Kindergarten

This morning as Abby got ready for school and I was fixing her hair , I realized this is her last week of kindergarten.  When I picked her up today just before lunch she was bring home all her journals.  I opened it up to one page and this is what it said: "I love my mom because she kisses me and hugs me, and tucks me in to bed and reads me a story"

 

She held me hand as we walked home and I realized how kindergarten age is my  favorite of all.  They're so fun and still show so much love to everyone around them, plus I'm still her favorite person!

We ate lunch today on the porch, just me and my little side kicks.  Now they're off to play around the yard.

Now this sweet little one might be cute but she's at that stubborn age, I keep hoping will pass.  This morning she went to a friends house and I missed having her continuously asking questions.  What a fun age.

Rhubarb surprise!

Every year spring brings so much excitement and anticipation.  I love the green grass, the flowering trees and being about to see color in my flower bed.  Right now I have mini tomatoes growing in my garden, radishes popping up all over, fresh lettuce and I am eagerly awaiting the cucumber, watermelon, pumpkins and broccoli to pop us.  But in the spring one of my favorite things is the Rhubarb, not to just pick and eat but to have in a Rhubarb cobbler.  It's my favorite and I love having it for my birthday each year.  This year I'll be gone for my birthday and so I had to make this early.

Here is my recipe:

 First pick good rhubarb.  If the rhubarb gets to wide, it gets stringy and isn't as sweet when cooked

Cut the tops of the rhubarb and the end also, then wash it up really good.

Chop the rhubarb into small pieces, you will need about 4 cups:

Here's the magic ingredients that you will need to make this wonderful dessert!

So lets get started, here's how to make this:

Put the rhubarb in a bowl and pour 1 1/2 cups of sugar over the top

Next add lemon juice, salt, tapioca and almond extract (optional)

The almond extract is optional, but it adds a wonderful flavor

Mix all this together really well in the bowl.  Then place this in a buttered baking dish

I used mini dishes, so that I could give a few away to some ladies in my neighborhood.

In another bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Then cut in the butter and shortening.

Mix together the milk and egg.  Pour into the flour mixture and stir with fork until combined

Then take blobs of the dough and place on top of the rhubarb

Keep putting the blobs on until fully covered

Sprinkle with additional sugar (about 1-2 Tbsp.)

Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes

Enjoy with ice cream or whipped topping!

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh Rhubarb

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Tapioca

1/2 tsp Almond Extract (optional, but recommended)

2 cups Flour

2 Tbsp Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/4 cup Butter

1/4 cup Shortening

1/2 cup Milk

1 Egg

1-2 Tbsp Sugar

Kids 72 hour kit

I just spent one hour fixing this post and when I saved it and added one item on my iPhone blogger app, it changed everything back to how it was before I started my editing.  Wow, I don't have time to recreate this post right now.  So.... editing will be redone tomorrow.  

72 hour kits, I can they can be very overwhelming!!!  While living in Kauai we acquired a very good 72 hour kit, but we were evacuated from our house multiple times for tsunami warnings.  Now that I don't live in Kauai, I need a few different items and I needed complete different organization.  My children are all getting a little older and I felt they could each use their own kits.  Plus, I could not budge that huge tote that held all of our stuff.  I did a lot of searching on the internet and found lots of great ideas.  The system I chose helped me divide everything into individual ziplock packs.  I organized by having like items put together and having different categories.  Clothing, Food, Emergency Items, Hygiene, Light, Fun and Money.  This way when I needed to rotate food items I could pull out the ziplock pack with food and not have to get everything out and create a huge mess.  The Light and Money categories are stuck in with the other packs.  

***Note this is a kids 72 hours kit.  My husband and my kits have a lot more items.   

Clothing:

long sleeve shirt, sweat pants, jacket, 3 underwear, 3 socks, hat, gloves, poncho, shoes 

I am lucky in that I have 4 girls all two years apart in age.  Their clothes can rotate from one pack to another, so that I only have to replace the oldest child's.  
*Tip: Find shoes at garage sales.  Recently I purchased each girls tennis shoes, still in excellent condition at a garage sale for $1 each.  If they are not going to be wearing the shoes unless needed in an emergency, don't worry about the shoes being the cutest top of line shoes that just match an outfit perfectly.

