Lunch

We ate lunch under the table today.

Books vs Movies

Have you ever read a book and then seen the movie?  I do it all the time and every time I am disappointed.  I don't know why I bother watching the movie.  It is never as good as the book and most of the time it is so different.  We've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia and tonight we watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  There were several differences.  I had been hoping that they would continue the series, but now I'm not so sure I want to watch The Silver Chair. 

 

The same thing happened when I watched The Twilight movies.  I'm refusing to watch The Hunger Games when it comes out because I know there is no way that it will be like the book.  Have you ever seen a movie that was close to the book?

Homemade Zoo

I was sitting at the computer ready to do a post and Braedi, Dyllan and Corbin invited me to their zoo.  They gave me a ticket and pointed me to the entrance. 

Without a map I wandered around wondering what animals I would see.  I found the "non-meat eating" room and saw a turtle and rabbit.

Then I moved on to the "meat eating" room and saw a grey wolf,

some brown bears

a sleeping black bear

and (my personal favorite) some snakes.

I love it when the kids find something they can play together. 

Lem'n Berry Cheesecake

In honor of National Cheesecake Day on July 30th, we made a cheesecake for cooking class.
Lem'n Berry Cheesecake
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. lemonade flavor drink mix
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 c. milk
2 c. thawed cool whip whipped topping
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 c. mixed berries

Beat cream cheese, drink mix and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended.  Gradually beat in milk, whisk in cool whip.
Spoon into crust.
Refrigerate 1 hour.  Top with berries just before serving.

Verdict?  Too sour! 

Maybe the problem was that we used the individual drink mixes for water bottles instead of the mix for 1/2 gallon pictures.  We could hardly finish our slices.  Plus it was super runny!  I tried to salvage it today and turned it into a smoothy.  I added milk some frozen berries and frozen bananas and a little more sugar.  It was still a little sour, but more bearable.  Too bad.  I love cheesecake and the sour-ness ruined it. 

Monopoly

All week my mother-in-law has been taking 1 or 2 kids to spend the night at her house. It was Corbin and Dyllan on Tuesday, then Braedi on Wednesday, and Eprharm and Faythe on Thursday.  I love all my kids, but it's a nice to break to have fewer kids every once in awhile.  Thursday was a different kind of nice--all I had at home were the older kids.  We played a 2 1/2 hour game of Monopoly without anyone destroying the game or acting out because they weren't getting any attention. 

It was a nice afternoon.  Over the past year I've been teaching each of them the tricks and strategies to the game and it backfired on me.  I LOST the game!  I spent most of the game in jail and on non-property squares.  I only had 3 properties at the end of the game.  Braedi had all the railroads, Corbin had a $1000 rent with a hotel and Dyllan had both utilities.  Braedi landed on Corbin's $1000 property and was able to pay him and still have lots of money left over.  I've never seen such a money making game.  I'd forgotten how long the game could last.  We ended it to fix dinner, but everyone still had lots of money and it could have gone on longer.  It was my favorite afternoon in a long time. 

New Blog

I don't know how many noticed the new design of my blog, but at the top (under the title) there is a tab bar with links.  One of the links is to my new writing blog.  Check it out every once in awhile and see what I have to say about the books I've been reading.  I just added 2 papers, but most of the posts will be shorter--just thoughts. 

Frozen Corn off the Cob

I remember eating dinner at my Grandma Garrett's house and having "homemade" frozen corn.  I recently bought some corn and decided to cut it off the cob to freeze.  I asked my grandma how to do it. 
First bring water to a boil and add the cobs.  Return water to boil and remove cobs.  Place in icy water.  Cut corn from cob.  Lay flat on a cookie sheet.  Fast freeze then put in ziploc bags. 

I took pictures of the process, but accidently deleted them and can't figure out how to get them back.  You'll just have to use your immagination.  Now I have a freezer full of corn.  Yummy!

Reepicheep

We've been reading The Chronicles of Narnia and were recently introduced to a group of talking mice lead by a tough, loyal mouse named Reepicheep.  We've also been watching the movies that go along with the books.  After watching Prince Caspian Corbin decided that he wanted to be Reepicheep, but since he couldn't figure out how to get a feather in his ear like Reepicheep he decided to be Peepicheep.  He spent the day thinking about how he could attach a feather to his ear.  He was able to problem solve and came up with this:

The one bad thing about him pretending to be a talking mouse is that he won't take care of the mice caught in the traps in the garden.  Now what am I going to do with them?

