L-isms

Today in the car:
L: (while looking through some books)  Mom, do you know who the illustrator is on this book?  I think it's the Cat in the Hat.
M:  Robert Lopshire
L:  REally??  I still think it's the cat!


At a craft day at the library:
L: (talking to an adult friend)  You know, I don't like tormados.  Not the kind you eat, but the ones that have an eye and make your house spin around!

While eating salmon, mashed potatos, broccoli, roasted pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds, and milk for dinner:
L: Now this is what I'm talking
Dad:  about?
L: Yeah!!!
(I gave the kids mummy hot dogs, mummy string cheese, monster apples, and pop for dinner the night before and they didn't eat it.)

Right now he and I have a slight cold and runny noses.
L: Mom, the snot is dropping out of my nose.  I need a tissue!

While driving through downtown Gary, Indiana on our way to my dad's house:

L:  These buildings look different then our city.
Dad: Why, what is different about them?
L: The buildings just look different.  We don't have a brick building like that one.  I hope our car doesn't die here.
M:  The car is fine, and we don't have anything to worry about here.


L:  Hey Jackie, the car is making a bubbling sound.  I think it's the radiator.  We need to go to Autozone!

Halloween crafts

We had our first set of Halloween craft days yesterday.  We were expecting 22 kids so we had to come up with a way to make things move smoothly.  We set up different stations and had the moms move with their children to each station.  There were 5 different crafts to do, for different skill levels.  These ideas came from all over the place.  Some were from The Mailbox, teaching magazine.  I have been picking these up from the library for preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade just to get some new ideas!

The first was just simply drawing pictures on black construction paper with yellow and white crayons.  Even the youngest can do this one!

 Next up, coffee filter bats.  I got this idea both from Frugal Family Fun blog, and Kaboose web site.  Use washable markers in purple, brown, grey or black.  Color the coffee filter, and "paint" with water over what you colored.  It gives it a water color type look.  Let it dry.  When it is dry, fold in half, cut points in the non-folded half, and wrap a half of a black pipe cleaner around the middle.

 This one is from my co-organizer Amanda!  She picked up black plates and cut slits all around.  Next we wrapped grey or white yarn around the plate to make a spider web.  The kids could then attach a plastic spider ring to the web!

 We were going to do candy corn sun catchers, but with the amount of kids we were having we felt this would be easier.  I drew a candy corn shape on some white computer paper.  I then ripped orange and yellow construction paper in pieces.  The kids glued the pieces to the shape.  Very easy for kids of all ages to do.

 This is one I got from The Mailbox.  We cut 8's out of black construction paper, and 8 legs for each one.  We got to talk about how sipiders have 8 legs.  Then we added 4 eyes to each one.  I think this one was one of the favorites!

 This one was also from Amanda.  She made a copy of different leaves and cut them out.  The kids then colored each leaf.  We cut the middle out of some paper plates we had left over from the group picnic.  The kids then glued their colored leaves around the outer rim of the plate.

Apple Tree craft

Another day, another craft!  Like I said, there are so many fun things to do in the fall, that I have to squeeze them all in somehow.  This is another one I saw in The Mailbox a teaching magazine.  A friend of mine gave me these large rolls of heavier white paper that her husband's work is done using.  So I cut large sheets off, one for each of us.  I used a brown marker and drew 2 lines to show where the tree trunk would be.  I let the kids color in the trunk.  Then using leaf shaped cookie cutters and washable green paint, we stamped green leaves on the top of our tree.  Let that dry for a little while.  I picked up some red bingo markers from Dollar Tree, and we used those to make our apples.  The kids really did love doing this, and have already asked me today what craft we can do.  This was super easy, lots of fun, and not very messy at all!

Apple Recipes

Since we went apple picking and had over 51lbs. of apples on hand, I had to come up with some ways of using them.  I didn't want to do the typical apple pie, because frankly, I don't like apple pie.  So I started to explore.  First up, applesauce!  I had never made applesauce before so I wanted to give it a try.  My friend A gave me this suggestion:
For every 4 mid-size apples (peeled, cored, chopped), add 1c apple juice or cider. Boil in a large pot on the stove until the apples squish with the side of a spoon. Mash by hand or blender for the consistency you like, then add the spices of your choice.  I really liked this!!!

Next came an apple cherry crisp that I made from the book The Happy Baker by Erin Bolger
Her's is an apple cranberry crisp, but I had cherries instead.  I LOVED this one!!!