Food:

3 water bottles, emergency energy food, snacks and goodies (cereal bars, dehydrated fruit, granola bars, fruit snacks, suckers, jolly ranchers, EmergenC vitamin packets to flavor water)

Though more water is recommended, my children could not carry more water than this.  I generally have a few cases of water near the car we could grab in the case of an evacuation.  

Emergency Essentials store has MRE's and emergency power bars that last up to 5 years and have enough calories in them for multiple meals.  Using these has made the rotation easier because I rs and have enough calories to last for 72 hours.  They are great for me, because now only have to worry about rotating out the snacks yearly and the main food items every 5 years.  My hubby and I have more food items in our kits, but when packing food remember to choose food that isn't salty or you will be thirsty.

Hygiene:

toothbrush, toothpaste, chapstick, soap, washcloth, antibacterial gel, tissues, sunscreen, shampoo

Emergency kit:

small first aid kit, emergency blanket, 6 hot hands, whistle/compass, pocket knife, face masks
Sorry you can't make out everything in the kit, but it is all listed.  My younger two girls do not have pocket knives in their packs, they are young and that just wouldn't be safe.  Every kit has to be changed for ages of children.

Light:

flashlight, batteries, matches, candle

Glow sticks can also be fun for kids and can be found on great clearance sales right after Halloween.  Batteries need to be rotated out every two years and it's a great idea to have an extra set of batteries in each pack.

Money:

small bills and coins

Don't carry a lot of cash in their packs, but place them in clothes or the emergency kit bag.  Each child only has about $10 each

Fun:

post-it notes, notepad, crayons, pen, pencil, bean bag, dice, card game

I only packed one bean bag amongst 4 children and changed the crayons to colored pencils so I wouldn't risk them melting.  Each child has a different card game based on their ages.

Another important item to have is copies of your child's records.  You may need their immunization records, addresses and phone numbers emergency contacts, an emergency plan and always have a current family picture.

Here are all our bags lined up in the garages, ready to go!

Here is a link to the LDS preparedness checklist

The American Red Cross has some great information on putting together emergency kits. 

Teachers Appreciation Week & 5K

We had a fun week with teachers appreciation week!  I was on the committee this year and so we took the entire staff out for dinner at Olive Garden, took them in a muffin breakfast, had a Soup/Salad lunch (I made cheddar/brocolli soup for this) and had a dessert bar (I made cookies for this).  It was so much fun and I really enjoyed doing the heart attack on all the doors while the teachers were at the Olive Garden.

I found these cute pictures on pinterest, and yes I did waste alot of time on here that day.  I thought they looked fun and so Hailey and Alyssa gave these to their teachers.

And Abby gave this one to her teacher,

Another day my girls took these into their teachers

After teaching as a volunteer for the first 7 months of school, I know other kids brought me in gifts for Christmas and Valentines so I had the girls give each of their teachers, aides/specialty teachers, all of them, a A&W that said "You're an A&Wesome Teacher!" 

Then on Friday for the 5K they took their teachers chocolate dipped pretzels that looked like pencils.  I dipped them in yellow chocolate and then when hardened the ends were dipped in orange chocolate for and eraser.  The last touch was I piped green chocolate in an '2' on the side with a little oval under it so that they were #2 pencils.

Here are my girls at the 5K, I do have to say that I felt sorry for them.  Neither John nor I are runners and my girls don't really have much of a chance to be runners.  Hailey did a good job, but didn't enjoy it at all!

Alyssa enjoyed the run and finished it in 34 minutes, but .....

she must have had fun, she was smiling after the race!

Hailey I think was only smiling because she was with her friends and had a popsicle   Her mom had to run beside her lots during the race to keep her going.  I had to keep telling her that she could do it and could keep going if mom was.  She really did do good though.