Field Day Fun

Tomorrow is field day at the elementary school! One of the best days of school there is in my opinion. We've also haven't been able to go out for recess the last two days because of rain, so it will be a much needed dose of the outdoors for my kindergarteners. I'm not in charge, so I don't know exactly what activities we will be partaking in, but I do have a fun water activity that would be great for your own field day, whether its at school or just having fun at home with your family.

We are also having a little end of the year bash, and the teacher I work with loves pandas, so I made special panda cookies inspired by some teddy bear ones I saw on Pinterest. She also loves Barry Manilow, but I don't know how to make a cookie for that. I'm a Hanson fan myself.

I've been making this sugar cookie recipe my grandma gave me for quite a while now, but this past Christmas I started experimenting with ways to jazz it up. At Christmas time I split the dough in half, gave them different flavors, and made swirled pinwheel cookies. I'll be sure to share instructions for this when Christmas rolls around again. This time I split the dough in half, left one half plain and made the other chocolate, and turned them into pandas. I couldn't find my cookie cutters, so I used round containers to cut out my shapes. For the chocolate ears and noses I used a clean medicine cup.

Extra-Good Sugar Cookies - I made a double batch for this project
2/3 cup butter
3/4 sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp milk

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add vanilla and almond extract. Mix thoroughly.

In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into sugar mixture along with milk. Divide in half and let chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking pan. Roll out dough until it is 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 8 - 9 minutes or until golden brown on the edges. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire cookie rack.

To make Pandas:
 When you divide the dough in half leave one half plain. For the other half melt some chocolate chips (1/3 to a 1/2 cup) in the microwave and stir them into the cookie dough until well incorporated. Put these in the the fridge to chill just like in the original directions.

When its time to roll you will need bigger and smaller circle cookie cutters. Start with the plain sugar cookies, and cut out using the bigger circle cutter. Place these on the baking sheet. Then roll out the chocolate sugar cookies. Each panda will need three smaller circles; two for the ears and one for the nose. The ears go behind the head, and the nose goes on the front in the bottom. Bake and cool  according to the original directions. When removing the baked pandas, make sure the spatula is under the ears, that is the part most likely to break!

After the cookies have cooled, pipe on the nose and mouth in white icing. This can be done by simply cutting a hole in the corner of a zip top bag. Put two dots of frosting above the nose for the eyes, and stick on a chocolate chip! Aren't they cute?!

.    .    .    .    .    .

 We've had field day treats, on the the field day activity! I've seen this craft floating around the internet, and thought I would give it a try. It turned out great! A sponge ball fight is way better than a water balloon fight! You don't have to fill them up, they're reusable, there's nothing to clean up, and the sponges fling water around as you throw them. A water balloon toss is a traditional field day game that I think should be made better with sponge balls. You don't have to estimate how many balloons you need, and the kids don't have to stop playing after their balloon breaks because they have to save balloons for the next class. My son wants to play with these everyday. Though after a while he usually stops throwing them and starts squeezing water onto the dandelions to help them grow. 

Water Fun Sponge Balls

Supplies:
colorful sponges
scissors
"ouchless" hair ties (no metal on them)

To make a sponge ball cut two sponges into three strips lengthwise, (that's six strips all together). Gather the strips together and secure in the middle with a hair tie. Repeat.

Fill containers with water and soak the sponge balls in them. Start throwing!

For just me and my son we have one water bucket in the driveway. For a large scale fight you could set up water containers throughout an area. These would also be great for the pool!

Stove-top Playdough

This homemade playdough is so easy and quick to make! Plus there is something about kneading warm, freshly made playdough that is almost theraputic. If you've had a bad day, check and see if your kids need new playdough. Younger kids can help with the initial combining of ingredients in the pot, and older kids can help stir over the stove and knead the playdough. (be careful, its hot right when it come out!) Of course everyone can play with it once its done!

 



Stove-top Playdough

Ingredients:
1 cup white flour
1/4 cup salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
food coloring (unless making white)

Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium pot. Add in the wet ingredients.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the playdough forms a ball in the middle of the pot, about 3-5 minutes. Take out of the pot and knead on a lightly floured surface. Store in an airtight container or bag.

Ascension/Birthday Banana Poke Cake

Happy Feast of the Ascension and Happy 25th birthday to my wonderful husband! While Ascension traditionally falls on a Thursday, forty days after Easter, in most places in the U.S. it is celebrated the Sunday after, so this year that means May 12th.

