Savoring Spring with Dump Cake

This spring, we went and picked cherries for the first time.
Have you ever been cherry picking? It was a great family activity. We picked about 15 pounds in just over half an hour. Next time, we need twice that.

As it turns out, my kids really like cherries. They ate more than they pitted. After they filled their bellies with cherries, we made some yummy desserts then froze the rest.
 
We have made lots of things with the cherries, but this just may be my favorite because it is so simple. I am sure you probably know what a “Dump Cake” is. You open a few cans of fruit, dump them in a pan, cover with cake mix and bake. You can still do that with this recipe, but I kind of upped it a little by making my own cherry pie filling with cherries my family picked. It seems like the more times my kids hands touch something, the more likely they will eat it. (But maybe I don’t want them eating this because that means there is less for me. Hmmm. I’ll have to rethink this one;)
I froze the cherries in 3 cup servings and this works well with the recipe I tweaked for this.
I mix in a saucepan:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons arrowroot starch (you can use cornstarch)
Add:
3 c frozen cherries
1 teaspoon vanilla (homemade is best…It is time to start mine for Christmas this year but that is another post)

Simmer for 25 minutes. Then cool completely.

In a pan, mix together a large can of crushed pineapple and the cherries.

Take about 3/4 of a box cake mix and mix it with 4 Tablespoons of butter until all the mix is crumbly. This part is important to me because I don’t want to eat dry cake mix if it doesn’t have enough butter to saturate it. Blech. Spread the mixture over the fruit and bake for 40-50 min on 350.

It is ugly, it is heavenly, it is easy. Go forth and make some dump cake!
 
Of course, if you don’t have frozen, handpicked cherries, you can use a can of cherry pie filling and still enjoy this super easy and yummy treat.
~Anjeanette

Smart-Fab!

(As seen on Roots and Wings Co blog)

Something fun about blogging is getting to learn about things that I may otherwise not have known about. The kind people from Smart-Fab contacted us and asked if we would like to try their product. Uhm…you had to ask? Of course!



I looked at the Smart-Fab website to see just what it was they were going to let me play with. It looked like a perfect product for schools, PTA and churches. You could make the most amazing 3 dimensional bulletin boards with this stuff. It isn’t fabric and it isn’t paper. It is a combination of the two. Once I got my hands on it, I have to say that although it is PERFECT for schools, PTA and churches, it is also an awesome crafting and creating medium.

If you know me, you know I dream in fabric. Yes I do. So when I saw that you could sew with it, I was ready to create. I received lovely fall colors just in time to decorate my house for fall. And now that I live in Maryland, I actually do get to enjoy and experience Fall!



For starters, Smart-Fab cuts like buttah! It isn’t as hard on my scissors like paper is (although I didn’t use my good sewing scissors). It is stretchy and doesn’t seem to want to rip or tear. It has a texture almost like a fabric paper towel. Sounds strange, I know, but it is a lovely cross between paper and fabric. It stitched up nicely and was so much like working with fabric. Ooh I love it!



We have only painted one room in the house (and it isn’t even quite finished yet.) My half bath is really drab and needed some seasonal color. It is small and strange to take pictures in there so stick with me here. I stitched up some fall leaves freehand and I love it! My bathroom is happier now too.
  


I would never have found Smart-Fab had they not sent me some samples. But I am happy to be able to suggest to you the use of Smart-Fab. You can purchase it online through their website. It comes in long rolls like you would see in schools. There are a lot of different colors to choose from. The colors aren’t supposed to fade. It is supposed to be water resistant so you can use it in a lot more ways than just paper. You are supposed to be able to paint on it and that is my next challenge.

The two bummers I see about it are:
#1 it isn’t available in craft stores or local teacher supply stores. But I find I order a fair amount of my supplies online now days.

#2 I am not sure how well it would work with glue. I am guessing white glue wouldn’t really work. (I did not try to use glue with it at all.) I don’t actually own a glue gun anymore and I’m not a fan of glue anyway. I think it would work with some real crafting glue like E-6000. But that is just a guess. Since I’m not a fan of glue anyway, this isn’t a downer for me.

