First, I added Tags and Categories to my blog entries, so if you're looking for a specific idea, this should make it easier!

We continue with:  J learning to cook!  We're hoping to make this a weekly event, and we'll report on the recipes and results here.  On tonight's menu:  Chinese Soup, featured in the "Kids Can Cook" book I mentioned last week.  This was basically a chicken corn soup with some asian flare (soy sauce).  We shopped for necessary ingredients this afternoon.  I can't remember a time when this kid was actually excited about going to the supermarket,  until now!  The soup was very easy to prepare.  J did most of the work.  I would step in to help with the chopping--she's still not super confident about handling a knife.  She now understands how onions can make your eyes water too!  She struggled a little with cutting the chicken into small pieces, but happily chopped carrots.  The entire family LOVED this soup!  Even K, who can be ridiculously picky until she actually tries something, liked it right off the bat.  We have leftovers too, so we will continue to enjoy it this week.  The cookbook has to be returned to the library next week, but we're planning to copy down the recipies we liked or still want to try. 

I admit, one thing I'm struggling with is doing more math with J.  She does a great job with fractions when we're cooking something, dividing in her head without struggles.  But on paper--it's another thing altogether.  Today we tried "Stacking Dice Puzzles".  You can find the worksheets at www.education.com/worksheets or through www.math-drills.com.  These were interesting logic puzzles using dice.  It helps if you actually have about 4-5 dice to manipulate to solve the problems.  We did one sheet today and hope to finish the other tomorrow.  J's reaction:  it was okay.  She made some silly mistakes, mostly because she just didn't think logically about what the question was asking.  This tends to be her problem in school as well.  I'm still looking for ways to improve her math without drilling on worksheets, so if anyone has some ideas about this, please share them! 

Lastly, today J and I played flute and clarinet duets (me on flute, her on clarinet).  She's played for 2 years now and catches on quickly.  Still, because both mom and dad are music teachers, she will balk at having to practice over the summer.  We're trying some easy duets, which she played well tonight.  She also got a book of Disney songs and movie themes, so she plays those for fun.   Although I'm "assigning" her duets as I would with my flute students, I really just want her to play because it's fun.  I think it's hard for her because she tends to be too perfectionistic about her playing.  Living with two music teachers probably doesn't help this, I realize.  I keep telling her I don't care about the mistakes and just want to play!  Sometimes that's a hard sell, but I keep trying. 

In all of these learning opportunities, we're still getting out to see family, go swimming, and enjoy the summer and each other.  We hope your family is doing the same.  Until next time!

Summer vacation is officially off and running at our house.  We started by making our weekly pilgrimage to the local public library.  I generally take K every other week during the year.  J has her school library to rely on during the school year, but likes going in the summer and choosing her own books.  One of J's goals this summer:  to learn to cook something besides macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches.  She found a kid's cookbook (Kids Can Cook by Judy Williams, published by Anness Publishing) and happily browsed the recipies.  More on this to follow.

After lunch, we indulged for the first time in a favorite Lancaster County activity:  picking strawberries!  There are lots of places to choose from to pick your own, but get there this week, since berries will be past their prime soon.  We chose Heller's Shady Creek Farm, located on Mt. Joy Road (Rt. 772) in Manheim, just past LCBC.  The lady who greeted us said this was the last week for folks to pick their own berries, but there are still plenty of nice ones left.  The girls and I picked 8 quarts in less than 30 minutes.  They really loved it, even J, who doesn't like to actually eat strawberries.  On the other hand, K could eat her body weight in them.  I haven't picked berries since I was a kid.  We all really enjoyed this, and it was inexpensive entertainment ($2 a quart).  We'll freeze our extras so we can enjoy them longer. 

After browsing the cookbook, I suggested a couple of recipies that J could make this evening for dinner.  She was quite excited about the idea.  She did much of the prep and actual cooking, and did a great job dividing fractions as we "halved" a recipie to cut down on the amount of servings.  She chose to make fried chicken fingers and baked potato wedges.  We did some minor alterations (cooking the potatoes in the microwave instead of the oven for the initial bake) to save time.  We also altered some of the spices to our liking.  She was quite pleased with the results!  K kept thanking her for making dinner, saying, "It's good!"  We're going to try another new recipie from the book next week:  Chinese soup. 

So far, so good.  Yes, they still get on each other's nerves--it can be a big challenge with my two, since they are 6 1/2 years apart in age.  But I'm happy with today and enjoyed just spending time with my girls.  And now, off to clean and freeze more strawberries. . .

