Simply Made Sunday-- Cheerio Crunch

This is a yummy, cruchy treat to use up the Cheerios which Grandma gave us that she keeps buying by mistake. (She needs to remember that Grandpa like Honey Nut Cheerios)
Ingredients needed:
8 Cups of Cheerios
2/3 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of M&M's candy

Pour 8 cups of Cheerios into a large bowl

Put 2/3 of a cup of butter into a sauce pan.

Add 1 cup of brown sugar to the saucepan

Cook the butter and brown sugar over medium heat

stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil.

This get very hot--Luke only helped at the very beginning.

Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pour the sugar mixture into the Cheerios.

WARNING: it is VERY hot

After mixing the sugar and Cheerios together, place on a large cookie sheet and bake a 250 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Remove carefully from oven and return to the big bowl.

Shake the bowl as the Cheerios cool so they don't stick together.

Add one cup of M&M's

Another yummy, yummy treat!

A family favorite!

Check out this weeks recipes at Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms.

What My Children are Reading- Nov 21

It was not all about turkeys and Thanksgiving this week.

We had been missing our copy of Is your Mama a Llama, but it showed up this week and it has been Kimberly's #1 pick of the week.

This beautifully illustrated book has wonderful rhyming riddles which challenge your kids to discover whose mamma is whose.

Kimberly is well on her way to memorizing this whole book.

Our favorite turkey book of the week was Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving.

My 4 youngest kids all loved this book. Be warned, it does have a farmer that tells children on a field trip to his farm that in the morning he is going to kill the turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner.

The schoolchildren rescue the turkeys and take them home to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner as guests in their homes.

It is written in the rhyme and cadence of Twas the Night Before Christmas, and very enjoyable, but it may make the kids eat NO turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

We also enjoyed these books in the past week.

You can check them out at Amazon by clicking in the book cover.

Looking at the sky on Friday-a backyard recap

A cold wind is blowing today and the sky has turned to a "winter sky".
The dark clouds, cold wind and sunshine seem typical for this time of year, as winter heads into central New York.

The clouds seem to say that they will be bringing snow soon.

One short month ago, the sky told a different story. A story of clear fall days and the smell of autumn leaves as wispy clouds showed us their beauty.

2 and a half months ago, the same trees with clouds building, to usher in a thunderstorm on a hot summer day.

Check out all the skies at Looking at the Sky on Friday.

You know you're a homeschooler when....

Birthday Candleglow-Makes My Monday!

This week we celebrated Laura's birthday, and as with every birthday, I took the "candlelight" pictures.
Laura baked her own cake (her own choice) so I thought it was the proper thing to have her light her own cake. :-)

These photos have become a family tradition.

Everyone knows, even the youngest among us, that you have to pose with your cake before the singing begins.

I love the faces of the on-lookers!

Make a wish...

Birthdays and candlelight Make My Monday---head over to Twinfatuation and share what makes your Monday.

Simply Made Sunday-Chocolate dipped peanut butter Ritz Bits crackers

This week Mark made a treat for us all by himself. We were experimenting to see what special goody Mark could make for Thanksgiving.

This is definetly a winner!!
You need:
a box of peanut butter Ritz Bits
light cocoa candy melts
green candy melts
a star cake decorating tip
2 ziploc bags

Mark melted the chocolate melts according to the package directions in the microwave.

Melt for 1 min. at half power and then stir. Repeat this process for 30 seconds at half power until completely melted, stirring between each microwaving.

Dunk your Ritz Bits into the chocolate, covering the crackers completely.

He placed his on the shiny side of parchment paper so they can easily peel off after they have hardened.

He then got out the green candy melts and the cake decorating tip.

He used a different, easier technique to melt the green melts.

Because we didn't need a lot of melts, he simply put them in a secure ziploc bag and then placed the bag and melts in the hottest tap water.

It only takes a few minutes for them to melt.

It's fun to squeeze out the lumps and make sure all the candy is melted.

We then put the cake decorating tip into the corner of another ziploc bag and added the green melts to this bag, squeezing the candy out of a hole cut in the corner of the ziploc.

He then added decoration to this yummy, yummy treat.

Grace and Kimmy were very jealous that Mark got to do this on his own, but I like to let different kids do things by themselves some of the time.

Mark was sooooo proud, it was worth the whining of the younger kids.

Now Mark will have his own treat to bring to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house.

Of course, this batch is long gone, but I think I will have him use orange and yellow and red melts for the Thanksgiving tray. That will make them look very autumnal!!

What my children are reading-Nov-14

It is that time of year when our reading turns toward Thanksgiving, turkeys and autumn. Our favorite books of the week are below. I also added a carousel widget at the bottom of this post of some of our other books from this week.

I am a Bunny

One of our all-time favorite picture book for my preschoolers--a wonderful picture book, illustrated by Richard Scarry. It is perfect to help preschoolers learn about the seasons.
This First Thanksgiving Day

My kids just loved this book. It is written in rhyming verse and gently tells about life for the Pilgrims and the Native Americans as they celebrate the first Thanksgiving. The illustrations are wonderful and the 3 and 4 year old have enjoyed looking at this on their own over and over.
"12 tables groaning
beneath a harvest spread--
Wampanoag and Pilgrim friends
together will break bread.
Joined under one sky
with one prayer to say--
a prayer of thanks for all they have
this first Thanksgiving Day." This First Thanksgiving Day

One Tough Turkey

The kids loved this story about how the turkeys tricked the pilgrims on the first Thanksgiving---getting away with their lives, so that the Pilgrims had to eat squash instead of turkey.....Luke (4) especially liked this one--he laughed and laughed

Make sure to check out what others have been reading this week at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Happy 14th Birthday, Laura!!

We love you, Laura! We are so proud of the beautiful young lady you are becoming, inside and out!

Looking at the Sky on Friday-A November Sky

This is the evening sky on November 12 in the hills of Madison County New York.

I grabbed the camera and my husband,

and had him drive me up into the hills.

We weren't disappointed!

Check out all the Looking at the Sky photos here, and why don't you play along!