Plastic containers

Do you recycle? We are very environmentally conscious. We do as much as we can to conserve, recycle, reuse and reduce. When you come to our house you can expect to use a jar as your drinking glass, a child's wash cloth as your napkin, and you will see plenty of empty plastic containers all over our house. Some are used for play while others store all kinds of things.
Great for holding paint brushes.
In the toy area, we have plenty for building, collecting things, as baskets and goals.
We had a few that were splitting so I cut them in half and we used them as golf holes or hockey goals.
.....digging in the block box
....starter plant pots
We also use them in the bathtub. Somedays these are the only toys in the bathtub. The boys love filling and dumping them, floating them, filling them with cars and other toys. I use them to rinse the kids off. The best thing about these toys is that they come with food and can be recycled when you have finally worn them out.

Homemade playdough

My boys love play dough! Everest can sit for 2 hours at a time creating all kinds of things. He loves to use his cars, trucks, cut outs, and really- whatever I will let him use.
Doesn't it look like fun?
Everest using a scooper to tear down his latest creation. They are both exploring playdough with the PVC pipe.

This was a different day. We all 3 played for an hour and a half. Everest was almost late for school because we were having so much fun.
Everest has created the Island of Sodor. (For those of you who do not know what that is-it is the Island that Thomas the train lives on and has his adventures.)
I made Leaf some playdough balls to play with. He had a great time playing with them, until he say Everest flattening his playdough to make the Island. Next thing I know, all my nice round balls were smashed flat, just like Everest was doing. He of course, was doing this only with his left hand because his right was busy in his mouth.

We have used a lot of different recipes for playdough, but this is our favorite. I do not recommend quadrupling the batch. I have doubled it with no trouble, but 4 times was too much. The playdough is a little sticky. It still cleans up very easily and although I do not love it, I have caught Leaf eating it and the only thing I worry about is the food coloring in it.

Homemade playdough
1 c flour
1 c water
1 Tbs oil
1 Tbs powdered alum
1/2 c salt
2 Tbs vanilla
food coloring

Mix all dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches the consistency of mashed potatoes. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Divide into balls and add food coloring. Work in color by kneading the playdough.

Have Fun!

Birthday

This is the cake I really wanted for my birthday this year. I made it last year for Nathan's Birthday. It is from the Smitten Kitchen- chocolate peanut butter cake (we use sunbutter, but still very yummy!). I did not do the cake justice. But it was SOOOOOOO Goood!

Nathan and the boys, let me sleep in a little on my birthday. Thank you! When I came downstairs, they were flipping through my recipe book trying to find this cake. Everest decided he wanted to make me a cake. I have thought about this cake since last year. I would have loved to have had it on my birthday. I even bought the ingredients the week before. But the reality is, I will not enjoy this cake, in fact, as soon as I finish eating it, I will be sick. Eating anything makes me sick, but anything with sugar is ten times worse. I didn't want to go to all the trouble of making this cake and then not enjoying it. Don't you worry, I will make it for my birthday, it will just be in May when I feel better.
Everest really wanted to make a cake, so I let him pick it. We looked through the smitten kitchen and he found this chocolate caramel cheesecake.
Has anyone ever tried making caramel? I burnt the sugar 3 times before I got it right. And really, I have no idea if I got it right. Alas, here is our efforts. We did not get to enjoy it on my birthday because it takes 6 hours to chill and we started at 3:30.

Third attempt to make caramel....
Mixing the cream cheese and chocolate mixture. He had on his apron and chef hat, but not for the picture, of course.

Leaf wanted in on the action. Everest said, "Leaf job is to hand us the ingredients, thats all!" Luckily Leaf didn't seem to mind.The boys had a piece of cake Monday evening. We invited our neighbor, Doug, over for some too. Lisa was working so Doug took her a piece of the cake. Everyone said it was very good. I wouldn't know, I did not try it. We had extra batter so I put it in a canning jar and froze it for another time.

