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Tiny Little Cupcakes

January 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

This morning, I made a quick run down the street to Walgreens to get milk, and while I was there, I took a jaunt down the Christmas aisle to see what was 75% off. This is what I found for $2.49:

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That’s right. A Disney cupcake set, complete with spoon, spatula, measuring spoon, measuring cup, mini cupcake papers and tins, cupcake and frosting mixes, sprinkles, and decorating gel. In short, it came with everything but eggs, butter, and water.

First, we put the mix together…

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Then we readied the cupcake papers, tossed in some sprinkles (just for fun), and set out decorations…

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After 13.5 minutes in the oven, our little cupcakes were ready to come out!

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The kids had a great time decorating their tiny treats…

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And an even better time eating them!

 

** This isn’t a product review, just a fun activity. I purchased this kit with my own money, and then baked it with my own butter, eggs, and water. In case it matters, the kids are mine too.

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Ranch Babies Field Trip

April 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I hope this isn’t annoying. I couldn’t get all the pics to go into the blog post the way I wanted, so I’m trying something different. When it puts the pictures out, you can move them around in order to see them better. Let me know what you think of this so I know whether to use/not use something like it in the future. Thanks  :)

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Little Sprouts week 1

April 7, 2011 By 1 Comment

Last Thursday we planted seeds for our garden. I’ve never really had a garden before, and definitely never started one from seeds, but I thought it would be fun for the kids. Little did I know how much time I would spend bent over the little greenhouse box on our table, fascinated by the little seedlings as they grew. It’s just amazing. Let me show you what I mean…

This is what the greenhouse looked like on 3/31

And two days later on 4/2, our peas sprouted

By 4/4, we had lots of little sprouts!

Today? Everything has sprouted but the 2 types of peppers...

and the cucumbers are 3 inches tall!

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Seeds in the Dirt

March 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

Today, we finally had enough time to get our seeds planted in our little peat pellet greenhouse. Since we live in Montana, the weather is very unpredictable in the spring. These little seeds will have to live inside for a month or so, just to be safe. A while back, the kids and I cleared all the bark out of one section of our flower garden to use as our planting area. We have an actual garden space in the back yard, but we also have two huge puppies who can’t be trusted!

We left the little tree to watch over the garden.We can't wait to dig up this dirt!

 

We have quite a variety of seeds for this area. The ones we started today are tomatoes, a variety of sweet peppers, green beans, onions, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, and scallions. When it warms up a little more, we will put in carrots, watermelon, canteloupe, garlic, and giant sunflowers will go against the fence. I’m not sure yet if the melons will go in this space, or if we will clear out another flower bed just to the right of this one so they have more room. We will be planting some new flowers in the front flowerbeds, and moving strawberries and raspberries from the back garden to another bed on the opposite side of the house, and herbs in a small planter in the front.

We checked out several books from the library this month, all dealing with plants, soil, etc. The kids have a basic idea of how plants grow, but I think these books, and our little greenhouse ecosystem will help them to have a better understanding.

Our seeds and little peat pellet greenhouse.

The kids got to take turns adding water to the peat pellets to make them expand. When they had all soaked up the water, each kid got the chance to poke a hole, drop some seeds, and cover with dirt. Even the 3yo was an expert at dropping the seeds into the hole after she counted out the right number! They are already trying to decide which seeds will sprout first. :)
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Homeschool PE 101: No More Training Wheels

August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I love that we can choose from so many activities for homeschool PE. The kids express interest in something new every day, and we add it to our list of things to look into. However, we decided that our first PE activity should be learning to ride a two-wheeled bike.

Our oldest is ten and already knows how, but the next two, ages six and seven haven’t learned yet. Our oldest son learned to ride in three days, so I just assumed the other kids would be equally as quick to pick it up.

I. Was. So. Wrong.

The first thing my daughter said to me was, “What if I fall down and scrape my knees?”

“Well, you will. It’s going to happen. It might happen even AFTER you learn to ride. You just have to suck it up and keep trying.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“I understand. No one WANTS to get hurt, but it happens. Sometimes that’s the price you pay to have fun and learn new things.”

“It doesn’t sound like fun,” she replied.

“Well, no. Getting hurt isn’t the fun part. Being able to ride and the freedom is the fun part. If you just keep pedaling and steer, I will help you balance so you don’t fall.”

*insert look of skepticism here

So, she geared up, walked her bike out to the (very quiet and safe) street, and climbed on. I reassured her that I would be holding on. She put one foot up on the pedal and shot me a look that clearly implied that I would be held accountable for any skinned knees. Finally, she started to pedal.

I ran next to her on the down slope. I practically pushed all 75 pounds of her and her bike back up. She wobbled. She jumped off. We repeated this several times. It was hot, frustrating (for both of us), and took a lot of practice, but guess what…

Well, never mind. She didn’t get it, and I’m pretty sure I had heat stroke by the time we were done. We both walked away annoyed, exhausted, and dehydrated. Two days later I was still thinking we should have started with something easier and less dangerous… Maybe archery or knife juggling.

On the other hand, maybe there is such a thing as over teaching on things like bike riding. She took it upon herself to go out and practice. She risked the safety of her knees, not to mention our neighbor’s mailbox (which she only hit once) and was successful. She’s still wobbly and uncertain, but the training wheels are gone for good.

While I’m still mad at myself for being so impatient and not knowing exactly what she needed from me in order to learn, I’m also wildly excited for her, and so proud of her determination!

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