Recipes from around the world

We are almost finished with our study on countries and cultures. We have enjoyed traveling the world while in the comforts of home. Since I last posted, we have traveled to Europe, Africa and Asia. For those of you that have kept up with this blog, know that we conclude each continent with a special dinner. Here are the last 3 crammed into 1 post.

Africa

We made Pilau which is a rice and meat mixture. Maybe it was the recipe I chose but the picture looked a lot better than the taste. The women thought it was okay but the men in the family did not care for it AT ALL! 

We also made Irio. We all liked this dish. It was basically potatoes, peas, corn and a few other ingredients all mashed together. 

Europe

When you study many different places, sometimes it is hard to decide which recipes to choose. This was the case with Europe. Since I have a grandmother who is German and a father who loves German food, we decided to prepare a German meal.

We made kraut and many different types of wurst. Unfortunately, my moms crock pot gets very hot very quickly. The food in the first picture cooked a little to long. 

The Garlic Schnitzel was definitely a favorite to prepare and eat! You can find the recipe here.

We also had German pancakes.

For dessert, we opted for something from France. 

We made French Beignet for dessert. How many of you have ever been to New Orleans and had the Beignets  from Cafe Du Monde? They are soooo delicious!!!!! I tried to make them once before but they turned out nothing like the real thing. I came across this recipe and decided to try them again. These were absolutely delicious! Almost like sitting in the cafe.......except missing the frozen coffee! It was hard to control myself  from  popping one in my mouth when they were warm and recently dunked in powder sugar!

Asia

Our most recent stop was Asia. We knew this would be a favorite because we all like Asian food. Since we were talking about nutrition in science, the girls tried to incorporate every food group into this meal. During this chapter, one of the projects was creating a menu. They made menus for our special Asian dinner.

The menu consisted of egg drop soup, sesame chicken with fried rice and egg rolls.

I was very surprised about the egg drop soup recipe. It was delicious and very easy to make!

Here is the egg drop soup recipe I used.

We had a couple of hungry boys join us at the last minute. Thankfully, we made plenty!

We will finish our tour with Australia and Antarctica this week.

Awaiting the arrival of........

Baby Easton!

My sister will be having a baby very soon and I am so excited!! It has been over 4 years since we have had a little one in the family. I am so ready to hold him!! 

We traveled a few weeks ago to help get his room ready. Since my granny is half way, we made time for a quick visit.

Once we arrived at my sisters, it was go time! We only had 2 days to work on the room so we were on a strict  schedule! 

The room had already been painted by my brother in law. He did a fantastic job....I might add! We were there to help add the touches. My brother in law is a huge Cardinals fan so that theme was a given! We did not have to make much because he already had several pieces. Here is the almost finished room.

 I was put on the ...name...over...bed...project. This was the idea we came up with. I thought the finished product came out looking great!

I just love this fan! It adds such a great touch to this baseball themed room.

 

 My mom is making a valance and Cardinal bedding has been added since we were there. Besides a few other touches, his room is complete. 

He is going to be one cool kid in a cool baseball themed room. 

While we were there, we did manage to take a break and walk to the park. Trying to keep 3 kids indoors all day is torture!

We enjoyed our visit even though we did not get to relax much!

The Montgomery Zoo

After discussing several animals from different countries, we took a trip to our local zoo. Now I have been to this zoo many times but it has been a while. When I was teaching, we would take our first graders here each year. When Laney was little and we lived in Al, I used to take her all the time. The zoo was not very big but interesting. 

They have added quite a bit since the last time we were there! A few of our favorite new things were definitely the........

 Parakeets

You can walk into this cage and these pretty little birds are everywhere! The zoo has vending machines inside the cage. You can purchase a stick with bird seed attached to it. The birds flock to these vending machines once they realize a purchase is about to be  made. You barely have the stick pulled out before they fly to your arm. I had a few fighting on my arm over the seeds.

