Author: Cheree Larson

Bitty Boat Races

Boats

This year it was unseasonably warm on Presidents Day.  It was 60 degrees in February!  We had to take advantage of the beautiful weather.  The cousins spent the night and we had a full day of adventure ahead of us!  …But what to do?

Boat Builders

The kids toyed with the idea of a cooking activity like the TV show, “Chopped”. In the show, chefs are given a box of surprise ingredients. They have 30 minutes to make a meal using the items in their mystery box. Our kids decided they could do something similar with a boat-making contest.

boat out of junk

Boat Builders 2

I gathered containers from the recycling can, balloons, straws, popsicle sticks, plastic cups and paper plates. I separated the items into boxes. We gathered a pile of tape, glue, scissors, and extra supplies in the kitchen for general use. The kids divided into partnerships of two and each group selected a mystery box. During the first round, the timer was set for 20 minutes. When the timer rang, the kids all stepped away from their boats. They had so much fun that they decided to have a second round.

Boat Builders

In the end, we had six boats made by three teams. We took them to the park and let them float down the creek.

Floating Boats

The kids had a great time rescuing their boats and “helping” them along with sticks, as the water was not moving quickly. They even put a tissue in each boat so they could measure how much water got inside the boats.

The adults and smaller kids had a great time cheering from the bridge.

Bridge

Afterward, we had a picnic lunch and played on the playground.  It was a terrific day.

Playground

 

Our Favorite Valentines

Valentines Mustaches

We have been making the same valentines for our elementary school children for many years. That may sound uncreative, but the kids just love these! I offer lots of other ideas every year, but they usually come back to this one. Their friends love them and I see them used all year long.

Mustache Template

  1. First, I make three different mustache templates. I trace the templates on brown and black card stock, then cut out 3-4 sheets at a time. (This year we made 100 mustaches!)

  1. Next, we type up a little greeting. It has to be in 8-point font to fit on the back of the mustaches. Ours says “I hope this makes you smile! Happy Valentine’s Day. Love, Barney”. We cut these out and paste them on the back of the mustaches with a gluestick.

  1. The next step is to laminate the mustaches. I have a little home laminator that makes this easy. We then cut the mustaches out again, but don’t worry about being too precise.

Mustache Kids

  1. The last step is to hot glue a pen to each mustache. You might also have to pull off that stringy hair-stuff that is created by hot glue guns.  Wa-La! You’ll have the best valentines ever!

Valentines in Class

 

Family Bake Sale for Charity

Cinnamon Rolls

Everyone wants to raise kind children who will contribute to their communities in positive ways. Finding ways our kids can give to our community can be a bit tricky.  Here’s one of our success stories.

Our elementary school participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay Recess for many years.  Students were encouraged to raise money to donate to the ACS for cancer research.  Our kids came home from school wanting to help with this cause. Their cousin and aunt were both fighting cancer and they felt passionate about the need to help.  We decided we would hold a family bake sale to earn money for the cause. We were able to contribute over $400 every year, for four years by holding a family bake sale.  This was a great experience for our little bakers!

Bake Sale Flyer

In order to provide this opportunity for my children to give, I had to make a big commitment myself. I donated four Thursdays in February to the project.  I baked all day on Thursdays while the kids were at school. When they came home, the kids sorted, frosted, packaged, and delivered the baked goods.  We made loaves of bread two of the weeks in February, cinnamon rolls one week, and dinner rolls one week.  Many people placed orders for multiple weeks.

Helpful Hint: One issue we had to resolve was packaging.  Our local grocery store helped us solve this problem.  They allowed us to purchase donut boxes from the bakery for 10 cents per box.  Sometimes they just gave them to us. Later, we found that we could buy them in bulk from Amazon. We used bread bags (found next to the Ziplock bags) for bread and dinner rolls. We wrapped the cinnamon swirl loaves in parchment paper before bagging them.

Bake Sale

This was a great project for our family and helped us honor some wonderful people who have to live with this terrible disease.  We love you, Kim and Alec!

If you’d like to try making our famous bread on your own.  Here’s our recipe:

Mom’s Basic White Bread

This wonderful recipe makes 6 large loaves. I have found that it is best to mix in two large bowls– so I put half the ingredients in each bowl and knead 3 loaves at a time.

2 TB dry yeast

2 cups warm water

2 TB sugar

¾ cup sugar

3 TB salt

½ cup canola oil

6 cups water

17 cups flour (approximately)

Let the yeast dissolve in the two cups of warm water and two tablespoons of sugar. In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, salt, oil, water, and dissolved yeast. Start adding the flour. Use a spoon to mix in the first 14 cups. Then add more flour as you knead the dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, but still a bit sticky. Cover with a towel and let rise until double in bulk. If you have time, punch it down and let it rise again. (If not– it will still be great!) Shape the loaves and let rise in the pan. Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.