Playtime, Crafts, and Food

Last Friday night while H1 had an away game, the girls and I took dinner over for another couple in our church. Marie had surgery on her foot a few weeks ago, following an open fracture caused by a 6 foot fall from her back deck. She is still unable to walk. We spent an hour munching on Cannellini Bean stew and homemade rolls, and then H3 played Candyland with Doug.  She had a wonderful time, as did H4 with Marie.

Later that night my college roommate came over to spend the night with us. We had a fun girls night followed by a lazy Saturday morning. Here they are, piled on the couch, watching Angelina Ballerina.

We've been having chilly temperatures here for the last few weeks, but all of a sudden, we had a couple days in the mid 70s.  There's no way we can stay inside with such a treat!  We hit up the park on Sunday after church.

I bought a dress for H3 last year after Christmas for her to use this coming holiday season. She picked out a beautiful dark purple.  To coordinate, I bought H4 a gold dress.  Of course, I couldn't find a bow that would tie in the dresses.  At Amber's suggestion, I looked up a tutorial on how to make one, and here is the result!

H4's bow is on the left, H3's on the right.

Here's an example of the bow in H3's hair.

This morning we played a Thanksgiving Bingo game from Making Friends, and made a cornucopia, template from allkidsnetwork.  H3 loved them. I have to confess that I was in the mood for chocolate, so we played the bingo game with M&Ms.  Yum!

Amidst all the baking I've done this week, I decided to try a healthy cookie recipe I found on Pinterest.  No, I don't get all my recipes from that place, but I'm starting to use it quite a bit for food and craft ideas!  Here's a picture of the result - just before I ate it, mind you. I really liked the cookie and H1 enjoyed them as well. H3 hates bananas in any form, so no verdict there.  

Here's the recipe:

• 3 ripe mashed bananas
• 1/3 cup applesauce (I used our homemade cinnamon applesauce, so I omitted the cinnamon below)
• 2 cups oats
• 1/4 cup milk (the original calls for almond milk, which I did not have)
• 1/2 cup raisins (I added a few extra cuz I love raisins!)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Bake at 350 for 15 -  20 minutes.  Yummy!  I ate a couple for breakfast the next day!

I'm so thankful for our few days of warm weather and thankful for all we've been able to accomplish this week. I'm also incredibly thankful that football season is over!  Hurrah!  And now onto basketball....

Blessings,

~H2