Monthly Archives: October 2011

Longmont Pumpkin Patches in Review

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Mama Rosemary

Every year we go to at least one pumpkin patch.  There are so very many to choose from here on the Front Range and they are  each unique.  Happily this year we made it to two!

Sunflower Farms

This place is like a gem.  So sweet and very country, almost romantic in its appeal.  At least for me.

Up in the trees at Sunflower Farm

Huge tree houses greet you has you walk into the farm with all kinds of swings hanging on the surrounding tree branches.  These are some big trees and the swings go high!

Swinging

The hay bale maze here is built-up at different levels with wooden planks for walking over gaps.

Super Fun Hay Bale

There is a great long zip line.  The animals on this farm are friendly and some of them roam free.  We had a couple of turkeys gobbling at us by the camp fire when we first arrived.

Yummy Corn

Kids can play in a big enclosure filled with corn like a sandbox and feed the corn to the goats.  The goats are funny and very gentle at least with us humans, there was some serious competition for corn.

We also took a horse-drawn carriage ride to the Enchanted Forest where the kids played among trees and picked a pumpkin from the nearby field.

On our way to the enchanted forest

I love how natural and old fashion Sunflower Farms is.  How it is set up for pure imaginative fun!

Anderson Farms

This place has a HUGE corn maze.  We went early in the morning and the breeze through the corn was rustling like a forest on a mountain side.  Actually we went to this maze twice this year and were able to complete the maze during our two visits.  There are sign posts or markers throughout the maze where you can punch your map to show that you made it through.  The kids had a lot of fun figuring out how to get from one section of the maze to another.  There is also a who-done-it mystery to solve in the corn maze that is very kid friendly and kept them going strong.

Figuring out where to go next on the map.

Anderson Farms  also has barrel and tractor rides.  A tire castle to climb and a super fun hay bale maze for the kids to jump around on.   We didn’t see it all, we focused on the maze.  So I know there is more at this pumpkin patch, maybe for next year.

Tire Mtn

Anderson Farms  also has barrel and tractor rides.  A tire castle to climb and a super fun hay bale maze for the kids to jump around on.   We didn’t see it all, we focused on the maze.  So I know there is more at this pumpkin patch, maybe for next year.

Rocky Mtn. Pumpkin Ranch

This is our old stomping grounds.  We have gone here for years and just recently branched out.  I am planning to sneak over there by myself one day to score some of there wonderful organic produce.

The fun here involves bouncy houses and carnival rides, face painting as well as pumpkin painting.  The kids were sad we didn’t go here this year, maybe next time….

Please Note:  As of Fall 2012, it looks like Rocky Mtn. Pumpkin Ranch has changed some things around since last time we went.  Still  fun things going on, but maybe no carnival rides?  And it looks a bit less expensive which is something to cheer about!

Categories: Adventures And Stories | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

From First Snow to Novice Chicken ‘n’ Dumplings

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Mama Rosemary

It is magic… looking out the window before bed there is nothing but Earth and Sky, or perhaps just a little bit of rain coming down. Then when you wake up piles of snow greet you while a soft pink sky glows above.

October Snow in Colorado’s Front Range

It is like someone came and brought a lovely present for everyone. I love living in Colorado. I love the changing weather, it is never one way for too long, not to mention the ever-present beauty of the mountains that we get to enjoy each day. Today is the first snow of the year and it came in overnight, just like magic.

The first snow is usually just a tease kinda of dusting, this year it is different, this year is like a winter wonderland.

When my daughter woke in the morning, I held her soft little hand and lead her over the window. We excitedly pulled back the thick velvety brown curtain and I showed her the peaceful beauty outside. She stood motionless and quiet for a few minutes. Then she asked if she could go out and play. It was still before dawn and we had to get ready for school. But who am I to say “no” to such a basic and justified request? If I had been 5 years old this morning, I would have asked the same question. So we got her all bundled up and off she went. She stepped into the yard and sunk in to just above her knees. There is a lot of snow out there today, way more than a dusting. With our dog frolicking around her plowing through drifts of white, Violet played for a good 30 minutes and was not ready to stop when she finally had to get ready for school. I know that she and her big sister will come home eager to play outside and enjoy this special snow, the first snow of the year.

