Koen had his friend Josiah over to play today! Of course, Tysen considers Josiah his good friend as well, so he wants to do everything the big boys do, but he's been naughty all day (mainly just not listening) and he was just naughty enough to bother Koen & Josiah. So I suggested to Ty that we make some bars for our snack later, but Josiah and Koen heard that plan and wanted to help, too. We ALL made the bars and then Ty went back to bugging the other boys.
These PB&J bars are ones I've been wanting to try for a while. I found them in Family Fun Magazine (one of my favorites). I'll include the recipe here in case you'd like to try them. Koen decided he didn't like them, but he's been on an anti-jelly kick for a while, so who knows. Ty didn't want a snack after all, Josiah seemed to like them, and I thought they were OK. When Josiah's mom came to pick him up, she commented that they smelled so good. Then shared that she had a recipe very similar to this one only the middle was CHOCOLATE instead of jelly. YUM! We'll have to try that another day...soon! :)
PB&J Bars
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter at room temperature (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups seedless jam
1/2 cup salted peanuts, chopped (optional)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour a 9x13 pan. In a medium-size bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, then set it aside.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat the butter and both sugars until well blended, about 2 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter. Beat them until well blended. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until a soft dough is formed.
Spread two thirds of the dough over the bottom of the prepared pan, then spread the jam evenly on top. Scatter small mounds of the remaining dough over the jam layer and sprinkle it with the peanuts.
Bake the dessert until golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through, about 45 minutes. Let the dessert cool before cutting it into squares. Makes 18 bars.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
August 27: Grandma and Grandpa's House
I hadn't planned anything official for this "Special Day," so it was nice when the boys were invited over to Grandma and Grandpa Smits's house overnight. Grandpa Smits came over to help Seth work on the basement some more (it's looking really great!), and then he took the boys home with him. They came home with new treasures (aka Thomas movie, back pack, and game) and stories galore. They particularly loved swimming in the "pool" -- the cooled off hot tub. They also got to go the the Holland Christian football game although it sounded like they were excited about everything except the game! It doesn't matter what they do...it's just special when it's with grandparents!
August 26: The First School Project
Koen received an envelope in the mail from his Kindergarten teacher! Inside was a letter introducing herself, a list of dates-to-know, and a boy-shaped cardboard cutout. The instructions asked Koen to color the cutout as himself and then have Mom or Dad write a bit about him on the back. Koen diligently worked on his cut out. He's really been taking pride in his coloring and drawing these past few weeks. The face he drew on "himself" was the best face I'd ever seen him draw, so I asked him where he learned to color like that. Without looking up at me he replied, "Preschool." It's funny how I never saw him do that before and three months after preschool ended he displays his drawing skills. :)
Before I let Koen start on his cutout, I had used it to trace one for Ty to work on. Tysen had great fun giving himself green and pink hair, on his tummy of course, and coloring all over his boy.
Before I let Koen start on his cutout, I had used it to trace one for Ty to work on. Tysen had great fun giving himself green and pink hair, on his tummy of course, and coloring all over his boy.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
August 25: The New Library!!!
We waited until Seth got home from his golf tournament and went all together to the NEW Kent District Library (Kentwood Branch). The library building is beautiful!!! It's a huge improvement over the prior building, but not everything about the place is a huge improvement (in my humble opinion).
I was disappointed in the layout of the children's section. In the old building, the books were in a L-shape around the play area making it very easy to watch the kids while looking for books for them. In the new building, the play area is farther away from the stacks which will make it more difficult to look for books while keeping track of the kids. We'll see how that goes in future visits. Also, nothing was labeled. I'm sure they're still trying to set everything up, but there weren't even temporary signs up on the lower level. The volume of materials was down, too, though I'm sure that had something to do with them extending the due dates for all materials during the two-week move. They certainly have room to grow, though, so that's exciting! And the view! The view behind the library is a beautiful field...complete with blue sky, a setting sun, and white puffy clouds on the evening of our visit.
While the train table, a highlight from the previous location, didn't make it over to the new place, neither Koen or Ty said anything about it! There are a number of play things to keep them busy during our upcoming visits: an airplane-shaped play area, white board complete with magnets, and a grocery store area (although the shopping cart was taken away from some kids while we were there). I wonder how long it will take before they realize the library doesn't have trains anymore!?!
Seth and I each took a turn venturing upstairs into the adult sections. We didn't have much time to look around, and I'm not sure how often I'll be trekking upstairs with three kids in tow when we go it alone. I liked the all-on-one-floor layout better, but that's just from a parent's point-of-view.
I'm sure we'll all grow to love this new library, but change always time some time to get used to, doesn't it?
