I was trying to think of something fun and unique for Father's Day this year. This is one thing I came up with. Along the same lines, we used 8 of these photos to make a set of stationary that says "From the desk of David" in the center. We also made a card from each kid with their four photos on it and a 16 x 20 wall sized poster. Yes, we went a little crazy, but I know they'll love it just as much as him. If you remember my post earlier when we made masks of the kids, they have been asking me to make more of everyone we know. It was funny to see how quickly they each chose a shirt of his that was their favorite to wear in the shot. Addison was quick to shout out his description, he didn't even have to walk in the closet. I hope this inspires someone else to do something fun for a dad in their life and I hope that my husband does not read this before Father's Day (but I guess it'd be okay since his gift won't be here before we leave for our trip, so he will be opening it without us this year :(
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Space activities
Here's a view of our shelving unit we use to display the books/projects that have to do with the topic we are studying. I liked the shelves in the case, which is why I got it because they are slanted, and easy to display the books.
On the top shelf we have two space puzzles, a game, Sputnik (I found this about four years ago at a toy store going out of business and the kids LOVE it!), a folder of real life photos of the moon (all taken by my dad-see here for his actual site of astropictures), a folder of work Nathaniel has completed about space, and there was a space shuttle casting kit, but he decided to make it Saturday- photos of that will show up this week when the paint dries.
Here is a game I found online at Itty Bitty Love, it really is a great idea- you take a calendar, put the big pictures up from each month, cut out and laminate the thumbnail sized ones from the back, and then have the kids match them. I numbered the big pictures and hung them up all over our downstairs at night while the kids were in bed. The laminated cards were placed in a basket and put in our shelf in the "classroom". I numbered the pictures so they have some type of order to follow to find them, and so that Nathaniel can find them and write their names down for me to check. The goal is that he does this many times enough that he remembers the names of the stars and galaxies. The kids had the basket out and were hunting around for the pictures before breakfast was even on the table, it's great for all ages. This is also a great activity because you can reuse old calendars or get them really cheap onsale after Christmas.
Here are the cards and pencil in the basket, and you can see the paper under his arm with his list of names- he fills them in as he goes along:
And a match:
Another thing we've been doing is working on a guided reading project that goes along with If You Decide To Go To The Moon (If you go to the site, you click on enrichment units, and then scroll down until you get to Enrichment Units and you will see the pages to print for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, this book, and Chicken Sunday. I found this website while searching for first grade curriculum information. We completed the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs one, and I thought it was quite helpful for comprehension and thinking skills, so we did this one too. I printed out all the pages and stapled them together. First, we read the book, then each day, we did one page, it really helped my son analyze the books and think about things more deeply. I am going to use this type of model for one story for each unit that we study next year.
We have also been going to NASA's website to play online space games. We have printed a black hole game, I will post pics in our next space acitivities post later this week.
On the top shelf we have two space puzzles, a game, Sputnik (I found this about four years ago at a toy store going out of business and the kids LOVE it!), a folder of real life photos of the moon (all taken by my dad-see here for his actual site of astropictures), a folder of work Nathaniel has completed about space, and there was a space shuttle casting kit, but he decided to make it Saturday- photos of that will show up this week when the paint dries.
Here is a game I found online at Itty Bitty Love, it really is a great idea- you take a calendar, put the big pictures up from each month, cut out and laminate the thumbnail sized ones from the back, and then have the kids match them. I numbered the big pictures and hung them up all over our downstairs at night while the kids were in bed. The laminated cards were placed in a basket and put in our shelf in the "classroom". I numbered the pictures so they have some type of order to follow to find them, and so that Nathaniel can find them and write their names down for me to check. The goal is that he does this many times enough that he remembers the names of the stars and galaxies. The kids had the basket out and were hunting around for the pictures before breakfast was even on the table, it's great for all ages. This is also a great activity because you can reuse old calendars or get them really cheap onsale after Christmas.
Here are the cards and pencil in the basket, and you can see the paper under his arm with his list of names- he fills them in as he goes along:
And a match:
Another thing we've been doing is working on a guided reading project that goes along with If You Decide To Go To The Moon (If you go to the site, you click on enrichment units, and then scroll down until you get to Enrichment Units and you will see the pages to print for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, this book, and Chicken Sunday. I found this website while searching for first grade curriculum information. We completed the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs one, and I thought it was quite helpful for comprehension and thinking skills, so we did this one too. I printed out all the pages and stapled them together. First, we read the book, then each day, we did one page, it really helped my son analyze the books and think about things more deeply. I am going to use this type of model for one story for each unit that we study next year.