I want to make something warm and healthy to support their bodies and spirits in their play. I am a big fan of homemade chicken soup because it too is like magic. There is something about it that really feeds the body, strengthening every part. Research has shown that chicken soup can be anti-inflammatory. But whatever it is, it seems to me that a nice bowl of soup made with love and intention is like having a warm hug for your insides. But, I really don’t want to make chicken soup. I am thinking that chicken and dumplings would be fun. Maybe I can find a way to make it similar to chicken soup. I am sure the dumplings will not add to the health benefits, but I do think they will be fun and I know my eldest daughter has been craving this tasty dish. So off I go to search for a chicken and dumpling recipe that will help me on my way.


Ok, so I have done some research and found a bunch of interesting recipes.

My favorite came from Ree’s site The Pioneer Woman that is filled with lots of humor and delicious looking recipes!

Here is the recipe I complied from Ree,  and about a dozen or so other places:

  • Roaster Chicken(s) equal to about 1 whole chicken that you have been waiting to make soup with, I had 2 in my freezer waiting to be used up.

    Dried Nettles

  • 3 cups water
  • handful of dried nettles
  • 5 or so 2-3″ pieces of astragalus

Simmer this all together until the chicken is ready to fall off the bone.

Let cool. Strain and reserve liquid. Pull chicken off the bone.

Why the nettles and astragalus you ask? What is this stuff you wonder? Nettles are a dark green highly nutrient rich plant that can be purchased dried.

Astragalus Root, use the pieces for cooking

Astragalus comes to us from Traditional Chinese Medicine. Astragalus builds the immune system and it great to use as a preventative during cold and flu season, though it is not to be used during acute illness. I add astragalus to anything that is cooked in liquid during the winter months to help my family, things like soup, rice and crock pot meals. You will want to remove the astragalus before eating your food.  Purchase nettles and astragalus at your local herb store or natural grocery.

Next the veggies:

  • 1 red onion chopped
  • Lots of minced garlic, to taste
  • 2 italian heirloom zucchini, chopped
  • 3 stalks of celery, chopped
  • 4 carrots, chopped
  • Olive Oil, about 3 tablespoons
  • 1/2 cup apple cider, courtesy of Ree, she says it is a great addition.

Really use any veggies you have that sound good to you.  This list is just what I had on hand in the fridge.  Cook this all up together until tender. Add salt, pepper and herbs like thyme, oregano and sage to taste.

Put the chicken and the stock (enough to almost cover the veggies and chicken, reserving about a cup) back in the pot and add the cider, you will have a very thick chicken soup at this point. I know that chicken and dumplings has more broth than this sometimes but I was scared. Scared to have a lot of broth because last time I made chicken and dumplings the dumplings dissolved into the broth and then I had a big pot of gravy stuff not really so very tasty!  Simmer to let flavors blend.

Then for the dumplings:
These are right from Ree, her dumpling recipe looked great so I had to try it, plus she says to add cornmeal to the dumplings and anything with cornmeal is a winner with my family!

  • 1 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, Ree uses all-purpose
  • 1/2 cup of cornmeal
  • 1 heaping tbsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cup of milk, I used 2%, Ree uses half and half
  • 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley, if I had only had that to add… would have been yummy!

Mix together dry ingredients then add milk or half and half.
Drop this by the tablespoonful onto the top of your chicken mixture. Cook, covered for about 15 minutes.

Chicken ‘n’ Dumplings all cooked up!

Last, I made a gravy:

  • Reserved chicken stock, I had about a cup, you might need to tweak the proportions below based on how much you have left
  • tbsp or so of butter
  • 2 tbsp of flour
  • Add salt and granulated garlic to taste

Melt the butter into the stock and then whisk in the flour. Whisk until the gravy thickens.
Serve the gravy on top or next the chicken and dumplings if you wish.

