GF King Cake

Just a quick note about my first attempt at a GF King Cake. My family has always enjoyed the yummy King Cake that we can get at our local grocery store. This year, we can't have them. Not wanting to deprive my family, I made some. They aren't hard to make. I used a GF french bread recipe and a king cake recipe and combined them. The result is pretty good, not exactly the same, but pretty good. I based the king cake part on this, http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/03/easy-king-cake-knots.html.

Thanks for stopping by,
Cassie

Handmade Gifts!

I usually make a few gifts each year. This year I made a few out of wood! It's not something I thought I would ever be into, but I am :) 

First up are these casserole trays from Shanty 2 Chic.

 

These were pretty easy to make and turned out nicely! I stained them with a quick wipe of a black stain I've had for years and I choose handles to match the recipients. I did of course make one for myself :) It's now on my dining room table as the centerpiece!

    

I have the world's most adorable nephew and he's just about old enough to use this adorable seat! My SIL snapped these pics for me since I forgot to! I used the free plans from Killer B Designs.

  

This chair was also pretty easy to put together. I had the most trouble with the handle holes. I used my jigsaw, but the ends of the ovals are just too tiny to get a nice cut. I had to use a dremel tool to sand the uneven cuts. It all worked out and my SIL loves the chair. Hopefully, my nephew will too! I painted the designs by hand instead of using a paint pen. I think that's the only change I made to the design. 

My next gift was a birthday gift for one of my youngest son's friends. Joshua turned 8 on New Year's Eve. I had this Lego tray pinned on Pinterest and I knew this was the perfect opportunity to build it. What little boy doesn't like Legos?

 

I found this plan on Pinterest from somewhatsimple. I got to use my new birthday present, the Kreg Jig! I ordered the Lego board from Amazon and the Lego set. I had the wood, paint and handles already. I did have to buy the Gorilla glue as I was out. It turns out it was the prefect gift as Josh likes to bring his Legos in the car!

All of these projects are easy and fun to make and I want to thank all the bloggers for sharing their designs!!

Thanks for visiting!!
Cassie

Andrew's 8th Birthday Party & GF Rainbow Cake!

Our youngest turned 8 years old in December. We threw him a rainbow themed party. It was a blast!

Of course, we had to have the rainbow cake that's all over Pinterest. Ours had to be gluten free, so I used Hodgson Mill Yellow Gluten Free Cake Mix, http://www.hodgsonmillstore.com/en/Gluten-Free/Gluten-Free-Yellow-Cake-Mix/71518-02130-001_Group.aspx. I am glad that I did. The cake was yummy and moist! 

 I won't bore you with all the details, you can find them on Pinterest. Some things I did do differently since the cake was gluten free. I followed the cake mix directions exactly. Then I separated the mix into 6 bowls and added the gel food coloring.

 GF cake mix is thick so when I did the first layer I thought everything was over. My cake was just standing there in a pile. It was not filling the pan. After a little shaking and coaxing it looked ok.

 The cooked cakes. After they cooled, I used an electric knife to even the tops.

After frosting with a whipped cream frosting, I printed an 8 from my computer, cut it out and placed it on the cake. I then sprinkled like mad all around my 8 stencil.

 This is a pic of my piece with vanilla ice cream, yum!

 

 

 I made some other rainbow treats for the party like these rainbow kabobs and a rainbow layered jello with whipped cream on top.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cassie

linking up at:

 

Pine Mountain Gold Museum

I coordinate the field trips for our homeschool group. My youngest son loves gold and anything that is shiny. He asked to go to this museum several times. I am glad that we finally went. It was a lovely place. One of the kids said that it was the best field trip ever! 

 http://www.pinemountaingoldmuseum.com/

 Inside the museum is a Coke display. These volunteers were telling us all about it.

 The kids got to pan for gems.

 They also got to pan for gold. Each child found about 5 tiny gold pieces!

 Madison found a big one!

 Panning for gold is a really hard thing to do. Much harder than one would think!

 All 3 of my kiddos!

 Grist Mill

 entrance to a gold mine

group shot :) 

Thanks for visiting!