No Vacancy

Today was a monumental day in my life for two reasons; 1) I celebrated 37 years on this earth-I can not believe it has been 37 years-it really does go fast, and 2) it marks the last day of my first trimester. Yes, if you have not heard, the Mentzer family had a surprise before Christmas. We are due August 23. This presents 2 issues; 1) I am due at the end of summer...heat, humidity and the last trimester of pregnancy do not go well together-we will be spending the summer at the pool!, 2) the students begin classes that day. Everest was 6 days early, Leaf was born on his due date. We shall see how it goes and hope Nathan does not have to miss the first day with students.
To our surprise, Everest is very excited about having another sibling. (He actually wants 2 more, but we have assured him, this will not be possible.) Right now, he is hoping for a girl. He wants to name her after his friend Kathryn (she is in his preschool class). I am not sure, I am ready for a girl after having 2 boys, but the thought of 3 boys. I am not sure which will be worse. When the baby arrives it will be a wonderful blessing. For now, I am hoping the second trimester goes flying by. I have "ALL DAY" morning sickness with my pregnancies for the first 6 months. Not fun. I have tried everything from diet changes, to sea bands, to supplements, to acupuncture. I even got desperate and tried medication. So far, nothing has made much of a difference. Such is life, it will be over soon.
In September, look for a name change to our blog. It will no longer be A Mountain and a Tree (although we are keeping the same address). It will be A Mountain, a Tree, and...... well, we have no idea yet and will not know until the baby arrives. Sorry to disappoint many of you, but half the excitement is finding out when the baby is born. We will be happy with whatever we are given. We just hope for a healthy baby...and one that actually sleeps would be nice.
Thanks for checking in on us.

Ps. Thanks Carrie for the idea on No Vacancy. We loved it.

Indy Children's Museum

Nathan volunteered at the Indianapolis Children's Museum on Saturday for Engineers week. We decided to go with him and check out the museum. We have been told it is one of the nicest Children's museums in the country.
We dropped Nathan off early to set up and headed for Whole Foods. We got back to the museum around 11 and it was PACKED! We headed for the Bob the Builder exhibit and saw Nathan on the way. The boys and I played at Bob the Builder for about an hour and then Nathan joined us.


We had lunch and then explored the rest of the museum. They had a lot of hands on things for both kids to do. The front loader was Everest's favorite thing to do. We spent a lot of time here. At the end of the day, daddy and Leaf got to join in the fun.
This was very cool. It was like a giant marble racer, except it used billiard balls. The whole contraction was taller than me and easily 6-8 feet long. This is Everest loading one of the balls.
There was a water area. The kids could fill up buckets, use a water pump, and the coolest-play with damning the water.
Everest also liked the seat digger. They had bark to dig in, kid size shovels and wheel barrows.
Leaf had a great time playing with the shovels while Everest rode the front loader. He was scooping up fake rocks and loading them in the dump truck.
We had a great time. We intended to stay only a short time, but ended up spending the entire day there. Leaf napped in the stroller and both boys fell asleep on the way home. If you are ever in Indy. Check it out.
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/

Valentine's Day

We hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We spent the day at home relaxing. It was nice. Saturday we spent the entire day in Indianapolis at the Children's Museum. I will post about it this week.
I made heart sandwiches for lunch for Nathan and Everest. Teresa got Everest a child size sandwich maker for Christmas, and luckily it has a heart shape cut out.


Leaf was too hungry, tired and cranky to get a heart shaped sandwich. He was not being very patient, so he got a regular shaped sunbutter sandwich. He didn't seem to mind at all.

Thanks for checking in on us.

Valentines

Everest is having his first Valentine's Day celebration at school! We had to make 22 Valentines with his name on them. As you may know, we do not do candy. As an alternative we decided to melt crayons. Everest, Leaf and I peeled the paper off a whole box of crayons, broke them, and Everest arranged them the way he wanted on the baking sheet.



