Monday, September 25, 2006 - Our Adventure with How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World
This week we rowed How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World. We took a mini trip around the world this week with the character in the book who found that the market she was going to purchase apple pie ingredients at was closed. We had a lot of fun locating the various countries on the globe, and Morgan was most impressed that Italy is shaped like a boot, and that they consider the smaller island the soccer ball the boot is kicking! Jayden was more impressed with England and it's famous Big Ben.
Our first day with the book we stopped in on Italy. We read a few fun books, learned to count from 1-10 (all though at the moment I can only recall 1-3) and read about various things that originated in Italy. The boys didn't even seem to mind that the book was written about a little girl. We wrapped up the night with our own version of Chicken Parmesan.
On Tuesday we went to France. We read several books, and even enjoyed one about a little girl and her family who live in France. The boys didn't seem to mind that the main character was a girl, all though they felt she was pretty silly as the cover of the book had her posing with a flower in her mouth! We were suppose to enjoy Quiche Lorane (pardon my phonetical spelling here), but it took far longer then expected to bake. So instead we all enjoyed a pot of delicious home made Chicken and Rice soup and a loaf of fresh French Bread. It's harder to say if the boys liked the bread of the blueberry jam more.. Either way they really enjoyed sharing it with their Aunt and cousin.
On Wednesday we arrived in England with a brief lay-over in Sri Lanka. We read several books about England, and Morgan is now mystified why there's a statue where the man is missing one arm. While the book stated it wasn't truly noticeable because of how high up it was, not to mention it's size, Morgan is certain that with his binoculars he will be able to locate the flaw. He also wanted to know why the Queen had such a big yard if she didn't go out and ride her bike or play soccer in it. Jayden was more caught up in Big Ben and the soldiers who guard the palace. I'm not entirely sure why these things caught his attention, but they did.
We enjoyed a quick book about Sri Lanka. Morgan was more fascinated with their flag which has a golden lion upon it. He wanted to color his copy of the flag exactly the same. I'm not sure his yellow is golden, as he used a yellow highlighter, but one thing is certain His flag will not be lost no matter how dark the house is! We wrapped up the day with coconut chicken and Curried Rice & Vegetables.
Thursday found us in Jamaica. We enjoyed reading about the quieter Island life as we followed a small family through their day. We also found that amongst other things Jamaica is big on it's yams, which are not to be confused with a sweet potato. And here we thought they were the same thing! The boys were impressed that some of the big buildings look the same here as they do there. We all enjoyed seeing the huge bunch of bananas they harvest off the trees. Morgan was most pleased to notice the little boy from our main Jamaica story in another book we read too. We wrapped up today with "Beefy Jamaican Turnovers", which are very simple to make.
The boys weren't as pleased with them because they felt the content was too spicy. I should have been prepared for that as neither of them prefers any seasoning on their chicken when it's cooked! They did not, however, snub the banana fritters that Daddy made.
Friday, our final day with our beloved Apple Pie book. We stopped in on Vermont and located their tastiest apples and maple syrup. We did the simple subtraction fact that was located in the book. Morgan now knows that if we pick 8 apples and give one to the cow, one to the chicken, and eat one ourselves we will have 5 left for our pie. Today is also science day! The boys favorite.
We finished up our study on the 5 senses for now. We were down to sight experiments. While I had a couple planned we opted to only do one of them. We each took a turn being blindfolded and then drew a picture of a snowman. I have to say that some of these snowmen aren't half bad looking! We also enjoyed reading a book called D.W.'S Glasses and then making a fun pair of paper glasses to wear. The boys decided to show the neighbors their glasses as well, which caused a few chuckles.
To wrap up our 5 senses study we read The GingerBread Man and made cookies too. The boys were delighted to see they each had their own little gingerbread man cookie cutter, but more impressed to be able to eat the cookies as soon as they were cool enough to touch! After eating all the cookies, they weren't hungry for dinner, so we opted to save our Vermont meal for Saturday.
Today we made our apple pie! It took Morgan an hour to peel one apple, but he was determined to do it all by himself! We'll be having Maple Orange chicken for dinner with Baked apples and cherries and of course the boys favorite, broccoli. Our apple pie turned out to be huge, but I'm here to say there's not a single bite left!
That's right, the entire pie was eaten up, and boy was it delicious. We even topped it with Vermont Ice cream (read Ben & Jerry's Vanilla) as a special treat. It has been decided that Thanksgiving (the only time we normally eat apple pie) can most certainly not come soon enough. Wow, you know this means everyone might actually eat all the apple pie up before the other pies!
Our journey ended with How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, but the boys haven't stopped talking about it. When Jayden was looking through their school scrapbook he spotted a picture of the book and told us, "That's the get the cow, get the sugar, get the egg book!" I'm not sure his title was any shorter then the actual title of the book.
We've even enjoyed trying some new apples, which just so happened, (Thank you Lord!) to be at Wal-Mart this week. I'm officially hooked on the Michigan HoneyCrisp apple. Morgan's not opposed, but since his favorite is still green, he prefers the Golden Delicious. Jayden didn't care as long as he could dip them in something. Daddy is still protesting apples after his stint of working at the apple farm.