We have also been going to NASA's website to play online space games. We have printed a black hole game, I will post pics in our next space acitivities post later this week.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Ice cream cone cupcakes
Sorry, I know I've had a lot of cupcake posts lately, but I got a cupcake book for my birthday, and the recipes are just too tempting. I also recently volunteered to make all the cupcakes for Addison's class' last day of school (I really wanted the excuse to make the cupcakes but not feel guilty eating them). I thought these would be perfect for a group of 40+ preschool/kindergarteners, but I wanted to test out the ease of the recipe and see if my kids would actually follow through and finish the cake and cone.
Since this was a test, I just used a yellow cake mix (I am trying to stay away from anything in a box now).
Preheat oven to 350'. I covered over my loaf pans with aluminum foil and used a bamboo skewer to poke holes in the top, then gently placed cones in so the bottom barely touched the bottom of the pan. I was able to get 10 cones in each pan. I baked for exactly 18 minutes and they came out perfectly. Here are the cones before baking and in the front, you can see the hole I poked for the last cone:
For the icing, I started with 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), and added about 1 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla. I mixed this really well with my paddle attachment. Then, I removed about 1/3 of the mixture - I wanted to make strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla icing. I put another 1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar in the mixer and about 3 TBSP milk, and let it mix again. Meanwhile, I pureed 5 strawberries and added them to the bowl of icing I removed. I mixed and added about 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar. It was too runny, which is why you don't see it in the photos, tasted great, but could not swirl it on- probably should have just used 2.5 strawberries.
Back to the icing in the mixer, I removed half the vanilla icing, added 1/4 cup cocoa powder (Hershey's) to it, mixed, and added enough milk for the desired consistency.
Using my Pampered chef decorator, I started with the vanilla icing, then added about 2 TBSP chocolate and scraped it to the side of the inside of the decorator, and then added 2 TBSP vanilla to the other side and when I pushed it out, it swirled beautifully. I finished the remaining chocolate on the rest of the cones.
Finished:
Enjoying:
Results: All cones, cake, and icing EATEN! Now, to figure out how to transport them to the school....
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Bowling
It was raining again yesterday, in fact so badly that Addison's school got cancelled. The kids were very energetic, and we had been house bound for several days, so I decided to take them bowling (normally that's what Dave does with them on the weekends to give me some free time).
When we moved here, we weren't sure whether or not we'd be able to find a bowling alley, until one day, we saw this:
Yes, you may have even seen this in the Katamari video game. It does exist and they're everywhere standing proud over all the bowling alleys of Japan, our kids love screaming out loud when they see them from afar.
Our bowling alley is called Grandbowl and check it out, it even has a Grandslot outside:
When you walk in, you have to fill out a form (it is of course all in Japanese), with your names and what age category you are in- for pricing. I always write their names in katakana (Japanese) and English. You hand in the form, and they type your names in for you so they show up on the screen above your assigned lane. Here's how well they read my writing- guess who's was the best:
It's neat, you even get a reading of how fast you rolled your ball, sometimes in Km/hour, sometimes in mph.
Here is where the adults get the shoes, this might be THE highlight of the bowling alley, I love that this place actually has a name. Today, we didn't get to use it because only the kids bowled.
Here the kids are in action.
Look at this, why don't they have these in the US, to help the little ones bowl a good game?
Check it out, they have the weirdest videos playing the whole time your bowling, some very seedy, and of course loud rock music to go along with it. I only got the shot of this weirdo that appeared on the screen (MJ wanna be??):
And check this out, this is pretty funny, this booth was right between the Shoester and the bowling gear for sale- a nail salon! Seriously, the ladies can get their nails done with some bling if they have one break while bowling.
Look at these happy little fellas in the drink machine, they'll put a smile on any bowler's face:
After bowling my kids disappeared, and look where I found the two littlest ones, I guess they start them early here, watch out Foxwoods!:
When we moved here, we weren't sure whether or not we'd be able to find a bowling alley, until one day, we saw this:
Yes, you may have even seen this in the Katamari video game. It does exist and they're everywhere standing proud over all the bowling alleys of Japan, our kids love screaming out loud when they see them from afar.
