G Week

* The focus of our journey down the Alphabet Path is on helping BigBoy develop better fine motor skills. He has enjoyed the helpfulness of his older siblings a little too much for a little too long!

G is still for Greyhounds ...

and...

Ghost Cookies

If we have any left over they might also be Holy Soul cookies for H week!

(Most of you who have been reading these little snippets of my life probably know that we don't celebrate Halloween as a secular or cultural holiday but simply as the eve of All Saints for lots of different reasons but one of them includes my kids' complete aversion to anything spooky. Well, the girls were playing on the Webkinz website the other day and when the little ghost character came on the screen, BigBoy freaked out. He was really upset. So I came up with this idea to fit in with G week. We made ghost cookies together. I dipped the Nutter Butters in melted white chocolate and BigBoy put on the Mini M&M eyes.
Then we devoured them!
Yup. Teaching my kids to battle their fears one delicious treat at a time!)

Gumdrop Garden Cake

(We didn't have any gummy worms, so we made a gumdrop caterpillar with a jelly bean hat. We also ended up using pirouette cookies instead of madeleines.)

Green Beans

BigBoy declared that his hands were going to be really tired after G week!

Goober Pea Butter
(homemade peanut butter)
This was Husband's idea. I think he just likes saying "Goober Peas".

Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day
Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away
Lying in the shadows underneath the trees
Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

Recipe: 2 Tbl. oil & 1/2 tsp. salt per 1 C. peanuts; then process...
...and process...

...and process...

...and process some more.
Then...
...enjoy!

Happy All Hallows Eve to you all. Everybody stay safe and have fun!

F Week

Fall Leaves on the Window

Fingerprint F's and Fall Leaf Stamps

Lots of fingerprint art going on around here inspired by this story about the discovery of a new DaVinci painting. HT: Jennifer

Finger Painting

I made finger paint using this recipe. The colors aren't as vibrant as store bought, but I could pronounce all of the ingredients and it was super easy to clean up.

I painted this tree on an extra piece of drywall in the garage and then BigBoy went to town.

Edible Fall Leaves

And regarding finished bathrooms...I'd rather not talk about it.
Silly me! I forgot that we also made Fall Leaf Pumpkin Muffins using this pan (I paid less locally). They were kind of a disappointment. I think the muffin recipe I used was too spongy and the texture of the leaf didn't come through. I ended up carving in the veins using a toothpick after the glaze had set.

D & E Week

The bathroom is coming along at a fast pace as we hope to have it finished up by next week but that means that our school days have been cut down to a bare minimum. Since I was painting most of last week, we decided to postpone D week and combine it with E week this week. And what better way to kick it off than by making...

Deviled Eggs!

Cutting

Prying

Mashing and Squeezing

Beaming!
(While BigBoy didn't care to eat any, he was delighted that everyone else had his creations for lunch!)

Easy Pretzel Dots

Digging

wait... you don't have a mound of dirt in your bathroom? OK... how about...

Excavating Dinosaurs

This was fun for everyone. The big kids would bury the bones and BigBoy would dig them up. My biggest big boy enjoyed it, too!

Dying Eggs

I surprised him with mystery letters (Dd & Ee) written in white crayon. Didn't show up so good in the picture, hence the black marker.

and Eye Dropper Art
(lots of drips and drops)


We also read about dinosaurs and digging and learned about earthquakes and the Earth's crust. Here's hoping that next week F is for FINISHED!!!