I'm not Dutch Apple Crisp:

4 cups of apples, peeled, cored, and cut into small pieces
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries (or cherries), thawed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

topping:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Grease an 8 or 9 inch square baking dish.
2.  In a large bowl, combine apples, lemon juice, cranberries, sugar and cinnamon.  Pour into prepared dish.
3.  In a medium bowl, cream together the flour, butter, and brown sugar; mix well.  Stir in the oats and salt.  Sprinkle evenly over fruit mixture.
4.  Bake for 40 mins or until fruit is tender and topping is browned.


This one was my favorite out of the 2 crisp recipes that I tried.  I loved it warm with freshly whipped cream.

The other apple crisp that I tried was from Family Fun magazine.  I won't post the recipe but I will post the link.  http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/fabulous-fruit-crisp-941584/
I don't have pictures of either of these because they all went way too quickly!

And the last thing I have made so far was the America's Test Kitchen Apple Dapple cake.  This was good, but just didn't hit the spot for me. (Although I have been eating it warmed up for breakfast the past few days ;-)

This recipe is:

cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
3 large eggs, room temp
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4' pieces
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Brown Sugar glaze:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tbsp. butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tbsp. milk

1.  Adjust rack to middle postion and heat oven to 350.  Grease 16 cup tube pan.
2.  Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla together with an electric mixer on medium speed until thick and glossy, about 2min.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly beat in the flour mixture, in 3 additions, until just incorporated.  Stir in the apples and nuts.
3.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter.  Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 mins, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
4.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 min.  Run a small knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, then flip it out onto a wire reack.  Turn the cake right side up and let it cool completely, about 2 hours.
5.  Boil all the ingredients together for the glaze in a small saucepan over medium high heat until thick and syrupy, 1-2 in.  Drizzle the thick glaze over the top and sides of the cake.  Let the glaze set, about 25 min, before serving.

Some other apple recipes:

That wretched interloper
Soft Ginger Apple Cookies
Mini Applesauce Muffins

Frank and Pumpkins

If you couldn't tell, the kids and I love to do crafts. (Well, Adam does too)  And right now there are so many fun things to do, there just isn't enough time to do them all.  We started a count down to halloween, where we do something fun each night.  Last night we did crafts.  We made a pumpkin patch with orange bingo stampers, and footprint Frankenstein monsters.  The Monsters were made by painting the bottom of the foot (or hand) green, and then the toes (or fingers) black.  Stamp onto a piece of white paper, and let dry.  We let ours dry overnight.  Then this morning we used markers to finish the faces up.  The kids loved doing this.  Anytime they can paint their hands or feet, they are in.  We made sure to do this on the kitchen floor and I had wet wipes or a wet towel at the ready to wipe them down right away.  We really didn't have a mess at all!  I'll hang the pictures up in the living room and kitchen to help with the decorations!  Next week we are doing a HUGE craft day for the mom's group, and I will be sure to post pictures and instructions on all of those craft as well.

 L's pumpkin patch

 D's pumpkin patch

 Adam's, his is a little fancier then the others

 Adam and I did our hands.  Gee can you guess which one is Adam's?

 The kids frank'n'feet

 The paint said it was washable.  I don't think so.

 The kids finished monsters.  L's in on the top and D's is on the bottom.

My Frank'n'hand

Monster Mash!

I hosted a monster mash play date at the library this week in preparation for the Halloween season!  I saw the monster face craft that we did in a teacher's magazine that I checked out from the library called The Mailbox.  I had it set up so the kids could make either boy or girl monsters, and had all the pieces cut out for them.  We also had some monster coloring pages, and snacked on Frankenstein rice krispie treats!  The treats were made by using green food coloring in with the marshmallows, and then adding a little bit more once I added the rice krispies. 

The books we read were:
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley 
Dracula and Frankenstein Are Friends by Katherine Tegen
Monster Manners by Joanna Cole
and Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

 I found this idea on this blog

Indoor camp out!

A week or so ago I had an indoor camp out for the mom's group.  We held it at the local library in one of the large conference rooms.  I set up an indoor play tent, we had a fake fire, "roasted" marshmallows, made smores, sang songs, read stories, and ate trail mix.  The kids had a blast!  Adam made the fire for me out of paper towel rolls, and construction paper.  The marshmallows that we "roasted" were squares of white paper glued together only on 3 sides, and then had a large popsicle stick inserted.  That way the kids could remove the "marshmallow" and put them on top of the graham crackers and chocolate we had ready for them.  The crackers were just simply squares of cardboard, and the chocolate was squares of brown or black construction paper.  The crafts were very simple but the kids enjoyed every second of it!

The stories we read were:  Scare a Bear by Kathy-jo Wargin 


and Just me and my Dad by Mercer B. Mayer

camp fire

marshmallow ready for roasting

smores ready to go!