a new challenge for august

though most of the blogs i keep tabs on belong to friends and family members, i have also fallen in love with some that are created by people i don't know who write about cooking, baking, gardening, crafting--the domestic arts. i know that most of the regular/semi-regular readers of this blog are resourceful, creative and talented in some or all of these areas and i, for one, would like to read about it. so, in the spirit of samantha's post-a-day challenge for the month of june, i have a new challenge to propose. it won't require daily blogging attention, but you'll probably find fodder for posts on a daily basis.

here it is: once a week during the month of august, create a post about your own forays (successful or not so) into home-based arts and/or crafts. how's the garden looking? what did you make for dinner? how did you keep your kid/s entertained at home on that rainy day? what's on the needles/crochet hook/table saw/lathe/embroidery hoop/sewing machine? how are those home-improvement projects coming along?

please announce your participation in the domestic arts challenge in your first post so i/we can keep up with your at-home adventures!

animals!

last weekend, we took E on her first trip to the brookfield zoo with my parents. here's the obligatory sign-plus-stone-lion shot.
the brookfield's giraffe exhibit is pretty awesome. does it look like we just pushed aside these plants to check out these giraffes at an african grasslands water hole? well, we didn't. but doesn't it look like it?
eleanor contemplates a mbuti hut in the african forest section.
this hingeback tortoise is older than you!
at first, i thought it was a little strange that rob wanted to take photos of this guy spray-painting rocks onto a wall using, maybe, a car mat, but it was pretty interesting.
watching the grey wolves chew on some bones. eleanor said, "just like oscar!"
E and her grandpa check out some penguins and other sea birds.
i love how this polar bear is sitting with his legs out in front like that.

it was a lovely, sunny morning at the zoo!

a big splash

okay, so our two weeks of swim lessons ended last week, and i neglected to post this day one photo when it was still fresh news. rob came to class with us this day and i thought he'd be able to get some good action shots, but there was a little spiel before lessons started about how taking photos poolside or through the fence is not allowed. ever. i get it, but it was still kind of a bummer. we snuck in this shot before heading into the locker room.

overall, E took really well to the pool. this was probably in no small part because lessons were kind of like music class in the pool. lots of little songs and rhymes. she now knows what the hokey pokey is all about as well as what the mommies on the bus say (she loves to shush. maybe there's a library career in her future?). her favorite was "humpty dumpty," which we used to get into the water ("...had a great FALL!") . we probably did this at least 15 times each class. in and out. in and out. by the end of the two weeks, she was a lot more daring with her "jumps" in, but i'd still make sure that her head didn't go under. it was clear that this would not be okay with her. lots of the kids in class were closer to three than two, so i think we'll go the parent-and- tot route again next year. in the meantime, we hope to make it to the pool at least a few more times before the end of the summer to keep up her comfort level. rob was hoping to go this past weekend, but with IC temps barely into the mid-60s, we had to pass. this brush with fall weather has been great, but it also reminds me of just how quickly these summer months are passing.

grill out!

our friends becca and adam, anna and paul came over for dinner and games on saturday. we have officially re-named bola wrap and now call it hobo golf. paul and anna went home with their own purple and white (northwestern) customized hobo golf set.
here, anna looks like paul just lost their kids' college funds to adam in a hobo golf bet, but i assure you that this expression was just a fluke. then again, maybe becca was saying, "we always wanted to put gold-plated sinks in our house. and a trip to tahiti wouldn't be bad, either!"

as always, our entertaining menu included a fair number of brand-new recipes. will i never learn? while the au gratin potatoes were under-done in the middle (we ate around the bubbly, brown edges), the chopped salad was a winner. i love chopped salad. i've been a relatively late-comer to green salads and didn't really start enjoying them till college (i would ask for cottage cheese or fruit at restaurants, instead). the blendedness and uniform size of ingredients in a chopped salad, which usually includes yummy non-green things like chopped turkey or salami, cheese and chickpeas, remedies my main frustration when i'm eating a salad--i often can't get everything i want (greens plus veggies/nuts/egg/cheese/crouton/dressing) into one forkfull. here's the recipe i used:

sophie's chopped salad
(courtesy of bobby flay at www.foodnetwork.com)

1 head romaine lettuce, finely chopped
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup cooked red beans
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 cup friend blue corn tortillas, diced (i just used blue corn tortilla chips)
1/2 cup diced monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup diced cheddar cheese
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

toss all salad ingredients together in a big bowl. combine vinegar, mustard, oil, salt and pepper. dress salad with the vinaigrette and serve.

one caveat--this one won't last overnight so you have to eat it in one setting. as a side at our grill out, i had quite a bit left over after all six of us had eaten. bon appetit!

baby doll and blender

it was a rainy day. here's some imaginative play that happened inside this morning...

jazz dance!

rob took this video on his phone, so please forgive the poor quality. despite the graininess and choppy sound (sorry, chris potter's underground!), i think it still captures the spirit of henry's spunky moves. watch and learn, so you think you can dance? hopefuls!

a patriotic and jazzy weekend

betsy, pete, henry and clara were here to celebrate the 4th of july and jazz fest with us this weekend. both kids gravitated to eleanor's new easel. henry drew some skunks and an awesome amusement park rocket ride. clara's artistry was a bit more abstract.
we walked to market square park on friday morning. E experimented on the ladder, while clara bounced on the turtle...

all three kids zoomed down the tube slide...



later that day, there was frolicking in the pool/water table...

i guess we got all photo-ed out on friday because i have no photos from the rest of the weekend. the 4th was rainy and grey--we had a fun breakfast at a new local favorite, the bluebird diner, and the rest of the day was calm and indoorsy. after eleanor and clara were in bed, betsy, pete, rob and i went downtown with henry for fireworks. yesterday afternoon and evening, we all spent some time on the pentacrest lawn at jazz fest, enjoying the music, sunshine and shade.

the days flew by--how can it be monday afternoon already?