Hogwarts Summer School Week 6

The students participating in our summer fun challenge just finished Week 6. Here are some of the fun activities they completed for their Hogwarts Classes.

Turning popsicle sticks into something else for Transfigurations.

Feeding wildlife for Herbology

Coloring hot rocks for Transfigurations.

Making numbers into animals for Arithmancy. 

Playing Pooh Sticks for Quidditch. Did you know that there is a Pooh Sticks World Championship?
I know. We didn't either!

Visiting someone in a Nursing Home for Charms.

The winner of the House Cup this week was.... Gryffindor!

They are really on a roll. But Slytherin and Ravenclaw are tied for second place and very close behind.
Best of luck to all the houses as they finish up their summer semester!

Brick Oven and Cooking with Kids

I apologize for not posting yesterday when I normally do. On Saturday we were given a HUGE salmon freshly caught in Alaska on Thursday as well as a small fillet of halibut. Hopefully, most of you are thinking, "Lucky!"

Unfortunately, I was thinking, "Oh no!" I don't know how to cook fish. The reason for my lack of culinary knowledge is that most of my family hates fish. (Read me and all of my children.) My poor husband!

So all day yesterday I slaved over this fish. I cut the meat off the spine and picked out the pin bones with my eyebrow tweezers.  I know...my husband owes me big time.

After that fun experience, I grilled the salmon using an Our Best Bites recipe. It turned out awesome! I even liked it. We had invited company over to help us devour this delicacy.

Orange Teriyaki Salmon

I also made homemade fish sticks with the halibut for the kids using this recipe by Emeril. It resulted in this awesome compliment from one of my teenagers, "Mom, your fish doesn't make me want to puke!"  Thanks, sweetheart!

Mommy's Fish Sticks

I purposefully didn't cook anything else so that all my kids would be forced to try the fish or go hungry. I am a good mother that way!

But this morning I made it up to them by making chocolate zucchini muffins using this recipe from Our Best Bites. It was heavenly. I made 18 muffins and one loaf of zucchini bread.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

In other cooking news, we are super excited about the Brick Oven that my husband is building in the back yard. It is going to be a pizza oven and we are so excited to have lots of friends and family over to enjoy our delicious brick oven pizza!

Here is a close up of the brick oven right now.

Here is the tile saw he is using to cut the bricks.

Here is the place in the backyard where he cleans out the wheelbarrow to get ride of the mortar mix when he is done with it.

Here are the pavers that we have been hauling as a family to go around the brick oven once he is done.

We will also build a fire pit in this area. Not that we haven't already been building fires on the dirt but it will look so much more hip and non-redneck when we are done.

Stay tuned for a cool campfire food idea that we discovered recently. I will be posting that on Friday unless I get another drive by fish delivery!

Cute Gift Idea

I have spent the last two years working with the 10 and 11 year old girls in my church group. They are darling and I absolutely love them.

Sadly, on Sunday I was released from my service in that area and called instead to work in our church nursery. It will be fun to be working with the little ones again. But I will really miss my girls.

I prepared this little gift to let them know how much I still love and care for them. I attached the tag to some pop rocks and pop tarts.

I also think this tag would look great attached to some fun flavored popcorn. I LOVE the cinnamon roll popcorn from the gals at Our Best Bites. We deliver it regularly to friends in our neighborhood. You can find it here.

You can find the free printable tag here.

Pop Rock Tag

Enjoy!!

Hogwarts Summer School Week 5

The students who are participating in the Hogwarts Summer Fun Challenge just completed Week 5. Some of our students are even completing their course work in Ireland this week! I love these world traveling witches and wizards.

Here are the some fun activities they completed for their courses this week.

Rollerskating for Quidditch. Some Hogwarts students got to try rollerskating for the first-time. Muggle sports are so much fun!

Writing a nature poem and creating a scroll with twigs for Herbology.

  

Creating a secret message using letters cut out of magazine for Ancient Runes.

Delivering a treat to the nurses at a local hospital for Charms.

 Making flower crowns for Herbology.





And creating recycled robots for Transfigurations.

Now to announce the winner of the House Cup this week. Drum roll please....

Gryffindor has retaken the lead! Harry and the gang would be proud. Slytherin and Ravenclaw are following close behind so let this be a warning to the Gryffindor House members, you better keep working hard during Week 6.
Good Luck Everyone!

Family History Treasure Hunt

Last weekend, Tiff and I gathered with the rest of our family for a 3-day family reunion in Midway, Utah.

We had so much fun riding Jet-Skis at Deer Creek Reservoir.

Some family members even tried out the new sport of flyboarding!

My favorite part of the reunion was when we traveled to the nearby town of Heber City to learn more about our Mom's childhood.

Mom had planned this treasure hunt so that all of her children and grandchildren could visit the places that she grew up.

One of the clues led to the hospital where she was born.

Another clue led to her elementary school.

Another clue led to the gravesite of my older brother who died as an infant.

(This is a picture of my parents Bill and Beverly Pace on the day that they got married!)

At each spot, we had to retrieve an envelope that contained a story about that location. With our little group of treasure hunters, we read the story out loud and then decided on two questions we could ask the rest of the family about that story.

(*Note: Our reunion was originally planned for this coming weekend at the end of July. But when the dates changed, my Mom didn't want to change all the materials she had already printed. This explains the date of July 27th on all the Treasure Hunt Packets.) 

The grandkids were really into the hunt. I was riding with three of my nephews: Cameron age 7, Will age 7 and Caden age 5. They were so excited to beat the other groups to the next site that they opened the car door before we got stopped. My husband had to put the child locks on the car doors to keep everyone safe!

It was amazing how much we learned and how much the kids remembered. It was so fun to get to know my Mom better and see the places that she grew up. It was the highlight of the reunion for everyone. I know it is something my kids and my nieces and nephews will always remember.

We have already asked Mom to prepare a similar treasure hunt about my Dad's childhood in Ogden, Utah for our next reunion. Do you have any special places or experiences from your past that you could share with your family?