A Baking Weekend

Caroline had some science homework at the start of the week.  I was sitting beside her, helping her check it. She was leafing through the pages looking for Ampère's Law.  She passed a page with a black and white picture of a female scientist.  Recognizing it was not Ampère, she said, No, that's Mariah Carey.  Actually, no.  'Twas Marie Curie.  

Henry has been asking to go to Olive Garden so he could try the Never Ending Pasta.  He asked daily if we could go.  Sometimes hourly.  He was pretty confident in how much he could consume.  We went Tuesday evening.  One bowl of pasta.  He finished one bowl.  One bowl of soup, one bowl of pasta, 3 breadsticks.  He ordered a second bowl of pasta just so he could pretend to eat it and bring it home.  Caroline did the same.  Caroline discovered she loved chicken and gnocchi soup.  In fact, all the kids surprised us by ordering the gnocchi soup.  Josiah looked up the record number of Olive Garden breadsticks eaten in one sitting.  It was an unofficial nineteen.  Josiah has now set a life goal of defeating that record and immediately kicked off his training by eating six breadsticks during our evening out.  

More food was had this weekend.  Caroline has to do a report on a European country of her choosing.  She picked Switzerland.  The final project will be a presentation in December at which time they have to bring in a Christmasy treat that is enjoyed in said country.  For Switzerland, she found cinnamon cookies or cod.  She chose the cookies.  We did a trial run this weekend. They were Zimtsterne, which is a German cookie, but enjoyed in Switzerland as well.  Not good.  I spit mine out.  All the kids tried them.  Zero stars.  Todd surprised us and liked them, so he got the whole batch.  Fortunately we have time to find a better tasting treat.  But no cod.  

Josiah is reading Beowulf and they have a feast in his class tomorrow.  Josiah said he'd bring soft pretzels because Old English is similar to German and Germans like pretzels.  We did a trial run with them on Saturday as well, and they turned out quite good.  The only bad thing about soft pretzels is that they're not nearly as good the following day, but maybe that'll go along with the time period of Beowulf.  He also wanted a beer stein to drink out of for the feast.  (They were told to bring fun cups.)  Josiah wanted to go to a thrift store to look for one.  We pull up and it was no thrift store, but an antique store.  They did, however, have a whole shelf of beer steins so that made it worth it.  I was partial to the one stamped West Germany on the bottom, but I liked the one Josiah picked out as well.  It comes with a bell hidden underneath so he can shake it when his mead gets low.  

It was hypnotizing watching the yeast grow.  

Henry had the Athletic Awards Ceremony one evening this week.  He was close to getting a letter this year, but still needs to shave off a little more time.  Next year.  

On Friday, the lower school celebrated GrandPals Day - so named because not everyone has grandparents nearby, so they can bring a Pal.  Basically the kids got to bring their grandparents all over the school and show them all the things and eat snacks together.  The lower school left at lunchtime, so the upper school had a quieter afternoon.  When I went to pick up the kids a few hours later, I watched Henry's class run out to the parking lot and play foot-square with their teacher.  Like four-square, but you use your head and feet.  

Two more weeks until Thanksgiving break.  The countdown begins.