kid cooks : banana oatmeal cookies

First on our list : banana oatmeal cookies. Ibis had been eyeing these in the cookbook several weeks ago; as a banana lover, they were right up her alley. She chose to enter this batch into the 4-H Cloverbuds baking exhibition. Six of her cookies will be turned in on Thursday to a panel of judges at the fair - I imagine it takes a brave judge to sample the wares of kids ages five to eight, but these cookies are actually quite delicious. This is a great recipe to share with the kids in your life. Let them develop a love for baking!

First, give your hands a good scrub. In spite of what she originally thought, yes, soap is required.

Check over the recipe for any special requirements : oven temperature to preheat, special ingredients, etc. This recipe is from Taste of Home's Best of Baking cookbook. You can find the recipe online here. We love Taste of Home!

Assemble the cast of characters. Don't forget the kid power.

Mash the bananas. Somehow we don't own a potato masher, but a fork will do nicely. 

Measure and add the shortening and sugar to your mixing bowl, and cream mixture (let all the sugar mix into the shortening until it's nice and smooth).

Add in eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined. 

Now measure out the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon, and stir them together in another bowl. Ours is a lovely blue plastic.

Add the flour mixture to your mixing bowl. Mix on low at first to avoid a huge mess! 

Now let the bananas join the party.

Measure and add the oats and chocolate chips - try not to eat all of the chocolate chips! Mix completely.

Use a cookie scoop to measure the cookies evenly, and squeeze onto greased cookie sheets.

The first pan is ready for the oven!

Torture your baby brother by turning on the oven light. Bake for 8 minutes or until golden on the bottom edges.

Remove cookies to cooling racks. Be careful, the pan is still hot!

The cooled, finished cookies ready for eating. They taste a lot like banana bread with a hint of chocolate.

Kid made, baby brother approved!

all's fair

 Today, we poked, prodded, dragged, hauled, and otherwise stuffed the bulk of our fair entries into the car and traipsed off to the fairgrounds to be left at the mercy of the harried 4-H staff. And a bunch of sweet old ladies on the creative arts side of things. Gotta love the sweet old ladies.

As a recap, Alexei signed up to enter thirteen classes this year; today was the day to fork over everything but his baked goods and rabbit (the live kind, not fricasee). I showcased the rabbit tabletop in Friday's post. This was also the day for Coral to submit her drawing to the creative arts ladies, and myself a baked good, four professional photographs, and a drawing. I was feeling ambitious this year, too.


Alexei's entry for the Models class - this is a free-for-all, anything goes class. He loves Legos and builds the craziest creations from them. I love that he doesn't use a kit, but rather his imagination. Even the garage door opens! When I was a kid, my Lego houses were just big ugly squares.

The model car he made with his Grandpa for the Woodworking : Toys division. It warms my heart to see him have the opportunity to make something with my dad. Plus Grandpa clearly has the best tools around!

His entry for the Photo Story class. Kids use three to five photos to show something being built or telling a story. These show a Lego car being constructed; the hardest part about this project was setting up the cantankerous old tripod!

Four photos for People, Animals, Scenic, and Architecture categories. He'd have done more if 4-H would let him.

Alexei's drawing for the....well, the Drawing category. Pretty self-explanatory. I was surprised he wanted to enter a drawing, because I know he feels like it's not his best subject. I think seeing my artwork is an inspiration but also a confidence trasher for him, even though that's ridiculous.

Now on to Coral's entry. She's still too young for 4-H but there was no lower age limit on the creative arts list, so she put her heart into this cute little rainbow flower. I think for three years old, it's pretty darned adorable!

I entered four photographs into the professional category. Not that I make a fortune (or even pocket change lately) from taking photos, but it just felt right. Awful photo - they look gorgeous in person. My hubby mounted them to foamboard for me and even gave them beveled edges.

The drawing I picked this year, kind of old and boring but seems like most of my framed artwork has had the glass busted out of it over the past few years; the hazards of moving. One of these days maybe I'll pick up a pencil and draw something new.

