Snow Day

Just a quick update with a few snowy pictures and video.

Cal claims he sounds so weird in the video, he blames it on the cold wind.

Zach and Cal built a quick snow fort, they promise to build a better one in the back yard tomorrow before the snow melts.

Nothing beats a snow day, once Zach is in school he will appreciate them more.

Pumpkin Pickin'

This last week we headed out to a pumpkin farm to get a pumpkin while the weather was nice. The only catch was that all of the pumpkins in the fields had already gotten frozen and were squishy and rotting. And Zach really wanted to "ride" them.

But we got to choose one out of a bin instead (of pumpkins they had saved).

But of course there was more fun to be had at the farm.

The hay bale maze.

The "petting zoo."

Farmer Zach.

And the highlight: the jumpy castle. Zach was loving it and went to town.

YUM

In the spirit of the season we decided to try out a new recipe for pumpkin pancakes for dinner tonight. We thought they were delicious, and Zach chowed down 3 whole pancakes, so I thought I'd share. Just for fun. We ate them with maple syrup. Sorry no pictures, we were too busy eating them. Yum!

Pumpkin-Oat Pancakes

1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup regular oats, uncooked
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup pumpkin, mashed and cooked
1 egg
1 egg white
1 T oil
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 T sugar
2 T wheat germ
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Cooking spray

Combine buttermilk and oats; let mixture stand for 15 minutes. Add milk, pumpkin, egg, egg white, and oil to mixture; mix well. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir into pumpkin mixture until batter is smooth. Coat a hot griddle with cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto griddle. Cook until bubbles start to burst on first side; flip pancake and cook on other side.

-From the Simply Colorado cookbook

We will definately make these again! You'll have to let me know if you try them... Anyone have a favorite Fall recipe?

Lego Mania and Cameras

As the weather gets colder and windier Zach and I are having to re-think our usual schedule of outside play. The other day we dug into the toy box to see what we could find.

We pulled out the Legos again and they are a serious hit! He had tried them before many times, but now has the coordination and creativity to actually build things. Or as he calls them "Towers of Power." I'm amazed at what he can build. They tend to be pretty symmetrical and color specific. I wonder where he got that? (ME)

Very proud of his little tower.

The other big hit was the camera. It's Cal's old digital camera that we've given to him to play with. He was so excited about it. When he pulled it out he exclaimed, "I got camera like Mommy! I take pictures!"

He really loved that we were BOTH taking pictures together.

He was pretty creative about what to take pictures of. He would crawl on the ground to get an interesting shot, then say, "NICE."

(That's the flash going off)

It occupied him for maybe an hour to an hour and a half. (!!) Which is an eternity in the toddler world. Or at least in my toddler's world.

He was happy and I was happy. That's my boy.

Now if only these activities used a little more of that energy...

Let the fun begin

Now that Zach is talking so much more he is saying some funny things. Or at least I think they're funny. I decided I'd better start writing them down or I'll never remember them. Here's one from yesterday in church during the closing prayer of sacrament meeting. (nice and loud, of course)

"The End!" (sitting next to my mom) "C'mon Nana! Let's get outta here!"

Yellow

Last week I decided I just needed to see some Fall leaves. So I packed up Zach and I and headed to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. The aspens were so bright and beautiful there! Zach got to run around and explore and I got to take some pictures (although it was the middle of the day so the lighting was horrible). I'm just glad we went when we did because I think it snowed up there a couple days later. Here's some of our fun:

We had a picnic lunch with an amazing view.

(More pictures here)