Strawberry Banana Skewers drizzled with chocolate

 

My son's picky about fruits... He eats grapes, oranges and the occasional apple.  The only way to get him to have other fruits is blending it in a smoothy... and even then, he'll only drink certain fruit combinations (strawberry, grapes, bananas and blueberries)

I had high hopes for a chocolate drizzled strawberry banana skewer, but it was rejected. :(

It was simple to make and pretty to look at.

- bamboo skewers

- strawberries (one strawberry for each skewer)

- 1-2 bananas

- chocolate chips

I washed some large strawberries and sliced them into 4-6 pieces.  Left the peel on the bananas and sliced them.  I peeled the banana slices as I made each skewer (alternating between strawberry slices and banana slices).

After all the fruit was arranged on the skewers, I put a handful of chocolate chips into a bowl and microwaved at 10-second intervals (stirring in between) until the chocolate started melting.  Once the chocolate melted, I drizzled the chocolate with a spoon over the skewers and let them set.  You can put them on wax/parchment paper, but I just turned over one of our take-out drink holder cartons, poked holes in it and stuck the skewers in the holes so that they could set without touching anything.

I just dipped extra strawberries in the extra chocolate left over and placed them on parchment paper.

After about 8-10 minutes, they were set and ready to eat.

Day 1

It seems I mostly update when DH goes out of town.  This trip he took the boy with him.  They took a taxi to the airport at 4:30am.  The girl went back to sleep at around 5am or so.  I couldn't fall back asleep until closer to 6:30am.  I got up at 8am and heard the girl saying "No Daddy" repeatedly.

I told her I was hungry and she went downstairs first.  Then she came back up saying "Uh oh".  She broke a bead bracelet so I replaced the elastic with embroidery floss and restrung it.  Then she broke a plastic bracelet.  I tried to glue it back together but it didn't work so we tossed it out.  We had toast for breakfast.  Then I let her watch Tingp and Wonderpets while I did the dishes.

11:30am - she's napping now.  I'm debating moving the bookshelves.  I guess I have to figure out something for lunch also.  On my to do list for today: prepping the compost and recycling.  My wishlist includes taking the girl out on a bus ride but it would've been preferable to go out in the morning, booking an appointment to get the car repaired (was hoping to get a couple of quotes before deciding where to go).  I might just nap with the girl instead of getting anything done. :p

I got the recycling ready and the girl woke up and helped me put boxes into the blue bin.  I couldn't find the twine to tie the boxes together... so I hope they won't reject it when they pick up the recycling tomorrow.

For lunch, we raided the fridge for leftovers.  Did the dishes, watered the plants, then went grocery shopping.  Came home and I wanted to nap but the girl didn't want to nap... So we made rice, marinated the pork chops, prepped the mushrooms and broccoli.

While I made dinner, Audrey played on the balcony and let in a fly.  After dinner, I tidied up and we went out to the playground.  We came home, soaked in the tub and got ready for bed.  I didn't end up getting any rearrangements done. :(

A house of germs

I'm tired of being sick.  We've been sick the entire month of May with no signs of improved health.  The boy has been coughing since the end of April.  Then he got the girl sick, she got better but he's still coughing and got another cold.  Then I got sick.  I started getting better, but I never quite got over the first cold and now I'm sick again.  DH is also showing signs of having whatever we have.  I'm worried that the girl will get sick again and I'm also concerned with the boy's prolonged coughing.

We're out of kleenex.

It sucks.

Just had to get it out there.

Time to fight back and get out of this seemingly endless cycle of illness.  We have a strict hand washing policy implemented as part of our infection control management.

4 Doctor visits, 2 antibiotics, 2 inhalers for the boy... I'm hopeful the last prescription will help the boy.

Paper Mâché with kids

Here's a messy activity I did with my 6 year old and 2 year old.  We made paper mache cups.  We still need to paint them and maybe add a coat of glue or something to protect it a little.

