Mmmmmmoon Surface Cookies

This edible Moon project is probably better suited for older kids.  Not that littler kids won't enjoy it, but they won't get as much out of it or do as nice a job.

First prepare or purchase a batch of sugar cookie dough.  I made homemade dough, so I tinted it with a smidge of Wilton black food coloring to make it gray.  To make it round roll it up in parchment paper and slide it into a long glass.  Lay the glass on its side in the fridge and let the dough firm up for an hour or so.  Slice the dough into "moons".

Use toothpicks and a variety of sizes of straws to copy the moon's surface details from a picture. 

Bake...

These look green, but they were gray.  These are also sprinkled with sugar for fun.

A finished Moon cookie - I think they look pretty good :)

Unfortunately, we only like sugar cookies when they are hot, so many of these went to waste.

Mmmmmmoon Phase Cookies

How the moon goes through phases seemed to be the moon fact that the kids absorbed the most.  I think it is mostly because of the Moon Tickets, but this edible activity also helped reinforce it.

Oreos+Science:

She might have had a little help!

A mouthful of moon beams...

To do this you need pictures of the phases - we used library books - and chocolate sandwich cookies - we used Aldi knockoffs.  Open the cookies and scrape away the filling until the remaining filling looks like the phase you are trying to recreate.  We only did 5, but you could do the whole 28 days...

Mmmmmmoon Pudding

We spent Christmas in Miami this year - a first for me! We always have Christmas "Morning" in Miami before we leave for our trip, so it was like that only we didn't go anywhere. There are pictures, Rob took them with his phone. That will have to wait.

I addressed a few more Christmas cards...TODAY.  I'm not done, but it's Miami so I have until Three Kings Day to finish. 

OK I mentioned we had some tasty moon experiments...here is one.

This is pretty cool.

The moon has craters.  The craters are the result of large rocks hitting the moon, vaporizing, and leaving a bowl shaped dent (a.k.a. the crater).  I gave each of the kids a bowl of pudding and a small cup of M&Ms and bits of cereal.  Nuts would probably work for this too.  The M&Ms worked better than the cereal.  You hold the bits at different heights above the pudding and drop them.

Voila - pudding craters.

And then you eat it!

I would have preferred to used vanilla pudding for more realism, but I already had chocolate and that was fine with the kids!

Quotable Natalie - Christmas Version

Annalise: Why do we celebrate Christmas?
Natalie:  Because we like it!!!

It's in the Mail

It only took until December 22nd but we finally put some Christmas mailings in the mail today.  I was looking forward to the trip to the post office with absolute dread until Rob pointed out that we would be passing by one of the least busy post offices in the United States - the post office in Ochopee is the smallest post office in the USA - you can't even go inside.  It looks like a sno-cone hut. 

But it's a fully functioning branch of the United States Postal Service!  Worth the drive?  Well not if that is the only thing you are going out to see, but US 41 is a very scenic alternative to I-75 if you need to drive across South Florida and if you also have mail to mail at the busiest mail time of the year, it's very convenient!

5 Months Old

Five Fabulous Facts about Five Month Olds:
1.  No Teeth
2.  Not Teething
3.  Stationary!
4.  Sturdy
5.  Super Smiley

 Who needs toys for Christmas when you've got feet!

And best of all - there's TWO of them!

Thanks to aggressive tummy time and defiant tummy sleeping, Irene's head is rounding out a bit.  It is still and I guess may always be a little lop sided in the back, but I imagine her hair will camouflage that someday.  The main concern is that a flat side on the back makes a bulge on that side in the front and that has pretty much gone away.

Irene likes to be tickled, to have her tummy blown on, playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake, and being outside.  She dislikes sitting in laps (although she likes to be carried) and indoor tummy time.

The outtakes...

The Hatchet

Peek-a-boo!

Bling!

The Moving Moon

With Annalise's World Book study coming to an end, I started looking for a subject we could study together. I had seen some cool Moon projects online and decided that we would set our sites on the Moon.

My intent was to use the moon across the spectrum of subjects and we were mostly successful.  We've read poems about the moon, written poems about the moon, read fiction and non fiction books about the moon, done moon crafts, observed the moon day and night, and this weekend will complete a full phase of the moon.

Our main project has been completing daily "moon tickets".  It has not been practical to view the moon every day or at least not during our school day, so we have been using the U.S. Naval Observatory's website to fill out most of the tickets.

The very first thing we did was read a poem about the moon. I could not find a kid's poem about the moon and many I did find were too long and complicated, so we read 4 lines of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The moving moon went up the sky
And no where did abide;
Softly she was going up
And a star or two beside.

I did not think before about how the moving moon could be so moving as to inspire poetry, and it did make me think how moving it must have been to people who had no electric lights or telescopes.  The full moon especially is brilliantly bright and the surface is amazingly distinguishable when you compare it to other lights in the sky.

I wrote this haiku for the kids:

Phases

Bright round ball of light,

fading sliver in the sky,

now you've disappeared. 

