In Awe

Mary Frances and Frank were invited to go to the UAB football game on Saturday evening. I think they were both surprised by how much fun they had.  They had no idea what they were getting into. 

 

Their evening in pictures: 

 

Tea Time on Tuesday

Good Morning ~
I know I have been a long lost stranger.  But for my report on playing hooky, I've been missing in action.  And let me tell you it is action packed around here.  Maybe one day I can fill you in on that action but not today. 
 

Mary Frances {and whoever else is interested at the moment} and I are reading The Secret Garden.  It has been so fun to have a book that is ours ~ that we both look forward to, that we can get lost in, that we can learn from.

If you have never read the book,  I'll begin by telling you it takes place on a moor in England.  As as the English  do, the characters in the story have afternoon tea.  Mary Frances asked what tea was.  Of course she knew that tea was a drink ~ either served hot or iced!  But in the context of the book it is clear that isn't exactly what they are alluding to.  She was not familiar with the concept of afternoon tea.  Sure, over the years we've had tea parties but they have been called just that "tea parties" not tea.  So yesterday at 4:00 we had our own version of tea.

They were hilarious and it was so much fun!

For the tea time snacks ~
Something healthy...

{via}


...and something a bit sweet.

Next Tuesday I've promised real crumpets using the recipe from our book.

Playing Hooky

We spent a long weekend playing hooky from our everyday lives.  The children had Monday off for a teacher workday.  We checked them out of school on Thursday and went to the beach for an extra long weekend.  This is something we haven't done in a long time and it was oh so much fun.

 

Grab a cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy our time laughing and playing and reading and relaxing.

 



A Blue Angel plane flying past...

Stephen is ready to "scuba dive" ~ not yet but he is almost ready to snorkel in the islands.

The house we rented had two kayaks...

...and lots of sand toys.

One afternoon we journeyed down 30A to Seaside to get a little ice cream treat.

Betsy loves to play "Ring around the Rosie" and her brothers can happily oblige ~ every once in a while.

Mary Frances is learning how to use a camera.  Thank goodness because I need some current pictures of Frank and me.

So fun to see my little ones loving to read.  Mary Frances read 10 books while we were away.  Seeing her get excited about sitting down to read might be worth taking her out of school for two days.

These are the best dam builders I know.  Too bad I don't have pictures of their efforts.  A little ways up the beach there was a canal of sorts where Stephen was entertained for hours building dams.  Who wouldn't be ~ it is amazing how you can redirect the flow of water.

 We only had a few of these moments - thank goodness!

 No Christmas card pictures in the bunch, but lots of fun memories.

 Our Pooka Bear!

 Just the little ones...



...and now the big two but not on the beach.

A big thank you to my sweet family for a fun time at the beach making memories and starting traditions.  Now how long do you think we can get away with taking them out of school for two days?

Howdy

It's been too long, and I'm not going to be here long right now. 

Just want to share a quick picture taken from Frank's phone as the rest of us walked to school...

Yesterday was "Cowpoke Day" in kindergarten.

The instructions were to come dresses as a cowboy. 

Boosterthon ~ Take III

Like it or lump it, it's likely here to stay {at least for a while longer}.  This is the 6th year my children's elementary school has chosen to use the Boosterethon Fun Run as its primary fundraising effort.  Fundraising is a must in most school settings, and the reality is the Boosterthon gives you a pretty high return for your efforts.  Plus there isn't any door to door selling. It was a glorious fall morning ~ the kind when I might call my dad and say it's a good day for a cross-country meet.  

Stephen had fun running his laps... 

Being a sweet friend...

Loving his brother...

Betsy and I stayed for the next group ~ 2nd grade...They're off.

Mary Frances giving a boosterthon worker five

Approaching the check in station ~ so funny the older kids spent more time waiting in line to be marked off than they did running their lap.

 

If you aren't familiar with the Boosterthon, you can go here or here to learn more.  This year the character theme is Highway USA.  The students were challenged to make good choices:

Choose Leadership

Choose Fitness

Choose Learning

Choose Character

Choose a Good Attitude

We can all benifit from reminding ourselves to make those good choices.



Wednesday...Zoop!

Once, a very long time ago, I taught school.  My very first, first day of school as a teacher was wonderfully rewarding yet extremely difficult.  Well that could be said of everyday of that entire school year.  You see, I was an early childhood special education teacher in a class with twelve children with twelve different sets of extreme special needs.  One bit daily.  One had seizures.  One was prone to pull the fire alarm.  One was born with Down's Syndrome and had leukemia.  I could go on and on, but I won't.   

What I remember most about that day is what we did for a reading activity.  We read the book Today is Monday by Eric Carle.  We started school on a Wednesday so we made zoop.  Now my friends to this day I have no idea what "zoop" is.  In fact I have pondered this recently as I was reading to my kidos.  On this particular Wednesday many moons ago, "zoop" was what I would now call gorp ~ a mixture of granola, raisins, peanuts and m&ms.

I still smile when I say the word zoop.  So what's the point.  Well mainly that it's Wednesday and Wednesday makes me think of zoop.  Come on how can you not smile when you say Wednesday...zoop!  Say it again and exagerate the syllables.  It'll make you smile.

But I digress ~

Leaping forward to this day...it has been a glorious fall day here in our neck of the woods.  Mary Frances started choir, and the rest of us got to play at the park ~ one we haven't been to in years.  Frank has a meeting and dinner for work.  Everyone was being really good and sweet and helpful and kind and well all of those other adjectives that you wish your children were all of the time.  I decided we should have some dessert.

So here's what I did...I knew there was some ice cream in the freezer.  And then I recalled that I had stashed some unused sugar cookie dough in there somewhere.  Oh yeah, there was also some leftover homemade magic shell chocolate sauce in the refrigerator.

Hmm...what did I do?  I ran through my head full of idea files.  Sometime during the summer I saw in a magazine where someone had formed cookie dough on the backside of a muffin pan to make a bowl for ice cream.  So that my friends is what we tried. 

I took out the dough to defrost.  We played for a few minutes.  We took baths.  We ate supper. 

Then, I rolled out my dough.  I cut circles.  I placed the circles of cookie dough on the backside of a mini muffin pan. 

I baked them at 350 degrees for about ten minutes.  While they were cooking I put Betsy to bed.  In my eyes she didn't need dessert.  She probably sees it differently. 

I took the cookie bowls off of the pan and placed them on individual plates.  I let them cool and therefore harden while I cleaned the kitchen and the magic shell chocolate sauce heated in a pot of boiling water.  Remember we have no microwave.  Oh wait, I might not have told you that before.  I'll save that for another day.

I gave each of us one scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce.  Perfect portions! 

The kids thought it was super cool that the chocolate sauce hardened on the cold ice cream.  Actually I think it's really cool too.

I loved the portion size and the cookie bowls were really neat.  Truth be told chocolate chip cookie dough would have been tastier.

I think I'll begin calling Wednesday dessert ZOOP.