After a few weeks off due to camp and our all too brief vacation, J returned to making dinner this week.  Tacos were on the menu last night.  She consulted one of my cookbooks for the idea, but we just used ground beef, a packet of taco seasoning, hard shells, and then added our own toppings, including shredded cheese.  J had never tried the hard shell tacos before this.  She always orders soft ones when we eat out, so this was new for her.  She liked them a lot.   They're so easy to make, something different, and everyone likes them!

J wanted me to read "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix for some time now.  I had some time the last 2 days to finally read it.  J's 5th grade teacher read it to the class this past year, along with the second book in the series.  The book talks about a place where families are only allowed to have 2 children.  Luke, the main character, is a forbidden 3rd child in his family, so he is constantly in hiding in his own home.  As the land next to his farm is cleared to make way for a new housing development, Luke is forced to watch from the crack in the roof of the attic, where his bedroom is located.  Luke observes the construction and the families moving in, realizing that they are all much more well off than his own family.  The most important discovery Luke makes from his viewing spot is the existence of another "shadow child" like himself.  He creates a plan to meet her, and that's where the action in the book really takes off.  I won't reveal any more in the plot here, but I can highly recommend the book.  J was surprised to learn that there are places in the world where families are limited in the amount of children they may have (like China).  This is especially meaningful for our family since I have a sister who is adopted from China.  Since J hadn't discussed these things in her class, it really created another dimension for her to understand the situation there more fully.  You can learn more about the book, the series, and the author at www.haddixbooks.com

I feel like we are already counting the days until school will start and have already shopped for many school supplies.  Argh.  Where is the summer going?  Hope you are all enjoying the days as they fly by.

Thanks for reading!

Although I haven't read the book, "Eat, Pray, Love" or seen the movie, I think K could do her own version of this for the kindergarten set.  Every day, the two questions she asks me without fail are, "Where are we going today?" and "What are we having for dinner?"  Her entire life seems to revolve around food and travel.

Since my husband and J are at band camp this week (brings back fond memories for all you former bandies, right?), I needed to find some things for K and me to do together.  I also had errands to run.  My mom suggested taking her to Sturgis Pretzels in Lititz for the tour, which was a quick and nice diversion.

Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is located at 219 E. Main Street in the quaint downtown section of Lititz (www.juliussturgis.com).  Driving through this section, I wished downtown E-town looked like this.  I would love to come back just to shop the cute stores, but that's going to have to wait for a time when I can be without children and have no distractions.  The tour of the oldest pretzel factory in American costs $3 for adults and $2 for kids, a great bargain.  I was surprised how many folks were there for a Monday morning, and clearly many were tourists.  The tour allows each visitor to make their own pretzel out of playdough, view the brick ovens, see a pretzel twisting machine, and hear about the history of pretzel making in this country, as well as the origins of the pretzel itself.  As it turns out, pretzels originated in France, where they were given to children as a reward for learning their prayers.  The twist of the pretzel can represent folded hands or the binding of marriage.  The ones developed in France were soft, but Sturgis discovered that if you accidentally left them in the oven too long, they got hard and crunchy.  He liked this variation, and set off on his own to perfect it.  Now the Sturgis pretzels that you see in stores are made by Tom Sturgis, a descendant of Julius, the founder, in a plant near Reading. 

K and I both enjoyed twisting our own pretzels, even if we didn't get to bake and eat them.  We even got a pretzel twisting diploma for our efforts.  We also each got a small bag of pretzels at the end of the tour.  The tour is very short, probably only 15 minutes in duration, perfect for those with shorter attention spans.  They even have stools for little ones to reach the countertops where you make your pretzel.  There is a gift shop that sells merchandise as well as other pretzels, although we did not stop in. 

Then we had errands to attend to, including a stop at the pet shop.  This time it was PetSmart on the Fruitville Pike.  I'm always amazed at the amount of time we can kill in one of these places just looking at the different animals.  We saw lizards, turtles, snakes, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, birds, cats, fish, and dogs being groomed as well as some lucky pups just walking with their owners in the store (all must be on leashes).  Finally, we stopped at Old Navy.  Psst moms:  kids jeans are on sale right now, starting at $10!  My advice--take your kid and have them try them on.  It astounds me that I can buy 3 pairs of the same size, style, and length jeans and they all fit differently.  The same goes for jeans for J, which is why I had to return a pair today. 

So squeeze in a trip to Sturgis next time you're in beautiful Lititz.  We're going to have to return, since I realized after the fact that we could have also gone to the Wilbur Chocolate museum, too!  How could I forget about Wilbur buds, seriously?  Ah, chocolate. . . the perfect reason for a another visit.