This may be sacrilege, but I have never really liked pancakes. A piece of bread with an extreme amount of overly sweet syrup just makes me sick to my stomach. So, my poor kids only got them maybe twice a year. Until now! I named them camp pancakes because at first I was thinking of things that would be decently easy to make when camping, without too much mess. That and I wanted something that had some goodies beyond just empty carbohydrates.

So, first I thought of proteins, well I suppose you could add something like bacon, which believe me would be yummy, but it just adds another thing to make, so I figured the protein we put in our smoothies would work, right? It did, it did. We use hemp hearts for our smoothies, they are tiny shelled hemp seeds. These little gems provide not only protein, but a good amount of iron and some fiber. Hemp hearts have a slightly nutty flavor to them.

Next, I was thinking some fruit is always good for us, so we threw in some frozen blueberries (course you might used dried blueberries when camping, not frozen) and chopped bananas. YUM!

(You have to be careful though, who chooses the blueberries, because they may be all gone before hand)

Then, raw crushed almonds, I know it sounds weird, but I am a lover of crunchy food, plus I just like almonds.
(Sadly, I forgot to take the picture of Sugar Plum fairy using the mortar and pestle to crush the almonds, the kids love using it)

Last, but not even close to least, broken Hershey Bars. Or, if your a total health nut, we sometimes use raw organic cacao nibs.

As for the batter, you can use whatever you like. I don’t have a favorite, so perhaps you can recommend to us your favorite and I can try them out.

Oh, Oh! I almost forgot. We add our syrup to the batter, and in my opinion, maple syrup is the best. Plus, it doesn’t have that awful high fructose corn syrup in it.

So, after all that, you slap em on the griddle. (might be best to pour batter, not slap)

And, the let the most qualified flipper take over…

Then, you jump on the couch with your fresh camp cakes and ride with miss Sugar Plum fairy to the beach. (Well, that’s where she said we were headed anyway)

Or, you can just close your eyes and enjoy…

Linking up with Adventurez in Childrearing

Caramel + Apples + Bar of Yummies = Happy Birthday Boy

He came up with this outfit completely on his own.

Things that Mommy finds on her cell phone

My kids love running around yelling bippity boppity boo at each other while holding whatever toy that looks the most like a wand to them. Well, this last week I discovered some of the duct tape crafts. I quickly decided I was going to try and make the kiddos some wands. It was much easier then I ever expected.

Materials

dowels
spray paint (optional)
duct tape
scissors
hot glue gun & hot glue
permanent markers (optional)

I painted their dowels black because that was the available color in Geek Adonis’ shop.

And, I fully realize that there are a crazy amount of different colors of duct tape out there now, but I was working with what I had in the house or in the shop.

I started with Sugar Plum Fairy’s Boo Stick first.

I ripped a bunch of 2-3 inch pieces…

Folded a corner over, then…

the other corner. Take that and wrap it around your dowel, like so…

Rinse, wash, repeat…

Apply that second piece to the other side. Where the tips are opposite of each other.

Continue doing this until you have the above flower. It was very easy to then paint it pink with a permanent marker.

She immediately went to turning me into a frog, rabbit, ooh and then superman.

Onward, to Little Old Man’s Boo Stick…

Sorry, no tutorial, because this guy – Duct Tape Ninja, did an awesome job and I just don’t think I can top him.

So, after making two ninja stars, I just hot glued them to the dowel and bippity boppity boo!

Okay, so now go make your own and please please show them to me!

We went to a wedding recently and I got the chance to take a few pics of the kids. I had to tell this quick story. My husband’s cousin has a beautiful little girl and as we walked into the reception she said to her mommy, “Mom, who is that princess?” She was talking about my daughter Sugar Plum Fairy. So here are the two of them after discovering each other!

How, absolutely precious was that?!

Now, Little Old Man couldn’t be outdone, therefore he played the ninja/vogue/silly card…

and…

Hee Hee, I love him!

110 degree temps and we decided to travel even closer to the equator. It was well worth it, because the company was grand. But, as the pictures will tell, we didn’t do much out in the blazing sun.

Our first morning, Aunt Summer and Little Old Man peacefully relaxing in the sumo bean bag chair.