Success!  

My family loved this.  And it did not turn into a big gooey pot of mess.

Yummy and perfect for the end of a cold day.

Categories: Adventures And Stories, Kitchen Creations, Parenting | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Baby Tooth is MIA in Which Mommy Done Bad

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Mama Rosemary

Shock tingles up through my body filling me up from feet to head. My hand is in the dishwasher delivering a glass to the top shelf when the realization dawns on me. The plate which held my child’s newly lost tooth has been placed upside down into the top shelf of the diswasher. Checking the plate I find my fears confirmed. Her tooth is gone and I have committed a grievous error. This is a tooth that Violet not only wanted to put under her pillow but also planned to keep forever. Violet is already off to bed and seems to have forgotten about her tooth for the moment. Knowing that time is probably short, I start frantically searching for her tooth. Pulling out the bottom rack of the dishwasher and loudly lamenting the situation, I call to Nyssa, Violet’s sister, and ask her to bring me her flashlight. Nyssa comes running and we begin to search through the dishwasher.

“Is that it?” asks Nyssa.

“No, that is a piece of rice.” I reply.

On we go, with me getting my head as far back into the dishwasher as possible trying to keep my weight off the open dishwasher door and Nyssa examining every little thing she finds. After a while we back track to the dining room table. Do you know how many things look like a tiny baby tooth? Every little white bit of anything could be it and given that I haven’t vacuumed recently there are a lot of little bits everywhere.
“Um,” I tell Nyssa, “Maybe it is in the garbage disposal.”

By now Patrick has come downstairs from putting Violet to bed. While relating the predicament to him, I stick my hand into the disposal. Feeling a sense of protection for my hand come over me, I announce to the room that it is on it’s way into the depths of the disposal. Patrick stops mid-step opting to stay out of the kitchen until I am done rumaging. Nyssa notices this and wonders what the big deal is about garbage disposals and hands. So we begin her education of this dangerous kitchen appliance. I am uncovering all kinds of things in the disposal and to my amazement find myself searching these things very, very thoroughly. It dawns on me that this is yet another of those experiences parenting has brought me. Another one of those things I never thought I would do, that I wouldn’t have even imagined doing. Things like catching vomit in my hands or eagerly cleaning mucus out of a sick baby’s nose. Or, more pleasantly, playing night-night in the bottom of my closet for long stretches of time laying amoungst various clothing and shoes that had made their way to the floor to create a comfy nest. And even more surprised at being glad to be involved in, if not the center piece of this activity, because as a pregnant mom I was exhausted and at least I got to rest while keeping my child happy.

“Well, the tooth isn’t here. What am I going to do?”

I feel like I have failed. I meant to protect that tooth and help Violet get it under her pillow but I really just totally and completely forgot all about it. As I poke around in the kitchen I start to form a plan. In our house we often communicate with the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and even the Easter bunny by writing notes and leaving them where the visiting guest is likely to find them. So, I will leave the tooth fairy a note and apologize for losing the tooth. Maybe the tooth fairy would leave Violet an extra coin to lessen the hurt of her mommy’s mistake. But, Violetreally wanted to keep all of her teeth and had planned to ask the tooth fairy to leave her each one behind, how do I deal with that?

I am trying to reconcil this in my mind when Nyssa decides to try and help me. She finds a lovely piece of stationary and writes the tooth fairy a letter telling of the lost tooth. She then makes a fake tooth out of a cotton ball on which she puts a bit of red marker to look like blood. In her letter she asks the tooth fairy to take the cotton ball as a replacement tooth. It is so sweet and cute. But Nyssa doesn’t know that Violet wanted to keep her tooth. As I start telling her about this, her attention wanes. Deciding to let it go for the moment, we move on with our evening.
In the end I decided to leave the tooth fairy my own note with a confession of my mistake. The tooth fairy replied on that same note and left Violet a little something extra, just this once!

