Cooking Class Birthday Party!!!

I survived another birthday party. I should have a t-shirt printed up with that on it. It's like a badge of honour in motherhood! 

We hemmed and hawed on a theme for this year's eighth birthday. After getting away with a quiet family party last year, little girl was ready to whoop it up with the girlfriends and get her party on. I mustered up all the excitement I possibly could and searched around to see what it would cost to have this big event SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN MY HOUSE.  

That search lasted all of five minutes as I quickly realized that I'd have to shell out more moo-la than I was willing to part with. It was after I hung up the phone with the nice lady from our local grocery store who informed me that to have a cooking class party at their lovely establishment, it would be $18 a head and require at least 12 heads. To which I firmly decided right then and there, I do it myself!!!! 

Which is how I came to be wandering up and down the aisles of Michaels, Winners and searching Pinterest for inspiration. 

I suggested to little girl that we could come up with the menu she'd like - maybe an Italian theme with pasta? A Mexican theme with tacos? Perhaps make your own pizza? She responded with-  

Hotdogs.

Really? Really? Whatevs. It's her day, not mine. 

The menu:

• Cupcakes and homemade chocolate frosting
• Pigs in a blanket (hotdogs rolled up in crescent rolls, with or without a cheese slice)
• Fruit Kabobs
• Caesar Salad
• Pink Lemonade

I still managed not to have this blessed event at my house. We had it at our church. It was perfect because we have a nice, new kitchen over there and plenty of space in the basement. I could set up table stations which kept things going smoothly. 

Station 1 was the craft table. Everyone got a plain apron and access to cloth markers for decoration. After all the boy parties I've done, I forgot how different girls are in this area. Boys would have slapped something on in about 5 minutes and started to look around for the food. Or start punching each other. Instead, the girls were still carefully and intensively decorating 20 minutes later. I had to encourage them to get a move on - we need to get those cupcakes in the oven!! 

After their aprons were just perfect, we moved over to Station 2. This was our cooking table! After everyone took a turn adding to the batter and mixing, they put the batter into muffin tins and made a complete mess doing it. 

Next up was making the fruit kabobs. They liked to pick the fruit they liked for their kabob. I was glad I did it this way as opposed to fruit salad where they'd end up picking out what they don't want. Less waste this way.

This would be where I missed my mother's presence the most. I turned around and there was a sink full of dirty dishes and I needed some of them! Mom just knows what needs to be done without me asking. Now after all these years of throwing parties with her help, I'm reminded of all she does! 
*not to make it sound ominous but my mother is fine. She just couldn't come from Wisconsin this time for reasons beyond her control.

Will was my new helper. He helped in a different way! As I frantically cleaned the dishes I needed for the next task, he took the group on a scavenger hunt he had made up. What a guy! (I bought him a Starbucks latte as a perk!) 

Next was making the Caesar salad. I divided up the tasks to include tearing the lettuce leaves, crumbling the bacon and seasoning the bread cubes for croutons. We assembled the salad right before we ate. 

Will took them all again on some mysterious game he made up that may not have made much sense but everyone seemed to enjoy. By the time they returned, I was ready to show them how to make the pigs in a blanket. 

Zanna was on to something with this one. It was so easy to make and the girls really seemed to enjoy making them and eating them. Sure hotdogs are gross and no one is sure exactly what's in them, but that didn't stop anyone from devouring them! 

Station 3 was the eating table and I had that one all set and decorated. We were starting to run out of time so I ended up going ahead and making the frosting. Then after they finished eating their dinner they frosted their cupcakes. They each got two - one to eat right away and one to take. I had found these plastic cupcake shaped holders in different colours on the clearance shelf at Winners and they worked out great for this! Zanna opened her presents while her guests ate their cupcakes and then it was time to go! 

I think she had a good time - 

A Homeschool Day in the Life - ages 13 & 7

It's that time of year again! Simple Homeschool  is inviting readers to link up to their "Homeschool Day in the Life". I don't quite know why I get so excited about it. There's something appealing to me about being allowed a peek at someone's life without getting arrested. It may go all the way back to when I watched and secretly enjoyed MTV's "The Real World". "The Bachelor"  only encouraged me in what I knew was smut. And American and/or Canadian Idol? Love it. "Duck Dynasty"? You had me at redneck. So in my defence, this blog linky is way more acceptable than slowly driving through my neighbourhood after dark and looking into lighted windows to see what putrid colours people choose to paint their walls. OK? OK.

