Cookie Baking Night 03/11/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. We made a classic cookie tonight, the M&M cookie.

The secret to the M&M cookie is that most of M&Ms don't go inside the dough, you put them on the outside so that you can still see them once the cookies bake. The kids like deciding how many candies go on a cookie and just where they should go. 

The finished product

In our journey through the books of the Bible, tonight we stopped at the book of Judges. 

This is what we learned about Judges:

--this book is not giving a prescription of what to do and how to do it, it is giving a description of what happened at that time

--this was a time when there was no king or ruler in the land

--the dominant phrase throughout this book "everyone did what was right in his own eyes". 

We talked about what it looks like to do only what is right to us and ignore the ways of God. We talked about what that looks like today in our own culture and how we can do what is right in God's eyes.

We ended the evening with a game of Pit (the favorite part for the kids is to yell out how many cards they need all at the same time). 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 02/11/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. We made the classic "Peanut Blossom" cookies with a twist for Valentine's Day. Instead of adding a chocolate star to the middle of the peanut butter cookie, we added a chocolate heart.

First, we unwrapped the chocolate hearts. 

Next, we made the peanut butter cookie dough. 

The finished product. Yum!

We're continuing our fast walk through the books of the Bible, and we're up to Joshua now. Joshua is an exciting book, so we had a lot to talk about. We stopped for awhile in chapter 6 to read about the battle of Jericho. But the verse we focused on the most was in chapter 24 (verse 15), when Joshua said the Isrealites had to choose who they were going to serve in this new land. Would it be the gods of the land or the One True God, the God of Israel?. That's when he said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." We talked about how even today in the land that we live in we have to decide if we're going to serve the "gods of the land" or the one True God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Tonight's Cookie Baking Night was filled with much activity and a lot of fun. See you next month!

Cookie Baking Night 01/14/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. Tonight was Ethan's birthday choice. He turns 16 year old in just a couple days. For supper, he chose everything pizza and peaches. For his cookie, he chose chocolate chip cookies.

Well, the sink wasn't aware that it was Cookie Baking Night tonight. Clogged sinks know no special days, so it was Uncle Greg to the rescue. 

He was fascinating to watch, as you can see. 

Tonight we continued our journey through the Bible by introducing the book of Deuteronomy. It's the last of the five books that Moses wrote, and it's written right before the Israelites enter the promised land. Moses spends most of the book recounting the interactions between the Israelites and God. We talked about how serious sin is to God. When the Israelites sinned against God by making a golden calf to worship, Moses pleaded before God on their behalf by laying on his face for forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking anything. He prayed to God that whole time (Deuteronomy 9). Moses was pleading that God would spare their lives, and He did, but they did not get to enter the promised land because of it. 

We look forward to learning more about the book of Deuteronomy at the next Cookie Baking Night. 

We ended the evening with a lively game of Telestrations (Ethan's choice). It's a cross between "Pictionary" and "Telephone". Throw in family members under the age of 10 drawing pictures for you and trying to guess what others have drawn, and you have the makings of a pretty funny scenario. 

We're grateful to God for Ethan, his 16 years on this earth, and the 13 years he's spent at Cookie Baking Nights so far. He's growing into a sweet young man. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

P.S. In 2019, we've adopted a revised schedule for Cookie Baking Nights. We'll have Cookie Baking Nights once a month during the school year and two times a month during summer break. 

Cookie Baking Night 12/17/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. It was Rylar's birthday choice (he turned 7 years old earlier this month). For supper he chose tacos and for his cookie he chose Molasses Cookies.

Rylar said his favorite part is rolling the dough balls in sugar before you bake them. 

We're grateful to God for Rylar and his 7 years on this earth (and his 4 years at Cookie Baking Nights). 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Niece and Nephew Christmast Party 12/01/2018

Today was our 15th annual Niece and Nephew Christmas Party. We decided the ages were just right to return to Bunker Hills Stables for a hayride. We opened it up to the whole family this year, so in addition to the kids, Diana (Greg's sister), Dan (Greg's brother), and Larry and Monica (Greg's uncle and aunt) were able to join us. It was a balmy 34 degrees today. 

One of the favorite parts of the ride for the kids is the stop we make halfway through the trip to climb up and roll or slide down the "big hill". 

Awww

We also enjoyed a little jumping off the back of the wagon

and our favorite hayride game "cover Uncle Greg in hay"

This year we did something a little different than usual and had the whole party at the stables. 

We used the party room for lunch. Rylar nicely arranged all of the drinks for us. 

We played the dice game again this year with a little twist this time. Each kid had a bundle of small toys and candies wrapped in plastic wrap. Whenever they rolled doubles, they got to unwrap a layer of plastic until they reached a prize (each kid had an adult helping them out with rolling doubles). I think it was a hit. 

We ended the day by roasting marshmallows by the campfire. 

It was a fun time. A lot of memories were made. We're grateful to God for the wonderful day. 

Cookie Baking Night 11/19/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. 

With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, tonight we made turkey cookies. It's a lot of candy, a lot of frosting, and a lot of fun!

Uncle Greg enjoys a good decorated cookie so he stuck around to join in the fun. 

The finished products

Trust me, he was having a good time. Really.

Tonight we finished learning about the book of Numbers. We read Numbers 22:1-35. We read about Balaam and his donkey and recognized that we were all made to listen to, obey, and enjoy God and when we don't do it, God will use the rest of his creation (land, animals, stars, moon, sunsets, sunrises) to do it for Him, and they happily do so. 

The kids (young and old alike) were captivated by this true biblical account. There was complete silence when I got to verses 28-34. They were captivated by what they heard (as I am, every time). 

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.”

I'm amazed every time I read this account at how long it took Balaam to figure out he was having a conversation with a donkey. It's testimony to me to just how real the situation was.

So, far we've learned about the first four books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers), and through it we're starting to piece together the character and nature of our Great God.

Another Cookie Baking Night has come and gone, another turkey cookie successfully completed AND, as usual, a fun time was had by all.