Yard Work and outdoor nature in our backyard

We live in the 'burbs and we need to keep the yard moved, least the neighbors complain.  My kids chores include mowing our front and back yards.  My kids hate mowing but I love mowing.  The mower is a loud, scary machine that isolates you from anyone approaching.  I suppose you can say it's "quiet."  So now, I (or my husband) mows and the kids weed.  They weed the garden, the bushes, the lawn and the cracks in the patio.  This weekend we had quite a few surprises.

I should first point out that we put a plastic owl in our backyard to scare away nature.  It seemed to attract them.  Second, even the tween and teen enjoyed the backyard critters (except the fact that the bird ate all our strawberries).  They even had me taking pictures of bugs and picking up worms to put in the garden.

Second, we did not get pictures of the many birds that visit (blue bird, chickadee, cardinals and robins) and other critters (chipmunks that hop from pot to pot looking for our potted strawberries and rabbits).

In short, do some yard work - it's an adventure.

Just missed mowing over him

Bird caught in strawberry cage - we need a new plan
Video gets a better glimpse

We woke up to ravens in our backyard - perhaps they were looking at the bird caught in the strawberries.

The Crepe Bar, kids learning increasing cooking skills.

mmm, fruit-filled crepe

Delicious crepe filling

During the week, we typically have cereal or oatmeal.  On the weekends, we like to have something a bit more special and homemade: pancakes, waffles, muffins, bagels, scones and more.  The family's favorite is fruit crepes. We cut up a variety of in-season fruits (and some not-in-season).  We make homemade whipped cream then we lay everything out so we can make our own version of fruit filled crepe.  It's like having dessert for breakfast.

There is a bit of a knack to making the thin crepe pancake.  (And in this house we love the thin pancake with a crunchy edge.)  This past weekend my husband spent time to teach the kids his crepe techniques.  He has his recipe but much of the crepe has to do with pouring the batter on the frying pan and swirling it around to get the crepe as thin as possible and yet not too thin that the crepe will tear.  And then there is flipping of this thin pancake.

The crepe bar

It's not an easy technique to teach a small child and it's one my kids found to be a challenge.  They haven't quite mastered it but they are getting there - which hopefully means more crepe breakfasts.  The moral of the story, remember the activities we would do with our kids when they were small, bang a hammer, pour in flour, put items in a shopping cart, why not look at these again and see if you can take them to the next level.  Use a table saw, price compare in the supermarket, read food labels or learn a new cooking technique.

Rock Climbing and Swim in February

rock climbing at the community center

The kids had off for Monday for President's.  There was a lot of minecraft going on in the house especially when the weather was dreary and I wasn't feeling well.  It worries me that when I am not there to tell them to get off the computer they have a hard time doing so.

Nevertheless, I got them off the computers and took them to the community center.  We are very lucky to live near a community center that has a pool, a gym and a rock climbing wall.  It's perfect, they can swim and I can go for a jog on the treadmill.  And we all shared in the fun of the rock climbing wall.

When we lived in Florida, the local YMCA would have teen hip hop classes and open pool, all reasonably priced under $10.  Actually we did not go over $5 per kid.  It gets them off the computer, it gets them moving, and we didn't have to do it in the cold.  Even our local gym is only $7 for the day and the gym has yoga and jazzercise classes.

Now that you have older children you can take them to the gym.  Many local gyms and community centers  have activities just for the kids.  A big favorite are the indoor basketball courts.  I've never seen them anywhere else but a community center.

If you are interested in your teen or tween using the equipment, keep in mind you are not looking to bulk up.  Click here to check out the mayo clinic's suggestions for strength training in teens and tweens.

After the pool the kids enjoyed the track on the second floor.

Birthday Weekend, where I called the shots

It's my birthday this weekend, so I got to choose what the family would do.  My choice, crepes for breakfast, Charolette Russe for birthday cake and tea at a local manor house.

My hubby learned to make crepes early in our marriage and I'm so glad he did because it's the whole family's favorite breakfast.  Even my parents still talk about our crepe breakfasts, but that's for another blog.

I have heard of Charolette Russe cakes before and wanted to try it.  When we were watching this week's Downton Abbey, Lady Gratham mentioned it and I told my husband I always wanted to try it.  So, he said he will make it for my birthday.  He found several recipes but I think he finally settle on one from the Joy of Cooking.  He even made his own lady fingers.

Lastly, I'm a huge fan of tea.  Love drinking it, love learning about it's history, love watching British shows and everything seems to be solved with tea.  This past week, I learned from Living Social of a manor house, Rosemont, that once belonged to Harry Byrd, a much beloved senator of the state of Virginia.  He was credited with getting Virginia out of the Great Depression before most of the country.  Rosemont was giving tours of the house and serving tea on the weekend.  Going to a fancy tea is a treat for me, even if it was a 45 minute drive, it was worth it.  I think all moms deserves a fancy tea every so often.