Our bowling alley is called Grandbowl and check it out, it even has a Grandslot outside:
When you walk in, you have to fill out a form (it is of course all in Japanese), with your names and what age category you are in- for pricing. I always write their names in katakana (Japanese) and English. You hand in the form, and they type your names in for you so they show up on the screen above your assigned lane. Here's how well they read my writing- guess who's was the best:
It's neat, you even get a reading of how fast you rolled your ball, sometimes in Km/hour, sometimes in mph.
Here is where the adults get the shoes, this might be THE highlight of the bowling alley, I love that this place actually has a name. Today, we didn't get to use it because only the kids bowled.
Here the kids are in action.
Look at this, why don't they have these in the US, to help the little ones bowl a good game?
Check it out, they have the weirdest videos playing the whole time your bowling, some very seedy, and of course loud rock music to go along with it. I only got the shot of this weirdo that appeared on the screen (MJ wanna be??):
And check this out, this is pretty funny, this booth was right between the Shoester and the bowling gear for sale- a nail salon! Seriously, the ladies can get their nails done with some bling if they have one break while bowling.
Look at these happy little fellas in the drink machine, they'll put a smile on any bowler's face:
After bowling my kids disappeared, and look where I found the two littlest ones, I guess they start them early here, watch out Foxwoods!:
Monday, May 24, 2010
May owl apparel (# 7)
Since last month's outfit was done last, I figured this month I'd finish early. This dress has to be one of the easiest dressed I have ever made. It was made from the Isabel pattern by ModKid.
This is something I'll be making over and over again, it didn't require a lot of fabric and it can be worn in the winter over pants and a long sleeve, very versatile.
Here's the front:
And the side:
In case you were wondering why the owl apparel?
1) I love owls, they are so cute!
2) I found this blog myowlbarn, and I kept seeing cute stuff that was pricey and I knew I could make it cheaper. If you like owls, you should check out the blog, it is unbelievable how much owl stuff the lady finds- in fact she's even giving some of it away this month.
3) It's a motivation to make something new each month, without having to stress too much for an idea.
Now, I'm trying to figure out what next year's theme will be- maybe cupcakes ;)
This is something I'll be making over and over again, it didn't require a lot of fabric and it can be worn in the winter over pants and a long sleeve, very versatile.
Here's the front:
And the side:
In case you were wondering why the owl apparel?
1) I love owls, they are so cute!
2) I found this blog myowlbarn, and I kept seeing cute stuff that was pricey and I knew I could make it cheaper. If you like owls, you should check out the blog, it is unbelievable how much owl stuff the lady finds- in fact she's even giving some of it away this month.
3) It's a motivation to make something new each month, without having to stress too much for an idea.
Now, I'm trying to figure out what next year's theme will be- maybe cupcakes ;)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Homemade doughnuts
Since we couldn't get a dozen at the real Krispy Kreme, we tried our hand at making our own at home. I did not search online for the Krispy Kreme recipe, just a doughnut recipe. I found one on allrecipes that looked good and had been reviewed by a lot of people. It turns out, upon searching for Krispy Kreme's recipe today, it is the same one. I changed the glaze recipe though.
For the doughnuts:
1 pack yeast (1 TBSP)
1/8 cup warm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/6 cup shortening
2 1/2 cup flour
For the glaze (my recipes):
vanilla:
2 TBSP butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBSP milk (however much you want to reach the desired consistency)
chocolate:
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP cocoa powder (I like Hershey's)
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBSP milk
strawberry:
2 TBSP strawberry quik
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-3 TBSP milk
Put the yeast in bowl of mixer with warm water and sugar, let sit 5 minutes to activiate. Add in milk, salt, shortening, egg, and 1 1/2 cups flour. Mix together, then slowly add remaining flour until mixture forms a nice soft ball and is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if needed. Knead for about 5 minutes. Grease a bowl and put the dough in it and set in a warm place to rise until doubled (about 1-1.5 hours). Punch the dough down, roll out onto a floured suface to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use a cutter to cut out the doughnuts.
Heat oil in a pan to 170' over medium heat. Place the cut out doughnuts in the pan to cook, approximately 45-90 seconds, you will see the bottom browning and they will start to float. Flip them and cook the same time. Remove from pan, place on a paper towel to soak off oil. Add glaze as desired.
Here's the glaze we made:
The kids enjoyed choosing the colors and flavors to decorate their doughnuts. Even Dave was impressed at how good looking they were. We used our ABC cookie cutters, and they had fun spelling out words and choosing which letter they wanted to eat.
