Faux-fossil Memory Game

I love playing homemade games. It feels organic and old fashioned, and I like it. My kids like it too - there's a satisfaction in knowing they're playing with something they made, not a kid working in a sweatshop in some foreign country.

This is a project I made up myself. We do a lot of fun projects that I read about in books and online, but it's not often I come up with something on my own that I think is worth sharing. Enjoy!

Today's project: Fossil Memory



We started with homemade playdough, colored with Kool-Aid.



2 cups flour
2 cups salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar
2 cups water
Kool-aid packets

Mix together all the ingredients except the Kool-aid. Add more water or flour as you go, you want it to be the consistency of play dough. Divide the dough into six balls - if you have six colors of Kool-Aid. Knead the Kool-Aid into the dough. Best do this outside - the smell of the Kool-Aid gave us headaches after awhile. You could also use food coloring, and avoid the headache.

Put your dough in plastic bags and set aside while you...

Go on a nature walk.


Check out your back yard, or the neighborhood, a park, or wherever. Add interesting things to your basket as you go, so long as they are less than 2" in diameter. We ended up with flowers, leaves, rocks, shells from our collection, a pine cone, a piece of bark, etc. We made ten sets of memory stones, but I suggest finding more than ten things - some don't make as nice of prints as you'll hope.



Bring your nature back to the table, and divide each color of dough into four equal pieces. Roll them into balls, then smash them down so they look like flat stones. In each piece, press one of your nature objects, leaving a "fossil" imprint. Make two of each print, but make them on different colors. Otherwise it's too easy to match them!



Let the "fossils" dry all day (and all night, if needed.) Be sure to turn them every so often so both sides are getting air.

Then, lay them out in a square and take turns trying to match fossils.



Fun stuff, huh?

Other thoughts and ideas:

If you need it to be more difficult, make them all the same color. This difficulty level is perfect for my three year old, a little to easy for the eight year old.

Consider making a set for each season, based on the changes you see in nature. Fall would be great for harvested veggie bits, seed pods, etc. Winter has acorns and feathers and berries, and spring is full of all kinds of natural bits.

Or, make a set for different areas. This project would travel nicely, and I look forward to making a set of stones the next time we go camping. Just add water, find nature, and away you go!

The dough would roll out nicely into a sort of plaque, where kids could press all the little bits of nature they come across and make a nice decoration for a table top or a wall.

Have fun!

Garden to Table Challenge- Rhubarb Pie

It's no secret that I am a Pie Making Failure. There are a lot of domestic, housewife-y things I do a good job of, but making pies has never made it on that list.

But lo! What's this?



I've made a pie! A pretty one. And even better than being pretty... it tastes good, too.

I bought some rhubarb at the Farmer's Market, since it was about the only thing I could find that I hadn't already grown myself. I've only ever purchased rhubarb one other time, and the resulting cobbler wasn't all that good. But I gave it another go, and I'm glad I did.

I also (gasp) turned my back on the pie crust recipe my mother gave me, the same recipe every woman in my family uses to make incredible pies. It felt a bit like sacrilege, but I had to do it - mine just never turn out like hers do. This time I followed the recipe from my red and white checkered cookbook. The only change I made was using whole wheat flour. Which was probably pointless, considering the other main ingredient is Crisco. Pretty sure Crisco negates any health benefits of whole wheat flour. But whatever. It was really good.

The recipe:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Filling:
2 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup raw cane sugar

Mix it all together until the fruit is well coated. Set aside.

Crumb topping:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp. butter

Cut together with a pastry blender until crumbly.

I'll let you find your own pie crust recipe... mostly because I can't remember exactly how much of everything I used, and also because pie crust recipes are easy to come by.

Press the crust into a pie plate. Dump in the fruit. Sprinkle with the topping. Cover the edges of the pie with foil, bake for 30 minutes. Take off the foil, bake for another 30 minutes. And there's your pie.

Garden to Table Challenge

I've totally fallen off the bandwagon with Wendy's Garden to Table Challenge. My excuse is that I seem to have forgotten how to cook Summer Food. We're still eating soup four times a week, because it's all I can seem to remember how to make. Well, and salad, because we've got a Lettuce Problem again in the garden. (I really need to learn to plant in succession. But that requires more planning and patience than I usually possess.)

So anyway, I'm sharing a soup recipe with you. Because soup is still good, even when it's 90 degrees outside. Just turn on the air conditioner before you get started, or everyone in the house will be sweltering before it's even time to come to the table.

