Dirt Cups

Our desserts for Nature Day were these delicious Dirt Cups. I came across this cute dessert idea a number of years ago – not quite sure where – maybe another magazine ad, or maybe on a Jell-O pudding box, or maybe we had them at VBS one year. I do know that not too long ago you could actually buy a box with all of the ingredients included to make these dirt cups. I didn’t see any of these prepackaged at my store, so I just put them together myself. All you need to create these is 4 ingredients:

- 1 Package of Instant Chocolate Pudding
- Milk
- Oreo Cookies
- Gummy Worms

Here’s what you do ~

1. Mix the pudding mix and milk together according to package directions. Spoon into individual cups. This is your mud!

2. Stick one end of gummy worms into pudding, leaving the other end hanging out.

3. Crush Oreo cookies. We put them in a large Ziploc bag and crushed them with my heavy wooden rolling pin. Sprinkle cookies on top of pudding. This is your dirt!

And you’re done! I made mine about an hour ahead and stored them in the refrigerator until we were ready for them, but you can certainly eat them right away if you like. This is a fun dessert for the kiddos, and the adults, too – as long as you don’t get creeped out eating the worms!

Blessings,
Nancy

Nature Day

Our second Summer Theme Day this month was Nature Day, originally scheduled for last week, but moved to earlier this week. We started the special activities with a picnic lunch in the yard. While we ate, I read a couple of chapters from “The Story Book of Science” by Jean Henri Fabre, a wonderful storytelling book that celebrates the wonders of God’s creation.

When we finished lunch, it was time for a nature scavenger hunt. The kids took their lists and paper sacks all over the yard looking for rocks, leaves, seeds, insects and flowers, to name a few of the items. We were able to find everything on our lists except for a feather, and clover (which seems to have only been around in the spring).

It was a very hot day, but there was a strong breeze and nice shady trees overhead that made it bearable to be outside. Eventually, though, we were ready to head back into the air conditioning to cool off.

My next plan didn’t turn out so well. We piled into the van and drove about a half an hour to visit a natural science museum. We were looking forward to exploring the indoor exhibits and to walking on the nature trails. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the only discovery we made was that the museum was closed for the day. Oh well, next time I’ll remember to check the schedule before I burn up my gas! We got back in the car and started for home again – with a stop by Sonic for slushes to make the trip not a total waste!

The extra time when we got home turned out to be a good thing, because we had more time to work on our nature craft. Everyone sketched something on a small sheet of paper that they had seen in the yard that day. Then we painted wooden picture frames to put our sketches in.

We enjoyed a trail mix snack while we worked on our craft -

A few of their sketches, which they decided needed paint as well -

No, we did not see a volcano in the yard! That last one isn’t a volcano, but rather a picture of an Autumn tree – and no, we did not see an Autumn tree in the yard on this Summer day! We did see the tree, however, and this particular child decided that she preferred to paint it in Fall colors.

A few more colorful frames -

Jeff grilled out some Teriyaki chicken tenders for dinner, which we ate with brown rice and grilled zucchini and onions from the garden. For dessert, I made these yummy “Dirt Cups” to go with our nature theme. They were a huge success!

Nature day turned out to be a great day, although I was dissappointed that we had to miss the nature museum. We will make plans to go another day – when we know it will be open! – sometime soon. I’ll post the recipe for the dirt cups as soon as I can – super simple and fun!

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Civil War Sampler Quilt and Summer Cherries

I have a number of quilt projects going right now. Some are being sewn by hand, some by machine, and some are applique quilts. I generally work on the machine during the daytime hours and save the hand sewing for the evenings in front of a movie. I certainly don’t have time to sew every day, but I try to grab snatches of time whenever I can.

Most of the quilts I’m working on now are block of the month programs through one of the local quilt shops, but I have a few others that I’m working on as well. The first one I want to show you is what I call my Civil War Sampler quilt. I believe the official name of this quilt is Civil War Celebration, designed by Joe Wood from Thimble Creek Quilts. I have a habit of giving all of the quilts I’m working on my own names – just how I remember them best – for instance, the Star Medallion quilt that I’ve been working on for awhile (and which is close to being finished if I would just get around to picking it up again!) is affectionately known as the Waltons quilt, due to the fact that I sewed most of it during our late night stint of watching old Waltons episodes.