I know that's Mother's Day, but I can tell you that as a mother, I wouldn't mind sharing the celebration with the Lord! (My birthday is already on Christmas Eve anyway, so I'm used to it!)

I heard of one Ascension tradition of having a picnic on a hilltop symbolizing being close to heaven. The weather has been beautiful here and that sounds like a wonderful idea! We've been having picnics in our yard almost everyday since it warmed up, so why not pack up some lunch and have one on top of a hill at the park? My husband wants to go out to eat tonight for his birthday, so we are doing that, but perhaps on Sunday we'll have a heavenly picnic.

It is traditional to have poultry on Ascension since Jesus "flew" to heaven. Lucky for us my husband has selected a wing joint for his birthday meal! Many people also make something light, white, and fluffy to represent clouds and heaven. That's where the cake comes in!

One of my husband's favorite desserts is this banana pudding thing with Nilla Wafers. His mom is from the South, and I guess its a Southern thing because I never heard of it until we met. Anyway, I found a cake version of that dessert on Pinterest and knew (mostly because he told me) that I had to make it for his birthday. The top is covered with fluffy whipped cream or whipped topping so it works well for Ascension too! I modified mine by adding a layer of banana slices between the cake and the topping.

This is a great cake to make with kids, there is so much that they can help with! Crushing cookies, mixing and pouring pudding, and even little ones can slice a banana with a plastic knife.




Banana Pudding Poke Cake

1 box yellow cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
2 boxes instant banana pudding (plus ingredients to make pudding)
1 container whipped topping
bananas
vanilla wafer cookies

1. Bake cake according to directions on the box in a 9x13 cake pan

2. Prepare banana pudding

3. Poke holes all over the cooled cake with the handle of a mixing spoon (hence the "poke" part of poke cake.)

4. Pour banana pudding over the cake.

5. Add a layer of banana slices over the top of the cake.

6. Add a layer of whipped topping on top of the bananas

7. Crush the vanilla wafers and sprinkle on top of the cake


 Check out the Catholic Blogger's Network link up blitz for May!
 http://www.catholicbloggersnetwork.com/p/link-up-blitz.html

Rosary Flipbook

Happy Spring everyone! Warm temperatures have finally reached Michigan, in fact it seems like it went from winter straight to summer. Of course my three year old boy wants to spend every waking (and sleeping!) moment outside.

Big news! I now have a facebook page if anyone would like to follow Rose's Supposes there. You can find it at 
https://www.facebook.com/RosesSupposes

May is the month of Mary, so I thought it would be a good time to start up a daily decade of the rosary with the family. We figured we'd start with just a decade a day since we only have the one little one and getting him to sit through an entire rosary would probably be quite difficult. Doing one decade a day Monday through Friday will take us through one set of mysteries a week, and then we plan on doing the Divine Mercy chaplet on the weekend. The past couple years doing the Divine Mercy novena, we have discovered that the chaplet is a great prayer to say with young kids, our son started chiming in with us last year when he was only two!

To help us out with our new prayer routine I decided to make a little booklet with all the mysteries and the different prayers we use. I used images from the Happy Saints Holy Rosary eBook. I used the large prayer card size so it would be easy to take with us wherever we go !























Making it isn't too complicated. Print and cut out the images, laminate them, cut them out again, hole punch them, and then put them on some rings. I put the tabs on before laminating.  Voila! A rosary guide the whole family can use!

1. Cover
2. Sign of Cross and Apostle's Creed
3. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
4. Fatima Prayer, Hail Holy Queen, Concluding Prayer
5. Joyful Mysteries
6. Luminous Mysteries
7. Sorrowful Mysteries
8. Glorious Mysteries

Check out the Catholic Blogger's Network link up blitz for May!
 http://www.catholicbloggersnetwork.com/p/link-up-blitz.html

St. Zita Ziti

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Zita! St. Zita was a housekeeper who believed that doing her work the best that she could honored God and was a path to holiness. A great saint to think of when we feel frustrated and overwhelmed with chores and housework! Learn more about St. Zita here.

