I really wanted to post my Santa Cookies, yes I know Christmas was almost two weeks ago, but I didn't post this earlier, for not particularly good reason.
First, here's the original recipe from my Great Grandmother as scanned in by me before I made these:
And the back of the recipe:
And if you ever want a source for great cookie cutters or baking supplies: Aunt Chick's, this is the original company that sold the cookie cutters, after searching for 5 years I was able to find this and get replacement cookie cutters, because I don't know if you know this, but plastic does not hold up super well for over 50 years of cookie making.
Here's the actual recipe, since I'm sure that's not readable.
INGREDIENTS:
1C shortening
2C sugar
3 eggs
1 t salt
1.5 t vanilla
3/4 t almond extract
1t baking soda (which can be left out)
Mix all of this together first, then blend in 4.5 cups flour.
Refrigerate about a half hour.
Then roll it out and start cutting out cookies. bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Let your kids decorate. And decorate they did:
Superman decorating cookies
Princess believes that all cookies need large amounts of sugar sprinkles added. LARGE AMOUNTS.
Batman's final results.....
Superman's final cookies
And Princess' final cookies
And here's what I learned from this:
1. Red food dye does stain my new Christmas table cloth. I really should have taken it off, but I thought "it's already dirty, why bother."
2. Kids use a lot of sugar sprinkles, and sprinkles. I started off with a set of 5 FULL jars, and ended with 3 of the jars empty. Admittedly 3 of those jars were about half the usual size, but still......
3. Kids are messy when decorating, plan on having the kids take a bath afterwards.
And here's the officially decorated Santa cookies. I did good, I did let them decorate a few Santas......
And they were kid-approved, mostly. I did end up finding her cookie later on with like 3 bites out of it.
I started to write this morning, because I really wanted to get this up, but then I became convinced/convicted I really should be out there playing with my kids. So, instead I was good and spent the morning making bugs and doing a science lesson. It was a blast!
My kids have I'd guess 3 ways they get toys:
1. The easy method Christmas or birthday presents. I try to keep it to one or two fun toys, a game, and a book. That's my goal. I like to give presents, that's one of my primary love languages, that and time spent, so it is a real challenge for me not to give too many.
2. They earn them by achieving a goal. These goals are not morally motivated, so they don't earn toys by telling the truth or by behaving correctly, that to me is a little too close to bribery. So far they've mostly earned toys for potty training rewards. They'd find a toy at the store they NEEDED to have, did you see that all caps? That's how much they needed it, they were going to have a terrible life if they didn't get it. I would look at how much the toy cost and then decide the number of times they needed to do something to get their goal. So, back when we were desperate for Superman to understand going poop in the potty he got a comic for doing so (comics are about $2-3), it was rather extravagant, but we did that once or twice and then it became all day with no accidents, and eventually several days.
Now for bigger toys that are more than $5 I usually put something more. So when the boys saw a Batmobile they were desperate for that they had to be dry overnight for 25 nights. It didn't have to be in a row, it was just be dry.
Princess right now is trying to earn an Ariel toy. She's very disappointed the castle she got didn't come with a Ariel doll, don't you understand Mommy? There's a picture of Ariel in the bathtub on the box, so she goes in the bathtub and Aurora goes in the bed, because that's where she is on the box.
But, I digress........ I've heard that a few too many times. So, we're going through the potty training torture with her. She's fairly good, but doesn't tend to remember on her own. So, she's not really close yet, but we're getting there.
3. The final way they "earn" toys is the old-fashioned way. They work for them. We have two different types of chores in our family: the ones you do because you're part of the family, and the ones you do to get paid. As I split it up in my mind, anything that happens downstairs where people are going to see our house is you do it because I said so. Upstairs I'm more likely to pay you.
Here's items I've paid them for:
1. room clean for 1 week: $1
2. bed made for the week: $1
3. washing baseboards: $.25 (I got this idea from a friend, they're at the perfect height).
4. cleaning outside, which is really lots of fetching and carrying. They get whatever I feel is fair at the time. So one time I think they each got $3 for helping with weeding, putting leaves and such in the trash and digging holes.
Honestly, we don't do all that great on paying them for their chores. They don't tend to remember to clean without reminders, and I don't tend to remember to pay unless they remind me. I've been thinking for a while about hanging up some kind of magnetic chore chart, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do.
