Father Daughter Bake-Off by Katie

Last week we had a father-daughter bake off. We first made our dessert. Dad and I made Ooey Gooey Cake. We will tell you how to make it at the end. Kelsie and dad also made a cake. They put stuff on the cake to make it pretty. The big day came! That night we went to the place at church where we needed to register the cake.  I registered my cake in the gooiest category. Kelsie put hers in the prettiest category. We started the evening by singing some songs. Then my Dad talked for a while. While my Dad was talking, people were tasting the desserts.  When Dad finally finished, it was time to eat. We first looked at the cakes. Then we got to eat them. Then when everybody got their desserts, it was time to announce who won the contest. You know what?  Kelsie and I both won first place.  Kelise won the pretty category and I won the gooey category.   And that’s what happened at the father-daughter bake off.

Ingredients

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. 

Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

 

A Special Sunday by Kelsie

March 24, 2013 was a very special day. We celebrated Palm Sunday. So this is how our Sunday went. We had to wake up at 6:00 because we had to get to church early to practice for our children’s choir. Children’s choir is a group of kids practicing a song then every month we perform at a church service. We barely made it to the church in time to practice. Once we got through practicing, we had to rush to the lobby for our Sunday school choir practice. We were going to sing at the beginning of the service. We had to wait out their quietly forever. Just before we were going to start the kids who were in the children’s choir had to rush over to the other side of the lobby to get our costumes on because we were singing another song right after we sang with our Sunday school choir. But the bad part was that there were a lot of people there and it was really crowded. But we made it just in time. We had our palm branches and we marched inside. Then we sang ‘’sing hosanna’’. When we were done, our music teacher had prepared a lovely breakfast for us because we didn’t have time to have breakfast that morning. We had a yummy breakfast! My mom picked us up to go back up to listen to the rest of my dad’s sermon. There were so many people there that we had to sit in a room that lead out of the sanctuary to listen to my dad’s sermon. After church we went to Sunday school and then had to do everything all over again for the second service. But I won’t write about the same thing all over again.

That night we went back to church for the Easter Cantata. It was a very powerful story about Jesus dying on the cross and coming back alive. The choir, orchestra and actors were great too.  It was a wonderful musical.  Palm Sunday was a great day. I hope you had a good Palm Sunday too. Bye.

Getting Stuck in Pennsylvania by Caleb

Last week, we decided to go to Hobby Lobby because my sisters needed some “things” for a bake-off.  We went to the Hobby Lobby in Easton, PA.  We went into Hobby lobby and it took my sisters forever! Finally after the shopping was finished, we came out and guess what?  It was snowing.  We left the store and started home.  It was snowing hard.  We ended up getting stuck in the snow in the hills of Pennsylvania.  We didn’t know how we were going to get home.  I started feeling a little scared.  My Dad said, “Don’t be scared.”  How can you not be scared?  We decided we were not going to make it home, so we needed to try to find a hotel.  After finally making it back to Easton, it took us a while to find a hotel that had rooms available.  Finally, we found one.  We went up to our room, then I discovered that my bed was very uncomfortable.  After we got in, we decided to watch “The Bible” on the History Channel.  After that, we went to bed.  When we woke up, we went downstairs for breakfast and then decided to try to find our way back to New Jersey.  Thank goodness the roads were cleared.  So here are three things I learned from this adventure.  1.  ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER BEFORE YOU LEAVE.  2.  ALWAYS KEEP FOOD WITH YOU.  3.  IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE SNOW DAYS, EVEN WHEN YOU HOMESCHOOL.  Yee-haw!!!

The Maple Tree Farm by Katie, Kelsie & Caleb

After church on March 17, 2013 we went to a farm called the Lusscroft Maple Tree Farm.  We first drove to the farm that was about 20 minutes away. The drive was beautiful. On the way we saw a zoo called the Space Zoo. They had water buffalo, lamas, deer, and a big bear, but it was locked up for the winter. We didn’t go to the zoo, Mom said that we could check it out some other time. Then we sang a song that reminded us about water buffalo. Once we got there Mom got confused where to park. Once we figured out where to park (with the help of our smartness of course) we had to go on a long walk to get to the barn. Once we got to the barn we went in, but it was next to impossible to open the barn doors. When we got in there it smelled like pure maple syrup. We would of paid $15 just for the smell, it smelled that good. We would have paid 100 bucks for the syrup. We thought it was really cool how they made the syrup. They had a plastic tank just outside the barn where there was tubing that connected from the trees to the tank.  Once the sap was collected in the tank, the tank was moved to the barn and the sap was then emptied out into a maze like machine.  While the sap traveled through the maze, it was being heated up to a certain temperature. After reaching a certain temperature, the sap is then filtered and finally bottled. The people were really nice to us. We got to taste the maple syrup and it was the best maple syrup we’ve ever had. (It tasted a little different, but in a good way). We went back outside. We listened to a man share with us all about the sap and the trees. After a while we kind of got bored so we looked around at some other stuff. Before we went inside we looked at how people made maple syrup long, long ago. The sap inside the little tin was almost frozen.  Back inside the barn, one of the volunteers started talking to us. He talked to us about the farm being in the newspaper and asked us to look in the book to see all the articles. Once we looked at the articles he started to talk to our mom and they talked for a long time. My mom learned about a lot of fun things to do in New Jersey. After that we started back to the car. It was a very long walk but we finally made it. The trip to the maple tree farm was a great experience