So this weekend was a mom weekend, I called the shots.  The kids had a choice to participate.  It was a guilt free, do what I want to do weekend.  And yes, most of it involved food :)

Making a YouTube Short film

Have script, will travel.  My daughter wrote a script and has been begging us to perform.  This is a time when electronics can be quite constructive.

Creating a movie short was an activity that the family got involved.  Of course, my hubby and I were reluctant, we realize the skills that came from this project.

Writing skills
Using electronics as tools
Directing
video editing skills - we used photoshop premiere (~$149)



Here's the result, no animals were harmed in making this video :)

Although I'm not sure how long it took my daughter to write the script, the filming took a day and the editing a couple of days, so the project was a little more then a weekend.

Sewing together a doll and dress in a weekend with kids

I have a 1942 Singer sewing machine that I bought in college for $50.  It sews a bit crooked and I've only used a straight stitch on it but it met my needs.  This Christmas, after 20 years, I felt it was time to move on, so I got a new sewing machine.  I'm very excited.

My 1942 sewing machine with manual

As I talked to the sewing machine experts in the store, my kids perused the craft books.  My youngest found one to make palm sized dolls and begged me to buy it.

After flipping through the book to make sure they actually had decent directions and templates, I said, "You WILL make one of these if I buy it?  I'm not just getting it because you think might make it."

"Yes, yes I will." she promised.

I raised the stakes, "if you don't you are going to pay me for this book."

"I will make one mom."

So with my 50% off coupon, we bought a doll craft book.  On a second trip to the fabric store, my oldest learned how to peruse the patterns from the store and found one she liked for 99 cents.

"It's just 99 cents mom."

"You realize you have to buy the cloth and the interface and the zipper and the matching thread to make it.  It  will probably cost more then buying a similar dress already made in the store."

She's quite sensible when it comes to money so she said it's alright, we didn't have to buy it.

"Look," I said, "I'll buy the cheapest cloth I can find in this store so you can try it out.  If you make it maybe I'll consider getting more expensive cloth."

She brightened up and we went to the sale section of the cheap cloth.

To make a long story, longer, this weekend was spent making a palm doll and a dress.  Neither of which I have ever done.  It was the blind leading the blind but we did it.  Throughout the weekend I remind them that we are not expected to be perfect first time around.  (We did pretty good though, take a look at the pics below)

Lessons learned:
A present to mom is usually a present to the family.
You may not know how but that doesn't mean you can't do it.
Youtube is an invaluable source of information.
Talk about quality time with your kids.
My kids looked for the creative process, they couldn't wait to pick out embellishments or make tiny adjustments to their liking.
Yes we didn't know what we were doing but we made adjustments - ignorance is truly bliss :)

Results:

Our dining room table was taken over for the weekend

Doll, made in one afternoon, my daughter made a homemade dress
from scraps of the dress my eldest made.

Dress, that took all weekend

Cement Snowmen

I was out doing last minute shopping this weekend.  So my hubby spent much of the weekend with the kids.  Sunday evening while I was doing the dishes I saw sitting on the shelf three grey piles.  At closer look they were snowmen or as my kids would say, snow people.

Cement snow people enjoying the snow

My husband is remodeling our master bathroom and had some cement leftover, so he had the kids put on some disposable latex gloves and they made their snow people.  Funny enough, it snowed the next day.

Happy Holidays everyone :)

Tips from a Seasoned Cookie Exchanger

Our house has been doing a cookie exchange long before it was popular.  We've done it in huge groups of nearly a hundred and small groups of under 10.  I thought I'd share some tips.

• Check to see if anyone has allergies and how best to notify them not to eat a certain cookie.  For instance, it they can't have nuts, tell exchangers to either avoid making cookies with nuts or indicate whether there are nuts in their cookie.
• Ask your exchangers to try making homemade cookies.  It makes the exchange more interesting and unique.
• If some exchangers can't make homemade - don't sweat it, no reason to get upset.  It'll spoil the fun.
• Layout cookies on a long table.  The spread looks impressive.  We had an exchange at a school once and laid out the cookies down the hallway.
• In small groups, have everyone one at least one cookie for each member exchanging.  When you have under 10 people.  My minimum is a dozen.

Leftover from this weekend's cookie exchange

In large groups: 

• It's not unreasonable to ask to make 2 dozen cookies - I've even made 3 dozen in one exchange.  Not everyone will get a sample of each cookie but there are enough cookies for everyone to choose from.
• Set a number of cookies that each exchanger may take.  If they brought a dozen have them take a dozen cookies.  Then if there are cookies left over, they can take more.  This also allows for everyone to have their pick of the cookies.
• If you are dealing with kids, have the kids go in shifts, random number/animal/letter from a hat when they hand in their cookies.  You can have 10 rabbits in a group and announce that it's the rabbit group turn to pick out cookies.

