Keeping Up With the Hendricks

Friday, October 5, 2012

Harrisonburg Parklet Project and Crazy Hat/Hair Day

Today was Crazy Hat and Hair Day at EMES. The girls attend a wonderful school where once a month they have a special theme day. This is something the kids always look forward to. Each child gets to participate in a "committee" to plan one of the days throughout the year. It's a great way to develop leadership skills in the students and build community in the school. Hannah wore her circus hat, and Sophie wore one pigtail and one braid. She's so crazy!!

Today was also First Fridays in downtown Harrisonburg. We began with a trip to the children's museum where EMES was sponsoring some special activities. The girls saw several friends from school there, and Sophie built a worm home in a bottle.

Then we walked around downtown to see the mini-parks that various artists had installed in 13 different parking spaces. This Harrisonburg Parklet Project is quite a unique idea that Charles played a large part in organizing. We weren't sure what to expect, but there turned out to be quite a few parklets that had activities for kids to do, and we had a great time. We had planned to grab some dinner when we got done, but it took longer than we thought to visit all the parklets (because of the activities offered) and the restaurants all had long waits till we were through. We came home for a quick dinner and put two tired girls to bed.

Various parklets

Parklet with books and places to sit and read

Cozy parklet where the girls drew the places they like to play

Face-painting in the art fraternity's parklet. Hannah got a tiger and Sophie a purple unicorn.

A couple of parklets with places for kids to play

The girls as lions (while on our way to a parklet)

My favorite was Sophie's contribution to the Downtown Renaissance's parklet. They installed a huge blackboard and asked people to write on it what they like about Harrisonburg or what they think Harrisonburg needs. Here's what Sophie wrote:

It says "poop coon" with her name signed proudly underneath. What she meant was "popcorn," so we changed it after snapping this picture. Harrisonburg definitely is better off with some popcorn rather than poop coon.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Fun with Friends

Today we had the fun of babysitting two adorable little lads from church. The girls were super excited to play with and care for these two friends.

Charles loves to get out all his old matchbox cars and cities for kids to play with. There were certainly enjoyed today.

While big brother was playing cars, little brother was snoozing with the king of naps.

Hannah and Sophie had their share of fun as well.

We did some gardening today: digging in the dirt, picking raspberries, and removing seeds from sunflower heads.

This little man can get around pretty well, but he always had a girl or two not far behind to keep an eye on him.

His mom said he doesn't like big people food that much, but he made a liar out of her at dinner!

We had fun all around. It's nice to take care of little ones once in a while and remember what those days are like. It also makes me appreciate that our girls have grown so much and can do quite a lot to take care of themselves.

A Day of Festivities

Yesterday was a day full of family fun. After a few morning errands, we climbed in the car to head to Harvest Day at Crossroads Heritage Center, a local museum dedicated to Mennonite and Brethren history here in the valley. Here are a few pictures from our time there:

Posing outside the old schoolhouse after viewing a puppet show about what life would have been like for kids on a Mennonite farm in the 1800s

"Milking" a wooden cow

Drawing up water using the old pump

Listening to a story about "Ghost Pie" in the kitchen of the farmhouse

Turning the lever on the old apple cider press

Bonding with chocolate lab Annie while on our wagon ride

We enjoyed samples of kettle corn, cider, and sorghum molasses, which they were also making. The girls got to paint pumpkins, learn to make two babies in a cradle with a handkerchief, and made glue and bean designs on paper plates.

Just before noon we headed to Hillandale Park to get some lunch at the International Festival. This is a wonderful event put on each year in Harrisonburg that showcases the many cultures that live and work here. I especially enjoyed sampling lots of different and yummy ethnic foods. The girls stuck to fried chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese!

Sophie's blue lips while enjoying some blueberry Italian ice

Showing off her Chinese name tag and special purse that she bought from one of the many vendors

We then came home, where I baked some chocolate chip banana bread with a few overripe bananas and made some peanut butter apple crisp with a few apples that were on their last legs.

Why, yes I did take a bite of this delicious bread before snapping a picture

It was a great evening for a fire and s'mores

Ending my day with a delicious bowl of apple crisp and frozen yogurt

Thursday, September 27, 2012

The List

The other evening Sophie appeared in the TV room naked as a jaybird and ready for bath at 6pm. She had made a list that reads as follows (I'll convert the spelling for your ease in reading):

clean up
dinner
undressed
brush teeth
bath
dry off
brush hair
floss
get dressed
pick clothes (for tomorrow)
I Spy (the picture book)
TV
tickles for one minute
devotion
hugs
kisses
bed

She made this list all on her own and was super motivated to get all her "things" done and check them off as she went along. She was all ready for bed by 6:30, which is when we usually begin the night-time routine. Since we typically have to really push and prod her along in the evenings (and mornings), we wanted to reward her initiative and so allowed her to watch a little TV before going to bed. Charles had introduced her to old Popeye cartoons on Netflix that same day, so she chose to watch Popeye.

A photograph of "tickles for one minute"

Since then, she's been modifying the list daily but still following it. Her efficiency has decreased in the days since Sunday, but having her list does seem to help her take ownership of getting her "things" done to get ready for bed and prepared for the next day.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Pumpkin Butter

Yesterday I took three of our lovely pumpkins and turned them into pumpkin butter.

Sophie helped me de-seed one of the pumpkins. We've been experimenting with different flavors of roasted pumpkin seeds. A classic is olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Last time we tried cinnamon and sugar. This time we did a simple butter and salt treatment. All have been delicious.

I've also been experimenting with how to best cook the pumpkin before turning it into puree. I've tried the crock pot. One pumpkin fits if you quarter it. Cooking it on high for about four hours with a little water in the bottom works well and makes about two pints of puree. I've also halved the pumpkins and turned them upside down on baking sheets with parchment paper in a 350 degree oven. This method takes about an hour for the pumpkin to get soft enough to puree.

I tried this recipe for the pumpkin butter and thought it turned out quite nicely. A bonus is that once the pumpkin was cooked and pureed, the recipe was really quite simple and very quick to make. I had enough pumpkin for a batch and a half, which translated into 6 half-pints of pumpkin butter, plus a little extra for the refrigerator. My plan is to freeze the pumpkin butter and give it as gifts to the girls' teachers at Christmas time.