In the Kitchen: Homemade Fall Cookies

My mom has a habit of buying me cute cookie cutters (thanks mom!) that I’ve neglected far too long.  A few weeks ago, we were out rummaging through the garage looking for the fall decorations.  Addie happened to spot some of said “cute cookie cutters” among the fall decorations.  I’ve always used the excuse of not owning a rolling pin to dismiss her desire to bake cookies so we could use them.  Since we’ve been trying to create a mommy-daughter tradition of baking together each week, I felt it was time to dust of the cookie cutters, buy a rolling pin and get to work.  Now I don’t use the term “work” lightly because making homemade cookies is HARD WORK (at least for this novice baker).  But we got them made and were very happy with the end product.

Rolling out the dough….

Cutting out the shapes….

Mixing the perfect icing colors…

Icing the cookies…

Time to add the sprinkles…

Soliciting some help from the “pro”…

The cookies….

and the baker!

It was a lot of work but very fun!  We look forward to making some Christmas treats soon (unless mom finds us some turkey cookie cutters for Thanksgiving…hint, hint!).

An End to an Era!

Well, we finally did it!  We cut the cord and sold the nursery furniture.  Granted, we have not used in in over two years but it was still a sad day in the Lacy Household.  Blake and I searched high and low almost 8 years ago to find the perfect set for our baby boy.  I knew I didn’t want a drop side crib and since they were still considered safe at that time, almost every model included one.  Here is my sweet baby boy asleep in his crib. 

(It might be noted that Dalton apparently didn’t sleep in his crib much.  His room doubled as Blake’s office when he was in grad school, so this was the more common scene in our house at the time.)

Fast forward three years later and the nursery furniture looked great in Addison’s “girly yet not overly pink” room.

And then there are also the “Who’s Who?” pictures we took of the kids almost three years apart (sitting in the crib wearing the same pj’s surrounded by the same animals with my great-grandmothers handmade afghan).

Ah, the memories.  Goodbye Nursery Room Furniture.  I hope you bring the next family as many happy memories as you brought us.

Preschool Progress: Day 18

Addie and I are still trucking along when it comes to preschool.  Some days she is more excited about doing it than other, but to be honest some days I share her feelings.  She continues to improve in all areas.  Some areas deserving of special comment lately are:

1.  Reading fluency:  We continue to read a new “easy reader” each day.  She has really learned how to recognize sentence structure (capitalization and punctuation) and uses that to increase her fluency.  She recognizes a few dozen sight words now and is able to sound out almost any other words she comes across in her books.

2.  Tracing and Cutting:  I’ve had her start tracing her own shapes to cut out.  The first few days were a little rough, but by day three she had mastered the art of tracing.  She also does very well cutting the more detailed shapes (that is when she is not in a hurry).

3.  Counting/Sorting/Patterns:  Addie is doing very well with her counting.  She can now count to 100 by 1’s and 10’s.  We have also started counting by 5’s.  I think she’ll have that down by next week.  We also worked on more sorting rules and identifying patterns.  She didn’t miss a single one and even picked up on some sorting rules in her workbooks that I had overlooked. 

I may be a little biased, but I think she is one smart cookie!

In the Kitchen: Muffin Mania

It’s Thursday night again, which means Addie and I are having some fun in the kitchen!  Tonight’s menu:  muffins, muffins and more muffins.  I love to make a few dozen muffins at once.  They freeze very nicely for quick breakfast options and that means I only have to get the kitchen dirty once every few weeks (at least for baking muffins).

Tonight’s kitchen lesson focused on reading and using the liquid measuring cup.  Addie doesn’t completely understand the whole fraction part of 2/3 cup, but I figure it can’t hurt to familiar her with those types of numbers now.

Let the baking begin…

Cracking the eggs!  She’s a pro now!

 

Mixing, Measuring, Scooping and Tasting….

The fruit of our labor…

I’m so happy that Addie seems to share in my enjoyment of baking.

*Last week, we made Cinnamon Roll Bread.  Apparently, I didn’t take any pictures though.

School Time: Sorting Fun

This week in math, Addie and I have been working on sorting and comparing items.  Today, we played a game called “Guess the Sorting Rule”.  Basically, we would take turns sorting items by color, shape, tail vs. no tail, shiny vs. dull, etc.  The other person would then have to guess by which “rule” the objects were sorted.

Addie had lots of fun and caught on quick.

Sorting by shape

Sorting by color

Sorting by type of tail

We are 11 days in to “school” and still having fun!

My Little Mermaid

One Halloween costume down and one to go….

Addie is in LOVE with her new mermaid tail/skirt.  The swim top that came in last week’s grab bag purchase from Ruffle Butts worked out perfect to complete the outfit. 

Up next on the to do list….Dalton’s shark jacket.

Monday Lunch Bunch: Pickerell Park

It’s Monday again!  Addie and I headed out to one of the largest parks in Schertz to enjoy a picnic lunch and playtime with friends.  This week, two of her best friends (and a little sister) were able to join us.  She has soooo much fun playing with her friends and I enjoy the wonderful company of the moms.  The weather around here is starting to spoil us too!  It was cool enough this morning that Addie even took a little jacket.  (Cool enough for this family of Texans is about 80 degrees.)

Institute of Texan Cultures

This past weekend we took advantage of yet another Groupon (can you tell I’m a sucker for a good deal) and went to the Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC).  I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I figured we would be in and out in an hour or so once the kids started getting bored.  Boy was I wrong!  ITC is a hidden treasure of San Antonio.  The exhibits were what you would expect….lots of different things behind glass to look at and read about.  However, the demonstrations were amazing.  There were probably less than 20 people in the entire museum, which means the kids were able to be front in center for everything. 

Here they are in front of one of the Native American exhibits.  It was fun to get to share with Dalton the different types of homes the Native Americans would live in and how you could learn a lot about their way of life just by looking at their homes.  I think Addie got a little bored, but Dalton seemed to enjoy learning about the different lifestyles.

 

They both enjoyed looking at some of the different styles of clothing influenced by the different cultures.  They are pictured with their favorites of the day.

Here they are inside a life size replica of a traditional frontier home.  They were amazed at how small homes once were and that it only had two rooms.  They both thought using newspaper to paper the walls was pretty cool.

By far the best part of ITC was the demonstration of how to turn wool and cotton into yarn and blankets.  This sweet little lady was so patient with the kids.  She showed them how to use a drop spindle, spinning wheel, loom and even how to comb out the cotton.  They both were able to take turns using all the different pieces.  She also let them each pick out two pieces of colored wool to make friendship bracelets. 

We had a great time!  It was definitely worth the Groupon (and probably even full price)!