Spring Break

One of the many awesome things about being an educator are the (paid) breaks.  One of the many awesome things about working at a boarding school is having long breaks, like a two week spring break!  We were so exhausted from the previous trimester that we spent the first several days relaxing at home, cleaning, enjoying the scoldingly hot showers that don't exist when the boys are around among many other things.  Once we recovered we hit the road and spent a few days in Richmond hitting up the Children's Museum and then this wonderful park in downtown Richmond.  From there we hit up Williamsburg--seeing as how I didn't go to school in Virginia this was my first visit.  I am a fan! But more on that later.  

The Children's Museum in Richmond was great.  All sorts of big toys that were just great for him, not everything was age appropriate, but there were enough activities there that were which was awesome.  He got to play in a sandbox of tiny rubber pellets and play with big ol' foamy block (by play I mean knock over big towers Cory built).

Maymont is this big park in downtown Richmond--there is a huge mansion on it that apparently you can tour that we didn't bother with and it has grounds that I imagine are beautiful when the flowers are blooming on a gorgeous sunny day.  Besides gorgeous grounds (or what I imagine them to look like) they also have a small petting zoo, other native virginian animals and then a small wetland exhibit (which is the only part that costs money).  The whole place was awesome.  From getting Edmund to feed the goats and pet the sheep, to how hysterical he thought the ducks were.  It was so fun to watch him with the animals.  Once we went inside the wetland exhibit had crazy fish and turtles and some great hands on activities for kids.  In one room there was a stuffed t-rex about as tall as Edmund and I kept growling at him with until one point where he came around the corner of a little play house and I startled him to a little scream.  We couldn't help but laugh--he recovered quickly.  At one point a man even brought a snake into the room for the kids to pet, Edmund didn't care too much about the snake, but he was really interested in the hand sanitizer and rubbing his hands together like the other kids.  Anyway--it was awesome.  Enough words--now for the good thing, pictures!

he loved getting low to see the small animals

 This next series of pictures is awesome.  So Edmund was walking down this big hill.  He stumbles and catches himself as seen here.

 But he can't get all the way back up and proceeds to fall over and start to roll down the hill...and he didn't appear to be stopping.

 So he maybe did two full revolutions before Cory stopped him.  It was great.  Really it was hysterical.  He wasn't hurt and he didn't hit anything and he was moving so slow, it is still amazing to us that he couldn't stop on his own.  I hope that doesn't make us bad parents that we found him rolling "uncontrollably" down a hill funny, but it was dang funny.

 Cory helped him up and brushed him off and I think he was a little confused, but in no time he was high fiving daddy and running down the hill again.

 Since we didn't catch it on video we were secretly trying to get him to roll again on his own and Cory thought he'd show him how much "fun" it is!

 He soon figured out how to quickly walk down hill and loved it!

I love sticks!

Ears Lowered

We took the plunge today and got Edmund's hair cut for the first time.  We took him to Snip-Its, a special place just for kids to get their hair done.  They even do birthday parties! I can promise you though, Edmund will NEVER have a birthday party at Snip-Its.  While I almost croaked at the cost of it I will agree to pay that much to cut the hairs of the non-stop mover of a son I have.  There was a lot of hair too! I was blown away by how different he looked.  Cory said he looks chubby now.

Here is one of the many before photos of the crazy mop he was sporting.  What you can't tell from this picture is there are some real dark locks of hair (that are gone now).  We now have a fully blonde baby (well, little man looking child, but still mama's baby boy).

He could almost be Bieber-liscious if we styled it right...

"Mooommmm, what are they doing to me?"

 He recovered from the pre-sad face above and I'm proud to say took getting his haircut like a man.  No tears from him or mom.  Giving him animal crackers and spray bottles tend to help!  

 Edmund like this hair-cut because it shows off his man scrape.  The scrape came from a little face plant into some dirt (it looks worse than it is).  I imagine we'll have several more of these face plants over the next year plus.

Can you believe he has gone from this little black haired fire ball

To this adorable, sweet little man?

Yea--I'm a good looking kid, rocking my Kansas t-shirt, and riding my horse.  

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Haircut

Do I need a haircut?

I really want to impress the girls and am not sure my mom and dad have this interest in mind.  

All my little lady friends please share your thoughts.  

I'm Makin' Waffles!

Breakfast has been a challenge in the Woods household.  Not because Edmundo won't eat it, but because he can't eat eggs (or isn't suppose to).  For the longest time breakfast was simply yogurt and a fruit of some kind.  I was getting tired of feeding it to him and I have to imagine he was getting tired of it.  Since he didn't like oatmeal I felt really stuck.

Then I had a brilliant idea.  I like waffles and I bet he'd like waffles (especially if they have blueberries in them!)  I figured there had to be a way to make waffles without eggs.  My first thought was to make waffles with yogurt opposed to eggs.  I scoured the net trying to find a recipe that would work and tried my hand at one.  It wasn't bad, just a little heavy.  I wasn't able to find a real egg free+yogurt waffle recipe, I had to mix and match things.  After trying a few I landed on this beauty that results in this response:

Whole-Grain Blueberry Waffles

• 1 cup frozen (or fresh) blueberries - thawed (drain excess liquid)
• 1 & 1/2 cups reduced-fat milk
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 large egg-lightly beaten: I substitute 4oz of Applesauce
• 2 Tablespoons of Vegtable Oil
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the dry ingredients-Mix the wet-Combine (don't over-mix)-then fold in blueberries.  Cook in a waffle iron and serve to a kid that will for sure love it!

As I noted above I substitute the egg with applesauce and it still keeps the waffles light, moist and delicious!

What is great about these waffles is that I'll make a huge batch and then freeze them and pop them out as needed.  They are also great if your kiddo is teething.  Just pull one out and let your poor teething baby gnaw on that beast.  

Having an egg allergy I am finding is easier than expected to combat.  Applesauce is a great replacer and it adds a good sweetness with natural sugar.  If you have a kiddo with an egg allergy there are some great fun options out there to spice up life a little bit.

Edmund says enjoy!

Catch Ups

I have been absent.  I apologize blog world.  With our recent two week spring break I took an almost total break from any and all forms of communication.  I think I just wanted to hide.  With that absence I have a lot to catch you up on and even a lot to catch you up on from before the break.  So this week I will be making my best effort.  I will probably miss a few things, but here is the start:

Several weeks ago (well, like a month + ago) we took a long awaited trip to North Carolina to visit some of the dear friends we made from our three years there.  Since we moved we have been trying and we finally planned this trip all the way back in September.  It was awesome!  We got to eat at some of our favorite stops (mainly Armadillo Grill), go to our old church, and laugh a lot.  One of the most exciting parts was staying with our friends Robbie & Dana and meeting their sweet little guy Noah.  Needless to say I think Noah & Edmund are going to be best friends for life (at least I hope so)!

This is Noah digging in on his first lemon--he loved it!

They played together, ate together, and seeing them together just made me smile!  They loved each other!  When we ended up leaving I think they were both sad and missed being together.

While we were there we also got to go back to Treasuring Christ Church.  We attended TCC pretty much the whole time we were in North Carolina.  Saying TCC is amazing is an understatement.  Cory and I feel so blessed to have been a part of the community there.  It was a family and when we returned we were welcomed back with the same loving arms that we left.  To our brothers and sisters at TCC who may read this; please read this as a thank-you.  We love you, love your families and miss all of you. We are thankful for you and hope that we were able to bless you half as much as you blessed us.