I don't really know what to write, but just thought it was appropriate to mention him today.  Those of you close to me will understand.  :(

This time last year was Brooklyn's first day of preschool.  It made me a little sad to leave her.  Not because I was worried I'd miss her.  Not because I was worried she'd get hurt.  Not because she was crying and clinging to my leg.  Because none of those things happened.  There were parents hovering all around the room with their 3yo kids at their sides wondering how to make their escape.  My kid?  She takes off to talk to her teachers, check out the toys and make new friends.  I was a little sad because she didn't need me anymore.  Guess maybe I did something right?

So here we are again, the 2nd year of preschool starts in 2 days.  I'm thinking I'll be lucky if she remembers to give me a hug after I sign her in.

We decided to give Lars his birthday present early, he can practice
and then show off on his birthday :) We got him a Strider bike. It's
a balance bike- basically a bike without pedals so he can walk, run
and glide on it. Theory is he can go straight from that to a pedal
bike without training wheels, but it's small and light enough that he
can ride it around now. He's only been on it 10 minutes and is
already going forward and backward and turning around the living room.
 He can also get on and off on his own! Once we go outside he'll need
his helmet, but of course it started raining as soon as we got it.

I let Lars get some washable markers at the back to school sales this
week, so today we took them out to color. I don't know that I've ever
let him have markers before. He held them by the lids when he was
drawing, and wanted each one for approx 0.3 seconds before NEEDING the
next color. He's obviously trained well though, the first time he got
some on his hands he held it up to his mouth to lick it off. Yum!

It was really too hot to play outside today, so the dogs did more of
the 'hang out over the a/c vent' thing. Here are some pics of them
and their friend Beau. Tough week to be a black dog I think.

Mostly! The tops were nice and crunchy, the bottoms were still a bit
underdone. Might be something to kmcdade's air circulation thing :p
Overall a fun experiment, and the results wern't too bad. Brought in
the pan just before 6pm and just over 104 degrees.

It's been 3 1/2 hours and I lifted up the cake pan. Smells pretty
good. Cookies are solid on top. I picked one up. Still dough-y
underneath. But getting close. If it was in the oven I'd say 2 more
minutes. I KNEW it would be hot enough! This little project has also
led to a bit of solar cooking research (mostly by @kmcdade), but if we
do it tomorrow I have some better ideas now. I might actually do the
foiled lined box thing (I remember doing that in Girl Scouts many
years ago, my mom probably still has it in her garage!). I know to
start it at 9 or 10am to catch the best sun- apparently even though
it's hotter at the end of the day, the noon rays are best for cooking.
 I know that the max temp in the box will be about 200* for a moist
food, but the food will still cook AND is less likely to burn AND will
stay nice and warm til I come back for it. I know that even though
this started out as a snarky way to prove it was too hot it's actually
a very environmentally friendly way to cook. Who knew?

They're looking a little different, but still pretty dough-y. I added
some foil to reflect the heat. Hmm, slower going than I'd hoped.
Tempted to open it and poke them, but I don't want to let out the
heat. LOL as if there was a shortage of heat around here!

Hmm, doesn't look much different than last time. I may go see what I
can do about building a heat funnel. We may be having warm dough
blobs for dessert tonight. I know my kids won't mind though :) I
could put my hand on the glass, but the driveway was really hot when I
knelt on it to take the pic. Current temp (again, according to
Steve's weather page http://weather.steveeshom.com/ ) is just over 100
degrees.
I'll keep them out til 6pm (that's the hottest part of the day right?)
and if it doesn't work I think tomorrow may be hot enough to modify
and try again :)

I think it's working! Guessing at this rate it'll take 3-4hrs.