Italian Ice Recipe

I spent the day with my grandson and we found lots of interesting projects to keep us busy. Our first project was making an afternoon snack. My grandson likes ice cream but dairy and gluten are not allowed in his diet. So, grandma had to find a good alternative for Little Bug. I started making a simple Italian Ice from an old memory of my grandmother making Italian ice for the family.

That's Little Bug mashing the strawberries.
After mashing one or two cups of strawberries I added 1/4 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of sugar. I suggest sweeten to your taste.

Cover the strawberry mash and freeze. Take the strawberry mash out of the freezer about every 30 minutes and break up with a fork. This will stop it from forming a large frozen Popsicle block. About two hours or so your Strawberry Italian Ice will be ready to enjoy.

While waiting for his snack to freeze Little Bug did some painting.

Later on I pulled out some craft foam and we made a rocket ship and some space aliens. Little Bug wanted to make a city for his aliens so of course I helped him make a great city for him to enjoy.

That was our great day! How was yours?

Could This Be The Last Snow Of The Season?

I was sitting at our window this morning watching a robin that has been hanging around for a few days now. She seems to have an injured leg. I have been watching her hopping around our pond eating little bits here and there. This morning while watching her I got to wondering if the melting snow drifts in our yard would be the last of the snow this year. I really do hope that this warm spell is here to stay. I am a little itchy to get to work in my garden.
Little Bug Stopped by for a visit today. I could tell he was feeling a little cooped up right along with his grandma. So, I decided we had better enjoy the last of the melting snow together. I gave him his sand pail and a garden spade and let him play in what little snow we had left in our back yard.

"I'm going to dig a tunnel"

"Grandma, my feet are stuck!"

"Grandma, you can't catch me!"

Little Bug's visit gave my spirits a big lift today. I hope it will last until Easter. What kind of day did you have today? Do you think we will get any more snow? Is this warm weather here to stay?

Easter Bunny Cake

While off visiting my grandsons we had the enjoyment of making an Easter Cake. My grandson loves to help when ever I am baking so he was right in their learning how to frost a cake. I don't think I have ever taught a three year old how to frost a cake before. The experience was pure joy. Now I have made many nice Easter cakes before but I think this one was so easy and fun for my grandson that I will be making another this week with my granddaughters.
We used a cake mix. I normally make my cakes from scratch but it was much easier for my grandson to use a box mix. we prepare the cake as instructed on the box. I baked the cake in a 13 x 9 inch pan. When the cake was cooled I cut to pieces for ears and the remaining cake I cut in half and stacked.

My grandson iced the cake with butter cream frosting. we then covered the cake in shredded coconut. Last, we decorated with our favorite candies.

Have you decorated any cakes lately? What dessert do you have planned for Easter?

Spring Cleaning!

I am so tired of winter and wishing that spring would come early this year. A few years back I would not have made that wish. I always enjoyed winter, cold and snow. Well, I decided to give spring a big push and do some spring cleaning. 

All this week we will be cleaning our closets, cupboards and storage shed.
I made one rule we will follow this week. If it has not seen the light of day in the last year it's out of here! The only exceptions I will make is for books, jewelry, my wedding dress and perhaps my husbands tools. I hope we will have lots of closet and storage space when I am finished.

Our grandson visited this week. Here are some photos.

Grandma, I need to fix something!

 My magazine rack must have needed fixing! 

What have you been up to this week? Are you ready for spring?

Growing A Lemon Tree

Just an up date on Growing a lemon tree from seeds. It has been about a month and I wanted to share with you how well the seedlings are doing.

Mid January

You can read the post about starting a lemon tree from seeds here.

One month later. February 25th.

Over the weekend I spent some time with my grandson Little Bug at the Build and Grow Clinic. We put together a monster truck. 

It was a fun learning experience for both of us. Have you ever been to a Build and Grow Clinic? 

Crock Pot Cookies

As promised here is the second half of our busy weekend post. Sunday's main event went down a lot quicker than our long Saturday. 

We were expecting our grandson Little Bug to visit on Sunday afternoon. When ever Little Bug stops over to visit he likes to have a treat or two from grandma and grandpa. I usually make him cookies or buttermilk biscuits. Both are his favorite. I do plan to share these two recipes with you all soon. They are very unique recipes as they are gluten free and paleo based. I made up the cookie dough and set it in the refrigerator to chill. Then I put dinner in the oven to bake. I decided to mix up a batch of biscuits to go with our dinner. 

Just as I turned to set the biscuit dough on the stove top to rise a loud bang came from inside the oven. A big puff of smoke came out the back of the oven. The control panel on the stove top went blank. 

Not sure what happened at this point my husband turned off the breaker to the stove and set about lighting the grill out on our deck. While my husband finished making dinner on the grill. I fretted over not having a treat in our house that Little Bug would be allowed to eat. Then I remembered seeing a recipe some where about baking a cake in a crock pot. If someone could bake a cake in a crock pot I figured I cold bake cookies in my crock pot. 

This is what I did. First I turned the crock pot on high(with the lid on). I found a 7 inch cake pan that fit nicely inside. I rolled out and cut the dough. I fit cookies in the pan. Then I laid three spoons in the bottom of the crock pot to keep the pan off the bottom and allow air to circulate under the pan. I put the pan in the crock pot trying to keep it in the center with a little space on the sides. I first set a timer for 20 minutes and checked often. After 45 minutes the cookies were done.  