During our trip we learned a lot. We are going to share nine facts:

#1 sugar maple sap contains 2-4% sugar

#2 the natural sugar of the maple tree is sucrose

#3 it takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup

#4 warm days 40-50 degrees in the days and below freezing at night makes the best syrup

#5 maple trees should be at least 40 years or older to begin tapping

#6 maple trees should also be at least 10inches in diameter before tapping

#7 maple syrup contains 66.9% sugar

#8 one table spoons of syrup contains 50 calories

#9 maple syrup has to be 219 degrees in the boiler to go to the next step

Katie checking out the old fashioned way of tapping the trees.

The white tank is where the sap goes after leaving the trees.

A close-up of a tap in a tree

The sap entering the maze and beginning the process of heating

The sap going from the tank to the maze inside the barn

Part of the filtering process

The finished product - YUMMY!

Tubing from all the trees to the tank

The Trio - after being educated on maple syrup!

The Tiger

At our new church they have a Pinewood Derby race every year.  The men who lead Boys Brigade gave me a block of wood and told me to choose a shape.  I went with the #1 style.  A man from our church cut out my wood and then I was ready to begin.  Once it was cut out and I got it back, my Dad and I began sanding.  After sanding was finished, we brought it home to finish the work.  The next day, Dad and I spray painted my car shiny orange.  The day after that, we put the black tiger stripes and a big “T” on the front.  After painting we started working on the wheels.  We sanded and polished the axles.  On Wednesday, Dad and I put the wheels on my car in his office.  It was now ready for testing.  All the boys raced from our church and I won every race except one.  We now thought it was ready for Race Day! 

Race day was this past Saturday.  The races took place at Bethlehem Church in Randolph, New Jersey.  We woke up at 7 in the morning to get to the race on time.  Once we got there, we had to weigh it.  My car was too heavy so we had to drill it.  We weighed it again and it was still too heavy so we drilled more.  We weighed it again and finally it was right.  It was now ready for the race track.  My car was in four races and I won first place in all of them.  I was so excited!  The only problem was that at the end, I didn’t even get into the finals.  Even though I won all my races, my speed wasn’t fast enough.  Oh well, I had a great time with my Dad and all my friends.

Caleb and Dad ready for Race Day!

Caleb, Dad and his Cheerleaders!

Standing in line to register the cars

Weighing the car

Oops, too heavy - drilling the car

Watching the races

 

Caleb and Jayden

Caleb and the other boys from his group at LFC

 

 

 

Seeing Eye Dog by Katie

A few nights ago we went to see the Seeing Eye Dog demonstration with the Sussex County Christian Homeschool Group.  The dog’s name was Mac.  He was a Golden Retriever.  He was 15 weeks old.  He was a good dog.  He stayed up there and sat through the whole thing. The lady told us some facts: The organization began in 1929.  It costs more than $25,000 to complete each dog’s training.  It takes 24 months to train a guide dog.

That night they also had a bake sale for a dog named Doc. He was another guide dog.  While people were eating, we got to walk the Mac.  He is a strong dog.  The lady said never to play with a dog that is leading a blind person.  He also liked us to pet him.  He knew a lot of tricks. We played with him for a while and then we went home.  I had a lot a fun!

Katie, Kelsie, Caleb and Mac

The Tabernacle by Kelsie

 The Tabernacle

My Sunday school class is a lot of fun. My Sunday school teacher’s name is Miss Kathy. She is an attorney in Manhattan.  The assistant Sunday school teacher is Miss Sheri.  Right now we are learning about the tabernacle in Sunday school. We are learning about the furnishings, the priest in the tabernacle, and about the exact instruction God had given Moses and the Israelites. One of the neatest things that I have learned about the tabernacle is that a good part of the furnishings were made of gold. It was also cool to know that the priests were Aaron and his sons and two of his sons died because they were fooling around in the tabernacle and God killed them for not following God’s instructions. Also I went online and these are two facts about the tabernacle and the tent of meeting.

