How to Survive the Wisconsin Dells

Our summer is in full swing and we've had our fair share of fun, sun, and our usual summer vacations: Sailing the Apostle Islands (sans-kids), and taking the children to the Wisconsin Dells. This is our third summer in a row doing back-to-back sailing and Dells, and just now have I had the brilliant realization that we are doing it all backwards. We need to do the Dells trip first, and then come home, drop the kids off with gma, and then go do our four days of adult seclusion around the islands, because woah-man, going to the Wisconsin Dells is cra-zy! Don't get me wrong. I love spending time with my family and making memories with the kids, but the Wisconsin Dells are like Las Vegas except for children. It's lots of bright lights, loud noises, large crowds, and spoiling the kids silly. So after three years, I've deemed myself expert and have broken down surviving the WI Dells into a simple 3 step process:

1. Make time for your own kind of fun.

This trip is all about the kids, there's no doubt about that. But there's only so much kiddie-water time an adult can handle. If you spend your day chasing your kids around with a bottle of sunscreen and playing cheezey-themed games, you are no doubt going to go insane. You need time for your own kind of fun, and for me that's relaxing by the pool. I love sunbathing, and now I have our family take a quiet playtime in a small contained pool for a short while while I lay on the side, supervise and relax. Everyone will have more fun when everyone has fun, so it's not selfish to prioritize some time for yourself.

2. Recognize your child's limits.

All children turn into little gremlins under the right circumstances: little sleep, empty tummies, sensory overload, etc. Avoid the gremlin transformation by allowing adequate time for transitions, prepping kids to wait in line, and feeding them healthy, protein packed meals.

3. Just Do It,

I know I know. Cheesey clique. But seriously. Your kids aren't going to be bouncing-off-the-wall-excited-to-be-in-the-wisconsin-dells little cuties forever. I'm going to have all the time in the world to sit still, eat quinoa salads, read books, and sip iced coffees once the kids are out of the house....or worse yet at an age where they'd rather hang out with their friends than be caught dead at a water park with me. So I decided to put all my adversities to crowds and blinkie lights aside in order to play hand-in-hand with my bright-eyed children who were begging me to have fun with them. And guess what? I loved it. And they loved me loving it.

Houston, We Still Have a Blog!

Hel-LO crazy town! The last time I blogged was four years ago. Yes...you read that correctly, FOUR years ago! And that is because there's been a little time-problem over here at my house, and that is called MOTHERHOOD! Holy Buckets! I'm tired. I'm hungry. I haven't showered in two days. And yet my heart is more full than I ever could have imagined it to ever be. And it's all due to two little monsters. A blue-eyed, curly-haired one who loves to smell her buttons, and a hazel-eyed, full-cheeked one whose energy is literally exploding out of him. But here's the thing. It's going by fast. Like scary fast. Like I can't even remember what the kids looked or acted like when they were toddlers anymore. Everything is blurring by, and I'm super scared that I'm going to wake up one day, in a house without children, and think to myself "Did that just happen?!" It's happening right now! And it's eating me alive. And I love it. So this is my commitment today....as if I'm not already committed to enough things as is, but this one is important. To document my motherhood. To hopefully put a little time capsule on my children's youth because this is seriously the craziest, most beautiful, most important thing that's ever happened to me! So tonight between dinner, baths, and soccer practice, I am vowing to take the time to continue this blog. So I hope to see you soon!

Jakki

Zucchini Oatmeal Banana Muffins

I have been on a total health kick lately. I've switched out anything white for wheat. All of our grains are whole wheat or high fiber. Snacks have been fresh raspberries from the farmers market or fresh juicy peaches. Sophie's even fallen in love with raw carrots...SANS dip! This makes me such a proud mother! I made an egg-white egg bake for our Saturday morning breakfast last week and made the most delicious and nutritious muffins to go with them: Zucchini Oatmeal Banana Muffins. And I must be getting good at baking over here, because guess what? I didn't follow a recipe. I pretty much just threw a bunch of ingredients together and out popped these muffins. I know my mom's famous banana bread recipe pretty much by heart, and I make oatmeal cookies all the time, so I kind of used those two recipes as inspiration and then threw in a giant zucchini that I got from the Farmer's Market on Tuesday, and whala! Deliciousness! (And P.S. Did I mention they are sugar free? Yep.)

Ingredients

2 /1/2 cup oats (old fashioned kind, not quick cooking)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 single serving cup of plain low fat greek yogurt (you could easily sub in apple sauce here)
2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 banana
1 cup chopped zucchini (I left the skins on)



1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray tin with non-stick cooking spray or line 12 muffin tins with silicone or foil liners, (or just use a silicone muffin pan).2. Place all of the ingredients, including bananas in a blender or food processor, and blend until oats are smooth. 3. Divide batter among cupcake liners, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Samson's First Birthday

Our family has always had a sort of spirit of adventure, but it came even more alive when we had our second child, Samson Davis Weyrauch. When Samson arrived it was as if we dove into a family and began living a life steered by love and guided by chance; therefore I found it fitting to have a Disney Pixar's UP! themed birthday party for Sam. The party turned out great, and Sam had a wonderful time. We had the party at Duluth's Park Point beach pavilion where it was HOT, so after everyone smeared themselves with Grandma Howard's famous birthday cupcakes, we were able to jump into Lake Superior. 

