|
|
Tuesday I decided to take the kids raspberry picking. They were very excited, but when they saw that we would have to walk through some overgrown bushes to get to the raspberries they decided they were NOT interested. So, we bought some corn, peaches, and tomatoes, and opted to visit the farm animals instead. Emma and Johnny were especially impressed by this goat, who was about thirty feet up in the air. I was impressed that Emma managed to figure out that he got there by climbing a series of ramps.
Not the outing I planned, but still fun, memorable, and educational.
I can’t believe summer is nearly over! August was a month of celebration in our house – Lily and Mike’s birthdays, and the wedding of a dear friend. We also got to spend time with several relatives we rarely get to see. We went on an exciting road trip to Atlantic City and Philadelphia, with stops at the children’s museum in West Hartford (with many exciting animals on display), Cape May Zoo (adorable baby snow leopards, zebras, and a swimming bear were my kids’ favorites), the Atlantic City Aquarium (where there was a cool diver feeding show and touch tanks that my kids were too overwhelmed by crowds to enjoy, but where my admission fee was put to use via a couple hours of my children running gleefully in an empty room), and the Historic Village at Allaire (where the staff were very friendly and accommodating). We had a blast meeting up with cousins at the Allaire village, and we met up with my parents and a couple siblings at a bookstore in Delaware for a couple hours – midway between our respective locations, and the only opportunity to get together without crossing an ocean. And we stayed with more cousins in Philadelphia, where Mike, a cousin, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the Please Touch Museum for a full six hours while I was busy with wedding rehearsals.
I gave a donation in exchange for admission to the Cape May Zoo, and I paid full admission to the Atlantic City Aquarium. The Historic Village at Allaire was free, and my Discovery Museums membership got us into all of the other museums!
The birthday celebrations and trip fulfilled two of my goals, and we played outside for at least part of every non-rainy day, so I think August was a success!
Autumn is my favorite season in New England, and I’m hoping to spend lost of time outside! In September, I hope to:
- Take the kids apple picking (with my Mother’s Club). Target Areas: health and education
- Play outside as much as possible. Target Areas: education, health, and peace
- Dry laundry outside as often as possible. Target Areas: education and gratitude
- Finish crocheting the bear I started sometime last year. Target Areas: education
- Sew something. Target Areas: education
- Pack up a fourth box of stuff for the donation pick-up I have scheduled (three are already packed). Target Areas: charity and gratitude
- Pick up a couple Simplicity patterns I’ve had my eyes on when they go on sale (starting September 9th, if I remember correctly). Target Area: education
- Try out a rotating cleaning schedule: My room Sunday, kitchen and laundry Monday, playroom Tuesday, Living room and dining room Wednesday, laundry room and garage Thursday, cabinets, counters, and bookshelves on Friday, and bathrooms and kids’ rooms on Saturday. Target Area: peace
- Measure Emma and (this is the bonus goal) try my hand at sloper drafting by following along with this tutorial. Target Area: education
I’m realizing that most of my goals are education-oriented; I guess I’m in back-to-school mode! I’m feeling ambitious, in part because September is my first month since May 2005 without a baby, either in my arms or in utero!
Blogging about goals this month? I’d love for you to add your post to the linky below, and include the button or a link back to this post! If you do link up, you can also claim an extra entry in my upcoming CSN Stores giveaway, the place you can find everything from shoes to a new dining table.
Mike was out of town for all but one week of August, so Emma requested and I agreed that Saturday was the perfect time to repeat our business trip cake from last year. We made my Grandma’s tried and true hot water chocolate cake, and we even made the pudding from scratch this time (both recipes are below). I love covering cakes with pudding – besides being healthier, the less-sweet pudding brings out the natural sweetness of the cake. Lily napped through most of the festivities, but Emma and Johnny thoroughly enjoyed baking and eating this cake – and we even saved some for Mike, who (hooray!!!) returned late Saturday night.
Hot Water Chocolate Cake
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 cups flour
- ½ cup cocoa
- 2 tsp. soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 tsp. vanilla
After batter is beaten add boiling water and vanilla. Grease pan well. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
Corn Starch Pudding (not as good as egg yolk pudding, but easier to make!)
