Museum, Revisited

Three years ago we visited the Bay Area Discovery Museum when our daughter was nine months old:

Last week we visited the museum again and our daughter had such fun exploring:
Bay Area Discovery Museum
playing with salmon at the stream table

Bay Area Discovery Museum
painting on a glass wall, with spray bottle and squeegie in hand

Bay Area Discovery Museum
holding hands with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

How much she’s grown in three years! Still cute as a button and super fun.

I may be biased, but I also happen to be right.

About Us, Updated

I finally got around to updating our “about us” page. Here’s what it looks like now:

I write about family life with my husband and three-year old daughter, sharing stories about our homeschooling adventures, love of lifelong learning, cooking healthy and family-friendly food, victory gardening, creative activities and crafty projects, spending time outdoors, and living in a sleepy country town in the heart of Sonoma County’s apple and wine country.

Please follow along as we chronicle family life in Northern California. We thrilled to have you along for the ride!

Felt Dessert Inspiration

I’m planning on sewing our daughter some felt desserts as a holiday present for her play kitchen.

Scouring the web for inspiration, I found an amazing assortment of adorable, pre-made felt food that you can buy! Here are some favorites by the German company Haba.

Should my sewing efforts fail, I’ve got a backup plan.

Featured above:
1. Haba Soft Toys Set of 6 Pieces of Cake
2. Haba Biofino Assorted Ice Cream
3. Haba Soft Petit Fours Set of 9 Dessert Toys
4. Haba Food Assorted Cookies
5. Haba Biofino Petit Fours Set of 4
6. Biofino Sweet Pastries

Sushi Making

I used to make sushi rolls with somewhat irregular and messy results. Then I found this YouTube video and now I roll perfect sushi rolls every time:

In our house, we frequently make avocado sushi rolls, which are easy, quick, and toddler-friendly. Our daughter not only enjoys helping me make them, but she inhales them.

Making Avocado Sushi Rolls

Us grown-ups prefer to diversify our rolls by adding fruit, tofu, smoked fish, or cheese.

Making Avocado Sushi Rolls

Served with miso soup and edamame, you have a simple, healthy meal.

YUM!

Fall Garden and Animal Visitors

We’re had all sorts of animals pop up in our garden over the past three years: turkeys, gophers, frogs, snakes — evidently gopher and garter snakes love our garage, lucky us, and now this snail that we caught helping itself to a drink of water from our hose:

Snail taking a drink from the sprinkler

The worst part of what I affectionately call the “snail incident” is that I got sidetracked just after taking this photo so the snail escaped and will continue it’s veggie eating rampage in our garden. Epic Garden Fail.

Speaking of Epic Fails, I’ve spent essentially ZERO time gardening this summer thanks to my sprained ankle. Now that I’m moving around better (hooray!), we’re starting to spend more time outside and more time working in the yard.

I’m floored by how our garden has grown since the Spring:


Front Garden in September
Front Garden in September

Front Garden in September

The tomatoes and strawberry plants are still going strong:

Ripe sun gold tomatoes

Nevertheless it’s time to add some fall veggies to the mix:

Kale newly planted in the garden
Kale and chard newly planted in the garden
kale and chard.

Our daughter picked out two perennials to add to our front flower bed too:

Newly planted Euphorbia Gloria
Newly planted Yarrow
Euphorbia Gloria and Yarrow.

While the garden has changed dramatically, our view remains constant and utterly lovely:


Front Garden in September

Love the sight from our porch!