Hot Cocoa

My tenure on the Teacher Appreciation committee is over for this year. I wanted to post what we did this last year, because I was desperate for ideas last summer. The parents were kind enough to bring in dinner for Parent Teacher Conferences, and appetizers for a teacher in-service day. The PTO purchased doughnuts, and during Teacher Appreciation week had a lunch brought in and on Friday we brought in pies, which went over very well.

In addition, to the food during teacher appreciation week, we brought in mints with the sign "You are worth a "Mint" to us", and cans of pop with the message "'Soda you know how much we appreciate you." The children brought in flowers, cookies, drawings, notes and other individual tokens of appreciation during the week.

The picture above is from January. They are hot cocoa packets with the not "Here's a cup a cheer for all you do."

It was a fun year, and overall I think the teachers and school staff saw how much we appreciate all the effort they put into our children.

Chippewa Lake Park

Circa 1900’s, because of Industrialization the middle class began earning enough cash that they were able to spend a little money on entertainment. A popular past time during the weekend was taking a train out to the country and picnicking. Eventually many of those places turned into amusement parks. Coney Island, Cedar Point, Idyllwild and Chippewa Lake Park are just a few places that saw their start that way.

Chippewa Lake is right around the corner from us. For a hundred years it entertained people around the area, and then it closed its doors in 1978 and the woods took it over. The ballroom was a happening joint, apparently Lawrence Welk’s first broadcast originated from Chippewa. There was a hotel, roller coasters, a steam boat, and much more on the property. The old park is in the process of being cleared for a new resort. On the weekends, the property owners are allowing people to visit the site and take a look at the rusted remains, and we did just that last weekend. Here are some of the photos that we took, it’s just amazing how quickly and thoroughly the woods took it over in just 30 years.

The old entrance sign

Sport by the old roller coaster

The Ferris Wheel and landing dock

The kids just having a "blast"

Teacher Appreciation

Teacher Appreciation week is here and in full gear. For Monday, a friend and I made our own version of Stamp's and Smiles water bottles for the staff at our school. I think they came out pretty well. Here's to the teachers!

Wedding Gift

So my brother was getting married, my family and I weren't able to attend. I wanted the kids to note the occasion and make something for my brother and his new wife. Through a lot of deliberation we came up with painting a vase. So off to the local pottery painting store we went. At home we practice what we were going to draw. The kids made drawings out of their fingerprints, including a bride and groom, two cats, two monkeys, a butterfly and a bee. This is the result:

Earth Day

I was told last summer, that I had changed since I was 20. Instead changing the world I had become a domestic diva, (I'm sure there is a compliment in there somewhere). I actually disagree with that statement. Yes, I'm not working with a group that is tackling environmental issues on a daily basis and considered radical. I have implemented many of those ideas in my household and I have seen many of those ideas become mainstream, such as organic foods, CSA's, fuel efficient cars, and everyone seems to want access to solar and wind power, not just those granola loving hippies (which of course I try to channel that side of me every once in a while). I think my friends and I were ahead of the trends. In fact, we might not have been the environmentalist of the 70's, but this green awareness has been boosted by the environmental work of my generation. In fact, many of the attitudes of this "green" generation have been en grained into every one's psyche from their parents and that is what I am in the process doing to my little ones every day with our little day by day routines.

So as a domestic diva (I think I have someone fooled) I use rags as much of possible, instead of paper towels to clean up messes, dust, etc. I avoid plastic baggies as much as possible and use reusable containers instead, for leftovers, freezing items, and my daughter's lunches. I am one of those people who uses alcohol, vinegar, and even baking soda, though I just love my Fantastik. The thermostat has been set to 67 degrees for the past few years, though with the newborn we raised it to 69. We try to use fans in the summer instead of air conditioning, though we still use it. We turned in our minivan and are now driving a smaller car that gets 9 miles more per gallon, though with the new baby I see a minivan in our future...hopefully there will be an affordable hybrid version down the road. Then there are the electric bulbs, shorter showers, energy efficient appliances, etc.

But there is still much more to do, so in the next year these are my goals:

1. Join a CSA

2. Grow some vegetables successfully of course

3. Use my own shopping bags more often

4. Teach my children to turn off the bathroom light-may not be attainable, probably really frustrating

5. Get my compost pile going

6. Reduce our vampire appliance use of electricity

7. Recycle more glass

8. Use my own coffee cup

Let's see what happens next year and maybe change the world just a little bit at a time.

Monster Mouth

This is what sports eating habits have driven me to! He ate it!!!

April Fool's

My daughter LOVES April Fool's day, just loves it, partially because it lands on her "half birthday." So, I think somewhere deep inside her little mind it is all about her.

This year I was going to make it special because we have Pumkin's four-week-old baby brother around, and I wanted to make sure she felt a little special. Now Buddy, my five-year old, really doesn't care one way or another, I thought this would be the year for him.

I packed up my recipes, made a special trip to the store and destroyed my kitchen for our lovely dinner of "Chicken Pot Pie" with a "Berry Pie" for dessert.

Meanwhile, Pumkin ended up coming home from school with a fever and an upset belly, which of course we found out later was strep. I finished up diner, the chicken pot pie was so convincing, that my husband wasn't sure I had gone through with the prank. I was still excited, thinking this would make my sick daughter feel better.

So when I dished up our lovely dinner, Pumkin had her head on the table and was groaning. Her brother, thought a miracle had happened and vegetables had started tasting like candy, but was grossed out when he found out the vegetables were indeed candy. The idea of pudding instead of chicken pot pie, whigged him out and he just couldn't get his head around the idea that the pie was meatloaf and it was OK to eat it. So he stopped eating, which left my husband and I to enjoy our meatloaf pie and pudding pie.

APRIL FOOL'S