a little gardening and a rainbow

~playing in the giant dirt mountain~


~broccoli crown!!!!!!~

~Clover doing a little weeding~

~beautiful rainbow~

cookie Monday...

.....a day late!

Yesterday was simply too busy with un-packing. We couldn't squeeze cookie making into our busy schedule of cleaning out the bus, doing laundry, and catching up on gardening.

So, Nova had his turn with baking this afternoon. He decided to make orange cranberry button cookies. Yum!





To make these, you need:

* 1 C organic sugar
* 12 Tbsp. organic butter, softened
* 1 large egg
* 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
* 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
* 1/4 tsp. baking soda
* 1/3 C dried cranberries, chopped (we used the apple juice sweetened ones)
* 1 Tbsp. organic minced orange peel
* 2 tsp. organic orange extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the sugar and butter until very soft. Add the egg & beat until smooth.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and orange peel. Beat until well mixed.

Add the chopped cranberries, orange peel, and orange extract. Beat until just blended and cranberries look evenly distributed throughout batter.

We used a melon baller to scoop up little balls of dough. Roll them into walnut-sized balls & place on ungreased cookie sheet. To make the "buttons", flatten the ball with the bottom of a shot glass. Use a wooden skewer to poke "button holes" into the cookie.

Let bake for 7-9 minutes and cool a bit before removing from cookie sheet!

Eat and enjoy!

Shakori Hills bluegrass festival

We spent the weekend camping with friends at the Shakori Hills Grass Roots Festival. It was so much fun! We saw Bela Fleck, The Hackensaw Boys, and little bits of lots of other musical talents! The best part was camping with good friends. I love to see the kids run and play all day, sit around the campfire, and enjoy being outside all weekend. I took tons of pictures. Here are just a few:

~festive festival wagons~



~face painting~




~campsite cooking (and eating!!)~


~dancing with glow sticks at one of the late shows~




~fun with friends~



~and home again~

music in the garden

As part of our local geography week #3, we are visiting some of the historical places in our community. One place that I have always loved is an English garden near downtown. It is beautiful and peaceful, and there was a concert in the park today (hammer dulcimer & singing). So, we had a wonderful field trip. My grandparents and my mom (Nana) met us. We ate popcorn and listened to music.




After the concert, we took a long walk and played on the swings. I talked about a little local history as we walked, and we observed the flora (pine trees and oaks, azaleas, crepe myrtles) and fauna (lots of squirrels and robins) of the area. We also talked about the *topography* - that is one of our spelling words for the week! It was lots of fun.

cookie (bar) Monday

Indigo chose to make lemon bars for his baking day project. They were so delicious! This week, I'm going to be ambitious & type out the recipe!

For the crust~
* 2 C unbleached organic flour
* 3/4 C organic sugar
* 3/4 C organic butter, softened
For the filling~
* 2 C organic sugar (I used a little less)
* 1/4 C fresh lemon juice
* 4 large eggs
* 2 tsp. grated lemon peel (fresh, not dried)
* 1/8 tsp. celtic sea salt
* 1/4 C unbleached organic flour
* 1 tsp. baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the crust ingredients in a large bowl. Beat together until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
2. Press the crust mixture into an *ungreased* 9x13 baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned.



3. In another bowl, combine the sugar, lemon juice, eggs, grated lemon peel, and sea salt. Beat until well mixed.
4. Add the flour and baking powder and beat slowly until mixed.
5. Pour this mixture over the hot crust as soon as it comes out of the oven.
6. Put it back into the oven and cook for another 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting.
7. Sprinkle with a little organic powdered sugar if desired and cut into small squares.
8. Enjoy!!!

little garden & chick update

~Nova teaching Chicky Baby to sit on the nesting box~

~lemon balm and oregano~

~beautiful potato plants~

~cabbages and onions growing~

Friday co-op

Co-op on Friday was so much fun! It is amazing to me that the kids love to hear the same story over and over. This week was the third telling of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and everyone listened just as attentively as ever. My kids have been listening to this story every day for three weeks and they still love it!

Our craft was making billy goat masks. We used paper plates, crayons, and cotton balls for the billy goat beards. Everyone got a chance to have a part in the play. Nova loved being the little Billy Goat Gruff, and Willow was our first troll. We have the perfect bridge at co-op for trip-trapping little goats.





And ofcourse we had some free play in the woods....