Owasso Farmer's Market

I went to the Owasso Farmer's Market yesterday and found some wonderful finds! I met one lady from the Phillipine's who sold some very unusual vegetables that she said she used to grow back home. Her okras were a little over a foot long and she also had an interesting-looking type of squash called "opo". She gave me the following recipe for cooking with opo and we tried it last night. It was great!

1/2 lb. ground beef - browned and drained
1 large tomato - diced
1/2 to 1 onion - diced
1/2 opo - cut into small chuncks
2 chicken bouilon cubes
1 c. rice - cooked

After browning the meat, set to the side. In a separate pan, saute onion until tender and brown. Add the tomato and ground beef. Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add the opo and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rice and simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Salt and pepper to your liking. This is a really quick and healthy dish that tastes yummy, too!

There was also a group of people at the market called DOGS (Dutch Oven Gatherings). Evidently, they enjoy cooking with their Dutch Ovens and once a month they get together and cook a bunch of food then take it to a location and give it away - free of charge. It was soooo delicious! I tried samplings of jambalya, peach casserole, vegetable casserole and pumpkin pie - all to die for! If you are interested in joining their group or getting more information about what they do, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/okdutchoven.

If you like trying new recipes, the Owasso Farmer's Market website has a ton of recipes to go along with almost any vegetable you can imagine! Check it out here.

Field Trip to First Bank of Owasso

Our homeschool Co-Op went on a field trip this past week to the First Bank of Owasso. The kids had a great time learning about checking and savings accounts, seeing the "vault" and where they process checks, as well as getting a tour of the bank. Hopefully this will motivate them to want to start saving their pennies instead of always wanting to spend them! Yes, I know - that's wishful thinking!

Fall Decorating

I finally had a chance to do a little Fall decorating today. I actually intended to start a few weeks ago but since Fall's not actually here until this Monday, I suppose I'm not too far behind schedule ;-) Here's a few of the things I decorated. Nothing too exciting - I'm trying to keep it a little more simple this year. In fact, I have about 2 huge tubfulls of Fall decorations that I'm ready to get rid of.

This fall display makes me laugh because it was totally free - with the exception of the tray which was almost free from a garage sale. Anytime I take my girls to look at artificial flowers at a store, they have a ball collecting the ones on the floor that have dropped off of bouquets. Of course, we always ask first, but the store usually allows them to keep their findings at no charge. So this is their little collection of free fall decor ;-)



Happy Fall y'all!

Our Favorite Family Devotionals...

I was recently talking with a friend of mine and we were sharing with each other how important we feel daily family devotionals are. There are so many benefits to having this special time together...

It helps families learn to solve problems together

You spend good, quality time together talking which grows you closer as a family and helps you feel more connected

It helps your family grow spiritually together

It helps your children learn that family and spiritual growth are very important in life

It provides a time to talk about difficult situations in a loving, non-threatening environment



I have written in a previous post about my girl's doing their own Quiet Time With God, which I feel is also important. It's just part of their bedtime routine and they are so good about doing it every night, much better than I am! My heart about melted the other night when I quietly went to check on the girls and "M" was singing a Psalm from the Bible. She was just reading a chapter from Psalms but put her own melody to it. I wish I could have gotten it on video but she's at the age now where she doesn't like me filming her or taking her picture. Anyway, I thought it was precious ;-)

I thought I'd share a few books that we have enjoyed doing together for our family devotional time. I'd love to hear what your family does, too!

* Bible Stories For Children - Retold by Geoffrey Horn and Arthur Cavanaugh

* Read Aloud Bible Stories - By Ella K. Lindvall

* Heaven for Kids - by Randy Alcorn

* Leading Little Ones to God - By Marian M. Schoolland

* Princess and the Kiss and Life Lessons from Princess and the Kiss - By Jennie Bishop

* Finding God's Promises - By Cherie Noel (This is a great study guide that comes in workbook form but it's hard to find a copy because it's out of print. "M" loves to do this one during her Quiet Time.)

