Shower of love

See?  It is possible to throw a classy baby shower!  This was one to remember.

The clothespin game - each person gets one clothespin, but if you say the word 'baby', whoever hears you first can take your clothespin!

Mama doesn't like sweets....but baby does!!!

Still cold...but somehow better!

It's amazing how even after nine years in this house, I can go outside and still discover new things.  Not new maybe, but at least the same things seen in a new way.  Even though it was just another soggy gray day, it seemed like there was a new buzz in the air outside.

Lots of 'E's for my little guy to find!

Surprise!

This last one is a preview of a bonus post I might make later on this weekend....stay tuned!

Leikin aika

Time to play!

Color therapy

This is my second attempt at making homemade finger paint.   The first batch, which contained a little dish soap, had easy clean-up but turned completely runny overnight.  This batch, without the soap, had a perfect consistency but has left my little one with blue hands.  That's why you see no recipe here!  Maybe it's time to just buy some...

And this is all I let him wear when I made the second no-soap batch...

Kiitollinen

Last Saturday I baked a chocolate cake just because it was the weekend. Then I sat in my kitchen eating it with no threat of disaster, feeling guilty because thousands of people had just lost everything. (There must be a psychological term for that kind of guilt - what is that again?)

I've had it with this winter! I feel like grumbling about it every day. And every day I try not to, because really, everything is just perfect. A ten meter wave did not wash my home and family away.

So i pull on my Finnish grandfather's old winter overalls and put on my snow boots and spend many many minutes getting all those layers on my little ones. And we go out and I try to stand in a sunny spot if there is one and I wonder when on earth is all this snow going to melt. It's a little boring. But safe. You've got to be very thankful that you have a safe yard to be bored in.

Leikkitaikina

Making play-dough yourself must be an American thing - at least in my childhood the only place I came across this stuff was in my own Finnish-American home. Even now it's not a common thing to do over here, and in my eight years of parenthood, this was my first time!

You American readers probably don't need a recipe, so let's do this part in Finnish.

Leikkitaikina

5 dl vehnäjauhoja
2 dl suolaa
4 rkl ruokaöljyä
5 dl vettä
(1,5 rkl alunaa)

Sekoita jauhot, suola ja öljy. Lisää vesi muutamassa erässä. Keitä keskilämmöllä, sekoita koko ajan. Taikina alkaa kiinteytyä. Kun taikina vaikuttaa valmiilta, jäähdytä sitä vähän ja vaivaa käsin. Minä en käyttänyt alunaa, mutta sitä saa kuulemma apteekista. Se lisätään jauhojen joukkoon. Tekee kai taikinasta sitkeämpää. Valmiita leipomuksia ei tarvitse välttämättä paistaa uunissa. Ainakin pienet ja ohuet luomukset kuivuvat muutamassa päivässä itsestäänkin.

I just made it in a natural color so we could paint it afterwards. I also did some experimenting with a lace print. What joy to discover something that gets everyone in a good mood!

Stick in the mud

That's what I've been feeling like lately...this weather has got to go!  Even on a day with blue skies, our yard is a giant mud puddle.  We also have construction going on, or in the eyes of a four-year-old, we have a giant mud mountain next to a giant mud ditch.  But I always say, at some point, if you are going to live in the Pacific Northwest, you just have to give in to the mud.

And a happy one year to our blog, cousin, thanks for pointing it out!