Owl Follow the Prophet

As a follow up to General Conference, we had an "Owl Follow the Prophet Pizza Party".  It was a  great success.  That very day I happened to be at Target and saw these owls on clearance.  What luck!

The children made owl cupcakes.  I got the idea from here. 

This pattern is from Lakeshore.  I printed out the pattern, and the children cut their owls out and assembled them.  The wings open up for the children to write their goal. 

The Real Neiman Marcus Chocolate Cookie

I have been making this recipe for over 10 years.  My mother-in-law found it online.  Recently I did a search and found it here. 

Breakfast Bento

Just a simple bento for my boy.   It has been awhile since I put together a bento.  I need to get back into making bentos. 

Getting Ready for General Conference.

I found this booklet online at Fluffy Bunny Feet Designs and decided to make some for our ward.  I originally wanted to make a conference bag with a small snack and a juice box, but our ward discourages giving out food on Sunday.  I decided to instead add a mechanical pencil and a glue stick to the packet for the children. 

After I assembled 30 conference packets, I saw these eyeballs at Target and thought they would make great little reminders to watch conference.  So I printed up these tags to attach to the bag.  

I hope that the children will be more motivated to watch conference.  

I found this treasure chest at Walmart quite by accident.  The packets and eyeballs are going inside for the children to pick up on their way out.  

We also have a "Owl" follow the Prophet party next week.  More on that later.

Mickey Mouse Bento

Cute little Koa asked for a bento, not a sandwich bento. He wanted me to look at the Susan Yuen's bento book and make something from there. I decided to take just one part of her bento to use, her wrapped cylinder musubi. I used a Mickey Mouse punch on it. Here are the results. I hadn't made a musubi like these before, so I was happy to try a new idea. I even included little nori faces. The second layer contains mini corn muffins I baked in the morning, fresh cut pineapple, and Portuguese sausage.

Susan Yuen

I love Susan's bento books. I also like that she lives here in Hawaii, because she has the same style of cooking that my family loves. Also, I can run out and things that she mentions quite easily.

I was quite nervous to meet her, but was happy to actually meet her in person. I was a bit goo-goo ga-go over meeting her in person. She is quite gorgeous, don't you think?

Koa wanted me to buy her book and make some of her bentos.

Waikiki Aquarium

We went to the Waikiki Aquarium this weekend. I was inspired to make fish shaped tuna sandwiches with some "seaweed" (cucumbers) for the fish to eat. Also, some "rocks" (olives) for the fish to hide in.

Organize Your Clothes

Found these printables online at Living Locurto. I laminted them and got Jade's clothes all in one place.

Label Your Medicine

My children have allergies and asthma. So I need to keep medicine on hand in the healthroom at school. To avoid any possible mix ups, I have included a picture of them on the ziploc bag that contains their medicine. These pictures were printed on large sticky labels. A healthroom aid could easily adminster the incorrect medication. Which I hope never happens. I hope this eliminates any potential problems.

Child's Scripture Bag

I am attempting to sew more. I am terrible at sewing, but I am determined to improve my sewing capabilities. So even though this bag so far from perfect, this is my current level. But I will apply myself.

This bag is made from a placemat.



It contains two zippered pockets that are very crooked. These crooked pockets will hold Jade's pens and crayons.

When the placemat is folded, it creates two pockets. One of those will hold her scripture. The other pocket she can put some paper for her drawings.



On the outside of the bag, I added a pocket, and sewed some felt flowers.

Chemistry: The Periodic Table

I came across a blog where Lisa is teaching her 5 and 7 year old girls The Periodic Table. Seeing that her children were able to grasp the concept, I was excited to try it with my children. The very next day I picked up a copy of this book at Borders.




The book comes with a periodic table, so I made several copies of the chart to use in our matching activities. I then laminated the chart. I cut out the individual elements, and laminated those, then cut them out. The children match the elements and have a lot of fun doing that. They ask questions about the elements. I look it up in the book and tell them about that element.



Here are the matches that they have so far.