All in all, I've never been to a cookie exchange where the exchangers didn't behave nor didn't have a good time.  Of course, next year my kids wants to do a cupcake exchange.  :)  Happy holidays!

See a show at a local theater this holiday season

One of my favorite movies as a kid was Auntie Mame, so when I saw a local theater group performing Mame on stage, I was all over that.  And what a great night.  It was not a big production, broadway play, it was a local theater group bringing theater to a local community.  Nevertheless, the family dressed up and headed out the door.  The theater was a converted barn located inside a park.  We got second row seats. The actors came down the stairs.   I felt we could reach out and touch them.   They walked on stage and did their opening number.  The lights dimmed, end of act one.  We watched in the darkened theater as the actors moved the set around for the next act.  At intermission we take a potty break, get snacks, talked about what we liked and who were our favorites.  There was art hung around the lobby by local artists.  We look around.  The show is about to begin, we're back in our seats, and back in the story.  After the big number at the end, the cast went outside where we could greet them and ask questions, tell them what a great job and take pictures with them (I forgot my camera :( )  It was a great night.

This holiday season, many local theater groups do holiday shows.  Go out and buy a ticket.  Dress up and go see a show.  Bring a camera just in case. The tickets were reasonable, about as much as a movie ticket and yet the experience is different than a movie.  The show may not be Broadway worthy however the experience is better (yes, I've been to a Broadway show :) )

Christmas Caroling for the Food Pantry

This is a fun easy activity to do during the holidays that gets the neighborhood involved and helps those in need.  I'm from a big family, and as a kid my Aunt would take my siblings and me around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs.  We didn't go up to people's houses just sing while walking around the neighborhood.  The Girl Scouts in this area has what is called Sing for their Supper and it's easy to adapt so that the kids in your neighborhood or your family can help out the needy as well.  Here are the basics of what you need:

• a flyer saying when you are going to come a-Caroling and who you are doing it for, Try Feeding America for a food bank near you.
• Bags - we re-use grocery bags
• Stapler
• Song books for everyone - and they do need the books because halfway through we all forget the words
• Wagon - we've done it without a wagon and it's not easy.
• Hot Chocolate

Some of the collection for the food bank from caroling this weekend

1. The week before staple the flyer to the bags.
2. Hand the bags out.  In our experience 25 bags is about 1 hour of caroling.  Remember not everyone will be home.  Some people leave the bag full on the doorstep.  We just take these bags.  We don't carol at these houses.
3. The day has arrived, GO CAROLING!  We usually sing one song and then the we ask ... in exchange for our singing if they could donate an item from their pantry.  Sometimes when the person goes to get the food - we'll sing something short like We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
4. When all done, go home and drink hot chocolate :)
5. Deliver the collected food to food bank.

Some Tips
A wagon is useful to hold the food.  Canned foods get heavy.  We had a runner, who every few houses that we collected food would run back to the house and drop the food off then catch up to the rest of us.  The rest of us would continue to sing.

We brought some shopping bags with us on our caroling adventure for the loose items when the neighbors did not have their bag.

We pretty much stuck to 5 basic songs.  We tried some Hanukkah songs but I would only suggest it if you know your neighbor is Jewish.  If you don't know, Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland are always great non-religious winter songs.  I must say most of the time we didn't know the religion and we just sang whatever the kids choose.  I never had anyone get upset over what we sang.  Only once did we get a request of a different song and she wasn't upset, just wanted a different song.

 The houses with kids are the ones that are more likely to get everyone to gather around the door to listen.

Be sure to sing from the book, my version of a song and the kids are not always the same.

Weekend Raking

Saturday was spent gaming.  Not me, my kids.  Drove me nuts.  Such a beautiful day and they stayed indoors.  Even when I told them they had to get off electronics for a couple of hours they spent those hours indoors.  So Sunday morning, they raked.  I know it seems like punishment but really it's a family event.  DH cut up the branches left behind from Hurricane Sandy.  My girls raked and I filled the bags. 

I've gotten into the habit of starting a fire in our fire pit while the girl rake up their piles.  Here and there everyone adds sticks, twigs, logs and stand for a couple of minutes by the fire to warm their hands.  When the raking is complete, we roast marshmallows. 

They got sun, they got exercise, they got fresh air and they got marshmallows.  Yes there was some complaining and they took frequent breaks but the benefits far outweighed the frustrations.

Last weekend, I had my oldest make a fire.