Month: September 2016

Tasty Tuesday–Apple Cider Milkshakes

After we went apple picking last week, and came home with a gallon of apple cider, I decided I wanted to make apple cider milkshakes. I couldn’t really find a recipe that I liked, so I played around with it a little bit until I had the proportions right. I used two scoops of Edy’s Washington Apple Pie ice cream, and four scoops of Caramel Delight (I have a pretty small ice cream scoop, so you may use fewer scoops than I did), but there are so many ways you could prepare it to your taste…vanilla, caramel, apple pie, and cinnamon ice creams would all work well, in whatever proportions you prefer! I garnished mine with a cinnamon stick because I was feeling fancy…you could also drizzle some caramel sauce on top, or add an apple slice, or whatever else sounds good to you!

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  • 1 cup apple cider
  • 6 scoops of ice cream

Blend cider and ice cream until smooth. Garnish as desired.

September 11 Memorial Walkway of Southern Illinois

Last week, we visited the brand new September 11 Memorial Walkway of Southern Illinois, located in Belleville right in front of Engine House #4.

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There is a 343 foot walkway, representing the 343 firefighters that died in the attacks. Placed along both sides of the walkway are signs that detail the timeline of the attacks, down to the minute they occurred.

The heart of the memorial is a pair of concrete pillars, which represent the twin towers, set on a pentagon, which represents the Pentagon Building in Washington D.C. Supported by the pillars is a twisted beam that was part of the World Trade Center, and which Belleville acquired in 2012.

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This is just phase one of the memorial. They are also planning on adding an area off of the walkway to represent the field in Shanksville, PA, where Flight 93 crashed, as well as some seating near the parking lot.

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This is a beautiful memorial. We first saw the beam a few years ago when we were visiting the fire station, and we watched with interest as they created the walkway. There is something special about walking through it, though, and taking time to read all the signs and remember.

A Trio of Double-Decker Buses

I didn’t realize it until Ryan pointed it out to me, but I appear to be collecting Lego double-decker buses:

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The first one I got came with the Tower Bridge as a kind of micro build, and I thought it was tiny…but I was still impressed by the amount of detail in it, and how immediately identifiable it was. Of course, I didn’t know tiny until I built the even smaller bus that came with Buckingham Palace! And yet, despite the fact that it uses only seven bricks, it’s still also identifiable! My largest bus came as a free-with-purchase, and while it completely dwarfs the other two, it’s still nowhere near minifig scale.

They look pretty cute together!

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Now that I have these three displayed in various places around the house, I have to hope that someday, Lego will offer a dedicated double-decker bus set. Maybe minifig scale, or even bigger? But not too much bigger, because there’s no way I’d ever be able to afford a bus set built on the same scale as the Mini Cooper and the VW Beetle that Lego has offered in recent years!

Lego Buckingham Palace

I spent the afternoon today working on my latest Lego London landmark: Buckingham Palace!

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I was impressed right from the start with the tiling that represents the street, the gardens, and the pedestrian access:

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There were tons of tiny pieces in this set. I also encountered some very unique building techniques, but it still came together rather quickly.

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As always, I was impressed with the level of detail in the set, including the fence out front, the double decker bus (my third of varying sizes!), the flag flying over the palace (I guess Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is in?), and the Victoria Memorial out front:

One of the best parts of the Architecture series are the instruction books. They don’t just include directions for building the model, they also include a history of the building, trivia, and some beautiful photos!

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I’m very happy with how it turned out!

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We now have Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace decorating our living room. The large-scale Big Ben will be joining them eventually (the smaller Architecture model is in our school room), and I’ve heard a rumor that next year, there is also going to be a Lego London skyline Architecture set, which I’m really excited about! The more London landmarks that decorate our home, the happier I am. Even if I can’t visit that city, I can admire its beautiful architecture, Lego style!

2016-17 School Year–Week Four

Just this morning, Turkey asked me if we had really already completed four weeks of school. I have to admit, I’m as surprised as he is!

We have finally left the review stage of math. Turkey and Bunny aren’t necessarily thrilled about that, especially when they were given a page of algebraic equations containing absolute values to solve, but hopefully they’ll survive. They did do a great on this week’s math test, as did Ladybug!

In science, Ladybug is learning about different kinds of whales, including dolphins, porpoises, and my favorite, narwhals. Turkey and Bunny have been learning more about air, including air pollution, and how some pollution (especially lead) has been almost eradicated since the 1970s.