I was disappointed in the layout of the children's section. In the old building, the books were in a L-shape around the play area making it very easy to watch the kids while looking for books for them. In the new building, the play area is farther away from the stacks which will make it more difficult to look for books while keeping track of the kids. We'll see how that goes in future visits. Also, nothing was labeled. I'm sure they're still trying to set everything up, but there weren't even temporary signs up on the lower level. The volume of materials was down, too, though I'm sure that had something to do with them extending the due dates for all materials during the two-week move. They certainly have room to grow, though, so that's exciting! And the view! The view behind the library is a beautiful field...complete with blue sky, a setting sun, and white puffy clouds on the evening of our visit.
While the train table, a highlight from the previous location, didn't make it over to the new place, neither Koen or Ty said anything about it! There are a number of play things to keep them busy during our upcoming visits: an airplane-shaped play area, white board complete with magnets, and a grocery store area (although the shopping cart was taken away from some kids while we were there). I wonder how long it will take before they realize the library doesn't have trains anymore!?!
Seth and I each took a turn venturing upstairs into the adult sections. We didn't have much time to look around, and I'm not sure how often I'll be trekking upstairs with three kids in tow when we go it alone. I liked the all-on-one-floor layout better, but that's just from a parent's point-of-view.
I'm sure we'll all grow to love this new library, but change always time some time to get used to, doesn't it?
Friday, August 27, 2010
August 24: A Non-Baking Day...
I had everything set to go for baking a new recipe...peanut butter and jelly bars...but no one wanted to help me! Maybe next week...
August 23: Uno and War!
A few weeks ago I hosted a show for a friend who sells Simply Fun games. One of the game packs has the company's own versions of "War," "Crazy 8s," and "Go Fish," and since seeing that I've been so excited to teach the kids how to play these games (using a regular deck of cards). I had suggested we play war last week, but Koen informed me that he'd played in in Minnesota (at the family reunion), and he wasn't very good at it so he didn't want to play. I was surprised at how disappointed I was at not playing this old game.
So this week, I suggested we play some card games. We started with two rousing games of Sesame Street Uno (Ty calls it "oh-no") where Koen -- without any help -- handily beat Ty and me (a team effort on our part). I realize some of the game is just the luck of the cards, but still. After winning twice he was in a good mood, so I suggested we play war. He went for it and I divided the deck of cards. Of course, he won this fair and square too (although I'll have you know he only played one round, so I may very well have made a come back, but probably not). He was delighted with the large pile of cards in front of him and decided that war wasn't such a bad game after all. I liked the math practice he got while playing...I asked him which card won each round, and he was pretty good at picking the bigger number and figuring out the winner.
He was finished playing games after that, so while Ty and Koen ran off to play trains again, I set up a game of Solitaire for myself...hadn't played it in years but it was such fun again!
So this week, I suggested we play some card games. We started with two rousing games of Sesame Street Uno (Ty calls it "oh-no") where Koen -- without any help -- handily beat Ty and me (a team effort on our part). I realize some of the game is just the luck of the cards, but still. After winning twice he was in a good mood, so I suggested we play war. He went for it and I divided the deck of cards. Of course, he won this fair and square too (although I'll have you know he only played one round, so I may very well have made a come back, but probably not). He was delighted with the large pile of cards in front of him and decided that war wasn't such a bad game after all. I liked the math practice he got while playing...I asked him which card won each round, and he was pretty good at picking the bigger number and figuring out the winner.
He was finished playing games after that, so while Ty and Koen ran off to play trains again, I set up a game of Solitaire for myself...hadn't played it in years but it was such fun again!
Monday, August 23, 2010
August 20: A Birthday Party, A Friend Over, And An Airport Viewing
This Special Day Friday was a very, very busy day!!! For our first event, our neighbor Sadie celebrated her 5th birthday, and had her party at Chuck E. Cheese and invited the boys to come! Koen wasn't sure he wanted to go at first (no real reason why), but after we shopped for a gift (he was quite proud of his selections of "girl toys": A Princess Color Wonder book, Princess lip gloss, and glow-in-the-dark color stars) he was excited to go. The party was a huge success as the kids got to run around "spending" their tokens. They really didn't even need the pizza and pop...just the fun!
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| Ty -- awaiting this plane's take-off. |
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| Koen -- racing up the hill after watching an aircraft land. |
And last, but not least, we had a picnic supper at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Viewing Area. This area is maybe a five-minute drive from our house. We've gone before, but hadn't been there yet this summer. We were fortunate that the heat had broken a bit and there was a cool breeze. Seth and I feasted upon Subway cuisine while the kids ate PB and honey sandwiches, Goldfish crackers, and cups of applesauce. There are quite a few picnic tables in the viewing area and a great hill for the kids to run up and down, up and down. The traffic wasn't heavy on the tarmac, but we were able to see four planes land and four others take off. It's always amazing to watch such a huge machine lift off the ground, seemingly effortlessly. We all enjoyed our evening out!
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