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America’s Hometown Parade & Thanksgiving Day- 2010

December 1, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

With Plymouth MA being America’s Hometown, and where the pilgrims first settled, we have quite the Thanksgiving Parade every year, not to mention a historical culture to enjoy all year long.

For 15 years, hundreds of thousands of people have traveled to the historic Plymouth Harbor and Waterfront to experience a bounty of authentic Americana. The celebration of Thanksgiving becomes history-brought-to-life as Pilgrims, Native Americans, Soldiers, Patriots, and Pioneers proudly climb out of the history books and onto the streets of Plymouth. You’ll see some of that in the photos to come!

There is so much to enjoy this weekend. The festivities include not only the big parade, but a crafter’s pavilion, an educational Wompanoag pavilion, food vendors, kid’s activities, the New England Food Festival, and more. It’s a very interesting and festive event, so consider coming down in the coming years, if the trip is do-able for you and your family. And give us a call while you’re here!

We had a great view of the parade, as we sat on the hill pretty much right across from Plymouth Rock. That hill can be seen in the photo on the top left below. Afterward we did a bit of walking around.

I know Thanksgiving is over and everyone is ready to move on, but I thought I would just share with you a bunch of photos I took, so you can enjoy a little of this event with us. It was a beautiful, and fairly mild day. So use your imagination, sit back and enjoy.

Not much more chatting in this post at all. Maybe just a little.

Plymouth MA Thanksgiving parade America's Hometown Many of you know that Michael is a 2nd generation sign maker and letterer. Well Michael’s father used to hand letter the Hallamore barrel wagons you see in the photos above, pulled by Clydesdale horses. That was an interesting piece of family history to share with the kids.

Plymouth MA Thanksgiving parade America's Hometown Seeing so much live history, right before your eyes, is a thrill. We are blessed to see some of it all year long, around here. With the Plimoth Plantation so close, we can step back in time, anytime! Photographing it all is so fun. Aside from the modern-dressed people all about, it’s easy to imagine you are back in time. One thing we DID see a few times, that really cracked us up repeatedly, was the evidence of today’s technology, that not many can be away from for very long! To see pilgrims and indians, texting, was a hoot!! I wanted to get a photo of that, but never got one. A funny sight though, as I’m sure you can imagine. All in all, it was a wonderful and memorable family day together.

As for our Thanksgiving Day……..

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-3 ….ours was simply peaceful and lovely. We do not have a lot of close extended family, so we have often spent this holiday just the 6 of us. In the past years, we have opted to cook a ham or cornish hens on Thanksgiving. But this year, we cooked our very first turkey! It came out….perfect. As you can see. ; ) Dinner was delicious, as were the pies. We played games, watched football, and played some football outdoors too.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma The kids set a real festive atmosphere as always, with the creative decorations.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-1 Each turkey that the little ones made, displayed feathers that expressed some of the things that they were thankful for. “Reagan”, by the way (on the last feather) is our other pet: a Republican beta fish. : ) Yep, he’s red.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-2
I really loved {S}’s indian.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-4 We hope you and your families, had a blessed and memorable Thanksgiving as well!

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Pixel the Hedgehog Plays Peek-a-Boo!

November 16, 2010 By Laura 9 Comments

Have you ever met our sweet hedgehog, Pixel?

We haven’t blogged her much since she first came home as a baby in April. She is 7 1/2 months old now.

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get any attention around here! She is rarely in her cage all day. She has got to be the most loved, cuddled, spoiled hedgehog on the face of the earth. {A} is still her main caretaker, and definitely spends the very most time with her. But {JM, O and S} have their own play-QT with her every day too. Pixel is woken up in the morning, played with sporadically throughout the day by someone or other around, and just held and carried around while she takes cat-naps.

Errr….hedgie-naps, I guess.

She’s even settled in for the night at bedtime!

She really is an easy pet, being so quiet, quite clean, and completely potty-trained. We can even tell when she ‘has to go’, so we just put her in her cage, and she runs to her litter pan. Pretty cute to see! (If you stop watching right there. lol).

We had so much fun taking these recent photos of her.

hedgehogs She gets rides now and then.

