Earlier this month one of the bloggers I follow wrote about making ATC (Artist Trading Cards) with her children and swapping their creations with another friends children. What sponed from this little weekend activity, was an Artist Trading Card swap for kids ages 5-12, that 900 kids from all over the world signed up to participate. The kids were divided up in groups of six, paired with five other kids their age. Rules were emailed out, and a deadline was set (2/28). We got special heavy duty artist paper from the craft store, cut it down to the correct size - 2.5" x 3.5", collected all the necessary art supplies from around the house, did research on what artist trading cards look like, did lots of practicing and lots of creating!
The kids worked on them here and there for a full week, spending most of the past two Fridays, when they were home from school, working on their masterpieces. They had a really good time, came up with their own subject matter and titles and we even made small envelopes using some of Rebecca's scrapbook paper to hold their cards. I am so pleased with each child's creativity and their willingness to participate in this experience. They did a great job experimenting with different mediums and trying to do their very best work.
All of Emily's are going to the US, Rebecca has one going to the United Kingdom, and Sam is sending two overseas ... one to Australia and one to Dubai!
ETA: Their swap mates ATCs started arriving this week. Rebecca has already emailed one of her swapmates and has a letter drafted to another. It looks like she's going to get a few pen pals from the experience.
Once all the cards are in, my plan is to create a collage frame of all six ATCs (one from each of their swapmates and one of their own) to hang in their room.
Lori made an amazing Banana Sour Cream Cake for our January Enrichment I've been wanting to make for the family. Last week Sam and the girls wanted something to do after school and I suggested they make this cake for our dessert. I printed out the recipe, told them where to find the ingredients and with little more instruction from me, let them make the cake.
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BANANA SOUR CREAM CAKE
1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup oil (or applesauce)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) 1/3 fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
1 cup Walnut Pieces, finely chopped
HEAT oven to 350°F. Beat cake mix, eggs, bananas, sour cream and oil with mixer on low until moistened, scraping bottom of bowl often. Beat on medium 2 min. Pour into greased and floured 13x9-inch pan. BAKE 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake completely in pan on wire rack. BEAT cream cheese and butter with mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition. REMOVE cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife. Place 1 cake half, top-side down, on plate; spread top with frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top side up. Frost top and sides. Press nuts onto sides. Refrigerate leftovers.
Note: Lori says you can successfully substitute applesauce for the oil!
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Apparently, Rebecca was in charge of reading the directions and Sam and Emily were in charge of putting the ingredients in the mixer. Halfway through making the cake they realized they had put the cream cheese in the cake batter instead of waiting and using it for the frosting.
It was a great teaching moment ... I was able to talk to the girls about the importance of instructions and why you need to read through them a couple of times before you get started ... and I learned that I really need to give them more opportunities to make things in the kitchen with little interference from me - they can do it and they are old enough, even if the mess is out of control! Honestly, given the way the recipe is written on Kraft's website, it wouldn't surprise me if a number of adults haven't made this same mistake.
We baked up the cake anyway, frosted it (it's the cake pictured) and had it for dessert Wednesday night. It's not a mistake I recommend making. Thanks to the frosting, it was eatable. The cake hadn't baked correctly and we all decided a second attempt was necessary. Thursday afternoon I made it a second time so I could prove to GR (who had flatly refused to eat any of the girls cake) that it was an excellent cake and so I could take it to Julie's for Survivor. Everyone loved it! This is my new favorite cake that is not chocolate - where was this recipe when Anna couldn't tolerate any chocolate in my system?!
Last night I was desperate for something different to make for dinner. Soup is an underutilized meal option in this house, and I've been wanting to change that. So I went in search of a soup that used a some ingredients I needed to use up ... namely chicken and potatoes.
The recipe was relatively simple, used stuff I always have on hand, was yummy and everyone ate it - meeting all the necessary requirements to be added to the home cookbook for future dinners. I'm thinking it would freeze well for those who like to do that kind of thing. For reference, here's the original recipe.
CHUNKY CHICKEN-POTATO SOUP
3 medium potatoes or 6 small potatoes
1/3 cup dry diced onion (or medium onion)
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cans chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 cups cooked, cubed chicken
1-1/2 cups milk
1 (16 oz.) can corn, drained
Peel and dice potatoes into 1/2 cubes, rinse under cold water and set aside.
Place dry diced onion in small glass dish, cover with water and microwave 45 seconds to reconstitute.
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion, stir until heated, approx. 1 minute (if using fresh onion, cook stirring, until wilted, 1-2 minutes.). Stir in the flour and cook stirring constantly, until the flour and butter are completely blended, 1- 2 minutes.
Slowly pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly. When the mixture returns to a boil, add the potatoes and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
While potatoes cook, dice the chicken. Increase the heat to medium when the soup returns to a boil, stir in chicken, milk and corn. Cook until chicken is heated through.
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The chicken was leftover from a crockpot chicken recipe I heard about on the radio. The flavor was very nice and I think it really complemented the soup.
1 whole chicken (4-5lbs)
1 lemon, pierced
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup orange juice
Clean chicken cavity, pierce lemon and insert in cavity and place in bottom of crockpot. Mix honey and orange juice and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove skin and bones and serve.
Today the girls have a spirit day activity at school that Rebecca informed me of on Saturday. I told her that if we needed supplies we had to purchase them Saturday night ... they couldn't be purchased Sunday or Monday morning. I also explained to both girls they would need to be 100% ready to walk out the door -- breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, shoes on, backpacks packed, jackets found, etc. -- at 7:00am, giving me 15 minutes to work on each girls hair. To make hair their length crazy with only rubber bands -- sorry I nixed the desire to use hair "spray paint" and decided that doing an egg white/Elmers glue concoctions to get spikes, was impractical given the amount of time we'd have in the morning to pull it off -- I was going to need every bit of those 15 minutes to do anything with their hair.
The results ...
Emily let me do what I wanted, and I love the results. It's fun and quirky, without being too distracting. I use to do this to the girls hair when they were younger on a smaller scale - one twist bun on each side of their head. Emily now has too much hair to do it with, and I'm not sure Rebecca's is long enough.
Rebecca handed me four bows and rubber bands and I was given creative licensing from there. Isn't it fantastic! Her's definitely has the crazy hair day look going for her! I divided the hair in to quarters, braided each section, looped it, and secured it with the hair bow clip.
I just hope both styles survive a day on the playground!
ETA: It turns out that today WAS NOT crazy hair day! The girls weren't the only ones who thought that today was the day stuco had designated as crazy hair day. The girls just took down their hair and stuffed all the rubber bands and bows in their backpacks.
[Remember Sam's Silly Hair Day at preschool? We offered lots of suggestions, but he was very content to sit this one out!]
