March 21: Chicago Trip!

Chicago Trip!

Jim took the boys to Chicago for a weekend trip. It took about 4 hours to get there. They first went to the Sears Tower, currently known as the Willis Tower. Jim's brother, David, and nephew, John, met them there. They went on The Ledge, but I don't think any of them were too comfortable with it! 

on The Ledge... 

After The Ledge, they went to The Bean, which is in Millenium Park. The Bean is a stainless steel sculpture that is famous.

After The Bean they just walked around Millenium Park and down to Grant Park, and along Lake Michigan. They went to David & Cindy's, which is in Wheaton, Illinois. They ate pizza at a Chicago style pizza place in Wheaton. They spent the night with David and Cindy. 

Sunday, March 22: They went to the Art Institute.

The Nigerian display.

They went to eat at the Naf Naf grill at Jer's request. He wanted to try Mediterranean food. They all really liked it! They ate shawarma, which is basically a gigantic tube of seasoned steak about 4 feet tall and thinly sliced. They sliced it from the side, and put it on a pita with some hummus and veggies. 

Navy Pier was next on the docket. They walked around and ate some fudge. Yum! It was way too cold and windy for the ferris wheel. It was about 20 degrees out!

They drove the Magnificent Mile. They were going to shop at The American Girl Store, but there wasn't any parking. LOL!!! (For those of you not in the know, The American Girl Store is every girl's dream and every boy & dad's nightmare! It is a store full of nothing but American Girl merchandise, which includes books, dolls, clothing for the dolls, & accessories for the dolls.)

March 14: BOINGGGG!!!

BOINGGGG!!!

While we were in Cedar Rapids at state speech, Jim took the boys to the trampoline place. They had a great time bouncing around on everything. Jamo was busy with jazz band, so he missed the trip. :(

Special socks you have to wear while jumping. They have rubber things on the bottom

 like toddler socks! :) OH! And they make a great fashion statement, too!

Too fast!

March 8: Artsy...

Artsy

Alex made this monkey vase for me. He worked very hard on it in 3-D Art. He is very proud of it, and he should be! I love it! I love the way the monkey is hugging the vase, and his tail cracks me up. :)

Mar. 1: A New Record in Service

A New Record in Service!

This has been a crazy week for us. Actually, every week is crazy for us, and that's why I haven't posted in a while. So when I got on and saw that it had been Dec. 30th, I was a little embarrassed! I had no idea it had been this long!

Mar. 1: All 3 boys and Jim shoveled the church walk and stairs, and we shoveled out Mr. Dowell, Jamo's trumpet teacher. We were supposed to get an inch of snow, but we really got more like 5 inches.

Total service hours: 8

Mar. 4: All 3 boys plus Jim and myself worked at the Girl Scout meeting. 

Total service hours: 10

Mar. 5: Jamo spent 5 hours and Alex & Jer spent 3 hours each setting up risers, etc. for the show choir invitational. It was hard work, lifting the heavy risers and pounding the legs in, and turning all the cranks on the bottom.

Total service hours: 11

Mar. 6: Jamo turned 17 today! All 3 boys spent 2 hours setting up & decorating rooms for the invite.

Total service hours: 6

Mar. 7: The day of the Fort Madison Show Choir Invitational. Jamo got up at 4am to get ready for State Jazz Band competition. He got to the high school around 2, and then helped people as needed at the invite. He performed at 10:00 pm in the jazz band, and had an awesome impromptu solo! Jim & Krys spent from 9 am to 12 pm working at the judges' table. We recorded and figured scores for all the judges for all the schools competing.  Alex and Jer worked from 9 am to 1 am, with a couple of breaks in between. They were gophers and table wipers, They worked hard all day!

Total service hours: 58 yes, 58!

Our family put in 83 service hours this week! Like I said in the title, that has to be a new record!

March 14: State Speech

State Speech

The boys went to the District Speech Contest last weekend. They both did a great job! Alex got a 2, and Jer got a 1, which means he got to go to State Speech this weekend. Jer got 3 1's from the judges, and was selected to perform at All State, which is in Cedar Falls on March 30. Congratulations, Jer!

Dec. 30: Making Noodles

Making Noodles

One meal we love to have in the winter is homemade noodles, mashed potatoes, and gravy with various meats. Today, I taught the boys how to make noodles so they can make them when they get home if they want. 

