July 26: A Lollipops Concert -- The Little Engine That Could

Koen, Tysen, Brielle, and I ventured out to Sunshine Community Church on this Tuesday morning to take in the Grand Rapids Symphony's The Little Engine That Could Lollipops Concert.  The Lollipops Concerts are held twice a year and are 45-minute performances geared for younger children.  I hadn't been to any before, but Koen had gone to a performance of Peter and the Wolf earlier this year on a school field trip.  It was both educational and fun, a mixture of music and story, interactive and entertaining.  The conductor introduced each section (easily identifiable with their different color shirts), and each character was introduced with music matching his/her character.  The boys really enjoyed watching each character enter, especially the trains, and I thought it was a great way to introduce them to the symphony and some classical music.  It was a fun morning out for each of us.

July 25: Christmas in July

Every July I have a "Christmas in July" sale for my Premier Designs Jewelry.  This year the boys were so excited about it that I needed to give them something to do!  I went into our crawl space and found the little Christmas tree, one box of ornaments, and one string of lights.  I brought it upstairs, put up the lights, and let the boys begin to decorate!  I even found some candy canes in the cupboard that they hung on the tree (and later ate!).  They were so adorable as the carefully found a good place for each ornament.  Koen even took empty jewelry boxes and placed them at the base of the tree as presents.  It certainly was a lot of fun!

One of the treats I put out for the jewelry show was Razz Ma Tazz bars.  These received many compliments so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Razz Ma Tazz Bars

• 2 sticks butter
• 2 - 12 oz. packages Nestle white morsels
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 12 oz. jar seedless raspberry jam
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. Grease a 9x13 pan.
2. Melt the butter, stir, and add 1 bag of white chips.  Let stand -- do NOT stir. 
3. Beat eggs until foamy.
4. Add sugar and beat until a light lemon color.
5. Stir into the butter mixture.
6. Add flour, salt, and extract.
7. Spread 2/3 into the pan and bake for 15-17 min. at 325 degrees.
8. Heat jam in microwave and spread over crust. 
9. Stir remaining morsels in remaining batter.
10. Drop spoonfuls of batter over the jam.
11. Sprinkle with almonds.
12. Bake 25-30 minutes at 325 degrees.
13. Cool and cut.

July 18-21: Camping!

This is the fifth year we've camped at Lake Wabasis with a group of friends from our church.  While they stay for 10 days, we usually limit our camping experience anywhere from 3-5 days.  The kids talk about camping all year long...they can't wait to go back next summer!  I'm already praying it won't be as HOT!!!  We were in the middle of a heat wave this year!  While we did go to the beach one day, we waited until evening to hit the beach the other days just because it was too hot!  We have kind friends who shared their inflatable pools with us so we could try to keep cool during the day.  One friend even brought a window air-conditioning unit for us to use with the pop-up camper we borrowed.  It worked great the one night we had it, but it just couldn't keep up during the day.  Honestly, it was just too hot to do anything much, yet the kids didn't seem to mind the heat a bit.  Here are a few pictures from our 4 days out there this year.   

Brielle fell asleep on the walk up from the beach.

Ty hangs out in front of the camper.  Notice the bluish tinge on the picture? 
Seth created an awning for us out of a blue tarp.  It was great for providing much-needed shade!!!

Playing in dirt!

What?!?  Girls can play in dirt too!

1 comfy chair + 1 good book = 1 perfect afternoon



Splashing in Ian's pool to keep cool!



One morning we went to a local bakery for donuts!



S'mores!  (Although none of the kids ended up eating more than 2 bites)



July 8: Froot Loop Rainbows (an attempt)

Not every project turns out the way you think it will.  When I mentioned making Froot Loop Rainbows to the boys they were really excited!  I envisioned a curved row of red Froot Loops, followed by a curved row of oranges, yellows, etc.  I thought we'd glue them on the papers, maybe add some cotton balls for clouds, a fairly easy project that would incorporate sorting and organizing.  But that's not how the boys envisioned the project.  Both Koen and Tysen took one of each color, lined them up (at least they got them in correct order!), and then proceeded to eat ALL the Froot Loops I'd put out for them, only pausing to ask for more.  Oh well!