Because of St. Zita's fun Zz name I thought the perfect thing to help celebrate her feast day would be some St. Zita baked ziti! I made mine very basic because of my picky eaters (I did try to stealthily throw in some grated zucchini, another Zz word!), but this recipe would be great with sausage or other meats and vegetables thrown in. Its really fast and easy, and pasta is usually a pretty good crowd pleaser. If  your young one is going through the alphabet at school, St. Zita Zucchini Ziti would be a great recipe to celebrate Zz week too!









St. Zita Ziti

1 box ziti (or other tube shaped pasta)
1 jar pasta sauce
1 bag shredded mozzarella plus some for topping
grated parmesan cheese
any meat or veggie additions you may like!

1. Cook and drain your pasta

2. Mix cooked pasta with sauce, mozzarella, meat, and veggies. Transfer to a greased baking dish.

3. Top with more mozzarella and grated parmesan.

4.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Enjoy!


And since we're talking about the letter Zz, here is a video from one of our family favorites, the StoryBots! You can find a link to the StoryBots website on the right side of my blog. It has a lot of fun educational resources for families!

Check out the Catholic Bloggers Network monthly link up blitz!
http://www.catholicbloggersnetwork.com/p/link-up-blitz.html

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

My son's toes and hand as he plays with last summer's freshly made chalk!

Last summer we discovered that making your own sidewalk chalk is really easy and really fun! Here in Michigan it is finally getting warm enough to make some more. Well, at least it was for a little bit, now we've got flooding and snow showers, but I'm hoping it won't last long! For those of you that live somewhere where the weather is little less crazy I'd thought I'd share this project now since it is, apparently, spring.

Supplies:
-Plaster of Paris
-Water
-Food Coloring
-Mixing containers and stirring device - I recommend something disposable
-Silicone mold - We used a star shaped ice cube tray from the dollar tree and a mini cake pan with flower shapes I got as a gift.

1.Mix the plaster of paris with water until you get a pudding like consistency.

2.Mix in your desired color (skip this step if you want white)

3.Pour into mold and leave to dry about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. If your mixture isn't too thin and you leave it out in the sun it can take less time than that!

4.Unmold, (they pop right out!), and start creating sidewalk art!

Bonus: The molds are really easy to clean!

(I seem to have used a lot of exclamation points in this post. Who can blame me, making chalk is exciting!)

Dinner for St. Gemma

While still knowing very little about St. Gemma Galgani, our family asked for her intercession to help with my husband's back pain. When I saw that her feast day was coming up I did a little more research and found that she has an incredible story. She was devoted to Christ's passion, and had an intimate relationship with Jesus which included ecstasies and bearing the stigmata. She greatly desired to be a nun, but was unable to due to her poor health. Even so, because of her devotion she was buried in the Passionist habit. You can learn more about St. Gemma at www.stgemmagalgani.com. This website even has a great little comic about St. Gemma for kids, which I've linked to directly here.

 I also found that she would be a great intercessor for my husband in more ways than one. Not only is she patron of people with back pain and people with frequent migraines, both of which my husband struggles with, but she is also the patron of pharmacy and my husband is almost complete with his pharmacy tech certification! What a wonderful discovery for our family!

To help celebrate this wonderful saint we had Italian for dinner, because she was from Italy, and a chocolate cake depicting the symbol on the Passionist habit. I wanted to use a heart shaped pan, but we're in a transitional stage right now and all my special pans are in box somewhere. I've included the recipe for my spinach alfredo lasagna, and a picture of the cake. To make the cake I simply used a boxed cake mix and store bought frosting. Hey, its a weeknight!



Spinach Alfredo Lasagna (with chicken and roasted red bell peppers)

whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 lb ground turkey or chicken
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 box frozen chopped spinach - thawed
1 jar roasted red bell peppers - drained and chopped
shredded mozzarella cheese
grated parmesan cheese

1. Boil the lasagna noodles. While they cook brown the meat, and  mix the spinach and peppers with the ricotta cheese. Drain the noodles.

2. Spread a little alfredo sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. This helps prevent sticking. Reserve some alfredo for the top layer. Mix the rest of the alfredo sauce with the meat. Put down a layer of noodles, a layer of meat, a layer of mozzarella, and then a layer of the ricotta mixture, repeat. (the order really isn't terribly important, so don't worry about it too much!) Finish with a top layer of noodles covered with alfredo, mozzarella, and some parmesan cheese

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Enjoy!


 

Not the prettiest cake I've ever made, but one of the fastest!