This particular day open for peeking in on is a typical Wednesday.

Our family - Wayne, Rachel, Will and Zanna

My alarm goes off at 7am and I'm embarrassed to admit that the snooze button is hit for the next half hour or so. I'm clearly not a morning person.

On the other hand, my 13 year old son's alarm goes off at 6:15am and he gets up right away. Or so I'm assuming.  I'm fast asleep in my warm, cozy bed. But I believe this is the case because he tells me and he has usually accomplished enough by the time I'm on the scene to validate that he'd need that much time.

I'd like to take full credit for having a child who's so eager to start his day and can't wait to learn. But this is a day in real life and who am I kidding? Several years ago, I implemented a schedule that he can see and know what subjects he's expected to do each day. He finds great inner motivation to cross them off his list as soon as possible. The problem has been that sometimes in an effort to quickly cross items off his list, he's done a crappy job. This has meant that I've had to be very diligent about checking up on his work and holding him to a higher standard if he's not holding himself to that standard.

So from about 6:30 to 9:00am he is:

•  reading several chapters of his assigned book for school - currently Son of Charlemangne by Barbara Willard
• eat breakfast
• morning chores
• play legos
• completes a lesson from Teaching Textbooks Algebra
• if he has the time and the motivation he may even do his Apologia Science and notebook. Otherwise he'll just do it later. 

My 7 year old gets up about 7:30am and has breakfast (which takes forever because she's the slowest eater in the history of the world), morning chores, and plays.

We all aim to be ready to go by 9am for our Morning Meeting. Because the span in ages between my two kids are fairly decent, this makes it challenging  to share subjects that I can teach at the same time. During Morning Meeting, the three of us have devotion, work on memorizing the Sermon on the Mount, read aloud poetry and read aloud a chapter from Story of the World. My daughter likes to colour the coordinating picture while I'm reading. Then I ask them both the comprehension questions. After this, it's time to separate and each has their age/level appropriate work.

It's about  9:40 or so and Will's ready for a break. This allows me to work one on one with Zanna.  We'll do Saxon Math 2, the red book LLAL for language arts and All About Spelling.

10:15am - I call Will back and I tag team between the two kids. I give Zanna her worksheets to do from the lessons I just gave her. 
Meanwhile, Will and I have a grammar lesson (Easy Grammar Plus).

10:30 - Dad calls the kids and it's time for them to go with him to the retirement home. He's a pastor and he goes there weekly to lead a worship service for the residents. The kids go along and help usher, shake hands and sometimes play their violins.

Meanwhile, I'm in the house by.my.self.

 I run around naked , eat bon-bons and look at Pinterest clean up around the house and generally catch up on things that didn't get done earlier , i.e.. make my bed, take care of breakfast dishes, sweep the floor. I start working on lunch.

After lunch is finished and cleaned up, Will finishes up his book work for the day. He's got an informal essay letter he's writing for the IEW Continuation Course. We go over his rough draft together and make some notes.  Zanna's back to playing, reading, etc. 

Quiet time is usually between 1-2pm. Both kids are in their rooms and the general idea is that whatever they're doing must be quiet. That may seem obvious given the name but I occasionally must remind my children to keep the noise level down. Both of them like to listen to audio books on CD while playing with their legos, barbies, whatever. Meanwhile for me this is my Bible study time, reading, etc. In other words - my sanity. Today though it's taken up with a phone call with my Mom that lasts an hour and a half. We talk about once a week and between the two of us we've each had a lot going on in our lives this last week that apparently takes a while to discuss!

From 2-4pm is pretty free today. Violin must be practiced by each of them. Legos are to be played with.  Zanna plays with a neighbour friend. Will has a weekly paper route and he'll work on getting half of it done today. I catch up on my Bible time and mop the floor - completely unrelated, I know. 