Lisa emailed me some questions that she used with her children. Lisa created a scavenger hunt. I decided to use the questions as a Montessori style lesson. This isn't a true Montessori type work, I just use some of their concepts. I made these flash cards self correcting. First I place the questions down.



The the child finds the matching element and places it below the question. If I see them place a card incorrectly, I do not correct them. They will correct themselves in the next step .



Then the child flips over the cards to see if the markings match. Each set of matches have their own matching stamps. If it matches, it is correct. If it doesn't match, then the child reviews their work and finds the correct match



I haven't shown them this part. I will later. This will help them understand the different groups that the periodic table is broken down into.



If you flip it over, the name of that group is on it. This exercise will hopefully teach them the names of the groups and the location of the groups.



I am so excited about this project. I also started a little basket of things that contain the elements. Such as foil (aluminum) , silicon moisture packets (silicon), zinc cream (zinc), pencil (carbon). As we learn more, we will add items to our basket.

"Celebrate" Events Calendar

Whenever we have a special day coming up, our family likes to celebrate the entire week leading up to that day.

I put together this calendar to build the anticipation. The special event on the calendar is the first day of school. Somedays we have just one activity, other days we have a few activites.

Robot Togor

Jade wanted a robot that could translate for her. So I made her this with things from around the house.




The robot produces the translated message in this little box.



This the the backside. You pull the cord and the robot "farts".

Mini Cakes

I saw this online at Chocolate on my Cranium, and just had to try it. My daughter has been asking to celebrate her birthday early. So here it is, a birthday cake and celebration for her.





They were so simple to make because it is made from Oreos and can frosting.



But it was a little hard to bite into. And the children abondon their cakes. But it was fun to make. Maybe next time I will try them with cakesters.

Family Home Evening Board and Scripture Reading Charts

Minced Chicken with Lettuce

My mother-in-law served this the other day when I was visiting and I just loved it. She gave me the recipe, but I don't know where she got it from. I made it tonight. It wasn't difficult to make. Matt and I just loved it!





Ingredients:
8 medium sized shiitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon cornstarch
4 teaspoons chicken broth
1 teaspoon shoyu
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1 1/2 punds chicken breast, skinned, boned, and minced (or ground chicken)
5 T salad oil
Cooking sauce (see recipe below)
1 teaspon minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions (white part only), minced
1 can (about 8 oz.) bamboo shoots, minced
Hoisin sauce
about 30 iceberg lettuce leaves, washed, drained and chilled

Cooking Sauce:
In a bowl, combine 1 teaspoon shoyu, 1 teaspoon dry sherry, 2 Tablespoons oyster sauce, 2 Tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Set aside.

Preparing Meat Mixture:
1. Cover mushroom with warm water, let stand for 30 minutes, then drain. Cut off and discard stems; squeeze mushroom dry, mince, and set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine cornstarch, chicken broth, shoyu, salt and pepper. Add chicken and stir to coat, then stir in 1 teaspoon of the oil and let stand for 15 minutes to marinate.

3. Prepare cooking sauce and set aside.

4. Heat a wok or wide frying pan over high heat. When pan is hot, add 3 T of the oil. When oil is hot, add chicken and stir-fry until chicken is opaque (about 3 minutes). Set aside.

5. Add the remaining oil to the pan. When oil begins to heat, add ginger, garlic, and onion and stir once.

6. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts and stir fry for 2 minutes.

7. Return chicken to pan.

8. Stir cooking sauce, add to pan, and cook stirring until sauce bubbles and thickens.

9. To eat, spread a little hoisin sauce on a lettuce leaf, spoon in some chicken, then wrap up in lettuce.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Date Books and Cards

Dates with our children will be recorded in these little Date Books. The cards in the front are used for the children to write what they want to do on their date.





A look inside one of the books.

Matryoshka Doll and Continents

I was glad to finish off these two projects today.

I found a matryoshka doll pattern online and wanted to try it out because I have a small collection of nesting dolls. I am not good at embroidery, but hope to improve over time. Here is how it turned out.

I also made the continents out of felt for Koa to supplement his Montessori work.

This is the front side.

This is the back side with the name of the continent embroidered on.

I am thinking about doing the same thing with the Hawaiian Islands.