What we used:
- 2 cups flour
- 3 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
- 5 disposable plastic cups
- strips of newsprint

We mixed together the flour, water and salt in a big mixing bowl.  Then I poured the mixture into smaller mixing bowls for each kid.  We dipped the strips of newsprint into the bowl, and tried to gently remove the excess before layering the strip onto our plastic cup.  We continued layering on more strips dipped with the paste until we covered the cups several times in different directions.  Then we let our cups dry for 1-2 days before I removed the plastic cup.  I just cut strips of the cup and carefully separated the paper mache from the cup surface.

It's probably easier doing paper ache with a balloon because you can just pop it and remove the balloon, but I didn't happen to have any balloons on hand that afternoon.  You can trim the top edge of the cup or leave it jagged.  We might paint or layer coloured tissue paper with glue/paste to decorate the cups another day.

I have a big water/sand tub table that we worked in and had a mat under that to catch drips that inevitably made their way out of the tub.  It helps to try to smooth out the strips of paper against the cup before layering more strips on top.  You get a stronger cup if there are less air pockets while you're layering the strips.  If you want stronger cups, you can use white glue instead of flour... but with little kids, I prefer sticking with the basics.


Update: Here are the cups we made after painting them and adding a layer of glue on top.

Making Rock Candy

Rock Candy Results:

Rock Candy Day 4 Update:

 

Day 4

After waiting for more than a week... here's the rock candy we made.

I forgot to update yesterday, but the crystallization process is a slow one. So you didn't miss too much.

Rock Candy Day 2 Update:

 

Day 2

I'm not entirely sure that there are any more crystals on the skewers today... but here's the picture (after about 31 hours).

Rock Candy Day 1:

 

Day 1

This attempt looks more promising.  The liquid is transparent and there are sugar crystals forming on the skewers.

Now we wait.

Making Rock Candy

Attempt #1

Our attempt #1 was a dismal failure because I went overboard on the sugar and the entire glass solidified into a chunk of sugar... I had to rinse it out with hot water and scrap the sugar out with a spoon.  I decided to give this experiment another try.

This time I modified the steps slightly and stuck to a 1 cup water: 3 cup sugar ratio.  I'm hopeful we'll get some rock candy in about a week.  I've read that it can take anywhere from 2-7 days.

What we used:

4 bamboo skewers
1 kettle
2 mixing bowls
4 long narrow glasses (I used shot glasses I picked up at value village)
4 hairpins (but if you have clothespin that would probably work better)
Koolaid (optional for colour and flavour)

What we did:

I dipped the bamboo skewers in water then coated them with sugar and set them aside.
I heated water in a kettle and measured out 1 cup of boiled water.
Then I added it to a mixing bowl.
I premeasured out 3 cups of sugar.
My kids took turns adding 1/4 cup of sugar into the water and stirring in the sugar until we used up the sugar.
We added a squirt of liquid Koolaid into 3 of the glasses and left one plain.
I carefully poured the sugar water into each glass.  You can use a funnel if your mixing bowl doesn't have a spout.
Next, I placed a skewer into each glass, raised it slightly so that it didn't touch the bottom of the glass and clipped the skewer (so that the clip rested on top of the glass and held the skewer in place).
Finally, I put the glasses somewhere where it won't get disturbed.

Spaghetti Hot Dog

Not the most healthy lunch idea... but it was quick and fun.  We had spaghetti hot dogs today.  They look a bit like centipedes.  I took out a handful of spaghetti.  We snapped the spaghetti in half and the kids helped poke the spaghetti through the hot dogs.  Then we boiled them in water for about 10-12 minutes.

Leaky Stonz Boots

A rain day calls for some serious puddle splashing.  I suited my daughter up into her Oakiwear rainsuit and put on her Stonz booties then we headed out.  So far our rainsuit has held up wonderfully.  It's her Stonz booties I'm disappointed about.  When we came home, the bottoms of her boots were completely drenched inside and the bottoms of her socks were soaked.  They didn't leak in from the top because the top was tucked into her rainsuit and were dry... The water seems to have seeped in from the bottom.

I peeled off her socks and promptly ordered her something else that I hope is actually waterproof.