Talk Like A Pirate Day

Our state homeschool association conducted a special TPA Zoo Safari Day at the Sedgwick County Zoo. We planned to attend for a fun family day. I also received an email that touted free doughnuts from Krispy Kreme on Pirate Day, which happened to be the same Thursday that we would be in Wichita! Hurray for a double deal! Our family nominated "Daddy" to be the sea robber (in case they asked any hard or scary questions...plus he is really good at shooting from the hip & being funny). However little Cora did not want to miss out on the dress-up occasion. So here are the buccaneers ready to plunder the doughnut shop.

Cora wasn't exactly sure how to make a scary face!

Shannon didn't want to travel 11/2 hours in his costume, so we assembled after arrival in the parking lot. Cora forgot her eye patch at home and we improvised with a baby headband in the diaper bag.

Shannon was the only one of our family that had ever been inside a Krispy Kreme store, so we paused to watch the assembly line of doughnuts being flipped and fried (and thrown away if they weren't perfect, gasp! sigh!).

Here are the Bowman pirates ready to demand the bounty! 
The employees barely batted an eye, but the customers gawked! Several moms with their under school age children dressed as cutesy pirates were impressed with the real-looking one!

Very quickly the doughnuts were snatched (before I could even take a picture of the whole dozen)!

Hot, original glazed...A sweet treat for sure! Worth the effort and memories!

Now on to the zoo!

A Little White Paint

Upon finding white paint in the basement cellar, Riley proceeded to paint his trapping shop area while Daddy and helper coated the propane tank. What a nice bright face-lift a new coat of paint gives!

Thankfully the clothes stayed pinned to the line! Woo, these gusty Kansas days!

Annie is 11!

Annie chose for her special day to have a full agenda of various games. Spoons, Apples to Apples, Uno, Go Fish, Scrabble, and more! She had a few gifts to open as Mamaw Rose had sent home treats from her stash when we were going through closets in July. (Actually they had just never got moved in from the garage yet, so it was fun to make a pretty surprise out of a couple books. Yes, we still have unpacked boxes in the garage, ack!)

Annie mostly made her own birthday meal: Sandwich Loaf, Gourmet Potatoes, Salad, and Dirt Dessert Cake.

After evening Bible Study, friends came over...

more games, more gifts, more fun! 

School Pictures

Annie enjoys writing letters and getting mail, so she kept after me to get "school" pictures done for the year. She had her background all figured out and it Caroline soon followed suit with her requests. Cora was napping or I'm sure she would have been sticking close to us, "since Caroline is"!

Riley said he didn't need any pictures, so here are the 2 Bowman girls for 2013...6th grade and 3rd on the grounds of Arrow Academy!

And Riley on the first day of dove season. That's much more exciting than school!

Quick Hamburger Buns

Annie has been mixing up our muffins and cornbread for several years. Ever since baby Cora came along and Mama was resting out of sight of the kitchen and the messes therein made by a seven year old. We had made a generic dry muffin mix for the freezer beforehand and Daddy helped Annie add in the buttermilk and fruit to bake fresh for breakfast.... She was hooked and we are blessed!

Now it is time to graduate to yeast breads! It seems to work well for us if we use the same recipe several times over, then Annie can take over with confidence. 

Here she is baking away and even instructing little Cora.

The original recipe (twice in Far Above Rubies cookbook) calls for more sugar and oil and yeast. We like to see how much we can reduce these not so healthy, not so cheap ingredients and still keep good flavor of product. So here is our version... 

Quick Hamburger Buns

• 2 1/2 c. warm water
• 4 tsp. yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 c. sugar/honey
• 1/3 c. coconut oil
• 2 tsp. salt
• 7 1/2- 81/2 c. flour

Combine all ingredients except flour in mixer. (We have a Bosch.) Add 4 c. flour (we use red or white wheat) and stir in. Add remaining flour, 1 c. at a time until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Knead 3 minutes. At this point you can put in the fridge overnight if you want fresh for lunch or cover and rest 15 minutes on the counter. Roll out 1/2" thick. Cut with biscuit cutter or cup rim. Let rise 20 - 30 minutes. Bake 350* for 12 minutes.

We have made larger buns using a wide mouth jar lid as a cutter, and made ready-to-go sandwiches by rolling thin, topping with mayo, meat, & cheese, then folding over and baking.

Baked Goodness!