Our history lessons have focused on both Afghanistan and Africa in the mid-1800s. We learned about the growing tensions between Britain and Russia, and how that shaped Afghanistan. We also learned about David Livingstone and his commitment to the people of Africa.

Turkey and Bunny are currently both working on their first big essay of the year in writing. Turkey has chosen to write about he history of Lego, and Bunny is (surprisingly for the first time in her academic career) writing about rabbits. Ladybug’s writing continues to be similar to her work last year, but now she is working on summarizing longer passages. This week’s readings came from a family favorite book: Homer Price. She is also continuing to work on diagramming sentences…thankfully, she still thinks that’s fun!

While reading through The Blue Fairy Book, we have come across some stories that I don’t ever remember having heard before, but that Turkey insists I read to him at some point. I guess I don’t listen to myself read very well! Treasure Island continues to leave us in suspense at the end of every chapter…I’m trying very hard not to read ahead to find out happens!

We may not have gone a big field trip this week, but we did visit the September 11 Memorial Walkway of Southern Illinois, which had phase one completed just in time for the fifteenth anniversary of 9-11. We had seen the World Trade Center remnant at the fire station before, but walking along the path and reading all the signs was a very moving experience, and, for the children, an educational one, as well.

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Apple Picking 2016

Since Moose had a half-day of school today, and it wasn’t too terribly hot, we decided to go apple picking at Eckert’s.

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The wagon ride to the orchard was fun. Picking apples was…not. We were told that due to the extreme heat and excess rain this summer, many of the apples were blemished, so we should look them over carefully before picking. This may have been an understatement. We discovered many apples rotting on the trees…even ones that looked good from the front would be completely rotten in back. The whole orchard smelled like bad wine, I assume from all of the rotting fruit on both the ground and the trees. We picked only about 13 pounds before we gave up (that may sound like a lot, but when you have five children, they disappear quickly!). It was a good lesson in the many obstacles that farmers have to overcome, though!

After our less than successful trip to the orchard, we visited the play area. The children always want to have their picture taken in the big apple!

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They also played some miniature golf and visited the goats and zebu. The animals always make us laugh!

Of course we had to visit the country store, and buy some apple cider!

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This wasn’t our best trip to pick apples, but at least it put us in a fall kind of mood!

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My Mary Blair Obsession

It’s no secret that I love Mary Blair, an artist who created illustrations for Little Golden Books and also worked as an animator for Disney beginning in the 1940s, on films including Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland. She even posthumously won the Winsor-McCay award for her contributions to animation, and a Disney Legend award for her contributions to the Disney Company. Pinup Girl Clothing has a collection that was made as part of a collaboration with her estate, and features her whimsical artwork and bold colors. It was thanks to this collection that I first learned about Mary Blair’s work and legacy early in 2015. I have added quite a few of these pieces to my wardrobe, and now I have transportation, animal, and other novelty prints in both skirts and dresses. While not all of my Pinup Girl  outfits feature Mary Blair, well over half of the skirts and dresses I’ve purchased do have her artwork. I don’t have every Mary Blair print Pinup Girl has produced, but I do think it has become a full-blown obsession for me!

Bullfrog and Butterflies

Yesterday, I shared some pictures of my new Mary Blair butterflies Nancy dress from Pinup Girl Clothing. I played around with styling it a little bit, and I love the way it looks with my Laura Byrnes bolero. The dress itself is a little busy to wear with a brooch, but the bolero provides a nice solid background to pin one on, and I really like the way this Erstwilder (bull)frog brooch goes with the outfit, both in color and in theme!

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Atomic Butterflies

This Nancy dress from Pinup Girl Clothing is the Mary Blair print that almost wasn’t mine. I ordered the dress last winter, but I sized up, because I was still figuring out how Pinup Girl styles fit me. Unfortunately, that was a huge mistake, and I ended up with a dress that, while it had gorgeous atomic colors of bright yellow, green, and pink on a cool grey background, and a fun butterfly pattern, was huge on me…baggy and too long and just plain awful. At the time, I simply returned it, because I didn’t want to take a chance that my normal size would be too small. I was disappointed, though, because I really loved the colors and print, and this dress continues to be the only item of clothing with that design.

Fortunately for me, Pinup Girl had a sale over Labor Day weekend, and I was able to save an additional 25% off the already-on-sale price, making the dress almost half-off! I was still worried about the sizing, but the fit is perfect, and of course I still love the atomic colors and the fanciful butterflies! I’m also glad to have added another style of dress to my wardrobe, especially since it’s in a fantastic Mary Blair print!