DIY Hearty Pancakes

We love pancakes around here and will often eat them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (just not all in the same day). This recipe is heartier than most and keeps us full longer. It is great with homemade butter and homemade pancake syrup.

Hearty Whole Grain Pancakes

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 2 Tbsp suger
• 1 tsp baking powder

1. Mix all ingredients well in a large mixing bowl.
2. On a hot greased skillet, griddle, or wok, pour 1/2 cup batter, and cook until the underside is gloden brown.
3. Flip over, and cook the other side until golden brown.

Andrew especially loves these cake-cakes!

Family Fridays: Playplace Fun

Today, a friend of ours needed help babysitting a little girl named Zoe. Our friend was unexpectedly asked to babysit and needed some help because she had to go to work. Our friend felt really bad asking for help although it was no big deal to us. However, I think we may have ended up getting the better deal because our friend insisted on treating all three kids to a playplace for the morning and pizza for lunch. Zoe was generally very easy going and all three kids had a really fun time. Here are some pictures from the cool playplace.

Cozy coupe

Giant bouncing balls and crawling tunnel

Andrew and Zoe riding cars

Aaron and Zoe playing in the plant sand

Andrew climbing

Aaron about to go down the car slide

Aaron swinging all by himself

Slide and ball pit

Zoe and Aaron on the teeter-totter

Andrew riding a green horse

Aaron jumping on the trampoline

Look at the giant Fly, Pooh, Bounce, Pig, and Your

The kids loved the tiny western potty,
having to flush it by scooping water from the bucket
seemed to just make it more fun for them

DIY Saltines

So, plain soda crackers aren't the most healthy recipe if you make them with all white flour, but at least with this homemade recipe there are no preservatives, and they taste way better than store bought saltines. Just like our homemade wheat thins, the only problem with them is they disappear way too fast around here.

Homemade Soda Cracker Recipe

• 3 cups flour (you can use part whole wheat if you want)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Salt for sprinkling on top (sea salt is great)
• Additional herbs like oregano, basil, or thyme can also be sprinkled on top for a unique flavor (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined. If dough is too sticky you may need to add extra flour. 
2. Roll dough out on a lightly floured or lightly oiled surface until about 1/8 inch thick. You can either roll it out on a counter and transfer it in a large piece to an oiled cookie sheet, or you can roll it directly onto an oiled cookie sheet.
3. Once on the cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt (and any extra herbs) and roll lightly to press salt in.
4. Gently cut the crackers to size using a pizza cutter or knife.
5. Bake at 350 F for 10-20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool slightly, and then break them into individual pieces.

This is the recipe I used to make train crackers.

DIY Wheat Thins

We all love this recipe for these simple crackers. They taste really similar to wheat thins but better. This is the recipe I used when I made the dinosaur crackers. The only problem with this recipe is they disappear really fast around here.

Homemade Wheat Cracker Recipe

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups flour (you can use all whole wheat if you want)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp salt, plus salt for sprinkling on top (sea salt is great)
• Additional herbs like oregano, basil, or thyme can also be sprinkled on top for a unique flavor (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined. If dough is too sticky you may need to add extra flour. 
2. Roll dough out on a lightly floured or lightly oiled surface until about 1/8 inch thick. You can either roll it out on a counter and transfer it in a large piece to an oiled cookie sheet, or you can roll it directly onto an oiled cookie sheet.
3. Once on the cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt (and any extra herbs) and roll lightly to press salt in.
4. Gently cut the crackers to size using a pizza cutter or knife.
5. Bake at 350F for 10-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool slightly, and then break into individual pieces.

These crackers are great by themselves or paired up with almost any dip.

Train Themed Preschool Craft: Train Whistle

This is a simple train themed craft that can be made out of recycled household items. These train whistles sound more like kazoos, but the boys still like them a lot.

