Last Field Trip of the Week

Today we hopped down to the Fair Park for a few hours to hang out with butterflies at the Texas Discovery Gardens.
















Believe it or not, this is an ant: Red Velvet Ant

























Owl Butterfly





Tiger Longwing








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More Spring Break Field Trips

More field trips for the Doeschers this week! The weather has been absolutely beautiful this week, so we tried to do as much learning outdoors as we could, at the same time getting to spend time with our friends! Could it get any better?

We picked up Charlotte just before lunch on Tuesday. After the peeps were fed, and the kitchen cleaned, I packed them all up in the car and took them on a hike to Heard Nature Center in McKinney. Our provisions were apples, water, sunshine, a mild breeze and lots of happiness!






















After our 2 1/2 mile hike, I treated them to frozen yoghurt before taking Lennon to soccer practice. The day ended with dinner and a sleepover. Charlotte did school with us on Wednesday morning and didn't have to go home until after an impromptu lunch of monkey bread with vanilla sauce.

Today we went to the Old Red Museum in downtown Dallas to learn about architecture. The building is the former county court house if Dallas and is now a Dallas County History museum, right across the street from the Sixth Floor Museum and the JFK Memorial.




Drawing an old fashioned building and a skyscraper








Marshmallow architecture











What a cool staircase!


The Old Red Museum


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More Hagerman pictures from today

One of the volunteers that took the hike with us took some pictures and emailed them to me:













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Another great day at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge

The kids can't get enough of this place. Every time we come, it is a different experience!








Above: hog tracks


They all got to borrow their own binoculars from the visitors center, and we had our own guide!






Above: Great Blue Heron tracks, below: beaver work





Today, Trinity came along after having spent the night with us.















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Kitchen Experiment II

I felt like baking on Sunday afternoon, which is kind of funny, because over the course of one week I had baked four loaves of bread, apple muffins, carrot muffins and monkey bread. Oh well.
I decided that I would take the cookbook I acquired in Germany and see if I could take one of the recipes and make it gluten free, dairy free and delicious.
I decided to make a German marble pound cake. The book I bought has been around since 1932 and is currently in it's 16th edition. Most women in the Southern part of Germany I am from owns a copy of said book. It was originally written to help young women and girls learn to cook basic but tasty dishes. My mom's copy is already falling apart, has hand written notes in it and is definitely not pretty to look at, but she is still using it after all these years.




So, did my experiment work?



I sure think so. There is not much left of it, either. Next I will see if the recipes for Easter cookies will convert just as well.


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Kitchen Experiments I

Gluten and dairy free monkey bread for all the monkeys, yes, they were all very happy!



Above is the picture before baking, below after baking. Yummy! It made for a special Sunday morning breakfast and there was enough left for dessert!


I will sure make this one again, though at two sticks of butter, that will not happen too often!



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Playground Happiness

For the first time in weeks, I had ALL the kids with me during a soccer practice! That hardly ever happens anymore!
While Lukas was busy improving his soccer skills, the rest of the gang played on the playground:






























I had packed a picnic dinner, which due to the wind and the lack of blankets ( those are in Erik's car), was had in the car.
At home, I set right to work to bake the fourth loaf of bread this week. We had also made mouse tail muffins, better known as carrot muffins and apple-cinnamon muffins this week. Not much left of those!

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