Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
You Capture - America
I had such high hopes for this week's assignment.  I knew we would be camping with friends (4 other families) in the heart of Illinois and envisioned getting pictures of trains, churches, tents, cooking over the campfire.  For various reasons (injuries, weather, herding a lot of children, relaxing, etc), that just didn't happen.  So, based on the photos I was able to take, here's what America means to me.



Passing on traditions - like learning how to fish.


Learning to appreciate the gifts of nature (via paddle boat!)


Remembering what it is like to be truly childlike and revel in the wonders of EVERYTHING
- including a cone of ice cream.


Enjoying time away from suburban craziness and appreciating the small town hospitality.  To me, this was like remembering my roots as the place I deem my hometown was a very small town in Michigan.  Watching the Independence Day parade in Shabbona, IL was very reminiscent of homecoming parades in Goodrich.  I miss knowing all my neighbors and the safe feeling you have when you know that your neighbors have your back! 



Good times with great friends... sitting around the campfire just chatting and appreciating the adult company.


Remembering why we celebrate the 4th of July and never forgetting the sacrifices, both past and present, that allow for such a fun celebration and the wonderful freedoms we have!


One picture I took this week really reminds me that we don't always take the best care of the gifts God has given us here in America (and probably all around the world).  While fishing, one of the 14 children we were camping with asked me why people couldn't just take a few extra minutes and throw their trash in the trash cans instead of in the water so that nature could continue to be beautiful.  Out of the mouths of babes.

For more on what our country means to it's citizens, check out the You Capture challenge.
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Earth Day Cookies

Happy Earth Day!  I was inspired by a recent post at Under the Table and Dreaming.  Stephanie used the same method to make an Earth Day cake that I used to make Bug's birthday cake last spring.  I decided to try making earth cookies.


To make these, you'll need:
Sugar cookie dough (a mix, pre-made, from scratch - however you'd like)
Blue & Green food coloring

Divide your dough into two bowls.  I used about 2/3 of the dough for blue and 1/3 for green since the earth is mostly water.  Add 6-7 drops of color to each bowl (green in one and blue in the other).  I chose to kneed it in with my hands since dough is usually very difficult to stir with a spoon.


Once the color was mixed in well, I grabbed a small bit of each dough, swirled them together, rolled it into a teaspoon-sized ball and plopped it onto a cookie sheet.   I repeated this process until I ran out of dough and baked them at 375 for about 10 minutes (until the edges were a slight golden color).  Cool for 2 minutes in the pan and then on a rack until completely cool.  Enjoy!

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Superbowl Fare
In case you were wondering, these are the recipes I prepared for the Superbowl party this evening.

I made Bakerella's Peach Crunch Cake - super easy and pretty good! I think I prefer an oatmeal based peach crisp but this was tasty and pretty quick to make. This picture doesn't do it justice but I didn't get a great photo so hop over to Bakerella's site to see better (and much more appetizing) photos!

Last fall, after reading many great reviews, I bookmarked a recipe on Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site to make for New Years. Well, one sick child later, I didn't get around to making it then. This was the next big party so I tried Wendy Darlings' Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Bites.
I didn't get any pictures before they were gone during the 3rd quarter! They got great reviews from everyone there.
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Edible Snowmen

As part of our teacher gifts, we made candied pecans and marshmallow chocolate snowman. I'd come across the snowman on Speckled Egg last year and thought it'd be a fun thing for the girls to make. If you want to see how they made them, click here.

To make these snowmen, you need:

Lollipop sticks
Marshmallows (2 bags)
chocolate melts (2 bags) - we used mint white chocolate
mini M&Ms, butterscotch chips and chocolate chips or other small colorful candies

Begin by putting 3 marshmallows onto each lollipop stick, making sure there are no gaps between them. Next, melt the chocolate melts in a medium bowl or measuring cup in the microwave as directed on the package. Immediately dip each snowman into the chocolate, rolling it to cover the all of the marshmallow. Any parts that are not coated in chocolate may become chewy or go stale.
Lay flat (or stand upright into a block of styrofoam if you'd prefer). Decorate your snowman with eyes, nose and buttons. You might use strings of licorace for a scarf if you'd like. I'd intended to use gum drops and life savers to make a hat but had forgotten to get the gumdrops. Oops. Once the chocolate coating sets, trim off the excess chocolate and wrap in saran wrap. If you'd like them to set faster, put them in the fridge for 15 minutes.
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Cereal Wreaths, um... I mean Ornament Balls

Another good idea on paper but not so much in real life.


