 Do you ever drive by a business and think to yourself, "I wonder what on earth is in that place?" And then continue on your merry way, passing that aforementioned place for literally years, until finally one day you find yourself with a few minutes extra time and a couple of cranky kiddos, and decide on a whim to run inside to check it out? And then that place turns out to be pretty darn amazing? Well. This happened to me last month, and today we're going to talk about what I found. Introducing... Valley Restaurant Equipment! 1000 Maxwell Road Eugene, OR 97404 541-689-4855 valleyrestaurantequip.com
This intriguing little gem is set far back off Maxwell, near the Prairie Road end of the road. It's got a big gravel parking lot in front, and there are often big semi trucks parked there (bonus for the littles!). So this place is a business that caters to restaurants: they buy, sell, and trade everything you would need to own and run an eatery: chairs, microwaves, pitchers, silverware, pop dispensers, neon signs...EVERYTHING. Now maybe you're wondering why on earth you would need to visit a restaurant supply store when you already spent most of your everloving life in your kitchen preparing food for the people who live with you and expect you to feed their insatiable appetites. Here's why: 1. Just walking around the place is seriously impressive. Free entertainment right here. They have rows and rows of unusual things for kiddos to feast their eyes on. You can walk by a cooler and brainstorm what sorts of yummy desserts were once sold in there. You can check out the giant gas powered six burner stoves and discuss how many hamburgers you could fry up with it. Lots of very cool stuff. 2. There are two cats wandering around, so that's fun. 3. There are several work areas where employees repair equipment and machines. This is a dream come true for any little who is fascinated with tools. 4. Everyone who works there is so friendly! They were all very tolerant of my grumpy yet super interested kiddos. 5. They are open at 9 am, which is an hour earlier than most businesses. Need to get out of the house? Valley is your answer.
6. There are some seriously awesome things for sale that you just might need to take home with you. Looking for sensory, hands on, manipulative type tools? Valley's got them! And they're at better prices than you'll find at thrift stores. They've got high quality stuff that will stand up to rough and tumble kiddos. Here are some goodies that my boys and I discovered on a few recent trips:  The big blue trays are for my big boy's Legos. The awesome old school lunch trays are for separating Legos, sorting craft supplies, playing with beans/rice/whatever, or maybe even eating! Those black tongs are expensive on kid websites, and are super great for practicing fine motor skills.  On a return visit, we scored all of these wonderful restaurant tools for pretend play. We have already taken out the printed pages from the menus and put in our own choice offerings. This would be a perfect chance to work on so many skills with your kiddos: - Math - figuring out prices - Writing, spelling, word choice - Nutrition - Fine motor skills - you could give them an old magazine or the ads from the Sunday paper and let them cut out pictures of food to glue into the menu. We have played many games of restaurant already and are loving taking turns being the customer, server, and chef. Since we also found the order notepad and the check holder thing (is there a name for that?!) it all feels very official. The spoons and scoops and bowl and syrup decanter are just for fun. :) Here's a picture of how we've been using some of the stuff to keep mama from going crazy - I mean the boys busy - on gray days:  A little water, a few ice cubes, whatever random stuff I manage to pull out of the recycling cupboard (see THIS post) and voila - they are occupied for long enough to allow me to heat up the frozen pizza we're having for supper. I mean cook a super healthy meal with actual vegetables. Obvs. Another day I was getting ready to throw out a whole pot of rice that I had apparently REALLY overcooked (Who messes up rice? Honestly!) when I thought about letting the boys play with it first. Might as well get some use out of it right? So we pulled out some bowls and other kitchen goodies and they went to town. See that pitcher my big boy is using? Valley Restaurant Supply sells those, and they are wonderful. Can we talk for one quick minute about how to manage messy play like this? After a lot of trial and error, I've figured out a pretty good system. So take yourself to the Dollar Tree and buy about half a dozen of the plastic tablecloths. Cut them in half. Then when you're ready to use one, just grab it and go. Once the play is done, strain all the water down the drain, dump all the solid stuff on the tablecloth, throw all the dishes in the sink for the magical dish fairy to deal with, and carefully roll up the tablecloth and throw it away. I realize this is sort of wasteful, but for me, knowing an easy clean up is coming makes me much more willing to say yes when my kiddos ask to "cook" or "make a messy meal" or whatever. :) Also. It goes without saying that managing your mess will be much more simple if your littles are stripped down to their underoos or diapers. Anywho, please stop by Valley Restaurant Equipment. I promise they're not paying me to say that! They were just so friendly and local and offered so much great stuff. Well priced high quality manipulative toys for ALL THE CHILDREN! So go already. For reals. And tell them Megan sent you.