Being a hedgehog, she loves to get underneath things.
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hedgehogs
There she goes!! She was under there for a few minutes. Then she tried to back out again, but the whole truck was backing up!…..

hedgehogs BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

hedgehogs “We see you, Pixel!!”

“PEEK-A-BOOO!”

hedgehogs Look closely in there….do you see her scrunched up face? SO CUTE when she does that! When she ‘puts her visor down’. (That’s hedgehog talk.)

hedgehogs A little time with {JM}. She gets countless kisses from the kids in a day. She’s quite used to it.

hedgehogs
Pixel spends a whole lot of time in {A}’s hand, just like this, when {A} is on the computer, reading a book, or standing around talking. She is a professional hedgehog handler. Or of her hedgehog, anyway. I’m in awe, watching them together.

hedgehogs She curls right up and goes to sleep, with the slightest sign of a cuddle.

Just look at that face!! That’s the face I love. She has other faces. She’s very facially-expressive.

Hope you enjoyed this recent peek at Pixel. We’ll try to incorporate her in our blogging more, if you’d like. After all, she is very much a part of our family.

hedgehogs The End!

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Homeschooling in the Kitchen | Food for Thought; Literally!

November 14, 2010 By Laura 7 Comments

I’m sure I’ve been forthright about this before, as much as it makes me feel a little bad to say out loud. (Figuratively speaking.) But there always moments in time when these things come up, and there is some purpose in being truthful in the matter. Right?

Well, this is one of those times.

So the truth is, <whisper> my mother was just not very domestic in the kitchen. Nor was her mother. <end of whisper> Which says something not good. Doesn’t it?

I’ll answer that. Yes it does.

It says that the chances of me being one, was slim to none.

Unless of course, I broke the cycle, and took responsibility for myself. Made different choices. And God-willing, began a new cycle for my children, and grandchildren, to carry on.

(I’m not really that smart. I read something like that in a book once.)

I have to say, I did know plenty about cleaning, weeding gardens, and working hard coming into this holy-Sacrament-of-marriage-thing. I worked for a little old lady from the time I was 11 years old until I was14, every Saturday. Her name was Mrs. Flahive, (pronounced with long vowels.) I cleaned her house top to bottom, kept up her gardens, weeded her stone patio, changed the sheets on the beds, did laundry, etc. I even polished her silver with some grayish-brown, horrid-smelling stuff. I learned a lot from her. Although I didn’t really appreciate the value in the tasks, at the time. I never even thought about how they would serve me well someday, in my own home-keeping years.

Some things, she was very particular about how it was done….such as the fine techniques of folding sheets, or making a bed. It’s funny that I insist on these same techniques in my own home now. lol She was a nice old lady, made me a fine lunch which we enjoyed together, and later had an afternoon tea as well. And then she paid me too! She paid me well, I might add. For a kid. Of course, I was also risking my life twice a day, every Saturday, as this 80 year old woman who peered through the hole of her steering wheel, picked me and and brought me home. I’ll never forget that time we were heading for the side of the bridge…..

But admittedly, I was slow coming around as a new bride-to-be, in the cooking and baking area. I think becoming a mother sort of kicked me into domestic-gear. Somewhat. Until then, my husband and I did o.k., together. He did have more of a domestic mother, all the way around. From what I could tell, anyway. So he had watched, learned, and praise God, was not helpless himself when we married.

Yes, all of this story-telling has everything to do with homeschooling.
In particular today: Homeschooling in the Kitchen

I don’t know if they even have Home Economics in school anymore. Do they? But I heard they did, back when I was in school. Problem is, I went to a private Catholic high school, where the guidance counselor, was also the Geometry teacher sometimes, and the principal was sometimes the Religion teacher. (That was a bad run.). The gym teacher helped in areas he should have never been helping, with the senior girls, if you know what I mean. (But I won’t go there today.) In other words, we were just a small school, without any extras. We didn’t even have a football team. Or a field of any sporty-kind.

