Strawberry Cake to Celebrate!

Today we celebrated my moms birthday. I'm pretty certain she would not appreciate me sharing which birthday we celebrated though. 


Awhile back my mom told the kids she was going to have a special birthday celebration{for herself; someday} for the grandkids only. Audrey was especially excited.
So, when my moms birthday rolled around Audrey was fully expecting to go to Mimi and Papa's house and have a grandkids only birthday party. Complete with lanterns hanging from the trees.
Since that wasn't on the agenda this year we decided to give her a birthday dinner here at our house tonight. 
Owen and Audrey helped me pick out the cake ingredients, plates and balloons at the store so that helped build their excitement for Mimi's dinner celebration. 
Mimi requested Chicken Parmesan for dinner and we made Strawberry Cake for dessert! 
The strawberry cake recipe is one that my mom usually makes any time an occasion calls for cake so we knew it was one she would like! 

I decided I should share the recipe with others because its that good! So, without further ado I give you 

STRAWBERRY CAKE with Real Strawberries

CAKE: 1 package white cake mix 1 package jell-o gelatin, strawberry 1/2 cup frozen strawberries 1/2 cup water 1 cup oil 4 eggs Mix jell-o and cake mix together. Add water and oil; mix on medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add berries.Bake at 325°F. for 30-45 minutes in greased and floured 9x13-inch baking pan. ICING: 1 pound powdered sugar 1/4 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup frozen strawberries Cream butter, powdered sugar and strawberries together. Spread on cooled cake.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.
I had help with this one!

Add the oil, eggs and water into the dry mixture.

Puree the strawberries.

Add strawberries into cake batter.

Pour into greased pan.

We were so excited to actually get to eat the cake I forgot to take pictures of the icing being made. But, it was easy and tasted delicious!

Here is the final product!! So yummy!

All About the Moon {project and links included}

Last week in science we learned about the Earth.
This week for Science we're learning about the Moon.
 {Don't you love how I said we're learning about the Moon?! It's even a learning experience for me!:)} 
As I had been sifting through Pinterest for different solar system ideas I ran across some really fun ideas focusing on phases of the Moon. So, of course, I pinned them. 
Today we got to put those fun ideas to practice by creating our very own 

Oreo Cookie Moon Phases!

Elisa working hard.

Shaping the crescent phase.

Ava's final project.

Pretty sure Owen was taking some licks.

 Elisa's phases of the moon. 

Our science project also doubled as our morning snack {hey! don't judge!}

Audrey enjoying her moons.

Ava enjoying her full moon.

Owie with a mouth full!

 

Elisa texting pictures of her projects to her friends. 

We also checked out some cool sites about the Moon in general  or the phases of the Moon.

We watched a youtube about the phases of the moon. {disclaimer: there is a reference to Islam at the beginning of this video but otherwise great info}

I got a lot of ideas and info from this blog: Teach Mama

She links to this site which is from July 2007 but it's specifically about the Moon. We also clicked the current  month/year and learned what we can be watching for in the sky this month!

Leap Day

This year was a Leap Year. So in celebration we had a little Leap Day Party with our fellow homeschool families from our church body. My sweet friend Emily made the kids a cake and we played a few Leap Day themed games. The weather was amazing- close to 80 on Feb 29th! 

The awesome cake! 

There were several younger kids who asked 'who's turning 29??' 

Some of the kids getting ready for the cake.

Audrey being silly.

Audrey, her friend and Owen being silly.

The big kids playing ribbit, ribbit, hop.

The younger kids playing.

Edible Earth

I've decided to come out of blog hiding. Mostly because I want to start documenting our life again.
I feel like I've come out of a haze. That would be pregnancy, in itself; in general.
Our homeschooling is going really great right now. Like, the best its been in the 5 years that we've been homeschooling. Everything is flowing so smoothly. Maybe I shouldn't breath so I don't mess that up.....
But, I feel so much more productive.
On the note of being productive I've started making a schedule for us every day. I'm adding in tiny details. Like, cut up the carrots and put them in the crockpot.
Because, if I didn't, it probably wouldn't get done. And, then, at 4:30 I would realize I never put the carrots in the crockpot. And, thats no bueno.


Back to homeschooling-and the point of this blog post.
We are doing Apologia Astronomy this year. And we're all- yes I said all, including me- loving it! We're currently on the planet Earth. So, today we made an edible Earth. We learned all the reason why the Earth is the only- and perfect- planet for human existence. We also learned the layers of the Earth.
And here is what they are-

The M&M represented the inner core (chocolate middle) and outer core (candy coating)
We then surrounded the M&M with Rice Crispy Treats to represent the mantle layer. (The rice crispies reinforce the molten rock and all...just kidding I didn't realize that until it was too late)

We formed the Rice Crispy (with the M&M inside) into a sphere

Like the Earth...ha, get it?

Next we dipped the Rice Crispy Treat Sphere into melted almond bark. 

This represented the crust. 

Once it was hardened it made much more sense. :)

Here is a plate of edible Earths. As they were hardening some of them started to lose their shape. I'm guessing due to the weight of the hardening almond bark vs the not yet hardened rice crispy treat.

My plan was too color some almond bark green and blue- you know, for the water and land. I did actually color two bowls of those colors but the colors never actually ever made it to the Earths. Doing this project with a 4 yr old, 2 yr old and 4 month old (along with the 2 big kids) we were lucky to get as far as we did before the Rice Crispies hardened without being shaped and the almond bark hardened without anything being dipped in it!


All in all this was a super fun project that the kids loved! And I really think creating the edible layers and talking about them as we went along will help stick the actual Earth layers into their minds. 


These times make me really thank the Lord that He is allowing me this privilege of being able to stay home and homeschool my kiddos.