Happy New Year! I recently received an email from A.J. Juliani, an Education and Technology Innovation Specialist that I've long admired. I met him on Twitter and consider him an inspirational member of my professional learning network (PLN). A.J. invited his PLN to join his 30 Day Blogging Challenge. Blogging has always been intimidating to me. I'm slowly coming to the realization that others can benefit from my learning and my Kids Deserve It. (Kids Deserve It also happens to be the book study I'm participating in right now.) I've only blogged a handful of times. This month my goal is to write 100 words a day and post at least one blog each week. So, here I go. Blog #1 is personal but addresses the growth mindset that I'm trying hard to teach my students, my children, and myself.
I made a point during vacation to spend quality time with my family and take time for myself. My youngest daughter, Kinley, loves to make and create things and I’m not an overly creative person. Do you see a problem here? Kinley got a Nerdy Nummies Cookbook for her birthday in November. It has been collecting dust since then. I figured it was time to make an effort to get creative.
Our first attempt was the Galaxy Cupcakes. I couldn’t help but think that it would be so much easier to buy a $0.99 cake mix, but life is about the journey. Right?! My niece and nephew joined us for the cupcake adventure. They each took turns and the cupcakes were delicious. I was pretty proud that we pulled it off.
The frosting had to wait another day. I procrastinated as usual, but finally figured about 2:00 that it was time to dive in. Well, after a trip to the store and a phone call from the physical therapist reminding me that I was late for my son’s pt appointment it took another couple of hours to get rolling. So, the kids started making the chocolate candy toppers with the chocolate pen Kinley got for Christmas. It wasn’t real successful, but they each made one candy mold. That would be enough to get us by.
I made it home about 4:45 and tried again. We worked together to make the buttercream frosting. Lesson #1: Start mixing powdered sugar on low, don’t go straight to high, unless you want a great laugh! Next we separated the frosting into five different bowls and added different colored food coloring to each one. Thank goodness for Magic Erasers our counter would be forever tie dyed. Our next task was to put each color in a piping bag and squeeze each one into another bag without mixing the colors. Kinley and I think it might have been easier to stick all five bags into the other bag, because squeezing them out didn’t seem to work real well. I decided to take the first shot at frosting the cupcake. It didn’t look anything like the picture and frosting was gushing out the top of the piping bag. I wanted to try again, but the kids were eager to try their hand. It was so messy and appeared to be an epic fail except they tasted delicious and we all had a blast. Thankfully, we’ve been learning about Carolyn Dweck’s Growth Mindset at school so the kids didn’t get too discouraged. I loved hearing Kinley say things like, “I’m not very good at this YET” and “Next time we should try…” She also gave her cousin a pep talk when she was knocking her own skills. Even though my kitchen was a disaster, the laughter was music to my ears and I knew that it was a memory that would probably last a lifetime!
What memories did you make during Christmas vacation? Please share your pictures and memories below.
I made a point during vacation to spend quality time with my family and take time for myself. My youngest daughter, Kinley, loves to make and create things and I’m not an overly creative person. Do you see a problem here? Kinley got a Nerdy Nummies Cookbook for her birthday in November. It has been collecting dust since then. I figured it was time to make an effort to get creative.
Our first attempt was the Galaxy Cupcakes. I couldn’t help but think that it would be so much easier to buy a $0.99 cake mix, but life is about the journey. Right?! My niece and nephew joined us for the cupcake adventure. They each took turns and the cupcakes were delicious. I was pretty proud that we pulled it off.
The frosting had to wait another day. I procrastinated as usual, but finally figured about 2:00 that it was time to dive in. Well, after a trip to the store and a phone call from the physical therapist reminding me that I was late for my son’s pt appointment it took another couple of hours to get rolling. So, the kids started making the chocolate candy toppers with the chocolate pen Kinley got for Christmas. It wasn’t real successful, but they each made one candy mold. That would be enough to get us by.
I made it home about 4:45 and tried again. We worked together to make the buttercream frosting. Lesson #1: Start mixing powdered sugar on low, don’t go straight to high, unless you want a great laugh! Next we separated the frosting into five different bowls and added different colored food coloring to each one. Thank goodness for Magic Erasers our counter would be forever tie dyed. Our next task was to put each color in a piping bag and squeeze each one into another bag without mixing the colors. Kinley and I think it might have been easier to stick all five bags into the other bag, because squeezing them out didn’t seem to work real well. I decided to take the first shot at frosting the cupcake. It didn’t look anything like the picture and frosting was gushing out the top of the piping bag. I wanted to try again, but the kids were eager to try their hand. It was so messy and appeared to be an epic fail except they tasted delicious and we all had a blast. Thankfully, we’ve been learning about Carolyn Dweck’s Growth Mindset at school so the kids didn’t get too discouraged. I loved hearing Kinley say things like, “I’m not very good at this YET” and “Next time we should try…” She also gave her cousin a pep talk when she was knocking her own skills. Even though my kitchen was a disaster, the laughter was music to my ears and I knew that it was a memory that would probably last a lifetime!
What memories did you make during Christmas vacation? Please share your pictures and memories below.