Zucchini Cake

After my recent post about so much zucchini my grandma Garrett came to my rescue with some yummy recipes.  We decided to make one for cooking class. 

Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Cake
3 eggs
1 c. oil (I used 1/2 c. oil and 1/2 c. applesauce)
2 c. sugar (I used 1 c. sugar)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. chopped zucchini
1 c. crushed, drained pineapple
3 c. flour
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. chopped nuts (I omitted)
1 c. currants or raisins
Beat together eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla until thick and foamy.  Fold in zucchini and pineapple.  Combine dry ingredients, and stir into mixture.  Add nuts and raisins.  Pu in 2 greased and floured loaf tins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  (I used a 9x13 cake pan and decreased the time to 30 minutes.)

Because we already had a treat for Ephram's birthday, we took the cake to my parent's house before going to the train park and shared it with everyone there.  I added a cream cheese frosting to the cake which was a bad idea.  It should have been left plain. 

Ephram is 5!

Ephram has been counting down to his birthday since March.  He's been picking out his gifts and deciding what family activity to do and choosing his meals.  I've never seen someone so excited.  The night before I made a "Happy Birthday" sign and used crepe paper to decorate his chair at the table.  (I've decided to slowly become less of a Grinch about celebrations.) 

 He spent some time with Grandma Mecham earlier in the week and went shopping for some toys. 

He got some tractors and fruit snacks from us.

For his birthday treat Ephram requested cookies.  I made a giant cookie and cut it into pieces.  I love blowing out candle pictures.

My mom took Ephram to the store to pick out his presents.  He got a remote control car and a new game.  Ephram was super nice and shared all of his new toys and treats with his siblings. 

For the family activity he asked to go the train park in Scottsdale. I was really nervous about this because of the temperature. Luckily the park was open late. Another bonus was that the weather was nice. My mom and dad and brother and his family joined us. We rode the train and the carousal and played at the park. It was a good evening. 

On the way out to the car we some huge, cool looking beetles.  Corbin was messing around with one and it started flying around.  That was a surprise!  It flew right into my calf and freaked me out.  Another flew into the windshield as we were driving away.

It was fun day celebrating Ephram's birthday.

Don't forget that Jonathan and Ephram share the same birthday.  The kids chatted with their dad on Sunday and sang to him.  Then the day before his birthday (it would be his birthday when he woke up) we sent him a birthday card.  He was able to call and talk to Ephram on his way home from class (early evening for him, mid-morning for us).  Check out Jonathan's blog for some pictures of his birthday celebration. 

Take a Hike!

Last week we picked a activity slip from our "missing daddy jar". It was take a nature walk. We didn't do it because it was too hot. (The kids picked again and it was make popcorn balls which turned out to be a disaster). I figured we could do the nature walk another day early in the morning or late in the evening. All this week Corbin has been asking to go on a hike. Here was the perfect opportunity to complete that activity. We made a plan. We made muffins the night before so we could get up before breakfast. We also made sure to do it on a Friday morning because that is the day we meet our homeschool friends at the pool and we would be able to cool off.

We got up a little early this morning, quickly got ready for the day and headed to White Tanks. We did the waterfall trail, hoping that the little rain we got recently would mean water up at the top (no luck!). Regardless, it was a nice hike. We heard a lot of animals, saw some lizards and birds and enjoyed some time together.
Hiking and swimming make for tired kids. And hungry kids. Next time I'll bring more food.

Zucchini Chips

I have zucchini growing out of my ears and there is only so much zucchini bread/muffins I can handle. I needed a new recipe to try that my kids would eat. I found one for chips. What kid doesn't like chips? That's what I thought, but I guess the answer is: mine.

Braedi and Faythe helped me make them. We mixed some spices and bread crumbs and ramono cheese, sliced the zucchini thin, dipped the slices into egg whites and then into the spices and baked (5 minutes one side then 7 minutes the other).

Maybe it was just the recipe. They weren't very crispy and they had too much pepper. I'm off to find a new recipe.
PS Sorry about the pictures. I need to change the setting--they are all blurry.