I’m longing to put on my long skirts, flip flops and enjoy the wonderful local food that the summer has to offer! But for now, all I can do it snuggle under a warm blanket with a hot cup of tea. Tonight , the girls decided to play “marching band” one of my favorite activities! Several summers ago, Charlotte and I visited Pentwater with John and his family and enjoyed a weekly local tradition of sitting on the town green listening to the local band. Charlotte marched around during the concert pretending to be in the band. Ever since that trip she has loved pretending to be in a marching band.

Tonight, John dusted off his old trumpet (yes, my husband is musically inclined playing the trumpet, guitar and piano!) and started playing a few songs! Charlotte and Lillian took turns learning how to make noise out of the trumpet and then formed their own marching band! Marching through the dinning room, living room and den the girls played drums and the “kid trumpet” (a paper towel tube). It was such a fun evening watching the girls embrace their dad’s love of music! The “parade” ended with a dance party in the kitchen. What a perfect way to start the weekend!

Here is a great vase to make with the little ones recycling a canister of bread crumbs or coffee can! It makes a great centerpiece for the table or mantle.  It is a perfect way to recycle an old canister and have a fun craft for the little ones!

All you need is

bread crumb (or similar) can

construction paper

glue

crayons

First remove the wrapping from the can if you are able. Next cover the can with brown construction paper.

Cut out the feathers from a variety of colored construction paper. Cut out the face, wings and feet (we make them in the shape of a heart) Have your little ones assemble the face with eyes and nose.

Glue on the face, wings and feet.

Place the feathers in the back.

Fill your turkey vase with water and add flowers (add a plastic bag if you are using a bread crumb canister as the water will leak)!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!!!

I love to transform my home in the fall bringing some of mother nature’s best assets into my home as decorations on the mantel or table centerpiece.  Decorating with cranberries can make for one beautiful and colorful centerpiece.  Cranberries look beautiful when floating in water or as a garland on the mantel.  Here are a few of my favorite ways to use cranberries as a decoration during the fall and winter months!

Floating cranberries with tea candles – perfect as a center piece for a dinner party

Cranberry Topiaries – One of my favorite ways to decorate with cranberries, but I have to say I haven’t yet tried to do this at home!

Cranberry Garnish – This one is very easy and is a “big bang for your buck” very straight forward to assemble and provides an elegant center piece for your dining room table or mantle

Cranberry Mantel – We love to do this at our home during the holiday season.  It provides such a beautiful way to dress up your mantel.

Cranberries with flower or pine tree branches – This is such an easy way to add color to your flower vase and create a beautiful arrangement.  As a bonus, cranberries can be left floating in water for upwards of a week!

Photo credit

Main picture

Floating cranberries

Cranberry Topiaries

Cranberry garnish

Cranberry flowers

Cranberry Pine

We love making homemade play dough and I love to turn it into a teaching opportunity for the girls by having them help me make the dough.  Since it is fall, we decided to make orange play dough to create fall leaves and pumpkins during our play! I love having the girls help me make the dough and choose the color.  Charlotte is fasinated with watching the dough mixture change from plain white to vibrant orange! Homemade play dough is such a great rainy day fall activity to do with the little ones.  The recipe below is perfectly safe if the little ones decide to taste it and if you are daring try and experiment by adding some essential oils to the mixture for a great scent.  We added orange essential oil to our pumpkin play dough.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food coloring

You can added 50ml of orange essence.  OR you can instead add 1 tbsp of both cinnamon and nutmeg for a great fall scent.

Combine all ingredients and cook over medium warm heat on the stove until the mixture combines into a ball.  Let cool before using to play.

Fall is here and cranberry harvest has started!  I’m so excited for an entire month and a half of weeks filled with trips to the bogs to watch harvest.  The girls are so excited and this year Charlotte has already started asking so many questions about harvest.   Last week we started picking and taking off the fruit and it looks great!  I couldn’t help myself and when we visited the bogs I brought two big containers and hand scooped the cranberries right out of the water.  So what has changed from last year to this year – not much!  Some of the bogs that were taken out of production are now in full swing and most of the crop looks good.  We have four new picking machines and the crew is excited to be harvesting with such great equipment.

As many of you know I can’t help but post about “all things cranberry” during the fall and this week I’ll be starting off with my some fun facts about cranberries and one of my favorite recipes – cranberry apple pie!

Did you know…

Cranberries were most likely used in the first Thanksgiving in 1621.

Europeans named the fruit “crane berry” because they thought the cranberry blossom looked like the head of a sandhill
crane.

Cranberries score among the highest of all fruits in antioxidants.

Contrary to popular belief, cranberries do not grow in water. A perennial plant, cranberries grow on low-running vines in
sandy bogs and marshes. Because cranberries float, bogs are flooded to harvest the cranberries

The 2012 cranberry production is estimated at 7.6 million barrels.

Cranberries freeze well for up to two year!

