One of the little projects on my list of things to do during Spring Break, at the request of the kids, was to make marble bags (for their marbles of course). Monday it rained constantly all day long, the kids watched way too much TV during the morning hours while I designed posters for our upcoming Stake HFPE Women's Conference to mail out this week - I'm very pleased with out nicely they out! And even more pleased that they didn't take nearly as much time as last years posters! - and by early afternoon while Alex was down for a nap, the kids were ready to be engaged in something! And so we turned to the marble bag project.
For Christmas my brother Joe and Katy got Rebecca a small embroidery kit which she has showed a lot of interest in. And thanks to Heather, I've started to feel more comfortable with it myself. Given Becca's interest in embroidery, and Emily's detailed approach to art, and Sam's willingness to do try just about anything so he isn't left out, I asked if they would like to embroider a little design on their bags before I sewed them up. They each choose their designs and crowded around the dinning room table, we all set to work stitching them. Sam, a Rocket; Emily, a butterfly; and Rebecca, a cat; Alex, a turtle.
I am extremely proud of the kids, 'cause this was not as easy for them as I had first thought. It's been a definite exercise in patience for the girls and me. We had to take out lots and lots and lots of stitches, over and over again, working towards learning the correct way to do a stem stitch. But they have stuck with it and have done a beautiful job! Monday night I went out in search of small embroidery hoops and came home with three 4" hoops which have been very helpful!
By Tuesday night, both Rebecca and Emily were done with their outlines and were ready to start the embellishment portion of their designs. Sam didn't quite have the hand-eye dexterity to do all the stitches himself, he knew where the needle was to go, but getting it there, was really hard. So we found team work to be the best for his rocket. He choose all the colors and worked the needle for me.
I'm not ready to reveal the girls yet, since they are still working on theirs, but today while the kids spent all day with Grandma and Grandpa, and I spent all day sewing, not getting as much accomplished as I'd hoped. But I did sew up the boys bags. For as simple as they are, they took much longer than they should have to sew together, and I'm hoping the girls won't take quite as long now that I know what I'm doing. But I am pleased with the results and am toying with the idea - if I can improve the process - of trying to sell a few at an upcoming Etsy Trunk Show I'll be vending at in early April. It seems only fitting that I listened to a good portion of Cheaper by the Dozen today while sewing... I'm sure Mr. Gilbreth would have plenty of suggestions.
Tomorrow we are taking a little family overnight trip to Exploration Place. We have a great family friendly hotel with an indoor swimming pool that the kids are excited to swim in Friday night, and then we'll go explore Exploration Place Saturday. Hopefully it won't be swamped given that it's Easter weekend and Spring Break. The kids are excited about a road trip, staying in a hotel and getting to see different things, and GR and I are very excited for a little family vacation that'll be educational too.
For all those looking for a girlfriend craft ... I found these linked from another blog on Etsy ... ahh! I love them. Not cheesy country cute, just cute with a great bit of funk added in. I would probably take off the ribbons, or use much wider ribbon simply tied in a knot and cut short, or make equally fun paper leaves ... hummm ... I will probably never make them, but it's so fun to dream isn't it.
Sidenote: it's amazing how after four years of work with the women on the stake level and not in the trenches doing it on the ward level, I'm constantly seeing projects that would "make a great Super Saturday Craft" ...
We are having constant rain today for our first day of Spring Break... so much for all my wonderful plans for spending the day outside enjoying a healthy dose of fresh air and space to run.
GR and I spent the weekend preparing a special St. Patty's mailing. I did this on a much, much smaller scale last year and since we only seem to be able to pull together a Christmas card every couple of years, we're expanding the project this year ... Thanks to a printing debacle that I'm still fuming about, all 90 envelopes will hit the outgoing mail box today. So until then, here's a little sneak peek of what's to come ...
Today was Sam turn to bring the snack at preschool. So Saturday, as I headed out the door for a quick shopping trip to clear my head before I buried it again in conference talks and scriptures preparing my talk for two back-to-back ward conferences Sunday, I asked Sam to talk with Papa about what he wanted to take so if we needed anything, GR could purchase it after attending Bishopric training and a youth dance that night.
