Sylvia at school - butter making

   Sylvia and I are reading through Little House in the Big Woods again.  This time is for school, to better understand how people would have lived at that time in history.  So, we are doing some fun activities as they come up.  This week we made butter and bread. 

     First we had to make a grater.  Sylvia is pounding holes in a can to make the bottom of it rough. Sylvia got to thinking afterwards, and realized that if you put a flashlight in the can, the pattern of holes would shine on the wall.  Now she wants to make a new can pattern in the shape of a butterfly.

 But, back to the butter making.  Once you have your grater,  you peel a carrot on it.  This is used to color the cream yellowish in the winter, when the cows aren't eating grass.   Yellow butter was considered prettier to place on your table.

(Unfortuantly I boiled the cream and carrot too long on the stove.  It over cooked, and was too hot to do anything with.  So, Syliva just made white butter. )

 We put the glob of butter from the shaken jar into candy molds.  This way Sylvia go little indivdual pats of butter, shaped like roses.

The next day we baked some bread to go along with the butter.  Sylvia had fun rolling out lots of different shapes.

 The final products were left to rise. After baking them, we served them for dinner, where the entire tray was polished off.   Everyone agrees that this is a very tasty way to study literature and history.

It is funny to note that I did this same activity with Mattias about 6 years ago.  Here are some pictures of Mattias doing the exact same activity in the fall of 2006

 Getting his can-grater ready...

 Grating the carrot to add to the cream for color...

And shaking, shaking, shaking the cream!

    I think it is funny that Sylvia was part of Mattias's 2nd grade butter making event, at age 4 months.  Little did she know that she would be shaking that cream herself in another 7 years.  I guess this means the next time I'll be doing this activity will be in the year 2020 with Ephraim.   Ephraim slept for most of Sylvia's butter making adventures this past week, so it will be all new material for him. :)  I love being a homeschool mom!

Grandma and Grandpa Chiddix's Visit

    It was a treat to have my parents come and visit for a week this month.  They came mainly for Ephraim's baby-blessing, but got in lots of other activities as well.

  Grandma and Grandpa went straight from the airport to a Boy Scout Court of Honor.  I got a picture of my dad talking with Asher before the meeting started, trying to encourage him to stop being a slacker and get going on an Eagle Project.

  I'm sure Asher will remember this pep talk for the rest of his life.  :)

 My dad tried to give Ephraim a scout pep talk, but he just wanted to cuddle.  Ephraim is grandchild number 24 for my parents. 

 My mom taught Sylvia and Asher how to play an indian game where they toss sticks into a circle and try to win all the sticks.  Even though she is a retired teacher, she still loves sharing her knowledge.

Ephraim loved laughing and smiling at my mom.  It was adorable.

 I love watching people's faces as they get smiled at by babies.  Their faces reflect that pure joy.

We also had a good time at the zoo.  Sylvia loved trying to get pictures of the animals.  I think she took a pretty good one of the giraffe.
 

Luckily there were benches in the shade for us old folks.

Sylvia and Grandma made cute animals themselves.

Grandpa often entertained Sylvia with some of his books on his kindle.

    We all have good memories of their visit.  The older kids appreciated a mega school-clothes shopping spree, funded by the grandparents.  Sylvia enjoyed eating lots of ice-cream, cheese, and fudge together.  I enjoyed listening to my dad tell stories of the "olden days" when he rode a trike around his dirt yard pretending it was a tractor.  We are glad they made the trek east!