Sunday Smorgasbord Linky Randomness

What a great 4th of July!  I hope you enjoyed the holiday!  It's fun to watch fireworks and even more fun to watch them from the deck at home!  

Here's a little picture of my sweetie dog!  This is the real life model for the clip art picture on this blog! 

My sweet little Gigi is an 8 year old girl that we've had for about 6 years!  Spoiled?  Completely!

Whenever I've been out of the house and come back home, she cries and cries until she gets a treat!  Spoiled, just plain spoiled!  I just love that girl!

Finally, I have been looking for a really good homemade vegan brownie and I think this may be the one! Its from Doron Petersan's book, Sticky Fingers' Sweets.  These are quite yummy!  I don't make these kinds of treats often, but the fam has been asking for "something chocolate!"  

So check out this old school Corelle plate!  New dishes are on the way, but there's some sentimental value to these!  I do love Corelle!  It's survived my everyday use and 2 kids!  Love it!

I hope you're doing just exactly what you love to do today, tomorrow and every single day after that!  

Have a great day!

THE GINGERBREAD DISASTER! OH MY...

It started out just like any other Friday the 13th.  Everything was great!  Show and Tell was awesome and the kiddies were excited to bake Gingerbread Cookies!  We were getting things ready.  We wrote this recipe....

 

and set out our ingredients.....



and mixed up our dough.  I always tell my kiddies, "Remember that everyone gets a turn to do something, but not everyone gets to do everything."  So we measured and mixed and stirred and folded, taking turns until we got this delicious dough ready to become the gingerbread cookies we had waited all week for!  (Yes, that's my old school, hand-me-down mixer!  It's probably 30 years old!  I burned up the brand new one that I bought to use at school this year! )

 

 

So now comes the tricky part.  We have to shape the dough into the ginger-kids that we want to make.  Here's where the disaster part comes into play.

 

After careful instruction and several teacher demonstrations,

Cookie Shaping 101 just went downhill.

Look at these sad little, uhmm, "cookies?"

I'm beginning to get a little worried.

 





 

And then..........

 





Wow.  Disaster.  Gingerbread Disaster!  LOL!

 

We've played with Play-doh.  We've created geometric 3-D shapes with Play-doh. 

We've cooked and baked other things this year in my classroom. 

 

I think we need a little more practice on sculpting skills!

We couldn't bake those "cookies."  Those little crumbs would burn immediately!

 

So, they ate the part they wanted to eat and tossed the rest!

 

Do over.

 

 

 

 

 

I quickly made another batch of cookie dough during my lunch.

For the sake of time, I made round cookies with 2 eyes and a mouth
and put them in the oven to bake.

Sweet and happy ending to a Gingerbread Disaster! 

We will try again another day.  We'll work on our fine motor, artistic sculpting skills. 
We have to.  We don't want another disaster like today!
LOL!

I just love Kindergarten!  It's always an adventure!

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy the season!
 

Kimmie!

 

PS - That's not a real recipe in the picture above.  It's the one that my kiddies created to make the cookies!  We used a real recipe that is Vegan so that they could sample the dough without the risk of raw eggs.  Don't try to make that one at home!  Hahaha!

It's Teacher Week '13! Let's Talk About Me Monday!

Blog Hoppin'

Talking about Kimmie!  This should be interesting!  LOL!  Well, here are some things that you find fun about me!  Let me see how many numbers I'll need!

1.  I'm getting ready to begin my 20th year as a teacher!  I've taught 2nd grade and 1st grade and for the last 11 years, I've been in Kindergarten!  It's the best grade ever!

 My TpT Store



 

 

2.  My hubby Jim and I have been married for 30 years!  Our anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks and that will mark our 31st anniversary!  Wow!  He's a wonderful man and we spend lots of time together!  We have two smart, beautiful girls and we're so proud of them! AND we have another member of our sweet family!  It's Gigi!  She's our chubby little beagle!

Sweet Little Gigi! Who could resist that face?

www.spinning.com

3.  I teach SPINNING!  I love to Spin (indoor bike, high intensity aerobic exercise! - Not to be confused with weaving or spinning yarn! LOL!)  I've been a Spinning Instructor for about 14 years!  I also teach Pilates, YogaFit and HydroRider, which is Spinning in the deep water pool.  I love to exercise and I like to make it fun for others!  I do resistance training, I run a little and take all kinds of exercise classes at the Health Plex near where I live in Cincinnati! 

  

    

   

4.  I love to cook!  I think I'm a chef!  I've been a vegan for almost 16 years!  It seems like forever and I'm so glad!  It's definitely a life choice and most of the time it's easy and simple.  It's a little tricky when we have to travel, but it's getting easier as restaurants become more interested in offering healthy low fat veggie choices!
 

 

 www.vegnv.com

I think this is so true!!www.gopantone.com

 

 

 

5., 6., 7., & 8.  This summer my husband and I went to Las Vegas so that I could present at the I Teach K! Conference!  That was awesome!  I met some really fun teachers!  It was lots of fun!  One of the summer highlights! 

Debbie

 Deedee

Deanna

I also elbowed my way up to meet Kim Adsit, Kimberly Jordano and Kathleen Pederson!

Thanks girls!

Here's a photo of the Blogger Meet Up 2013! 

Where are you?  Do you see yourself? Can you find me? (Middle, about 3 from the right!)

 

 

9.  After the conference in Las Vegas, Jim and I took a little vacation for the first time in about 20 years!  We've been kind of busy with work and the girls and giving all our money to The University of Cincinnati!  Finally, we were able to spend some time together and enjoy Palm Springs, CA, the Grand Canyon and the area all around Sedona, AZ!

 

 

                                           

 Palm Springs, CA

 

 

 

 The Grand Canyon!  So Beautiful!

 

 Sedona, AZ   A Gorgeous Area!



10.  Tomatoes!  We are growing lots and lots and LOTS of tomatoes!  We have 32 tomato plants and the tomatoes are starting to get ripe!  There's nothing like a Cincinnati tomato and we wait all summer for them to ripen!  We grow many, many varieties and I love them all!  Brandywine, Grape,  Roma, Cherry, Black Cherry, Big Boy, Better Boy and Early Girl are some of our favorites! Need a few?  Come over!

 



 

 I could go on and on!  That's a lot of Kimmie info!  Tomorrow is another day and another fun blog post coming up! 

I love doing these Linky Party Activities! I learn so much about FABULOUS bloggers and the GREAT ideas that they have and the WONDERFUL places they go!

Blog Hoppin'

Thanks for taking the time to read all this! If I think of something else I'll add it later!
Have a great week!