First Step: preparing the ingredients.Here, the boys are measuring out the flour. We quadruple the recipe so that we have enough for our big family, so today's lesson included how to multiply fractions. Jer said it would take too long to do it that way, so they opted to just measure everything 4 times. Hilarious! We also had a lesson about how 3 teaspoons equals a tablespoon and that in a recipe, a T is a tablespoon while a t is a teaspoon.  I'm not sure they fully understood these concepts, but Hey- there's always next time!

Jer learned in culinary class to take a knife and go over the top of the measuring cup to make it exact. :)

Step 2: Assign the rest of the kids jobs so we can eat soon! Here, Karley & Kaydey are putting away the dishes & setting table. You can see them working in the background in some of the other pictures.

Jamo & Kayley are in charge of the homemade mashed potatoes. Here they are washing and cutting the potatoes.

Step 2 for Real: Jer is mixing the ingredients while Alex is spreading the surface with flour.

Step 3: Rolling out the dough. The dough can be rolled until it is paper thin. I don't usually have that much patience!

Keep the surface of the dough and the surface of the table covered with flour so the dough doesn't stick. Keep rolling!

Try to keep a rectangular surface, not Florida as shown here. You can easily fix your peninsula if you make one by accident. It's not a big deal, it's just easier to roll and cut if it is more of a rectangle than anything else.

Step 4: Rolling up the dough. Make sure there is plenty of flour on the surface of the dough first. Then roll it up into a log.

Step 5: Cut the dough into thin slices. They will blow up in the boiling water, so don't worry about making them too small.

Alex is unrolling the noodles and adding them to the pot of boiling water. I forgot to take pictures after this- sorry! We were hungry and wanted to eat! We spent the day in Iowa City running errands and got home close to 5, so we were anxious to get dinner on the table.

Step 6: Unroll the slices and add them to boiling water. You might want to break them up a little because the pieces are very long otherwise. They cook up way faster than store-bought noodles, so keep checking them for doneness. (is that a word?)

Step 7: Enjoy! We had ours with mashed potatoes, gravy, leftover Christmas turkey, and corn. Peas are good, too. Any kind of meat works- we have tried chicken, turkey, beef, and venison. Mmmm! Can't go wrong!

Here is the recipe. We quadrupled it, and had about 1 noodle left over. By the way, Margaret, thanks for teaching me about homemade noodles! :) I had never had them before I met Jim and we ate at your house!

Homemade Noodles

2/3 cup of flour

1 egg

1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon oil

And you know the rest!

Dec. 27-28: St. Louis Trip

St. Louis Trip

For part of the boys' Christmas present, Jim took them to St. Louis for the weekend. Jamo was in Tennessee on the band trip (they played at the Liberty Bowl!).

Saturday: They drove to St. Louis and did the Busch Stadium tour. They went to lunch at Hardee’s. Next, they went to the arch and had to wait in line for half an hour. They went to the top of the arch, then took a nap at the hotel. They ate pizza for supper and spent the evening in the hot tub. 

View from the stands. Look at the arch!

This is actually wallpaper!!! They digitally blew up baseball cards and turned it into wallpaper! 

Very cool!

Sunday: They went to the old courthouse and saw a movie about Dred Scott & slavery. They went back to the arch for some photo ops of the arch. After that, they visited the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park and looked at some Egyptian and Nigerian art. They had quite a lot of stuff from Nigeria there! Following that, they went to the zoo per Alex’s request, since he had never been to a zoo before! At the zoo they went to the reptile house, primate house, and the big cats. Later, they ate lunch at Panda Express in Chesterfield. This was a first for both boys, because they had never had Chinese food before. They did a little shopping and then went to Sports Fusion, where they played miniature golf and laser tag. They drove home after a whirlwind 2 days!

What did the guys have to say?

Jer- favorite activity was laser tag (with 34 players he got 4^th place & 6^th place) and going to Busch Stadium. The hot tub was really good- he had never been in one before!

Alex- favorite activity was the zoo and the mini golf. He had never seen a lion or tiger before! He had never been in a hot tub before, either, and loved it! Getting to go inside the arch was amazing! He wanted stay in St. Louis and not come home.

Jim- I got 14^th place in laser tag, and half of my group were little girls!!!