We were going to make cereal wreaths using Apple Jacks and marshmallows (think Rice Krispie Treat style). When we attempted to form the wreaths, they were so big that it made it almost pointless to make them so we just made ornament balls instead. Just as tasty and not quite so much to eat!


To make these, simply substitute Apple Jacks for Rice Krispies and follow the traditional Rice Krispie Treat recipe, cutting the marshmallow amount in half. We sorted the cereal into orange and green piles added a bit of food coloring to our orange as we mixed it up to give it a redder, more festive color.
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Easy Halloween Costume


I priced some costumes on ebay that would fit into our family theme of Peter Pan. I couldn't believe how expensive some of them are. I bid on a few but didn't win so I decided to create my own. I bought 1 yard of green felt off the bolt at JoAnn. I used one of my tshirts to judge sizing and trimmed the fabric to the length and width I needed. I stitched the sides and shoulders and trimmed the arms and bottom with shears.

I used the leftover material to create my hat but wrapping the material around my head to judge size. I then cut it in the shape of a slight triangle and stitched up the side. Once right side out, I folded up the lower edge and added the feather I had grabbed Hobby Lobby.

I decided I should have something on my belt and after finding it on Make It and Love It, using extra material I had, created the dagger.
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Tye Dye
Growing up I did my fair share of tye-dying in Girl Scouts, but always in small circles... never multiple colors and big swirls. A few weeks ago, my friend Jenni made up a bunch of shirts for our children for a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. That same week, there were left over supplies for tye dying at Kid's Club. I took some home and we decided to create some wearable art!
If you have never done this style shirt before, I suggest buying a kit at your local craft store. We soaked our shirts and bottoms in soda ash water for 20 minutes before we began creating our design to help absorbtion of the dye. Apparently soda ash is very difficult to find on its own so a kit might be your best bet.

First we made 4th of July shirts. Bug and Boo each did their own and I did a shirt and a pair of shorts for Ebabe.
Then we made rainbow designs for 3 more tank tops, a pair of shorts for Bug and a skort for Boo. Somehow the way we wrapped the skort, there is a large almost white area on one leg. It's very interesting. I don't think Boo added enough colored dye to her bundle to penetrate the entire cloth.


Boo's outfit is on the left, Ebabe's shirt in the middle and Bug's outfit on the right.
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Uncle Sam Masks
A quick and easy 4th of July craft from the Fountaindale Public Library. I didn't have my camera with me but I will explain what you need and how to do it.


Uncle Sam Mask

You need:
a paper plate
white construction paper
strip of blue construction paper
red&white crayons
white batting or cotton ball
stapler or tape
glue

Cut the center part out of a paper plate. Glue cotton batting/ball to the bottom. Color red stripes on the white construction paper(or all red or scribbles). Draw white stars on the blue strip of paper. Glue the blue strip to the bottom of the white paper. Attach a thin piece of costruction paper to both sides of the "hat" to make it sit comfortably on the child's head.




All done. Wear on your errands and get funny looks and salutes at the local Target store!
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More gifts...
Here are a few more gifts that I made for the kids.
This is a felt pencil case (complete with Cars pencils) made for my nephew. My friend JL sent me a how-to link to this Martha Stewart craft. Nice and easy.


Next up is a skirt for Bug. My friend K helped with the sewing on this one during a church craft night. I used this tutorial from Grand Revival Designs.



The next one gave me some trouble. I had originally wanted to use this tutorial from House on Hill Road. I had the pink and white striped fabric matched with a green material. Unfortunately, after I was 1/2 way through, I realized that the green material was just too stretchy to use. So, I cut it off and bought some green cotton fabric. Brought it home, washed it and cut it then remeasured it and realized that the material was about 4 inches too short. Thinking that the fabric must have shrunk in the wash, I bought the green and white polka dot fabric. Once home, I measured it to cut and after much consternation, realized that the tutorial didn't mention that the fabric needed to be 60" wide. Then I called my mom and asked her to help me tailor the other tutorial of a larger size. This is the result, a skirt for my 9 year-old niece.

I'll have a few more that I can show you on Christmas after the gifts are opened and a few more that won't be revealed until we celebrate Christmas with my parents in about a week.
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