Cookie Baking Night 10/27/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa and Alli. And they couldn't have been happier. These two girls love each other and very much enjoyed having Cookie Baking Night all to themselves. 

As is our Autumn tradition here at Cookie Baking Nights, tonight we made Aunt Katrina's Pumpkin Patch Brownies.

First, we made the brownies. 

Then we frosted the brownies. 

Next, we covered the brownies in candy pumpkins and used green frosting to create "vines" around them. 

Thus, arriving at "Pumpkin Patch Brownies". 

Since Halloween is right around the corner, the girls also helped me put together "Halloween Packs" to hand out to the trick or treaters. 

Each "pack" contained a candy bar and a gospel tract. Pictured above, Carissa is reading the gospel tract, not wanting to give something away that she hasn't read herself (a girl after my own heart). 

After the "packs" were assembled, they were decorated with autumn-themed stickers. 

Now we're all set. Bring on the trick or treaters. 

Oh yeah ... and ... as usual, a fun time was had by all!

Cookie Baking Musings 10/06/14

As I mentioned in last week's post about Cookie Baking Night, Emily had a mechanical baby doll from her Family And Consumer Sciences (FACS) class with her. She named him Braxton. (Braxton Kylie Julio Ricardo Montoya Delarosa Remierez Oseid Kidd to be exact). The baby had to be cared for every time it fussed or cried (which was often), and it was Emily's job to figure out what he needed. She wore a bracelet that registered her efforts and would be turned in the next day for a grade based on how attentive she was to the baby's needs. 

She missed about 15 minutes while we were making carameled apples because she was in the living room "feeding" (with a mechanical baby bottle) Braxton. When he had settled down and was once again content, she came charging into the kitchen with the baby carrier in hand. As she did so, she dropped her phone. 

She frantically looked around and said "What was that?" 

I said, "It's your phone." 

She said, "Oh good. I thought it was the baby." 

I said, "I remember when your phone was your baby." (like 8 hours ago)

She said, "Oh, those were simpler times. Simpler times."

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. 

Flower Fun 08/26/14

My favorite thing about summertime in Minnesota is cheap Farmer's Market flower bouquets ($7 thank you, very much). I love arranging them. 

It's a brilliant God who created the beautiful flower. 

Cookie Baking Night 08/18/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Emily, Ethan, Carissa, and Alli. Alli turns 4 years old in a few days and tonight was her birthday choice. For supper she chose corn dogs, french fries, and blueberries. For her birthday cookie she chose the ever-so-popular blueberry cookie (I tried really hard to talk her out of this decision but she was having none of it).

I told Emily about Alli's birthday choice and we threw around a few ideas, but nothing brilliant came to mind. When we were on our way back from our Iowa road trip last week, Emily and I stopped at our favorite chocolate shop, The Droolin' Moose, and we came across this little treat (pictured above). That's right, chocolate covered blueberries that look exactly like the real thing. Emily said, "Why don't we use these for the blueberry cookie and make them like we do when we make M&M cookies (w/ sugar cookie dough)?" I said, "That's a great idea!" And a container of these little beauties came home with us. 

The cookies turned out to be pretty tasty. My brother, Rob, tried them at the end of the night and he said he thinks Alli is onto something with this one. It might be his new favorite. He is a bit of a cookie aficionado, so that was high praise for sure. 

We managed to squeeze a lot into this evening. We played a couple games of Zingo. 

We read from Training Hearts and Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. 

Tonight we worked on Question 4: "What is God?"

Answer: "God is a Spirit, whose being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable."

That was a mouthful. The kids looked at me like I was crazy if I thought they were going to quickly memorize that and repeat it back to me. So, we broke the ideas down a bit and focused on God being a Spirit who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. Then we talked about some of God's attributes, truth, justice, holiness, goodness, power, wisdom, and what those words mean. 

I'm finding this book to be just a bit over the heads of our varied age group and experience, but we'll stick with it for awhile yet because the questions generate great conversation and they cause us to think big thoughts about God. As long as we can break the concepts down into our language, this train is worth riding for a few more stops. 

At the end of the evening we decided to go for a walk. 

I found the contrast between  cousin Ethan's height and cousin Alli's height to be worth documenting (and they look so cute together). 

We walked to the local gas station for an ice cream treat. Mmmmmmmm.

Alli had a difficult time walking and eating ice cream at the same time, so she lagged behind the crowd quite a bit. Carissa immediately noticed this and stuck right with her, patiently walking slowly next to her until we arrived back at the house. Later, I was commenting about this to Greg and he noted that Carissa is a lot like her mother, Diana (Greg's sister), and that she would have done the same thing. It's true, Carissa has her mother's tender heart for others. I  thank God for that and pray He will use that greatly for His purposes in her life. 

Another Cookie Baking Night has come and gone, another birthday celebrated (Happy Birthday, Alli!), and as usual, a fun time was had by all.