Note: the recipe I used was double what I made, but I think doughnuts don't taste that great leftover, so I didn't want to have too many leftover. We made about 20 with this batch.
You can put the cooking oil in a jar once cooled to use again, or dispose of in an old can (DO NOT POUR THE OIL DOWN THE DRAIN!!!!!!!!!!)
For the doughnuts:
1 pack yeast (1 TBSP)
1/8 cup warm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/6 cup shortening
2 1/2 cup flour
For the glaze (my recipes):
vanilla:
2 TBSP butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBSP milk (however much you want to reach the desired consistency)
chocolate:
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP cocoa powder (I like Hershey's)
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBSP milk
strawberry:
2 TBSP strawberry quik
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-3 TBSP milk
Put the yeast in bowl of mixer with warm water and sugar, let sit 5 minutes to activiate. Add in milk, salt, shortening, egg, and 1 1/2 cups flour. Mix together, then slowly add remaining flour until mixture forms a nice soft ball and is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if needed. Knead for about 5 minutes. Grease a bowl and put the dough in it and set in a warm place to rise until doubled (about 1-1.5 hours). Punch the dough down, roll out onto a floured suface to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use a cutter to cut out the doughnuts.
Heat oil in a pan to 170' over medium heat. Place the cut out doughnuts in the pan to cook, approximately 45-90 seconds, you will see the bottom browning and they will start to float. Flip them and cook the same time. Remove from pan, place on a paper towel to soak off oil. Add glaze as desired.
Here's the glaze we made:
The kids enjoyed choosing the colors and flavors to decorate their doughnuts. Even Dave was impressed at how good looking they were. We used our ABC cookie cutters, and they had fun spelling out words and choosing which letter they wanted to eat.
Note: the recipe I used was double what I made, but I think doughnuts don't taste that great leftover, so I didn't want to have too many leftover. We made about 20 with this batch.
You can put the cooking oil in a jar once cooled to use again, or dispose of in an old can (DO NOT POUR THE OIL DOWN THE DRAIN!!!!!!!!!!)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Food for thought
I can't do the post I wanted to do today because my laptop is acting up and that's where all my pictures are (of course)- so I thought I'd write about something that I was reminded of this week that I thought was kind of funny (you might think it's gross).
Last week I received a notification on facebook that a friend of mine, that also lives here as an expat in Kobe, updated her blog and the title was Expiration Dates. I immediately started to chuckle and got excited that someone else, like myself gave expiration dates on food and medicine a whole new meaning while living abroad. However, upon reading it, it was about people with expiration dates (friends that we meet here from other countries, who like ourselves will eventually move home and we may never see them again). At any rate, it made me realize how much my regard for expiration dates on packaged items had really changed.
The two times my mother has visited, she has noticed and commented on the items I was using that were past their expiration dates. Now, before I provide you with further information, be aware that nothing is rotten or moldy, I would not jeopardize my kids' health. When we moved here, I loaded that moving truck full of food and non-perishables that I knew we consumed regularly, that I thought would be heavy to ship, hard to find in Japan, or expensive to order online. Do you know, that three and a half years later, I still have some of that stuff!!!!! As I am preparing to go on my home leave this summer, I am taking inventory and deciding what to get rid of to clear out space and what we need to buy more of. The thing is, I just can't bring myself to throw anything out. I am devising new ways to incorporate the stuff into our diet so we don't waste it, or just plain leaving it on the shelf because in a way it has become like gold to us because it is so hard to get to Japan or expensive to buy.
In the US, if my milk was expired, it was tossed, whether or not it was rotten-it was the expiration date, and it had to go. Here, we drink milk about a week after the expiration date (we have smelled it and it never smelled bad)- but at almost $8 a gallon, we are not going to waste a drop. If fruit starts to go bad, I look for recipes to use it in, I have never made so many banana muffins in my life and I have at least three bags of frozen blueberries in my freezer (yes, my son snuck the $12 a quart blueberries in my cart at COSTCO). Most recently, we got back from our week long vacation and I wanted to make a smoothie, so I used our already open yogurt that expired over a month ago to make a smoothie, even Dave gawked at that.
In my pantry, I think all my cereal is expired, but hey, my kids have no idea what the difference between stale and crunchy cereal is, they are just happy to have cereal, another thing that is very difficult to find in a grocery store here. I think the worst thing I have going is my croutons, which expired in 2007- yes, I will throw them away.
