What's Up With My Pants?!

My Pants has been rather bored lately because I have not taken the time to think up fun and educational projects for her to do. We were doing all the "normal" stuff for preschoolers, it just didn't strike her as what she wanted to do. So, that means she drives me and Pie Pie crazy while we do school.

I took some action and saw somewhere in blogland an idea for playing with sand. I remembered I had some colored cornmeal already prepped from a previous project. (It's really easy to make, just put some food coloring in a bowl with the cornmeal and stir until it is your desired color.)

She had fun making letter shapes and digging. While she was playing I read Katy and The Big Snow.

She then pretended a piece of paper was a snow plow and plowed the cornmeal.

Pants also made some fun ladybugs with her fingerprints.

I also copied some fun math games from a book (I unfortunately forgot to write the title down) that Pie Pie and Pants have both been enjoying. They especially like the little critter in Catch The Critter Game. It's a little bit of monkey and frog mixed together.

The last idea I wanted to share today was Cookie Monster Letter Bingo. We each had fun putting our cookies on the correct letter.

This post was brought to you by the letter "F",



which is for flower!

I linked this post up with Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Super Readers Book Club.

Coices, Choices, Choices

Vacation Bible School Season has officially begun for me! This is the time when most homeschool moms are starting to think about what they are going to do next year, but not me. I am getting ready to direct our church's V.B.S. I am so excited!

This past Saturday I attended a Workshop, especially for V.B.S. There were representatives from different publishers who each had a chance to tell us about their program. It is fun to see how much these people love V.B.S. They also make it very hard to choose because they all think that you should choose their program.

The first choice you have to make is what program you want to use. Sometimes this is easy, but most times it is not. You have to take a lot of things into consideration. For example, if the adults will like it, if the kids will like it, is it similar to the one we did last year, does it have great and catchy music, will the Bible stories relate to our kids and there is lots more. I  think about if we can physically pull off this progrm at our church and have a GREAT time while we are doing it! I  really get into prayer about it and listen to what jumps out at me and pulls at my heart. Basically which program just keeps popping back into my head! 

There are many other choices that will have to be made concerning this year's V.B.S., but I'm glad there is one decision I do not have to make. I know who is really in charge, Jesus, and I am so glad I can look to Him for wisdom and guidance as I continue on this journey!

This season of Vacation Bible School has just begun.

Come back often for updates!

Pie Pie's First Book Report

This is also a sneak peek at our Top Chef Project:

Donuts!
This book report along with a couple others will be a part of our finished project in March.

 

I want to make sure everyone can read what Pie Pie wrote so I'm going to type the summary and opinion out for you.

This book is about: a doughnut named Arnie. Arnie does not know that he is food. Mr. Bing tries to eat him. Instead of eating him they find something better for both of them.

I liked this book because in the end Arnie becomes a doughnut-dog. I like dogs. 

We really enjoyed the illustrations in this book. The pictures were very funny and there was doughnuts all over the pages. This is a fun book that will be enjoyed by everyone!

More Doughnut Fun to Come! 

P.S. I am linking up with Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Flavorful Friday

It's been a while since I've done one of these! I recently made something very yummy in my slow cooker that I had to share. Actually, I guess my slow cooker made it because I wasn't home!

It's called Slow Cooker Corn Chowder with Shrimp.

I got the recipe from Natural Moms Recipes.

Ingredients:

4 cups of chicken broth

2 16 oz. bags of frozen corn

onion ( I used minced onion.)

2 carrots, diced ( I used canned carrots.)

2 potatoes, diced ( I used canned potatoes.)

salt and pepper

1 cup of water

1 pound of medium shrimp

half a cup of heavy cream

( My store was out of heavy cream, so I used light cream, still tasted good.)

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients except the shrimp and heavy cream in your slow cooker.

2. Stir the ingredients.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

4. Remove a portion of the soup to a blender and puree.

5. Pour the pureed soup back into your slow cooker.

6. Add the shrimp.

7. Cover and cook until the shrimp is pink and firm, about 10 minutes.

8. Stir in half a cup of heavy cream.

9. I promise you will enjoy this delicious soup!

As Strawberry Shortcake would say,

"It's Berry Good!".



We learned all about strawberries for our second class this session at Lighthouse Leaning Co-op. My girls love strawberries. That is the one fruit I know they will both eat! We learned a little bit about the fruit. For example, the seeds are on the outside of the fruit instead of inside.  We also colored in a picture of a strawberry.

Then everyone got a chance to taste one strawberry, or two, or however many you could get your hands on!

Pie Pie was very generous and shared her treat with her Zhu Zhu Pets!

It was Berry, Berry Fun!

P.S. I'm just wondering do you prefer the new Strawberry Shortcake (featured at the top) or are you an old school Strawberry Shortcake fan (featured below)? I discovered an even newer one that is at the bottom too! I'm still thinking about which one is my favorite.

Don't Forget It's Donut Day!

Also known as Fat Tuesday or Fasnacht Day!

Make sure you go out and get yourself a donut!

You know you want one, just admit it! The tradition is that if you eat a donut on Donut Day, you will live until the next Donut Day. What happens if you don't eat one? Just to be safe. I'll eat two, one for me and one for you!

P.S. We are doing donuts for our Top Chef Project at Lighthouse Learning Co-op. There is LOTS more donut fun coming your way courtsey of the Boo Boo Princesses!

Some Love

I know Valentine's Day is over, but I wanted to share some love with you anyway! We are pretty low key for this holiday, but my girls will use any excuse to get some goodies! The fun started on Sunday with some gifts from their Grandparents.

 On Valentine's Day Daddy and I got the girls some goodies to start off their day. Then we got to join up with our Little River Friends for a Party! We shared Valentine Cards, decorated cupcakes and got our faces painted.



