What's What Wednesday

Today was beautiful. The sun was out and the temps were in the high 80's. It would have been a perfect beach day had Ian not been at work until well after 7:00. When you don't have a vehicle to get to said beach, you opt for something a bit more local and since our swimming pool isn't open yet either, we were forced to skip the water altogether. Down the Summer List we ticked... ice cream? Doable. Long walks on green trails? Well, since we live in Washington, also totally doable. Our apartment complex has an incredible walking path circling around the buildings, overgrown with trees, grass and dandy lions. Usually, I forget it exists because it's being flooded with rains.

Today, we seized a taste of summer. It was delicious.

Almost as delicious as these pancakes: Strawberry lemon and whole-wheat to boot. Perfect for a summer breakfast or brunch. You can also switch out the strawberries for blueberries. I just took my favorite whole-wheat pancake recipe and added the lemon and fruit.

What's for Breakfast?  

Strawberry Lemon Whole Wheat Pancakes

1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you can totally use all-purpose if it's what you have on hand)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced into small pieces

In a big bowl, whisk up your dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together your wet- oil, egg, milk, honey, lemon juice and zest. Mix your wet and dry ingredients together, careful not to over-mix. It's okay if there's some clumps.
Heat a large pan or griddle over medium heat and oil it up. Then pour some batter on the pan and sprinkle some strawberries on top. Cook for about two minutes, flip over and cook for two minutes more.

Delicious with jam, syrup, honey or whatever you'd like.

What we're learning 

We've been going on lots of nature walks the past few days. This is the easiest of all art projects and is such an awesome learning opportunity. I basically just let Kade free to roam around and pick flowers, leaves and grass. We talked about a fallen pine tree branch- describing each of its parts (branch, pine needles, pine cones, sap) and what they were for. We noticed sticky pollen on some of the flowers and talked about what bees can do with it (Kade thought this was so super cool). Nature is seriously the best classroom. The possibilities are endless and kids never seem to tire of it.

Have your kid pick some grass, flowers, leaves, sticks, whatever neat treasures he can find. Bring them inside at the end of your adventure and let them arrange them on a piece of paper. Talk some more about each item, what color is it? What does it smell like? Are the petals soft? The edges of the leaf rough? Use Washi tape (or any old tape) and stick the treasures to the paper. Ta-da! A super easy project with infinite learning opportunity; my favorite kind.

What's Making Me Smile? 

The obvious signs of summer, preparing for a new baby and watching my big boy grow and grow, taking deep breaths of lilac and scrubbing away sunscreen at the end of an adventure-packed day.

 Hoping you and yours are having an awesome week. Hang in there friends, seek out something beautiful today.