Evenings on the porch

Come and join me in my favorite room of the house,

I wish that we could sit and watch the sun go down together.

My new favorite time of day

After dinner wrestling time with Daddy,

Ways to spend a too-hot-day

These recent days have been long, and hot here in Brooklyn, way too hot to spend too much time outside. We've been running out on errands, to the store, the farmer's market, then retreating back indoors to the relief of our air conditioning. There we have been spending most of our time. Yesterday, I started thinking that in a way it might as well be wintertime with the amount of time that we have been spending holed up inside. It is harder for me to think of how to spend our time when we are stuck indoors but we do have some creative tricks here, so I thought I'd share a list of some of our recent favorite ways to pass the time, all of which I think could work equally well in this heat wave or in a snow bound winter....

1. Sunprints
Making Sunprints is something that even very young children can do. It works very well in the summertime as the sun is so strong and you get your results very quickly.

We grab a bunch of things that we think will make a fun impression....

Then we start experimenting, placing things in the sun on the photo-sensitive paper, and the results are so beautiful. It is hard to go wrong with Sunprints, the kid's excitement really makes me feel like the coolest mom ever.

2. Window Stickers

This turns any window into a fun surface for imaginative play. We use The Original Colorforms Set along with a combination of sets like this Mudpuppy Room to Play Play Scene Sticker Set. Basically any reusable vinyl sticker will do.

I keep them all in an old shoe box so that I can pull them out when we are searching for something to do, today the kids created a circus.

3. Video time
We do enjoy good videos and lately we have been really into the series of videos that were released last year by BBC called Life.
Each one hour episode is about a different part of the animal kingdom, mammals, insects, birds, reptiles, etc....and my little animal obsessed boy pretty much thinks they are the best thing ever, in fact so do the rest of us, the cinematography is beyond amazing.
We've also been going back to our very favorite video series The Little Travelers, about a real life world traveling family, the kids love it!

4. Beauty Shop
It is hard for me to get a good shot of this because I am usually the center part of the action when we do this...

Usually I'll suggest this when I am tired, since the main part of "beauty shop" is usually me sitting on the floor while the kids brush and put hair clips in my hair (and I close my eyes), we also dress up and do each other's nails during beauty shop time. This is another winner in our home, and here is how my hair looked after our last beauty shop time...

Well, there are some of our ways to stay sane indoors! Tomorrow we are making an escape to the beach where at least we'll be able to beat the heat in the water, before returning home.
xo

Exploring our deck

We have come to my favorite time of year, when all of my favorite plants are blooming, the days are looong and my birthday is just around the corner. These are the days when I like to have coffee in the cool of the morning on our deck, while enjoying the bird song and small changes that have happened in the night. We found this just this morning...

And our sweet smelling lillies opened up the other day!

Our deck is really my favorite thing that we added in the renovation of our house. Here is what the back of our house looked like when we bought it...

Through a friend we found a very eccentric man who specializes in building decks in Brooklyn in the summer, and wintering in Costa Rica. He talked with us about our vision for the deck and then built this...

Our dream deck, right off of our kitchen, where we took out a window and added a large glass door so that we can walk right out. Most of the plants that I have out there are like old friends now after 5 years of growth, this year the daylillies that I have outside of the door grew taller than I am, and our cat Pepper spends most his time lounging luxuriantly somewhere on the deck.

There are places for both adults and kids to hang out, and always a toy or two laying about.

Seeds that we planted indoors in tiny pots back in March are now plants thick with flowers.

I am very much an adventurous and experimental gardener, so along with my perennials that live on the deck all year round, we have flowers and tropical plants that I like to grow and bring inside for the winter. We also grow grape tomatoes, strawberries, basil and rosemary.

More than anything the deck is my gardening playground, a place for us to get a little messy and unwind. We have been lucky that this year so far the Mosquitoes who can sometimes swarm the backyard in summer have not been bad yet. So we've had more carefree time out there.

Taking in the sun.

Glorious weekending

We've had a glorious weekend of sunshine, bare feet on the deck, spring planting, grandparents visiting, watching the Brooklyn Saint Patricks Day parade (I swoon listening to bagpipes), and eating yummy food.

This morning I made my amazing sweet potato biscuits for breakfast, and as we were enjoying them I thought that I had to share them with you here. Now, some may think that sweet potato and biscuits should not be in the same sentence, but these are just the tastiest, fluffiest biscuits that you can imagine. My mother made these all the time when I was a kid. They are very simple and fun to make with kids, I always have little helpers taking turns adding the ingredients.

Sweet Potato Biscuits
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (I usually peel and cut one sweet potato into small pieces and boil it for 15 minutes, then drain and mash it)
1/4 cup melted butter
2/3 cup milk
1 and 1/4 cup flour
2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease a cupcake/muffin tray.
Combine all ingredients.
Stir until smooth, sprinkling more flour in if necessary until the mixture is the consistency of soft dough.
Spoon the dough into the muffin tray filling each cup.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are just light brown.
We enjoy them warm with butter, honey and jam.
Yum.

I always have sweet potatoes around, and I love finding new ways to enjoy them. I recently tried another amazing recipe, involving roasted sweet potatoes, red onions and cherry tomatoes sprinkled with feta cheese in a warm salad, it is seriously lick the plate good and is quickly becoming a favorite. My friend Kirsten shares it here on her blog. I recommend it ever so highly.