Cute read

T2 has enjoyed Fancy Nancy since the books by Jane O'connor first appeared in book stores. I have been waiting for the library to have the newish Fancy Nancy chapter book and finally last week they did. We both enjoyed it.

 Yesterday we read the book for T2's upcoming book club meeting.

The book was ok. T2 was quite bothered by a fire that occurred in the story which for us didn't make it a good bedtime read. At the book club each child is assigned a role. At the first meeting T2 will be the 'Character Shrink'. Each meeting the roles are rotated. There are six girls in the group.

The Character Shrink:

-tries to get into a character's brain, to understand why they think and act the way they do and presents their ideas to the group.

Some things to discuss may be:

a) The type of personality the character has

b) How the character acts and why

c) The big decision or dilemma that the character was faced with

d) How the character changed from the beginning to the end of the story

e) If that character learned anything.

Soup season is here

I'm not sure if I'm ready for it yet but the temp has dropped, the evenings are getting darker and there's a definite feeling of Fall. My friend shared with me a soup recipe that I have been waiting to try.I don't know where the recipe came from but it is good

2lbs carrots
1 large orange pepper
2 apples
2 medium potatoes
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
Ginger
Thyme
Salt/Pepper
8c chicken stock (I used vegetable)

Peel and cut into chunks carrots, apples, potatoes
Cut onions and orange pepper into chunks.
Peel garlic - leave cloves whole.

Toss with olive oil and spread in single layer on baking sheet.
Roast at 375 for 30-40 minutes, tossing a couple of times, until tender and carrots begin to caramelize.
Simmer stock for about 10 minutes with a 2" piece of peeled, sliced ginger and several springs of fresh thyme.
Add veg to stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
Blend in batches or use an immersion blender until smooth consistency.

I had a bowl this evening and it was perfect.

Something different for crafty girl

T2 loves to craft and always has numerous projects on the go. She draws all the time - currently her pictures involve lots of horses hanging out, jumping over fences or just smiling. When my Mum was here she scribbled a picture of a horse head  and T2 had to have it - she cut it out, stuck it on paper and completed the picture to her liking...

While I was culling old magazines today - I cut out a few pictures for her to use in the same manner - she would choose a magazine cutting and complete the picture. I had another idea in mind but most of the magazines were food/home related and didn't have what I needed but I hope to do that another time.

Here's what she came up with. It challenged her but she loved it.

Making the most of the minutes.

Tonight my parents fly back to England after their 2 week visit. I hate when they leave. There's packing to do and pacing, planning meals to suit their departure which is a 2 hours drive to the airport (G will drive them) and then a check in 3 hours prior to their 10:30pm departure.

One last walk along the beach seemed a nice idea - not too crazy, just down the street and something they don't get to do when they are home as they neither live near the beach or own a dog. It was a sunny blustery walk -really nice and not a soul in sight.

A Turkey Vulture was showing it's swooping and gliding skills. It was awesome. I saw my son walking with my parents and seeing him taller then my Mum and not so much shorter than my 6+ foot tall Dad was a bit freaky for me. When did that happen? Two very happy dogs and a self portrait in the sand of T2 : )

Bananas, bananas and more bananas

A few days I picked up some bananas at the store. The same day G decided to pick up 2 bunches of bananas. We don't eat many bananas. Today there were still 9 bananas in the bowl - all brown and speckled. I am very picky about bananas. I don't like them green and I don't like them with any brown speckles because then they are too soft. This leaves a very small window of time when I will eat them.
Anyway, today I decided I had better make banana bread before I discover a gazillion fruit flies hanging out in the fruit bowl. My house was smelling pretty amazing as 4 banana breads baked.

Here's the bummer. I do not like banana bread at all. Yuck, yuck, yuck. My kids do not like banana bread either. This means G will get to enjoy a loaf and the 3 remaining that I will freeze will get forgotten about and a few months from now will be found behind the Eggos with freezer burn and will get thrown out.

Apparently I accidentally took a picture of my messy kitchen when I was moving my camera. What a disaster.

I just saw G sneaking a second slice of banana bread - maybe they won't last long enough to meet their freezer burn fate.

Reading

The past couple of weeks we have not had quite as much time for reading as usual. T2 and I read....

                                         

I've been reading....

I just started reading

T1 who does not particularly enjoy fiction has been rereading his Diary of a wimpy kid books in anticipation of the next book coming out soon.

We have been reading a world war 1 book which we are both finding interesting

Yeastday

Today we did some experiments with yeast from two of my favourite science books for kids

The first experiment was to see which environment yeast thrives. We added yeast and sugar to 4 containers and added cooled boiled water to three of them. We plastic wrapped the tops. One jar was wrapped in a towel. One was placed in a bowl of ice water, the third in a bowl of boiling water and the final waterless one just sat on the table.

We observed them every thirty minutes for 2 hours. T1 hypothesized that the warm one would activate and the lid would swell (correct), the ice bath one would stay the same (actually the plastic sunk downwards), the hot bath one would rise and then fall which it did - at 30 minutes the plastic was inflated but at 2 hours flat) and the dry one would do nothing (correct).

  Our second experiment showed the effect of sugar on yeast. We put equal amounts of warm water in 2 bottles and added yeast. We then added sugar to only one bottle and covered the tops with plastic wrap. T1 was correct in his hypothesis that the bottle with sugar added would activate. It actually blew it's lid after about an hour and had bubbled over at the 30 minute mark.