They collectively wrote this one:

Moon

It's there, then it's gone.

It comes at night or in day,

like a bright flashlight.

I'll post more about our other moon related projects soon.  It has been very interesting...and sometimes very filling!

Gulf Fritillary

After watching our chrysalis for about 2 weeks, we noticed today that two white dots had appeared on it.

Knowing that meant something, I took pictures of both sides.

Not long later, the kids found a butterfly!  They also found a lizard attacking the butterfly and they chased it away!

After examining it (a little too) carefully, we decided it is probably ok.

Gulf Fritillary

Butterfly Joy!

So pretty!

They named it Cloud Jumper.

In Memoriam

When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure. ~ Unknown

Baby Natalie

Baby Annalise

Irene is *technically* in this picture!

Rob's lovely grandmother passed away this week.  All of my grandparents have been gone for a few years, but I have always felt like she was one of mine.  We will miss her.

Tuesday is Laundry Day

I am working on a new routine with housework.  I've done a little of everything every day for a long time and these days that is not working AT ALL.  So I've finally decided to try things Ma Ingall's way - each day has its own work.  The kinks are not all worked out, but I think laundry day is and will continue to be my favorite (except for Rest Day).  Doing laundry is great (or at least better than other chores) because:
1.  It is relatively mindless
2.  It doesn't create an additional mess to clean up.
3.  The kids are able to help a lot.

I like to cook and can cook all day long if I need to, but I hate to clean!  If I ever get housekeeping under control I am going to write a book, because I will have discovered something novel. 

Mako's Birthday (Observed)

Wow, how did you make the bone letters?

Cute!  Where did you get those?

Yikes!  What possessed you to buy...

Oh.

The birthday dog himself!  Despite the picture - he does have all 4 legs and both eyes.

11!

The cake mix was pretty good.  Plus now I have 12 disembodied zombie cupcake picks to use for another purpose...

Butterfly...maybe

We found a caterpillar in the "J" position on a post while we were out walking. We came back the next day to see the chrysalis.  I had read that you can move a chrysalis, so we are giving it a try.  The needle is only going through the silk "button" that holds the chrysalis in place.  This should be a Gulf Fritillary. 

At night it hangs down straight.  In the day time it bends around and seems to point at the sun.  I don't know much about Gulf Fritillary butterflies, so I don't know if that is normal or not!  I never saw a Monarch chrysalis move at all.

Homemade Nativities Rock!

We saw some rock nativities on Pinterest and got inspired.  It turned out to be fun to sort though rocks looking for Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and a manger.  You could buy river rocks; we just went for a rock hunt.  Most natural rocks here are coral rock, but people landscape with all sorts of rocks...which is not to say we took these from a neighbor's yard!  We took them from places that looked neglected.

Sample nativity painted by Mommy

Caleb - I suggested he give one of the adults a beard so that we could tell which one is Joseph, but he decided not to.

Natalie's - very little help from Mom.

Annalise - I love it that Mary has bows!

We set these up lining our front walk and that same day, the landscapers came with their weed eaters and leaf blowers.  The leaf blower guy blew the rocks right off the sidewalk!  Fortunately we found the little Lord Jesus asleep in the grass.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best Thanksgiving Coloring Page EVER!

The text below is the Thanksgiving proclamation issued by President Lincoln.  I like pilgrims and Indians as much as the next person, but this is the true origin of Thanksgiving Day.  In the middle of the Civil War, our nation counted its blessings and said thank you to God.  Meaningful and succinct, it is worth your time to read it this Thanksgiving Day.

October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States
A Proclamation

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln

Brian and Adrianne by Annalise

Brian, I think she gave you too much hair!

Knass Knock Off

There are a lot of u-pick strawberry fields around here.  It won't be that long before they'll be back in business and most of the fields boast extras like u-pick veggies, fresh fruit milkshakes, or cinnamon rolls.  The most popular that I know about is Knass Berry Farm in the Redlands.  It is worth the drive, the cost, and the wait in line for their hot cinnamon sticky buns.  But going out is harder these days, so I decided to try to make them at home.

I found a blog of someone who moved away from Miami and missed these rolls.  She had used the recipe from this site.  Only she omitted the orange zest and pecans to be like the Knass buns.  My result:

That's from Rob's phone, this one is from mine - doesn't take as clear pictures, but you can still see the sugar boiling on top of the rolls.

The dough was a rich, high fat dough (benefit to going to Knass - you don't know how many tablespoons of butter were used!).  I used dark brown sugar, but next time I will used light - the sticky part had a slightly burned caramel taste - not bad, just not subtle.  Also, I am going to try using a metal pan (instead of glass) and leaving the buns in the pan while the sugar cools a little.

All in all - they were very, very Knass like.  These are cheaper, but their price is not exorbitant.  To me, it always feels like we get there later than we intend to, end up waiting in line, and bring them home only to find they have lost the lovely warmth, so with these that did not happen!  I made them the morning we ate them, but the recipe calls for an overnight rise and that will make next time even easier!