It's garlic scape season. If you haven't had garlic scapes, try them. I saw some at Farmer's Market last night, so they're available even if you didn't plant garlic last fall. They remind me of garlic chives, only bigger and bolder. Like green onions, but with a distinct garlicky flavor. We tried them chopped raw in a salad last week, and learned that they are probably better cooked. But do give them a go, they are a delicacy!

Potato Scape soup

1 quart chicken stock (plus extra for thinning)
5 or 6 potatoes of a creamy variety (try Yukon Gold) peeled and roughly chopped
6-8 garlic scapes, diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup butter
salt and pepper
If I'd had white wine on hand, I would've added half a cup. But I didn't, and it was still good.

Melt the butter in a big soup pot. Saute the onions and scapes until tender but not browned. Add the potatoes and stock. Boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are very soft. Use a stick blender to whir the soup, leaving some chunks but making it fairly smooth and creamy. Salt and pepper as desired. Serve with slices of fresh, buttered bread. It's a good dipping soup. This soup will thicken the longer it sits, so eat it right away, or be prepared to thin it down with more chicken stock.

Next week, I'll shoot for something a little less... um, warm. Like strawberry-rhubarb pie, because I bought rhubarb on a whim last night at Farmer's Market and now need to figure out what on earth to do with it.

Happy Local Eating, everyone!

The Knight in Denim Armor -or- Cats Are Really Stupid

See: Stupid Cat



Can you spot the Stupid Cat?



Stupid cat tried to get chickens. Smart dog stopped it. Stopped it real good, as a matter of fact.

Note that the utility pole is in the corner of four yards. Three of those yards are home to large dogs. Stupid cat was too scared to even try to get down... and I'm pretty sure it couldn't have, anyway.

I sat in the kitchen and watched it for awhile. And then Two Little Girls woke up and saw the sweet kitty stuck up on that pole, dogs barking at it from all angles. They went in and woke up the best Knight in Shining Armor they know.



What a good Daddy.



And what a stupid cat.

Who needs Barbies?

Who needs Barbies, when you have a rooster with such fabulous 'hair'?


"He needs to be beautiful, so he can come to my party."

Because it's perfectly normal to comb your rooster's feathers.

Okay, maybe it's not.

Unless you're a three year old girl with a comb and a rooster handy. Then it makes perfect sense.

Rise and Shine!

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were sitting outside, enjoying the spring air and watching the kids play with the dog. The chickens were in their coop for the evening, and I was enjoying listening to the sweet chicken noises emanating from their cozy little corner of the yard when suddenly...

"Honey, what was that noise?"

"I think it was a chicken."

"Chickens don't make that kind of noise."

"Roosters do."

"But I don't have a rooster. I got pullets. Maybe it's Miss Tweets. Maybe she makes different noises because she's a different variety of chicken?"

"Yeah... the rooster variety."



Sigh. Sadly, there's no denying it. Miss Tweets is undeniably crowing, odd though it may sound.

In looking at her him I can't believe we didn't figure it out before.



But he's always looked So Different from the other chickens anyway, we just assumed it was his breed.

But no... no. That's definitely the sound of a young rooster practicing his crow. He's tremendous fun. If we crow at him, he often crows back. I can't tell you the enjoyment I get out of listening to my children running around the yard crowing - in addition to the rooster. I'm sure the neighbors love it just as much.

We're going to try to keep him. There's something cozy about waking up to a rooster crowing in the morning, even though we live in the city. I'm not entirely sure all the neighbors feel the same way, but the ones we've talked to don't mind him. And the ones behind us? Well, if they're going to spray my garden with Roundup, they deserve to be woken up at five thirty every morning by the sound of a juvenile squawking rooster.

Memorial Day Weekend

It was windy this past weekend, not at all pleasant for laying around in the back yard in a bathing suit sipping strawberry lemonade and reading a good book as I'd originally intended.

But when life gives you lemons wind...

Daddy had great fun flying the stunt kite.

Chloe almost got carried away by the stunt kite.

On Monday we decided to try running away from the wind by going for a drive to Silver Jack Reservoir. We did succeed in escaping the wind...



And instead found some snow. The snow was actually falling here for a short time.

We found a geocache at a historic cemetery in Cimarron, Colorado.



We found another geocache on a lovely little hike near Big Cimarron campground. The dog had splendid fun as well.