homeschooling-kids-in-the-kitchen My mom was a wonderful mother in many ways, so don’t get me wrong. But seeing as though I was not learning much in the kitchen at home, it would have been nice to learn about some of the cooking and baking stuff, especially, somewhere. In retrospect, I mean. (Because I am quite sure I could have cared less at the time.) And so seeing as though my kids are not in school, and won’t be going to high school either, where they may or may not have gotten Home Ec classes, I feel it is up to me to be sure they get some!! Otherwise, they could end up as a floundering bride or groom some day. And if they marry the same, there is going to be a big problem. Like. . . . a travesty. Know what I’m saying?

homeschooling-kids-in-the-kitchen-1 So I need to be sure, my kids get a domestic bone from me, some way, some how, some day. Hopefully before they are married, or are out on their own. Even if they are single, I don’t want them resorting to fast foods and whatnot!

And so it was that mindset that I was in, when I got my kids (happily) helping out in the kitchen, since they were about ohhhh….so tall. (Use your imagination. It’s pretty short.)

But it was in having them help, that I realized just how much schooling can happen in the kitchen! And the more we do it, the more I see the lessons happening.

It’s a whole lot more than Home Economics!

Let’s see…….

First, there is READING…..the directions. I have them do it out loud. It’s such an opportunity for new kitchen-related VOCABULARY words, SPELLING words, and PROPER PRONUNCIATION.

On this particular day in the kitchen, we were making an ordinary box of cinnamon streusel cake, and making the apple version.

homeschooling-kids-in-the-kitchen-3 Then, comes FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS, of what was just read, very carefully.

homeschooling-kids-in-the-kitchen-4 MATH is a biggie! (age depending.) There is counting, adding and subtracting, and measuring. (Especially when halving or doubling a recipe.) Reading numbers, and temperatures!

SCIENCE is everywhere, in the operating kitchen. How does one ingredient react, when another is added to it? Why must we temper some ingredients first, before adding to the big batch. (There’s another new word! So what does it mean, and how do we do it?)

What happens with various temperatures set in the oven, and what is the difference between baking, and broiling?

Enjoying our time spent together counts for something too! For some, it truly is a learned behavior!

(Not for my kids, of course. I’m just sayin’ ; )

How about the ins and outs of KITCHEN SAFETY? We are using sharp knives, reaching into hot ovens….

homeschooling-kids-in-the-kitchen-8

…..and operating heavy machinery!

(After you read this post, you may want to find out how this sweet piece of machinery hummed it’s way into our lives, and MiXeD everything up, HERE. ; )

Uhh, by the way…….Where’s the fire extinguisher, just in case? And how do you use that?

We don’t want to learn that Science, in an emergency. You want to know how to use that thing if you need to! And if all else fails,< insert the family fire drill skills here>, and we’ll meet at the telephone pole across the street!

Back to the lessons at hand…

Learning how to WORK AS A TEAM, and also ……..

homeschooling-kids-in-the-kitchen-10 …….admitting when you need help, and allowing others to help you.

All of these lessons I mentioned, are just the topping of the cake.

I am sure you could think of plenty more, in addition to mine.

Think on it.

OH OH OH!! I just thought of another one!! The one I think we all like to forget!:

The RESPONSIBILITY of cleaning up the mess!

But most times, we can do so, while we enjoy the mouth-watering smell we’ve created in the air.

Ahhhhhh……smells…..SO…….good!!! We can hardly wait to cut into it, indeed!

Of course the best lesson of all:, our mouths and our bellies, REAP THE REWARDS OF our HARD WORK.

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All kids, home schooled or not, can benefit from the lessons to be learned in the kitchen.

What lessons have I missed mentioning? Help me out here.

I’ll be hoping you can you add to my list, because I know there is a lot more. And you’re smart cookies.

While I wait, if you’ll excuse me, I need to head down to the laundry room, transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer, sort some piles, and start a new wash load.

And you can bet I’ll be taking a kiddo down with me. And believe it or not, they’ll be excited to come and help! (And secretly learn.)

Hopefully, I’m cutting my chances here of them coming home on weekends from college, accompanied by several loads of laundry. If they do, we’ll be repeating those lessons, that weekend. ; )

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No-Bake Eclairs | Recipe

November 9, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

No-Bake Eclairs

I’m going to be quite honest with you here: This dessert of no-bake eclairs is quick, easy, and sooooo good.

