Fun in the snow!  She lost her boot in a pile that was taller than she is.

Glee Karaoke time with daddy.

The job that never ends...

Daisy Meeting - learning about our last petal.

The Harry Potter tablet case I made out of felt.  It looks more like Dilbert than I anticipated, but the girls are thrilled with it.  I was inspired by this post by Practically Functional.  I decided to stitch my felt rather than use glue because it needed to hold up being carried back and forth in my daughter's backpack.

The beginnings of the Scrabble rag quilt I am making for my grandmother's 91st birthday in April.

Busy day at the bird feeder!

I spent the majority of the day hanging out with my friend in the surgical waiting room while her husband had spinal surgery.

 

This just seemed like an interesting juxtaposition.  Leaves and snow...

 Sweet.  As the holidays approach, it seems that sugar fairies are everywhere, leaving frosting smears and sprinkles in random, hard to clean locations.  Bug managed to cover every last part of the top of her cookie with frosting and sprinkles during the cookie decorating portion of our Christmas "Advent"ure.


On a different sugar-high note, Boo attends a monthly event for 4th and 5th graders at our church called YUC (Youth Under Construction).  This past week was their Christmas celebration and they got to create a gingerbread house to bring home.


It lasted about 30 minutes at home before pieces just fell right off into her mouth!  Amazing!  Now, less than a week later, all that remains are the crumbled ruins of a delicious treat.

Continuing on our sweet theme, our church staff Christmas luncheon is next week and I volunteered to make some centerpieces for the tables.  I coerced... volun-told... asked my friend Jenni to help me make up some candy bouquets.  Here are two of our creations.




So we had plenty of sweetness in my house this week.  (If only it would have rubbed off on my children...)  My sweet tooth is starting to ache already but if you are a glutton for punishment, stop by I Should Be Folding Laundry and check out other You Capture - Sweet moments.

Our outside time this week has mostly been spent doing yard work and heading back to school!!!!!  What a great week for the You Capture Challenge to be outside shots.

The first two shots are of the girls ready for their meet and greet time.  We brought potted plants with pots adorned with school supplies!



Here's Boo in her first day of school outfit that I managed to finish on Saturday!  I'm not sure I like the skirt too much but she was thrilled with the whole outfit.  (For those interested, I used free tutorials from Sew, Momma ,Sew.  For the shirt I used this tutorial and for the skirt, this one.)



On the walk to school, Bug asked me to take a picture of their shadows.  I really liked this idea and think I will try to take one every year to see how they've grown!

Here's a shot of the girls at the end of the first day running to see daddy and tell him about school.


Now that her sisters are in school again, Ebabe is back in collection mode.  Here's her find on the first day of school.




 And finally, on our walk home from school the other day, we noticed a tree that had a lot of personality.  Here's a shot of our new deciduous friend!


Can you see the face there?  Two eyes and a green mustache...

Check out more outside photos taken for the You Capture Challenge hosted by I Should Be Folding Laundry.
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I mentioned that we were doing a different kind of sun print in my recent post about sun printing.  So, here's what we did.  We simply used construction paper and put various interestingly shaped items on them and set them in the sun for a few hours.


Here's what happened.


I had to bring them in because it was getting a bit too windy outside and the items were blowing off.  The yellow paper worked the fastest but then didn't get any lighter over time.  The red paper took the longest but ended up being the boldest change (I'm not sure it comes through as vividly in the photo).

All in all, a fun, easy and pretty cool experiment.  The girls are talking about doing it with some smaller varieties of shapes to make stationary.

For her birthday, Bug got a Klutz sun painting book.  I put it aside at the time, knowing that it would be great fun to pull out this summer.  This week, after realizing that summer (as far as the kids are concerned) is only two more weeks, I grabbed the book and we set out to make some sun prints.

First we had to wet the lightweight cotton items we were going to use.  Bug used one of the bandanas that came with the kit while Boo used one of Chip's old t-shirts.  Then we used the fabric paint to paint an area to do the sun print. 

Once the paint was applied, the kids layed out various objects of interesting shapes on the painted area.  Then we let the material dry in the sun. 



It was a hot, sunny day so it took about an hour max for them to dry.  Here's the end result.


