Memory Maker Moments-Fall Raggie Wreath

What a busy weekend this has been! The Hubs bought a new steam cleaner today. Our old one died a few months ago. It was around 7 years old. It has served us well. RIP. You'll never guess why we even had to buy the old one. It's a funny story, actually, although it wasn't so funny at the time. The Hubs was painting our living room at our old house, and instead of taking the full paint can OFF the ladder before he moved it, he moved it all at once. BIG mistake. Did I mention the paint was a beautiful Crimson Red? Yes, a full gallon of Crimson Red paint landed and splattered all over our light-colored carpet. The Hubs was furious. He figured he was now going to have to replace the carpet downstairs. Luckily, I acted quickly, and used this awesome spot carpet spray Resolve used to have. I can't remember what it was called, but Big Sister was only about 18 months old, and this spot cleaner could get ANYTHING out of the carpet. I miss it, and haven't been able to find anything that works quite that well since. Anyway, I got to work, and when The Hubs saw the paint coming out, he ran out to Wally World and picked up a steam cleaner. We had coincidentally been looking at steam cleaners that weekend as well, but chose to wait to see what else we could find. When The Hubs got home, he got to work as fast as he could, and was able to get every single drop of the paint up from the carpet. Disaster averted. So, here we are now +2 more kids, 2 dogs and a cat. We can't live without a steam cleaner! The Hubs spent the early afternoon cleaning the carpet in our room and the hallway.

While The Hubs was working on his project, the kids and I began on our 2nd Memory Maker Moment project. Big Brother had drawn "Make a Raggie Wreath" from our activity/outing cup. Now, this project is pretty straight forward. You cut (or rip) your fabric into 1" wide strips, approximately 7" long. You tie them into a knot on a wire wreath (I found mine at Hobby Lobby for about 3 bucks.) I cut our strips, and Big Brother and Big Sister separated them to make sure there were equal amounts in our 3 bowls. The kids had to count a couple times, to make sure things were equal, but it kept them all busy while I finished cutting the strips. I ended up with approximately 2-2.5 yards of fabric, and that was enough to fill 3 of the 4 circles on the wire wreath. I am not sure how much extra we would have needed to fill the last circle, perhaps another 1/2 yard? Ours looked full enough without the last ring filled.

While Big Brother and Big Sister sorted the strips, Baby Sister was taking notes on the play keyboard....with her feet, but she's cute, so she can get away with it. lol

 

Here is our set up before we began to tie our strips. 

 

When we got started, I didn't realize it would be a little difficult for Big Brother to tie knots. He at least tried, before he moved on to another activity. He doesn't much like having his picture taken when he's frustrated. ;) Big Sister was awesome at tying knots, and actually did quite a bit of the wreath herself. When we started our wreath, I wasn't sure we'd have enough fabric, so I ended up doing the outside first, then skipped a circle, and did the 3rd circle. When I realized we'd have enough to do another circle, I took over, and did the circle between our completed circles. It took an hour or so to get everything tied.

 

Here is our beautiful, completed wreath! 

Happy {almost} Fall! 

Our First Memory Maker Moments

Happy Fall!!! Well, almost. Our weather, while still a bit warm in the afternoons, has begun to cool off overnight and in the mornings. It is absolutely beautiful, and it has me thirsting for when full days begin to get cooler, and the colors of the leaves begin to change to the vibrant oranges, reds and yellows.

Today, we started a new family project, and I am hoping this will become a tradition. It is called, "Memory Maker Moments." The hustle and bustle of our school weeks end up leaving us very little time to sit down and really enjoy our time together. We do homework immediately after Big Sister and Big Brother walk in the door. Sometimes, it takes almost the full hour before I start dinner to complete homework. Once dinner is done...well, you get the picture. We  hardly have a moment to breathe during the week. Family time is incredibly important to me, and I want to make sure we make the time to spend with each other. The kids will not be kids forever, and eventually, they will want to have their own lives, and they won't be interested as much in family time.

So, I'm sure you are beginning to wonder what this "Memory Maker Moments" is all about. Well, I have selected two project categories. We have a cooking/baking category, and an activity/outing category. I have picked a total of 5 projects for each of the two categories, with a total of 10 projects. We got a late start for the month, otherwise, I probably would have had 12 projects to choose from. To get started, I had Big Sister and Big Brother choose a number 1-20, and whoever was closer to my number, got to draw their choice of project to do on Saturday. Our winner was Big Sister, and she chose to do a food project for Saturday, and of course, that left Big Brother with an activity. Since I associate September with apples, our food themes center around apples for this month. Next month will most likely be pumpkin recipes, and I am not sure about November yet. I have our projects printed out, and folded, and each category has a little bucket we use to choose from.

Big Sister drew "Make Caramel Apples" I scoured the internet for a recipe that looked simple enough, and one that had good reviews. I came across a recipe on Tasty Kitchen for Grandma Betty's Caramel Apples recipe. I don't know who Grandma Betty is, but I do know her recipe was a huge hit for EVERYONE in our family! You can check the recipe out here http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/grandma-bettye28099s-caramel-apples/

I used Jazz apples, which are a blend of Braeburn and Gala apples. I also made one small tweak, and used double the vanilla in the recipe.

 

I filled the sink with water, and added approximately 1 cup of vinegar, and let the apples soak for a while. This helped get rid of the grocery store wax.

 

Our apples all ready to get their caramel bath going.

 We all took turns stirring our caramel. We stirred, and stirred some more. Then, we stirred a little bit more, and then a bit more. Don't quit stirring, unless you want crunchy burned bits in your caramel!

 Once the caramel arrived at soft ball stage, and we got our vanilla in, and the mixture cooled for a few minutes, the actual coating time flew by. You want to work as quickly as possible, otherwise, the caramel starts to thicken up, and it is a tad more difficult to get a good smooth coating on. Once I had the apples covered, I blew on them a little bit, to help set the caramel a little. Then, Big Sister and Big Brother rolled the apples in the different coatings.

If you are interesting in starting this project for your family, here is my layout for our project labels.