1-Crafting Snowflakes

You need 3 things to make this beautiful snowflake:
 1 piece of paper
1 pair of scissors
1 roll of scotch tape

Take the paper and cut it to make it a square:

Fold to make a triangle

cut the bottom part off to make a square

Then fold it in half and cut three lines in it (going along the longest side):

Fold in half 

cut 3 lines 

Don't cut all the way through!

Open it up and you have a square with openings in the middle!

Take the two openings in the middle and tape them together in a loop.

Two middle triangles taped together to make a loop

Flip over and tape the next two triangles together.  Then flip and tape again - then one more time to get a snowflake!

Flip and Tape

Flip and Tape

Flip and tape and done!

Enjoy!

Buttery Corn Bread

This is a family favorite - chili is NEVER complete without cornbread!

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 2/3 cups milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup cornmeal

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

salt

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar. 

2. In one bowl, combine the milk and eggs

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, conmeal, baking powder and salt

4. Add each bowl to the butter and sugar- alternating between wet and dry ingredients.

5. Pour into a sprayed pan and cook at 400 degrees for 22-27 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean (the time is usually much longer)

Cheese Cake

This is Oma's famous cheesecake!  I usually make it with a graham cracker crust - she makes it with a savory pie crust - Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 packages of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Mix these until fluffy
Cook for 30 min at 350 degrees

Cool slightly

Ingredients - Topping
1/2 pint of sour cream
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp sugar

Directions
Mix and Spread and bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees

Chicken Pot Pie

This is our pot pie recipe that takes two recipes and combines it into one that our family approves of :-)

Crust Ingredients 
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 Tbsp butter (cut into chunks for cutting into the flour)
good pinch of salt
2/3 cup milk

Filling Ingredients
onion
carrots
celery
potatoes (cooked a little to soften)
any other veggie you want!
chicken (already cooked - we boil water and cook ours in there and shred it but you can use any kind of chicken you are trying to use up!)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cut flour
4 Tbsp butter
oil
1/2 cup milk
thyme

Crust Directions

1. Mix flour and baking powder and salt
2. Cut in butter until you have crumbles
3. Mix in milk until you have a nice dough (may need to add extra milk)
4. Roll out and place in baking dish for the bottom and sides
5. Roll out the top and put to the side

Filling Directions

1. Sauté onion, carrot, and celery (and any other veggies that you want!)
2. Set aside with the chicken and potatoes
3. Use the pan to melt the butter
4. Once melted - add the flour
5. Whisk to combine and add broth and milk
6. Add thyme
7. Cook until thickened
8. Pour over chicken and veggies
9. Add to crust and add top crust
10. Poke holes with a fork in the top crust
11. Cook at 400 for 30 minutes

Enjoy :-)

Turkey Tracks

Since I'm still trying to convince the little guy that Halloween has come and gone - we have adjusted our focus to Thanksgiving (the next big holiday!)  So our craft project involved turkeys and animal tracks (one of my little man's favorite topics!)

To start things off - we first made a turkey hat!

 You will need your turkey hat (of course!), paint, paper plates (one for each color), pictures of turkeys (fancy coloring is optional), turkey feet (made from wire hanger in the picture) and a plastic bag for trash (read - this is MESSY!)

 First we hung the turkeys in the trees....

Then we poured the paint into the plates and dipped our turkey foot in it.  We used a wire hanger to make a foot but I would recommend something flatter such as popsicle sticks to make better tracks...

Then we simply made tracks over to each of the turkeys in the trees!  It was a lot of fun...and quickly evolved into making little boy foot tracks too!

It was a lot of fun!

Here's a picture of the little guy - all business in the front - and a turkey in the back!

Enjoy :-)

Painting with the Rain

So my little man has a case of the "three year olds".  His answer to everything is "no" or "I don't want to" or when given choices "I don't like those".  So regardless of the fun I create for him - he is opposed to enjoying it unless if it was his idea first.

We have been slowly working on this - making sure that he has lots of things that he is in control of and helping him develop the choices he is given.  Additionally, he is ofter told "no" too or "in a bit" when I think he can tolerate it so that he develops the ability to handle not getting what he wants :-)

We also have an incredible amount of work to do around the farm.  There are apple trees to care for and flower beds to ready, not to mention the trim work and the mowing and the large number of leaves!  We also have a high energy dog that needs hours of running after sticks to be able to function.  This means that every morning - we need to get outside and that can be hard with a strong willed three year old and cooler temperatures.

In talking with my little man the other day (which is the most amazing thing about a three year old - the fact that you can TALK to them!), we decided that he would like to do more activities.  And we agreed that I could plan these "fun things" and we could do them together in the orchard (where most of my time is spent right now).

So - this is the first of our activities!  Although it didn't go exactly according to plan due to a contractor coming and the rain, it was a success!  So - here is what we did!

We added a little bit of powdered paint to a cup (I let my son pour it in and then I just put some back to adjust the amount).

We then collected rain water (from the trees, from the porch railing and from the sky!)

Once we stirred it around we were ready to paint!  Since we were interrupted by a contractor - we ended up painting inside but originally we had planned on painting in the orchard :-)

We traced our hands and painted these turkeys!

Then we painted our hands to create turkeys:

We had a great time using rain to paint!

Enjoy :-)

My Wildly Awesome Goals - A yurt and the high sierras

At dinner tonight I brought up the idea that on my bucket list - I want to someday camp in a yurt!  And I excitedly followed it up with my deep desire to someday hike to a High Sierra Camp!  So my slightly sarcastic husband asked me if all these ideas were just in my head or if I have them written down somewhere....

....which I thought was a great suggestion!  I have a lot of things that I always say "I want to do that someday" but he's right in that I have not written them down!  So here is a start - my two "bucket list" items that I was chatting about at dinner.

Also - he always says that "bucket list is kinda morbid".  Since I assume my kids will someday read this blog - I will call my list - "Wildly Awesome Goals" or WAGs for short.

WAG 1 The Yurt
Now - it's not just any yurt - it's a yurt in the Sequoias.  There aren't a lot of places that I have said "I HAVE to come back here" but Bryce Canyon (done!), Yosemite (done but so amazing - I need to go back for a third time) and the Sequoias.  There is something SO amazing about those SO amazing trees that just draws you to staring at them and breathing in their age and height and just general HUGENESS.  If you don't know what I mean - then you need to get to the Sequoias too.
Now the Sequoia National Park is quite amazing in that the Sequoia groves are very accessible and the mainstream hikes are comparatively easy.

The yruts are at the Red Meadow Campground.  Website: http://www.recreation.gov/camping/redwood-meadow/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=71608

I think the yurt would be an awesome way to camp in black bear country and feel close to nature without the tent.  Someday - I will do this wildly awesome goal :-)

WAG 2 Hiking to the High Sierra Camps
So I love to hike and I love to camp but I'm not much more than a day hiker or a car camper with three kids!  So the idea of the High Sierra Camps where you do a day hike to get to the camp and then there is a bed waiting for you along with meals!  You can even do the whole loop with a guide.  It's a great way to backpack without the pack.

Here are the details http://www.travelyosemite.com/lodging/high-sierra-camps/

And here are some pictures!

This is the loop of camps

This is a picture of Merced Lake High Sierra Camp

Someday - I will do this Wildly Awesome Goal!