And for those who are curious our principals are somewhat based off of these two sites: Dave Ramsey- based off these principals our family is debt free, so I highly recommend him, he's got classes for most every age group. I'm going to start the boys on a more formalized chore system in a few months when they turn 5 I think. Like I said this is a work in progress.
Growing Families International- They're where I got the idea of earning toys for behaviors that aren't moral. We were lucky to take several of their classes and lead a couple of them. I want to retake the "older kid" class sometime soon, by older I mean preschool to elementary.
Well, hopefully that answered your questions Natalie.
Put the Lemonade Stand logo on your blog or within your post.
Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.
I'll have to admit, that most of the people who I'd give this to either just got it in the last few days or gave it to me....... So, I'm a little stumped of who to give it to, or to get anywhere near 10......
So, here's my list of people who I'd give the blog to if they hadn't already gotten it, and some of them I know have, so consider yourself lucky that you got it twice!
Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn (yes she gave it to me, but it's for someone who is encouraging, and she's CERTAINLY encouraged me)
And I know there's at least a few more I've left off, but all of these have sent me an email or a comment in the last month that have really made my day or totally helped when I've been feeling overwhelmed. I wish I could truly explain how much your friendships have meant to me in these last few months.
Now to track down all of the URL's for these blogs...... And then I'm heading off to hide in the bath tub for an hour or so and pretend I don't hear kids pounding on the bathroom door wanting attention.
Okay, everyone is linked and has gotten a comment! Now, to get dinner defrosting and get that bath.
I'm off to run and hid in a zig-zagging motion so the kids don't see me. Whoosh, here I go. Seriously, I think that stomach bug from this weekend must have left me slightly delirious. Oh well, plus side I've lost another 2 pounds that I wasn't really trying to lose (no, don't throw that rotten fruit at me, please!)
And, for all of you who wondered. No, the zig-zag pattern was not successful in distracting the kids and letting me have a successful bath. The bath tub was full when I heard the distinctive sound of an anguished cry and then the thud thud thud of kids running down the stairs. Someday I will.
This is something we've been meaning to do for a while, but every time we've had a Saturday morning free it's been horridly cold (which for anyone who lives North might consider warm, but to me anything approaching freezing is cold), or raining. We've had a very rainy winter here, but we finally got to go on our nature walk in our neighborhood.
Our goal for the walk: look for evidence of animals. When I told them this I was thinking finding things like tracks, maybe thing they might eat, or their droppings. Here's what we came up with.
We noticed a mostly destroyed foundation or maybe a barn. After much talking they decided animals might have lived there. Princess was sure there were horses living there right now, and then she spent the next five minutes telling us about a lot more animals. I don't think I could write the full list.
Abandoned water tank for cows. My kids were fascinated at the idea of using this to water animals. That and the fact that it could be broken or worn-out.
We found acorns and seeds. The kids explained to me how animals eat them, and if you plant them in the ground it will grow a new tree.
Of course we had to take a short break to climb the rocks, and then jump off the rocks.
We found a deer trail. I should say, Jeff found it first. Then we followed the trail, it was kind of cool to find something they'd climbed on often enough to make a trail. It led us here:
Doesn't this look like a perfect place for a bunch of deer to sleep?
It's nothing super fancy, but the weather wasn't cooperating for my other nefarious plans.
I'm going to try and highlight each week a cool experiment or resource or whatever science related I've seen recently. Here's this week's:
Check out how brave she was over at Adventures of Bear, she did a super cool experiment with air pressure. I think if I tried this here, I'd have a big huge mess.
For more about Science Sunday and participating go here.
You know I realized as I wrote this title that might not sound quite right..... Most of these games are recommended for 8 years and older:
Our family tradition for many years before we had kids who expected us to pay attention to them was to have friends over on New Year's Day and spend the entire day playing board games of varying degrees. We'd have about 10 people over and a couple of different games going at a time. Some took lots of time to play, others didn't. And because I enjoyed this tradition and many of the games we played I want to share them with you.
And, actually these are only the ones that Amazon recognizes, I'll add a few after I describe these, ranked according to what I believe is the level of geekiness you exhibit when you own this game.
1. Cranium- Most of you are probably familiar with this one. It combines a bunch of fun party games into one. So, if you're not good at Trivial Pursuit then maybe you'll be good at drawing or acting it out. I like this for that reason. Jeff hates anything that requires him to try and hum or sing because he doesn't remember song titles. So, we only tend to play this in large groups.
