Things are continuing well

It is almost Christmas time and things have been going well with our homeschooling!  The girls and I have settled into a routine and they have responded well to instruction.  We have learned several things about American History that I didn't know before and Emmy is showing great ability to retain that knowledge.

Here are some projects we've been working on for Christmas:

Making the refrigerator a Snow-woman was a favorite of the girls!

 This was my favorite. I knew the tape wouldn't hold a big chain so we made little red and green "icicles" to hang in the living room.

These are some ornaments the girls made in Sunday School at church.  They love anything that involves paint!

This project was just by me and Hubbie. We both love kimchi and making our own makes it even better!  This is our second batch and it turned out much better than our first.  Kimchi is a spicy, fermented cabbage dish that we love to eat with almost everything!

Art with Food

Today felt like it needed some art class.  I had purchased this gingerbread man kit at Tractor Supply this summer for $.99 on clearance.

The cookies were much larger than I had expected even with the size of the box. Inside the box were the cookies, two frosting packs, sprinkles, and chocolate candies.  Now, given these were for last Christmas, they were a little out of date.  I thought we were within an acceptable grace period but the frosting in the packs was hard as a rock.  I tried softening them by putting them in a bowl of warm water for several minutes but it made no difference.  We decided to abandon the enclosed frosting and make our own.

I found a recipe for a basic frosting in my Dining on a Dime cookbook.  I only had a small amount of powdered sugar left so I had to adjust the measurements.  It became an exercise in estimating as I only had one shot at getting it right.  After a small amount of margarine and a tiny, tiny little bit of milk, we had some workable frosting.  We divided it between two baggies and the girls were off!

Emmy said hers was Anna and Abby said hers was a ninja.  

While we aren't the most fabulous of designers, it was a great assignment of using food for art.  With Christmas quickly approaching, I'm sure we'll find several more opportunities to bake and decorate!