Happy Birthday to our little explorer, Sammy! 

Visit to the Vet

I seriously think Veteranarians should consider doing home visits for patients who have small children and cats. Have you ever taken a cat to the vet before? Have you ever taken two small children out in public before? Cat to the vet + small children coming with = epic disaster.

Here is our adorable kitty, Sebastian:

Here are my cute, adorable little handfuls:

Now here's what Sebastian looked like when he was captured in his box on the way to the vet:

Here's what happened on our arrival to the vet:

And here's what I had to do:

Here is what the children were doing:

The cat:

Me:

The kids:

Needless to say I will never be doing this again.

To conclude this story:

Sebastian was rescued by the very nice veteranarian nurse lady and we were able to sedate him enough to get him back home where he continues to reside getting 16 hours of sleep a day and trying to snitch left over milk from the kids.

The End.

Homemade Granola

Do you ever have a 'homemade' feeling sort of day? I think I do every day...but today in particular. I get strong nesting urges all the time where you'd think I was planning for some sort of lock-in. Who knows...maybe I have spidey-earth-senses and my instincts are telling me a natural disaster is on its way. Well whatever the reason, after I totally cleaned/disinfected the house today, I went to town on some homemade cooking. First I did apple cobbler pancakes. Then I put a homemade rotisserie chicken noodle soup in the crock pot. And then Sophie wanted a snack, so I made this delicious homemade granola. I'm in love. And you know what? I'm never buying in-store granola ever again. This was so much cheaper and I already had half the ingredients in our house! And I know what's going in the granola! No crap here. Just good old wholesome goodness. Sophia and I enjoyed berry-yogurt parfaits for snack time today with our deliciously fresh granola.


Ingredients

4 cups large-flake (old fashioned) oats
1 cup chopped nuts (I used hazelnuts, but almonds would probably be good, and so would pecans!)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, raw unsalted
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup vegetable, canola or coconut oil
1/2 cup real maple syrup (you could substitute honey)
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 ° F.
Combine the oats, nuts, sunflower seeds, brown sugar and salt in a large bowl. Stir well to combine, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar.
In a glass measuring cup, combine the oil and the maple syrup. Microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute. Remove. Add vanilla and stir well.
Pour oil/maple syrup mixture over the oats mixture. Using two spoons, stir and toss the mixture until all of the oats are coated with the syrup.
Place granola directly onto a baking sheet and place in the oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 miinutes, remove the granola and stir, moving the granola around the outside edges into the middle and the middle out towards the edges. Set the timer for another 10 minutes. After the second 10 minutes, sprinkle with the coconut and then stir well again. Return to oven and set the timer for one last 10 minute bake. (30 minutes total, stirred twice at 10 minutes and 20 minutes). At the end of the last 10 minutes (30 minutes in the oven), remove the granola from the oven. Stir just a bit then sprinkle with the cranberries and raisins and leave undisturbed until it is completely cooled. Once cooled, stir the granola. Store at room temperature in an air-tight container. Will keep for several weeks (although it may not last that long).
Prep time: 5 min | Cook time: 30 min | Total time: 35 min

Take Your Daughter To Work Day

This was the exciting year that Sophia got to participate in Take Your Daughter to Work day. I know that on this day, children are supposed to get a practical view of what their parents do for a living, so I just have to say one thing: in no way am I supporting daunting physical labor that focuses on being a slave to people for Sophia to have as a career when she grows up. Part of me wants to say that I do NOT want Sophia to be a waitress when she grows up, but then I realize that the reason I waitress is to a.) be able to stay home with my sweet babies during the day, and b.) get out of the freaking house, so I guess I would in-fact want this for Sophia. Either way, Sophia got to be a waitress for a day, and she thought it was great. Not just great, but she down right loved it. 

Sophia and I got to the Olive Garden around 9am and it was set up really cute; there was an entire dining room section set up especially for kids. Sophia got to start her shift as a waitress by making herself an adorable necklace out of beads. Sophia's necklace turned out beautiful after she dropped about thirty beads on the floor that went scattering about. Whoever sits in Sophia's section for lunch is going to slip on a carpet of beads. Either that or I'm going to have to tip out the bus-boys extra from now on for all the clean up I made them endure. After Sophia got beautifully adorned in homemade jewlery (because everyone knows a successful waitress is properly accessorized), Sophia got to personalize her own apron. Sophia chose to cover her apron in glittery, sticky, smiley-faces in which she shed throughout the Olive Garden on her kitchen tour...like in the soup area. And the salad area. But nevermind that.

 Not only did Sophia get to see what goes on in a real live restaurant kitchen, she got to make her own lunch: pizza and a smoothie:

Here she is exercising her italian heritage and creating a home made personal pizza.

How cute is this picture? The smoothie blender is a little loud.

The day was a success and Sophia was glad to finally be able to see exactly where her mama goes when she leaves the house to go be a waitress at night...although now she thinks I just go to work and do crafts and eat pizza. That's okay. If Andy would have taken her to work, then she would just think Daddy golfs for a living. Just kidding. (I love you Andy!)