Cassie

DIY: House Siding Part 1

My husband was on vacation last week and he decided it was the perfect time to work on our siding. Our home is 20+ years old and still has the class action lawsuit pressed paper siding on it. In most places, it still looks good, in others it needs work. We are slowly replacing the old siding with new cement siding. We started on the side of our house and moved on to the garage. We replaced all the boards and waited on the board and batten. The smooth panels were on a crazy markdown at Home Depot last week, like half off. Jason couldn't resist. I had my doubts as last week was also our youngest son's 8th birthday. We had 2 parties to get ready for! We made it work somehow :)

All prepped for the new siding. You can see the new cement boards on the front of the garage.

Here you can see the old siding on the top level. This will look like the garage one day.

These panels are heavy. It took my husband, our oldest son and me to get them up there. We also used the ladder to secure the board in place. We borrowed a nail gun from my in-laws. That was a huge help!

3 boards done!

Trim pieces going up! The panels will be painted the same color as the trim after all the caulk cures.

The house is looking great and we couldn't be happier with the results. If you have a question about how we did it, please ask and I'll try my best to answer :)

Cassie

 

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

Gluten Free Musings

    We've been gluten free for about 3 months. Our reasons are varied but mainly due to our youngest son. Being gluten free has helped him immensely already. He has gained about 2 pounds, grown a half inch and his attitude has improved.

photo credit and gluten free info: gluten free   

The cooking hasn't really been a problem. I find all kinds of recipes on Pinterest. Pie crust has proven to be difficult, but I'm confident that I'll figure that out. The main issue is just having enough food. I have a very tall and still growing, almost 13 year old boy. He eats a lot. He's very active with swimming and running. I can't keep him or his younger brother full. Since going gluten free, Andrew (our youngest) is always hungry, which is great since he needs to gain weight. I am just really tired of hearing, "I'm hungry." ALL THE TIME! Any ideas!! I would love to hear them. I just went to the grocery store today. I bought the whole store. When I came home my husband said, "Now we have food for 2 days!" No joke! I meal planned and it should be enough food for a week, but I am sure that it won't last. I honestly don't know if it's the gluten free food or just growing boys. Has anyone else noticed an increase in hunger since going gluten free?

Our Summer thus far and future plans

I know I haven't posted in a while. Honestly, I don't think anyone reads this! So far this summer we were crazy busy with swim team(we are now on break). We recently finished our school year about 2 weeks ago. We are off until October! I have been trying to squeeze every bit of fun out of summer before our vacation. We have been bowling, to the lake beach, swimming in our pool most days, braving the heat to go to playgrounds, Six Flags and today we are headed to Cave Springs to visit the cave and spring fed swimming pool. September 1 starts our month long vacation to the beach!!

We have decided to take an RV trip around the country in 1-2 years. We have some planning to do before then! The whole family will get a lot out of this trip and it will be an amazing experience! We have already decided on which RV we want. We aren't buying it yet, but it helps us all to visualize where we will live during this time.This RV has a sleeping areas for everyone. A bedroom for mom and dad, a huge bed for Grady over the driving area and bunkbeds for Madison and Andrew! There are also 2 more beds for company. A huge adventure awaits us!

Our Weekend, March 18-20, 2011

This weekend was crazy busy for us and we survived! It started Friday night at our homeschool group's talent show. It was a lot of fun. Grady showed a Lego creation and Madison displayed some of her art work.

Grady getting ready to dive.

Madison's race is next!

We had to get up at 6 Saturday morning to make it to a swim meet that was an hour and a half drive from our home. It was our first meet of the season and we all enjoyed ourselves. Both Grady and Madison did a fantastic job :) After we got home, the kids ran across the street to a birthday party. They played all afternoon.

Waiting to cheer Daddy on. Andrew is not sleeping, just being silly.

There he is!

All done and very tired!

Sunday morning we all got up at 4:45am!! My husband was running a half-marathon and we were all going to support him. The race started at 7, but it was in downtown Atlanta and had an expected 18, 000 runners so we wanted to get there in plenty of time. We did. Jason did a fantastic job and the kids were very well behaved. We came home and Jason and I sat on the sofa and watched 3 movies in a row. I don't think we could have done anything else. The kids didn't do much either :)

Feb7-Feb11, 2011

Monday and Tuesday, Madison played online multiplication games while we waited for her new math books to get here. They really helped to reinforce her facts. On Thursday and Friday, she worked on mental math in Singapore 3B. She has done a pretty terrific job. It terrified me as she usually takes a while to "get it". The rest of the math book looks pretty easy and i think she will move through it quickly. In LLATL, she read about George Washington and today (Friday) she did an oral presentation on our first president. She did a great job!

