The Friday Five!

We've been having a great week. Despite the fact that it's been raining for almost over 24 hours straight, I'm excited about the drop in temps and the distinct fallness in the air. We're all adjusting to our new school, homework, and extracurricular activity schedule. I'm having a hard time carving out a good chunk of time for the kids to tinker and create, so I just joined Tinkerlab's 7-Day Art Start Challenge and hope that will hold us to making time to art. It looks awesome -- join us!

Here's what else we've been up to ....

Reading -- Cam sometimes gets bored with our audiobook picks--it can be hard to find something that appeals to both of their interests. But she has been cracking up over House of Robots this week. It deals with a lot of school social issues, which has been particularly timely for back to school (or at least it has been for us). Kane's been loving the Cam Jansen series and this one is great for the Halloween season.

Making -- We have been all about playdough this week--I think the kids needed a little sensory relief! This apple pie playdough of ours is a seasonal fave.

Cooking -- I've been cooking all kinds of yummy fall dinners this week, but I am kind of addicted to this little lunch dish I came up with. It's Perfect Fluffy Crispy Potatoes (I skipped the nutritional yeast and subbed in smoked paprika for the chipotle powder), with smoked salmon, capers, thinly sliced red onion, avocado, and a bit of goat cheese. I almost don't miss the bagel.

Playing -- Kane has been really cranky over having to play math games for homework. Simply because it's more homework. So I've been trying to mix in some of our old fave boardgames. Everyone loves SORRY--especially the fire and ice edition.

Wanting -- I frequently make do without a lot of fancy kitchen gear, but I got a Le Creuset dutch oven last year (white with gold handle!) and I've really been needing a cast iron pan to go with it. And the white one is on sale at WS. It's a sign.