And, the next morning when Violet came running down the stairs and jumped into my lap for a snuggle, I had to tell her about the tooth and the note which I had slipped under her pillow. She handled it well, in her calm, sweet Violet-like way, though she did say she was really sad I lost her tooth, which pained me. After the news sunk in we quietly made our way upstairs together to find the note complete with a reply from the tooth fairy and six shiny quarters. Then we had to count all the money in Violet’s clear blue plastic piggy bank adding in the quarters. Afterwards a happy Violet stayed behind to feed her piggy bank. Phew!

But it turned out that not everyone was happy and appeased in the end. It turned out that Nyssa was sad because I didn’t leave her note too. “Well Nyssa, I dont’ know why I didn’t leave your note too, I guess I just didn’t think that it would work with the note I wrote, I’m sorry!”

And, on we move into the new day ready for whatever comes and happy for it.

Shared On:  Sunday Parenting Party

Categories: Adventures And Stories, Parenting | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Am Going to Kindergarten

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Mama Rosemary

The new school year has started and so this is not timely.  Yet, I am guessing there are some other Momma’s, like me, out there right now who are still going through their own transition into the school year so I wanted to share…

This is about me going to kindergarten for the last time.  I have been twice before once when I was 5, once when I was 32 and now I get to experience it one more time.  The excited anticipation of the first day.  What to wear?  What to pack for lunch?  Who is Violet’s new teacher? And, will they take good care of her?  There will be new friends to make, a new school to enjoy and new experiences to be had.

I am 36 years old and I am going to kindergarten.  While I am excited about this big change in my life, I am also nervous and sad.  So sad in fact that I find myself tearing up at the school office while filling out paperwork for admittance into kindergarten.

“Is it your baby?” asked the kind lady behind the desk.
“Yes, my last one.” I replied.
“Ah,” she commiserates, “my youngest kid is in middle school this year.”

After I finish filling out the paperwork and put down a deposit to hold Violet’s space in the full day program, I go home grieving but happy. Violet is there waiting for me with big brown eyes, a hug and kiss, and of course a fabulous story concocted from her imagination.  I hope that I have made the right decision for her and our family to put her in full day kindergarten.  Only an hour or so earlier, I had received the phone call telling me that a spot had opened up for her in full day.  We were next on the waiting list.  I hesitated.  I had finally adjusted to the idea of Violet going only to morning kindergarten.  They had cancelled the enrichment program at our school that I had planned to send Violet to two afternoons a week.  So now it was all or nothing.  Full day kindergarten would mean she would be gone all day, everyday. That I would only be with my kids together, both of them at the same time.  The special alone time of the preschool years would forever and finally be over.

Two people have now said to me, “No more babies for you!” because Violet is starting kindergarten.

“How did this happen?” I wonder. “Wasn’t I just pregnant with her?”

I can still feel her pregnancy in my body and soul.  I can still smell her sweet baby scent and feel my arms cuddling her while nursing in the wee hours of the morning, just her and me.  But she has grown so much and she is so very ready for the next stage in her journey.  Am I?  Am I ready?  Can I bear to watch my last child, my baby, go off into the world?  Mentally I know this is just the beginning and that I need to let her go with love and confidence.  I remember how my mother clinging to me as I neared the end of highschool drove me mad.  It could not have been a surprise after all that I would be leaving home soon, didn’t she expect it?  Hadn’t she known for years that this time was coming?  Now that I am here and experiencing separation, not for the first time, but on a new level, I am able to appreciate some of what she was going through.  All the while during the past 5 years while I changed diapers; made food; cleaned the house; read stories; scheduled activities; created art projects; put kids to bed; cleaned up astounding, sometimes disgusting messes; and more; my baby has grown up.  It was a sneaky wonderful thing to do.

In the meantime Violet’s older sister is doing her own growing.  She is reading novels; developing artistic skills and learning things unknown to me.  I can sense her mind working quickly behind those beautiful hazel eyes.  I can feel her absorbing all she can from the world, from each situation and interaction.

The experience of raising children, of watching them grow magnifies the poignancy of life.  If you don’t pay attention, you might miss it.  To take a moment and stop to see my children growing, this is truly bittersweet.

