The Search for Miss Direction: Good Clean Fun at the Gatchel's!

My frustration with the state of North Dakota is completely lost on the kids. They heard Mr. Bubble and they both want to book plane tickets. I suppose that's a good thing and perhaps I'm being a little too down on North Dakota this week. We did have a lot of fun today getting tons of North Dakota projects in.

We started this morning by making some Chocolate Chip, Raisin and Sunflower Seed Cookies in Kid Kitchen. You may remember from Monday's blog that North Dakota is one of the leading producers of sunflowers (they held the top spot on a regular basis until 2011 and 2013 when weather conditions gave South Dakota a slight edge). Both kiddos liked making these and I tried really hard to focus on Noah being able to do things completely on his own as he heads back to school full time on Tuesday and won't get to do nearly as much with us from here on out. The kids really liked these cookies and I really liked that it was a little bit more than just a regular chocolate chip cookie.

We then set out to have some good clean fun! Ever since I told them, the kids have been chomping at the bit to try out making Fizzing Bath Soap and Bath Jelly. The first was just for fun, but the second actually uses Mr. Bubble in the recipe. We had a blast! I am really keeping my fingers crossed that the fizzing ones hold together, we'll check on them tomorrow. (Kristi's note, if you want to try the first one, I would suggest omitting the squirt bottle and slowly adding the water mixture until you get the right consistency. The squirt bottle was just a pain. And on the second one, I did add extra gelatin so we could get more of a bar of soap since they wanted to 'bury toys in them)

We had enough time to tackle the "We've Been There" state and to do a mail call we just got from New Jersey. I can't believe how much we accomplished this morning! The Dynamic Duo were in great moods and were working so well together. Almost makes me sad that school starts on Tuesday. Almost ;-)

After we wrapped up things here we headed to the ABC Warehouse in Southfield for another Tigers signing. This time we got to meet relief pitcher Al Albuquerqe! I was shocked at how few people were actually there. We got there about 15 minutes before the signing and ended up being 3rd in line with no one behind us when the signing actually started! The kids didn't care, they were just so thrilled to meet another Tiger. They got their autographs and we stayed and hung out for pizza!

Noah was excited this afternoon to get a letter from his new teacher (Mikayla's came on Monday) and I was excited that he read the WHOLE letter all by himself. He didn't even stumble over words like experiment, Tennessee and beginning. Oh what a difference a year makes! I am so stinkin' proud of him, which I of course told him. His response "I know Mom" OK, good :-p

Tonight we had breakfast for dinner with some Double Wheat Waffles and Bauernomlett (Farmer's Omelet). Wheat (in a few different forms) is very important in North Dakota and the (like yesterday) German bauernomlett was perfect to pair with it tonight. I know wheat waffles can be a bit of a tough sell around here sometimes, so I was glad that the crew polished these off. And I ended up making the omelet a little more like a scramble and it earned a thumbs up as well. If you follow along regularly you know breakfast for dinner is always well received around here.

After dinner, their bath bombs weren't quite set yet, but the bath jelly was calling their names. Love the way it turned out and they had a ton of fun playing with it. I'll keep you posted on the bath bombs tomorrow night!

I'm wrapped up most of tomorrow with PTA stuff - both a meeting and the kindergarten kick off party, so Grant's coming home in the afternoon to hang with the kiddos so I can do my thing. They're keeping their fingers crossed he'll take them to the last event at the mall, a bubbleologoist! So until then...

North Dakota Fun Fact of the Day: North Dakota is the most rural of all the states, with farms covering more than 90% of the land. North Dakota ranks first in the nation's production of spring and durum wheat.