Our visit with Little Bug went over perfectly. He had his special treats and I learned a new cooking skill. My oven is not working until now. We are waiting on a part that had to be ordered. Next time I buy a new stove I will not be buying one with a digital control panel. I will get an old fashioned gas stove! Lesson learned modern is not always great. 

Saturday Fun

We are enjoying this beautiful day.

We have many reasons to be thankful.

Grandson, "What do you want puppy? Grandma said, no more cookies!"

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Little Bug And His Bird

 

A Little Help Please. We Need A Nick Name!

By now you all have met my newest grandson. I am proud to show him off again for anyone who missed the first pictures.

So here is the big request! I need some help with his nickname for Grandma Bonnie's Closet. Here is some information to help your thought process. Born July 14th on his calculated due date. He has a little more hair than his brother Pooh Bear did at birth. He weighed 6lbs 1oz. 19.5 inches long. He sleeps well and eats good. If you have a suggested nickname leave it in a comment. Thanks a million. I will leave you with a side view. Ha ha.

Our New Blessing

We have a new grand baby! My readers, I have been missing for a few days. Well, some of you may have suspected our new grandchild has arrived. We have been so busy with our new blessing and no time for my blogging work. I must also confess I had no internet connection at the hospital. Well lets just say I am not technical savvy enough to figure how to get my smart phone hooked to their internet server. I guess smart phones are not so smart. I will stop rambling on and get to the good news.
We have a healthy grandson! Born on Saturday the 14th of July. I will leave you with some pictures. I hope you all have a great week. I will be back soon and stop over to visit each of you.

 Pooh Bear is just loving his new baby brother.

Ember Image Photography

My grandson Little Bug is featured at Ember Image Photography!

I would love you to go over and check out the photos. If you like you can follow her blog and leave a comment letting her know you came from Grandma Bonnie. If you follow she will follow back!

Another Week on the Potty Train

Our adventure continues. Pooh Bear has been a real trooper this week. His mother and I both think the end is in sight. I am so excited to see my grandson asking to use the potty to pee.  In fact a few times he actually only had to see the potty and decided by himself to sit down and go. There was also a time or two when  I just told him  " Why don't you go sit on the potty" and he just went over and sat on the potty with out any help. Up until this point it had been the normal to walk him over to the potty. Then sit him down to go pee. It is so nice with just a few reminders he is able to stay accident free all day.

Now our next step is to teach him how to get his pants down with out having an accident. While at home we have been leaving him with out pants. We just dress him in a long tee-shirt. This makes it easier for him to use the potty himself. It's hard for a toddler to pull down their pants and not pee at the same time. It takes a lot of coordination to wait and pee after the pants are down.
Pooh Bear has also decided all his little friends need to go potty too. So through out the day he sits his little friends on the potty. I think he is trying to potty train them.

Weekend Trip

Our local Fire Department had a fire safety event this weekend at the neighborhood Walgreens. My grandson and his father enjoyed sitting in the fire truck and playing games. He even brought home a fire safety coloring book.

See What Grandma Won!

Thank you Lemondrops Dream too. It came in the mail today. It's Potty Time. Potty training book. I won this fantastic book at Lemondrops Dream too!  I am so happy with the book. The timing is perfect for my grandsons potty training adventure.

Our Potty Training Adventure continues...

So on we go with our potty training adventure! We had a few bumps this week. Along with each bump in the road we had many more successes. My grandson is handling the potty like a pro when it comes to pooping in the potty. Any one who is in charge of changing diapers can attest to the fact it's much easier to clean up a poopy potty chair than to clean up a toddlers poopy bottom. The only time we put a diaper on my grandson is when he is napping or going to bed. So as far as we can see he is almost completely trained. This weekend we are going on a long trip. We are taking the potty chair with us in the car. When ever we stop to eat, stretch our legs, or get gas we will sit him on the potty. I don't expect any problems since he usually stays dry two or more hours at a time during the day.
Until next week. Wishing the best to all those who are working on potty training.

  

The Great Potty Adventure continued...

We are moving forward on potty training. I can hardly wait for the time when my grandson will be able to hold his pee for a few minutes in order to get to a potty. As long as we are vigilant with reminders and stay near a potty we seem to be on the right track.  He is great with poop. He has not had a poop accident at all in the last three weeks.  We are very happy with our potty training experience so far.  Until next time, have a great week!

Potty Training Update.

I wrote earlier how my daughter started elimination communication with my grandson around his first birthday.  Once my grandson saw that he peed in the potty, he HAD to every time he sat on the potty. He is very motivated and loves seeing the outcome...pee in the potty. My daughter puts him in big boy underwear during the day. At nap and bedtime he wears a diaper(he wakes up dry, but needs to sit on the potty soon after waking or else he'll have a wet diaper). She also puts him in a diaper when they leave the house.

At 17 months old he was having around 1-2 accidents(we really dislike to use this word) every few days. Now, at 18 months old he tells us when he needs to poop. Pee on the other hand has been a little more work. Once he realizes he needs to go...he needs to go NOW. So at home 95 % of the time he makes it, but if he is outside it becomes harder.

Today was his first official trip (besides the park) in big boy underwear. We went to the mall to pick up some shoes for him. Before we left my daughter put him on the potty. About 30 minutes later we arrived at the mall and put him straight to the potty. Before leaving we asked him if he needed to go and he said no so off we went. He did really well, and stayed dry the whole time.

My daughter was very hesitant to begin taking him out in regular underwear, but after the success today she will definitely be taking him out in underwear from now and on.

I will update next week on his progress.