2. Imagineifff- This is a really fun party/large group game. You draw a card and it'll say something like "Imagine if Bob were a sport, what sport would he be?" Then it gives you 5 choices, or maybe it was 6. Everyone votes and majority rules. That means you could be wrong about yourself according to the game. You may really believe you are baseball, but everyone else thinks you're hockey, so they get a point that time and you don't. It's lots of fun to talk around, and we bring this to any large group party. And, this one drives Jeff crazy because it doesn't have any logical rules, at all.
3. Transamerica- this is an entry level strategy game. Total game time is probably about 30 minutes. You can play this with anyone who can read, and it has so many benefits. It teaches a basic geography, and it REALLY explains how our railroad system was designed. I mean seriously, why do I have to go to Chicago to take a train to Denver? And that is how our railroads are designed. Why? Because of how it was most economical for the people to build tracks when they were. We tended to play it as people arrived because it's over in a few rounds, it's first person to 10 points loses (it's like golf you want a low score). We've taught this to several friends and they usually end up buying it.
4. Carcassone- This game has more expansions than most any game I know of, and each different expansion adds in some fun new ideas to go with it. I just bought a mini-expansion that adds in a few different tiles and crazy heretics living monasteries. So, basic game play is you draw a tile and find where you can legally play that tile, then decide if you want to put a guy on that tile to build a town, a road, or be a farmer. At the end of the game the person with the most points for building cities and what not wins. This is one of my favorite games. It's about the level of strategy I like, and it plays in about 45 minutes to an hour. This is another one that once we've shared it with friends they've tended to buy it.
5. Munchkin- Honestly I added this because about half of the games I came up with Amazon hadn't heard of. If you read lots of fantasy books or do any role-playing of any sort you'll enjoy this and get the humor in it, otherwise you probably won't enjoy it. I'll probably leave it at that.
6. Puerto Rico- Jeff likes this one. This is a 2-3 hour game, and involves lots of strategy. You're building up plantations in the New World, and trying to be the one to have the most conquest points at the end. Honestly, I have to remind myself of the rules every time I play, because we don't play often enough. It's a very fun game, but it does take some getting used to.
Some very fun games you probably have to go to a comic or game store to find. The ones listed above you might find at Target (okay, you won't find Puerto Rico or Munchkin, but you might find some of the others). But these are some SUPER fun ones that I really love.
Democrazy- You start off with a small handful of coins. As the game progresses the people playing vote on the laws that are going to be used for scoring your coins and how you get coins. I think this game is hilarious, and it's really fun to play. It's also a great mockery of our congress, which let's face it no matter what side you're on is a bit of a joke. So, you get to try and pass laws that say "You must vote with your left hand, or lose a coin." I love this game because it's somewhat unpredictable.
Killing Doctor Lucky- Sadly I think the company that produced this went out of business, but if you can find a copy BUY IT! It's the night before the game of Clue, and you're all at Dr. Lucky's house and you hate the crazy old man. So, you all decide to off him, but you don't want to be caught. It's lots of fun to play, and if you want you could follow it up by playing Clue, or watching the movie.
Who Stole Ed's Pants-I think I got this for Jeff because the name amused me and figured we'd play it once, and then put it in the Goodwill box, but it turned out to be surprisingly good. This is for 3 or 4 players and you play in teams. Ed woke up one morning to discover his pants have been stolen, and he is very embarrassed about this, but doesn't want to make a big deal about it. However, he discovers the whole town knows and are trying to blame each other. This is a game where it doesn't matter if you're guilty, just if you can blame someone else. It involves some strategy, but not an overwhelming amount, and it's a good teamwork game.
And last game, because I just remembered this, and I'm up against my self-imposed deadline of when I need to get off the computer:
Five Crowns-You'll probably find this at teacher supply stores, that's where I got our copy, actually this is our second or third copy because we've given them away to friends. It's a lot like rummy, except there are 5 suits. Each round you are trying to get a different number of cards the same or in a row. The first round is 3, the next round is 4, so on and so forth. And each round a different card is wild. This is a great game to introduce your young child to strategy games. I'd say probably 1st or 2nd at the youngest depending on your kid. The people who made this game also have several other games that are great for younger kids to play (as in early elementary to start playing). It's a nice alternative for family game night to yet another round of Monopoly (which in my house growing up usually ended with the board being thrown or some other show of nonsportsmanship).
