Merry Christmas From the Silacks!

Some holiday art, from our family to yours. 
Merry Christmas, Everyone!

By Elinor Rose Silack (Almost 3)

By Evan Samuel Silack (Age 5)

By Stephen Michael Silack

By Alison May Silack

Project 358: Days 202 - 206

Day 202: Fail. No photo.

Day 203: Summertime Snow

Day 204: Evan Art (Buzz Lightyear)

Day 205: Fail. No photo.  (Seems I'm getting lazier these days...)

Day 206: My, How He's Grown!

Evan recently had the chance to spend TWO WHOLE NIGHTS at his grandma's home in Sebastopol ALL BY HIMSELF! The photo above was taken the morning she came to pick him up. Looks just a wee bit excited don'tcha think? On his lap is a map that he drew showing Grandma Kim how to get to her house from our house. Elinor felt it necessary to do a thorough safety inspection of the vehicle before their departure. She's like a mini Stephen.

Upcoming post: how we spent our time during our brief journey back into the relative simplicity of life with one child.

Project 358: Days 151 - 158

Day 151: Lavendar

Day 152: Birds On Wires

Day 153: If You're Happy And You Know It, Shout "Hooray!"

Day 154: Fail. No photo.

Day 155: Backyard Boogie

Day 156: Snuggle Buggles

(I have to stop taking pictures of my kids while they sleep...The flash of my camera is bound to wake them one of these days. And yet, how can I stop? Impossible...)

Day 157: Boys And Trains: A Classic Combo

And because Day 157 presented me with a difficult choice, here is one more photo of two of my very favorite Y chromosomes...

The Man I'm Raising and The Man Who Raised Me

Today, I sat down to draw with Evan. I grabbed a red pen, took it to the upper right-hand corner of the paper and drew a small curved line, creating a shape much like a slice of pie. Evan asked me what I was
drawing and I said, quite honestly, "I don't know." Over the course of the day, this is what developed:

Day 158: Art Therapy

What a thoroughly relaxing activity this whole drawing gig is. No wonder I did it so much as a child...Need to do it more often as an adult.

Self Portrait Series - 2 (Project 358: Day 144)

I nearly forgot my self-portrait this month! This is what I captured last night, in the last few hours of May...

Day 144: Self-Portrait, May 2011

The color, of course, was added after the fact using a free online photo editor. Going along with this theme, here are some pics of my crazy daughter after she decided to let her true colors shine, with the help of a little paint...

Project 358: Days 87 - 94

Day 87: Ha. Ha.

This made me laugh out loud. Still, I'm not sure if it's really funny, or not funny at all.

Day 88: WTF?

Remember that beautiful loaf of whole wheat bread I made a couple weeks ago? So, umm, this atrocity pictured above is whole wheat loaf #2. Yeah. Not so appetizing, right? The recipe I followed (for both loaves) gave instructions for a 1.5 lb. loaf and a 2 lb. loaf. First try, I did 1.5 and it turned out perfectly. Second time around I thought, Hey, why not try a two pounder? We eat a lot of bread...It'll last longer. Big mistake, apparently. WTF happened here??

Day 89: The Family Bed

I recently attended a required preschool parent meeting and when I returned home, around a quarter to nine at night, this is how I found my family. Don't you just want to snuggle right into that photo? Okay, you probably don't. But, gosh, I sure as hell do.

Day 90: Good Things Come in Small Packages

Okay, so I use reusable bags for the grocery store and Target, but have been feeling like I need something smaller to whip out for small or random purchases. You know, a couple CDs, a tank top, or a small batch of farmer's market produce, that sort of thing. Inspired by my older sister, who always has a handy reusable bag (or two) tucked neatly inside her purse, I decided to peruse Amazon and buy one for myself. Pictured above is the bag that I chose. It folds up neatly and discreetly into this charming little strawberry. I made sure to get my hand in the photo so you can see just how teeny weeny it is. Not a bother at all to pop it in my purse, and below is what it looks like in its full form.

Tada!

Pretty cool, no?

Day 91: Evan's "Rainforest" 

If I had to guess Evan's favorite activity of late, it would definitely be drawing. It's the first thing he wants to do in the morning, the first thing he wants to do when he gets home from school, the last thing he wants to do at night before bed. He will sit at the kitchen table for literally hours on end, drawing elaborate pictures and telling even more elaborate stories about them. I hope he never grows tired of creating art. I will certainly never grow tired of admiring it.

Day 92: Pensive Little Man

Oh, Evan Samuel, my how you've grown.

Day 93: Soaking In The Sun

Flip flop weather is here again, hallelujah!

Day 94: Good Morning!

One of my favorite ways to start the day is with a green smoothie. It's such an easy and delicious way to get in a couple servings of leafy greens, first thing in the morning. For this one, a tried to use the following recipe, which I got from VegNews Magazine's online component:

Vegan Southern Sunrise Smoothie

3 cups collard greens

1 banana

2 cups strawberries

3 cups peaches, chopped

2 cups non-dairy milk (I used almond)

(I also added some blueberries, even though the recipe didn't call for them.)

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Makes 2 servings.

Now, I don't know what kind of industrial-sized blender the author of the recipe used, but there was no way I was going to be able to fit all that stuff into my very normal-sized KitchenAid. So, I had to improvise a little bit with the numbers to get it to work. I think I may have been a little heavy-handed with the collard greens because when I first tried it, it tasted very, very green. I squeezed the juice from one lemon into the concoction and gave it another spin in the blender. The acidity of the lemon completely cut through the bitterness of the collard greens and allowed the sweet flavors of the fruit to shine. Even the kids liked it! I thought they might be turned off by the color, but they actually thought it was really cool and sucked their servings down in no time flat.

Project 358: Day 73

You may or may not have noticed that the sequence of photos for my Project 358 skipped right over Day 73 (come on, Erin, I thought you were my informal blog editor!). Well, this is because I was having some issues with my DSLR and its memory card and rather than read the manual to figure out how to resolve the issue myself, I decided to wait for my IT guy to return from the firehouse. What? The sun was out yesterday, I couldn't be bothered. Yesterday's photo was taken with my little point and shoot. And this is the photo from the day prior:

Day 73: After-Bath Coloring Session at Grama & Grampa's House

Project 358: Days 54 - 58

Day 54: Baby Sister's All Growed Up

Day 55: Evan Art (Mos Eisley Cantina)

Day 56: Playdate Snack Time

Day 57: Rancor Needed a Nap

Day 58: Tough Girl