                                                  

ST. GEMMA GALGANI'S PRAYER 

O my crucified God, behold me at Your feet; do not cast me out, now that I appear before You as a sinner. I have offended You exceedingly in the past, my Jesus, but it shall be so no longer.

 Before You, O Lord, I place all my sins; I have now considered Your own sufferings and see how great is the worth of that Precious Blood that flows from Your veins. 

 O my God, at this hour close Your eyes to my want of merit, and since You have been pleased to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for them all, that I may no longer feel the burden of my sins, for this burden, Dear Jesus, oppresses me beyond measure. 

Assist me, my Jesus, for I desire to become good whatsoever it may cost; take away, destroy, utterly root out all that You find in me contrary to Your holy will. At the same time, I pray You, Lord Jesus, to enlighten me that I may be able to walk in Your holy light. Amen.

Divine Mercy Pancakes

I was thinking of what I could make to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday and I thought, "what is my son's favorite thing to have for breakfast?" Pancakes! Kids love having pancakes made in the shape of things, and fruit syrups are one of my favorite toppings, so came the idea for Divine Mercy pancakes; a heart shaped pancake with strawberry and blueberry syrup rays. To bump up the health factor, I typically make a whole wheat pumpkin pancake.

Even though our son is only three, he has been pretty good at saying the Divine Mercy novena with us. I think that the chaplet is a great place to start when praying with little ones. Its shorter and easier for them to remember the words. We would say, "For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us," and our son would complete it with "and on the whole world."


Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes
 This is a single batch, you'll probably need to double it

1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
 cinnamon to taste

Beat the egg and mix together all ingredients until smooth.  Drop batter on a hot,
                                                                                         greased griddle or pan. When bubbles form the pancake is ready to flip.


Berry Syrup
Strawberries should be chopped, other berries can go in whole

Fresh or frozen berries - 1 pint or less
water
sugar
lemon juice
cornstarch or flour
1 Tbsp butter

Add berries, a little water, a little sugar, some lemon juice (and some lemon zest if you have it), to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and thicken slightly with a little cornstarch or flour. Cornstarch works better, and making a slurry with water and pouring it in will help stop clumping with either one.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Strain if you want a smooth syrup, but I personally love having the pieces of fruit in it!


To learn more about Jesus' Divine Mercy, click here.


Click here for more great ideas to celebrate liturgical seasons!
http://www.equippingcatholicfamilies.com/2012-2013-celelinky-thru-the-seasons.html

Green Tea Cheesecake - Gluten Free!

 Now, I'm not gluten free, but I do have some friends that are, so I when I cook for them I try to come up with things that are delicious that they can eat. This cheesecake turned out really well. I brought it to a local college church group and it was a hit with everybody! Unfortunately I do not have a picture for you because I forgot to bring my camera with me.

You may be able to find the matcha (green tea powder), at your regular grocery store in the Asian food aisle. I was not able to find it there. Luckily it was in the first place I looked after that, a small organic market. You can also find it at Asian markets and online.

 If you prefer things with gluten simply substitute the gluten-free cookies with regular ones and the instant mashed potatoes with flour. If you want plain cheesecake simply leave out the green tea powder.

 Gluten Free Green Tea Cheesecake

1 box gluten free animal cookies (or other gluten free cookie) - crushed
4 Tbsp melted butter

4 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes
3-4 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan.

2. In a bowl combine crushed cookies and melted butter. Press into the bottom of the springform pan.

3. In another bowl mix together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Blend in the milk, and then add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated after each one. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla, potato flakes, and matcha. 

4.  Bake for 1 hour. When finished, turn off the oven and let it cool in the oven for five to six hours. This is supposed to prevent cracking. Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

Mine cracked anyway, so I topped it with some raspberries and a dusting of powdered sugar. 

Peanut Butter Playdough

It would be an understatement to say that my son loves peanut butter. He also loves to play with his food. The perfect combination of this is peanut butter playdough! Its tasty, healthy, fun, and easy to make. I remember my mom bringing it to my school for snack when I was little, and it was always a hit.

Peanut Butter Playdough

1 18 oz jar peanut butter
6 tablespoons honey
dry milk - found in baking section of your grocery store near the canned milk

 Mix together the peanut butter and the honey. Add in dry milk until it reaches the consistency of playdough. Today I used about 2/3 of a 9.3 oz bag. And you're done! Time to play and eat!