Date night, fondant mishap, App Chat, and other randomness...

So we're trying to reinstate date nights (or days) in our family.  Not sure how that idea faded out, but lately we've all been feeling the need for a little more one-on-one time (cabin fever?), so BeachPea and I kicked off a new season this week, with a trip to the baking aisle at Michael's...


This little baker was in heaven.

So, armed with a bagful of new baking supplies, and a recent desire to stop drooling from afar over all those incredible recipes on Pinterest, we've been in the kitchen a lot lately...

however, things didn't always go as planned....


...like when we forgot to check our supply of powdered sugar before making fondant, and ended up with  a not-enough-powdered-sugar marshmallow mess.

But, all was not lost.  We found a recipe to turn it into fondant icing instead.  Not as fun as making the roses and leaves we had hoped to practice on, but at least the marshmallows didn't have to die in vain.








Little sister waits for her turn to give it a go.













So our fondant mishap was pretty yummy, but nothing compared to the recipe we found on Pinterest for peanut butter buttercream chocolate cupcakes. We made those yesterday...




The icing was the best I've ever tasted.  Here's the recipe.






And we found a recipe for the chocolate cupcakes here.  They're made with mayonnaise instead of eggs and oil, which grossed the girls out at first, but they weren't complaining once they ate one.  They turned out super moist, and went perfectly with the icing.


Yum.


In other news, Spring is beginning to spring around here, which isn't the big deal it usually is, because it's felt like Spring here pretty much since December. But still, we are always happy to see some blossoms and color.


We have chickens on our porch.

Which is weird.


On the homeschooling front, we've discovered a great free resource for geography.  It's called Globalmania and you can download it for free from the Knowledge Quest website if you sign up for their (free) newletter.  The kids loved the first week's lesson and the older two could label all the countries of Asia by the end of the day.

Speaking of using electronics for homeschooling, I thought I would start occasionally sharing some of the educational apps that have been a hit in our family.  It's so hard to sort through the hundreds of apps out there, and there are many that we discarded after one try, but there are some that have really enhanced our school days.  So, here is my first edition of "App Chat" to maybe help you with the sorting process if you haven't already discovered them....

Mini Minute - fun and challenging app for practicing telling time.  Fun for adults, too.

 Reading Raven - my 6 year old has spent hours on this phonics game.  She loves it.

      Jet Ski -  fun way to practice addition skills.

Presidents vs. Aliens - we've learned a lot about the Presidents playing this app.  Another good one, which includes briefs bios on each president is U.S. Presidents.

  Where's My Water - super fun and teaches thinking and physics skills.  Created by Disney.


Many of these I found on sale or temporarily free through the Apps for Homeschooling facebook page.

Another place I go to to find good apps for both me and the kids is the AppSmitten newsletter.  They find the really great apps out there and send them to your inbox once a week.  The newsletter is free, and is a great way to avoid having to spend hours of trial and error at the app store.  To start with, they'll send you a list of ipad or iphone apps that are essentials (like Pandora (love!), Dropbox, Nightstand Central, Flixter, etc.), just in case you missed getting these and will then expand out from there.


What are your favorite apps?


(Note: I am an affiliate of AppSmitten and receive a small payment for newsletter subscribers).