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.

A "Toe"tally Terrific Morning

Hope you are having a "toe"tally terrific Saturday morning at your house.



As you can see....Ava has become a big fan of toes lately.
So adorable.

Everybody getting in on the "toe"action.

A smile....just to brighten your morning.

And another one, because you can't have too many baby smiles.

Have a "toe"tally awesome Saturday everyone.

A Budding Photographer

When I downloaded photos from my camera the other day I found some interesting shots I don't remember taking.  Turns out one of the children, and I have a very good idea which one (John David) had gotten my camera and taken a few photos of his own.  This has happened a couple of other times.  I really try not to leave my camera where anyone who isn't an adult can get to it.  My children (particularly Ella and Harrison) however are clever little monkeys and will climb anything and everything to get to something they want.  John David is good about finding some sort of stool or chair to climb on so he can reach what he needs.  And while it still means he gets to things I thought he couldn't reach, at least he isn't climbing up the furniture or the refrigerator (Harrison has done this) to get what he wants.  Here is a selection of this budding photographer's work.

Before you see any of these I do apologize for the state of disarray my house is in for some or most of these pictures.  It would like to say this was a one time thing and usually it is pristine, but  would be lying.  Our house is a home.  A family of six lives there.  I'm embarrassed to say it gets dirty and messy and very cluttered some times.

John David's room before it was remade into Ava's room.  Poor guy lost his room.

Awww...what a cute, chubby foot.

This appears to be my hand.  Did I know this picture was being taken?  I don't think so.  

More feet.

The blurry ceiling fan.

Apparently someone was watching some baseball as well as working on his photography.

Ahhh...the mess.  I'm so embarrassed.

More mess.  More embarrassment.

Someone's knee.  Wonder who that could be?

There's the budding photographer himself.  Caught in the act by his own photo.

Fishing on the Farm

I am pretty sure I have mentioned before that this city girl married a country boy.  My husband grew up in a tiny hamlet, not even big enough to be a real town, in the middle of nowhere.  The actual directions to get to my in-law's house include the words "go to the end of the pavement and turn right."  I'm not joking.  My husband never lived on a paved road until he was in college.  A guy a dated in college was from a small, South Arkansas town of around 2,600 people.  I thought that was small until I met husband and found out he is from, what I jokingly call a suburb, of a small town with only around 1,200 people.  The name of husband's hometown....Snowball.  No lie!  That is the actual name of his home town.  There isn't a town anymore.  Just a few homes, a masonic lodge, and a fully stocked Pepsi machine on the front porch of what once was the Snowball general store.

We don't make it to Snowball very often.  It is only about a 2 hour drive from where we are but life is just so crammed with stuff to do that we don't seem to have a lot of empty weekends to take off and visit the farm.  Over Memorial Day Weekend husband took the three "big kids" to visit his parents for some down home fun on the farm.  Ava and I stayed home and had some quality time one on one.  It was like a mini vacation for me.  Only having one to take care of instead of four (five if you count husband too) and only having to cook and clean up after myself was nice.  And the quiet....awesome.  Everyone says babies are hard.  I think the 3 year olds are hard.  Ava is the easiest of the four right now.  I will admit that as a first time mom I thought babies were hard too.

But I digress.  While Ava and I were enjoying our quiet time at home, everyone else was having a grand time on the farm.  The small town just up the road from Snowball was having their annual Hillbilly Daze Parade complete with people handing out bubba teeth.  The "big kids" had a great time watching the parade, eating hotdogs grilled by the volunteer fire fighters and playing on the playground.  Once the fun of Hillbilly Daze was over, it was off to the farm to check on the cows and do some fishing.  I was skeptical on how much they would enjoy fishing.  I actual have been fishing before and didn't think it wasn't very much fun.  It is kind of slow, just sitting there waiting for a fish to bite.  I thought with how active and on the go John David, Ella and Harrison are that there was no way they would put up with the slow pace of fishing for very long.  Boy was I wrong.  Fishing was a big hit. They were fishing in one of the ponds on the family farm.  It turns out my father in law had stocked the pond with so many fish that all you had to do was throw your line out there and almost instantly you caught a fish.

Check out what everyone caught.

Here is a video husband shot of John David with his biggest catch.

http://youtu.be/E0vsQG9WQc4

And here is a video of Harrison with his catch.  He was a little wary of the fish once it was out of the water.

http://youtu.be/YXSMWqxRdAU

They were all very proud of themselves and are already wanting to go back and go fishing again.  Who knows, I might even like fishing on the farm.  Provided I don't have to bait the hook or touch the fish.  Like I said, I'm a city girl through and through.

Happy Fishing!