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Okay, so we covered RePlay & The Dancing Weasel (so fun!). Let's head over to... Eugene Toy and Hobby 32 E. 11th Ave. Eugene, OR 97401 I don't have any idea how I've lived in Eugene for ten years without visiting this landmark spot (it's been owned and operated by one local family for over 80 years!), but somehow my trip last week was my first. It won't be my last. I fully plan on taking my nearly five year old back just to check out all of the electric train stuff and model airplanes. Whoa. Here's what I found: Lots of these tiny little sticker/coloring/activity books. These are awesome for just sticking in your purse to have...just in case.  Stickers. So many stickers. Also an excellent purse selection. (I could probably feed, diaper, and entertain my littles for an entire day based entirely on what I have in my purse. I know I'm not the only one.)  Ummm how cool are these shaped felt coloring posters? I reeeeaalllly want one. Like, for me.  So do you see those two white packages in the middle of the picture below? Okay. A few friends and I were playing at a park once and a dad was there with his kiddos and one of these toys. Within a few minutes it had drawn all the kids off the playground and had them completely transfixed for at least 15 minutes. It is super simple - it slingshots a little plastic helicopter up into the air and then the kids run and chase it. Basically fetch for human children. I visited three toy stores in one afternoon to research this post and this toy was the single thing I bought. Go get one and thank me later. Actually, thank that dad at the park that one day.  You might regret this later, like ten minutes after it's opened later, but...check out these fun instruments. You could become the next family band, like Hansen or something.  Okay, here's my big find for kiddos in the teenage/engineering crowd: these are 3D laser cut models. You put them together and they stand up and look pretty cool. There are approximately 54643 choices.  In case you're still not convinced that you can joyfully, affordably, and awesome-ly (is that a word?) fill your family's stockings, I'll just leave this here for you:  Boom. An entire wall of little trinkets which will help support a local family when you purchase them. The trinkets, not the family. And not all of them. That would be excessive. Please leave some for me.
I know there are other amazing local toy stores in the area - but today I just covered three to get you started. How do you stuff the stockings in your house? Please share in the comments! Happy Adventuring! *Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway* Eugene Toy & Hobby is giving away a $20 gift card just in time! Use it to get great stuff or put the card itself in the stocking & let your kiddo pick out something fun! To be entered comment here (or on Facebook) with how you're doing today, happy anxious, just plain bad. Let it out! Drawing will be Monday night at 9pm. Thanks Eugene Toy & Hobby!  Gah! Christmas is nearly upon us! Well, that's what the stores would have us believe at least. Don't fret. There's still plenty of time to visit some locally owned stores to find some super fun stocking stuffers that will knock your kid's socks right off. So. You guys. Let's talk about the thing sitting on everyone's to-do list this month: Presents. Buying allllll the presents. I am always curious to learn about how different families handle holiday gifting. There are so many unique traditions out there. Today I want to talk about stockings in particular. I LOVE the stockings. Such a fun chance to surprise your littles with tiny little treats. Here's how it works in my house, at least for stockings: I collect small things throughout the year that I think my boys would enjoy in a stocking. I look mostly at thrift stores and garage sales. This works for me because that way I'm not stuck in December paying a ton of cash out of pocket. I also always stick in some candy - the good stuff, like the Reese's Trees and the Candy Cane Kisses - oh my word. During December my body weight is probably half sugar. Other fun things that always go into stockings are a new toothbrush, some special sparkly toothpaste (Crest makes it - it's a treat), and a super fun box of Band-Aids. The Band-Aid brand always has a ton of licensed characters and designs to choose from. I pick that stuff up when I notice it go on sale at Target. So that's kind of it! Pretty simple! This year I decided to check out what sort of options for small stocking stuffers are out there at our local toy stores. And I was so, so, so impressed! Turns out Eugene is full of fun little treats that kiddos will LOVE. I visited the following three stores in a single afternoon - they're all pretty close to each other. Today I'm starting with Replay.  RePlay Toys 255 E. 18th Ave. Eugene, OR 97401 So this place is owned by a toy ninja named Shane. He is an expert on all things PlayMobil, vintage, collectible, and most importantly, Lego. His shop sells both new and preowned toys. While RePlay has plenty of fun toys that would totally be awesome for a kiddo's stocking, here's what I'm planning on doing and am super pumped about:
Side note of nostalgia: RePlay also has a great selection of the wooden-ish puzzles that I had when I was little. Maybe you played with them too? They're reasonably priced from about $4-6, and would be a super great stocking stuffer if your kid had a giant sized stocking.
*Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway* RePlay is giving away a $20 gift card just in time! Use it to get great stuff or put the card itself in the stocking & let your kiddo pick out something fun! To be entered comment here (or on Facebook) with your favorite toy as kid. (I think maybe we've done this question before but let's just got for it!) Drawing will be Tuesday night at 9pm. Thanks RePlay!  Well here we are, smack dab in the middle of farm season. Pumpkins and hayrides and corn mazes oh my! I'll give you $20 if you can look at your Facebook feed on a Saturday without scrolling through at least 3 consecutive pumpkin patch photos. Seriously. So, I'm betting that if you've lived in Lane County for any amount of time, you've been to the top few most popular and hence most crowded farms - Thistledown, Lone Pine, and Detering's. All 3 farms are seriously so lovely. My family visits them multiple times all summer and fall. But if you look a bit further, you can find some lesser known gems, and you will be glad you did. I've heard great things about Johnson's Farm as well as Northern Lights, but I personally haven't made it out to either of those yet. Here's where I HAVE been - Hentze Farms.  Now that I've gone and said it, I sort of want to take it back. Forget you heard that! Don't go there! Because it's such a wonderful, quiet, sweet little spot, and I don't want to have to arm wrestle any of you for parking spaces. Well okay, anyway, you should go there. Here's why:
 So there you go! Hentze is only open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and on December 24 they close until June. I think Fridays, especially in the morning, are a great time to go. If you are looking for a laid back and super fun way to spend a few hours, please go check them out. Just don't buy up all my honey or take my parking spot. :) The Essentials Parking: Plenty of free parking Food: There are picnic tables, so bring some cheese and meat and crackers from home and plan on buying some fruit and having yourself a perfect little picnic. Resting/Nursing Spots: There are hay bales and picnic tables scattered around. Push/Wear: If you're planning on heading out to the orchards to pick apples, I would wear your little. If you have a pretty tough stroller, something like a BOB, that could work too. But it's muddy in spots - so beware. Restrooms: Yep Time Frame: At least an hour or two Get There
30065 Hentze Lane Junction City 97448 Happy Adventuring! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.  News flash: It's September! I feel like this grants me full license to turn my oven back on after giving it a nice long summer vacation. I miss baking during the hot months and am super excited to get back into the swing of things like muffins, cookies, and other things I find on Pinterest and then attempt and ruin. However, today is NOT about the various recipes I have uncovered from the depths of the interwebs that have turned out to be less than spectacular. Today is about one of my family's all time favorite breakfast treats. It's a meal that involves cinnamon, jam, and turning on the oven. It calls for steel cut oats (They're easy to find! Don't be afraid!) And best of all, it can be prepped at night, baked the next morning, and one 9 x13 dish serves my family of four for at least two breakfasts. So...hooray for not having to use your brain in the morning. Here we go! Baked Oatmeal Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. You're going to need two bowls - one big and one medium.  Let's start with the big bowl. This is going to be all dry ingredients, and it doesn't matter what order you add them. Just throw them in. - 2 1/2 cups regular rolled (old fashioned) oats * I used quick cooking oats once because that's all I had, and it really didn't turn out as nicely. The consistency was rather soupy and my four year old was not a fan. So sub at your own risk! - 1/2 cup steel cut oats (you can find these in the bulk section at Winco)- 2 tsp baking powder- 1/2 tsp salt- 1/2 tsp cinnamon Stir that up.
Here we go for the medium bowl. Again, order doesn't matter. - 2 cups milk- 1 beaten egg- 1/3 cup applesauce- 1/4 cup brown sugar- 1/4 cup honey- 1/2 cup oil (I like to use coconut oil) * A note on the coconut oil - it doesn't matter if your oil is solid. It will melt in the oven. It will make the mixture look really weird and gloppy right now, but it will be okay. Trust me. Now take the bowl of wet ingredients and add it to the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir it up.
It will look really wet and unappetizing. You'll think you've done something wrong. Don't panic! The oats will soak up all that liquid. And if your oil is solid, it will melt.
Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Pour in the glop! Bake it for 20 minutes. Pull it out and add in: - 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries * If you're using frozen berries, there's no need to defrost them or anything.  Stick it back in the oven and bake it for another 20 minutes. By the end, it should look pretty set as well as nice and brown. When it's done, pull it out and let it sit for a few minutes so it can make your whole house smell delicious. Now comes an important detail: when it's time to eat, you MUST put the following two additions on the top of your oatmeal: - strawberry jam- plain yogurt (I think Greek is best)  The jam and the yogurt make it unbelievably sweet and creamy and just plain fantastic. Not everyone thinks so (like my big kid) so just dish everyone up a bowl and then put the yogurt and jam out on the table so that each person can help themselves. Store leftovers in the fridge. They heat up really nicely in the microwave the next day. Or after bedtime as a treat. I won't tell. I realize that the way I type recipes isn't super cook friendly. I ramble waaaay too much. So here is a picture of the actual recipe, in a 100% guaranteed easy to read fashion:  Nice, right? Super professional and classy. Three more thoughts:
One last thing!
Here are two articles that I have found to be extremely helpful in thinking through what I want our family mealtime to look like. For a while there when my son was about three, mealtimes were the most stressful time of the day. It was a battle every. single. time. And it sometimes still is! But these two articles (plus lots of great advice from more experienced parents) really helped me be intentional about nailing down what works for our family. Will these articles be applicable to every family? No way. But you might find them interesting. This one is on kids serving themselves - so instead of me putting oatmeal in a bowl and then topping it with jam and yogurt, and then giving it to my kiddo, I put all three things on the table and let him put his own food in his bowl. We've been letting my four year old serve himself since he was about two, and I think it really is awesome. Is your kid as resistant to trying new foods as mine is? I hope not. It is a FIGHT. And it's so weird - he would try ANYTHING that we put in front of him, and usually enjoy it and eat more - until he turned about 3.5. Then it was abruptly all over. Now he takes one look at something new and flat out refuses to taste it, often throwing in an insulting jab at how gross it looks. It is beyond frustrating. So then we tried doing a "Sam I am" bite (from Dr Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham) - he had to take one bite of everything new and then if he didn't like it he didn't have to eat it. But soon even that became a struggle. Arguing over one simple bite (which never resulted in him enjoying the food and requesting more) became the focus of our meals. But this article advocates a "you don't have to eat it" approach. We've been doing this for about six months now, and I'm not kidding - it is awesome. This article is totally worth the read. Please please pretty please let me know if you try this oatmeal! I promise you will get rave reviews from your people about how fabulously tasty it is. Hooray! Happy (Kitchen) Adventuring! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.  Scandi Fest!!! It's almost Scandi Fest time! Raise your hand if you are so excited that you can just hardly stand it!! Reasons why the Scandi Fest is the best: 1. It's free. 2. There are vikings. 3. One word: Aebelskivers. What more could you possibly need?  The Junction City Scandinavian Festival is celebrating it's 55th year, and it is such a great family event. This year it is August 6-9. The festival celebrates Scandinavian heritage - Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Don't worry - you don't have to be Scandinavian to enjoy this. If you like yummy food, entertaining performances, and beautiful costumes, you'll have a blast. Here's how it works: Junction City closes down traffic on a few streets. These streets fill up with vendors selling food and crafts. There are three stages with all sorts of demonstrations and performances. It is awesome.  The Festival has a really organized and helpful website, but every time I tried to check it out this weekend, it was super slow. It always eventually loaded, but it took a bit of patience. Weird?! Anywho, the website has a daily schedule, and a list of activities. Some highlights you might want to look for:
 Tips:
The Essentials Parking: Plenty, both free and paid Cost: Free! Food: So much food. Restrooms: There are several portapotties scattered around, as well as some flush toilets in some of the buildings. Resting/Nursing spots: Behind the vendor booths/in front of the buildings, there are some benches. There are picnic tables scattered around as well. Push or Wear: Either one works. Time Frame: At least an hour. The Details Where: Junction City, about 15 miles north of Eugene on Highway 99. Once you drive in to Junction City you can't miss it, but specifically it's centered around 6th & Juniper with many blocks shooting off from there. When: Thursday, August 6 - Sunday, August 9, 10am-10pm every day. click here for specific hours & schedule of events. Each day has a different theme & it's just so fun! How Much: Free entry, free dancing, performances & demonstrations. The meat pies & Fri-joes will cost you (but they're so worth it!). Happy Adventuring! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.  This week we are taking a visit to what might be Lane County's newest park. Not only is it brand spanking new, but it is just so gosh darn cool. Make a list of all of the positive adjectives you would use to describe a park that you luuuuuhve. This park is all of those things! Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you... Quartz Park 2300 S. 60th St. Springfield, OR 97478  So let's hear it for the Thurston Crew! Way back a million years ago when I first started teaching, I worked in Thurston, and it was a delight to be a new teacher in that community. I absolutely love Springfield. There are so many good things happening there! Also, I might be alone in this, but the smell of the mills around the 42nd Street exit on 126? I sort of love it. Also Chicken Bonz. Oh, Chicken Bonz. You have my heart.  Anywho. Quartz Park is gigantic, and I promise that you can take any kid, any age, any interest, and they will be thrilled. Here's the rundown: The stuff we love:
  The stuff we don't love so much:
The Essentials
Parking: A smallish, free lot Cost: Free! Food: Take your picnic, yo Restrooms: Ummm maybe? Resting/Nursing Spots: Benches and picnic tables and lots of grass Push or Wear: Hmm. If you have a giant bag, I'd say push, just so you can store all your stuff somewhere and not have to lug it plus the baby. Time Frame: At least an hour Get out there to the 97478 and check it out! Happy Adventuring! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.  Fanfare! Drum rolls! Cutting of ribbons and such! Summer has officially arrived, because the city has turned the water features on at the parks! Which means the next three months of your life will be filled with dumping sand out of shoes and trying to fit your four year old in a pair of 24 month shorts because the ones that fit him got wet and you really need to go into Costco because for some reason your family is constantly demanding to be fed. So, to kick things off, why don't we take a look at one of my family's favorite parks. It's probably one you hang out at too. Oakmont Park 2295 Oakmont Way Eugene, OR 97401  This park is super popular, and I think there are 3 reasons why: 1. It's centrally located. 2. Hello you can walk to Starbucks! 3. It's actually a really great park. Here's what we like: - There is a very fun little pretend house that is always a hit. - Great water features - both a small spray and play to run in and a pouring/pipe system near the sand - Lots of shade - A great play structure - Lovely hills all around - perfect for running out the crazies! - It's set pretty far from the road - Surrounded by a nice paved trail for bikes and other wheels - Water fountain - A few garbage cans - A fun little patch of bushes that makes little kids feel like explorers - Sand. I can't stand the stuff but it sure keeps littles busy. Have we talked about the magic of baby powder? I can't remember. Anyway, put a shaker of baby powder in your bag. Shake it all over those sandy hands and feet, and the sand will wipe right off. Easy peasy. - There's a basketball hoop, so you can rock a game of horse if you have big kids! Here's what we don't so much like: - No bathrooms - Parking is sort of a pain - you have to cross a pretty busy street if there aren't any open spaces right in front of the park (there are crosswalks but no light to guarantee you the right away) - I feel like the structure isn't super accessible for really small ones. There is a very steep bridge and an equally steep tunnel that can be slightly intimidating. That being said, we've been going to Oakmont since my biggest boy could walk, and he's never complained. :) Thought of the day: You know that bag that you're always hauling to the park? The overflowing tote with the snacks and the sunscreen and the hats and the shovels and the wipes? Okay, well I've been using a canvas bag that was super handy because it had a zipper, which meant that when it tipped over, all the stuff wouldn't come tumbling out. However, it was so little! Way too small to fit all of the stuff that littles require for a long afternoon at the park. So a friend of mine brilliantly shared that she uses an IKEA bag. You know, one of those huge blue plastic ones? (Note: It's officially called FRAKTA which is not only an entertaining thing to say but also 99 cents!) So now that's what I do, and I LOVE it. It doesn't matter if the bag gets wet or sandy. It's giant, so you won't leave anything behind. And even though it's so big that you sort of have to dig to find what you want, it opens up so widely that it's not really a problem. Try it!  The Essentials:
