Cooking Baking Night 10/29/12

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Emily, Ethan, and Carissa. Tonight was filled with activity (our busiest Cookie Baking Night yet), and I captured a few of those activities in pictures.

A week ago, Dad-Larry gave me a baking pumpkin that one of his coworkers had given him. I thought baking it with the Cookie Baking Gang would be a fun activity. At the beginning of our time together, I asked the kids if they knew where pumpkin pie came from or how it was made. They had no idea. Emily guessed that it might come from the "guts" of the pumpkin. I thought I would at least get a few guesses that involved "it comes from a can", but nothing. I explained that it comes from a pumpkin. They marveled at this concept.  So, here's what we did with our lovely baking pumpkin.

                                  First, we cut it in half.

Then we scraped out the seeds and stringy membranes, the "guts" as the children called it (much like carving a pumpkin). This process took quite awhile. 

Then we cut up the pumpkin and placed it in two 9 x 13 pans with about a cup of water each. We covered it with aluminum foil and placed it in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Not pictured here, but we also cleaned the pumpkin seeds and baked them. To the seeds we added: 3 Tbls melted butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp allspice, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. We baked them in a 300 degree oven for about 25 minutes. They were quite tasty.

Ahhh, the fruit (literally) of our labors: a bowl full of pumpkin that we will use next time to make pumpkin bars and pumpkin pie. 

The kids also helped me prepare my Halloween treats for Wednesday evening. In my evangelism efforts this year, I decided to use our church business card that has a good gospel message on the back of it (I also have optical illusion tracts and "Why Christianity?" DVDs for the older trick-or-treaters). The kids taped the business cards to the back of the candy I had purchased (I like to go big). As we prepared the candy, we talked about the importance of sharing the gospel with other people (even trick-or-treaters), and we talked about why we do that (so others can know about Jesus). It was a good conversation around Halloween candy.

As usual, a fun time was had by all.

Katrina's Musings (A Night With a Niece and Nephew)

Tonight is an off Cookie Baking Night, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a few pictures of our time spent with a couple future Cookie Baking Night members. Last week, we had the opportunity to spend the evening with our niece, Allison (2) and our nephew Rylar (10 months) in our home. It was fun to spend time with them in this ever-changing season of their little lives.

Hmmm, I think we could have two future "readers" on our hands. 

I guess throwing the ball down the stairs, watching it bounce, retrieving it, and doing it all over again is the most fun game ever!

As you can see, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 10/15/12

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. 

In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, and Emily. 

We made our fall classic: Mrs. Goodrich's Pumpkin Patch Brownies. 

I think the kids would say that the best part is putting the vine around the pumpkins. (There always seems to be way more vine than pumpkin).

As a project tonight we made "piggy bank jars". In the upcoming months, the Cookie Baking gang will be offered an opportunity to work around my house to earn money for their trip to Florida next spring.

Cookie Baking Night 10/01/12

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan and Carissa.

The schedule has been a little tight lately with the new job, so tonight it was KFC for supper and Pumpkin Pie Bars from a box mix for the "cookie". (And no complaints on either from the crowd present).

We had two mixes, so Ethan and Carissa were each in charge of their own. Ethan read the recipes out loud, and they each followed the directions and did all the work themselves. They did a great job (and that ended up being quite a tasty little mix).

Fall is upon us, so we took some time to enjoy the beautiful weather and went for a walk in the neighborhood.

We also read lessons 77 (Why We Go To Church) and 78 (How We Worship God in Church) from Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland. Ethan read the passages from the Bible for us. We're just about finished with this book (5 lessons left), a pretty big accomplishment considering we read from it only once every two weeks. It has been a great book for our Cookie Baking Night time. Great discussion has taken place around these lessons, and a Biblical theology has emerged from the time spent.

As usual, a fun time was had by all.