Volcanic Ash, Baths,Teamwork, Muffins, Play-Doh and Movies

You may or may not have heard about the volcano that erupted 106 miles southwest of Anchorage. Well, here are a few pictures. The first picture is a picture of Mount Redoubt erupting. It is an amazing sight.
The second picture is of the view from Anchorage at night with Mount Redoubt in the distance.
The third picture is the ash cloud approaching Anchorage.
And the fourth picture is a picture of the ash that covered Anchorage. You can see the contrast of color in the snow tracks. Pretty crazy!




So...church was canceled today due to the ashfall from Mount Redoubt. What do you do on an ash fall day? We start off our day taking baths.
During bath time Norah gave the spiritual thought. It happened like this... I filled up the tub and put Jude in it and then I told Norah it was time for her to get in. Well, Norah barely gets in the water and starts yelling, "Toe jam! Toe jam!" Norah reminded the whole neighborhood that she does not like toe jam. In fact she hates it and does not want to take a bath with her little brother's toe jam floating in the tub. So she orders me to get a cup quick so she can scoop up the toe jam and I can dump it in the toilet. So we did just that and with just a few cups of water with toe jam, the water appeared to be ready for bathing. So the kids begin to play while I brushed my hair. Not more than about 30 seconds had gone by when Norah starts informing me that I missed one piece of toe jam. I replied, "I'll get it in a second Norah." Well a second isn't quick enough. Norah waited about a half of a second and then she scooped it up and needed me to dump it in the toilet. She then says...."TEAMWORK MOM. I NEED TEAMWORK HERE!" So that was it. I immediately dumped the toe jam in the toilet and spent the rest of the day working on TEAMWORK! Thanks Norah. You're a peach!:)

After our baths we decided to practice a little TEAMWORK and make some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. They were pretty tasty. Here is the recipe

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1-16oz. can pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. oil
3 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
12 oz. mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together eggs, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, oil.
In another bowl mix flour, soda, powder, cinnamon, and salt.
Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake for 16-20 minutes. Makes about 36 muffins.


After we ate the muffins we pulled out a gift we bought Norah for her birthday called Play-Doh Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe. Sadie and Norah had so much fun creating their own "tasty looking" ice cream treats. They "looked" so great that Jude decided he would give one a try. As soon as it touched his tongue he realized -NOT SO GOOD!
Anyway, it is a super fun toy and I recommend it for ages 4+.

We decided to watch a few Book of Mormon dvd's that our friend lent us. The kids really enjoyed them. It was a great day.

Oh yeah and just a few fun things to do in case you can't go outside due to volcanic ashfall!:)