Bakin' Bread Bears (and Houses and Giraffes)

Growing up, my mom made bread a lot. I remember as a child going on vacation and thinking it a great treat to have store bought bread (ya, I know, I was soooooo wrong!). I also remember many times when mom used to give my sisters and I each our own little piece of dough so that we could make our own mini-loaf of bread. Typically, (if I remember correctly) we would make bears and turtles out of the dough we were given. I remember loving making my own little mini-loaf, so why not pass along this special memory to my boys?

I made bread yesterday, and so in the spirit of passing along cherished memories, I gave each boy his own little ball of dough so he too could make his own creation.

Since creativity in fashioning small, doughy balls into recognizable shapes is not my strongest area of gifting, I gave Obed 2 options... I could help him make a bear or (yup, you guessed it) a turtle. He chose a bear, complete with a belly button.

Ezra wanted to make a house, and once you see the finished product, you will understand why it is safest for me to stick with bears and turtles.
Asher, being Asher, wanted either a giraffe or an ostrich (of course). We went for giraffe, which, with a bit more practice, I may feel comfortable adding to my dough-animal repertoire, rounding out my mad-dough-shaping skills into three categories: mammals with long necks, mammals with belly buttons, and turtles.
The finished products (the house turned a bit more clown-esque, making it more creepy than originally intended, and sure, the giraffe only has 2 legs, no nose, two eyes on the same side of his head and rather panda-like ears... but other than that, it is very clearly a giraffe).
The boys thoroughly enjoyed making their own mini-loaves and enjoyed even more having the fun of tearing them apart and dipping them into a concoction of cream cheese and peanut butter.

Finally, a quick reminder that the address for this blog has changed. As of May 1st, familyofblacks.com/blog.htm will no longer work (thank you Blogger for mixing things up and making once simple things more complicated). If you're a regular reader, please change your blog roll to nolackofblack.blogspot.com/. Thanks!

International Signs

There's the international sign for "I love you."

The international sign for "choking."
The international sign for "peace."
And the international sign for "I'd like another Cheerio, please and thank you."

New Park

First things first... just a reminder that the address for this blog has changed, so please change your bookmark if you are a regular reader to http://www.nolackofblack.blogspot.com/.

Now, onto more fun posts! We continue to have beautiful weather which just begs us to be outside! So, in our on-going attempt to be outside and learn more about this new (to us) city, we found a new park this week right at the base of the foothills. The scenery alone made the park amazing... and then there was the awesome playground equipment and trails that added to it!

Ezra and Asher's favorite part was the tube slide which went "through the mountain" according to the boys.
Obed's favorite part was the sand area, complete with diggers (although he had a bit of trouble mastering the coordination it took to actually make the digger dig).
There were also sand tables that all the boys thoroughly enjoyed.

We also went for a walk along the trails. Ezra enjoyed running with Warnie for a bit.
Although the picture quality is terrible, I had to include this picture as well. On the way home, Obed was exhausted (due to the on-going issue of his "nap" time consisting of 90 minutes of singing and squealing in his bed with no actual nap ever accomplished). We were trying to talk with him to keep him awake on the way home, but it was a hopeless endeavor. He would be trying to answer a question while he was falling asleep. In the picture, he is actually in the process of falling asleep all while trying to answer the question, "what does a doggy say?"

Address Change

The address of my blog has changed.  Please update your bookmark to the new address:
www.nolackofblack.blogspot.com

Swing

We've had some really beautiful weather the past couple of days, just perfect to be outside as much as possible! We have a great, big, old tree in our front yard, so Vince borrowed the neighbors ladder (well, really he borrowed the ladder several weeks back to try to clean the ice out of the gutters on the back of the house which gets very little sun and is still totally covered in snow... but that's a different story) and hung a rope from one of the large branches. The boys are in love with their new swing. And yes, Ezra is outside without shoes on and no, it was not that warm. That is truly a child who lived in North Dakota for most of his life... 47 degrees is warm enough to be barefoot... I think if it hits 50, he'll be ready to play in the sprinkler!

On a side note... Obed also enjoys the swing, but Vince couldn't get a picture of him since he was a bit nervous to take his hand off of Obed while swinging since "hold on tight" seems to be a concept a bit lost on Obed at this point.

Solomon's First Food

"Hey, Look at me all cute in my little seat. And what's this new thing to chew on? I like it!"

"Oooooo, what is this? I should probably put it in my mouth to discover what it is - you know, because that's the best and safest way to learn - by putting everything in my mouth."
"I'm pretty sure it's poison."

"Quick, I'll spit it all out and maybe it won't penetrate my system. What is this stuff? There's no way it can be good for me. Seriously mom, what are you trying to do to me?"

A Trip to the Zoo

Vince has been out of town for the past 5 days and flew back into Denver today. The boys and I got to head to the airport this morning to pick him up and thought we would take advantage of our Denver Zoo membership and visit the zoo since we were already down that way.

We started out visiting the lions. The zoo has a glass wall where we could see the lions up close and personal. It's a little creepy being nose to nose with a lion - there was this small, nagging thought at the back of my head saying, "what if this glass doesn't hold? What if the lion lunges and comes right through and eats my baby and me?" Sure, this probably wouldn't happen... but wow, those things are HUGE!

The lion thought Obed looked like a tasty snack.
There was also a glass wall to view the hyenas. Did you know a hyena is not a dog or even a member of the canine family? I didn't. It's a member of the mongoose family... there, now you've learned your interesting fact of the day (assuming you didn't know the hyena is not a dog).

We let the boys go for a ride on the carousel today. At first, Asher and Obed were pretty sure it was torture and NO fun at all. Asher warmed up to the ride... Obed? Not so much.

Little legs get tired walking so much. We have the triple stroller, but it won't fit in the back of the van, so we only travel with the double... but it works too.
Solomon snugly peeping out of the Moby.
There were some really talented geese balancing on fence posts on one leg. I couldn't do that... but then again, I'm not a talented goose.
There were literally hundreds of ducks and geese swimming in this tiny little swimming hole. It sounded like a duck chorus as they all quacked at once. Obed loved it.