A little of this, a little of that......

We have some cute neighbors that we play with and the other day I found a nice surprise on my door.
Two cards made especially for us! They both looked like this on the front.....

 Then inside one was this......

 And inside the other was this......

 Doesn't it make you all warm and fuzzy inside? Just one of those things that made my whole day happy!

One day I was having fruit for lunch and Xander decided to confiscate it and create a "fan." I'm not sure where he came up with the idea, or the name, but he was creating his own art and I loved it! And yes the fruit was still edible afterward, it just needed a little wash.

 Xander has been into making tents lately. This is one of our most elaborate ones. He took all the pillows he could find and blankets and created a huge pile. Then got frustrated because it wasn't a tent, it was just a pile of stuff, so I helped him organize it into an actual tent and we played inside. I love this age!

Monday I decided I wanted to make chicken noodle soup and bread for dinner. Now, usually when I make bread I just do it in the breadmaker, but this time I decided just to use the dough setting and bake it in the oven. I used a recipe that makes two loaves of dough (my first mistake), put all the ingredients in my breadmaker (my second mistake), then walked away for about 20 minutes. When I checked it the ingredients on top (which includes the yeast) were still sitting there just as I left them. AHHHHH! So, I took everything out and just dumped it into my Kitchen Aid and mixed it up. The dough was weird and I had no idea if it would rise correctly, but I thought I'd just try it and see what happened. It rose, and I tried to shape it into loaves, but the dough wasn't the right consistency, so I just did the best I could and popped it in the pan, let it rise and baked it. Here is the end result, lumpy, bumpy bread that actually tasted just fine. I'll just call it artisan bread and pretend I meant to make it that way!

 And the chicken noodle soup was yummy, but wow I never realized how long it takes to make it! And I didn't even make my own noodles. The process of boiling the chicken and making broth, etc.  I once again have a greater appreciation for my mother!