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.