I’m going to be even more honest than that: It’s not quite like real eclairs. It’s more of a…. fun spin-off, of real eclairs. But you know, everyone is going to eat them all up, just like that, anyway. So does it really matter?

I’m thinking, ‘not really’. So here we go….
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No-Bake Eclair(s)

002 Participating Ingredients:

*Graham Crackers

* The kind we actually prefer is the Nabisco Grahams Original, in the red box.

2 boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding
8 oz. Cool Whip
1 can Chocolate Frosting (Milk Chocolate of Chocolate Fudge), and 2 Tbs. Milk
3 1/2 cups Milk
(tad of Butter, if making in cake pan)

Now there’s 2 ways you can make this no-bake eclairs dessert. It’s all just layering of pudding mixture and cracker until the topping, either way.

The original recipe I got was made in a 9″ x 13″ cake pan. This is the easiest and fastest way to make it. If you make it this way, just coat pan with a rub of butter first.

But we had another idea that we are sharing with you here. It takes a bit more time, but we didn’t mind.

We wanted to make cute little individual servings, in the 4 oz hard plastic clear cups.

First step: Mix all of the pudding and the milk with the blender in a good sized bowl, let it get thick. Then add the container of Cool Whip in and mix.

Over a little bowl, break graham crackers into roundish pieces, to fit the bottom of about 11 4 oz cups.

They don’t have to be perfect.
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As you do this, save the crumbs and little pieces you are breaking off. They will not go to waste!
(You need ’em….so don’t eat ’em!)

006 ….because you are going to put them on top of that cracker circle, like this.

Next, on top of the crumbled crackers in each cup, add a few plops of pudding/Cool Whip mixture to less than half way up the cup…

007

….and then add a good layer of just crumbled graham crackers.

Then more pudding/Cool Whip mixture.

For the top layers, you do want to use another circle of graham cracker fitting for the larger tops, and then just use up the crumbled cracker you have to put on top and fill in the sides, etc.

Now in a separate little bowl, add the chocolate frosting and 2 Tbs. of milk, mixing it all together to make it nice and creamy, and easily spreadable.

Using a spoon, carefully put some on the tops of every cup, and spread it around a little.

Now if you wanted to make the cake pan version, it can be a lot easier and faster. The layering is all the same, but any crumbling is really not necessary, since there is not a lot of custom fitting to do with the crackers! So you just lay crackers in a single layer, all over to cover the bottom of the pan, and start your layers.

So whether the cups or the pan, the layers go as follows, with the 1st layer being at the bottom:

6th layer – frosting (w/ 2 Tbs milk) mixture
5th layer – graham cracker
4th layer – pudding / cool whip mixture (the rest of the mixture, for the pan)
3rd layer – graham cracker (flat in pan, crumbles only in cups)
2nd layer – pudding / cool whip mixture (about 1/2 the mixture, for the pan)
1st layer – graham cracker (& crumbles in cups)

The layers look really nice in the clear cups. When the cups are all filled, put them in the fridge to chill and set a little, until you are ready to serve them.

They are ready to serve and enjoy!!

(Go ahead and lick the cup when you get to the bottom. We won’t tell. ; )

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No-Sew, Double-Sided Fleece Blanket | Tutorial

November 6, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

The kids and I were recently brainstorming for ideas, to put together a very special package for a certain little boy. It was very special circumstances, that called us to put something together very special, just for him. I wanted to share with you all this idea our oldest, {A}, came up with: Making a no-sew, double-sided fleece blanket for him.

It was the perfect idea for this little boy.

The kids had received fleece blankets like this before, as gifts, and as single layer blankets. But I wanted to see if we could make a double-sided blanket, so that it would have a different pattern on each side. How FUN, right? And it would be double warm and cozy!

It’s really quite easy, and well worth the effort! Maybe this is a home-made gift idea you can use sometime, for Christmas gifts, or birthdays.

