Oatmeal Raspberry Muffins

I picked raspberries this morning at Mary's house, and ended up with around 2 cups. After tossing some in my, Bryn's, and Calvin's cereal bowls, I got creative with the remainder and came up with this recipe (hence my proud name in the title):

Cami's Oatmeal Raspberry Muffins
1 1/3 c. flour
1/3-1/2 c. sugar (depending on how sweet you like them- I used ~5/12 c.)
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3/4 c. oatmeal

1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c. oil
3/4 c. milk

3/4 c. fresh raspberries (I'm sure frozen would work just as well)
2 T. sanding sugar (large granules of white sugar found at specialty bake shops)
2 pint-sized helpers (optional- you're welcome to borrow mine)

Preheat oven to 400, and prepare muffin tins. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, mix wet in another, add the wet to the dry and stir until slightly lumpy. Gently fold in the raspberries. Fill muffin tins (about 12). Sprinkle the batter tops with sanding sugar. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

These are delicious warm, and I'm sure they'd be good cold, too, but I wouldn't know because we ate them all before we could find out.

Work in Progress

Some kids take naturally to water. Some don't (ahem, cough cough, Bryn). As a baby, she screamed at the mere sight of the bathtub. As a toddler she shrieked inconsolably if rain landed on her face. Even as a 5-year-old, she flips out when we wash her hair and water drips in her eyes. I wondered if she would ever learn to take showers, let alone swim with her face submerged.

But without further ado, behold the progress (after swim lessons and playing around in our friends' pool):
My favorite part about the way she swims is how she uses her arms. She sticks them straight out in front of her and holds them still with the exception of her hands which she waves around in circles like little propellers.

Cloudburns and Raintans: Ward Campout '09

We loaded up our sedan and went camping in Sharon, VT this weekend. The trunk was so full that when we opened it at the campground, it sprang open and spilled it's contents like one of those cartoon closets.

We stayed in a cabin for the first time in eight years (and stayed nice and dry for the first time in eight years). Bryn was sitting on a bunk looking very concerned and asked, "are we going to have to break this cabin all to pieces when we're done? And then they'll build it again for the next people?" I was confused until I noticed that she was staring at these checkout instructions (red circle and arrow added for emphasis):
I organized a treasure hunt for the kids on one of the rainy mornings, and one of the clues was hidden on the dock at the pond. Calvin bravely walked to the end of the dock to collect the clue with the other kids. As he stood on the end, he looked at his galoshes, looked at the pond, and with only a slight moment of hesitation, stepped off the dock into thigh-high water. Never overestimate the power of your rain boots.

His boots were squelching and sloshing on the way back up the hill, so he took them off one by one and dumped about a liter of water out of each. He was not a happy camper.

Earlier that morning, as we were returning from the latrines Bryn exclaimed, "Look mom!" and reached down in the grass to pick up what she thought was a toy plastic lizard. Well, the very much alive salamander wriggled in her palm and she shrieked and threw it into the air, quite shocked. We played with it for a few minutes and then released it back into the wild.

All in all, it was a good trip with scattered sunshine, fun friends, fresh air, beautiful Vermont vistas of blue hills, fireflies, frisbee-tossing, playgrounding, bear hunts, whiffle ballgames, campfire sing-a-longs, slimy pond swimming, and lots of wild blackberries for the picking.

Economy got you down?

Try this stimulus package. I bought this ice cream flavor on a whim because I'm avoiding chocolate right now (drat that baby), and it's fabulous. As in, drown-out-the-screaming-baby below fabulous. Now if it could only do something about the health care crisis and the rising obesity rates in America.

Ever just have one of those days?

Sayonara

We attended the Lantern Festival at Forest Hills Cemetery last night with Laura and Tim. We made a paper lantern with messages to those we've lost halfway through the woods and set it to float on the lake at sunset. It's based on the traditional Japanese Bon Festival, a time when a door opens to the world of the ancestors, allowing the living to send messages to the other side.

The concept of loss struck Bryn particularly hard, as she found it hard to say goodbye to the lantern she'd so carefully crafted. Lots of sobbing and tears were involved, but she moved through the stages of grief quickly, and by this morning had accepted the fact that she would never see her lantern again.The evening featured many cultural performances, and Bryn also graced us with several dance solos. Here's a video:

Jonesy July

*Calvin took this picture
Peter's parents were in town for the Fourth and Ivy's blessing. We had a great time with them! Some of the highlights:

-Local fireworks viewed from the skate park ramp
-Nearby town's parade of liberalism and various bleeding heart causes (and a shocking lack of candy)
-Bikeride to/at Kimball's for some ice cream (and optional aphid sprinkles)
-Walk to a Fancy McShmancy restaurant through the woods
-Laura and Tim braved watching all three kids while the other grownups went to another fancy restaurant

And then the rain rain rain came down down down so they cut their visit short with us and went to see Peter's sister in VA, and will return to us in a week. Stay tuned for the epilogue.Now for those of you with sharp eyes that may have spotted Calvin on a feminine trike above, it was an optical illusion. We would never make our son ride his sister's pink and purple hand-me-down trike. As the picture below irrefutably illustrates, he has a manly colored bike and will look back on it with pride.

Down with Tyranny

Last week we were having a nice dinner conversation with Bryn. She was telling about us how someday she was going to be the President of the United States (POTUS).

We asked her what she would do as POTUS. She said, "Oh, you know, decide who gets to come into our country and who doesn't." Ah, immigration: an important and controversial subject.

We probed further and asked how she would decide who gets to stay. She replied, "By looking at them." Getting nervous about where this was heading, I hesitantly asked, "What should they look like?" and she said, "like us."

Oh dear, now we were really heading for trouble, but I asked "And how would you know the people you aren't going to let in?" to which she replied, "By their red coats." As in, Redcoats.

Phew. My daughter is neither racist nor an ethnocentrist, she just thinks we're still at war with the British. Peter explained that the Revolutionary War was over and that we get along quite nicely with the Brits these days. She seemed quite relieved.

Maybe part of her relief has something to do with the fact that a few of her favorite cousins recently moved to London. And here she's been thinking that they moved into the heart of the enemy. Poor kid.

So Blessed

Peter's mom made (and partly hand-stitched) this blessing dress and bonnet.

I'll give you a hint at how she was during the blessing: she was awake and her mouth was open, but the picture above does NOT depict the behavior.


And of course I saved the best for last...
Modeling must be in our genes; don't be jealous.

As American as...

Happy 4th!

And we're back...

The Motherboard (curse you Cyberchase theme song for being in my head all day) has come back to us. Without further ado, real pictures:

Bryn and Calvin enjoy the New England Monsoon Season otherwise known as June

And a bunch of boring (for variety, try to focus on her arm positions) Ivy pictures per request of La: