Counting down to preschool

I have felt a resurgence in crafting and kid projects in the last few weeks.  Not only have I done a few projects to get Zaxxon ready for preschool, and just some fun stuff to do in general, but I've found myself making plans for Kal'El once Zaxxon is out of the house for a few hours every morning.  I've already done some prep work for the first few crafts I'll do with Kal'El alone, and I'm looking forward to it.  Zaxxon was right around Kal'El's age when I started crafting with him, and Kal'El always wants to join in when Zaxxon initiates a project, so he's definitely ready.  I'm excited!

But first, we have to follow along with Zaxxon for a bit longer.

Zaxxon is off to pre-K this year, which will be five mornings a week.  He only barely misses the cutoff to start kindergarten (by three weeks) but I think the extra year of preschool will work wonders for his social skills.

Just like last summer, I helped prepare Zaxxon for the start of preschool by making a visual calendar.

We drew a school bus, which Zaxxon decorated and cut out.

Then we made a paper chain, with one link for every day remaining before the start of preschool.  This time around, Zaxxon didn't need any help with the scissors.

He did ask for help with the stapler, and I think he was losing interest by that point.

But we had to finish the chain, because only once it was done could we tear off a link for the first day!

He is now tearing off a link every morning, so he can watch the chain get shorter and know when preschool is coming!

Soon to be tot school with my little tot!

Red, White, and Blue

In early July, I decided that Zaxxon and I ought to do a craft.  I didn't have anything specific in mind, I just intended to go down to the office, grab whatever supplies struck our fancy, and do something free-form.  Zaxxon came down to help me gather stuff, and when I went to cut off a piece of paper from the roll, he wanted it longer.  And longer. When he finally said it was okay, its shape reminded me of a flag.  It being only a few days until Independence Day, I decided that a flag was a fantastic idea.

So I grabbed everything I could find that was red, white, or blue, and up we went with glue, a small flag to use as a model, and all sorts of odds and ends.

I drew up the basic outline and indicated which color items should go in which area.  Then Zaxxon took off, filling in the spaces.

He started to get a little bored after a while, particularly with the long pieces of string, so I participated a lot, too.  I also added all the stars.  There are exactly fifty, like there should be.

After this project, Zaxxon was inspired.  He asked for more papers (smaller this time, but still the right shape) and he drew a good dozen flags all on his own.

This is one of my favorites

Even Kal'El joined in a little.  We made him a flag full of red and blue handprints.

Zaxxon made so many flags, he papered his bed with them.  Our house was quite patriotic for the 4th!

Kids crafting

I've fallen desolately behind on kid craft posts.  However, I haven't done all that much with the boys lately, so there isn't too much that I missed.  Here are some highlights of kiddie crafts, as I try to catch up on my photos in general.

Making birthday cards for Grammy (which was in March--you can see how far behind I am)

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I even let Kal'El paint now and then, these days

This wasn't a craft, but a "life school" moment.  We discovered a really awesome sledding hill near us when there was still barely enough snow to use it. In this pic, Zaxxon is the farthest away orange spot.  He had no hesitation to sled down this very steep and long hill by himself.  And see the closer orange spot?  That's a somewhat bigger girl who ran right over him at the bottom.

I hate it when things like that happen, because Zaxxon will be gung-ho about trying something new and fun, then he'll get hurt, and he'll clam up and not want to do it again.  The same happened here, but after much coaxing, discussing of safety and paying attention to the people around you, and a few rides with Mama or Dada, we convinced him to go by himself again.

Whee!

Kal'El sledded too, but only with one of us, because he's still too little to steer.

There's a cake recipe at the back of this book, and Zaxxon requested that we bake it.

Me and two kids baking at the same time was quite chaotic.  This is the first time I've done so, and I will have more advance prep work done next time.  They had fun though, and that's what matters.

