Gator / FSU Gameday

Where's Tebow?

We had planned to watch the game at home, but wanted to get into the rivalry mood by walking up to campus to partake in some pre-game festivities.
We walked around campus and had lunch before heading over to the Gator Walk Saturday.

Gooooo Gators! Now do the same thing to BAMA, please!


Heading to Steamers for lunch (it's a Scott thing).


Avery HAD to have eye blacks. She loved them.


Avery wearing James' Gator hat looking for Tebow while being held by Youssouf.


Sea of Gators


Some guys from the team

Gameday Crew

We got to see lots of crazy characters!

Big Hulk arm beer holder

A kid in the trash can!

Super Tebow plays BEER PONG!

Dusting off the camera

I have been so uninspired lately when it comes to taking pictures. I am usually a one-project-at-a-time person, so when I am busy with something else (which lately has been reading) I tend to put everything else on the back burner. This week I dusted off the camera and I took a few pictures with Avery. The first one was her own natural pose and it just worked out nicely - maybe because she was still for a second. The other two were a little more posed. I hope the change in weather inspires me to pick up my camera a little more often. I desparately need to update the photo a day link. Hopefully there will be more to come soon...

True Blood Party

I had some friends over to watch the season finale of HBO's True Blood show. Every now and then I love to do a themed party. I spent the entire day in the kitchen preparing food and it didn't even seem like a chore, it was a lot of fun. I didn't get near as many pictures as I wanted, especially of everyone hanging out. Below are some pictures of the day.

The menu:

Blood Orange Salad (picture taken from http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/2009/01/sicilian-blood-orange-salad.html )

I used that recipe and it was super simple and VERY good.


Spaghetti Bolognese

Baked brie with a cranberry orange topping - sorry no picture. :-(

Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and a 'blood' drizzle.

The table. We also made blood orange/pomagranite wine spritzers. No recipe, we just made it up.

It was such a fun evening and I can't believe we have to wait until June 2010 for season 3!!!

Pooh

Please try reading this book to your child without you or your child cracking up!
I think this book was a baby gift from my sister when she was born.
Avery loves it and asks us to read it over and over and we do.

Kool-Aid Playdoh Recipe

Materials:

1 package Kool-Aid
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup salt
2 cups boiling water
2-3 cups flour

How to:

(Do youself a favor and use a stand mixer)

1. Mix the first four ingredients together.
2. Slowly stir in the flour until dough is a smooth consistancy.
3. Store in a self-sealing bag.

Note: I added extra food color to each batch of dough to get a brighter color.

Silly Putty Recipe

SILLY PUTTY

What you will need:
1 cup white glue
Various food colors (if you make multiple batches)
1/2 cup to 1 cup liquid (not spray) laundry starch (I could only find a big bottle of it at Wal-Mart).

What to do:
Measure 1 cup of white glue and pour into stain proof mixing bowl.
Drop in food coloring until you get desired color.
Mix well.
Measure 1 cup of liquid starch, slowly pour a little at a time into glue/coloring mixture and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Stir thoroughly. (You may not need to use all the liquid starch.) Let rest 5 minutes. Knead it with your hands, until it comes together. It will be like spaghetti, don't worry keeping folding it and kneading it in your hands. Just when you think it is ruined, it suddenly turns into a wonderful long-stranded glob!
If it seems sticky onces it is formed into the blob add more liquid starch until it goes back to a rubbery consistancy. It shouldn't be sticky if you use enough liquid starch.

Store in an air tight container. Enjoy cutting, stretching and molding.

Silly Putty & Playdoh

Avery's teacher asked if we could make some playdoh for the class and of course we were happy to help out. I asked her teacher if she had ever made the silly putty before and she had not, but wanted to try it out.

We were excited to make the silly putty again, it had been over a year since we made it before.
So Sunday we set off to try to make homemade playdoh for the first time and a new round of silly putty. Avery helped me with the playdoh by pouring in the salt and kool-aid mix in the bowl. We made it in the stand mixer - which I think was what made it so easy to make. I think had we stirred it by hand we would have been miserable.

School seems to be going well so far. This year I am getting a little more feedback from Avery than I did last year. Sounds like she is enjoying school and adjusting very nicely.

First step in silly putty making - mix the food color with the glue.

End result of the first batch. Usually the first batch of anything you make is a dud, this time it was the best one.

This was my second batch and it didn't turn out as well. It took FOREVER to get the materials to mix properly. You just have to keep working it forever to get it to incorporate. I think I used too much liquid starch at one time.

Final batches of silly putty


Happy girl playing with the 'off' batch of silly putty.

PLAYDOH!

Last Year of Preschool

Today was the first day of school and she went in without any issues.
She told me when I picked her up this afternoon that she cried today, but I still need to check with her teacher on that.

My camera kept fogging up, so this was the best I could get in the morning before she went in.


The class picture board. I think there are several missing pictures. Avery picked her spot and wrote her name underneath. There is another little boy in her class named Avery. Who would have thought that name would have been so popular?!


You may recall Avery didn't know where Florida was last year. One of the many things she learned last year.


I think this might be her favorite area of the classroom.

She really wanted to show me these shells.

She said they smell like bubble gum.

In the reading area.

Finding her name.

Showing me that she sat on the letter C today.

Nature Photos

I took some time over the weekend to play with my camera and take some nature pictures around the yard. We have a ton of little creatures all around our place that I never really take the time to notice. I think I'm going to work on taking more of these types of photos. I could really use the practice with the macro.