Martha's Marvellous Munchies

My friend Ellie writes a blog which I now shamelessly crib ideas from, when I am stuck for something new to do with Toby.  Some time ago she wrote about a substance with the poetic moniker of cloud dough .  It sounded simple to make and fun to play with, so I tucked it away in the back of my mind. The recipe is childishly simple: 8 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of vegetable oil, and mix.  It comes out kind of sandy, although softer and more powdery. Now, Ellie has two gorgeous girls.  Her blog entries were full of photos of them adding pretty objects and creating cute little landscapes.  I, on the other hand, have a full-on hands-on get-stuck-in-as-far-as-possible boy.  This is what happens when you let him loose on a scatterable substance. We make it and it all starts well.  Notice I have prepared for mess with a large tarpaulin and lack of shorts. A few minutes in, and the mess is spreading up the T-shirt.  It's still mostly in the t...

For some reason our photos this year wound up being dumped in one large folder, imaginatively entitled 2012 .  Nine months into the year, I finally have been getting around to categorising them, and thereby discovering a few blog posts I should have written.  This is one. Grapevine Botanic Gardens is not on the scale of its Fort Worth or Dallas counterparts, being more of a glorified park, but a very pretty one nonetheless.  We first went there on a sunny Saturday earlier this year, after driving past the signpost many times, and it was packed with people taking bridal photos and picnicking on the grass.  We've been a few times since then, and every time Toby heads straight for the fountain with the handy toddler-height overflow. Once we manage to detach him from that, the next stop is usually the pretty little pond system with footbridges, splashy waterfalls, and huge spotty fish.  On our latest visit we noticed a little snake nestled comfortabl...

One evening this summer, our church hosted a family fun night.  It was just starting to get into the hundred-degree temperatures by then, so we enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs inside the air-conditioned church hall, and then ventured out to see what kind of family fun was on offer. Toby made a beeline for the messiest stuff around - sidewalk paints made from shaving foam mixed with liquid watercolour. Look at all these pretty colours! Let's see how many I can mix up. Don't eat it, Toby! Fun for adults, too. Busy painting. Fortunately there were some water slides available as well!  He was a bit small for the proper slide, but enjoyed the horizontal one. We liked the shaving foam idea so much we tried it again at home.  I couldn't find the liquid watercolours, but we had some washable paint which worked OK.  It definitely falls into the category of, "is it really worth the clean-up" activities, though. I think it...

Of all the reactions I expected Toby to have to fireworks, falling asleep was not one!  But as soon as all those flashes and bangs started, he wrapped himself around me like a little koala baby, decided he was safe, and off he dozed.  Oh well, might as well relax and enjoy the show! We were in Fort Worth for the Fourth of July festival, and it had been a fun evening.  Somebody had obviously recruited some generous sponsors, because the whole thing was free - entry, music, fireworks, the lot.  They were even handing out free slices of watermelon. For the past couple of summers, if you have nothing to do on a Thursday evening, you've been able to rent a tube and float on the river listening to live music.  Looks like a pretty nice way to spend some time - at least as long as you don't have a toddler.  Still, we got to enjoy the band from terra firma, and see what it was all about.  These new aquatic activities are part of the Trinity River V...

No more California after this, I promise!  We'll be back to normal life again.  This is just a scattershot tour of the highlights from Long Beach. in no particular order.  If nothing else, you get a few more cute photos of Toby to look at. Long Beach is part of the greater Los Angeles sprawl, and while it might not be your first choice for a holiday destination, it has a pretty harbour area and a few good attractions (the Queen Mary of course being one).  We spent several days just pottering around and enjoying time in the sunshine. Outside the Convention Center Strolling along the boardwalk The harbour and downtown. An inoperative lighthouse had a pleasant little park around it... ...perfect for fun and games! Shhh, don't tell him you can put money in it! We drove to Huntingdon Beach one evening, where we were appalled to find that most of the car parks wanted $15 from us!  Finally we found a meter to put a few quarters in, and were...