were a kid?  Mine did.  I remember looking through it all year long dreaming of my birthday cake.    I was way too sentimental about it.  I remember my cakes all too well.  There was the year that my cousin dumped it upside down at the cabin.  I think I cried.  I know I was mad.  Good thing is I don't remember which cousin it was.  That was the year I got a watch and I so knew it was a watch, becasue I had felt the package. 

A different year my lovely red velvet cake was on the kitchen counter while we were baling hay and when we got back to the house for lunch or supper there were ants all over that cake.  We didn't eat it.  I thought of that day so many times in Grenada.  We had ants on cakes in Grenada... um, smeared the frosting around and  just added sprinkles or some other trick. No one knew.

I am pretty sure I begged for this one every year.  Mom finally made it, full of toothpicks to hold it together...  I think it still fell apart. 

Anyone remember the popple?

5

Elephants and Tutu's

Those girls of mine are eating my frosted mini wheats this morning.  Part of me is proud that they'd like "my cereal" but another part of me is wondering what I'll eat tomorrow morning? Between them and their father, they put a serious hurting on our cereal stash.
Unpacking from a weekend at the cabin. 
Planning Mia's birthday cake, tomorrow is her big day.

Where this Elephant game came from, I have no idea. 

Finally got my tu tu's made for the girls. Tutorial here.(shared from Shannon) Kind of mindless and takes time.  Fun project to take to the cabin.

When We Hit the Park

Dark Eyes, our Lizzybeth, destroyer of shoes... her face is dirty, it's not your screen.  

Spring Fever

Loved these crazy windmill art things.   

Philadelphia Flower Show

Big crowds

Beautiful flowers

Reading Terminal Market next door

Stuart and the girls spent a few days with Nate's mom last week.  Boy did I miss kissing these cheeks.

Laundry Soap

I was so skeptical of this stuff.  Not any more... I've seen old stains come out. And my whites are brighter. And it's not that I was using shoddy detergent before. 

Grate one bar of Fels Naptha Soap into a kettle of hot water.  Let this dissolve.

Ok, I so could not find Fels Naptha soap the first time I made this and I used Ivory.  It was fine.  This week when I made it for the second time I did have the Fels Naptha soap it was much harder to grait. (I found it at Shady Maple Grocery Store in the laundry section)

Mix one cup of borax and one cup of washing soda in a 5 gallon bucket with warm water. 
Add the dissolved bar of soap and hot water to the bucket, stir it together, and fill the rest of the bucket with hot/warm water. 

Let it sit over night and it will gel.  Stir it up and  you are ready to do your wash!

I sit the bucket on a table that is beside my washing machine and keep a big handled mug there to scoopt it out with.  My friend Christine pours hers into emtpy detergent containters.  Whatever floats your boat.  Then you and your washer have to figure out how much to use.  I think I use about a cup per load. 

I found the Borax at walmart with the dryer sheets maybe?

The Washing Soda was harder to find.  Dutch Way in the laundry section.

They sell buckets near the lawn and garden at walmart if you don't have one.

Some people use a recipe similar to this one but they keep all of the ingredients dry... I might try it that way someday.  I kind of prefer liquid as general rule though... I think I've heard that some people use their food processer to make sure the bar of soap is grated very fine... I suppose you could do all three ingredients together in your food processer? 

It took me a while to get over having to use my grater and my kettle with a huge bar of soap... the Ivory was grosser in this way as it was more slimy.

Simple Things

I made cookies today.

Toll  House, my go to recipe.  Added toffee bits and coconut.

I can't believe how much I love my homeade laundry detergent.  Love.

I opened up my drawer in the kitchen to find this the other day.  This is not unlike the time I found pillow stuffing in my sugar canister.  Those girls!

Here I am at 3 months.                                                     Stuart at 3 months.