Nieces and Nephew Musings 02/27/15 & 02/28/15

This weekend was a dramatic weekend for the nieces and nephews. 

On Friday night, Ethan and Carissa performed in their school's Creative Expression Night. 

Ethan recited Lewis Carrol's Jaberwocky. 

Carissa recited Sick by Shel Silverstein

On Saturday, Emily played a townperson in the Community Theatre production of Pinnochio. 

All did a great job, and it was fun to attend their performances and see how God is gifting each one of them in the area of creative expression. 

Cookie Baking Night 02/23/15

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Alli, and Rylar. Tonight we made Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars. We used this recipe and used half jelly and half peanut instead of all jelly. They turned out to be pretty tasty.

Special appearances this evening from Spider Man and Bob the Builder. (You just never know who's going to show up at Cookie Baking Night). 

Tonight we read Chapter 4 from Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland. This chapter was titled "God Talked to People Long Ago" and it detailed the account of the prophet Samuel when he first heard God speaking to him as a very young boy. Ethan read 1Samuel 3:1-10 from the Bible on his Kindle (which he thought was a really cool thing to do). 

We ended the evening with a few board games. First we taught SEQUENCE for Kids to the young ones (which they really liked) and followed that up with a lively game of Zingo. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 02/09/15

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Emily, Ethan, Carissa, Alli, and Rylar. Tonight we went with a Valentine theme and everything was hand dipped. We made chocolate covered marshmallow pops and chocolate covered strawberries.

Ethan and Carissa were the first to arrive so they were my sou chefs. While I finished the supper prep, they prepared the marshmallow pops by dipping the stick in a little melted chocolate and then inserting the stick into the marshmallow. 

We had milk chocolate, red chocolate (candy melts) and pink chocolate as well as a variety of decorative sprinkles. 

From my perch at the sink (with my back to the kids momentarily), I heard these words coming from Rylar. "I think I'm done." 

Yep. That's a fair assessment. 

Ethan made a few of his marshmallow pops into a replica of a molecule. (He loves science). When he was dipping each marshmallow in the melted chocolate, I saw he had dipped one in brown and one  in pink. I said, "Do you need the red now?" With a look of confusion on his face he said, "Uhh, no. I'm making H2O. I need brown next." (Of course, where was my head?)

Now for the dipping of the strawberries. As you can see, it takes a fair amount of concentration. 

We took a brief intermission between our many projects tonight and read from Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland. Emily read lesson number 3 for us. This lesson was titled "We see God's Works", which led into a lively discussion about how we can know there is a God who created us by the world we see around us. We also read Psalm 19:1, which tells us the same thing. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." 

To complete our projects, we wrapped each marshmallow pop in a small cellophane bag and secured it with a twist tie. We then inserted the completed pops into a block of florist foam we had wrapped in aluminum foil (thank you Ethan and Carissa). The foil wrapped block allowed for easy display and carrying. 

The finished products. 

It was a busy Cookie Baking Night tonight. We used every minute of time in activity. As usual, a fun time was had by all.