The Kids make dinner

For their cooking experience last week the girls got to be in charge of dinner. They used a recipe from an old issue of Family Fun for Hawaiian Pizzas.

All they had to do was take English muffins and add some Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and pineapple and then melt the cheese. 

They were actually pretty tasty and the girls were so proud.

Cooking: Hot dog roll ups

For their cooking this week the girls did something really easy. They wrapped hot dogs in crescent rolls. We wanted to make a bunch of little ones so I cut the hot dogs into six pieces each and then they tore apart the roll dough to make enough. They sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese and then we baked them. They were a hit. The girls really enjoyed making them and then having them for dinner.

Cooking: Mini Dessert Pizzas

Our last adventure on Monday was making little dessert pizzas.

After family home evening we had our 'cooking' experience. 

the girls each had a mini pie tin with a graham cracker crust. 

We filled them with a scoop of ice cream and then they could decorate them however they wanted with sprinkles, chocolate chips, and M&M's. They loved them.

Cooking: Yogurt Drinks

Monday we had the first cooking experience of the summer so I had the girls decorate the aprons they will be using each week.

The finished aprons. They both did a great job and were so proud of their work. Of course, once again, Abi did a unicorn. 

The cooking experience this week was making yogurt drinks like the ones you can buy.

They weren't sure it would really work but it did.

They mixed milk with yogurt until it reached the smoothie consistency.

We used vanilla yogurt and strawberry banana yogurt so they could decide which was their favorite.

Abi liked the vanilla best and Maddy liked the strawberry banana best. This was really easy and super cheap. 

They want to do this again so it was a success!

Homemade Big Macs

For super bowl sunday I made homemade Big Macs for Doug. I got the recipe off of Pinterest. 

These things were huge. I had never had a Big Mac in my life so I didn't know if they tasted the same or not but Doug, who loves them, said they were really close to the real thing and some bites tasted exactly the same. 

While still not a health food, these were definitely healthier than the ones you would get through the drive thru so if you want the recipe let me know.

Back to School feast

We spent most of the day yesterday getting ready for the school year to begin. We decorated the table for our back to school feast...

I let Abi choose the food. We had No Peek Chicken, corn, and rolls. She wanted to wear her 'party' dress and crown.

We have started reading the Ramona books together at night now and when we found out that the one we were reading wasn't the first one she said she wanted to start over on the one that had Ramona going to Kindergarten. I thought that would make a perfect surprise for last night. She was very excited.

For dessert we had snickerdoodles which made everyone happy.

We got Maddy to bed and then after Abi's bath I braided her hair so it would be curly today. She got her first night before school father's blessing. Hippo had to be a part of that too.

Then we went upstairs and read. It was really fun. Such a great (but bittersweet for me) night. Doug stayed in with her until she fell asleep because she was having such a hard time falling asleep.

Mystery Week

Most of you have probably noticed that I haven't been posting about preschool for awhile. The reason for that is that I want Abi to be a little more independent in her work so every day we sit down with this yellow paper holder I got and I show her all her work, what she needs to do with it, and then she goes through the work by herself and then tells me when she is done with all of it.
I wanted her to be ready for Kindergarten next fall where she won't have her teacher hanging out with her every second of the day. It has been working really well so I am going to continue this through the school year.
Because of this, I am not taking pictures of her during the process.
Last week, however, I did take some pictures of some of our really fun activities.
It was Mystery week.
The first day was detective day and Abi had to put together a detective outfit. She ended up wearing my robe, a beach hat of mine, and carrying around a little magnifying glass.

We did lots of fingerprint activities and the most fun part of the day was playing Clue Jr. I picked it up at goodwill last summer and had it put away until now. The game is really easy for kids to play and fun for us to play together.
The next day was Busytown Mysteries day. We read Busytown books, watched some episodes of Busytown mysteries and played the new game I picked up.. The Busytown game.

We had so much fun playing this together and Doug even liked playing it because each game takes about five minutes or less.
We also had a puzzle day.
Our last day of the week was Blues Clues Day.
I wanted to let Abi make this no bake cookie recipe from her Friend magazine last month so I attached a blue paw to each ingredient and then to the recipe. Abi had to go around with her little notebook and find all the clues to our activity...
First she found some raisins.

then peanut butter...

then honey...

graham crackers...

a rolling pin...

and the recipe...

She gathered all the clues and then got ready to mix up the cookies...

It was such a fun week!

School: Witches, Vampires, and Spiders

First off, I forgot to put this on yesterday. I put orange paint on the girls hands- they made a fist and I painted the pinky side of their hand and pressed it down- to make into pumpkins. I believe you can tell which is Abi's and which is Maddy's.

So, back to yesterday. We began with this book we got from the library. It was really cute. It was about a little vampire and a little witch going on a night ride on her broom. They don't believe kids exist and come across a Halloween party. Very fun.

Abi wore last years witch costume until she decided it was too itchy. She colored a witch..

that we cut out and made stand up..

I gave her a bunch of buttons and she had to find some matching ones for the witch's buttons.

We played this spider and clothespins game....

For snack we had Oreo and pretzel spiders...

Abi did this Spongebob witch puzzle..

We kept the theme going at dinner by having blood (tomato soup) and witch's fingers (breadsticks with an almond stuck in the end).

As soon as it was really dark outside and Maddy was asleep, we turned off all the lights in the house and played Vampire in the Dark.We each had to pick one of the cards and one of us would be the vampire. You couldn't tell anyone and then we all hid. If you were the vampire you had to wait for a few moments and then go looking for the others. When you find someone you have to whisper , "Vampires in the dark" and they have to scream and then help look for the next person. It was so much fun! We played about four rounds.

School: Pumpkins/Jack o' lanterns day

After the initial stories and songs I had Abi draw a trick or treater and then we read this little story together...

I found the link to this craft on lil mop tops.. it's a Mr. Pumpkin head. I cut out and laminated all the pieces so Abi can play with it as much as she wants... eventually I want to add magnets to it.

Then she needed to put these pictures in order of the life cycle of a pumpkin...

did some Pumpkin writing practice...

made a pie with pictures of things that start with 'P'...

a pumpkin number file folder games..

a pumpkin grid game...

later, we went outside to carve our pumpkins! We thought Doug would get home partway through but it turned out that we finished right as he got home. He didn't seem to mind too much.

Abi wanted to scoop the goop out of her pumpkin but thought it was really gross and only did it for a few minutes...

Maddy kept trying to eat pumpkin seeds..

Abi with her finished jack o lantern. I carved it following her instructions...

She drew a face on Maddy's for her...

Maddy does this thing all the time where she scrunches up her nose and breathes in and out really funny. I love it. Here is a picture of her doing it....

The finished jack o lanterns..

Maddy loved being able to just explore..

I made jack o lantern pizza for dinner...

After dinner we played the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown game...

then had a chocolate marshmallow jack o lantern for dessert!