Seventh Week Of Summer

Our entire week was unplanned. I think this is the first time that's happened all summer. After our busy sixth week of summer, I wanted a laze-around-the-house (and get some chores done) kind of Monday. Boogs decided that staying home would be a perfect time to try out this:

After a few runs, he put a step stool near the bottom of the stairs and told me he was charging 1 penny to see his "death defying show". He guaranteed, "For just a penny, you could have the best seat in the house."

On Wednesday, a friend invited us to join them at a nearby skate park. Boogs took his scooter and had a blast.

Boogs is responsible for fixing dinner for the family one night a week. He has to look through cookbooks to find a recipe, help put the ingredients needed on the grocery list, help grocery shop, and then cook the food (with help). This week he chose Deceptively Delicious's Aloha Chicken Kebobs, salad, berries, and Blueberry Lemon Muffins for dessert. Yum!

A library book inspired us to seek out some sculptures so we went exploring at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. You can read about our adventure here.

There was a HUGE thunderstorm Friday night. The rumble of the thunder made all of the windows in our house rattle. The storm lasted less than an hour, but it dumped a ton of rain in the area. On Saturday morning, we took a lovely family walk to a nearby park and then discovered exactly how much mud the rain had caused.

The mud was so thick that Boogs' boots kept getting stuck. Daddy "helped out" Boogs by spreading mud on his face. Yuck!

Boogs thought it was fun to see exactly how dirty he could get. He even poured mud into his rain boots.

We did not run into any of our neighbors on the walk home. Boogs had to go straight to the backyard to be hosed off before he was allowed in the house.

This post is linked to the Country Kids for Coombe Mill weekly outdoor linky party.

Our Little Chef

When Boogs was younger, he loved to spend time in the kitchen with me. It has become sort of a rare occurrence these days. I just have to find the kind of kitchen activity that I know will interest him. Here are a few from the past couple of weeks.

Making English Muffin Mini Pizzas

Sausage, Potato, Carrot & Onion Bake

 Boogs was VERY careful with the knife. He was pretty good at keeping his slices a uniform size.

 Grating carrots was a bit harder but he was a pro at cutting them.

 He told me he wanted to cut the onions to see if they would make him cry.

 Yum! We sprinkled on a few spices. This is what it looked like when we first popped it into the oven.

Sugar Cookies for St. Patrick's Day

 I had to decorate a few, too. I melted a marshmallow for the clouds.

Other than cookies and sweets, I would love some suggestions for simple recipes/meals your kids have enjoyed making.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar.

Kitchen Time

Boogs has been my kitchen helper this past week. When he was little, he LOVED working in the kitchen with me. Lately, he would rather not. I was happy to have him back in the kitchen with me to make an old favorite and a new recipe.

Baked Kale Chips - Rinse one bunch of kale, tear into pieces, dry in salad spinner, spread out on parchment lined cookie sheet, spritz with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Boogs' favorite thing about making Kale Chips is using the salad spinner.

 

 He put waaaaaaay too much salt on half of the kale before I could stop him.

 Boogs waited patiently for his chips to bake.

Yum! Nice and crunchy! Boogs ate at least half of the kale on the cookie sheet with his dinner.

Boogs was not as willing of a helper when he found out I wanted to make Beet Pancakes. He let me know that the beet puree smelled like dirty dirt. I put three large beets in 1/4 inch of  water in a lidded baking dish at 425 degrees for an hour and then skinned and pureed them. Then Boogs read the ingredients we needed to get out for our pancakes.

Boogs was being very careful with his measurements.

 Yay, no eggshells in the bowl!

 Greek yogurt for extra protein.

Boogs is in-between being not quite tall enough to help while standing on ground and being too tall to help while standing on a chair.

 

 Didn't the beet pancakes turn out gorgeous? I thought they were delicious.

Boogs only ate the ones that had chocolate chips in them. He said the chocolate helped hide the dirt taste of the pancakes.

Kitchen helper flashback:

Homemade pizza with zucchini and a ton of cheese.

Making pear creatures for a snack.

I miss that messy art cabinet in the background.

Marshmallow snowmen spoons for hot chocolate.

Boogs with his chef hat and doggy apron.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar. I linked up to Highhill's Hobbies and Handicrafts Linky.

My Little Chef

Boogs was playing with an old sticker book that had Ratatouille in it, a rat who cooks.

He turned to a page that had different types of food and decided that he wanted to make dinner using some of those ingredients.

He decided to make soup. Boogs told me exactly what he wanted to put in the soup. He helped cut up some of the ingredients and helped add everything to the pot. He used beef stock, two shakes of parmesan cheese, celery, onions, mushrooms, carrots, and a few spices.

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The verdict: "Not bad but I kind of like it and I kind of don't." He ate about 5 spoonfuls and then asked if he could have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead.

Cake in a Mug

Boogs wanted to cook "something sweet to eat". So I found the "Cake in a Mug" recipe I got off of Chasing Cheerios a few years ago. http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2008/08/cake-in-mug.html
Boogs had fun mixing the ingredients. We mixed everything in a bowl and then poured it into a mug. If you combine the ingredients in the mug, you sometimes have clumps of flour on the bottom that does not mix well. For the cake, mix together 4 T sugar, 4 T flour, 2 T cocoa powder, then add 1 egg, 3 T milk, 3 T oil, 3 T chocolate chips, and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix very well, pour into a mug, and put in microwave for 3 minutes.

I told Boogs we were going to see some magic when we put the mug in the microwave.

The cake will rise up a couple of inches while it cooks.

Enjoy!

Edible Playdough

So what do you do when it is 101 degrees outside? We stayed inside and made edible playdough today. Boogs helped me measure and mix together peanut butter, powdered sugar, honey, and powdered milk to make the playdough. It was a pretty sticky job. There was a lot of licking going on.

After we had the playdough formed into a ball, we pulled off bits and started making our creations. Boogs made a snowman, a mouse, a monster with chocolate chip eyes, and a squirrel with Cheerios eyes. When we finished playing, we had a little sweet snack with the leftover dough. YUM!  Then we put our creations in the fridge so Daddy can see them when he gets home.

After Boogs saw the pictures on my computer, he decided to name the monster "The Funky Woo-Waa".