Anyway, the Civil War sampler is a block of the month program. The finished quilt will look similar to the lead-off picture at the top of this post. (I took this picture at the quilt store so that I could refer to it.). I have sewn twelve blocks so far – four each of three different patterns. Each set of four is made from four different fabric combinations, but using the same pattern. Here are the ones I’ve completed ~

All of the cream fabric in the quilt is muslin and it will have dark chains running diagonally throughout the quilt and between the sampler blocks (see picture at top). I haven’t started on the chains yet. I am sewing this quilt on the machine.

Another quilt that I have been working on I have named my Summer Cherries quilt, because the fabric is so summery, with flowers and cherries galore. The fabric is “Charlevoix = Summmer…Beach…Rural Americana…1910-1935″ by Polly Minick and Lauri Simpson for Moda fabrics. It is a rail quilt because each block is formed by sewing strips of fabric together like fence rails -

I started with a jelly roll of fabric – for the non-quilters out there, a jelly roll is precut strips (2 1/2 x 44-45″) of an entire fabric line, all rolled up like a jelly donut. I saw this quilt at another local quilt store and fell in love with it, so I bought the kit they were offering and started on it. I am sewing it all on the machine, and am just needing to sew on two borders to have the top finished. Here is how it looks right now ~

That’s all I’m going to show you for today – if I spend too much time writing about it all, I won’t have any time to sew! I have several other projects to catch you up on – soon!

Blessings,
Nancy

The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ June 20, 2011

Here is my Daybook entry for today ~

Outside my window. . .Hot…Hot…Hot. We have officially hit the 100′s this past week.
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I am thinking. . .about plans for our special theme days this week.
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From the learning room. . .we’ll have learning opportunities at the nature museum this week as well as learning how to care for horses when we all field trip to Sarah’s horseback lesson on our Western Theme Day.
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I am thankful for. . .my husband, who is and has been a wonderful father to our children for the last 26 years.
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From the kitchen. . .Grilling out chicken tenders, brown rice, grilled vegetables, and a mystery dessert (check back later this week for details).
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I am wearing. . .red polo shirt and denim capris.
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I am creating. . .plans for our various Summer Theme days, and various quilting projects going on.
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I am going. . .to get those quilt pictures posted soon, I promise!
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I am reading. . .my Bible.
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I am hoping. . .that we get the forecasted rain this week – it sounds lovely to have a nice rainy day to break this hot weather.
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I am hearing. . .children playing games, electronic devices, air conditioner running.
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Around the house. . .wet towels and swimsuits, dishes and laundry, lots of stuff to declutter.
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One of my favorite things. . .playing Solitaire and Word Warp on my phone.
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .cleaning and decluttering, sewing, swimming, Nature Theme Day and Western Day ( I postponed Nature Day from last week, so we have two special days this week.), ice skating, horseback lesson. Oh, and Laura is bringing home a new pet this week…details to follow.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .

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Thanks to Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook for this wonderful meme. Visit Peggy to find the June list of participants in The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Pigs in a Blanket

Here is a great idea for a fun summer meal. I have been making these for years – I’m not sure where I got my original recipe, maybe an ad in a magazine, but I’ve noticed that they sometimes have a recipe for these “Pigs” on the Crescent Roll package these days. It’s basically a hot dog stuffed with mustard and cheese, wrapped in a crescent roll, and baked until yummy! You can leave the mustard and/or the cheese out if you like – I made mine minus the mustard for years, because a certain child wouldn’t touch them otherwise (you know who you are), but am back to adding the mustard now, as that child isn’t living and dining at home anymore and is free to make his pigs anyway he wants to.

