Cookie Baking Night 09/29/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Emily, Ethan, and Alli.

We had a special guest at Cookie Baking Night tonight. His name is Braxton. He is the mechanical baby doll from her FACS (Family And Consumer Sciences) class at school. Tonight was Emily's night to care for him. She had to wear a bracelet that identified her as the "mother" so that she was the only one who could care for him when he cried (which was often) or needed fed or needed a diaper change, and the computer will register her efforts tomorrow morning when she brings the baby (doll) back to school. Too bad Carissa was at soccer practice tonight; she would have loved this.

Tonight we made carameled apples. 

First we skewered a few apples 

Then we made the caramel sauce. Alli measured out the brown sugar.

Ethan did a good job stirring it until it reached just the right temperature on the candy thermometer.

Then we dipped the caramel apples in varying candy accompaniments (mini choc chips, toffee bits, mini M&Ms). 

We also read from our current book Training Hearts Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. This week we worked on question #5

Question: Is there more than one God?

Answer: There is only one, the true and living God. 

This is a concept that we've worked on many times over the years at Cookie Baking Nights, so the children were more than ready to discuss it. 

Even Alli is starting to engage with the questions. But she got a little distracted when I read Psalm 115:1-8. Verse 1 starts with "Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name give glory." Alli stood up and said "Glory!", very loudly and very animatedly. Then she said something that sounded like "Glory had a yo-yo." After about 5 minutes (seriously) of Emily, Ethan, and me putting our best investigative skills into action, asking many questions, and Alli patiently answering us (usually with the word "no". No. She was not trying to say "glory had a yo-yo") we finally figured out (okay, Emily figured it out) that the word "glory" reminded her of a song she sings at Sunday School or Bible Study Fellowship. She was saying "Glory Hallelujah!" (You probably guessed that by now--Alli was ecstatic when we finally guessed it too).

It certainly was a lively time tonight and, as usual, a fun time was had by all!

A Day With A Niece (Apple Orchard)

Today, Emily and I took advantage of the beautiful weather just on the cusp of the first day of fall, and we went to an apple orchard. The apple orchard was a buzz with activity.

We walked around in the orchard. 

Walked through the corn maze

Got lost in the corn maze

Took a wagon ride through the orchard

Overall, it was a pretty fun day (don't let the look of apathy on the teenager's face fool ya). 

I thank God for his beautiful creation, fall days in Minnesota, and relationships with my nieces and nephews. May He use all these things for His glory. 

Cookie Baking Night 09/15/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan. I think this is the first time it has been just Ethan and me (and sporadic appearances from Uncle Greg).

We made raspberry oatmeal bars and chocolate caramel oatmeal bars (using this Strawberry Oatmeal Bar recipe and substituting the "strawberry" for flavors of our choice).

Ethan is quite the reader. The two of us spent about 25 minutes together on the couch reading our books side by side (definitely the first time that has happened in Cookie Baking history). 

For our Bible-focused time, we detoured from our regular book and read a couple chapters from "A Dangerous Journey, The Story of Pilgrim's Progress" Ethan seemed to enjoy it. When we finished reading, he said, "Whoa. There's a lot of symbolism in that book." (I was glad to see that didn't escape him, as the language of the book is "old English" in style--still kept his attention).

We ended the evening with a lively game of Phase 10. As usual, a fun time was had by all.