Isabel Baked a What?!

Something about fall screams, 'Bake!" We love to bake any time of year, but it seems essential to do so in the fall. We bake the usual things you'd associate with autumn, such as pumpkin bread and apple pie, but earlier this month Isabel had a chance to bake something a little more unusual for us. 

It all started out when we were cleaning up the garden. We ended up with a couple of buckets full of green tomatoes. We tried fried green tomatoes, which were good, but not so good that we wanted to eat them everyday! Or fry them everyday. Not fond of that smell. A quick internet search brought up all kinds of ideas for using green tomatoes. The recipe that caught Isabel's eye was ... drum roll ... Green Tomato Pie!

Those who commented on the recipe all said it tasted just like apple pie. So we decided to take the plunge. 

 First, Isabel washed the green tomatoes very well.

 Then she cut the tomatoes into small slices.

Next, she mixed up a pie crust, divided it half, and rolled it out.
We use this recipe for pie crust. It hasn't failed us yet. 

 She's pretty good at crust. 

 After mixing the tomatoes with sugar, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar, Isabel poured the mixture into the pie pan.

 We worked together to make a lattice top. Isabel used the leftover crust to cut out pretty leaf shapes with a cookie cutter. She always decorates her pies beautifully. 

 Here is the finished product, fresh from the oven. It looked and smelled delicious, but knowing it was made out of green tomatoes made us a little nervous about taste-testing it. 

 After dinner, Isabel did the honors of cutting and serving her pie. 

 We were thrilled to discover that the pie was delicious! It really did taste like apple pie! 
Isabel says, "It sounded really weird, but I was glad to find out that it tasted good! I am very proud of how my hard work turned out."

Even our pickiest eater loved Green Tomato Pie!

 Here is a link to the recipe we used. We highly recommend making your own!

Happy Independence Day!

Hair!

Isabel’s hair is finally growing! She has enough for a couple of cute pigtails, so the boys distracted her with books while I styled. Then we chased her around the house until we finally got a sort of decent shot of her new hairdo. Right before she rebelled and pulled them out.

Our Secrets Are No Longer Safe...

I have reason to believe that my home has recently been infiltrated by spies...

A New Year

Wondering what we've been up to? Here's a hint: snow. It has been snowing and snowing and snowing. While the adults may be getting a bit tired of it, the kids are SO happy!

This picture was taken mid-December, when there wasn't much snow yet!

A new "semester" has started here at our little homeschool. Ben is making such great progress! He can count to 100, and also write and recognize numbers up to 100. This week we've started on addition. He's got the concept down so it's just a matter of memorizing the facts and playing fun addition games. We like games.
In reading Ben has learned the sounds of all the vowels and consenants and we are moving on to blends like ss, ll, and ck. He's excited that he'll be able to read more words- stories made up entirely of 3 letter words aren't very exciting. We've been playing a fun game in which I write subjects on one set of index cards and predicates on another set, then he mixes and matches them to make silly sentences to read. We all have fun with that one!
Handwriting is definitely his least favorite subject, but he's awesome at it. He's also very good at drawing which I think has something to do with his perfect handwriting.
In religion we've been alternately doing the Who Am I Kindergarten workbook (and the preschool one for Emanuel) and reading out of their children's Bible and saints books. Both boys really enjoy the St. Joseph Picture Books.
These are the subjects we do every day (Mon-Thurs). I am still working on a more regular schedule for science and history/geography. Luckily we have plenty of time for that!

Isabel has been busy terrorizing Ben while he tries to get his work done. She loves to climb on the table and knock all his supplies to the ground. Nothing makes her laugh harder than her brothers' reactions to her destruction. She's lucky they love her so much and are always kind and gentle with her no matter what she does. Her second favortie thing to do is play in the pantry. Who needs block when you have cans to stack, right?!
Tax season has started but I am working one day a week preparing returns. I enjoy it because it's a great way to get out and interact with adults for a few hours each week, but it still leaves plenty of time for family.  
Tito is still busy selling cars in spite of all the snow. We found out that he has never played in the snow before, so the boys have been lobbying to remedy that. Hopefully, they'll be successful in getting him outside and there will be pictures coming soon!
We're all looking forward to 2010. I'm sure it will be a great year. Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas!

More Pictures from our Budding Photographer

I may be partial, but I always enjoy Ben's photographs. Whether it's one of his many self-portraits or other random things, I love seeing our life from his point of view. He's quite good at landscapes as well. The last few days he's been on another photography streak, clicking away at himself and his siblings in a series of lovely portraits.  

 

 

Thanksgiving Crafts

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we spent doing crafts. Julie and Abuela Georgina came over to help us. It was a lot of fun!

Isabel's first time finger painting.

Emanuel, Benedict, and Julie have fun finger painting, too.

Abuela and Benedict working on their tepees. Since Emanuel can't let a holiday go by without making some sort of cookie house, we used sugar cones, frosting and candy to make these tepees. (I got the idea here from Family Fun.) The kids thought they were quite delicious.






We used toilet paper rolls to make these Pilgrims and Native Americans.

Emanuel traced his hands and feet (with a little help) to make this colorful turkey. Cute!



We had a lot of fun making our Thanksgiving crafts. Can't wait for Christmas craft day!

Diva

Grandma gave Isabel a feather boa to wear. She loved it! She knew she looked great as she strutted around the house in her new fashion wear.

An Addition to the Ranks

The knights of Castle Nunez were in the middle of a serious battle when a new recruit joined the fray. Turns out she's a master and so impressed her comrades-in-arms that she was given some armor of her own.

Her Thoughtful Spot

Only the coolest babies hang out in the bathroom sink.  What better place is there to relax while reading The Scarlet Letter and sucking on your brother's toothbrush?

Easter Sugar Cookie House

Ever since decorating graham cracker houses on Christmas the boys have been hooked. Emanuel even wanted a cookie house instead of a cake for his birthday. Today we were at Target looking for Easter cookie cutters when the boys spotted it... an Easter Cookie House kit!
"Please, mom and dad, can we buy it? Please?" Dad said yes, and Emanuel got to hold it. He spent the rest of the shopping trip waxing on about the virtues of this cookie house and how thankful he was to have it. It's nice to have thankful kids!

For mom and dad, the virtue of the cookie house was as an incentive. They cleaned their room so well and quickly, lunch went by without a hitch (and without seconds and thirds, which NEVER happens), and they even cleaned up after themselves without being told more than once!

Cookie Houses!

This was so much fun! We used graham crackers for the houses and the boys decorated away. Notice not much candy made it onto Emanuel's house. Wonder where it went?