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp. corn starch
- 2 ½ cups milk
- Dash of salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Mix sugar and cornstarch. Add milk, salt and vanilla. Cook until thickened. Be careful of scorching. Serve hot or cold.
I’m linking this post up to Show and Tell at ABC and 123.
Emma and Johnny had a blast with this simple boat-building activity at the Acton Discovery Museums. They were each given a roughly 6-inch by 6-inch sheet of aluminum foil, which they shaped into a boat. Then they tested how many pennies their boats could hold, first in tap water and then in salt water. They learned that wider boats held more pennies than narrow ones, so long as the pennies were spread out evenly on the wide boats. They also discovered that their boats held more pennies in salt water – but only if they were careful to not let any water into the boats when they set them in the bin!
I’m linking this post up to Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.
I’ve made file folder travel felt boards in the past, but for our most recent road trip I wanted a felt board that could take a beating. My very first blog post was a tutorial on how to use a foam core board to make a flannel/felt board. That foam core board is still standing after nearly two years of being used by my children in all sorts of ways, so I decided to use foam core board for this project as well.
Foam core board comes in all sorts of sizes, but it’s cheapest as a simple poster board, so that’s what we bought. I used a kitchen knife (someday I will aquire an exacto knife) to cut it into six pieces, and then cut grey fleece into slightly larger pieces. Felt sticks to fleece nicely, and the stretchiness of fleece makes it an ideal board covering material.
I trimmed the corners, then folded the edges over and taped them down using duct tape:
I wasn’t striving for elegance, but you could actually make this look quite nice with a little care and fancy decorative duct tape. My kids are thrilled with their flannel boards; they particularly enjoy using them as beds (!) for their bears. Perhaps I should have titled this post “How to make a durable travel felt board/bear bed”?
I’m linking this post up to We Play at Childhood 101. I’m also linking up to A Present a Week at Works in Progress, as I’m making three more of these up to give as gifts!
We came back from our trip to find a box with this Moon Dough play set waiting to be reviewed (sent to me by Team Mom). It was an instant hit! The barn was easy to set up, and we were all amazed at how easily the animals formed in their molds – they literally pop out of the barn door, ready for play! The dough is super soft, and lightweight. Our set came with blue, yellow, and white dough – which soon combined into a light green. I was happy to see that the set came with colors that mixed well! My kids have spent hours playing with this set so far, and I expect it to continue to entertain them for hours to come! The barn doubles as a prop to play with the animals in – there’s even a little door you can open to put an animal inside the barn. Emma usually stuffs three animals in there, and then uses a fourth animal to re-enact The Three Little Pigs – although, in this case it’s the three little horses/sheep/cows/chickens.
I’m very happy with this set, but I would hesitate to give it as a gift because the dough is super crumbly. It sweeps up really well, so to me it’s not a big deal, but I know a lot of moms get upset about crumbs on the floor. It is a FANTASTIC gift for a child dealing with allergies whose parents who don’t mind sweeping – besides being non-toxic, it’s hypoallergenic, and does not contain gluten, soy, wheat, casein, peanuts or eggs (I emailed their customer service for those details, and they responded very quickly). The clay never dries out, so you don’t have to worry about containers being closed tightly or dough being kept out too long.
Molding is the big strength of this dough; my kids tried making up some shapes and were frustrated by how easily it crumbled. We have other substances that are good for free building, though, and I’m happy to have this option for my kids to learn about using molds – and I love seeing them use the animals molded for hours of creative play!
In honor of Massachusetts Farmers Market Week and the blogathon set up by Loving Local, I thought we’d give visiting a farmer’s market another try. We dropped by the Bedford Farmers’ Market, and everyone was much happier this time round. It wasn’t quite as hot, and we found a parking spot right next to the market. We bought a pint of delicious cherry tomatoes and some green beans. I tried to convince my kids that we should get a yellow cucumber instead of the cherry tomatoes, but they were not interested.
The highlight for both of them was getting their hands stamped at one of the booths:
We plan to visit a few more farmers’ markets over the next few weeks – and hopefully I’ll get my kids to branch out and try some less familiar vegetables! Hopefully the combination of visiting farms, farmers’ markets, and planting our own tomatoes and strawberries will give my kids a better understanding and appreciation of where food comes from!
Check out my guest post at The Train to Crazy!
|
|