Sky Lift

The girls loved this! I was very impressed with the amount of time spent on this ride. It takes you all the way across the zoo and back. I was enjoying myself until I realized we were right over the open cage that held the cheetahs. I kept replaying in my mind.......what would I do if we fell? Other than that quick moment of fear, I loved it!

These are not new but had a new member of the family. It's hard to see in the picture but this momma has a  tiny little baby attached to her. I can't remember what they are called but are related to the chimpanzees. We stayed close to this exhibit for a while. The baby was so cute to watch!

Here are a few other pictures from our day.

Locks of Love

About a year and a half ago, my daughter mentions how she wants to grow her hair out and donate it. I was proud of her for wanting to do it, but assumed it was just a thought at the time. When she started mentioning it on a regular basis, I knew she was serious about donating. I figured I better do my part and get the information needed for donating.  I found out the donation length had to be 10 in. At that point, she would not have to wait much longer if she wanted a cute bob afterwards. She was adamant about wanting her hair coming to her shoulders after the cut. After a year of measuring, massive knots, many ponytail days, tears, brushes getting stuck, she finally arrived to the desired length!

Since I needed to get my hair done.........

I scheduled Ella's at the same time.

This is the before pictures. I don't think her hair has ever been this long.

I like to go get my hair done by myself. It's my quiet relaxing me time and it only happens once every 3 months! I don't even like for my hairdresser to be chatty. She just needs to fondle, message, scrub and fix my hair and I AM ONE HAPPY LADY! Sometimes it doesn't work out that way and my girls have to go with me. They like to go, especially Ella. She likes to watch, touch, talk and follow me everywhere( hence... why I like to go by myself....this mom doesn't relax with all that going on!). 

Ella was so excited to have her hair cut, wash and styled! However, I did capture a moment of question. You can see the look of ......

I am not sure I want to do this!

Would if it is too short?

Even though I hate brushing it....I kinda like it long!

After the lady cut it, Ella said, "It's uneven!"

She had to explain that she was not finished. She would wash her hair, finish cutting it and then style it.

This was definitely her favorite part! 

Now.......  when I am in the washing phase, I don't talk and enjoy the messaging moment....usually with my eyes closed(I may or may not doze off sometimes???).

This is where my daughter and I differ. She talked nonstop while in THE chair!

We are definitely going to have to talk about how to get the most out of  THE chair!

The final results......

She loves her hair!

We lover her hair and kind heart!

If you haven't already and are interested in donating, here is the website with all of the information.....

Locks of Love

A Love Post

Things around here have been pretty busy. We have done a lot of traveling the last couple of weeks.....hence, the reason for not posting! I wish I could say that our traveling is over but we still have several trips still left on our calendar. I think I counted 4 trips in the next month and a half. Hopefully, I can catch up before we're packing again! I figured a great start would be to tell about our Valentines. 

Instead of buying Valentine cards, I told the girls to create one. They could search or think of an idea on their own. 

Laney found this idea.

Ella came up with this one on her own.

It said, "I love you with all my heart! Seriously with all my heart!"

Both girls made enough to give them to family and a few friends at church.

The kids received a few items from us but their dad felt the need to get them something special from him.

The oldest was too cool for a picture with his treats!

I left this for my Valentine to see early that morning.

He surprised me back by writing a sweet message on every post it note. Laney started reading them all and laughed when she read the one that said, "I love to watch you bend over." 

 Surprisingly,  the hubs kept the notes G rated!

He also got me these.......

Chocolate dipped strawberries from.....

They were yummy but very expensive!!!

My grandmother and aunt came down for the weekend. They went Valentines night to hear Amy Grant and Vince Gill.

In case you didn't know, my grandmother is the one in the festive red outfit!

That next morning, I took the girls to the church to serve breakfast to the widows. After a yummy breakfast, the older girls read a few verses from the bible on love. The younger girls sang a few cute Valentine songs.

It was a very enjoyable weekend!