Playing around....

My wonderful 12 year old daughter and I are in a community play together. We signed up because we thought it would be fun and it hasn't let us down.

My daughter plays, Ivy, a wacky and colorful character that literally likes to paint people's faces strange colors; it sounds too silly to be fun but she makes it work.

I play the villainous Veronica and it is hard! I'm afraid I don't make it look nearly as easy as my amazing 12 year old!

We only have one itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny little part that we interact with each other on stage.

It was written like so:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Oh, Ivy it is gold....who doesn't want to find gold?

So the opening night of the play we performed it straight! And then went about the rest of our business. It was just a part performed as asked.....but I was looking for a little bit of spice for my serious role and, like so often happens in live theater, ad libbing becomes part of the game.

So night 2 went like so:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Child, what is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head or something?

I hadn't let my daughter know I was going to say that, so she almost laughed out loud when I said that to her. Most of the crowd figured out, if they didn't already know, that she was my child and it was funny. It was a plain part made a little more clever...however, good enough can not be left alone!

That brings us to night 3, it went something like this:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Child, what is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head or something?

Ivy: Yes!

Oh. my. word! That simple affirmative was so funny. Since it was my turn to be surprised I had to bite my cheek to regain composure and I barely guffawed my next line out. I was tearing up and the audience was laughing so hard. It took quite a few moments to regain order enough to go on with the next line! When the audience quieted down - I practically ran to my next part! I had to escape that funny girl! It was one of those great moments that will be etched forever in my brain. My darling daughter said she won't forget the surprised look on my face and I'm sure I won't forget the delightful hilarity of it either. What a fun play!

That brings us to tomorrow - closing night....let's see what we can cook up!

Trick or Treat....

Fun with Fall!

Remember this? Well it has a new look - just for fall:

Fun Fall Crafts

A couple of weeks ago I was perusing this site and saw the cutest black spider web doilies. I knew that the kids and I would have to give it a go! So we did and I followed these instructions to the letter and kept messing up. They kept turning out like moldy snowflakes. Then I found these dear life saver instructions and all of a sudden I could keep up and our spiderwebs were great. (Here is another variation of a spiderweb with a great little video for those interested!)

Just as a little side note - teaching the kids how to cut a circle from a folded square sheet of paper was a wonderful math lesson! It will come in handy in future assignments!


Before next fall hits I hope to make some that will rival the ones on My Dear Trash. One can always hope! I also want to make some of those cute mice...did you notice those????

We also made spiders to go with our spider webs and these were just the run of the mill pom-pom ball and pipe cleaner craft, but they were a fun addition to the webs.

Another fall craft that the kids and I were able to knock off was the pumpkin mobile.


It was a very easy craft that we all pulled off together and hung up in the corner of the school room. Truth be told, I love to make pumpkin crafts because they are able to stay up until Thanksgiving so we can enjoy them longer.

In the next few weeks I would like to plan on the kids making:

scarecrows

sun prints

stained glass pumpkins

So do you have any fall crafting plans?

Fall Project

On October 1, the kids and I, along with some sweet family, ventured to the pumpkin patch! It was a great day and loads of fun.



See all those pumpkins, with the exception of 2 they all came home with me! I knew they wouldn't make it till Halloween so I set about trying to find out what to do with them. I stumbled upon this, on my favorite food blog! Pumpkin Puree, and I knew it would be the project for me since I love to bake with pumpkin!

First you take this:



and cut it in half. Then you gather a bunch of those kids and make them scoop the insides out, be careful sometimes those kids get a little rowdy with the goo!

(This is a messy project...doing this before they are dressed for the day just depends on how lazy brave you are!)

After all the goo is cleaned out take the sliced halves and put them in a 9X13 cut side down with about an inch of water in the pan. Place them in a 400 degree oven. I let mine cook for awhile till it smelled done and they were fork tender.





After it comes out of the oven wait until it cools then pop the pumpkins over and scoop out the pulp. Then give it a whirl in the food processor and it will look like baby food. At this point you have pumpkin puree but it has too much water in it - so it is time to get rid of the excess water.

You need one of these:

This is one of the most versatile kitchen utensils, if you don't have one - you need one!!!

Line the sieve with a coffee filter:



Then put the puree in the filter and let it go till it quits dripping. The finished puree has the same consistency as the store bought, but it is homemade!!!

Now what to do with all the goo? Rinse the goo in the colander until all that is left is the seeds. Spread the seeds out onto a cookie sheet and put a little oil on the seeds and salt.



Then roast for about 25 minutes at 325 degrees! A very yummy snack!


The finished products...the pumpkin seeds went fast!!!

The roasted pumpkin seed recipe is here and to see a little clearer instructions on the pumpkin puree check out Annie's Eats - it is one of my most favorite food blog!

Hope you enjoy making pumpkin puree...my kids are excited to see their hard work show up again in pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread!

Happy Fall!