Gilmore family favorite Cranberry Apple Pie

Pie Crust – We use the recipe from Fannie Farmer

9″ two crust pie

2 2/1 cups of Flour

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup shortening

6-7 tbsp cold water

Mix the flour and salt together.  Cut in the shortening.  Sprinkle water over the mixture a tbsp at a time.

OR Tart Pastry

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold butter cut into pieces

1 egg yolk

Mix the flour and salt cut in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.  Whisk the egg yolk and 2 tbsp water together and add to the flour mixture.  Blend until smooth

Filling:

1 cup of fresh cranberries (washed)

6 -8 apples peeled and sliced (I prefer the granny smith apples)

2/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp flour

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 425.  Combine sugar, flour and spices in large bowl. Use your hands and mix in the apples so they are well coated.  Place into the pie shell and cover with the top pie crust.  Crimp the edges and with a folk prick the top of the pie crust to vent. Bake 10 minutes and then lower to 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Sources

Cranberry Facts

Fannie Farmer Cookbook

Recipe

It is the back-to-school season for most families! Charlotte starts preschool soon and while I have pains of sadness that she’ll be leaving me for two mornings a week although I know she will have a wonderful time.  Charlotte doesn’t eat lunch at her preschool, but I know for most families the start of school is also the start of packed school lunches for the kiddos!  And as busy as our lives get, especially during the school year, it is common (even in our house) to rely on plastic baggies for bringing sandwiches and snacks to school.  Did you know that each year there is an “an estimated 500 bilion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide?” (snacktaxi.com) Astonishing!!!

This year I’m trying to make a commitment for our family to use less plastic bags.  We have started by purchasing reusable sandwich and snack bags from snackTaxi!  I first came across these bags in an adorable shop in Chicago when I was visiting my dear friend Emily a few years ago.  I bought two of them and it quickly became the norm to use the snackTaxi when pulling together fruits, crackers and cheese for a morning trip to the library or playground. Charlotte loves choosing the one she wants for her snack! I feel good that we are using less plastic bags and the girls love the fun patterns and easy of opening.  I have added a few more snackTaxi bags to our house this fall and am working hard to stick to the goal of using less plastic : )

How do you cut down on the use of plastic bags in your house?

Photo credit

We love to take road trips when autumn arrives!  Most of the time the trips are day trips either to Cape Cod, NH or VT.  We pack the girls in the car, stroller in the back, books and toys in between the kiddos and we are off.  About 15 minutes into any trip, if the girls are still awake, we get the usual “I’m hungry and I need a snack” or Lillian will usually scream (yes my tiny peanut has a big set of lungs!) So we reach into the cooler and pull out the snacks. As a mom that works hard to provide healthy snack choices for my kids and myself, I try to balance any road trip with healthy snacks.  I’d be lying if I told that I don’t carry Goldfish, animal crackers and occasionally fruit snacks for the girls, but I also try to carry healthy options for the girls.  I’m always on the search for great road trip snacks for the entire family.  While watching the news at the gym the other day, I saw the best way to bring homemade popcorn on the road.  All you need is a paper bag (small one like we used when we were kids for school lunches) and a half a cup of popcorn.  Place the popcorn in the paper bag, fold over the top, put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and presto – perfect homemade popcorn ready to be topped and brought on the road!

Favorite healthy road trip snacks

1) Homemade popcorn – top with sea salt, crushed up kale chips or a sprinkle of olive oil

2) Hard boiled eggs – these are great if the road trip starts in the early morning

3) Blueberries – easy for the kids to eat (especially the little, little ones) – they can be a little messy but oh so good!

4) Kale chips – great if you can make them the day of, but certainly can be prepared the day before.  My favorite kale chip recipe is with olive oil and sea salt

5) Homemade trail mix – This is a great activity to make together with you little ones.  Charlotte loves to add different ingredients.  We add pretzels, dried fruits, nuts and (Shi adds some chocolate chips)

6) Yogurt – Our favorite yogurt in the car is ProBugs because it is easy to drink and resealable.

What are your favorite healthy road trip snacks?

Photo credit

Super Girl Shi ready to take on anything!

Someday I feel all I need is a cape and I could be “super mama”!!!

Charlotte received a cape for her second birthday from her buddy, Max! She has loved this cape and most recently asks to wear it often calling herself “super girl Shi”  Super Girl Shi can help mama fold laundry, clean the dishes and pick up the toys and book scattered around the den.  Super Girl Shi can do almost anything, always helpful and willing to tackle any task.  When the cape comes off Super Girl Shi becomes “just Charlotte” (as she says to me – Mama I’m just Charlotte right now) and those helpful qualities diminish some!  This morning in fact when I asked her if she could help pick up some dish towels on the floor that Lillian had thrown about the kitchen her reply was “Mom I’m not Super girl Shi right now – see I don’t have on my cape so I can’t help with the dish towel” To which I responded “Oh right, I see”  And to think if I had a cape the possibilities of what Super Mama could do would be limitless!!!