Address: Oakmont Park, 2295 Oakmont Way, Eugene Parking: Free street parking. Sometimes when it's super crowded you have to park just a bit down the street. Cost: None Food: Also none. Pack some up in your IKEA bag. ;) Resting/Nursing spots: There is plenty of shade, and a few benches and picnic tables. Lots of good options! Bathrooms: Nope Time Frame: A few hours, no problem Happy Adventuring! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo. Well, true to form, the Oregon weather has proved to be a fickle friend once again. This week is forecasted to be rainy all the way through, so we better put away our swim suits and sunscreen and start pondering how many games of UNO we can play before our eyeballs fall out of our heads in boredom. So besides UNO, what does one do with small children when you are home and not wanting to spend a ton of money? I mean, we love open gyms and such as much as the next family, but contrary to my preschooler's belief, we can't just go to the bank and get "tons and tons of monies for free." Well, one of our go-to activities is baking. Now, I realize that baking isn't exactly free, nor is it entirely wise for the waistline. However. I have strong arguments in favor of you making these cookies pronto. 1. They will make your house smell so good. Like a factory with little elven cookie makers bustling around. 2. You can use up those brown bananas that are sitting on your counter (don't deny it). 3. Baking is great language, math, and fine motor practice for your little helpers. 4. This recipe makes a TON of cookies - I get 56 - so they're fun to share. Like Pete the Cat says, "sharing is cool." 4. Because you get to eat them at the end. End of story.  Banana Bread Cookies (Don't like banana bread? I promise you'll like these cookies anyway.) In a large bowl, cream together: 1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks) 1 cup packed brown sugar When that's mixed together, go ahead and add: 1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 bananas - please don't measure this. Just mash them up.) 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract  Okay so that gross looking stuff in the tupperware? That's what bananas look like after they've been in the fridge or freezer. If they're in your fruit basket and are looking pretty sorry, either peel them and put them in the fridge for a day or so, or else peel them, chop them into bite size pieces, and throw them into the freezer. Once they're frozen they're easy to pull out to bake with, and also great for smoothies! Also, I used to make these with all white flour. Now I do half white and half whole wheat. I 100% promise you can't tell the whole wheat is in there. Plus you can eat way more cookies because they're super healthy now. Right? Hooray!  Mix again. Then add: 2 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt Yes. Keep mixing. Now, some people are fancy and mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl before adding them to the wet stuff. That's great, if you like to wash lots of dishes. Me? I'm lazy, and just add the dry stuff right in. No problemo.
Last but not least! Throw in: 1 cup chopped walnuts 2 cups oatmeal (I prefer quick) 2 cups chocolate chips Mix those puppies right up. Its taken you like 10 minutes so far, amiright? So worth it. And if you're tricky you have only dirtied a few things, so you win the smart cook award. Okay, time to bake. If you have some, use parchment paper on your cookie sheets. This stuff is miraculous because you don't have to grease the cookie sheet, the cookies will slide right off, and then you get to throw away the paper when you're done. (Also, it leaves your cookie sheets so clean that you don't have to wash them afterwards. I won't tell.) Oh, and you can reuse that parchment paper - this is good because it's sort of expensive. Plop the dough down in about tablespoon-ful size lumps. Using a scoop is so handy for this. Go ahead and put the cookies pretty close together on the sheet. They won't rise or spread much.  Bake at 375 for 9 or 10 minutes. If you like your baked goods on the well done end of things, go ahead and leave em in for a few minutes longer. Be sure to eat them warm, because oh my word. You'll be glad you did. Also, if you want to be crazy, you can freeze some cookies and then have an easy snack to pull out and make happy tummies. You can freeze the cookies after you bake them, which is easy. Just put them in a ziplock bag and toss em in. Or, you can put the cookie sheet in the freezer before you bake it, but after you've plopped the dough down. Freeze them like this for a few hours, and then you'll have little raw cookies. Take them off the sheet and throw them in a ziplock bag. Don't forget to write the baking directions on the bag. Then one day you'll be wishing for a treat because your littles are behaving like wild things, and you'll remember that you can have fresh cookies in just a few minutes, thanks to your excellent planning skills. Please don't feel the need to share the cookies with your wild things. Give them carrot sticks or something. Happy Adventuring! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.  You guys. Let's talk about Dorris Ranch. Ahhh, dear old Dorris. If I could marry a physical place, I would marry Dorris Ranch. It is very nearly the perfect place. Anywho, here's how my family likes to enjoy dear old Dorris (henceforth known as DOD). I hope you and your family head out there soon and check it out, because it's the best. For reals. DOD is in Springfield, right down Pioneer Parkway, off the Springfield City Center exit. Now before you quit reading because you live way out in the South hills of Eugene or whatever and decide that DOD is way too far away to visit, let me just tell you that you're wrong. So very wrong. It is well worth every single minute spent in the car. When you get there, the driveway splits three ways. Okay hold on. I am going to WAY overexplain this for all of the people out there who are like me and who really really really like details. If you're more of an "explore it on your own" type, feel free to skip this next 35 paragraphs. Hopefully, however, there is someone out there who is like me and will find the nitty gritty specifics helpful. Let's forge on! See this map? See the gate at the top? That's where you start at DOD. See how the road splits three ways? Oh the options! How does one decide? Okay, here we go.  