Photo Fun for the Kids and Me

You know how much I love photography, right?!  Well I came across this cool website named PhotoFunia that is a total blast.  I just had to share. 

It's not only fun for me, but for the kiddos too.  It's free and it's fast and easy to use.  And you're not required to download the program onto your computer either! 

My kids are diggin' this.

So what I did to demonstrate is, chose a funny photo of Paige and used the same image in every one of these effects.

Chloe's next!

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Bryce's Experience at 4H Presentation Day 2011

After a late night on Friday night at the MCFB Dinner, I had to somehow get both Bryce and Paige up early the next morning, feed them a good breakfast, have Bryce dress in his whites and ready for 4H Presentation day at 8:30 a.m.

We made it.....and with very little complaining, and if you're a mom, you know this makes things go so much more smoothly in the mornings.

One of Bryce's projects in 4H is Photography 101.  The group of six came up with a Photography Presentation for Presentation Day.  Bryce and his cousin, Morgan, were the only two out of the group that were able to make it to Presentation Day to give the presentation.

Bryce is giving his presentation on 'parts of the camera' to the judges, while Morgan awaits her turn to give her portion of the presentation.

The both did really well.

Morgan had a number of Presentations for the day.  Here she's demonstrating how she has trained her puppy, Buddy. This was the first time Buddy was put into an environment with so many people AND be asked to concentrate and listen to his owner at the same time.  Morgan and Buddy did great!

There were some really cool displays that I saw.  Here's one on how to make a duct tape wallet. 

I had never heard of such a thing and neither had Bryce.  He wants to make one now.  And who knew duct tape came in SO many colors??!!

Had to take a photo of the Steps, just in case I wouldn't be able to find them by googling it.

Favorite Foods is always displayed on Presentation Day and here are some of the displays...

Pear Mice.

Reindeer Cupcakes that our good friend, Logan baked and decorated.

Peanut Butter Mice...how cute are they?!

After a few hours, all the presentations were complete and it was time for the Award Ceremony.  Bryce was excited and proud to receive a 'gold' for his portion of his and Morgan's presentation.  Morgan also received 'golds' for all of her presentations she presented.

I know you've heard me say this in the past, but again, I can't say enough about the 4H program.  I've seen my niece, Morgan, go from a shy little girl to a confident young lady who doesn't even bat an eyelash at giving a presentation in front of a group now.  The 4H program has definitely been a huge factor in her level of confidence.

In August, Paige will be 5 and able to be involved in 4H herself.  She's so ready.

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More Than One Reason To Call This A Topsy Turvy Cookie Pizza!

As most of you know, I volunteer at Bryce's school twice a month to teach the 1st Graders a cooking class....all five of them {he goes to a one-room school}.  So imagine how loud it can become when five boisterous six year olds find out we're baking a Cookie Pizza, topped with chocolate and m & m's!  The most difficult part for me is to try and keep all of their high pitched voices down, as to not disturb grades 2-6th next door in the other room.  We do our best.

So here are the ingredients you'll need {recipe below}.

Mix all the ingredients together, sugar, brown sugar, egg, butter and vanilla first.  Then add the flour and baking soda.  Stir, Stir, Stir.  Dough should be stiff.

I had never made this recipe before, and I didn't realize that a regular sized cookie sheet would be too large.  So, I had the kids spread the dough on only half the pan.  I was sure it would turn out just fine.

Until I went to put the pan in the oven.  Whoops.  One of the things I tend to forget about the little one room school is that everything is in mini-me sizes, including the oven.  This is when I taught the kids to improvise.  One can make almost anything work if one tries.....right?  I then, secretly began to pray.  Please, please, PLEASE turn out!

Half way through the baking process, I took a peek and saw that the batter was sliding off the edge to one side, onto the bottom, inside of the oven.  Improvise again, tip the pan in the other direction.  Finish baking.

The "Topsy Turvy Cookie Pizza" was then renamed to "Molten Lava Cookie Pizza", which the kids liked even better!

After melting the chocolate and allowing the 'cookie' to cool, the kids spread the chocolate to cover the cookie.

Sprinkle with m & m's and slice with a pizza cutter.

This was GOOD!  And it didn't look half bad either.

Clean up time!