I was a bit disappointed with how the cut-outs that were included in the book turned out.  They didn't lay well on the bandana and therefore didn't print well.


Suprisingly, since it was a thicker cotton than was suggested, Boo's shirt turned out rather well.


They were pleased with their artwork and that's what counts, right?!  Today we are experimenting with using the sun to "print" on regular construction paper.  I'll let you know if it worked out.

I've had this project bookmarked for at least a year now and finally got around to doing it.


It took me about a day so I'm not sure what my hang up was.  I even had the shirt - I'd bought it at Goodwill as a gift for my brother for Christmas a few years ago and never gave it to him.  I found it last summer and thought of this.  Anyway, I changed some things when I was making it (not necessarily on purpose!) but I think it turned out quite cute.  I even made a matching headband for fun.

Ebabe loved it!  Now I'm trying to get two more done for her sisters for our family reunion.

There was no school today because of President's Day so we had some extra time to explore and have fun with Japan! Bug found Japan on the globe and recognized that it was about the same size as the state of California. I looked it up and she is correct. Japan is 143,619 square miles and California is 158,706 square miles. She also noted that Japan is almost three times as big as Illinois (Illinois is 57,918 square miles). Boo and I also discussed the Japanese creation mythology versus our Christian beliefs. She's been reading the Percy Jackson series and has been intrigued by the Greek god mythology so this wasn't a stretch for her at all.

During quiet time today, Boo & Bug spent some time writing Haiku poetry. A Haiku is a short, non-rhyming poem composed of three lines containing 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables.
Here's what they came up with:





We also spent a bit of time today playing dress up. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was a Japanese exchange student who gifted me a kimono. I got it out today and, although I had to brush up on how to put it together, Boo got to try it out. Bug tried on a Mulan costume that we have (yes, I realize that Mulan is Chinese but it was the closest that I had to a kimono in Bug's size!). Boo was quite surprised at how comfortable it was but also how restricting. She had a fun time taking dainty little steps.




Then we made mini counting books, practicing our Japanese number writing using this link from Scholastic.

Our final project of the day was making paper lanterns. We used scrapbook paper cut in various sizes (I think that 4.5x6 made the nicest ones) to create them. Fold your paper in half and cut from the fold straight up to about 1/2 inch from the opposite edge. Repeat the process leaving 1/4 to 1/2 an inch between each cut. When you have finished all your cuts, roll the paper edges together and staple on both ends.


We then punched holes in the tops and strung them to make a fun stairway decoration! (If you want a step by step tutorial, check out The Crafty Classroom's directions.



For dinner we used a recipe from Family Fun magazine for Chicken Yakitori.


To make it, you will need:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP mirin
• 4 TBSP unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 bunch scallions
• 12 bamboo skewers (I used 12 inch)

Mix 2 TBSP soy sauce, 2 TBSP mirin, and 2 TBSP rice vinegar in a 9x12 pan. Cut the chicken into 1-inch pieces and add to the mixture, being sure to coat the chicken on all sides. Put in the fridge for an hour to marinate.


While the meat is marinating, soak your bamboo skewers in water and chop the scallions into 1 inch lengths, using both the white and pale green parts. (While doing this, I pondered the origin of the word Rapscallion, which, as it turns out has absolutely nothing to do with scallions!)

In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of mirin, 2 TBSP sugar, and 2 TBSP rice vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until the glaze is slightly thickened (this took about 20 minutes). You don't want it to cook too long as it will continue to thicken after you remove it from the stove.

Heat your grill to medium temperature. Alternate 4 pieces of chicken and 3 pieces of scallion onto each skewer. You can throw out the marinade at this point.

(note my dedication - grilling while it is snowing is never all that fun!)
Grill the skewers until seared on both sides and just cooked through, about 10 minutes, turning every 3 minutes or so. During the last few minutes of cooking, brush the skewers with the glaze on both sides, turning them often so the glaze doesn't burn. Just before you remove them, brush the skewers with the glaze a second time.

I served the chicken yakitori with udon noodles.

The verdict: The kids LOVED the meat! Bug asked if we could have it every night & Boo practically shouted that it was delicious after her first bite. I thought it was a great flavor as well.

If you want to read about what we did to study Japan in 2008, click here.