Sunday, July 21, 2013

A toast to the bears

Starboy and I saw these bear toasts on Pinterest, and he demanded some for dinner. This version is peanut butter, bananas, blueberries, and strawberry slices for flowers. Think what a cute hair bow or bow tie those would make! The "plate" is a cutting board. 

I tried using honey to draw a little mouth under the nose, but that just ended up being a big blob of honey. I got no complaints from Starboy, but it didn't add anything visually. I sliced up the remaining banana and froze the slices on a piece of parchment—guess whose mommy gets to have a PB / banana smoothie in the morning?

These bears are really irresistible. You could do them with plain toast, or cinnamon toast as well. I've also used chocolate chips for the eyes. (Dangerous precedent. Do not advise.)

OMG -- A Nutella black bear! Speaking of dangerous.....

Friday, July 12, 2013

Camping! And tips!

We love camping, and especially at Yosemite. Techman has been camping and climbing there for most of his life—I was late to the party until I moved to California, and I couldn't believe I'd never experienced anything so beautiful before.

Starboy LOVES sleeping in the tent and playing outside.

 I'm not a light packer, but we sure do camp comfortably! I have the packing down to a science. You can check out my packlists here or at the link below. There's a gear packing list, a pack planner, meal planner, and my top Yosemite picks for newbies.

On the down side, if you follow the tips, your car might look like a little like this:

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Ours does, and it drives Techman nuts. Luckily I don't mind traveling on this trip with no leg room.

Preparing for bear country is a pain in the ass—anything with even a miniscule scent needs to be stored in the brown bear locker. But after so many years we have it down.

This little table was a great score at a Crate and Barrel sale a few years ago. No worries about Starboy slipping through the picnic table, and he has a place to play while we're preparing dinner.

Starboy has been going to Yosemite since he was an infant. Getting outdoors is grounding for all of us. 








Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Marble painting

 Paper, tempera, marbles, box, ARTWORK!

 Starboy loved making these. He probably made 10 of them. We only have green paint, so they all were green.


Sunday, July 7, 2013

Dump Truck Eggs

Okay, this is definitely the LIMIT of my egg-making talent. Note that most of these egg masterpieces are gobbled up after 15 minutes of whining: "But I don't WANT eggs!" And then a demand for something sweet: Joe's Os with milk, cranberries, muffin, jam sandwich.

If you want to try it at home, it's a 2-3 egg omelette in a 6" cast iron pan. Any scraps that don't belong to the picture usually turn into "road" or "border." Check the Tasty Tricks keyword for more ideas.

Anyone have any ideas what I can hide in the eggs to make them even more healthy? He balks at the spinach because he can see it. I might have to try shredded zucchini with no skin.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Cyanotype photography

 I took some Sunprint photography paper on our camping trip to Yosemite, and we made some Cyanotype contact prints. It was totally fun.

 Starboy experimented with shadow, 3-dimensional objects, composition, and spatial awareness on the paper.

He developed the prints by himself in the water. Home run project for all ages!

 We could have added in a dimension by studying photography by Man Ray and others who experimented with contact printing, but we didn't do it that way this time.


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Hawaiian or Maori?

Does it matter, as long as Starboy eats his lunch? Although to me, he looks like the Hawaiian Punch guy.