The kids are allowed to watch an hour of TV from 4-5pm. Looks like reruns of "The Brady Bunch".

 Wayne and I go for a walk.

 I get dinner started once we're home.

We need dinner to be cleaned up by around 6pm so we can get out the door by 6:15 for choir at church. Our choir director is gracious enough to allow us to bring them and let's them participate on top of it. Even though they've been in the children's choir over the years, it's been surprising to see Will especially step up his game. I think it's another example of including our kids in our lives (as opposed to sending them off with their own) and they rise to the occasion. When they're exposed to an environment of maturity, this can't help but rub off on them in a positive way. They're still kids to be sure! But it's exciting to see them rise to the level where the bar's been raised.

We're home by 7:45pm and Zanna gets ready for bed. Will stays for a Bible class at church with Wayne. Wayne drops him off at home about 8:45pm on his way to another Bible class. Will heads upstairs and gets ready for bed.

Once Wayne is home from his classes, the night is ours. Bedtime is 11pm. And the alarm goes off again at 7am. I hit snooze.

Our Daily Docket

What we've been eating: Super Nachos for Superbowl Sunday! The only time of year when our family eats in the living room in front of the TV (gasp!). 

What's in my email box: Mom I love you and I think you are the best in spite of your many faults   If that's not unconditional love, I don't know what is!! The teacher in me sees the grammatical errors. The mother in me knows I have my own grammatical errors so who am I to judge? 

What's in the mail box: Will's completed high school placement test and made up report card sent off to Luther Preparatory School. Gulp. 

What we're watching: I mean other than my DVD's of the old Alias  TV show (which forever shall rock my world). Tonight we'll be tuned into the big debate - 

If you miss it live, it will be available anytime after to view. But there's something about watching in the moment.

What we do to keep active in the winter:

Wayne is taking the kids skiing while Mom gets a day off! Cheers to that:)

What we're celebrating: Chinese New Year! We had a potluck at church and had a blast eating different foods and learning more about the Chinese culture among friends. 

I love our cutlery tray at church! We're not attempting a ministry that keeps cultures apart but brings them together through the commonality of redeemed children of God. I'm sure forks and chopsticks will be used in heaven!! 

What we're missing: Zanna's baby teeth - finally! 

She waited awhile for an opportunity to have the tooth fairy visit her! She's lost two already and has another wiggly one on top. 

What you've gotta have every now and then: PJ Day! Winter is the perfect time to stay in pj's all day. Maybe not everyday but when she asked for permission I thought, "why not?" When choir came around that night she wore snow pants anyway so no one was on to the fact. 

What we're reading: I finished "Calling me Home" and let me tell you, go read it! I haven't read a fiction piece for awhile but this one is great. It's a mix between "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Help". Very good. Right now I'm reading my first Steven King book. Not what you may think. It's called "On Writing" about the craft of writing. He swears like a sailor but so far it's been interesting. Sort of biography/informational. With lots of swearing.

Will's reading the Calvin and Hobbes complete series and may be on his third go round. I know when he's reading them because of the deep belly laugh coming from his room. Makes me laugh! 

Zanna's reading whatever she can get her hands on but she's been making her way through the Rose series and the Caroline series because apparently the Little House books weren't enough. She also finished her first American girl book on Molly. Molly is the doll she got for Christmas. 

What I'm baking: lots. Maybe it's winter and having the oven on and the smell of homemade cookies and the taste of warm, gooey chocolate …. OK. Sorry. I got lost there somewhere in all that. Chocolate chip cookies, fudge topped brownies, oatmeal/coconut/raisin/chocolate chip cookies, whole grain bread, banana bread - my family is happy! And possibly 5 pounds heavier. Oh, well. It keeps us warm living in a frozen tundra! 

What we're learning: The Human Nervous System, Ancient History, Limiting Adjectives, Sermon on the Mount, Algebra to name a few.

What we've gotten ourselves into: remember the NXT Lego Robotics competition a few years ago and how exhausting it all was? Yep. 

What we're planning: an 8th birthday party cooking class. If I survive, I'll update on the other side. 

Happy February!!