Grady took a quiz over decimals in TT7. He scored an A! Then he moved on to the percentage chapter for the rest of the week. In LLATL, Grady learned about tall tales. he started writing his own tall tale today and will finish it next week. He also had a presentation to do today. He read a Dr. Suess book to his brother and sister. He is a shy child so this is a great thing for him to practice. He did a fantastic job!

Andrew flew through division and telling time. Today, he worked on numbers to 100. He had zero problem with this. He will finish Singapore 1B within the next 2 weeks I am guessing. I will purchase the intensive practice and word problems books soon. I am hoping this gives him something challenging to work on. He continues to do well in his LLATL. He can sound out pretty much anything they give him. He does have some trouble remembering the sight words.

All together the kids learned about radioactivity in Chemistry. We worked on word roots on Tuesday. Wednesday we took the day off since we had to be at co-op at 1 for a Valentine Party! We all had a lot of fun making Valentines and boxes and then exchanging them at the party:) After the party the kids went to their separate classes and I helped in Grady's first class and in Madison's second class. Andrew went to his classes by himself!! I think at,6 years old, this was a first. Everyone loves their time spent at co-op! Thursday we studied the vikings in SOTW 2. Today, we made viking bread and watched a documentary about the Vikings on Hulu.

It has been a good week! Next week swim team starts! It will be crazy for a while around here until we can establish the new routine :)

Week of Jan 31 to Feb 6, 2011

I keep meaning to blog and then I get sidetracked and now I have so much to write about. I'm going to stick with last week and leave the rest for another time.

Monday, we stayed home. It was fabulous! We did our school work and then I don't remember what we did :) Tuesday, Madison had Brownies and daddy took her so I could stay home and exercise. Wednesday, we went to a local jumpy place with our homeschool group for social day. That night, all 3 kiddos had karate class and I got a whole hour to myself, at home alone. What did I do? Exercise! Are you sensing a theme here? I'm trying to defeat this hypothyroidism weight gain. It seems to be working :) Thursday night, I took Andrew and Madison to their tumbling class and Jason took Grady to Tellus where they listened to a lecture from an archeologist. Grady has expressed an interest in archeology and I was thrilled that Jason was off that day and could take him. The weather was iffy and they did have to deal with some ice on the drive. I was glad when they returned home and that Grady had a good time! Friday, we stayed home and daddy went to work. We did our school work and played all afternoon. the weekend was full of me painting our living room ceiling and making new curtains while the kids played happily outside. I was crazy tired last night and my neck and arms hurt like crazy, but our ceiling looks fantastic. I'll share pics later!

On the education front, mostly we are just continuing on through our curriculum. Madison finished her Singapore 3A math book and so I ordered her the next one. While we wait for it she is playing multiplication games online to help her memorize it all. Andrew is almost finished with his first grade math book. This has led to me to think a lot about what to do next. He's already advanced a grade level and the work is easy for him. I didn't know if I should move him into 2nd grade math or what. I have decided to get the Singapore word problems and extensive practice for him before moving on to second grade math. I have no clue why, but I have a hang up on moving him to second grade right now. He's super smart, but I don't want to move him too fast. Grady is plugging along as well, he just hasn't finished anything recently, so there's not much to report!

Grady's Bday and Lots of Snow!

So, it snowed last week, with ice. We were stuck inside our house for a solid week. Thankfully, I had prepared and we didn't lose power. Also, Jason was home until Thursday. There is still snow/ice on the ground at my house, 8 days after it snowed. This is crazy for Georgia, but I fear it will become commonplace. The kids had a lot of fun and played outside most of the days we were stuck at home. We also continued with our schoolwork while the public school kids had the entire week off.

When we finally went out of the house and drove on the roads on Saturday I was amazed at how much ice/snow/slush was still on the ground. It really is time that the DOT invest in some snow removal equipment.

our front yard

Our front porch/side yard

Grady turned 11 on Jan 3. We had a family party that day and we all had a great time! Here's Grady blowing out the candles!

His cake, made by me. It was vanilla and mint and it was pretty good :)

Opening gifts with his bday glasses his Grandma gave him!

