Cooking Lesson Week 2

This week Laura learned how to crack an egg, and how to use both the stove and the toaster. ("Duh, Mom. I'll already know how to use the toaster."--But apparently she didn't know how to butter toast. So, it was not a totally useless lesson after all.) The menu: Scrambled eggs and toast.

Egg cracking practice:

Interminable waiting...



The tricky part, apparently. (Just teasing ya, Laura.)

And...

...the first time Laura has ever willingly eaten scrambled eggs! Bravo!

(Whoa, there, Crazy Eyes! You did a good job. I'm proud of you.)

This week.

I don't know what has possessed me this month, but I have been in the kitchen...trying new recipes. I hate cooking, in general. But I am on a cooking high right now, trying to experiment with tasty, cheap recipes for my children. I forgot to take pictures of my favorite new recipe--homemade fruit leather--probably because I ate (all by myself) the entire batch in about two minutes. Here are some other firsts for me.

Homemade yogurt:

8 cups whole milk, on low in the crockpot for 2 1/2 hours, unplug for 3 hours, whisk in 6 oz. plain yogurt, cover and wrap in a heavy towel for 8 hours...

(Steve came home at 10:00 PM, just as I was finishing wrapping the crockpot with the towel so it could sit overnight while we slept. He was sporting such a nice combination: scrubs and khaki shorts. Anyway, it confused me, so I took a picture.)
The final product (mixed with blueberry puree).
My first ever batch of homemade rolls:
A huge success! Devoured in minutes.
Switching gears. We took the kids to Kent Park to walk around the lake on Friday. Here is Lincoln, glad he brought his ultra-cool walking stick, if only so he could take this picture:
Isaac...don't fall in!!! Be careful!!! (That would have been the audio had I videotaped this.)

Um...gotta give her points for her enthusiasm:


Isaac and Noelle:
The picture of the spider my kids will want to enlarge over and over again. (Actually, when I enlarged it I found three giant spiders--two that weren't quite as obvious as the one in the web--and I realized my kids have got me thinking like an eight-year-old these days. "How many spiders can I find...?")
Just after sunset:
Moving along...

So I started giving Laura cooking lessons this week (my family is laughing right now, thinking how ironic it is), and we will do it every Tuesday for a couple of hours. I even printed out a lesson plan (after researching on the internet) and every week we will learn a few skills and then make something. This week we learned about general kitchen safety, how to measure, and how to use the oven. We made a simple chocolate cake. Here is Laura spreading the batter in the dish:
Nervously putting it in the (HOT) oven:
Waiting...
And then, after all of that, I forgot to take a picture of the final product. Such a shame. It was spectacular, I tell you.

Happy Kindergartener

(Holding my hand, walking to school.)

Today I went to help out with Isaac's class, and, let me tell you, I don't often use phrases like "It was precious," because I'm not an eighty-year-old, but I'm telling you...

It was precious.
If you know Isaac well, you know I've been fretting about kindergarten for years now. Ever since his first birthday when he attacked another toddler, he has been a wicked handful.

I pictured him at kindergarten getting into fist fights and wet-noodling (is that a word?) whenever he was supposed to sit neatly in his chair and smart-mouthing the teacher.

But instead, he fit in just fine.

Really, he's never been so happy and well-behaved as he has since school started. Just look at that precious smile:

Who knew school was the answer?

(For the record, Sunday School does not have the same effect.)

11th Birthday Milestone

Before the piercing:


During the piercing:

After the piercing:

Neighborhood celebration. (For the birthday. Not the piercings.)

Laura's Birthday Cake

I don't know what's gotten into me. This took forever.

I made the cake a few days ago and then froze it.


Made the fondant ahead of time, too.

This morning I did the rest:

The final result:

Intro to baseball.

Today our family had it's first minor league baseball experience. And...

On the way, Steve and I had a disturbing revelation as we drove to Cedar Rapids (aka The Big City, population 200,000) and pulled off the freeway onto one of the "major" roads:

Laura: "Wow! Look at all the big buildings!"

Mom and Dad (shaking heads): "When was the last time we went to a big city? We need to go to Chicago some time."

Lincoln (as we pull up to the baseball park): "Wow! It's gigantic!"

Mom and Dad (still shaking heads): "We are dorks."

Apparently we are turning our kids into small town hicks since we never take them anywhere or do anything. Anyway, here are some pictures of us humble folks enjoying the local game.

Can't stay serious very long in this family.

At the ticket counter.

Walking through the concession stands ("Wow! I didn't know there were this many people on the earth!" Just kidding, no one actually said that.)

The game in session. Go Kernels!

All in all, a fun time, though the kids were relieved to get back home so they could change back into overalls and chew on straw.