Vacation

Today: Part of Indiana, across Illinois, a bit of Iowa, across the Mississippi twice, some of Wisconsin. Black dirt. Beautiful farms as far as the eye can see. Rolling hills. Dairy cows and cheese shops. M&M Blizzards at DQ. Lots of small towns. An indoor swimming pool!

Best signs seen today: At a butcher shop: "Gross' Burgers". Want to eat there?

In the middle of Illinois farm country: "Mexican Scuba Diving Lessons". Somebody tell me what that's all about.

Best things we saw, but didn't get a picture of: A giant ear of corn made out of yellow gallon milk jugs. And a giant Viking on a street corner in a Wisconsin town.

Vacation

Last minute packing. Up early to leave while it's still dark. Nashville during rush hour. Ale 8's near Bowling Green. Bill Monroe's birthplace and a nice couple who showed it to us. Amish in Indiana. Coconut cream pie. Beautiful farms with white farm houses and clothes on the line. Discing everywhere. Trees blooming. Cheaper by the Dozen on CD. Our first day of traveling.

Aquarium

We recently went to the aquarium, took Joshua along, and had a great time. Here's a picture of Abby wading in the "stream" on the beautiful grounds there. Isn't warmer weather wonderful?

Abby's Lapbook

We've had a busy, busy week, getting ready to go on vacation and trying to finish up our school days. We've finished up some things, but will continue math through the summer. I also started reading an old Alabama history book to Thomas and Abby and we're hopefully going to finish it while we're off regular school.

Abby was so excited about her lapbook! For the cover, she painted a background and we glued on pictures of lupines, which she had colored. In the second photo, there's a book about camels, with illustrations from Enchanted Learning, a booklet about deserts, the cover of the book about wind, and the flowerpot with pink flower cutouts inside for her vocab words. She also painted a picture and then colored it over with pastel crayons, which you see in the second photo.

The third photo is the inside of the wind book. And the fourth photo is her schedule. We added 2 extensions and there is a coloring picture of seashells, which you cannot see in the photos.

I had planned to make a fairy garden with her, but we're going off on a trip, so we may do that when we get back so we can be here to water the plants.

Abby has so enjoyed Five in a Row! This is our last book in the first 3 volumes and I'm sad to leave it after using it with 4 children. But we're excited about the possibilities for next year, too, with either Beyond Five in a Row or Five in a Row Volume 4, which has longer units.

Hot Cross Buns

Well, better late than never, right? Right? I should have posted the pictures of the hot cross buns before Easter, but, alas, I've been very busy cleaning out closets and the dreaded shed.

I wanted to serve them for Palm Sunday. I used this recipe, which we've made every weekend for a couple of months because we love these rolls. I used half the dough for regular rolls and half for the hot cross buns.

Now, I've never had "real" hot cross buns, so I'm not really sure what the correct way to do it would be. But you know me: Miss Who-needs-a-recipe. I added a couple or three tablespoons of brown sugar, some cinnamon, and some raisins at the beginning when I divided the dough into two bowls to rise. We made them on Saturday to serve on Sunday, and that morning Carrie made the frosting with butter, confectioner's sugar, a bit of vanilla, and a little water, since we don't use milk.



They were so good, we made them again for Easter morning. Mmmm, perhaps we'll make them every Sunday during the whole Easter season!

Menu

Friday: BBQ pork, baked beans, Emily's great potato salad, dessert. Company comin'!

Saturday: Picnic! Turkey sandwiches with cheese and lettuce and pickles, boiled eggs, leftover potato salad (if there is any left after the piranhas dear children get hold of it on Friday!), Chex mix, celery and carrot sticks.

Sunday: Jalapeno Chicken Casserole, Brownie Pudding.

Monday: Baked chicken, Vegetable Lo Mein from the Five in a Row cookbook.

Tuesday: Beef Stew in the crockpot because I'm getting my hair done that morning! Yay!

Wednesday: Chicken Soup with WW noodles.

Thursday: Beans and Rice.


When I first met David, his mom made this dessert sometimes. Since I like anything chocolate, I've made it ever since. It's from The Better Homes and Garden's New Cookbook (the red-checked one) and it just begs for a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream to go with it.

Brownie Pudding

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups hot water

Sift together first 5 ingredients; add milk, oil, and vanilla; mix till smooth. Stir in nuts. Pour into greased 8x8x2 baking pan. Combine remaining ingredients; pour carefully over batter. Bake at 350 about 40 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 6-8 servings.

Lapbooks and Notebooks. Oh, My!

School is starting to wind down here. We've learned so much this year!

For Thomas' science, I pulled out all the science lessons in Beyond Five in a Row's Neil Armstrong. I have sadly neglected the solar system, and I thought he would enjoy learning about it. We made a lapbook, and he enjoyed doing that.

(Can I just say that he read several articles on the NASA website to use for the project, which made me very happy, since he was late in learning to read. I have to say that his reading has really taken off this year and he has also read several chapter books on his own! But I digress.)

We finished the book and lessons yesterday, finished the lapbook, and I surprised him with some astronaut's food: a freeze-dried ice cream sandwich. He was thrilled, to say the least!

Carrie worked so hard on Around the World in 180 Days and a unit study Rachel wrote for her based on Around the World in 80 Days. She finished the geography unit several weeks ago and finished the unit study yesterday. Along the way, she kept a notebook, which was very well done, I must say. She also made a notebook for How to be a Lady by Harvey Newcomb, which she used for Bible/character.




Abby and I are rowing our last FIAR book, Miss Rumphius. We're making a lapbook, too, and will take some photos when we're finished.