Thanks so much Smart-Fab for turning me onto a great product. I’ve only just begun to figure out what it can do.

~Anjeanette

Slow Cooker Applesauce with Little Hands

It is Fall here in Maryland. The leaves are just starting to loose some of the beautiful green. The air is crisp in the evenings and the mornings are often foggy. I didn’t get to enjoy real seasons in Arizona. It always seemed like we had two seasons: Hot and Hotter than HOT!  I am totally enjoying each season and each change of the season now that we are in Maryland.

I thought it would be fun to smell applesauce cooking  the other day while I was doing some other baking for a Sunday dinner. I had my 9 year old make the applesauce. He loves to help and this was something he could almost completely do by himself.

We started with a bag of about 10 large apples. I just used what we had. My little helper cut and cored them. I did a quick rough chop and we put the pieces in the slow cooker.

He sprinkled some cinnamon on top of the apples and added about 1/2 inch of water to coat the bottom of the cooker. We set it on high for 4 hours.

Oh, it smelled so good! My guy kept peeking in on the apples to see if they were breaking down yet.

He said he didn’t want lumpy applesauce so we scooped them into the food processor and pureed them a little.

We put them back in the slow cooker to keep warm.

Oh my! Have you had warm, homemade applesauce? It is heavenly. Two ingredients: apples and cinnamon. No sugar needed. My kids like to eat them with animal crackers.

The best thing about this, is my son felt like he really contributed something special to our dinner.

What do you like to make with your kids?    

~Anjeanette

Pinterest is calling

No silly, we aren’t just discovering Pinterest. But I thought I’d share our boards with you so you can see what we are loving right now.

My most favorite recent pin is all about making your own Pumpkin Spice Syrup for Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Cook like a Champion blog. I personally should not even have it, but it does smell divine! (I was in Starbucks the other day and managed to escape there without a single thing for me! Now don’t start thinking I have great will power…I can’t have a lot of the stuff in there;)

Find me...Anjeanette on Pinterest pinning everything from stuff I can’t eat, to things to help me with my quilting obsessions. My profile says it all “I love pinterest because I hoard ideas already;)” So glad they aren’t only being kept in my head. It is getting out of control up there. Now I can keep ideas and inspiration on someone else’s computer! Brilliant.

Rebecca is still the one mostly pinning under Roots and Wings Co's Pinterest. She is stacking up a ton of resources for teaching kiddos.

For Erika and Rebecca’s birthdays this year, I went through their pins to get their birthday gifts. So much fun! “I was doing research, Honey.” I said after spending oodles of time looking through their pins.

We are getting rained out here in Maryland. We are hoping for a break for two soccer games tomorrow.   Hope your weekend is great. What are your plans?

~Anjeanette

Send a hug to a far away family member!

Last year, we moved from Arizona to Maryland. That is just about as far as you can go in the same country, don’t you think? My kids miss their cousins and I miss my family a lot. We would love to be able to reach right through the phone or Skype and give them a hug. But as you all know, that just isn’t possible. Instead, we thought we would mail some hugs!
I had this nice roll of paper in the kid’s art stuff. I rolled out some paper and had them lay down on it. With their arms outstretched, I traced around them with a pencil. With little ones you may need to hold their arms and fingers still so they don’t end up with monster limbs.


I went back over it with a Sharpie to kind of *tidy* things up.


Then the kids got to make their hugs.


They got to add any details they wanted and color however they wanted.


All colored in.


Then I carefully cut the hugs out.


We folded the arms in like a hug.



I wrote out a little note on the arms.


And we packed it in an envelope with some drawings.

I guess my nephew loved his hug from his cousins. He came out of his room with the hug around him and told everyone he was getting a hug from my kids. Sweet! Years ago (when my son was much smaller and fit on the paper better) I traced up his whole body. He colored it in and we mailed it to my Grandma. She had it on her wall for a long time and thought of my son every time she walked by his outline. I love that. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to let someone faraway know you love them and miss them. Send them a hug!

Wouldn’t you love to get a hug in the mail? I know I would;)

~Anjeanette

Annnnd we’re back!

Did you miss us?