Sam said he wanted whipped cream in the bottom of a cup, then fruit, then whipped cream again ... I was able to convince him that vanilla yogurt would be just as yummy and healthier. GR purchased frozen strawberries and raspberries to pair with canned pineapple and fresh bananas we already had at home along with two big tubs of vanilla yogurt. So this morning we set to work making our little parfaits ... I did the yogurt and the cutting, Sam did the counting and the placing.
In talking with him about why he choose this snack, it turns out Friday, Mason, one of his good friends from soccer, brought a similar snack for preschool with whipped cream... that explains so much! I did ask if everyone ate Mason's snack, concerned we'd go to all this work to have half of it go in the trash. And he assured me they did. The teachers were excited to see a refreshing snack, and only two of twelve children "didn't care for any."
With the extra strawberries, pineapple and bananas and yogurt, I made the boys and myself samples for "brunch" to make sure the combination worked ... very yummy!
Back in January the girls brought home TIME for kids forms. Little booklets with postcards they were to fill out with family and friends addresses. Each child was encouraged to fill out 7 cards, so the school could receive their free subscription to TIME for kids - a really cool little 11x17 folded "magazine" talking about current events, authors and other educational stuff. Additionally, those who filled out 7 cards, would get a prize ... a small pig LED flashlight that oinks.
I am typically strongly opposed to this form of marketing and manipulation, but when I read the fine print, I eased up and strategically picked readers of my blog for the girls to send post cards too ... and today, my mother, one of the lucky 14, informed me that her postcard had arrived, so I can only assume that 12 others of you also have gotten one, and that number 13 is in my mailbox too.
So if you are one of the lucky other 12 people who were strategically selected because of your devoted association to this blog ... when you get the postcard in the mail, instead of rolling your eyes and seriously questioning the nature of our relationship ... I can hear you all asking ... "Are you serious? She didn't even send us a Christmas card this year!" (we didn't send anyone a Christmas card - yet.) here's the fine print ...
Ordering a subscription has no baring on whether or not the school qualifies for the free subscription to TIME FOR KIDS. The simple act of the children filling out postcards, qualified them for the free subscriptions (for every 7 postcards the school earns 2 TFK subscriptions). "Those contacted may help if they wish, without obligation, by renewing any of their current magazines or ordering new subscriptions from over 200 of the most popular titles, at up to 75% savings. What makes this program unique is we receive our TIME for kids subscriptions even if no one contacted chooses to buy a magazine."
So as I told my mother, if this doesn't save you money, 
chuck it. If it does, great. But don't go and order a magazine subscription because you think it might help the girls school, cause from what I understand by simply having it mailed to your home, you've helped them accomplish their goal ... they get their TIME for kids subscriptions for classroom use, and their pink pig LED, oinking key chain.
One other thing I know my FIL will be concerned about "Names and addresses will only be used for this one-time mailing for our school and will NEVER become part of a mailing list. This is guaranteed by the Great American and TIME, Inc."
Friday after school we went on a field trip with Grandma and Grandpa to the Moon Marble Company in Kansas City. They were having their open house that evening and the following day, with demonstrations and a dozen or so glass/marble artist from around the country showing and selling their work. I heard about the shop a few months ago when, Kelly posted about their visit with Jenny and boys a few months ago, and have been wanting to take the kids ever since.
We had such a great time watching these glass artist make marbles from long tubes of glass. It was amazing to see them start with 5-6 different sticks of different widths and colors and carefully and artfully transform them into beautiful marbles! Sam and I could have sat and watched the entire process start to finish and not gotten bored for a second.
We also watched a demonstration of how they make the thing colored glass canes glass (bottom picture in the collage below) artists use to create all sorts of designs and shapes and embellishments within and on their glass work.
After watching all the demonstrations and marveling at the variety and beauty of the glass artists work ... beautiful, intricate 2" marbles for $95. We headed for the front of the store to let the kids choose their own marbles ... two tubes of small 5/8" marbles equaled out to 13 marbles a piece (for Rebecca, Emily and Sam), and 1 tube of 9 - 1" marbles for GR and me to choose. They did a great job picking their favorite marbles to take home.
