Mommy School

In an effort to keep the three "big kids" happy, active, and from picking on each other or driving mommy crazy this summer and after getting some ideas on the internet and from that awesome idea center that is "pinterest" I decided on having Mommy School this summer.  The kids preschool has a summer program during the month of June, but since were going to be traveling and would miss a couple of weeks, it didn't seem to work for us this year.  So instead...Mommy School.  The whole idea was to give the three older ones something to do each day that would be fun and different and so, give them something to look forward to each day.  I had various "themes" for different days of the week.  Arts & Crafts Day, Cooking Day, Library Day, Field Trip Day, etc.  Originally I had thought, every Monday would be art project day, every Tuesday would be cooking day, etc. all summer.  In actuality I changed which days were what activity based on what else we had going on that week.  That way I could kind of coordinate with friends, family, and other obligations.  So far it has worked for us.  I do think having set days would probably make things easier.  We'll try that next summer.  It just hasn't worked that way for us this year.

So we started Mommy School right after Memorial Day.  Here is our schedule for the 1st week of Mommy School.  It was pretty jam packed with activities.  Every week hasn't been quite so full.

We started the week with cooking day.  As I said, I tried to coordinate our Mommy School activities around our other obligations for the week.  That Tuesday happened to be the day I had volunteered to bring dinner to a family in our church that just had a new baby.  Since we were already going to be making dinner for these family friends and dirtying up the kitchen, I figured it made sense to go ahead and make it our official Mommy School cooking day as well.   

In planning out our first week of Mommy School I had asked John David if there was anything special he wanted to cook with that week.  I thought he might say chocolate chip cookies or cake, but I should have known better. My boy loves fruits and vegetables so what did he ask for.....something with apples.  I did a little searching on the internet for new apple recipes and found two that sounded yummy.  Apple muffins and an apple torte.  We tried them both out. 

Here are our creations.

Apple muffins.  Sorry it isn't a great picture but they were delicious.  

 Apple torte.  Also delicious and gorgeous once I took it out of the springform pan.

I got both of these recipes from allrecipes.com but I have included them below if you want to try them out...something I would definitely encourage.

Apple Muffins (makes 12):

2 cups          All Purpose Flour

1 tsp            Baking Powder

1/2 tsp         Baking Soda

1/2 cup        Butter

1 cup           Sugar

2                 Large Eggs

1 1/4 tsp      Vanilla

1 1/2 cups   Chopped Apples, minus the peel

1/2 tsp        Salt

Topping:

1/3 cup     Packed Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp      Flour

1/8 tsp      Cinnamon

1 Tbsp      Butter

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease muffin tin.

2.  Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3.  Beat together butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth.  Mix in the vanilla and stir in the apples.  Gradually blend in the flour mixture and spoon into prepared pan.

4.  Mix together the brown sugar, flour, & cinnamon.  Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbles.  Sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.

5.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375.  Allow muffins to sit approximately 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Apples Torte:

Crust:

3/4 cup           Butter, softened

1/2 tsp            Vanilla

1 1/2 cups       All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup           Sugar

Filling:

2 (8 oz) pkgs   Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup           Sugar

2                    Large Eggs

3/4 tsp            Vanilla

Apple Topping:

3 cups            Apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

1 tsp              Cinnamon

1/2 cup           Sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Mix together butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla, all purpose flour, & 1/2 cup sugar.  Press mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9" springform pan.

3.  Beat together cream cheese & sugar.  Stir in eggs and 3/4 tsp vanilla.  Pour mixture over the crust.

4.  Combine sliced apples, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup sugar.  Spoon apple mixture over the cream cheese mixture. (I placed the apple slices in a circular pattern over the top so it would look prettier.)

5.  Place springform pan on a baking sheet and bake until the center is set, approximately 50-65 minutes.

Both of these recipes were a huge hit.  We doubled the muffin recipe and included a dozen as dessert in our dinner for our family friends.  

In addition to cooking, our first week of Mommy School also included a trip to the library, making rain suns and rain clouds, complete with falling water drops, and going to the zoo.  We hung the suns and rainclouds up in the house for Daddy to enjoy.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them (bad mommy) and have since taken them down and replaced them with other art projects.  

On Friday that week we had the best weather.  Highs in the 70's and gorgeous.  Just in case you don't know....70 degree weather in June in Arkansas is unheard of and didn't last long.  The rest of the month has been unbearable with temps over 100.  But we decided to take advantage of the cool weather and head to the zoo.  Yep..that's right.  I took four children to the zoo by myself.  No major problems, although all five of us in a bathroom stall was a bit of a tight squeeze but we made it fine.  While standing in line to get it (since it was a nice cool day I wasn't the only parent that had the idea of going to the zoo) I did overhead a woman talking on her cell phone to a friend about how she had brought her daughter to the zoo.  My guess is the daughter was between John David and the twins in age, so probably 4, maybe an older 3.  Anyway, whoever this woman was talking to must have asked her something along the lines of "Did you bring both children?"  Her response, "Of course not. I only brought Ruthie, or whatever the daughter's name was.  Bringing both of them would have been too much to handle."  I almost laughed out loud.  Now I know everyone's children are different and every parent and what he or she could handle is different.  But all I could think was, "and here I am by myself with four children."  I'm sure she thought I was completely insane.  Oh well.  We all survived with no arguments or trouble making and we all had a fantastic time.  Here are a few shots of our fun at the zoo.

Ava's first zoo trip.

 I think it is impossible to get three little ones to look at you at the same time.  This was right before we really started seeing the animals.  I'm surprised I got them to hold still for a picture at all.  They were excited and ready to see some animals.

 The silverback gorilla.

 The monkey.  He looked like he was checking us out just like we were checking him out.

John David was ready to get in there with the elephants.

 The elephant.

 Rhino

Some relative of a deer but I can't remember the exact name.  John David really liked this one.

The new penguin exhibit.  The kids loved it and it looked like the penguins were having a blast too.  This penguin was very friendly and hung out doing tricks for the kids.

Panther or is it a leopard.  I always get them mixed up.

Leopard?

We had a great time.  The kids loved the animals.  The weather was perfect.  And we met up with Daddy afterwards for lunch.  Plus I got a good story out of it.