Cinnamon rolls for the anything-goes baked goods category. Mostly a good excuse to make cinnamon rolls again.

All of Ibis's entries, Alexei's baked goods, and the rabbits make the trip on Thursday. That should be interesting! Busy week ahead with the kids baking up a storm, rabbits being brushed, showmanship practiced, outfits adjusted, a 4-H meeting, and school in there somewhere. I can't wait!

snapshot Saturday

I was sitting here on the computer this afternoon, hard at work while the baby was napping. Actually I was goofing off on facebook, but I figure that's a given. Suddenly from outside I heard the sound that parents everywhere quickly learn to dread : the ice cream truck jingle. Now the song may vary, but the sound is so distinct as to draw kids from every corner of the neighborhood with just one chime - it's like a dog whistle for anyone under age twelve. I had never heard an ice cream truck drive around our new locale, and until this moment had been thanking my lucky stars.

The jingle continued to crank out as the truck wound its way around the outer circle of houses, before swooping into our little cove. Then the music stopped traveling as it lured in some unsuspecting adult. I walked to the window to see what poor schmuck had been hounded into patronizing the ice cream man, prepared to have a good snicker at their unfortunate fate.

Too bad it was my husband.

Yes, it is February. Yes, we live in Florida. Yes, she's in a swimsuit.

I don't know what this one's story is.

I hope he knows the ice cream man is like a seagull : feed him once and he'll keep coming back.

the finished product

I'm proud of him - he worked his tail off on this tabletop display and I think it deserves a blue at the fair. We'll know in a week!

text me

As we enter the final countdown for the fair, Alexei is getting busy finishing up his myriad of projects - if you recall, he decided to enter thirteen categories this year. Nothing like ambition. On Sunday he has to turn in his photographs, his tabletop, his drawing, his woodwork, and his model. Thankfully we have a few days to recoup from the weekend and bake a boatload of goodies to be turned in for next Thursday's judging. Next week is going to be crazy! Well, every week here is crazy, but next week is going to be crazy and gooey. I can't wait.

This week, however, he's been putting together all the components of his rabbit tabletop. His next step was to add the various photos to his rabbit project chart, since we went out and bought a new ink cartridge for the printer. Yay! I let him pull the photos from Google images, and then showed him how to take the first photo, drag it into Photoshop, and resize the canvas, crop to the dimensions he needed, type text onto the photo, flatten the image, and drag it onto a new file so we could print 8 photos on one piece of paper instead of using 16 pieces of paper (because while we remembered to buy ink, we forgot to buy paper. Boo!)

One of my favorite aspects of homeschooling is teaching my kids skills using programs that are useful and relevant. And I find Photoshop to be both useful and relevant. Using layers? Totally useful. Practicing spelling and typing with text? Completely relevant. Duplicating layer effects? You betcha.

You get to a point in school, or when creating projects, that it would be a thousand times easier to simply do the computer work yourself, and let your child simply cut out and paste. You know, the old-fashioned way, with scissors and glue. It can be tedious letting them take the reins and complete a complex task on the computer, but it leaves them with a sense of accomplishment and real skills that they can build on. Plus I haven't met a kid yet that wasn't instantly in love with a computer.

Here was one of the sheets he created, ready to cut apart.

The finished product, awaiting the glue to affix it to the tabletop tri-fold board.

Only a week left until the fair starts!

seriously

He's so serious lately. Every move is met with pursed lips and a look of concentration.

Playing house.

Climbing the little slide.

Okay, technically those were feet. But they were serious feet.

"Hiding" in the slide, watching the big kids.

Watching the big kids again from atop his perch.

So serious all the time!

But every once in awhile, I catch him off guard.

And yes, it is February 2nd in Florida, and it is 80 degrees outside and the grass is growing.

Life is good.

hippity hoppity

Hard to believe he's ten, and about to embark on his first rabbit show adventure.

Also hard to believe that's a rabbit.