Letter of the week- D

We didn't do a lot of craft projects this week. It was mostly an activity week. Here are the highlights.

Dog "D" (She went a little wild with the drawing)

Memory Verse


Bible story: Daniel and the Lion's Den (not pictured)

Domino stacking, counting, tipping, etc.

Dinosaur pretend play

Date with Daddy: donuts and feeding the ducks

Tracing page

D is for dinosaur

Beware! The pictures you are about to see may be intense for even the most mature audiences. Please proceed with caution. Here comes the most rare and ferocious dinosaur ever discovered. The pinkasaurous. Ever heard of it? I hadn't either until today. I had the pleasure of taking these rare photos. I'm sure a museum is going to be beating down my door after this post to confiscate them. Here they are.

There she is...beastly!

And a close-up. I was literally scared for my life getting this shot.

Look at those feet! Could have squished me with one stomp.

She finally took a rest so I could get a picture of her vicious tail.

Pinkasaurous and a wild dog in a scary confrontation! Yikes!

Hehe! We had so much fun with this. To go along with our "D" theme this week we made a quick dinosaur costume. It is extremely rough and took about 45 minutes to make start to finish with the help of Bailey. She colored the feet and stuffed the tail. The hat and tail were made out of felt and roughly sewn. If you're looking for a pretty sewing job, don't look here. It was just meant for fun pretend play so I wasn't going for precision. She had so much fun stomping around the house, chasing the dog, and growling for mommy dinosaur to chase after her too. She wanted Baby Eli to get in on the action but he felt more comfortable staying at a safe distance in his exersaucer. Can't say I blame him.

New pics

Look who's almost sitting up. A new perspective on the world.

Outside reading a book

Big blue eyes

Fake smile

Bed head, pjs, messy faces, naked babies...love it!

Homemade yogurt

Did you know you can make your own yogurt at home? I have been wanting to try this for quite some time now but it was just one of those things that kept getting pushed to the back burner. After discovering that I have a sensitivity to eggs, my morning breakfast routine was shot, so I resorted to eating yogurt and fruit every day for breakfast. The kind of yogurt I get can get expensive after a while. I buy all of my dairy organic and I also love Greek style yogurt because it's thick. Do you know how much organic Greek yogurt is? Over $7!!!! I only bought that one time before I decided it was time to make it on my own. Really I wasn't even getting what I really wanted anyway, which was a full fat yogurt. The only kind I can ever find in my grocery store is low fat or fat free. Low fat and fat free products are altered and usually have higher sugar and carb content to make up for the loss of fat.

To the internet I went for some yogurt recipes. Some used the stovetop and a thermometer but I don't have a thermometer and don't think I have the patience to stand at the stove that long. The recipe that I chose uses a crockpot and only takes about 10 minutes of hands on time. It really couldn't have been more simple. You need live active cultures to make yogurt. You can use a store bought yogurt the first time and then subsequent batches can be made with your own yogurt starter. Yay! Homemade full fat organic Greek style yogurt on the cheap without all that excess sugar! Go try it for yourself.


Ingredients
1/2 gallon of whole organic milk (or any milk that you prefer)
1 cup of plain yogurt of your choice (I used Oikos Organic Greek)

Directions
Pour milk into crockpot. Cover and heat on low for 2.5 hours. Do not let boil. Then turn off crockpot, unplug, and with the lid on, let sit for 3 hours. Next whisk in a cup of yogurt of your choice. Take out the insert and wrap with a bath towel. Place in a cold oven (not turned on) and let sit for 8-12 hours. I did mine for 8 because I was going to bed. Voila, the cultures have done their job and you have yogurt. If you prefer a thicker yogurt, use a coffee filter in a strainer and strain excess liquid away. If you want flavored yogurt or sweetened, mix in pureed fruit, stevia or honey. Pour finished product into desired container and store in refrigerator. I used glass mason jars.

Adapted from:  http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/02/make-yogurt-in-your-crock-pot/

C is for Camping

For the big finale of our "C" themed week, I wanted us to go camping. I figured the heat plus a baby and a 3 year old was a recipe for disaster so we opted for indoor camping. Ken and Bailey set up a tent on our porch/playroom complete with air mattresses, blankets, sleeping bags and tons of Bailey's stuffed animals. We grilled steaks, corn on the cob and broccoli for dinner. We roasted marshmallows in our fireplace which was hilarious in 95 degree heat with the air on. Then we put Eli to bed and topped off the evening with Pebble and the Penguin in the tent before bed. Bailey had the best time and especially loved bouncing from mattress to mattress inside the tent. Here are some pictures of our indoor camping trip.

Helping Daddy set up the tent

All set up

Roasting marshmallows

Wrestling with Daddy

Posing with mommy

Cuddling with Eli the next morning

Letter of the week-C

Here are some of the things we did this week to go along with our "C" theme. C proved to be a FUN week!

Crabby "C"
Inspiration: http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2009/10/c-is-for-crab-craft.html


Car lunch: Cherry wheels, cheese road, and strawberry/broccoli/banana traffic light

Memory Verse

Read Very Hungry Caterpillar and Caterpillar Craft- dipped a soft ball in paint
Inspiration: http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com/2011/04/balloon-print-very-hungry-caterpillar.html

Made homemade cupcakes


C tracing page
Source: http://momto2boys24.blogspot.com/2010/09/printables-alphabet-tracing-papers.html

Cross Bible lesson(no pictures)

Camping (pics to come in next post)

Tilapia with mango salsa

If you like flavor, this is your meal. Fish by itself is not one of my favorite things. I'll eat it but I much prefer it doctored up with a fresh salsa, sauce, or salad. Tilapia is such a mild fish that it pretty much pairs with anything and just melts into the background. I had bought a mango on sale at the store this week and we had tons of tomatoes from our garden so mango salsa seemed to be a natural fit. If you've never had mango salsa before, try it. It's delicious. I've also put red onion and cilantro in it before but Ken doesn't like cilantro and onions have been bothering him lately so I didn't add either. This salsa would also be good over chicken and even porkchops. I once again was in a hurry and on my way up to church the night I made this so I needed a quick side. Garlic green beans for the win. They are frozen long skinny ones and made such a yummy quick compliment to the fish. I simply sauteed them in bacon grease, added 1-2 cloves of fresh pressed garlic and some salt and pepper. Delish!

What Bailey ate: She said fish smelled disgusting but loved the mango and tomatoes. She ate mango, tomatoes, green beans, strawberries and peanut butter.


Tilapia with mango salsa

Tilapia (I made two small fillets per person)
coconut oil
salt and pepper

salsa
1 mango diced
1 tomato diced
1/4 large red pepper diced
1 clove garlic pressed
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp basil
2 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar

Combine all salsa ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Chill in refrigerator until ready to eat. Heat 2 T coconut oil in skillet. Season fish with a slight amount of salt and pepper or only pepper. Cook fish fillets for just a few minutes on each side until fish begins to flake. When plating, top with a generous serving of fresh mango salsa.