Grandpa ended up taking Alex outside ... I think he got tired of having to sort the marbles ... Alex loved the feel of the marbles in his hands and would move from bin to bin reaching in and running a handful through his hands.
Bob's been telling the kids about how he played marbles as a kid, explaining the rules and different ways you can play. Saturday as a reward to enduring organizing the garage, we went over to their house to play marbles. Bob found a fairly level spot of dirt behind the shed, cleared it, stamped it down, and drew the circle. The kids loved it! And from what we witnessed, Grandpa is still as good as he was as a kid ... good thing he gave the kids back the marbles he won!
Since we don't have any real dirt spots (and it's been too cold since to play outside) the kids have been playing on the carpet using a length of rope for the circle. It's been really fun to see them take to this fantastic "vintage" game. The other "vintage" game they are loving right now ... jacks!
I think the kids and I may spend one of our Spring Break days at the Moon Marble Co. when it's not quite so crowded ... and because we need to replace a few marbles that have gotten lost and few that have broken ... one variety of 5/8" marbles we purchased, all three have broken ... very weird.
Last month, the day Sam came home with the Adventure Bag, to be exact, the kids pulled out some cardboard boxes from our "to be recycled stash" and the ice cream bucket of markers and went to town decorating, creating and carefully planning what each box would be.
Well into the process, Sam came up to me and said his toboggan needed wheels. I suggested black construction paper, or small paper plates that we could glue to the side of the box. Nope, paper pretend wheels would not do for this little guy. He wanted real wheels and a steering wheel. "Sam," I said, "real wheels and a steering wheel .... that means some kind of an axle, and that's beyond my creative abilities. How 'bout we call Grandpa Bob and see if he can help you with it?"
After a short conversation with Grandpa about wanting real wheels for his toboggan car that he could steer ... and a bit of translation ... aka Soap box car frame for a corrugated box 12 x 12 x 24. Grandpa was good to go.
The kids were already scheduled to spend Saturday morning at Grandma and Grandpa's so the box went with them and Sam and Grandpa spent the morning in the shed cutting wheels out of 2x6's, building a little I frame for the box to sit on and engineering a steering system. The result was better than any of us could have hoped for!
The little soapbox toboggan car spent most of it's first day with us in the house with the kids giving Alex rides all over in it, but we don't have a lot of room for that kind of thing inside so they quickly looked to taking it outside later in the week when the weather was a bit warmer.
Sam came in and said Mom, I'm going to ride my toboggan down the hill - our perfect for sledding, not so perfect for mowing hill on the east side of the house.
I said that was fine, but strongly suggested he start halfway down the hill, wear his bike helmet and large puffy winter coat, hoping a combination of the three would provide needed protection for when he fell out or was catapulted from the car. Sadly the wheels really need some kind of engine on grass, and so they quickly abandoned the grassy hill and moved on to the neighbors equally steep driveway ... bless that sweet neighbor for filling in all the deep caverns at the end of his driveway this past fall. He saved the children from many a scrap and bruise!
We had a wonderful Valentine's Day and the kids had a blast from morning until night sharing Valentines with friends and family. By the end of the day I was ready to collapse ... and by Saturday morning had the stomach flu which I can only attribute to having spent the afternoon at the elementary school helping with Becca's party? So to be very honest ... after preparing for Valentine's Day for days and days and days, I'm so glad to have all the pink and red paper and hearts and glue sticks and candy nearly all eaten, used, or put away for another year!
The kids did an amazing job pulling together their valentines.
For Sam's we used the same clip art pack I purchased from PCcrafter last year - best $5 purchase ever! - and it doesn't seem to be available any more - bummer! Sam isn't my arts and crafts kid ... never has been and probably never will be .. build something, yes, create a cute paper something, NO. So a clip art valentine we can print, sign and add a candy too, exactly what he needs and can enjoy! (I should note that not all of his Valentine's had the horse on them, "I'm not Horse'n Around when I say, Hope Ya Have a happy Valentine's Day!" but it was by far is favorite design and wanted more of those printed than others!) And he got so good at writing his name over and over and over again and would proudly show me when he got his M just right!