Andrew Turns 6!!

On December 6, Andrew turned 6! We had a small family gathering at our home. We had cake and ice cream and opened his gifts. It was great, quick and no stress for mommy!! Andrew and Grady will have a big friend party complete with bonfire later in January. I'm sure there will be ample stress then :)

Now, a few words about how awesome Andrew is! Andrew is the sweetest little boy. He loves his family and loves to help around the house. He is our baby and always will be. We are very glad to have him in our family.

Week of Nov 15-20, 2010

This week was kind of a let down. We are so used to having something to do every afternoon/night and those things are coming to an end. We find ourselves with nothing to do and it takes some adjustment to get into a new routine.

As far as school goes, the kids are doing great. We realized this week, after Grady's 5th quiz in teaching Textbooks 7, that he has scored an A on all 5 quizzes. He has an A in math. We are super proud, especially since he's 10 and in the 5th grade doing level 7 math. Madison is doing fantastic with multiplying and dividing. That was a hard on to teach Grady since he's dyslexic and he finds memorizing nearly impossible. It's a relief for me that Madison is doing well with it. Andrew continues to amaze me. Evey time I turn the page in his Singapore 1A math book I think it might be hard for him. I explain it and he does it and gets it right. He is nearing the end of 1A and he's 5. My kids aren't geniuses, just allowed to move ahead or stay behind when needed. Grady really didn't read until 4th grade. Now he's reading at or above his grade level. Another reason we love homeschooling! The kids get the education they need on an individual level.

We are studying Chemistry this year. Right now, we are learning about the elements and the periodic table. In history, we read about India during the middle ages. We learned about the Ajanta Caves where Buddhist Monks used to live. It's a beautiful place and amazing that all of the work was done by hand.

Tuesday, Madison had both Brownies and cheer practice. Jason was home so the boys didn't have to come. Wednesday, we went swimming after school and after swimming, we stopped by the homeschool co-op to pick up the food drive donations and that night both boys had karate and Jason took them. Madison and I stayed home. Thursday we went on a field trip to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to see their new exhibit, Water. It was well done and informative. Too bad the school kids on field trips made the trip quite annoying. They were loud, rude and ran thru the place like it was an amusement park. I doubt they learned one thing that day. After Fernbank, we ate lunch at The Flying Biscuit Cafe where Andrew said they were the best biscuits he had had in his life!! The food was good and we had a nice lunch :) Thursday night we were expecting to go to cheer practice, but it was canceled at the last minute. I went bday shopping for Andrew by myself that night. On Friday, we usually have Grady's outdoor adventure class, but his last class was last week.

The kids ask everyday, "Where we are going today?". We are used to going and after our last cheer competition today our schedule will change and be more relaxed. We will only have karate and tumbling class every week. I'm sure that with bdays and Christmas we will be busy.

Cheer Fest 2010

Madison's Cheer Video
Madison's team won 1st place yesterday and here's a video I made for those who were not there!

A little of what we've been up to

Cheerleading continues to take up a lot of our time here. Last week, we had 16 hours of practice. I am not kidding. Yes, I think it's too much. I am way too stressed out about the whole thing. No, we will not be doing this again next year. The problem is is that Madison loves cheering. I love watching her work so hard and the competitions are fun. We will have to come up with a solution.

We had our first competition yesterday. Madison did great. The other girls did great. They placed 4th out of 4 teams. Our routine has it's issues and that is all on the coaches. The girls did the best they could do with what they were given. Another reason why we won't do this team next year.

Madison all ready for competition!

We all went on a field trip to Carrollton Agriculture Days last Thursday. We got to see a huge Ox, a old schoolhouse, Native Americans and a bunch of other old things. I have decided that we have been to way too many of these things as we didn't really see anything new. We walked a lot and left early so we could go swim laps. We bought a pass to our local indoor pool to get the kids ready for swim season. The kids and Jason are doing great. I'm doing great for me. I have actually put my head under the water and am swimming the freestyle! I'm pretty good at the backstroke. I don't have to put my head under the water! It's been fun and it's great exercise.

The boys continue on with karate. This week they both are testing. It's Grady first test and Andrew's second. They both have gotten a bit bored waiting to test. Hopefully, they will get a little more excited after they get their new belts!