We baked them at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes (I never time things, I am more of a check it and see kind of a person). They turned out awesome. I was surprised at how quickly they cooled and how EASILY they came out of the pan.
I drew hearts on construction paper and wrote Everest's name in highlighter. He had to trace his name and put stickers on the hearts. I had nice Valentine stickers, but he chose trains, and construction. I cut out the hearts and wrote "Have a colorful day." (I was a little nervous some kids might try to eat them, they look a little like colored chocolate).
22 bags ready to go for tomorrows big party. I am volunteering. Ana (Everest's teacher), asked me if I was good at face painting. Before I could answer, she said "of course you are". So I am the official face painter tomorrow. That's what happens when you are a room mom. I love it. It is fun to be with a classroom full of kids again. Especially when it is not my classroom, and I do not have planning or paperwork. I just get to come in once a week, observe and work with the kids one on one. I love this job.Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend.

Open Gym

There is a gymnastic gym here that has open gym during the week. You bring your kids, pay $4 and let them run, jump, climb, crawl, swing, and more. We have been trying to get there once a week. Everest runs the entire time. His cheeks are always so red when we leave. Today the gym was busy. We met Everest's friends there. Here they are playing fire truck on a vault in front of the foam pit. As you can see Everest is wearing his fireman coat. He has been on "fire patrol" most of the day around here.
Fire fighters -David, Roman, Nolan and Everest
Leaf usually explores, but today stayed close to me and played with the hula hoops and balls.

One of those days!

Does this happen to anyone else?

Everest came running up the steps and into the room this morning around 7am. "Mama, did you hear that loud pop?" (I had heard it and thought he knocked something over). "It was daddy's beer, it is making a mess."
I came down stairs to find yes, Nathan's beer was making a mess. He made guiness this weekend and it was fermenting so well, it blew the airlock off. There was enough pressure, that the airlock and some of the beer hit the ceiling. There was beer all through the closet. I cleaned it up the best I could and called Nathan.
We ate breakfast and and started a "normal"day. I went upstairs to brush my teeth and could hear the boys in their bathroom. When I went to check on them, Leaf was laying on the floor with his diaper half way off. Everest told me, he wanted Leaf to sit on the potty seat so he was helping him. Leaf had pooped and it was everywhere. So it quickly became bath time. The boys played very well in the bath. As they were getting out, my parents called. Leaf closed his fingers in the drawer and was screaming, and then Kenya threw up at my feet.
Fun times and it is only 10 am. Can't wait to see what the rest of the day has in store for us.

My little daredevil

Leaf seems to be...hmmm.. how should I put it...a little stubborn and independent. He is my little daredevil. When he gets something into his mind that he wants, there is no stopping him. Everest was in the tub the other day, Leaf wanted a toy that was in there. He reached to the point that he fell head first into the tub, fully clothed. He could have cared less that he fell in. He sat up and grabbed the toy and put his fingers in his mouth.
Here is his latest attempts at making my blood pressure skyrocket. He takes a kids chair (or really anything he can stand on-I have caught him standing on Kenyas' back to get onto the couch!) Pushes it to the big chair.....
climbs on the little chair and stands up.



Climbs over the little chair.....

onto the big chair.

And then sucks his fingers. Sometimes he climbs onto the table. He fell off the other side one day and landed on his head. Scared me to death. But as soon as he settled down, guess what he did? Climbed back up onto the chair.
Leaf at Grami's house. Trying desperately to climb onto the table. Unfortunately (for him), the chair was not cooperating and kept sliding back. What? I'm not doing anything.

Right before Everest's birthday party (in December), Leaf and I went to Lowes while Everest was at school. I got a piece of pvc pipe and put it in the cart. All Leaf wanted was the pipe. I let him have it, but he kept knocking things off the shelf with it, so I took it away. He squirmed and screamed and reached trying to get this pipe. At the check out the lady put it back into the basket way out of his reach. That little bugger reached and stretched so much, he flipped upside down in the cart, the seat part closed and he was left hanging upside down belted to the cart...STILL reaching for the pipe. He could have cared less that he was upside down, he was just mad that his efforts did not win his prize. It is a good thing I make sure he is belted very tightly in the carts.

Blessing

Thank you to whoever or whatever was watching over Everest last night (Jim, Grampa, Grama, Ceason or his guardian angel).

