Hey...Good Lookin, What...cha got Cooking?"....

This morning, Madeline did not get up in time to accompany the older kiddos to the track to run, so she decided to make breakfast for them......Ah, such a delicious breakfast. She chose an old Bisquick recipe for Ginger Pancakes and Lemon Sauce and they were a big hit!

She was a chef extraordinaire! Charming, diligent, and  perservering - cooking for 8 of her siblings!

(Her left eye is on the mend from an encounter w/ the slide...I thought the slide had won, but daddy pointed out that the slide was still laying out there;  Maddie walked away, so I guess she won!)

Make it Monday

Grace wanted a "Liesl" dress for her Father/Daughter Tea ....(the tea was only one afternoon of the 3 day event!)...so, I gave it a go.  I am not a seamstress....I am afraid of slippery kinds of fabric....I am afraid of sheer kinds of fabric....I do not like to do gathers.....All of these phobias had to be addressed in this garment.

The dress came out just fine. Not professional, but it definately had the desired affect. It is a very fun twirly dress. And I will also so that the directions on the pattern were great! The errors are ALL operator errors NOT a problem with the directions!


And here she is at the beautiful Callaway Gardens (where the Father/Daughter weekend took place), wearing the dress AND a lovely capelet she made herself!

Happy Pi Day!

photo

Just a quick reminder. We like to eat pi whenever possible!!! Especially on 3.14! So, be mathematically correct, and eat pi today! We are planning on 3 pies - apple, sweet potato, and peanut butter. What kind of pie will you eat?

Apples to AppleCider

We had the opportunity to buy apples.....

Lots of apples....actually each of these bins holds 900 pounds of apples.

Two of the bins are ours......and the plan was to use one of them to make....

CIDER!

Ah..the anticipation of that first gallon!.....

We had a little friendly competition...teams seeing how quickly they could grind and press a gallon of cider....from start to finish...these strapping young men held the lead at 6 minutes and 24 seconds...

the competition was intense...

even scary...

Such a fun time!!

Even the mamas made a decent showing (that'd be 7min 7sec)

But this handsome fella single handedly thumped us all! He finished his gallon in 5 minutes and 50 seconds.....

No, no....not finished drinking his gallon....I mean he actually grinded apples and pressed his gallon in that time!

We made about 30 gallons (two different pressing events!) The apples cost us about 10 cents a pound..the press was rented for 1.5 days for $60....

The fun we had was priceless!

Queen of the One Dish Dinner

I have a confession to make. Though I love to be in the kitchen, and actually really like to cook and bake, somehow, dinner frequently takes me off guard. Someone will inevitably ask, "Mom, what's for dinner?" and the response that quickly comes to mind is, "Didn't we just do that last night?"....I mean, somehow, I just don't get a "dinner" plan going very early in the day....or afternoon, for that matter.

As a result, we eat one dish dinners. We really only have one dish on the table (well, duplicate dishes...one at each end of the table) unless it's a holiday. That dish generally contains most of the basic food groups. And, just as a note, we tend to be a pretty healthy family......but we do eat "one dish dinners".

Tonight it was cottage pie. (We make cottage pie in 9x13 pans...two of them) This is one of our favorite meals. Tomorrow it will be pizza. That is a meal we have at least once a week. Tomorrow we may have it w/ salad since it is Joshua's birthday, but no guarantees.

What are some of your family's favorite One Dish Dinners?

We got the Beauties!

From this.....

To this.

Delicious!

Good Friends Good Fun!

We invited a family over for dinner and games the other evening....the parents were out of town, and the two oldest children weren't available - so, 7 kiddos ranging in age from 6 up to 22ish (sorry Jesse...how old are you?) came and ate hot dogs and played volley ball, then when the sun went down, it was inside to.........

Settlers of CATAN



Have you ever had 12 people playing this game? (Gregg and I sat out....no more room!)

The straw hat on James was brought in so that people could remember whose turn it was!...That's right, they kept forgetting who was actually taking their turn....amazing.

We had a great time...and if this isn't one of your family games....put it on your list! It's a lot of fun!

Family Camp

Well, I'm still trying to come up w/ pictures from the fair....(I didn't take a camera any of the 5 days!) Will post those pictures if/when I get some from friends. However, the shepherds had a grand time. Lots of blue ribbons and learning! All of their lambs sold at the auction (HOORAY!) and the two breeding ewes are on holiday - hopefully being successfully bred!
Meanwhile, we just attended our church's annual family camp. Such a fun time for the entire family. We didn't have a live speaker, so opted to watch video of R.C Sproul and Alistair Begg. Lots of good learning!
We also play....play....and more play. There are volleyball competitions to participate in, foosball, ping-pong, horseshoes, and even pinochle (of which Gregg and I are the reigning champions, mind you - 2 years running now)! On Saturday, we divide up into teams based on families. Our team won the "name that tune" game where you use BoomWhackers. We had to identify 20 songs in some amt of time. There are several other activities in this afternoon of fun - getting your entire team across a "no one can touch the ground" field only using a few odd (and very small) items, a water relay in which we got thankfully wet! (This was the hottest family camp we've been too - we are usually battling rain this time of year!), and a variety of tossing games.

There are also three legged races,

Apple Bobbing,

And enjoying friends!

We are all very encouraged and refreshed having spent time w/ our church family!

Our Children's Garden...In Pictures

 Here is the head of the planting crew. Joshua took charge, following instructions from Grandpa!

He made a string guide for each of the rows...to help make them straight.

Madeline was his best under-gardner.

 He showed her how to run her hoe along the string to make the rows.

And she made row after row

after row. (I think that makes 3 rows....yea, that's about right!) 

Joshua made most of these rows before Maddy made it out to the garden!

For each kind of seed, Joshua gave Madeline a way to space accurately. For these seeds it was a stick.

For the beans, she placed them the distance between her pinky and thumb.

James got in on the planting too.

They each had their own measuring trick.

Zachary made an appearance to help with the covering of the seeds.

He's a pretty good little worker.

Megan got in on some of the action....but was mostly there for the photo op.

Okay...she was covering the seeds...not just smiling for the camera...

Not a quick worker...but she did get a few rows covered.

Needing a break Meg? While everyone works around you?

Muddy Maddy's gardening tip: It's important to keep your hoe clean!...

But shoes, legs and..

shorts....that is an entirely different issue.

The garden is planted except for the pumkins. It was done entirely by children (Joshua, James, Zachary, Megan and Madeline - the oldest and youngest of that group doing the most work!)