Anjeanette here. Right now Rebecca is knee deep in student teaching, the rest of her teaching classes AND still being Mom to her three amazing kiddos. She is loving student teaching and I think falling in love with her students. Did I mention she is teaching Kindergarten kiddos? Perfect match for her, don’t you think? As you can imagine, being knee deep in the thick of it all, she needs a minute to get her breath.

I was talking to Erika (our youngest sister) the other day and we were both talking about missing the blog. So, we are back!

I moved from Arizona to Maryland a year ago. Both my kiddos started school this year. The kids wrote what they wanted to be when they grew up, like I shared with you a two years ago. This year, the 4th grader wants to be a singer.


The Kindergartener wants to be a scientist. Don’t let that cheezy smile fool you. He even has his evil scientist Mwa ha ha laugh.


And here I am. I was so busy getting the kiddos where they needed to go and all the right pictures, I barely was able to run a brush through my hair. But after the kids were in school, I was a little homesick for our usual traditional Boo Hoo Breakfast I used to host.
Both my boys were in school for the first time. So I wrote out the one constant thing I wanted to be when I grew up. I’ve wanted to be lots of things. I still do. But I’ve always wanted to be a Mom.


Here is a picture of our spunky littlest sister Erika. Erika is like a bubble of life and I do so love talking to her. Erika and her little family moved to Utah are are remodeling our Grandmother’s house. Makes me feel nostalgic for our childhood when we Skype with her. (Thank heavens that ugly fuzzy picture from the 70’s is no longer gracing those walls. Still gives me nightmares thinking about it.)


Her son is a little genius. They all came to visit us earlier in the year and let’s just say he knew the alphabet and all the sounds the letters make better than my little one after two years of preschool. I’m not sure what Erika is feeding the little fellow, but I totally want to eat a bit of it myself.

Anyway, hang tight and come back to see what we are up to.

~~Anjeanette & Erika

Oh would you please leave us a comment and tell us if you missed us at all? I totally missed the lovely comments from our dear readers.

Summer Camp Counselor

Well today I am very honored to tell you that I am being featured as a Summer Camp Counselor, over at Design Dazzle!

 

I’d love for you to go over and check me out over there.  I have been light on my posting here because I am busy enjoying the summer with my kids!  Last weekend we went camping and I brought along our Rubber Band Guns.  That is what my post is about over on Design Dazzle. 

 

Then, be sure to keep going back to Design Dazzle because Toni has fun posts, with some other fabulous bloggers, for her Summer Camp for the rest of the month!  There will be ideas and projects for summertime fun with kids!

 

I hope you guys are all thoroughly enjoying your summer as well!

 

Rebecca

 

PS  Happy Fourth of July!  I hope you all had great celebrations.  I was lucky to be surrounded by family watching those beautiful fireworks from the comfort of my parents home!  Lovely day!

Summer Fun With Books

Every summer I hold summer school/summer camp for my children.  I want it to be so much fun, and be educational!  Here is a list I am gathering of fun for us to do, with books!

The above button is for Alison, from Oopsey Daisy’s Summer Camp which is a summer camp all about books!  Go check it out! 

Next up are my two favorite sites for crafty fun:

Dltk has a great section covering crafts to go along with books!

Starfall is absolutely a great go-to site for reading fun!  My kids have used this site for years and this year both of my younger two kids’ teachers recommended using this site for extra reading help at home! 

Ok, one more of my favorite go-to sites is the Scholastic website! It has so many fun activities for enjoying reading as well as fun activities that incorporate reading with other subjects!

Sara of Super Saving Sense gets crafty with the kids: bringing one of their favorite books to life with a display.

How about activity books?  Pragmatic Mom got a bunch of Klutz Activity books.

Oh my word, if I could only go to this arts festival!  Maybe you have one near you this summer!? Playing by the Book has many great ideas for book fun on her website.  She is the correspondent for this festival and has already started posting about it!  Go here for information from the festival!

What about a Festival of Illustration?  Check out your local events to see if you have something similar going on around you this summer!

I am a sucker for a great reading list.  Check out Babble’s list!  It is full of action packed books to keep readers interested!!