We finished up our day with a delicious dinner my Mommy made for us! Tilapia with a cheesy, cream sauce and mixed vegetables! Dinner wasn't complete without Pie Pie's Favorite, a Chocolate Cream Pie!

Lots of Candy, Fun and Love!

We're Screaming............

for Ice Cream!

 

We are doing some fun and yummy classes this session at Lighthouse Learning Christian Homeschool Co-Op. They are leading up to our family night called Top Chef. The families are going to prepare different foods to share with everyone. The first class is ice cream. We learned about the ingredients in ice cream and had a chance to cut and glue our favorite flavor (paper) cones. Pant's favorite is Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Vanilla with Sprinkles. Pie Pie's favorite is Cookie Monster.

We even made ice cream two different ways. We made ice cream in a special ball that you roll around on the floor to mix the ice cream.

We also made some in an electric ice cream maker to make sure we had enough for everyone. Pie Pie got a chance to help.

The ice cream was delicious!

My favorite part was definitely eating the ice cream!

It's Playtime~Days 10-12

Day #10

Mixing Concoctions

We went with the baking soda, food coloring and vinegar experiment. It's an oldie, but a goodie! The girls had fun stirring and adding the different ingredients. They said they were potions and managed to use up the whole bottle of vinegar!

Day # 11

Field Trip

For our Field Trip we visited Chuck E. Cheese. It was also a prize for Pants. She had earned a special prize so we decided to combine the two events. We all went as a family. The girls had fun playing games and I even got to play a little Skee Ball too!



Day # 12

Kitchen Play

Pants and I decided to bake some yummy bread while Pie Pie and Daddy were at a basketball game. Pants loved being involved and tasting all the ingredients. Everyone had a chance to enjoy some of the warm bread before bedtime.

Here's the recipe if you are interested.

Pumpkin Molasses Gingerbread

This recipe makes 2 9x5 loaves.

Ingredients:

3 cups of sugar ( I only used half of that amount.)

1 cup of vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup of molasses

1/4 cup of water

1 can ( 15 oz ) of pumpkin puree

2 tsp. of ground ginger

1 tsp. of ground allspice

1 tsp. of ground cinnamon

1 tsp. of ground cloves

3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 tsp. of baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. of baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly grease pans.

3. Mix together sugar, oil and eggs, beat until smooth.

4. Add molasses, and water. Beat until well blended.

5. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.

6. In another bowl; combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

7. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until ingredients are mixed.

8. Divide batter between prepared pans.

9. Bake in a preheated oven about an hour.
10. Enjoy!

More Play to come!

Christmas Flashback

Let's take a little trip back in time! It's not real long ago, just a little over a month back. I posted about a dilemma I had way back in December on Facebook. I kind of forgot to follow up on it and let everyone know what happened. Well, here you go!
At Christmastime last year Pie Pie, who is eight, decided she wanted proof that Santa Claus was real. Her "proof" was going to be if Santa ate his cookies, drank his milk and if the reindeer nibbled on their carrots. Daddy and I were under strict instructions NOT to touch the snack!
This was kind of a problem for me. I didn't want Pie Pie to be disappointed on Christmas morning. I even asked Pie Pie if she would be disappointed if the snack wasn't eaten. She said she wouldn't be, but I wasn't so sure. I prayed for an answer and got a solution.
Instead of focusing on the negative, I would focus on the positive. Why do we celebrate Christmas??!! That was my answer. I wrote Pie Pie a special letter about Jesus and His miraculous birth, death and resurrection. I wanted her to remember the real reason for Christmas!
Little did I know she had a plan of her own. She went downstairs early and ate the cookies and nibbled the carrots for Pants! I had been a little worried about her little sister, but she took care of it for me. I was quite surprised to learn she had done that. We had a very magical morning all because of a sister's love!

Books, Books...We Love Books!

I haven't had much to write about lately. Instead we have been reading a lot! Here is just a few of the books we have been reading recently.

My Books:

Slightly Bad Girls of The Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs. This is a great book about women from the Bible. It is actually part of a series and they are all a good read. I like to read about flawed women God has used for good in His Kingdom. I feel I can relate and fit right in with them.

Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry  by Doug Fields. The second book I'm reading is to help me prepare for directing V.B.S this year. I saw it in my Church library and borrowed it. It was pretty interesting. Any leadership advice I can get is very helpful.

To Live is Christ by Beth Moore. I'm still working on this one, but Beth Moore is always a good read!

I have also recently fell in love with Patsy Clairmont and her books! She is hilarious and has overcome a lot in her life. If you haven't read any books by her you should give her a chance. You won't regret it!

School Reading:

We are learning about Donuts for a Lighthouse Co-Op project. The Donut Chef  by Bob Staake is a very funny book about two donut chefs who compete to see who makes the best donuts. In the end they realize that simple is best!

Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. We are reading this for our out-loud reading time during school. I found this book at Christmastime while I was shopping with a friend. We happened to go in a bookstore and I started to look at the Medal Winner books. I came across this book. I felt the NEED to read it with Pie Pie.  I have no idea why, I just had to read it! I borrowed it from the library. Pie Pie wasn't happy at first, but we have fallen in love with the little twig lady with a hickory nut head!

Pie Pie and Pants' Books:

Pie Pie has gotten very into The Magic Tree House Books by Mary Pope Osborne. She has enjoyed them for a while, but now has plans to read them all in order! She even read one in about half an hour one day!

We have always loved Jan Brett and her books. Now that Pants is getting older we are reading them again with her. We are also enjoying some of her new ones she has written recently.

Have you read any good books lately?

Let us know!

P.S. I linked up with a new blog I am following! The blog is in my blog list called Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.