Later, we head to town and the kids decided that it was just to exhausting to lounge at home that they must then snooze in the truck.

Yep, even the one who never sleeps partook.

Now, I must introduce my brothers oldest (the youngest being still in the womb at this time), Miss Lilypad. As she sits in her bucket nibbling on a pickle and contemplating life.

And, finally our host, my sister (in-law). As she snuggles with a sleeping Smiley.

I love to name the characters in my life that frequently or infrequently appear in my blog. So far we have…
Me – Lady of the barn
My hubby – Geek Adonis
Oldest – Little Old Man
Middle – Sugar Plum Fairy
Youngest – Smiley
My oldest brother – Doc
Other brother – Chief

I listed these because I need your help with a new character. My sister (in law) in MS. She reminds me of a iconic 40′s silver screen beauty. Flawless skin, raven hair, and a great personality to boot.

Help me figure out a name for her please! If you do and I pick your suggestion then I will send you a gift certificate for $20 to fandango.com. (Name will be picked on Monday, August 22nd.)

We are truly blessed to have a horse person in the family that has agreed to teach Little Old Man horse riding lessons for free. A couple of weeks ago he started learning the ins and outs of taking care of and riding a horse.

First, we feed…

Little Old Man and Sugar Plum Fairy got to help their Maw Maw prepare the food and gather the alfalfa to feed the horses. Then…

I recommend one of these guys to clean all of the horsey dishes.

Smiley, didn’t approve of all this, because it got him out of bed too early.

After feeding, Little Old Man learned how to care for the saddle he used…

While Sugar Plum Fairy and Smiley made good use of the arena floor.

After, cleaning the saddle, he brushed down “Jazzy”, (I think he enjoyed this part the most) and then…

climbed in the saddle. Sadly, I do not have a picture of him riding, I know I took at least twenty while I was there and not a single one turned out. Although, his siblings enjoyed watching him go around in circles.

Little Old Man really enjoyed his first time riding and is looking forward to many more lessons. We have also decided to do a lapbook for homeschool centered around horses and the parts of a horse and their food and equipment. This will be mommy’s first attempt at a lapbook without another websites help, it should be fun.

I recently colored a friend of mines hair in a rainbow pattern. When I was done my daughter climbed up in the chair and said, “My turn”! Well, I was not about to color my two year old’s hair with semi permanent dye and besides that I am sure she wouldn’t have sat still for that long. Not long after that the friend that I had colored the hair for sent me a note about chalk and water and that you can color hair with it and it will wash out with shampoo and water. Well, we definitely had to try that!

This is Little Old Man’s hair. As I said earlier, Miss Sugar Plum Fairy wouldn’t sit still long enough for me to get past her bangs. So, she had pink bangs and she was happy enough with that.

This procedure was really easy. I didn’t even crush the chalk or anything. All I did was get a small glass of water and dip the stick of chalk in it and then proceeded to rub it back and forth in my son’s hair. With short hair it was extremely easy to do, but I think if you had long hair, you might want to crush the chalk and mix it with water and perhaps comb it through the hair. (I am thinking of trying that for Halloween)

When you were little did you ever take a bath in an old wash tub? I did, and to me they were fond memories. In one of the many houses we lived in growing up, one of them was an old 100 year old farm house that needed many renovations. Well, during one of those times, Mom let us take a bath in a metal wash tub in the kitchen. I haven’t done that with my kids in our kitchen, but they have been in one outside. During these 90 to 100+ degree days it is nice for them to get to play in the water. Plus, we do not get to make it to the pool very often. To make it more fun we add a small fountain and bubbles to the water.

This is a very easy way for your kids to bathe themselves in the middle of the day, plus bathe their toys, and makes mustaches out of bubbles.

Older cousins enjoy it very much too!

All, you need is a wash tub, small pond pump from a hardware store (local hardware store, Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc.), pvc, and a way to hold the pvc to the side of the tub. (and, a bucket to throw water on your siblings) We used this arrangement…

A small metal fitting and an all-in-one bracket. The bracket bent easily to hang the pvc on the side of the tub.

Next time, I think we might add food coloring to the water… (its the small things)