Last night around 7:30, Everest and Leaf went upstairs. Nathan was loading the dishwasher and I was putting away the computer. They were not upstairs more than 2 minutes. I heard them in Everest's room. I could hear him walking around on his loft bed, laughing. (no doubt, teasing Leaf because Leaf is not allowed on the loft. Everest likes to coax him up the steps then he yells "mamma, Leaf's on the loft."). I heard Everest start jumping, and then I heard a thump. I had no idea who fell, but I knew one of them fell and I knew it was not good. Everest was laying in a heap on the floor, crying. The way he was laying, I thought if we are lucky, he only broke his arm. Nathan heard me run up the steps and came up right after I did. He picked Everest up and held him. We asked him what happened, and he was a little lethargic for a minute or two. He kept saying, I fell. I was hoping it was from the steps (a little closer to the ground, the loft is 6 feet off the ground and we have hard wood floors). But when he was calm enough to tell us what happened, it turns out he fell from the top. Landing on his head and arm on the hardwood floor. After a minute or two he was completely responsive and able to follow movement and talk. But he kept moaning and crying saying his head hurt. I called my mom who said (of course), get him to the Urgent Care. We called our wonderful neighbors and Lisa came over to be with Leaf. I got him ready for bed and put him down, and Nathan, Everest and I headed to Urgent Care.
They checked him there and said he looks ok, but they didn't want to chance it since he fell so far (6 feet). They sent us to the ER on the other side of town. Nathan dropped me off at the house and took Everest.
At the ER, they checked him out and had him do all kinds of balance things, asked him a lot of questions and pushed on his head, arms and tummy. They said he was ok. We were to check on him a few times throughout the night. If he was fine, we didn't need to worry. They were home by 9:45.
Nathan and I checked on him at least 4 times last night, and every time, he was responsive. He woke up this morning (I thought he would at least be sore), and said nothing hurts.
We are even headed to gymnastics! (the doctor said if he wants to go, it is ok).

I have no idea what happened last night, but I think he is made of rubber. How on earth can you fall 6 feet, head first and NOTHING hurts? I am so thankful he is fine.

Thanks for checking on us.

Happy Birthday Papa!!!

Today is Papa's birthday! Happy Birthday Papa. If you know my dad, give him a call and wish him a happy birthday. He drives us all crazy at times, but he would do anything to help someone out. Papa and Nonnie are visiting again in 16 days!!!!! Can't wait to see them. I wish we were still in the mountains to take Papa to one of his favorite places. Maple Grove Hotsprings (it was about 45 minutes from our house in UT-very well worth the drive). As you can see we tried to get Papa to the hotsprings every time he came.

(I can't get the underlining off this part-sorry about that)

Maple Grove Hot Springs http://www.maplegrovehotsprings.com/


Papa and Everest (16 months) enjoying the pool. Who do you think is having more fun?
Papa loves the water...the hotsprings or the Virgin Islands. Hanging out at St. John Island when Everest was 18months.

Maple Grove Hotsprings with Leaf. I think this was our last visit there! =(

We love you Papa. We are thinking about you today and all the fun times we have when we see you. See you soon. Love you!

My little reindeer

Sorry I have been absent for so long. We did not have an internet connection for a few weeks. (which makes blogging and email, a lot more difficult). We are up and running again, thanks to my wonderful husband. I am slowly catching up with the blog and all my emails =)

Christmas this year was very nice. Here are my little reindeer on Christmas day. (Why are my kids faces always dirty in pictures?)


The reindeer family.
Leaf surprised Grami with a big pot for brewing beer. It is just his size!
Leaf had another surprise for us. He started walking Christmas eve! Of course, it was a little wobbly at first because he had to have his fingers in his mouth instead of out for balance.
No, I am not purposely favoring my younger child...Everest rarely lets me take his picture anymore. He always looks away or makes a really goofy face. Does anyone else's 4 year old do this?

He was cool enough to get his picture with aunt Teresa (after 3 or 4 shots), doing his VERY favorite thing....playing with Legos! He can not get enough of them. We build and rebuild and rebuild again.