Emily opted to use 3x5 cards as her base and then glued lots and lots of heart punches to the bottom of the cards, we stamped them with a Happy Valentine Stamp and then glued a Fruit by the Foot to the top. So cute and she had some wonderful color combinations with all my scrap papers being punched into hearts.
Rebecca didn't want to use a 3x5 card, she wanted to use big hearts. I had to talk her down from cutting out 7" hearts from single sheets of construction paper ... impractical given the size bags the kids were using to collect their valentines, and not enough construction paper. She didn't exactly see it that way, but was pleased with my alternative 4" hearts - pink for the girls, red for the boys, embellished with the same heart punches, stamps and fruit by the foot.
Sam's preschool party was Wednesday, but he and Alex went to the Valentine Card exchange and cookie decorating playgroup activity Thursday morning. It was so cute to watch Alex quickly catch on to passing out his Valentines (mini-fruit roll-ups) and then sit down and start enjoying a few treats from his playgroup friends - note the lollipop in one hand and the Hershey kiss in the mouth - a sweet sticky mess!
After playgroup, Sam joined Grandma and Grandpa for special lunch while Alex took a nap and I quickly frosted cupcakes and got ready for Becca's party that afternoon. Her teacher had a great game for the kids to play ... Heart Twister ... 20 large hearts cut out of construction paper (need two sets so you have two teams) and then coordinating small hearts and body parts. The kids had a blast playing it ... half played while the other half passed out valentines and then they switched.
After school, the kids went through all their Valentine's ... the dining room table looked like we were celebrating the wrong holiday ... Halloween anyone? We finished up the day with heart shaped individual pizzas and just before bed, my parents arrived for a quick weekend visit! What could be better!
I'm sharing more recipes today ... tomorrow it will be Valentines, Valentines, Valentines since that's what I've been totally focused on for what seems like an eternity.
Sunday a sweet friend at church stopped me after the block of meetings and asked if I'd be interested in some eggs ... fresh eggs from her chickens! Living in Kansas, in and around farm country, I am constantly reminded that I am a city girl. So it is no surprise that I have never had fresh eggs straight from the chicken.
Pam has 35 chickens on her property and she brought dozens of extras with her to church to pass on to friends. She was incredibly generous and gave our family 18 beautiful petite eggs in shades of a lovely soft brown and beautiful soft green. I asked Pam if there were any specific ways to prepare the eggs to really experience their farm freshness in their fullness, and she suggested fried or in egg salad. Tonight I prepared all 18 using my favorite egg salad recipe, and it was scrumptious!
Egg Salad:
2/3 cup mayonnaise, divided
4 large hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 celery rib, diced
4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon minced sweet onion
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Garnish: whole fresh chives
Stir together 1/3 cup mayonnaise and next 7 ingredients.Use remaining mayonnaise on your bread of choice ... toasted wheat bread, or croissants are excellent options. Spinach or fresh arugula are also a great addition to your sandwich.
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Last week I got a craving for baked apples and decided at the last minute to throw together a German Apple Pancake for dessert. I couldn't find a recipe my Mom and I made years ago, so I once again when in search of a recipe online (one might ask why I own cookbooks, if google is my best cookbook ...) and found a very good substitute for the recipe I'm still looking for. And since my adaptation has 6 eggs in it, it goes perfectly with our theme for the evening :)
German Apple Pancake
6 eggs
3/4 cup unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch salt
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large tart apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
In a large bowl blend, eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add vanilla, melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Let batter stand for 30 minutes or overnight (or in my case, while you finish up dinner and get the rest of the stuff ready).
Preheat oven to 425.
Melt butter in a large heavy oven proof skillet, brushing butter up the sides of the pan. In a small bowl, combine half the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over the butter and line the pan with apple slices. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the apples. Place pan over medium-high heat until the mixture bubbles, then gently pour the batter mixture over the apples.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for 10 minutes. Slide pancake (lift, scoot, etc.) onto serving platter and cut into wedges. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.
