Stone Soup

Two weeks ago Mason's preschool went on a field trip to the Eagle Mountain Library. He has been there many times before, but this was fun to go with his class. They listened to librarian talk about the library rules, books, etc. After they were all done I let Mason pick out a couple of books to check out and take home. One of the books he got was Stone Soup. He loved it so much and I lost count of how many times we listened to it! He said his favorite part was when they put in all the carrots... One of his homework assignments was to listen to a book and draw your favorite part, so that's what he drew. Pretty good! I was really impressed, and he wanted to keep drawing more scenes too. I am loving his artwork! In this part, one person is putting in the stones, another is adding the salt, and the last one in putting in an onion.

After reading it so many times, Mason kept asking me (multiple times a day) if we could make stone soup. So one day I finally looked online and found lots of different recipes and variations of making stone soup, but didn't have most of the ingredients at home to make them. Mason was still persistent, he simply said, "Mom, different stones can make different soups." That just made me laugh and I said okay. I started rummaging through our cupboards to think of what we could make. I found a package of Potato Soup Mix, success!!! So we headed outside to find some good soup stones. The perfect soup stones! Now to clean them. After a really good scrubbing by Mason (and Mommy), it was finally time to make some soup. Mason was so gitty and kept saying, "I am so excited!" Here we go...
I know the pot is a bit big, but he insisted that we needed one! We measured the water and Mason poured it in the pot and added the stones. After the water came to a boil, he added the soup mix and gave it a good stir. It simmered for while Mason then tested it to see if it was good. "Mmmm, good. Need's some salt and pepper." So I let him pour it in all by himself ..but did have to stop him after a bit! After each addition, he gave it a stir and another taste. Next he said it needed some meat, so we added some chopped bacon. Then a little cream Next he said it needed some cheese... One final taste to see if it is ready... Yay! It was finally ready. In the book the villagers set up big tables and celebrated, so Mason also wanted to set the table all by himself. Time to eat up... Yum Yum!
It was really good and even had Avery's approval! Look at that big girl eating all by herself with a spoon, not my little baby for too much longer. It was so fun making the soup with Mason, he is such a great little boy with so much creativity. I am really looking forward to the next dish he thinks of that we can make together.

Mommy Avery

Most of you know how much Avery loves babies! She has a couple baby dolls that she likes to take care of. Well a couple weeks ago I heard her talking in her room and randomly hearing the word "baby" mixed in with all the babble. I walked in to find her trying to wrap her baby in a blanket. How cute was that! She was having a bit of a hard time because the blanket was so big and the baby kept falling out. So David was so nice and wrapped the baby up all nice and snug for her. She was so happy and just carried that baby around everywhere. Then last week I happen across Avery doing this... She was trying to put a diaper on the baby! I gave her a hand and again she was so proud! I am so glad to know that her babies are taken such good care of!

Story TIme With Mason

On Sunday Mason went up to David with a stack of papers and a stapler and told him that he wanted to make a book. I don't know where or how he got the idea but I was impressed. So David assembled the pages into a book, and they discussed what the book was to be about. Mason wanted it to be about a magic tree, but we had to head over to the inlaws and figured he could work on it there.

When we got there, Mason wanted Grandma to help him and she was so nice to oblige. She would ask him questions about the tree to get the story started. His name is Franky, and his magic powers are singing, telling stories, and growing bananas. Then one day Franky falls down and turns blue! The story continues on about Franky being broken, and then getting new seeds to plant a new Franky tree.

In the next chapter of the book, it gets a little interesting... Grandma pretty much tried to interpret what Mason was acting out and narrating to her. There is a new tree introduced named Hammy. Hammy is a bad tree and there are tree soldiers that have to fight Hammy, but he has powers too. In the midst of all this Franky gets shot, and Mason (who is part of the story) fixes him and then tries to kill Hammy with a gun and sword. The story just ends with "Mason tired to cut Hammy's leaves off. Mason was very good at winning." I assume that he won...

The story doesn't make much sense, but it is so funny because it was all imagined by him. He even drew most of the pictures for the book, and he loves it so much and is very proud!









What a creative little boy he is, and I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a whole series to be written by Mason.

A Helping Hand

So there is a house full of little cake makers who are always ready to help out, whether it is wanted or not! Mason is actually really good about not toughing "mommies cakes" and I usually just give him scraps and frosting and he is happy.
He is so cute! Here is the "tunnel cake" he built for his Aunt Sarah's birthday. Avery on the other hand is a different story...
She is just SO HELPFUL! I cam into the kitchen one day to find her getting ready to do some baking. And then another time I found her trying to turn Daddy's wallet into a cake with a frosting bag I had left on the counter...
I am so relieved to know that I have such great help and that the cake business will continue on after I am gone!

Pirate Valentines

So some of you may remember the valentine cards that Mason and I made last year for preschool, if not here is the post. This year instead of letting him pick one out of a list (to save myself hours of cutting and gluing) I just had an idea and asked him if it was okay, as long as it was "pirate" themed we were good! So I googled a bunch of ideas and found one cute and simple.

I went to the local scrapbook store and bought some pirate treasure map paper, red card stock, and chocolate gold coins.Then I downloaded a cute pirate font and an image of a map compass and printed these. After they got trimmed down it was time for the gluing... I took over that part, but Mason did help put the coins on.Here is the finished productEasy peasy! I thought that they were pretty cute, they were cheap, mason liked them, and I didn't want to kill myself by the end so it was a win-win! Hope you all have a great VD!