Broomy and Spacemen

Meet the newest member of the family...constructed entirely by Katie...Broomy! She drew the face, grabbed the broom, chose a bib and put it all together. Please ignore the fact that Broomy appears to be better dressed than the girls.
We made cookies from my new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, a Christmas present. They have chickpeas as well as chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins in them. Not bad...we all ate them. Not as good as regular cookies though. (as I preview the blog post I just noticed the BIG SHARP knife in the picture...the one right close to Katie there...see it all shiny?...please note that I most likely moved it quickly out of the way...I had just been chopping nuts and my BIG knife is my best one.)
We went to Gram and Grandpa's house for dinner last Monday, to welcome Gram back from her trip to Hawaii and Sam fell asleep in the car. We carried her in and she was still asleep when I laid her down on the chair...I took a picture before we woke her up because she just looked so sweet.
The girls and Grandpa cover their eyes waiting for the surprise...Christmas presents sent from Auntie Alli!
Happy girls...!
The girls playing in the loft at Gram and Grandpa's, wearing their new dresses that Gram brought them back from Hawaii. They're gorgeous but make me want summer NOW. (still cold, still snowing)Earlier this week Katie wanted to draw with markers so I gave her a stack of paper to draw on. Perhaps I gave her a few too many but it was keeping her busy! She was drawing "Spaceman" over and over again. Some were for Sam others for Mom or Dad or Grams or Papa or Grandpa. In the end, I thought it would be neat to cover the wall by the girls table. A gallery of Spacemen! The one different picture there is one that Katie drew for Papa before but we forgot to bring it to him.

This weekend was nice. Snowy though. It feels like we have to keep shoveling constantly. It's still -20 something though they're predicting highs of up to zero later this week...the warmth will be nice but I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that slushfest!

We were supposed to start swimming lessons yesterday, Sam with a parent and Katie in an unparented class...her first of this kind. We got there, and after finding parking (busy due to a big unrelated swim meet) discovered that the heater for their warm pool had broken overnight and the pool was too cold to use. They offered lessons in the cool pools, but it was a little too cold for our liking. Luckily we ran into our friends D and M who are taking lessons at the same time and talked them and their dad, Rob, into joining us at the indoor playground instead. Not quite what we'd planned but it ended up being a lot of fun.

We baked a bit this weekend too...tried the Fig Bars from my second new cookbook (same style as the first, all about incorporating veggie purees into recipes)...they turned out alright. I really like the filling...with figs and spinach, but wasn't too fond of the dough. I have leftover filling and might try making something else with it...sandwich cookies? Thumbprint cookies? Spread it on toast? On a scale of 10...this recipe was only a 4.

Katie has been sleeping on cushions on the floor of the girls room, in between their beds, for the last few days. She just waked to do it one night and we said yes. They've both been sleeping well, so I suppose it's ok. It's actually very cute, to see them snuggled up closer.

What else...I've been trying some exercise DVD's, since my foot isn't fully recovered and I'm finding strollercize isn't really ideal. Borrowing them free from the library is a great way to try them out. I'm doing Jillian Micheal's Yoga DVD...tough stuff! The girls watch and try to do some...they get on the hands, facing the ground and put their legs up on the couch...kind of a plank/push up pose. Very cute and they think it's fun. I will say it is convenient not having to get the girls out of the house to work out.

Hope you had a good weekend too!