 

Here is a book blog tour that looks like so much fun, from KidzBookBuzz!

 

Please share any summer book fun that you have going on!!

 

Rebecca

Mommy School-Top 10 Ways to Make Sure Summer Is Fun And Educational!

I love teaching my children!  I guess this is why I am finishing up a degree to be a teacher!   During the summer I try to make things as educational and fun, for my kids, as I can.  So, I come up with as many fun ways of learning during the summer as I can.  I also make a list up of what things I really want to teach my children, in addition to just keeping up with their normal studies. 

Here is my list of Mommy Summer School:

1.  Teach my children the “other” subjects that I feel are important.  I try to do one of these things each day.  My list is Sewing, Manners, Photography/Videography, Crafting, Fixing (Home repair, bike repair, etc), Baking/Cooking, Outdoor Information (gardening, places, plants, “green” topics), Astronomy, and Sports.

2.  Go to the library.  I pick books for them and they pick books.  We usually check out about 45 books a week.  Make sure to participate in summer reading programs at your local library!

3.  Read Mommy choice books for 30 minutes a day.  We are avid readers and so they will read a lot more during the day but the other times are all free choice reading.  I make up a new “book nook” corner every summer to entice them into more reading.  This year it is beanbags in the corner by 2 bookcases.   I would love to put up a tent but my house is too tiny.

4.  Writing for 30 minutes a day.  They can choose what writing they do.  We are writing a family book where we pass the book from person to person and each person adds as much to the story as they would like.  We have no plan for the book and anyone can add anything they want, as long as it makes sense in the story.  We will end the book at the end of the summer.  2 of my kids are writing their own stories as well.  Write up a family newspaper.  Each of my kids has decorated their own book to use as a journal.  I also made and printed up journal starters.  This is a question or journal prompt at the top.  Then, there is space for their answer and a drawing to illustrate.  We also are writing letters to friends and family members and mailing them snail mail style.  Who doesn’t love getting something in the mail?

5.  Family newspaper.  I am paying my kids $1 per newspaper that they write.  The newspapers are something my kids started on their own.  They include cartoons, ads, coupons, articles about our family life, etc.  I love them!

6.  Science Fun.  I have put science experiment books on hold all summer long to give my kids plenty of new ideas to choose from.  Some of the experiments that we do will take all summer long!

7.  Fun educational games.  I pull out a few things each day.  They tend to automatically gravitate towards whatever I put out.  One example would be flour in a cookie sheet, with a list of spelling words next to it.  My kids then write their spelling words into the flour with their fingers.  They LOVE this.  I try to pull out games that will help my kids work on the skills they need help with and those that they enjoy the most!

8.  Fun worksheets and workbooks.  I have bought workbooks (and printed free fun worksheets) for each of my kids for the year the came out of and the year ahead.  I let them choose what they want to do in these.

9.  Educational Computer Games.  I have a list of online games for my kids to have fun with (like Starfall).  I just put the game up on the computer and they jump right on it!  I have to drag them off of these.  I do limit computer playing to about 30 minutes twice a week.  This also includes fun educational apps I have on my IPad, and they have on their DS’s or electronic reading programs.

10.  Keeping up with the news.  I get the newspaper every day and I go online to get my news every day.  During the summer I have the kids do these things with me.  It is a great way to pick and choose what we read, as opposed the the nightly news on TV where they might show things I don’t want my kids to see.  Plus, I think the TV news tends to be negative.  I don’t view the world as a negative thing and so I always search out the positive stories, as well, for my children!  Keeping up with the news obviously is great to open their minds to what is going on in the world.  It also helps my children be thankful for what they have (we live in Phx, no flooding, no wars, no tornadoes, etc) and to have empathy for those that are having hard things happen to them.  And I let my kids try to do the soduku puzzles, crossword puzzles, read the comics, etc.  Every few days I have my kids go and highlight specific things throughout the paper or do newspaper hunts (where I read through it first then come up with questions for them to find the answers to by reading through the paper).

 

I’d love to hear what other people do to keep their children’s brains moving during the summer!  So what are your plans?  What do you do to educate or teach your children?

 

Rebecca