Since moving here, we have a new appreciation for the things we enjoy eating. We especially covet our candy and cookies, we actually seem to bring back a lot, but then eat less because we want to ration them. I brought back girl scout cookies after Christmas, we ate one sleeve, but now it's five months later, and haven't touched the other one because we know once we eat it, it will be unknown when we will get to eat some again.
Recently I realized how bad this ignorance of expiration dates for expats could be when we went to a garage sale for a neighbor that is leaving and they were selling jelly that had expired in 2005- yes that smuckers would be heavenly, but in that case, I'll pay the $10 I'd have to pay to order it online. Sometimes the higher cost for newer non-perishables can outweigh the medical bill for getting your stomach pumped (no we haven't had that happen- it just made realize that just because we live in Japan, it doesn't mean we can't throw stuff out).
What did the site of that dusty jelly jar and completely separated jar of fluff teach me???- I am going to get rid of all that salad dressing that expired in early 2008, throw away the mayo that we're still using that expired in November 2009 (hey, it's Hellmann's), and get rid of those croutons.
Watch out grocery stores in America, here we come!
Last week I received a notification on facebook that a friend of mine, that also lives here as an expat in Kobe, updated her blog and the title was Expiration Dates. I immediately started to chuckle and got excited that someone else, like myself gave expiration dates on food and medicine a whole new meaning while living abroad. However, upon reading it, it was about people with expiration dates (friends that we meet here from other countries, who like ourselves will eventually move home and we may never see them again). At any rate, it made me realize how much my regard for expiration dates on packaged items had really changed.
The two times my mother has visited, she has noticed and commented on the items I was using that were past their expiration dates. Now, before I provide you with further information, be aware that nothing is rotten or moldy, I would not jeopardize my kids' health. When we moved here, I loaded that moving truck full of food and non-perishables that I knew we consumed regularly, that I thought would be heavy to ship, hard to find in Japan, or expensive to order online. Do you know, that three and a half years later, I still have some of that stuff!!!!! As I am preparing to go on my home leave this summer, I am taking inventory and deciding what to get rid of to clear out space and what we need to buy more of. The thing is, I just can't bring myself to throw anything out. I am devising new ways to incorporate the stuff into our diet so we don't waste it, or just plain leaving it on the shelf because in a way it has become like gold to us because it is so hard to get to Japan or expensive to buy.
In the US, if my milk was expired, it was tossed, whether or not it was rotten-it was the expiration date, and it had to go. Here, we drink milk about a week after the expiration date (we have smelled it and it never smelled bad)- but at almost $8 a gallon, we are not going to waste a drop. If fruit starts to go bad, I look for recipes to use it in, I have never made so many banana muffins in my life and I have at least three bags of frozen blueberries in my freezer (yes, my son snuck the $12 a quart blueberries in my cart at COSTCO). Most recently, we got back from our week long vacation and I wanted to make a smoothie, so I used our already open yogurt that expired over a month ago to make a smoothie, even Dave gawked at that.
In my pantry, I think all my cereal is expired, but hey, my kids have no idea what the difference between stale and crunchy cereal is, they are just happy to have cereal, another thing that is very difficult to find in a grocery store here. I think the worst thing I have going is my croutons, which expired in 2007- yes, I will throw them away.
Since moving here, we have a new appreciation for the things we enjoy eating. We especially covet our candy and cookies, we actually seem to bring back a lot, but then eat less because we want to ration them. I brought back girl scout cookies after Christmas, we ate one sleeve, but now it's five months later, and haven't touched the other one because we know once we eat it, it will be unknown when we will get to eat some again.
Recently I realized how bad this ignorance of expiration dates for expats could be when we went to a garage sale for a neighbor that is leaving and they were selling jelly that had expired in 2005- yes that smuckers would be heavenly, but in that case, I'll pay the $10 I'd have to pay to order it online. Sometimes the higher cost for newer non-perishables can outweigh the medical bill for getting your stomach pumped (no we haven't had that happen- it just made realize that just because we live in Japan, it doesn't mean we can't throw stuff out).
What did the site of that dusty jelly jar and completely separated jar of fluff teach me???- I am going to get rid of all that salad dressing that expired in early 2008, throw away the mayo that we're still using that expired in November 2009 (hey, it's Hellmann's), and get rid of those croutons.
Watch out grocery stores in America, here we come!
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