To all the moms...

Europe

I'm back to share with you another continent we have studied in our 7 continents Unit Study. This time we learned all about the continent of Europe. Did you know that Europe is the second smallest continent in the world? It's smaller than every other continent except Australia. There are over 40 countries in Europe. Some that you may have heard of are Germany, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, France, and the UK. Did you know that Europe has no deserts? It is the only continent without any. Did you know that most countries in Europe uses a single currency? It is called Euro. Did you know that Vatican City is the smallest country in Europe? It's small in size and population. For our dinner we came up with a mixture of dishes representing a few European countries.

  
We started our meal off with an appetizer. These are called Bierocks. They are popular in Germany. These are made up of cooked ground beef with onions, cabbage, and cheese all wrapped into a dough and baked in the oven. These are  delicious and addictive!

For our main meal we had Yorkshire Pudding with onion gravy, Cottage Pie, and cabbage with apples (not pictured here).
 
Yorkshire Pudding is popular with the British. It seemed strange to learn that it actually is a bread. It can be served from a whole pan or made into smaller serving portions like popovers. These are more lighter and fluffier than popovers. It is usually served with a rich onion gravy poured over them. These are so good I could eat half a pan by myself but my pants wouldn’t fit any longer if I did. LOL!
   
We also had Cottage Pie. Here in American we use the word Shepherd Pie and Cottage Pie to mean the same thing. We learned that Cottage Pie has ground beef in it while Shepherd’s Pie is the one that uses ground lamb meat. It was nice to know the difference.


We ended the meal with a light dessert. These are Russian Tea Cakes. I could drink tea and pop these in my mouth all day. They are really good while still warm but you’ll want to cool them down for the kids to eat. Hope you learned something new about Europe. I’ll be back in a few weeks to share about the next continent we are studying. Thanks for stopping by!

Crayola Crayons is having a birthday!

To celebrate their 110th birthday, the 8 original crayons are throwing a birthday bash at the new fun-omenal Crayola Experience, the world's only interactive Crayola family attraction. Right now, they're out on a colorful adventure to spread the news, and you're invited to join the fun! How can you join in on the fun? You can FOLLOW the crayons on their adventure, LEARN more about each color and enter to WIN a trip for 4 to celebrate their birthday and the Grand Opening of the all new Crayola Experience this coming May, 2013! Visit the Crayola Facebook page and click "enter now" for your chance to be first in line when the Crayola Experience reopens. The new Crayola Experience features four floors of new interactive exhibits and one-of-a-kind attractions that will bring the magic of color and your child's creativity to life! The winner will be among the first to experience the fun, along with a three- night, all-expenses paid stay. It's an experience your kids will never forget - and neither will you! Update: Offer has now ended.

Disclosure: Crayola provided me with the information for this post.

How to Play Marbles

Last week my son and I got to go the Moon Marble Company on a field trip. He had fun learning how to make and play marbles. The kids got to choose different types of marbles of their liking to take home for themselves. There were some really pretty ones I had never seen before. It was amazing to see all the designs they could come up with. I looked up some videos on how to play marbles to refresh my son's memory. He liked this video:

Snow Ice Cream!

We got more snow this weekend. To be honest I’m tired of the snow. Looks like winter is just not wanting to let up. It seems like the snow we had a few weeks ago just melted and now we have more. My son asked to make some ice cream with it so I figured it would be a fun science experiment for us to do together. We put some bowls outside over night to collect some fresh falling snow. When we woke up not only was the bowls full to the rim but it was still snowing outside. It was easy to make the ice cream since the snow is very cold and icy already. Here are pics of my son making a batch…

  
First he stirred the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract together. Then he added in cups of snow. It was harder to stir at that point but it smoothed out the more you mix the ingredients together.

   
We made a second batch so we ended up with two containers this size full. We ate one and stored the other in the freezer for later. It tasted really good just like ice cream, but the texture was different than the creamy store bought kind.