The paved road to the left (your left when you've arrived at the park, your right when you're looking at this map) leads to a brand new (last year I think) path that is paved. On the map, it's the yellow "paved multi-use path". There are bathrooms and a water fountain and a few benches in the parking lot area. Head down the "paved multi-use path" and you'll hit the Living History Village right away. The buildings aren't open, but they're fun to check out. Last fall, DOD held a really fun event where they had the buildings open to explore as well as people in period dress there to show artifacts and answer questions. Super fun! Keep going and you'll hit a beautiful forest - this is my son's favorite part of DOD. He loves how tall the trees are, and how dark and quiet it is. We love to talk about which animals are hiding or napping in the trees, and how they're camouflaged. Keep on trucking and you'll reach the river. It's too far away (and blocked off by a fence) at this point to get down to the water, but the view is lovely.
I haven't ever gone farther than about where the river curves and the map cuts off, so I can't attest to what's just around the river bend (anyone catch that reference?) so let me know if you know! FYI, my four year old can ride his bike all the way down to the river and back with no problem. I have zero idea how far that is - there are distance markers but I never pay attention. I also can't figure it out using the map, because my babies used up all my brain cells when I was pregnant. So...there you go. One note about the "paved multi-use path": Some of the path has a yellow line painted in the middle, like a real road. I really wish the line were on the entire path, and I'm not sure why it's not (anyone?) It is a great place to teach your littles about basic traffic concepts like lanes, passing, and road courtesy. My kiddo loves to yell "passing on your left!"
The gravel road to the right (okay so that's your right when you're at the park, your left when you're looking at this map) leads to a gravel path that winds through filbert orchards. On the map, it's the light grey "road". Just a little distance distance from the parking lot is a very cool barn (it's available to rent and has the most beautiful twinkly lights hanging inside!) as well as a neat old nut harvesting machine, picnic tables, and a port-a-potty. Keep walking and you'll hit the orchards. The orchards are a fantastic place to let littles play - they are just so visibly cool! The rows upon rows of matching trees - so fun. On the map, there's a place labeled "Pump House and Packing Shed". These are some random buildings (you can't go in them) as well as another port-a-potty. There is also another picnic table and an awesome old tractor to let the littles explore. If you've got pretty short legs with you, I might recommend turning around now and heading back to the car. It's not a long walk TO the "tractor spot" (that's what we call it, super creative, I know. You're welcome.) but you do need to walk all the way BACK. :) If you've got longer legs, you're about halfway to the river, and it is truly a beautiful walk. Keep going and you can toss rocks and sticks in the water after you scramble down the bank. Gorgeous. For reference, this weekend my four year old walked the entire way to the river and back without a problem after he rode his bike all the way to the river on the paved path. You can do it! There are also lots of small gravel trails, marked as the white "trails" on the map. We've never really checked those out, but we should! So last weekend here's what we did: We started on the "paved multi-use path", rode bikes/walked to the river and back, and then headed back to the car, which we had parked in the gravel lot. We threw the bike in the car, grabbed our picnic basket, and walked down to the picnic tables near the barn. After we ate, my husband threw the basket back in the car and we headed down the gravel "road". We stopped at every tractor and allowed for lots of time to check out bugs/logs/leaves/puddles. We walked all the way to the river, threw rocks in, and walked back to the car. From arrival to departure, we spent 3 and 1/2 hours at DOD. Wonderful family time for exploration, conversation, enjoying the outdoors, and getting dirty!  The Essentials
Parking: plenty of free parking Cost: free Restrooms: There are flush toilets near the paved parking lot, and several port-a-potties in various spots up and down the gravel path. Resting/Nursing Spots: a few benches and picnic tables scattered around Time Frame: At least an hour - you could easily occupy your littles for half a day at DOD! Happy Adventuring! |
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