Last day of Spring Break 2011

On Friday we took a little shopping trip to one of our favorite places (it has something for everyone). The boys tested out the ipad 2.

I'm posting this picture of me and the boys only to keep you up to date on my latest hair style.

Making Cheese

I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and while I didn't agree with every single thing in her book, I did agree with a lot of it - and it really got me thinking about what we eat and where it comes from. In the book, she talks about making her own cheese and directs the reader (me in this case) to the Cheese Queen (hmmm, now I need to figure out how to make that link to the Cheese Queen's web page. I'll try. But if it doesn't work, just google Cheese Queen). I bought the 30 minute mozzarella kit and talked Todd into making it with me. We gave it our first attempt the other day, but it didn't work. We learned that one of the most important steps is choosing the milk. Kroger's milk did not work. The milk to make cheese cannot be ultra-pasteurized or even heated to almost ultra-pasteurized (which I think was the case with Kroger's milk). So for our second attempt we bought Snowville Creamery milk. We felt pretty confident thanks to their box that states "our fresh milk is pasteurized below 170 for less than 20 seconds". Sounded like a winner. So we followed the directions for dissolving our rennet tablet and our citric acid in water (we used distilled water) and then added our citric acid to our gallon of milk and stirred, and then the rennet tablet mixture and stirred some more:

Then you wait 5 minutes or so to see if the curd forms. I'm not going to lie. I was nervous. This was the step where it failed last time (if it starts to look like cottage cheese instead of being able to cut it into cubes, it didn't work). But this time we were able to cut it in cubes that stayed together:
Then there is more stirring and waiting and heating it all up, and eventually you get to the point where you are pulling the super hot cheese like taffy. And you have to work fast because when the cheese starts to cool it is harder to pull. We don't have any pictures of this step because neither of us had a free hand. We made a ball of cheese and then attempted some string cheese. We didn't think it was too bad for our first try.
Now we'll have to see if the boys will eat it. :)

Wednesday Fun

We took a walk up to the park before the rain and the drop in temperatures came. Not sure why Doug brought along a stuffed owl.

In case you were wondering, his basketball uniform was in the wash.

And she was so happy to come too. Doesn't it look as if she is smiling?

Dino Painting

Our Tuesday spring break activity was to paint pottery. We discussed the importance of being careful and they both were very well behaved and worked very hard on their creations. We spent some time looking at our options of items to paint, and I suggested they paint a dinosaur. No thanks Mom. So Doug picked an egg and Greg picked a football plate. They got those painted, and then wanted to paint dinos. Todd wasn't feeling well and stayed home from work, so we were looking to stay out of the house anyway, so they also painted the dinos. (Todd is feeling better!)

Spring Break

It's Spring Break so we've been trying to break out of our usual routine and do some fun activities together. Monday we took a trip to the zoo. They liked "reading the map" and telling me how to get to the animals they wanted to see.

We then ran some errands, including a stop to get a new blender. Mine broke and I couldn't imagine life without green smoothies (just kidding, but I still wanted to replace it). :)

Really?

I have jumped on the bandwagon of green smoothies, and seem to be talking others into making the leap as well. And why not - who likes soggy yuck spinach when you can get the same benefits while drinking it without knowing it? I by no means consider myself a chef and am very adamant that if I can do it, you can not only do it, but do it better. So here is what I've been doing but feel free to experiment with other fruits or yogurt flavors. Okay - first you need spinach. Pre-washed bagged (organic if you want it) spinach. I fill up my blender with it like this:

Then I add 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup yogurt (I'm into BaNilla right now. Yep, banana and vanilla, and it is goo-od. But vanilla is good, really any flavor would work. I just haven't tried different flavors yet. Too in love with BaNilla). Where was I? Oh yeah - then I toss in an actual banana and blend it all up. I sometimes need to help out my blender with a few stirs to get it going. Once it's blended everything, I toss in a handful of ice and blend again until smooth. This makes enough for a Mom and Kid size smoothie:
Enjoy! And if you find a recipe you like better, please let me know. :)

March Madness

We are excited for March Madness! We filled out our brackets, and I even let the boys bring up the basketball hoop to the great room (usually toys are to stay in the basement). We also added another uniform to the boys' wardrobe. If you knew how many times per week Greg tries to wear his football jersey, you would agree we needed something else.

Go Bucks!

Happy 6th Birthday Doug!

Tuesday was Doug's 6th Birthday. He had school, so I got to bring in the birthday snack. At his request, I brought in donuts with green sprinkles. And he picked out the menu for his birthday dinner (chicken fingers, cheesy rice and rolls) and then got to open presents from us and Aunt Susan, Uncle Brent and Perry. It was a low-key way to ring in his birthday. But birthdays are for celebrating and so....

on Saturday we threw a big bash at a local Sports place for 19 little boys. (We were missing one very good little buddy, but are thanking God that he is feeling better now!) They played on the large inflatable slide, bounce house and obstacle course - then moved on to the dodgeball arena, which was slightly confusing and overwhelming for some (sorry Charlie!) but overall was fun. Then we headed to our party room for drinks, popcorn and cupcakes that sort of looked like baseballs (I made them) and so Doug could open his presents. Then we finished the party with a wiffle ball game. My boys had a blast, and we really hope all the other boys did too. Greg was determined to keep up with the "big boys' and I just have to share this story: During wiffle ball I came in to the arena to take some pictures (with my cool new camera, but that's not important). I saw a boy hit the ball near where Greg standing, and as G went to dive for it, so did about 5 other little outfielders, including Doug. I was a little worried G would be hurt at the bottom of the pile, so I ran over there and asked them to all pile off and give me the ball. The bottom 2 of the pile, still fighting over the ball were, yep, D&G. And G was the one with the ball, and not hurt in the slightest. I think he kept up just fine.

Then we came back home to celebrate with family. A big thanks to all the Grandparents and Aunt Barbara, Uncle Andy, Charlie and Mark for staying for the pizza party. And since our family doesn't really like cake, here are the cookies I made: