I want to go outside!!!

Last week was soooo nice! We were literally outside every day till lunch time and back outside after nap time till dinner time! Every single time I told Olivia it was time to go inside she had a tantrum and said "I can't go in there" haha! She loves to be outside and play with her sand table, sandbox, and all over her little cars.

Last week was Isabelle's first time to really walk outside and play on her own. At first she just sat down on her butt and looked around. Then she finally got up and started playing with the toys and loved playing at the sand table with her sissy. She is not a big fan of walking on the grass yet though! Every time she gets to the grass she just stands there reaching for me to pick her up!

I cannot wait till Spring/Summer is really here! I think last week was such a tease because now we are stuck back inside with these cold rainy days! Hurry up sun, I need you back!

Bananas

I had four huge rotten bananas left over this week. I will be honest...I usually throw them out!!!! I know that is awful and was unaware that I could freeze them for later use. But Monday I decided to do something with them! I made whole wheat banana bread and Banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

The whole wheat banana bread is my favorite. I think because it is actually healthy, made with whole wheat flour, honey, and applesauce. That's right NO sugar!!!! I thought it would be totally gross, but it is sooooo good. Seriously I love it. Ohhh and of course I added chocolate chips to it so my kids would eat it...but everyone needs a little chocolate right???

The cookies came out good also. They are of course not as healthy because they do contain sugar, but I did reduce it and substituted white flour for the whole wheat flour. The kids love them. They are really soft cookies and easy for them to eat. I think from now on I will be freezing my bananas that no one eats so I can at least repeat the bread recipe!

Recipe's can be found here if interested!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Whole-Wheat-Banana-Nut-Bread/Detail.aspx

http://www.recipezaar.com/Heavenly-Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-170036

Imagination

Olivia has had quite an imagination lately! This morning she woke up telling me that there was a "Monkey Dad" in her closet! I found out he was wearing green, and that he was "Baby Monkey's" Daddy. She then proceeded to give the monkeys a fake hug and laughed. Then "Baby Monkey" bit her finger and she started crying, haha. When I told her we were going to the zoo today she said OK, can "Monkey Dad" come with us!!!

We had an awesome time at the zoo! Olivia loved every single animal from the rhino's to the tiger. It seems like she had a much better time than she did last year. She talked to all of the animals, and pretty much had to be forced onto the next every time! I think her favorites were the Baboons, Tigers, and Polar Bears. I was saying how gross the Baboons behinds were and then she said ewwww gross look at Monkey's butt, hahaha. She repeats everything!!!!!

The new polar bear was very active, playing in the water with a plastic garbage can on his head! Then he got out and went to hassle the older polar bear. It was awesome to see them moving around and playing/swimming since they are usually sleeping when we go! I think all the animals were out and happy it was spring time!

So now that we saw all of these animals today I can't wait to see what is hiding in her closet when she wakes up from her nap!

Owls and Hummingbirds

Lately Olivia has been watching this hummingbird site I found online: http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/Hummingbird-Nest-Cam. It is a live web cam aimed at a hummingbird nest. She enjoys watching the Mommy bird come and go and looking at the eggs (I think there are 2 now). Today I introduced her to this website :
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-owl-box. This is a live web cam on a barn owl. She is obsessed with it! She asks to see the owl all the time and even ate her lunch at the computer watching the Mommy owl, Molly, eat her lunch! She is currently sitting on 6 eggs that are all supposed to hatch in a couple of weeks. I am excited to see all of the little baby owls! The creator of the site also says that the Daddy owl comes late every night and brings the Mommy owl a mouse or something for dinner! If you look closely you can see in the nest all of the left over bones and hair from it's food! They actually have a night vision camera set up as well but I haven't stayed up late enough to catch a glimpse of Magee the Daddy owl, although he does have some videos of him on his site! Anyways If you have kids they might enjoy watching either of these sites and also learn a lot from it like Olivia and I!!!!