 

July 7: Airport Picnic

This was the first time this summer we made it to the Grand Rapids Airport Viewing Area.  It was an active day for both arrivals and departures which made it fun for the kids.  We met a group of church friends for a picnic, although most of the kids took a bite of something, ran around for a while, took another bite, ran around, etc.  More playing than eating!  Tysen LOVED watching each airplane and made sure EVERYONE knew when one was arriving or taking off.  I enjoyed watching HIM enjoy the planes!  We even saw a helicopter come in just before we left! 



July 4: Stained Glass Jello

Need a festive dish to bring to some occasion?  Try Stained Glass Jello!  You can make it with any color/flavor Jello you wish so it'd be perfect for everything from Christmas to the 4th of July!  The boys thought it was "really cool" and while it takes a little time to make, the effort is minimal.

Stained Glass Jello

• 4 boxes (3 oz. each) Jello in different colors (we used 2 boxes of strawberry and 2 boxes of blue raspberry)
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 envelopes unflavored Knox gelatine 
• 6 cups water -- divided

1.   For each flavor of jello, dissolve one box in 1 cup boiling water.  Pour into a square container that is 6-8 inches square and chill at least 3 hours or overnight.  Try to use the same size pan for all four so the blocks come out about the same.  (I just used an 8x8 pan for the red and another 8x8 pan for the blue.)

2.  After chilling the flavors cut them into small blocks.



3.  Carefully mix the blocks in a 9x13 pan.  (If you're not planning on cutting out shapes, try to use a glass pan so everyone will be able to see the beautiful colors.)



Mixing the jello colors.



4.  In a separate bowl, sprinkle 2 envelopes of unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup cold water.  Let it sit a few minutes and then add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and dissolve. 



5.  Add the can of sweetened condensed milk, stir, and let cool.

6.  Pour cooled milk mixture over the Jello blocks in the 9x13 pan. 



7.  Skim off any small bubbles that are created when you pour the milk over the Jello pieces.  (I forgot to do this and ours still turned out fine.)

8.  Chill at least 3 hours or overnight.

9.  Cut into blocks or shapes (we used stars) and serve.



Cleaning out the jello pans.

Enjoying the finished product.

July 1: Rolled Paper Flags

It's a holiday weekend!!!  I found instructions for a simple Rolled Paper Flag and thought it'd be perfect to make flags, not only for the 4th of July, but also for Canada Day since Daddy is from Canada and we still have family there!  Koen loved this project and carefully made each flag.  Tysen wasn't too enthusiastic about making anything so he half-heartedly made one flag before scooting off to find trouble elsewhere. 

I cut 12in. x18in. pieces of paper from an IKEA paper roll we had around.  Then I had the boys fold each one in half twice (short side-to-short side both times) to make four sections.  I traced one section with a pen so it was obvious where they had to cut since one section needed to be removed.  Koen had no problem with this step, but Ty got frustrated with the cutting which didn't help his already-wandering interest.

 Next, we rolled up the long end of the paper until it got to the one remaining section.  The boys taped the rolls down with long pieces of tape, and viola...we had a flag!



Ty holds his paper flag in front of his grumpy face.

Next, we decorated the flags.  Koen knew how each flag should look, so he immediately began painting a blue square and red stripes for the USA flag, reserving the silver star stickers from after the paint dried.  He then painted the red blocks on the sides of his Canadian flag before painting his hand red and making his hand print the Maple Leaf in the center (I saw this idea on a few different websites...I can't claim it as my own idea but thought it was brilliant!).  The flags turned out great (see below)!  Happy Patriotic Holidays! :)

Brielle had fun putting the star stickers
on the scrap papers.

The finished flags!  Aren't they great?!?