They are great for anyone, at any age. From babies to grandparents, and anyone in between. Just change up the patterns to be more suitable for the recipient, and it’s perfect. Who doesn’t use blankets? It can be a single layer too, and would take even less time. It just wouldn’t have a different pattern on the reverse side. They are great as throws for beds, getting all wrapped up and cozy to watch a movie, as a lap blanket while you read, or even traveling in the car. Just choose the appropriate patterns, and a suitable size for whom ever it is for.

Here’s How Easy it is to Make a No-Sew, Double-Sided Fleece Blanket

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial We found this set of 2 different patterns, at Joann Fabrics! I didn’t know there was such thing, and had planned on having to choose 2 patterns separately, and have them cut off the roll to size. So we were pleased to find these available! (I also unexpectedly got it at half price!!) There are a few sizes available in sets. This one was 48″ x 60″. Perfect width and height for a little boy. But you can buy any patterns you want off the rolls, and just cut them to matching size.

I was tickled with this 2-in-1 fleece fabrics of chocolate brown with colored polka dots, and bugs!

Again, perfect for a little boy.

The first thing we did was lay it out on a clean table, layering the 2 pieces, one on top of the other, as perfectly lined up as possible.

Then we chose a side to start on, and laid a heavy board several inches away from, but along that edge, to keep the fabric from moving too much.

We were prepping to cut fringes through both layers. So using a snapline chalk, we measured up 5 inches from the edge, and snapped a chalk line across from one end to the other, to indicate where to stop cutting, so the fringes would all be the same length. This would create 5 inch long fringes, minus what is taken up when we knot them. Then we measured in from each corner 4 inches, and cut 1 inch wide fringes, all the way across in between. In other words, we stopped cutting fringes 4 inches from each end. This would leave you a squarish block piece on all of the corners, for now. We’ll get to why we did that, in a bit.

Now, if you don’t have a chalk-line to mark things off, you can use a ruler and chalk per usual. But this was faster.

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial-5 Then, we just started tying each top layer of fringe piece, to the bottom layer fringe piece.

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial-6 Now because this blanket is 2 layers, the fringe pieces need to be double tied. Or else it would just un-tie.

But if it was a one-layer blanket, you would just knot the one piece of fringe, and once, would do.

You get me? ; )

This is how it starts looking.
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There can be a cool little technique here, where the print of the same side can show most. or the other side. While tying it (like the beginnings of shoe tying), I found whichever side you stuffed through the whole, is the side that ended up on top. I wanted the opposite side showing, so I made sure to stuff that piece and pull it through to on top.

Now you even get that, or you don’t. Either way will not ruin your blanket. This project is virtually fail-proof!

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial-4
This is done all the way down, to your 4 inch corner piece.

The same process is done on every side of the blanket. Again, stopping 4 inches for each corner.

Now what to do with the 4 inch corners: We just cut 1 inch fringes, on angles, to go around the corner. I think it was 3 cuts, creating 3 more fringes. Just make then 1″ -ish wide, like the others. This was to create a rounded corner blanket. It IS an option, to just make fringe cuts one inch apart, all the way to the end, on 2 ends, to make the whole blanket more rectangular. If you do it that way, I would do one whole side first, and then the opposite side, so they are the same. Then work on the other 2 sides.

Cutting 2 layers of fleece at once was a little hard for the kiddos, but they were very helpful for tying! They took a lot of care with their work.

Look how cute! I just loved the colors. And the bugs. And the polka dots!

We were really happy with how it came out.

The kids were really excited to send it out to our special gift, to this special little boy, along with some other gifts. It was a big package.

We hope our home made blanket warms his heart, as much as it warms him, head-to-toe.

It was certainly made with love!

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Yes, all of this story-telling has everything to do with homeschooling. In particular today: Homeschooling in the Kitchen

It’s really quite easy, and well worth the effort! Maybe this is a home-made gift idea you can use sometime, for Christmas gifts, or birthdays.

Here’s How Easy it is to Make a No-Sew, Double-Sided Fleece Blanket

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Yes, all of this story-telling has everything to do with homeschooling.
In particular today: Homeschooling in the Kitchen