NOTE: If you have a smaller skillet - say 10 inches - than use this recipe.
Oh yes I said winners, cause I can't just choose one, there are of course three choosers in this family aren't there?! And it is oh it's so tempting for you to simply be totally surprised when your packages arrive, but that really isn't fair is it? Hopefully there will be some surprises.
I put everyone's names in a bowl and let each child choose a name.
Becca pulled out Kelly's name, Emily pulled out Kristy's and Sam, Grandma Mutti's! So I'm packaging everything up and mailing them out first thing tomorrow morning so they will arrive by Valentine's Day. I'm so excited!
Today had a couple of rough spots, so I'm really glad I have some fun and exciting things to totally out weigh the tears -- nothing serious, nothing major, everyones okay, we're all just a little more experienced in this game called life (the full story in another post, I promise!).
My other bit of exciting news, call it a bonus prize of sorts, I found a delicious Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe this morning just in the nick of time! Today was Emily's turn to be "Special Person" this month and wanted to take Chocolate Chip Muffins as her snack for the whole class. Not wanting to use a mix and not finding a recipe in any of my favorite and trusted cookbooks, I turned to the internet this morning at 6am to see what I could find.
I made the first recipe I opened ... with 99 reviews and an average overall rating of 5 stars out of 5 ... I figured I was pretty safe. They are fantastic. I sent 24 with Emily to school, ate the left over three for breakfast, and just pulled a third batch out of the oven for dessert tonight. So yummy, so beautiful, so easy! Wouldn't they make a fun Valentine's Breakfast treat?
Chocolate Chip Muffins, adapted from a recipe posted on Mr Breakfast.com
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter - melted and cooled
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 400°F and line twelve muffin tins with your favorite papers.
In a large bowl, stir together, flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter and vanilla until blended. make a well in the center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into muffin cups; bake 15-17 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin to wire rack; cool 5 minutes and remove from tins to finish cooling.
Serve warm.
I'm still not totally finished post-posting from the past two weeks, but I didn't want to miss the chance to send a few loyal friends and family members some extra love next week. So in honor of Valentine's Day and my 4th blogiversary which was at some point in January, I'm having a little giveaway. Yippee!
To enter simply comment to this post before Monday, February 11 at 3pm CST. I'll randomly select someone from the comments listed after I get the kiddos from school, to get a Warm Hearts Valentine package - a heart stamped tea towel and crocheted dish/wash cloth - mailed out Monday night or Tuesday morning so it will hopefully arrive by Valentine's Day. If I don't have your current mailing address I'll email you for it.
Disclaimer & Story of the Dish/Wash Cloths:
I am not by any means a crocheter, this is an important piece of information to understand if you get one of these cloths in the mail. I can sort of do very, very simple stitches and that's about it and it's been years, and years since I've picked up a crochet hook, but over Christmas my sister Barb got me to pick one up so I could teach her, and I've been practicing a little bit ever since.
I found her a fantastic basic crochet book with good instructions and how to pictures, and hip projects (slippers, baskets, bags, etc.) I thought she would enjoy making, along with a few basic hooks and some cotton yarn to start practicing on. Once she got the hang of chain stitching, I thought a dish or wash cloth would be a good first project - you can practice any combination of stitches you want, it's small and not too overwhelming or over ambitious, and if it turns out to be a trapezoid or pentagon rather than a square, it doesn't really matter. I started one at her house hoping she or my mom would finish it, and then when I got home, I picked up some yarn of my own ... hot pick, red and white ... thinking they might make fun Valentine gifts for friends.
So there you go, the story of the dish/wash cloths. The tea towels are a fun simply project that started years ago and needed to be resurrected.
Good luck everyone! Let the posting begin.
I've been waiting three long months for Sam's haircut to grow out enough so I could take him to Ann and have her clean it up. Sam isn't the only one who needed a hair cut. Becca's been asking to have her hair cut for weeks now, Emily's hair is getting really, really long, as is Alex's, and well, mine is Rapunzel long.
