Baking therapy

I have written about how the boys love to garden.  We work in the garden every day.  This week we had about 2 cups of raspberries that I was able to hide from Matthew.  I bought the other 4 cups.

The boys and I made raspberry jelly Friday night.

We poured the raspberries in a pot.  Jon used a potato masher to mash the raspberries.

Next we poured 4 cups of sugar in the pot.

Last we stirred the raspberries and sugar.  I did most of this since I didn't want the boys to get hurt.

I stirred it until it stuck to the a spoon.  Then put it in a canning jar.

We used the raspberry jelly to make cupcakes yesterday.  It was a rainy day and the boys were boarded.

We adapted this recipe and made lemon cupcakes with a raspberry filling and lemon butter cream icing.

I made the cupcake recipe.

And by doing so got our hands a bit dirty.  This was a sensory activity.

After they were done baking and cooling we cored out the center.  The boys loved eating the cupcake holes as they called them.

Next we filled with the raspberry jelly we made on Friday.

We had to use fine motor skills to do this as he had to squeeze the bag to get the jelly out.  This was also a sensory activity for Chris since he hates getting sticky things on his fingers.

I adapted the Wilton buttercream recipe a bit to make it work with this lemon raspberry cupcake.

I added 1/2 cup more of 10X sugar, lemon juice from 1 lemon, and about a teaspoon of lemon extract.  I also tinted it a light yellow using food coloring.

I practiced my decorating since I'm still learning and decorated the cupcakes 2 ways.

The cupcakes seemed to taste better when refrigerated.  I put the in overnight.

While we were making the jelly we talked about colors and textures.  While making the cupcakes we talked about colors, measurements, textures, hot vs. cold and how they tasted.  I think the highlight for the boys was when I squirted some of the left over icing in their mouths!

Week 6 of our Friday Fun Day

This week we had ESY Monday through Friday 8:30-12:30 for Chris.  Jon and Matthew had speech on Monday and Matthew had OT on Thursday.

This week we enjoyed a trio that we dubbed "Eat Me, Meat Me, and Moe" 

We ate those for my birthday dinner on Sunday.

This week we worked hard outside.

We enjoyed our garden

We had more raspberries today but I didn't take a picture.  I'm going to make some jelly with them.  I need to go get more raspberries from our farmer's market though.

Our friend came back to play with us

We played with our bubbles.

We were a bit silly by growing another set of arms.

We went to the 4H fair here.  My mother-in-law made me almost pee my pants! *ok not for real but when you see something like this it tends to make you scream (and hide behind your father-in-law)*

Yes, that is a snake they are holding.

We saw baby cows.

We had a sheep talk to us

We transformed into a pumpkin and scarecrow.

We pretended we were milking cows.

Finally we enjoyed cotton candy that was bigger than we were!

We sure did pack a lot into this week.  Summer will be ending soon and school will be back in September.  

We had a wonderful week and are looking forward to what next week will bring us.

Friday Fun Day week 5: Cloudy days

The week started out wonderfully!  

We made tree rubbings.

We played hide and seek.

We met a new friend in our garden.

We played outside in the rain.  We pretended we were airplanes and birds flying around.

We ate a yummy dessert for snack *and made a new use for mommy's wine glasses since mommy doesn't use them for wine*

We went to the library and got library cards then went to play at the park next to the library.

And about 5 minutes after being at the park we had an accident.  Matthew fell down a slide and landed on his left arm.  He broke both bones in his left arm close to his wrist.  

We are leaving soon to get his cast on.  I called around and one place wanted to wait until sometime next week. We're going to CHOP and having it done today.  He's broken 5 bones *his right foot when he was 2, 2 in his left foot when he was 4, and 2 now.  This kid needs a something other than a break!

Week 4 of Friday Fun Week

This week we had ESY for Chris Monday through today from 8:30 to 12:30.  Jon and Matthew had speech on Monday from 11:45 to 12:15.  Matthew had OT yesterday from 8:45 to 9:15.

We had a nudist

We had a bunch of fun in the sun

We got a bit cold on a sunny day

Got so muddy from jumping in the puddles that we had to take a mid-day bath

And dumped all the toys all over the floor while in a naughty fit of rage and started playing the crocodile.

We baked yummy treats...so yummy Chris took them to school Thursday and Friday since they were finished Wednesday night :)

We also enjoyed fruits  veggies of our labor

Overall, it's been an amazing week and this weekend should prove to be as well.  We have the night tonight without kids and will be working on things for a yard sale on Sunday.  We are going to see Harry Potter tomorrow to celebrate my birthday a week early.

Friday/Monday Fun Day: Summer Fun week 3

I didn't get this out on Friday.  Mama was too tired!

This week has been hot, hot, hot!  Today the car registered 108!  If it weren't for Sarah Palin I'd be hopping on a plane to Alaska!

To keep the boys cool inside we played video games

We also watched an "Oldie but goodie" movie as the kids would have said in "Mario" .  I popped some popcorn in our airpopper.

We worked in our garden as much as we could.

And picked some green beans and peas.

We stayed in the A/C all week and laid low as much as we could.  It was too hot to do much of anything else!