Laura made delicious Olympic cookie bars out of chocolate cookie dough and M&M's.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Kids in the Kitchen--Painted Bread Art
Amy found this activity for Luke and Kim. Painted toast.
All you need is:
milk
food coloring
small jars or cups
bread
a toaster
new, cheap paintbrushes
We put about one inch of milk into each jar and then added 4 or 5 drops of food coloring.
Mix up your milk and food coloring...I love the pastel color of the milk.
Start painting a design or picture on a piece of bread...being careful not to "soak" the bread in any one spot.
Luke chose to write his name.
Put in the toaster on a medium setting.
Kimmy's masterpiece before toasting.
Kimmy's masterpiece after toasting....I love how the colors stand out on the toast.
The toast was still tasty slathered in butter!
Amy wanted to join the fun and since it was her idea, taadaa,
Amy's finished flower.
Our beans made it!!
We have never planted a garden, but every spring we learn about seeds and plants and I always dream of raised beds. But for this year, my littlest students planted 5 beans seeds and we have been watching them grow. They have watered them everyday...(we are in the middle of a drought)...we saw the blossoms and then the teeny tiny beans began to grow.
Today our bean plants blessed us with 2 handfulls of beans!!
I was impressed by the yeild...and there are many other little beans just starting top grow. I may let the new beans continue to grow and dry out and try and plant them next year. That will be a real, complete, life cycle of a bean
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
I was featured!
I was featured in the "Fun Ways to Keep Cool this Summer" over at Raising Memories Blog.
Friday, July 20, 2012
26 years of marraige and still having fun!
Pat and I were greatly blessed to have our children send us off to the Adirondack Mountains to enjoy some time together and to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary.
We headed out to Old Forge.
One of the first things we did was to head up the McCauley Mountain chair lift to get a great view of the mountains.
The view was a little hazy, but still very impressive.
I loved these Adirondack chairs made out of old skiis.
Pointing our important landmarks...and the TowBar Inn.
heading down the mountain
We inquired in town as to where a nice, easy hike could be found, suitable for someone with rhuematoid arthritis....This is the spot immediately pointed out to us...the Moss Lake loop.
It started out beautifully...at the center of the lake is a little island, and on this island an osprey has nested.
The trail was flat for the most part, and the serenity of the woods was wonderful.
I loved this little fungus...I don't know what it is called, but it was beautiful. At this time in our walk were about 1.25 miles in....halfway....that seems to be my rhuematoid arthritis limit...but I marched on. I feel that I could now be one of those Olympic commercials....I overcame adversity...powered on...(although I was quite whiny) and made it (uphill) to the trailhead. Pat was proud of me....and very happy he didn't have to call 911!
The view from the balconey of our hotel room.
The amazing room. The stairs wind up to the bedroom. (The kids would have loved these stairs.)
When we arrived home preparations for a party had begun. I love the 26 balloons lining the wall.
Thank you, kids for making these past 26 years so wonderful for your father and me.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
A Prayer for my Husband--on our 26th Wedding Anniversary
Lord, bless and preserve my cherished husband, whom You have given me: let his life be long and blessed, comfortable and holy; let me ever be a blessing and comfort to him, a sharer in all his sorrows, a consolation in all the accidents and trials of life; make me forever lovable in his eyes and forever dear to him; unite his heart to mine in fondest love and holiness, and mine to him in all sweetness, charity and submission. Keep me from all ungentleness; make me humble and obedient, that we may delight in each other according to Your blessed word. May both of us rejoice in You, having our portion in love and service to God forever. AMEN
The author of this prayer is A. Francis Coomes, S.J. It can be found in the Mother's Manuel. There is also a Father's Manuel which can also be purchased.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
It's blueberry picking time in Central New York
The green heron we spotted on the way to pick blueberries.
There is a real bumper crop of berries this year.
Luke-7
Kim-6 Amy-18
Grace-10
A morning glory
Gracie-10
Kim-6 Amy-18
Monday, July 16, 2012
Ice Tunnels--Fun for a hot, hot day
I found this fun activity over at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education and we thought we would give it a try, especially since the temp has been in the 90's for way too many days in a row.
All you need for this actvity is:
liquid watercolors
salt
medicine droppers
block of ice
Add a heaping teaspoon of salt to some liquid watercolors.
I picked yellow--which didn't show up well, and red and blue. If I do this again I think we would stick to just one color, probably red would work the best. By the time the kids were done mixing the colors they had all turned to "mud" color.
The night before this experiment, I froze water in different plastic containers.
We popped them out into a big pan to catch all the melting water.
Carefully drop the salt colorwaterpaint onto the ice.
The salt begins to melt the ice in different patterns, and starts to make tunnels into the ice.
It was real hard to photograph the neat patterns that were tunneled into the ice.
We also used this as a science lesson and learned how salt is able to melt ice and we learned why salt is put on icy roads in the winter time.
Some of our ice had cracks in it. This made very neat patterns of color!
These channels of red in actually inside ice.
Science is fun...and it can keep you cool on a hot, hot day.
