Loony Muffins

October 27 was Emily Post's birthday. Jr. and Lucky made muffins with Raisin Bran (get it? Post? Raisin Bran?), a recipe for 6 week bran muffins from his Food Class. We're enjoying him taking that class.

There was plenty of batter to go around and it lasts 6 weeks in the fridge.

 

While they were making those, the rest of us went out to see a Pacific Loon, which was a lifer for some of us. We met a birding friend down there who drove around the pond as we walked to see the loon.

We got back in our van and were able to get in a good location to see it nice and close and get pictures.

While we were getting those pictures from the van, another birder friend drove up beside us. Ah, I miss my birding friends. It was so nice to chat for a moment from a distance out of our vehicle windows.

It was also nice to see other birds, including ospreys that are still around. 

Kindergarten Registration

Last week, we registered Nichole for Kindergarten. Eek. My little girl. She's very excited about going to school. We had to keep telling her we didn't get to stay at the school. We were just going to find out what we needed to know to get her ready for school. There was only one thing that we didn't have that they needed (and that thing was not listed online where it said bring birth certificate and immunization records). Fortunately, we live a block away from the school (We walked past maybe 3 houses to get there), so Jeremy headed home to get what we needed while I filled out forms and the kids looked at the fish in the fish tank. Jeremy was also smart enough to pick up the camera before he came back so he got some good pictures of us coming out of the school and Nichole being upset because she didn't know why Daddy left before us.

See What Happens

See what happens when Mommy goes off to take a class and Daddy's left alone with the kids?

Actually, I'm very happy for my husband's support as I go to learn something to better myself.

*Note: I found out later that Nichole calls these "hair masks."

Popping Corn

I asked Jeremy earlier about popcorn. What is it? Is it different from the corn we eat from the can? What makes it pop?

In his wisdom, he suggested I make a "class" out of it. I should take this opportunity to educate myself about something then teach the kids about it. Oh, he's so smart.

So, I did. Yay for the internet when used for educating about popcorn. Not all the questions I was wondering were answered, but definitely enough to teach the kids something new.

Before we got to the popcorn, Nichole and Joshua helped me load the dishwasher and do the rest of the dishes in the sink. That way we'd have room for the popcorn popper on the counter. They were big helpers.

We got the popcorn popper down and the container of popcorn kernals and we learned. The popcorn kernals look like the kernals of corn that we eat from the can, but they are different. They are a special kind of corn. The corn in the can doesn't pop like the popcorn. Inside each of the popcorn kernals is a little bit of water surrounded by a little piece of starch. When they get really hot (with air or with oil), the water says, "Hey, I'm getting hot. Let me out of here." It get so hot that it turns into steam (we've learned about the different states of water before) and goes, "Pop!" It turns the popcorn kernal inside out and we can see the big white part that we can eat.

We put what we learned into practice. The kids loaded the top of the air popper, Jr. turned it on, and Nichole dumped the kernals in. After a little bit they started popping and hopping all over the place and when it was done, the kids were very happy with what they had made. Not to mention getting to eat it.