Topsy Turvy {Molten Lava} Cookie Pizza

Ingredients:

• Non stick baking spray
• 1 egg
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ cup {1 stick} butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 ¼ cups flour
• ½ tsp. baking soda

SAUCE:

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 T butter
• 3 T milk
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ½ cup m&m’s

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray baking pan with non stick spray. Crack egg into bowl, add brown sugar, sugar, ½ cup butter and vanilla to egg. Stir with wooden spoon until mixed. Add flour and baking soda to sugar mixture. Stir until mixed {dough will be stiff}. Spread dough in the greased pan, using back of spoon or hands. Bake for 15 minutes or so until crust is golden. Cool for 10 minutes.

For sauce: put chocolate chips, 2 T butter and milk in saucepan. Cook over low heat about 5 minutes, stirring all the time with the wooden spoon, just until chocolate chips are melted. Add the powdered sugar to chocolate mixture and stir until smooth and shiny. Spread sauce over crust and sprinkle m&m’s.

Happy Saturday!

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Harvest Fair...not just wine!

The Sonoma County Harvest Fair, in my mind, typically means many wineries from all over Sonoma  county come out and show their best wines.  Where else can you go wine tasting and sample this variety of wines under one roof?  Before kids, I don't think I ever made it past the wine tasting pavilion.  There is SO much more to experience!

Paige and I met my sister, Lisa and my neice, Morgan up at the fair yesterday. They are looking into purchasing a couple of adorable Pygmy Goats for a 4-H project and it just so happened there was a Pygmy Goat show happening at the fair yesterday, which is a great way to aquire information and contacts for breeders and such.  

This is Angel, an orphaned Pygmy that followed her adopted human mama everywhere!  I wanted to take Angel home with me.

And so did Paige and Morgan.  Paige will be joining 4-H next year, when she turns five and I think I see a Pygmy Goat in her near future.  Just the other day she asked me if she could show a cow at the fair like her cousin Gavin did.  To show a large animal in 4-H, you need to be eight or nine years old so she has a few years to go before that happens, but she can definitely show a small animal.

After the Pygmy show, we headed off to find something to drink.  I should have asked the 'smoothie lady' what actually went into her smoothies but I just figured all smoothies were made with milk or yogurt.....but no dairy was found in this $6 dollar smoothie.....a disappointment. {reminder to self; bring my own drinks next year}

Off to the exhibitor's hall where entrants can submit an apple display or harvested flowers in a vase.  I loved the apple display, not only for the aroma of apple wafting through the room but also for the dynamic visual display row after row of apples can create.  It reminded me of the Gravenstein Apple Fair we attended in August.

 

 

There was also Scarecrow entries to view as well.

All the kids are allowed to sit atop any of the pumpkins entered in the Giant Pumpkin growing contest.  Paige is sitting atop the winning 1,200 pound pumpkin grown by a nine year old boy! 

 

Typical 'fair food' was available for lunch. 

Paige wanted a hot dog.

I had a vegi burger and a couple of Paige's fries

After refueling, I wanted to walk through the wine tasting pavilion to capture some photos to show you all but a separate admission was required {which is different than the last time I attended} and I was not in the mood for wine tasting, so instead, we headed over to the Grape Stomp competition.

I had never sat and watched this competition until yesterday.  I think it would be fun to enter next year!  A team of two is needed with one of the team members stomping the grapes and the other holding the jug to catch the juice with one hand and using the other hand to push more of the juice through the spout.  It can get quite messy.

Costumes are encouraged.

I think we need to have this breed of cow in our herd......just one.  I'll have to ask Saralee where I can find the breeder.

A couple more stops before calling it a day; the bunny barn.  Check out this Angora rabbit! 

Can you find her eyes?!  Too cute!

And thank you, Angora rabbit for all the beautiful hats and scarves you help to produce!

Paige also wants a Llama.....but I don't see one of these in her near future.

She tells me, "When I'm a grown-up, I want one just like the tan and white one."

When we saw this big guy, we had to stop and say hello.  Paige wanted to know "What kind of horse is that?!!  Look at his feet!"  I told her it was some sort of draft horse and she repeats, "Oh a giraffe horse."

We also stopped at the k-9 show for a bit.

And the hay bale maze. 

The Harvest Fair, there was so much we didn't have the chance to see; chef demonstrations, art show and sale, music shows, antique tractor display, classic car display, wagon rides, and a whole lot more.  We'll definitely be back again next year.

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