They are all doing fantastic with their school work. Moving along quite nicely. Today, we are working on a Halloween History project for our patch club meeting tomorrow!

As for me, I will be crazy busy making Halloween costumes. One is almost done, two more to go!

Before this week, we had 2 weeks off from school. My husband had vacation from work and technically it was our end of the school year. We took many trips and just relaxed. The kids all have sports and activities that still had to be done, but we managed to enjoy our time off. We rented a boat and enjoyed a day on the lake. We took a trip to Amicalola Falls and climbed 604 stairs to the top of the falls. We went to an apple orchard while we were in Northern Ga. We bought lots of yummy apples, some ice cream and apple pies! We hiked at our favorite local place, Sweetwater Creek State Park. It was a lovely "staycation" :)

This week it was back to work! Madison finished up her LLATL 2 and worked and the last bit of her Singapore math book. Grady continued to work on his TT7. Andrew is progressing nicely through his Singapore 1A and he his reading some first grade readers while we await a huge curriculum order. Both Grady and Madison worked through some spelling lessons. All 3 kids worked on Spanish and Chemistry. In chemistry, we made rubber eggs, super fun!

Tuesday, we went hiking at Red Top Mountain with our new homeschool badge club! We meet with at least 20 other homeschool kids and their families. We took a small hike, observed living things in the lake, did a scavenger hunt and had a lovely picnic lunch. We have known most of these families for 2 years at least and enjoy spending time with them! Now, my boys have the opportunity to earn badges/patches without having to join Boy Scouts. Madison has been in Girl Scouts for 4 years now and I am elated that my boys can have similar experiences without prejudice.

On Fridays, Grady has an Outdoor Adventure Class that he loves. It's with our homeschool group and it's just for him. He gets time away from his siblings and a lot of great knowledge! He also gets to spend time with Sam, a new good friend of his :)

As usual, there was lots of cheerleading and a little karate this week. Next week, Grady tests for his yellow belt!

August 9-13, 2010

We've had a good week here. Since we school year around we are finishing up with some stuff and starting some new stuff.

Grady started reading, The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare. It's his last book of LLATL 4th. He has come such a long way in a year. He has gone from almost not reading at all to reading at or above grade level! Children really do read on their own time. Grady started Teaching Textbooks 7 this week. He completed lessons 1-5. So far, we are all liking it. It's our first time with TT. We have been using Singapore. Singapore's great and we will continuw using it through 4th grade with Andrew and Madison. Math is not my strong suit, so I decided to use TT since it involves little help from me.

Madison is finishing up 2nd grade. She's doing great with LLATL 2nd. She started fractions today in Singapore. Thankfully, she seems to get it. The rest of 2B should go by quickly. I checked out the rest of the lessons and they look pretty easy.

Andrew finished Kindergarten sometime last month. He is waiting on his first grade math to get here. I ordered it, but it hasn't arrived. I need to get his LLATL student workbook ordered. He is enjoying some time off right now.

Both Andrew and Grady started karate classes on Wednesday. I was really impressed with what they were taught. They enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next class. Madison is cheering and we are all looking forward to the first game.

I have been reading out loud the last Harry Potter book in anticipation of the movie coming out in November. We are almost done! Also, we have all been enjoying the last days of summer. We are usually in the pool as we hear the school bus go by. Life is good:)

Our First Alone Vacation

Last weekend Jason and I went on our first vacation without kids, ever. We went to a small town, close to St. Simmons called Darien. Here's a pic of the cottage we stayed at.We visited downtown Darien, which took about 2 minutes :) It's a small fishing village on the intercoastal waterway.That evening, we went to St. Simmons Island. We went to the beach and ate dinner there before heading back to the cottage. We were amazed at the amount of sand. It was low tide and the beach was huge.The next day was spent on Jekyll Island. We first visited Driftwood Beach. I read about it online and it sounded nice. We were surprised to find rocks instead of sand! We did see a lot of dolphins following a shrimp boat. That was nice and the view was certainly beautiful!
We then moved further down the beach and set up for the day. We spent about 4 hours there enjoying the warm, calm water. It was nice to not have to watch 3 kids in the ocean for a change. Who knows when or if we will take a trip without the kids again. We missed them a lot and kept saying. "The kids would love this" and, "We should bring the kids here".