Fact #1 

They made the mercy seat of pure gold.

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/The-Tabernacle-196252.html

Fact # 2 

God choose Bezaleel and Aholiab to be in charge of the building of the tabernacle.

http://www.furtriva.com/en/subtopics/The-Tabernacle-1962.html

I thought that Moses was in charge of building the tabernacle. Another thing that is so cool about our Sunday school teacher is that she even takes us on fieldtrips (well we don’t go away from the church but you get what I mean). An example of what I mean is last week when the third and the fourth grade got to go on a fieldtrip to the “tabernacle’’. It wasn’t really the tabernacle, but it still was very fun to go outside. Every week we have worksheets and memory verses we can do. We don’t have to, but if we do then we get a prize. I get a prize almost every week. I have tons of friends in Sunday School to talk to when we’re allowed to do so. If you don’t go to Sunday School, then maybe you should join one at your church. It is really fun. Bye!

Why I Love Living In New Jersey by Katie

Well, let me tell you. First, let me tell you some facts. I got these facts from New Jersey Puzzle Book in the Highlights Which Way USA? book. The nickname for New Jersey is “The Garden State.” Second, there are five cities in New Jersey with more people than Trenton. Third, the first dinosaur fossil discovered in North America was found in New Jersey. So, there are some facts.

 

Another thing I like about New Jersey is that it is so pretty. I really love all the mountains. They are so big. I also like the diners! They are so good. The best diner in my book is the Chatterbox Drive-In Diner. Yummm. I also like that we live about 45 minutes from New York City. Going to the city was so much fun. If you want to read about the trip, read our blog from last week. I also like that our church has a children’s choir and that Kelsie and I are in it. Another place I like is my home, and my favorite place in my house is my room. Not far from my home is High Point, New Jersey. It is the highest place in New Jersey.  

 

That is what I like about New Jersey.                                                                                             

Shopping - Just One Reason I Love New Jersey by Kelsie

I am quickly falling in love with New Jersey. It is a wonderful place to live.  I love New Jersey even though there are a lot of 500 pound bears. New Jersey is called the Garden State. They call it the Garden State because they grow a lot of crops in southern New Jersey. There are so many interesting facts about New Jersey. One fact I love is ….

 

“The first set of twins to have both flown space are Mark and Scott Kelly, identical twins born in West Orange, NJ. In March 2011, the Kelly brothers became the first set of blood relatives to meet in space. In October 2010, Scott Kelly started his 5 1/2 month mission to the International Space Station, and Mark Kelly blasted off in February and reached the Space Station on March 1, 2011” (www.njeha.org/njfacts.html).                           

 

That’s a wonderful fact, isn’t it?  Then I researched another fact that said that there are more horses in New Jersey than Kentucky! (www.njeha.org/njfacts.html)

 

Then I found another fact that made me almost faint of excitement!!! (By the way, it has to do with shopping):

 

North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area than any other place in the world, with seven major shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius. (www.njeha.org/njfacts.html)

 

I love shopping so much that I was so excited when I found this fact. I’ve been to a couple of shopping malls since we’ve gotten here. Our family has been to Rockaway Mall, NYC shopping-of course- and two other malls that I don’t remember the names.  

 

That’s about all about New Jersey. But there are a lot more facts about New Jersey so maybe you could look up some more. And that is just some reasons why I love New Jersey.

Facts About New Jersey And Why I like Living Here by Caleb

One of the reasons I like New Jersey is that there are bears here. Here some bear facts:

* American black bears are omnivorous, which means they eat both plants and animals. They eat fruits, nuts, insects, honey, salmon, small mammals and carrion. In northern regions, they eat spawning salmon. Black bears will also occasionally kill young deer or moose calves. (www.defenders.org/black-bear/basic-facts)

* There are at least 600,000 black bears in North America. In the United States, there are estimated to be over 300,000 black bears. However, the Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolu) and Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridanus) are threatened subspecies with small populations (www.defenders.org/black-bear/basic-facts).

These are just some facts about black bears which are also in New Jersey. You know what? Bears aren’t that bad if you think about it.They get rid of bad food.

 I also like New Jersey because it’s nice. I have new friends here.  Also, Scooby and Snowflake have a bigger place to run. People that vist us usually stay longer. The best part is, my Mom homeschools us and after school we play downstairs. We see a lot of deer here, too. New Jersey's air is so good and fresh. New Jersey has a lot of fun stuff. Goodbye for now. See ya.