Zaxxon made cards for his preschool teachers at the end of May

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Kal'El, playing around with a really BIG piece of paper

I had the boys decorate baseball caps for their Dada for Father's Day.

They had a blast (albeit a messy one) doing it

The finished products

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And making cards, also for Dada

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Ah, two-year-olds and paint!

Dada wore both at once for a while on Father's Day

Okay, so we're basically caught up until about a month ago.  Hoping to be more consistent again in the near future!

Easter Eggs (yes, in June)

This is extraordinarily belated, but I wanted to post about how we decorated our Easter Eggs this year.  We used Kool Aid packets!

I saw the idea on Facebook and then searched online for more information.  It was very simple, we just emptied the packets of powder into a cup and added 1/2 cup cold water.  There was no need to add vinegar or anything else, because the packets contain citric acid, which is already an acid (or so it said online.)

An added bonus of this method was that the house smelled really good while we dipped our eggs

Another added bonus was that the color didn't come off on my hands later on, when peeling the eggs.  That, in itself, made this experiment worthwhile.

And with the very cheap cost of Kool Aid packets, especially the store brand, this was actually cheaper than buying a dye kit

Our eggs.  Notice the duck photobombing it

Most of the colors turned out really nice.  I had to make my own green by mixing lemonade and the blue one (blue raspberry?  I can't remember anymore and the flavor is cut off) and it wasn't particularly vibrant, but that's okay.  Grape didn't make for very purple eggs either, they came out closer to black.  And lastly, my online source said to add a bit of orange or red to your lemonade because yellow isn't very strong.  I used food coloring for that instead of another portion of a packet, and accidentally added way too much--so no yellow this year.

Bean Soup

Okay, I'm gonna be a foodie today.  I actually boiled a ham bone into soup recently.  (And by recently, I mean a few months ago, when it was still cold.)

I've kept the ham bone after every ham we've ever eaten, and usually forget to use it.  When I go to put a fresh one in the freezer, I pull out the old one and throw it away.  This year, I decided, would be different.

I loosely followed this recipe for the stock:

• 1 ham bone
• 1 large onion, chopped (2 cups)
• 2 carrots, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 2 celery ribs, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
• 3 whole cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
• water to cover

I let it boil for a few hours, and the house smelled really nice.  I liked using whole spices in it.  I've never done that with a soup before.

My bone still had a substantial amount of meat on it, and since I added beans to the actual soup, it packed a wallop of protein.  Here's what I did with my homemade stock:

Black Bean Soup (from McCall's Cooking School)
2 cups (1 lb) dried black beans
Cold water
1 leek
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 cans condensed beef broth (this is where I used my ham stock instead)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tbsp butter or margarine
Chopped red, yellow and green onions (optional)
Tortilla chips (optional)

Soak the beans (overnight or quick-soak.)

Drain the soaked beans; discard soaking water.  Return drained beans to a Dutch oven and add fresh cold water to cover beans.  Bring beans and water to boiling over high heat; reduce heat, cover Dutch oven and simmer for 2 hours or until beans are tender.

Drain the cooked beans, reserving liquid.  Set beans and reserved liquid aside.

Trim leek:  Cut off root and and green stem.  (Leek should be about 5 inches long after trimming.)  wash leek thoroughly to remove dirt and sand.  Cut on diagonal into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

Heat vegetable oil in Dutch oven over high heat.  When hot, add leek, onion and garlic.  Saute until vegetables are browned, about 5 minutes.

Add reserved bean liquid and, if necessary, water to the beef broth ham stock to make 6 cups liquid.

Add salt, brown sugar and beans to leek mixture.  Stir in ham stock mixture.  (I also added all the bite-size chunks of ham I pulled off the ham bone after making my stock.)  Bring to boiling over high heat; cover and reduce heat to low.  Simmer for 10 minutes; stir in butter.  Serve soup topped with chopped onions and tortilla chips.  Makes 12 servings.

I don't even like beans, and I thought this was delicious!