We saw some beautiful scenery...


And plenty of deer.



When we attempted to cross Owl Creek Pass, we saw this:



It's always disappointing to see fallen trees across the road when you look out your windshield. And we didn't bring the chain saw. Sigh. We had to turn back the way we came, which was not nearly as interesting as I'm sure the top of Owl Creek Pass would have been, though we did get another view of the pretty scenery. We spent a total of nine and a half hours in the truck. It's a good thing we like each other.

And since we spent The Whole Day driving yesterday, the girls and I made our Memorial Day cake today instead.



They ate the watermelon Cora was so desperate to buy from the store. It lived up to her expectations.


Overall, it really was a lovely long weekend. I hope everyone else enjoyed plenty of great food, relaxation, and great family time too!

Beautiful.

Since the last post showed my kiddo with rags in her hair, I thought it only fitting to post a few pictures of the finished product.




Please don't think I EVER allow my eight year old daughter out of the house with make-up on. I don't. Except when it's picture day at the dance studio, and make-up is part of the costume. I had fun getting her all made up though. Ninety percent of the time Chloe is my tomboy, with her hair hanging in her face or a limp braid down her back, usually with food or paint smudges on her face and dirt under her fingernails. And I love her like that. But she sure does clean up nice, doesn't she? Looking at these pictures causes a little bit of panic to set in: my little girl is growing up fast!

And here's a picture of the Littlest One, all done up and trying on her costume.

I'll post more pictures from the actual performance in a couple of weeks. :-)

A Belated Mother's Day Craft

One of the best things about my mother in law is her true love of handmade gifts... especially if the girls are involved in the making of them.

With that in mind, we had fun making her Mother's Day gift this year: handmade cloth napkins "stamped" with real flowers.

I sewed the napkins first - 10" squares with the edges narrowly hemmed. Nothing fancy, but my standard napkin "recipe".

Then the fun began.

Using Tulip Soft fabric paint thinned with a couple of drops of water, we brushed the paint onto real flowers and leaves cut from a bouquet from the grocery store, and a few cut from our own plants that are blooming.

And then we "stamped" the flower image on the napkins.



The girls had tremendous fun picking out which flower they would do next, and getting paint all over their fingers.

Please pardon the rags in her hair. It was picture
day at the dance studio.

And the result was very pretty, I thought.
There were a dozen napkins total, though I think the girls would have happily painted them all day if they could have.
And Grandma seemed very happy with the results, which is really all that mattered.

The Trials and Tribulations of City Gardening

It's going to be a miracle if my garden actually manages to produce anything this year.

Certainly my lack of motivation is about half the problem. For some reason, planting carrots just wasn't high on my list of Fun Things To Do this spring.

But that's only half of it.

Then there are the neighbor's cats. Or the stray cats that have adopted my neighbors, because they set out food for them. They eat at the neighbor's house, then come on over to the giant litter box in my backyard to do their business. So far, they've dug up my cucumber seeds, my entire cold frame, half the beets, half a row of beans, and my second planting of lettuce. I go to all the work of fluffing up the soil to plant, and it would appear that freshly-fluffed soil appeals to cats in search of a pooping spot. Nice.

And of course, city gardening wouldn't be complete without wretched, Round-up wielding neighbors, would it? For the past three years no one has lived in the house behind us. Each year the weeds grow waist high, with no one coming along to even bother with mowing them down. The weeds go to seed, the seed blows through the fence, and gives me more work to do in the garden. For three years I've been fighting the good fight, though admittedly I've done my fair share of grumbling about it.

But no more. Oh no, the new renters will not let those weeds grow! Nope, instead, they'll spray them with Round-up, right up to (and through) the fence. "Never mind the poor girl on the other side of the fence doing her best to grow organic vegetables for her family to eat," they say. My spinach and turnip greens are now covered in yellow spots where the overspray landed on them. The tomato plants I've nurtured from seed for the past three months are riddled with dead spots.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GARDEN WITH THIS?!

Ahem. Please, excuse my outburst. But seriously, I'm peeved. I think I'd rather be out in the country, fending off deer and rabbits and raccoons.

As we speak, my sweet eight year old is out in the back yard, nose buried in Little Bear's Outdoor Adventure Guide for the All American Boy. She's studying the trap-building chapter with the intention of luring neighborhood cats into the backyard so that they can be trapped.

I sure hope it works.