Here are the ingredients I use ~

I usually have beef hot dogs on hand, so I’m wondering if maybe I should change the name to “Cows in a Blanket” around our house?? If you buy the normal size hot dogs, you will need one tube of crescent rolls per package, but if you buy the bun-length dogs like I have in the picture, you can cut them in half, use two tubes of crescents and have double the pigs for not double the money!

The first thing you want to do is slit the hot dogs lengthwise, so that your cheese will have a pocket to fit into. Don’t cut all the way to the bottom side of the dogs! Just make a nice pocket -

Squirt a small dollop of mustard into the middle of each pocket, then use a knife to spread it along the inside length of the dog. Cut or tear your cheese slices into fourths (4 long strips) and insert one or two into each hot dog ~

At this point, if you’re using the long hot dogs, go ahead and cut them in half ~

Wrap each piggie in a crescent roll blanket – one crescent triangle per dog…or pig…or cow (this is getting to be a regular zoo!) ~

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until rolls are cooked and golden. You can brush them with egg white before baking for a shiny surface, or brush them with melted butter after baking for buttery shine – or you can leave them alone and just enjoy them plain like we did! I’m thinking that one could get really creative with this recipe and add all kinds of items – relish, onions, or maybe try it with barbecue sauce instead of the mustard. I may have to try that one next time. Enjoy!

Blessings,
Nancy

Anna’s Ballet Recital

Anna’s first year of ballet lessons culminated a week or so ago in an end of the year ballet recital. It was quite a busy day for us. The day of the recital was also our oldest son, Robert’s 26th birthday, so we started the day by meeting him for pizza at lunchtime. After lunch, we hurried back home with just enough time to dress Anna in her recital dress, put her hair up in a braided bun, and run out the door to her dress rehearsal. Sarah went along with us. We arrived in time for dress rehearsal, and then spent the next few hours enjoying watching all of the different classes practice and admiring their beautiful costumes.

At the end of dress rehearsal, Anna changed back into street clothes and the two girls and I walked down the small town main street to a nearby restaurant. We had such a good time just spending “girl time” and enjoying a delicious and filling Mexican dinner. Soon enough it was time to head back down the street and get Anna dressed up again and ready for the performance. As we waited for curtain time, we were joined by the rest of the family, as well as Anna’s aunt and uncle, who also happen to live just down the street from where we were.

The recital went very well and Anna danced beautifully, as did all of the other dancers. Jeff presented Anna a lovely pink bouquet of flowers at the end and she was all smiles. All of the girls in Anna’s class danced with their baby dolls, so that is why she is holding “Ramona” in this picture.

Soon it was time to leave and we all went down the street again – this time to the old bank building - aka my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s home – for cake and ice cream and a nice visit. Anna kept her costume on the rest of the evening and all the way home. I think she would have slept in it if I would have allowed it!

We arrived home late and tired, but it was a lovely day that I know Anna will always remember.

Blessings,
Nancy

Our MarioKart Tournament

Yesterday we held our first Summer Theme Day - a MarioKart tournament. Our MarioKart game is played on the Wii system with nifty little steering wheels that hold the Wii controllers. When you turn the steering wheel, your car turns on the screen – lots of fun!

In this game you can pick from a wide variety of Mario characters and their respective vehicles to be your racer. There are also lots of fun race tracks to choose from for each race with names like “Moo Moo Meadows” and “Mushroom Gorge”, just to name two. The game has many different options for races from single races and racers to tournaments with multi-players and multi-races.

We had seven people playing in our tournament for the day – Mom, Laura, Tommy, Sarah, Michael, Anna, and David. Dad was working from home – and was certainly not being distracted at all, certainly not! I made up a schedule ahead of time for the day which included 3 blocks of racing, with breaks for meals and snacks, and then the Finals round to determine our champion.

We raced two at a time according to the pre-planned schedule. Each person would race each other person at some point in the day. We set the game for tournament mode, meaning that each racing duo would race 2 races in a row, with each mini-tournament resulting in a winner, which was recorded on the charts next to the racers’ names. We also recorded the points earned by each racer (determined by the game), because the determination of the top two racers, who would face each other in the final round, was based on total points accumulated throughout the day. Each racer was scheduled for 2 mini-tournaments per block, for a total of 6 mini-tournaments each for the day.

