We made this simple syrup for Bea to pour over her pancakes this morning. She’s a lime fanatic! The mint flavour is extremely mild. Omit the mint altogether, and you have a lovely lime syrup! This syrup will also mix with your brunch beverages. St. Patty’s Day Mojitos, anyone? Adapted from a recipe in Topp […]
Gallagher’s Favourite “Frogwiches”: Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla or Citrus Cream Today’s the Last Day of our Illustrate-Your-Own-Book project for MARCH breAK!, and it’s time, once again, to make a treat drawn from our book, A Study in Emerald. In Chapter Six of our seven chapter tale, snake-detective Gallagher feasts on “Frog Sandwich Cookies” as […]
Today, we finished reading and illustrating our book, A Study in Emerald. To celebrate, we munched on Frogwiches (homemade gingerbread sandwich cookies), and we made sock puppets of all the major characters in our story. When the kids were done, we got out the old doorway puppet theatre I made way back before Bea was born, and […]
We just finished reading and illustrating A Study in Emerald! Today, the kids used chalk pastels dipped in water, oil pastels, and woodless coloured pencils to complete their cover pages for the book, as well as their illustrations for the seventh and final chapter. Afterwards, they indulged in Gallagher’s Favourite Frogwiches (ginger sandwich cookies) and […]
We’re on day four of our five day Illustrate-Your-Own Book project. The kids have been trying different artistic techniques each day to create illustrations for the story I wrote for them, The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald. Today, after we made our Python Masks, we read chapter six (of seven) out […]
In the story I wrote for the kids to illustrate, A The Adventures of Sir Lochrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald, a pair of pythons named Drebber and Strangerson have landed in Ireland, disrupting the life of the grass snakes who live in secret there. Today, we made python masks so that the kids could […]
To go with the Snake Detective Mystery I wrote for the kids to illustrate, The Adventures of Sir Lochrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald, (we’re on chapters Chapters 4&5), we made Necktie Bean-bag Snakes today! We also had a fantastic snakey lunch, complete with home baked salt and vinegar chips, snakewiches, and shakes…you’ll find that on the bottom of […]
Today, after we made our Necktie Bean-Bag, Snakes, the kids illustrated Chapters 4 and 5 of our book, The Adventures of Sir Lochrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald, using Pointillism, Gel Pen Strokes (or, the kids named it, Picture Pixels), and a few of their own tricks. I showed them an example of “Marker Pointillism” […]
We’ve got three recipes on the go today: Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls Lime-Berry Limerick Lower-Sugar Jam & Popping “Pot o’ Gold” Mustard Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls Mrs. Houston is the housekeeper in the story I wrote for the kids this week, A Study in Emerald, (we’re currently reading Chapter Three). She prepares her […]
Today, while our Irish Soda Farls were baking, I asked the kids to illustrate the third chapter of our story,The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald. They did three illustrations with permanent marker and watercolours, and a fourth with a plain black marker. Bea added highlighters to the final drawing. Tobes added oil pastels. The illustrations are below today’s […]
Today, we completed two snake projects related to our book, A Study in Emerald, and the kids had fun with a home-made math gameboard. Serpent Spiral Mobiles * Snake Stick Puppets* “Leprechaun Gold” Skip Counting Game Serpent Spiral Mobiles Supplies Stiff Watercolour Paper Watercoulours and Brushes Holepunch String Kid-Safe Scissors My Hand-drawn Snake Template Just […]
Sir Lóchrann Holmes’ Favourite SHAMROCK S’MORES with Homemade Mint Marshmallows and Chocolate Graham Crackers from Scratch “I attempted to while away the time reading while my companion meditated over one of his Shamrock S’mores, an original choice at that hour in the morning, but then, Sir Lóchrann had rather original eating habits.” — A Study in Emerald, Ch. 2 […]
March 12, 2012 Today, we made Shamrock S’mores and Four-Leaf Clover Cards and the kids read and illustrated the first two chapters of the book I wrote for them, The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald. They use coloured pencils and/or oil pastels for their drawings as well as a black gel […]
Fingerprint Four-Leaf Clover Cards Since the kids are totally into the “science of deduction” that accompanies our Irish-Snake-Detective themed MARCH breAK!, it seemed only fitting that we should create St. Patrick’s Day Cards for our far-away family using Fingerprints! I like this activity, because the kids spend more time actually writing messages in the cards than decorating them. Not that I’m against a […]
March 12-16, 2012 Over the course of the next five days, the kids will be illustrating a book that I have written for them. It’s called The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. As I mentioned in a previous post, just two years ago, I wrote […]
I’ve got ambitious plans for MARCH breAK! 2012. Depending upon which professional path I might choose to follow, I may not be able to run “camp mama” next March, so I’ll be making the most of it next week! I’ve completed our story for the week, The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald. Simply put, it is a reworking […]
MARCH breAK 2010 Illustrate-Your-Own Books * Essa’s Handmade Go Fish! Game * Jake’s Modeling Chocolate: Recipe and Game Last year turned out to be a bit of an anomaly in terms of our usual March Break routine. My mom drove up from the States to help make a special dress for Beatrice’s First Communion. While Grandma and I spent the week sewing, we […]
