Writing Lesson

Lauren has been working on her penmanship - which seems even a bit better than Stew's!

Project Life | 2012 Week 5

Lauren is loving Round 2 of her ballet/tap class at the YMCA.

A hike at Telegraph Pass, dinner at IKEA, more dancing, and sun butter cookies.

Long time since I'd hiked Telegraph, very sore the next day!

Got some new art work for Lauren's room (frames and prints from Pottery Barn, and frames on clearance!), and Sushi Ken for Fri dinner (discovered Cole loves unagi!)

Baked Fries

We don't make these that often, but the kids love them when we do. Slice up some sweet potatoes, toss with olive oil and kosher salt, and roast in the oven (~425 deg or so). I've found parchment paper works best for preventing sticking.

I eat mine plain, but the kids still like to dip in ketchup....

A Touch of Spring

Project Life | 2012 Week 1 - 4

Well, I've been keeping up, but I'm a little slow to post.... So here are pages for January :)

Week 1: Cole graduated out of the Baby and Me swimming class, Lauren climbed the rock wall, and I worked a lot....

Week 2: We got a new sofa, Cole got sick (and had to use the nebulizer - but like a pro!), Lauren got her hair cut, and Stew and I got to enjoy a nice dinner out at Cafe Boa (while Grandma watched the kids).

Week 3: We finally headed back to the gym (YMCA), ate our favorite (weekly) dinner of salmon + rice + veggies (the kids both LOVE the salmon skin!), and Stew took the kids to a birthday party for one of Lauren's classmates.

Week 4: I worked a lot (again!) while Stew took the kids to the zoo, President Obama visited my Intel site! (although I was not able to attend...), hair cuts for Stew and Cole, and Family Day at Intel where we got to see the world's largest land-based crane for F42's construction.

Baking with Sun Butter

Since peanut butter has been banned from our house because of Lauren's peanut allergy, we keep an alternative on hand - sunflower seed butter.  It has the texture and smell of peanut butter, and has similar (but different) nutty taste.  Ironically, Lauren won't eat it - but Cole loves it; his favorite is sun butter and jelly sandwiches :)  I've been wanting to try using it in place of peanut butter for baking.


Yesterday, Lauren and I tried out this recipe for sun butter cookies, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I halved the recipe, and used Earth's Balance in place of the butter, and my egg substitute of 1T flaxseed meal + 3 T water (so Cole could enjoy them too).


They taste very similar to good old-fashioned peanut butter cookies.  I will definitely be making them again.  Even Lauren liked them; I'll convert her to a sun butter-lover yet...


Peanut-butter puffs, is another recipe that I've tried using sun butter as a substitute.  Saw it in an issue of Parenting magazine, and found a copy here.  We made these for a school potluck.


We all found it hard to eat just one.