Categories: Adventures And Stories, Parenting | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Spiced Apple Head Puppets

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Mama Rosemary

Silly Apple Head PuppetI have fond memories of making a funny witch with a mysteriously shrunken apple head at my preschool. When she was all dressed and finished I brought her home and sat her on our fire-place mantle for what seemed like weeks. I would visit with her often wondering just how her head got so small, have a little conversation with her and be on my way.
I am so excited to share this fun project with the kids I know and with you! This is part craft, part science experiment. Be prepared to answer the question: “Why does the apple shrink?”

First create a face

Carved apples floating in a sea of lemony brine

Find big apples, the bigger the better because the apples will shrink a surprising amount as they dry. Peel them. You don’t have to be a perfectionist about this a bit of peel left here and there or around the top and bottom is no biggie. Then carve a face into the apple. You can let you child draw a face on the apple that you carve out when they are done or you can just carve it for them. Next float your apple in a mixture of lemon juice, salt and water.   You will want enough liquid to cover the apple.  For each cup of water use approximately 1 tablespoon each of lemon juice and salt.  This keeps the apple from turning brown.  Let the apple soak for at least 15 minutes, longer is fine too.  I have kept them soaking in the fridge overnight before.  Pat the apple dry.

Decorations

I love using herbs for crafts and so I put out cloves (eyes), fennel seeds (teeth) for the kids to decorate with. You can also use broken pasta or rice for teeth as well as other herbs that would look fun or creepy on an apple head. Cinnamon chips would be great! Just press whatever you are decorating with into the flesh of the apple.  I usually suggest what the various items can be used for and then the kids take it away. They get really into it and make their apples special. After decorating you can sprinkle the apple with ground spices like cinnamon or nutmeg.

♥

Next the intrigue, shrinking and drying

Place a popsicle stick in the bottom of the apple and stand it up to dry or hang it from a string by it’s stem. We stood ours up by slicing a small hole in a cardboard box and putting the popsicle stick through. Check your apples everyday to watch their progress as the change into hilarious creepy little creatures. They smell great and look silly. Kids LOVE to watch them change. This takes a few weeks here in Colorado where it is very dry.  While the apple is drying keep an eye out for rotting.  If you see anything starting to rot cut off the susipcious parts and dry your apple in a 170 degree oven, keep an eye on your apple and leave the oven door open if the apple seems strained by the heat.  If you want to use the oven to dry your apples from the start instead of air drying that is fine too.

A Sad Day…  We had a tragedy with one of our apples at the school this Fall.  It rotted so badly. The sweet little boy who’s apple head went bad handled it well but it was a sad day indeed.  Several other apples were starting to mold when made our puppets so I am wishing that I had dried the apples for our school in the oven.  Strangely the ones at our house were fine, no mold.

Dried Apple Ready to Decorate

Ideas for using a dried apple head

Create a puppet: This is what we did this year.  Let your child decorate the a sock or glove to if you want.  Add hair (yarn works great), a hat or whatever you want to the apple as well.  Take the sock/glove and cut a small hole in the top for the popsicle stick to go through.  If you wish, you can hot glue the sock/glove to the apple and the popcicle stick for stability.  Or you can also just leave them on their sticks and dress them up however you see fit using them as puppets.

Silly Apple Head Puppets

Create a witch: In the past we have made witches’ with bodies made from plastic bottles, clothes made from black construction paper, and hair of yarn.

Other Ideas:
Granny Dolls: Use your apple head for a doll. If you are lucky enough to know how to sew you can even make a nice little outfit for your doll with pockets and an apron.
Decorations: Place to apples amongst other decorations like gourds, pumpkins and candles for a funny surprise!

Have fun!

Shared on the Kid’s Co-Op Via Taming the Goblin, It’s Play Time!

Categories: Cinnamon and Spices, Fun Crafts, Halloween, Herbs For Kids and Mamas, Lesson Plans For Preschool And Home, Playing With Herbs, Seasonal Herbal Crafts | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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