Ann had a free hour this morning and we all lined up for haircuts, except of course for GR whose 1/4" long hair was short enough. Alex did a fantastic job sitting perfectly still in the chair while Ann's scissors worked their magic, she even used the clippers on him! I got a lot of hair cut off ... it's still long enough to pull back and out of my face - could I survive with any other style? - but I get to do a first. I had enough hair cut off to send to Locks of Love! Like I said, my hair was getting crazy, Rapunzel long!
After haircuts and a quiet afternoon at home, the kids and I (GR had 6+ hours of meetings to attend at the Stake Center) went to a KU Women's Basketball game with Diane. Some friends of hers from church purchased a huge block of tickets and invited anyone who wanted to attend to come. We thought this would be a great opportunity to let the kids see a Division 1 game IN the historic Allen Field House. The Lady Jayhawks won against Missouri in a very exciting well played game. The kids really enjoyed it, staying until the very end, and the girls have gotten a hold of the rest of the women's schedule and are planning a return visit!
I sadly learned an important lesson about my children and division 1 sporting events. It is physically impossible for them to attend without wanting, asking and whining for snacks, the entire game. Doesn't matter how much food you pack into their stomachs before you leave home, the minute their bottoms hit the bleachers, their stomachs and mouths instantly know of nothing else but the want for popcorn, hot dogs and bottled water. Next time, this VISA only carrying mama will be sure to have a good supply of green backs on her so she can enjoy the game too!
Digital photography both amazes and frustrates me. There is no reason why this picture should have turned out completely black ... I was close enough, using a flash, etc. But the camera didn't register the flash and consequently, the picture was totally and completely black. When I pulled it into Photoshop, played with the levels and contrast, I was able to pull this out of the pitch black ... pretty amazing that the camera did actually capture something ... and yet, sad cause its such a cute picture of my babes!
Last week Sam and I needed a little time out of the house and headed to the Library for story hour. Pine cone bird feeders were the craft this time and while Sam and I made a bird feeder, Alex kept himself occupied by playing the the large bowl of bird seed provided by the librarian. He loved the feel of the seeds in his hands, and taking a small Dixie cup and pouring the seeds either through his hand back into the bowl, or dumping the seeds into a lunch sack or near by box of extra pine cones.
Tonight I was getting no where distracting/redirecting him so I could finish making dinner and decided to give the bird seed idea a try, this time using rice and a few "containers" from the kitchen. The rice kept Alex totally engaged for 45 minutes! And probably would have kept him engaged longer if the older children hadn't decided to come along and help him play. So from now on I think I'll keep a 1/2 cup of rice in a small bowl in the cupboard so on rough dinner making nights, Alex and I can both survive!
It's been well over a year since I got together with girlfriends for an evening away ... I'm not talking getting together with girlfriends for something church related, I'm talking about the get togethers you have with girlfriends where you eat amazing food, and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly that's been happening in life ... work, family, health ... you name it gets discussed. So when I got a call Friday night asking if I had time to get together with some other girlfriends starved for a night out, I instantly said I'd make time and then ran the idea past GR (bless him for not even thinking twice about it!).
Have you heard about the gourmet dinner clubs? Where friends get together, a specific menu is planned, ingredient assignments are made, then you meet at one persons house and make the menu together and then enjoy the meal.
That is basically what the five of us did, except we just had the head chef purchase everything and we all pitched in $5. So we spent a little over three hours together, making dinner together and chatting - it was glorious! Of the five, I am the least adapt in the kitchen - the other four are amazing in the kitchen, each with different strengths and talents. So the collaborative effort made for an amazing meal - and I don't have a single recipe (for shame I know ... be grateful I have pictures ... I'll work on the recipes).
The main course was a won ton soup - shrimp and sausage stuffed won tons, beautifully steamed shrimp, in chicken broth, seasoned with ginger & green onion. While it was tasty, I think we all agreed we wouldn't make it again ... labor intensive and not hardy enough for our "meaty" men. The two appetizers were by far our favorite, super yummy and easy to prepare ... prosciutto wrapped asparagus - yum! And then little mini pizzas ... basically bruschetta with seasoned tomato, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese.
