Thursday, April 13, 2017
Reading
Clark is following in Madison's footsteps and has become quite the reader. He loves Goodnight Gorilla, Peedie, Dear Zoo, and other flap books. It's nice Madison has such a good memory--sometimes I convince her to read to Clark. I usually get up early with Clark in the mornings (he cried harder when he see's Tyler enter the room in the morning) and the two of us just read.
So Long Lovie
Madison's blanket. Clearly she hasn't been sleeping with this for a while. We actually took it away and put it on top of the grandfather clock because it has some safety issues with it. I decided it was just time to say goodbye. This is the blanket where we have turned back while driving from Provo to Midway just to retrieve it. It kind of broke my heart to tell Madison it was time to throw this thing out. She was obviously sad, but took the news as well as any 4 year old could. I let her have one last holding of it (where I caught her sucking her thumb...I thought we had broken the habit) and then into the trash it went. At one point I thought she might cry. I was the one to put it in the trash. She has another one she uses now.
Presidents Day
I know this is a while ago, but you can get into Mt. Vernon (George Washington's estate) for free on his b-day. Free just means we had to go. Unfortunately, Tyler still had class that afternoon with a quiz, so we could only stay for an hour. It was jammed. The weather was quite pleasant for this time of year. We didn't have time for a tour of the inside of his house. We will be back later this summer with some family.
Vanilla Yogurt
We pay between $.350-$3.80 for plain Greek yogurt. It can go really fast at our place. My mother-in-law told me about making yogurt. I decided to try it. Here are Lynn's instructions:
You can use powdered, skim, 1%, 2% or whole milk but the higher the fat content the thicker the yogurt will be. You can do as little or as much as you want but these amounts are for 8 cups of milk. Heat the milk to 185 degrees (using a candy thermometer) as milk cools add 1/2 cup of instant powdered milk adding it gradually to warm milk so it doesn't clump I. Optional is to add sugar. I added 1/3 cup but didn't think it was sweet enough. Next time I will try 1/2 cup. You can also had 1 or 2 tablespoons of vanilla if you want. Continue to cool milk down to 110-115 degrees then add 1/2 cup of plain yogurt that has live cultures )which I think is pretty much all yogurt.) mix it up and pour into 2 quart jars and put a lid on them. There are several ways to keep it warm for 8 hours or so but I put mine in the oven with the light on all night. By morning it was good to go. The longer you leave it the thicker it will get and the more tart. To make Greek yogurt strain the yogurt through a cheese cloth or something. Add fruit or jam to it and yummy. If you use powdered or skim milk and it turns out really runny you might try adding a packet of Knox gelatin next time. Lots of you tube videos out there.
We made one quart plain and one vanilla. For the quart vanilla we added 1 tbsp vanilla and 2 tbsp sugar. Not too sweet, but it takes the edge off of eating plain. We used whole milk because, well, that is the only milk we buy. Madison wants us to keep making the vanilla (who wouldn't want vanilla after having to eat plain all the time) I would call it a success.
You can use powdered, skim, 1%, 2% or whole milk but the higher the fat content the thicker the yogurt will be. You can do as little or as much as you want but these amounts are for 8 cups of milk. Heat the milk to 185 degrees (using a candy thermometer) as milk cools add 1/2 cup of instant powdered milk adding it gradually to warm milk so it doesn't clump I. Optional is to add sugar. I added 1/3 cup but didn't think it was sweet enough. Next time I will try 1/2 cup. You can also had 1 or 2 tablespoons of vanilla if you want. Continue to cool milk down to 110-115 degrees then add 1/2 cup of plain yogurt that has live cultures )which I think is pretty much all yogurt.) mix it up and pour into 2 quart jars and put a lid on them. There are several ways to keep it warm for 8 hours or so but I put mine in the oven with the light on all night. By morning it was good to go. The longer you leave it the thicker it will get and the more tart. To make Greek yogurt strain the yogurt through a cheese cloth or something. Add fruit or jam to it and yummy. If you use powdered or skim milk and it turns out really runny you might try adding a packet of Knox gelatin next time. Lots of you tube videos out there.
We made one quart plain and one vanilla. For the quart vanilla we added 1 tbsp vanilla and 2 tbsp sugar. Not too sweet, but it takes the edge off of eating plain. We used whole milk because, well, that is the only milk we buy. Madison wants us to keep making the vanilla (who wouldn't want vanilla after having to eat plain all the time) I would call it a success.
Easter Egg Hunt
Church play group is every Thursday. We haven't made it in a while. One of the moms put together an Easter egg hunt today. The rules were simple--bring ten eggs for each kid. They had eggs for the little ones (fishy crackers/fruit loops/ect) and eggs for the older kids. Over thirty kids showed up. The children went into the gym while some of the moms hid eggs on the grass outside. The little kids went first in an area roped off (most eggs were just sitting in front of you on the grass) and after them it was time for the rest of the children. Clark and Madison had a blast! Madison has been asking for a while when we would do an egg hunt.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Sunday Photo Shoot
Has it been since Christmas? Time seems to fly by these days. It's not even 6 in the morning and I've been sitting in bed since 4:45 trying to go back to sleep...figured I would get up and do something useful. I found a church outfit for Clark hiding in our basement. We bought it on clearance last year. It was so cute I knew we needed pictures of his and Madison.
This one is my favorite. Doesn't Madison look slightly mischievous and an innocent Clark? This is pretty accurate of them, except sometimes Clark isn't so innocent anymore.
This one is my favorite. Doesn't Madison look slightly mischievous and an innocent Clark? This is pretty accurate of them, except sometimes Clark isn't so innocent anymore.
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