We're Back

We're back!  Sorry about the long delay between postings.  We have had a crazy few weeks with school letting out for the summer, Memorial Day, starting "Mommy School," family vacation, as well as having computer trouble, getting the Mom-mobile fixed after a little run in with a concrete pole at the gas station and the normal every day chores.  But we are back.  I'm still trying to catch up on the laundry and errands and about a million other things but now that we are home and our computer is working....We are back.

My view last week was of the water.  My view this week is of little hand prints on our back door.


Missing the beach already but it is definitely nice to sleep in my own bed.

Last Day of School

School is officially out for the summer and I have very mixed feelings about it.  Part of me is really excited.  I have all sorts of ideas of fun projects and outtings to do with the children.  Part of me is incredibly sad.  This year seemed to fly by.  I guess because we had so much going on.  The children had such wonderful teachers this year, had such fun, and learned and grew so much I hate that it is over.  We love our little preschool of St. Mark's.  We attend church at St. Mark's as well and drive by it throughout the week running errands.  Every time we drive past one of the three says "There's our school and our church.  But we don't have school anymore.  It is over until September." 

Check out how much they have all grown and changed this year.
Here they are on the first day of school 2011.  Everyone was super excited!!!

 He looks so little.

And here they are on their last day of school.
Boy they have grown.

Here are the twins with their sweet teacher Miss Kristen.  The absolutely adored her this year.  I don't think they really understand that they will have a new teacher when they go back next year. 
They want to always be in Miss Kristen's class.

And here is John David.  He isn't a baby anymore.  He looks like a little man.

I don't have one of him with his wonderful teacher Miss Bonnie.  We had a chaotic morning on his last day of school (Ella did some painting on the gift for his teacher that we had to undo) and I was a bad mommy and forgot my camera.  John David loved Miss Bonnie.  She was wonderful.  He learned and blossomed so much thanks to her.  He got a note from Miss Bonnie today in the mail and at the end she said she loved him.  He beamed when I read it to him and said with a huge grin on his face "Miss Bonnie loves me."  You made his day Miss Bonnie.  He loves you too.

So another year is in the books.  It was a great year full of fun, learning, music, new friends and new accomplishments.  We are already looking forward to going back in September for another year.  Until then, time for some summer fun.

End of the Season

Baseball season 2012 is now in the books for John David and his team.  His last game was Monday night. That would be over two weeks ago now.  We are having computer issues so I haven't been able to blog.  Sorry.   As much as I will miss watching him play and as much as I know he will miss the actual games, I am thankful for the short season. I'm glad the season ends before the real heat of our summer hits.  It's been hot enough this year already without having games in July and August.

John David played great all season and has definitely made progress this year.  This year the team focused mainly on fielding the ball and then throwing it to first.  Those were the standard directions.  They did vary from this as the season went on and they figured out more of the rules of baseball.  In the second "half" of the season they started going to the nearest bag after fielding the ball trying to get the runner out.  They didn't do this all the time but every once in a while they would tag the nearest base.  In John David's league, all players get to bat each inning and the runners advance one base with each batter.  Once runners are on base, there is always a force out somewhere on the field.

One of the cutest things I have seen all season happened Monday night in the last game.  The little boy playing third base had, according to his parents, wanted to tag someone out all season long.  His chance came Monday night.  This little boy was playing third base.  The bases were loaded and the batter hit the ball directly towards third base.  The third baseman fielding the ground ball and then raced back to third to tag the base.  Only in his mind, tagging the base meant touching the base with the ball.  He beat the runner to third, took the baseball in his right hand, and bent down and touched the ball to the base.  It was hysterical and adorable and the little boy was thrilled and so proud of himself.  These boys are still so young.  They are just learning the rules to the game.  It is so cute to watch as they interpret what they are told by the coach.

Monday night John David played the pitcher position in the first inning.  Now at his age the pitcher doesn't actually pitch the ball.  These boys are stilling hitting off the T this year.  But the pitcher does end up fielding a lot of the balls hit by the other team.  John David played well but when they were waiting on the next batter and there was downtime during the game, John David was pretending to actually pitch.  Wind-up and all.  It was adorable.  Maybe he will grow up to be a Major League lefty pitcher one day and then he can help Mommy & Daddy retire.

Tuesday night after the final game, the team all met at a local pizza place for the team party.  The coach handed out the trophies and CD with a photo slideshow of the boys his wife had made.  The boys played in the arcade while the parents got to visit.  It was a nice way to end a great season.  Can't wait for next year. 

Going to hit it out of the park

 Waiting patiently on third for someone to bring him home.

 Sliding into home plate.  He came up just a tad short.

 Baby Ava at the game.  She doesn't look too interested in baseball yet.

 Going after a ground ball.

 Last at bat of the season.

 Going home to score.

 After scoring his final run of the year.

 Look mom....a trophy.

 The formal pose.

Go Phillies!