At the end of the night, we all agreed we should do it again, before another year or more passes!
Sam came home from preschool today with the Adventure Bag. We LOVE having the adventure bag, especially when we get to have it over a weekend. This adventure bag had Eric Carle's TODAY IS MONDAY, a matching game, journal to record our experiences with the book/activities, and a few other enrichment activities that went along with the book. The other item that came with the bag, was a large blue and green stuffed snake, that didn't make it's appearance until we were seconds from sitting down to dinner.
"Mom, he has to eat with us!"
I'll spare you the details of the entire dinner conversation, but let's just say that Sam really wanted to feed the snake SOMETHING (nothing imaginary), and so we started talking about what snakes eat ... shrimp and noodles weren't on the list (which was good, cause we didn't have any left overs!). I first suggested an egg ... but then remembered the mouse/rat we got in a Wendy's kids meal ages ago, I think it might have been one of the Charlotte's Webb characters? Sam and I quickly found our prey ... perfect!
A while back, Heather made "new" crayons for her kids using the old, broken, ruddy ones that seem to multiply ten fold in the craft box when on one is looking. A few months later Family Fun Magazine had these cute valentines in their February issue, finding a fantastic new use for the hundreds of crayons our kids have.
At our house, we have two school boxes of crayons. One box has the nice unbroken crayons, and the other has all the pieces. I thought making some new upcycled crayons with my kids might be a fun after school project and something they could give their cousins as a birthday gifts this year.
I purchased a silicon star mold, hoping the silicon would make getting the new crayons out easier and the kids and I spent many afternoons pealing and sorting crayons (only to have Alex come behind us undo all our sorting). Finally today we were able to melt our first batch of crayons.
We used an odd assortment of crayons ... Crayola, RoseArt, freebie crayons from restaurants, fat, skinny, washable, glow in the dark, princess, you name it they all got thrown into the mix. Each has their own unique melting qualities, and that made for some fun added dimensions when looking at the end product. But we are all really pleased with the results.
I baked ours at 350 for about 15 minutes and then let them cool for a couple of hours. Family Fun says to melt them at 250 for 15 minutes, and Heather melted hers at 350 for 10 minutes. I think it all depends on the kinds of crayons you are using, how big your molds are (FF's was no bigger than 2", and mine 2.75"), the brand of crayon you are using, and possibly the pan (silicon vs. metal?). Anyway, our school box of crayons yielded 12 beautiful upcycled crayons ready for gifting and crafting!
My Dad's birthday is the 28th of December and so on years when we don't spend Christmas with my parents, we do our best to spend the 28th through New Years with my family to celebrate his birthday and the new year.
This year Daddy's parents decided to spend the 8 days following Christmas day with my parents, adding addition incentive for us to make the trip East to visit them. We arrived at my parents house very late Friday night just in time to spend all day Saturday (Daddy asked that we postpone his birthday a day to allow all of us traveling to arrive and so no one felt rushed with Mom and Dad's standing Friday night temple assignment) celebrating.
The celebrations started with Donuts as a mid-morning dessert after breakfast. Then a fun take-out for lunch from a variety of restaurants - oh so yummy! - and who wants to try and take four generations of people to one sit down restaurant? We figured take-out would be simpler, more fun, and just as cost effective.
After lunch, Daddy had requested a family music session with the strings, piano, and singing. Something we haven't really done in about 10 years. My sister's Suzanne and Mary Ann played an amazing piece attributed to Mozart called Der Spiegel. You put the single sheet of music on a table with the violinists facing each other and they start playing - each at what is the top of the sheet of paper from their vantage point. It's amazing and beautiful and fun!
Our little family with the addition of Joe's sweet girlfriend kd played Happy Birthday on the English Cracker Horns we got Christmas Day at Diane's (hopefully we'll get a YouTube video of that going in the next couple days). Everyone got a hoot out of that little surprise performance. Then Joe broke out the cello and we sang Christmas Carols.
Daddy's birthday cakes were a huge Homemade Apple Pie (made using my Aunt LaRee's recipe) and a decadent White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.
