Apple Snack

Last year I purchased a dehydrator from someone on Craigslist for $10.00.  It was a great find for me, fits perfect under the counter, and was meant to dry the apples from our ancient apple tree.  The tree is in need of serious pruning, but we were told that it may go into shock and not produce those perfect pie apples.  We haven't pruned it yet. 

I have a sweet tooth.  The state of Washington makes sure that the menu I prepare for all of these kiddos has the correct amount of vitamins and food groups, and I like to add in some sugar.  So when I dehydrate the apples, I add a cinnamon sugar mixture to them.  It smells like apple pie when they are drying, and all of the kids are always asking where the pie is.

Here are some apples from the tree.  Mid spring I have to just go buy them at the grocery store, of course.  But the photo above was a particularly bountiful fall two years ago.  I think we had 5 buckets full.  They were canned, turned into jelly, and dried.

Add some of this stuff to the apples before they go into the dehydrator and it keeps them from turning brown.  Kids get picky if they are brown.

Look at those beautiful blossoms.  I thank God for our apple tree, and pray each year that it will produce well.  The kids enjoy learning about the different stages of growth, too.


 

Whitening Mouthwash Test Results

 My results are weird..  The photo above shows my teeth before 60 days of Crest 3D White mouthwash.  Here is my original post.

Here is my "after" shot- they are definitely more yellow.  I do, however, love the taste of this stuff and it kills my morning breath every morning until I can manage to get that first cup of coffee.  As far as it's claim to "whiten", I give this mouthwash a fail.  (Oh, and I did photo shop the calcification off  from in between my front teeth just for fun.  It's still there, no whiter.)

Play 'Movie Theater'

Yesterday, in the middle of spring break, it SNOWED.  I refuse to type out any cute little symbols by that word..  I protested and wore my flip flops anyway, but it added some cranky to the occasion.   After several  Emergency Dance Parties I manged to function enough to play a game with the kids.  I printed out some fake money (We use this for AWANA at church) and used some sticky notes for tickets. 

We were blessed to have just the right amount of small chairs.  Which one would they choose?  Sooo fun..

It's only a movie theater if there is popcorn involved.  I filled these up so the kids could 'purchase' them at the concession stand.

 They were all so excited, standing in line.  "What movie would you like to see?" I asked each of them when it was their turn.  "Chip and Dale" they each replied.   "Would you like popcorn with that?"  I asked.  "Yes, please!"   The cost for their movie theater trip was one fake dollar.  They were responsible with their 'ticket'.  I reminded them to please silence their cell phones.  Some of them waited for me to GIVE them a cell phone until I whispered,"It's only pretend.."  Big smile... They were enjoying this game.  I was so glad, because the weather was TERRIBLE and they were bored.

They enjoyed choosing their own seat.  Some of them were so in character as adults that when they brought me their empty popcorn containers and were ready for a drink they called me "Sir."  Awesome! 

After the movie, we created spring chickens.  We used a bath puff scrubber to dab our paint on the papers.  Not my brilliant idea, but came from Here.  Then the snow and rain stopped, the sun came out, and then it began to hail...

Emergency Dance Party

We love music. If we are stuck inside and need to get our wiggles out I just turn on the MP3 player and find a good dance song. We have an emergency dance party- arms are flying, smiles are growing, scarves are floating through the air. I recommend doing this if you are cranky. Just grab a towel and fly it around, spin, shake, shimmy, get it all out. Amen. ♥

Spring Break

What to do when you are stuck inside during Spring Break because of rain?   Sometimes we have sunshine..

One year we ventured to the beach in the rain.  Why not?  We saw some neat creatures.

The petting zoo(above) in Everett is not open this time of year, so as much as we'd like to go, we can't.  Praise the Lord for growing this business for me, we now have too many kiddos to fit in the van for an adventure further than walking distance.  So now what?

 I suggest puddle jumping.  In fact, let them do it until they are soaking wet.  I tend to get caught up in the "don't get dirty" mind set. (Is that just a mom thing?)  But LET them puddle jump!  We have a dryer.:)  Today we will all put on aprons and bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  We will also start some indoor seeds to transplant outside if it ever warms up.

Happy Spring Break!

Antique Capital

Look at this beautiful washing machine.  It lives on a porch in the woods of Whidbey Island where my husband whisked me away to for our 6th Anniversary.  The cottage was loaded with antiques. 

Does anyone know what this (above) is?

This was a dresser in the bedroom.  Doilies graced the inside of each drawer.  It was very quaint and cozy.  We snuck out for some antique shopping of our own the next day.  One shop owner saw that we were from Snohomish, and was excited to talk to us since we are from what he called "the antique capital".  I suppose he's right- how lucky we are to be able to jaunt downtown and find something old.  I purchased an apron, a blue lantern, and a biscuit  and cake tin from the man's shop. 

Here's my husband and I in one last self portrait before we left our quiet get away,   Happy Anniversary, Adam!

Spring Blossoms

 I love tree art.  I suppose I'm a bit of a tree hugger.  I think it's neat to look at a tree in the winter, naked and silhouetted against the sky.  I wonder if the root system is the same as the branches.

It was another dark and rainy day and I popped on over to Frugal Family Fun for art inspiration and found the colorful spring branch craft. 

Start with a bright color of construction paper and add branches. We chose yellow.

Use tissue paper squares, or any form of tissue papers, newspapers, cotton balls,  to create blossoms.

The finished result at our house was lots of bright spring blossomed branches to brighten our art wall.  Boy did we need that yellow!  It has been so dark and rainy each day.  Happy Creating! ☼