Preschool (or Tot School) Craft: Train Whistle/Kazoo

• cardboard tube (TP tube, paper towel tube, tube from plastic wrap, etc)
• wax paper or celephane
• rubber band
• markers
• hole punch

1. Let the kids color the outside of the cardboard tube to decorate them.
2. Punch a hole near the top of the tube.
3. Put the wax paper or celephane over the top of the tube, and secure it in place with the rubber band.
4. Make funny noises by blowing and humming in the hole!

Mandarin Mondays: 很大

Rural meets City

Because of China's national day this month, we're learning more about this fascinating country, and I'll be sharing some of the facts we've learned each Monday.

This week we've been learning about how big China is. China is a very large (hěn dà, 很大) country. It is in fact the biggest country, in regards to amount of people. China is the world's most populous country with over 1.3 billion people. They have a saying here, people mountain people sea (rén shān rén hǎi, 人山人海), meaning sometimes it looks like there is a mountain of people and sometimes it looks like there is a sea of people. However much of China is not densely populated; the rural areas are still quite open and spacious. But if you are in a popular place in a big city, you can feel like you've suddenly become part of a mountain (shān, 山) or sea (hǎi, 海) because of people (rén, 人).

Construction Downtown

China is also big in the amount of land it covers, approximately 9.6 million square kilometers (3.7 million square miles). China is 3rd or 4th in the world in total land area, depending on how it is calculated. The People Republic of China is a single party state governing 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 directly controlled municipalities, and 2 colonies.

Train Themed Preschool Snacks

Like I did for dinosaurs, I made some special snacks to go along with our train unit study. These are simple foods I was going to make anyway just cut and colored to look like trains. If you have train cookie cutters, these would be even easier.

Train soda crackers

Eating train crackers

Eating a carrot train

Train themed lunch: Train egg salad sandwiches and carrot trains

Carrot trains are fun to eat

Train Themed Preschool Craft: Dough Trains

Here are a couple more train themed crafts. The boys love drawing pictures and coloring pictures of trains, but sometimes, it is fun to do something more 3D. These two sets of dough trains were a lot of fun to make.

Train Themed Preschool Craft: Salt Dough Trains

• salt dough
• oven (optional)
• paints (optional)

Let the child create whatever kind of train they can imagine. You can also show them how to make trains out of shapes stuck together. Or if you want more uniform trains, roll out the dough and cut it with train cookie cutters. Bake or let dry to harden the dough. Paint if desired.

Train Themed Preschool Craft: Playdough Train

• Playdough

Aaron and Daddy made up this fun project on the spur of the moment. We don't usually open a bunch of colors of playdough at once, but daddy helped Aaron create the details for Thomas and carefully arrange them without smashing it all together. I think the train they made is super cute!

Family Fridays: Chinese Stomachs

We had some friends over for dinner a couple of days ago. Our friends brought a small egg dish and the best tofu dish we've ever had. It is called pregnant tofu because it is stuffed with meat. Definitely my favorite way to eat tofu. The boys loved the food! They ate a lot of the pancit that I made too, but they ate a ton of eggs and pregnant tofu. I think their stomachs are becoming more Chinese because Aaron also loved the fishy dried seaweed that the neighbor gave him the other day. They also love Western food and eat just about anything, but I think they'll have an interesting range of things they like when they grow up.

Train Themed Preschool Craft: Train Buttons

This is another fun train activity we did. A friend of ours gave us a couple of these create you own buttons. This makes a quick easy craft, and the buttons are reusable. I am thinking we might try to change out the button design to go with each month's unit.

Train Themed Preschool (or Tot School) Craft: Train Buttons

• Create your own button
• Small train coloring pages (or plain paper to draw trains on)
• crayons or markers
• scissors (for a parent or older preschooler to use)

1. Have the children draw or decorate their trains.
2. Open up the button.
3. Show the child how to trace around the circle and cut it out, or do this step for a younger child.
4. Put the button back together, and you're done!

My boys think the train buttons that they made themselves are really neat, but they do prefer to have the buttons on their backpacks instead of their shirts, so they can see them more easily.