GR spent Christmas Eve morning at work, coming home after lunch to find that the kids had done a beautiful job of decorating the tree. I thought I'd snapped a picture or two, but they are no where to be found. They had a lot of fun recognizing the different decorations they've added to our collection over the years.
Diane's church did a Children's Christmas Eve service at 4pm. Singing carols and reading (and acting out) the prophets accounts of the Saviors birth has always been a part of my families Christmas Eve tradition, so to be able to merge the two traditions and attend a beautiful Christmas Eve service where the Nativity story was told and children were encouraged to participate, and favorite carols were sung, with family was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.
After the service, we filled our bellies with one of Diane's amazing dinners and then headed for home to set out stockings, feed the reindeer, wrap more gifts and catch some shuteye so we could enjoy the next morning.
Christmas Day was really nice and laid back. Santa filled the kids stockings with all the traditional things - an orange in the toe (a tradition handed down from my father's mothers family), a few chocolates, a small box of special sugared cereal, and books, toys, tatoos, etc. to play with throughout the morning. The reindeer left scrumptious donuts as a thank you to the children for the yummy food, which ended up being breakfast ... more on that in a bit. And Santa was kind enough to deliver all our packages to Grandma's so we could mosey over there mid-morning after enjoying stockings and breakfast at our house.
Alex woke up Christmas morning at 5:30 screaming and didn't really let up until he simply didn't have the energy to scream any more and started to drift off to sleep around 9. So our grand plans of large super scrumptious gourmet breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs, and sausage were completely forgotten as GR and I traded off trying to hold and comfort a baby who would have none of either. Thankfully, the super scrumptious and massive donuts the reindeer brought more than filled the children until lunchtime.
Everyone made out like bandits with their gifts getting at least one or two prized items from their wish lists. And despite my worst fears, no one was disappointed, making all the stress and fretting and worry worth it.
After cleaning up the wrapping and eating a bit of lunch, we spent our afternoon hours disassembling boxes and packaging and assembling toys, inserting batteries and doing our best to help and comfort Alex who didn't wander far from a loving lap.
Diane found some wonderful English Crackers for our Christmas Dinner. They contained musical horns, each tuned to one of eight notes, and sheet music to play 16 or so basic Christmas Carols (Jingle Bells and The First Noel) and other simple songs (Happy Birthday). It took some practice and serious concentration on the part of some to make our little horn group turn out recognizable music, but after a couple of practice rounds, we were successful in playing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was so much fun! Diane suggested we take the horns to St. Louis later this week and use them with my siblings and I thought that was an excellent idea.
Rebecca spent the first two days of this week at home with a cold, pair that with the two days last week kids were home sick and our one snow day and you're looking at a mom who hasn't left the house in ages to do anything remotely close to preparing for Christmas. GR did get the tree up Monday night, but that's the extent of it here ... it's up, not decorated and two sets of branches are refusing to light ... grrrrr!.
But the boys spent a couple of hours with Grandma, Grandpa and Grandpa's son Jeff this morning which was a huge help because it meant I was able to get the Christmas package for my SIL and family wrapped up, boxed up and mailed out in time for it to arrive for Christmas. I upload a picture to my Flickr account of the tutu's I made for my nieces. They turned out so cute!
Every year, I make grand, elaborate, totally unrealistic lists of things I want to make as gifts for more of a "hand made" Christmas, but alas, each year, I'm able to only pull off one or two projects. So far they've been fun and successful projects, but still, I really wish I could think of all the others in JULY instead of at the end of November, so I'd have a fighting chance at accomplishing a few more!
This afternoon the boys and I went up to the school for a special 1st and 2nd grade assembly in their Pod. It's close to the end of the month and time for the teachers to award the Character awards to students in their classes. This time Rebecca was awarded the RESPECT award. Here's what her teacher had to say about Rebecca and why she was given this award:
"She works to be a good role model for her class. She appreciates the talents of others and is always ready to praise others for their accomplishments."
We are incredibly proud of her for her and Emily both for being such great students and friend to her classmates. And as you can see, she was very surprised and thrilled to get this award!