We started out the first block with the game set for 4 race mini-tournaments, but soon realized that it was taking too long to play it that way, and would seriously throw us off schedule for the day, so we switched it to 2 race mini-tournaments. We cut our point scores in half for those first races to make it fair – hence the crazy markings on the above chart!

Is this all as clear as mud? Well, anyway, we had lots of fun, screaming and laughing, as we raced each other, dodging obstacles, falling off the track, and shooting mushrooms and bananas at each other. These pictures look way calmer than we actually were!

Because we adjusted our mini-tournaments to 2 races each, we ended up actually finishing earlier than planned, so we decided to hold the Finals before dinner. Tommy and Michael were our top two racers and advanced to the final round. Here they are racing on “Rainbow Road” -

To win the championship a racer had to win 2 out of 3 mini-tournaments consisting of 2 races each. And the winner of our MarioKart Tournament Day was Tommy, with Michael coming in second, and Anna placing third. They were awarded medals, candy bars, and Tommy also received a Mario keychain, which is now proudly hanging on his skate bag.

After the finals were over, we all went outdoors for a cool, refreshing swim – car racing is hard work, you know. We followed our swim up with a dinner of Spaghetti and “Mario” Meatballs, salad, and a specially decorated chocolate cake for dessert.

David has already been asking when the next MarioKart Tournament will be, so I think it was a success! Next week’s theme day will be Nature Day – probably will be a bit calmer and quieter than our racing fun!

Blessings,
Nancy

Summer Theme Days

This summer Jeff and I decided to come up with special Summer Theme Days for the kids. I had been contemplating whether or not to do a summer camp for them like I did a few years back, but that seemed like more than I was up to this year. I did want to do something special and have special days to look forward to, so one evening we spent some time brainstorming and came up with this plan, which I think will be great fun and create some wonderful memories for all of us as well.

The plan is to set aside one day a week for a special Theme Day. The day will include a special activity, outing, or game; special themed food; and sometimes crafts. Each week the theme of the day is different. We came up with 11 fun theme days, which filled our summer, taking one week off during VBS. I will share the details about each of the themes each week as we live them, but here is the general list of the Theme Days that we have planned ~

June -

MarioKart Tournament
Nature Day
Western Day
“Cars 2″ Movie Day

July -

Bible Camp Day
Wii Sports Tournament
Hawaiian Day
(Only 3 this month due to VBS week at church)

August -

Board Game Mania Day
Mystery Day
Wii Bowling Tournament
Camping Day

The kids are really excited about our plans and looking forward to the fun we will have each week (me too!).

If you think you might like this idea for your family and have any questions about any of these days (since I won’t really be talking about them until they take place), I will be happy to let you know what we are thinking about ahead of time. I don’t have them all completely planned yet, but have ideas and thoughts for each of them.

Our MarioKart tournament is today, complete with special snacks and prizes for all. I’ll post more about our day in my next post.

Time to start our engines . . . Laura and I are up first in the tournament.

Have a nice day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Welcome Back . . .

. . . to me!! I know it’s been a long while since I’ve written a new post ~ a combination of busy days and a weary writing mind. It’s been a nice and needed break, and with the arrival of the lazy days of summer, I hope to be able to get back to posting again. I can’t possibly catch you up on all of what we’ve been up to in the last few months, but I may be posting a few of the highlights – and maybe one “lowlight” in the case of the snakes.

I have a few recipes to share and some updates on the “quilts in progress” to share too. Oh, and I will certainly be posting soon about our special Summer Theme Days, which are scheduled once a week, each week, all summer long. The first one – a MarioKart Tournament – is on the docket for this week.

Sarah has made me painfully aware that I’ve been sorely amiss on updating our Family page, so maybe I can get around to doing that too.

Well, that’s all for now. Lucy and Desi in “The Long, Long Trailer” is loaded up in the DVD player and I’m ready to sit back and relax with them.

Be back soon ~

Blessings,
Nancy