* God and Me! Devotionals for Girls - By Diane Cory

* The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories - By Kelly Pulley

Flashback Friday

This is "M" when she was about 5 months old. She's almost 9 now. I can't believe half of her life at home is already over. Excuse me while I get a kleenex!!!

"M" today

Wordless Wednesday

Disney Tips

This was the girls first trip to Disney and I haven't been since '84 so we were all pretty excited about our vacation. While I didn't prepare near as much as I should have - in fact, I didn't even start packing until the night before we left - I did discover a few tips along the way. Thought I'd pass them along...

1. Apparently, every March, Disney announces a date later in the year that you can book your vacation and get a free Meal Plan. So this past March, they announced the dates would be in September then we had to book right away. It's not always the best time of the year due to kids being in school and hurricane season - but that can also work in your favor. The free meals included 1 snack, 1 lunch and 1 dinner per person. We figured we saved around $800 or so in meals. You still have to pay gratuity but we got really nice meals that would cost around $90-$120 for our family but only had to pay around a $15 tip. All of the meals were amazing and the characters were very entertaining.

2. Thank you to my friend, Shannon, for this tip...If you have kids who are terrified of automatic toilet flushers, have them take a sticky note in the stall with them and cover up the sensor. When they are done, remove the sticky note and the toilet flushes without them on it!

3. Buy Disney souvenirs before you leave and surprise your kids with them while on vacation. Prices are MUCH cheaper at Wal-Mart or Dollar Tree than at Disney.

4. If you purchase a bottle of water for breakfast, keep it and you can refill it and use it throughout the day. Much less than buying new water bottles all the time and it helps save the planet ;-)

5. If you go to a water park, bring swim shoes! The ground is often hot or rough to walk on.

6. If you plan on flying, have your kids write a letter to the pilot and mention how they would "just love to see the cockpit of their airplane". They're suckers for letters from kids & usually gladly let them see the front unless they are running behind schedule.

More tips on-line...

Tips and Sneaky Tricks

Disneyland & Walt Disney World Tips & Tricks

Advice, Tips and Tricks for Walt Disney World Tickets and Passes

Disney Tips and Tricks

Blogs About Disney Tips and Tricks

That's all for a while - the "Slideshow Queen" needs a rest ;-)

Disney Vacation - Day 8

Day 8 - last day of our vacation. We were a little nervous about getting home because of Hurricane Ike but we made it back with no problems. Riding in an airplane is always such a religious experience for me - just being up in the clouds and seeing the world from up high. I'm always amazed at how much land is still untouched or unpopulated. We flew over some pretty ominous-looking clouds - remnants of Hurricane Ike - quite amazing.

"A" is already moping around the house saying how she wished she was still at Disney. I'm thinkin' she got a little too used to being called "Princess" all week - time to get back to reality. We had a great time but there's no place like home ;-)


This is a McDonald's that was close to our hotel. I just thought it was cute so I had to take a pic of it.


This was taken at the Orlando airport. Snow White was one character we unfortunately didn't get to meet at Disney.


Hurricane Ike clouds

Disney Vacation - Day 7

Our 7th day of vacation was spent at Epcot again - riding a few new rides and re-riding our favorite ones. It's funny - one of the girls favorite rides was Mission: Space. I found it a little boring but we rode it about 4 or 5 times because the girls loved it - mostly because it takes your picture at the beginning of the ride and then at the end of the ride you can create a postcard and e-mail it to your house or to someone else. They turned out pretty funny...




We also created a silly space video here.

Disney Vacation - Day 6

The morning of our 6th day of vacation was spent at Blizzard Beach - probably our most favorite park. We had so much fun racing each other on the slides and staying cool in the water and out of the Florida heat - which it really wasn't that bad at all - maybe 90 degrees at the most!

 

After that, we got cleaned up and went to a "fancy" dinner - the one the girls were looking forward to all week - dinner with Cinderella! We took a boat ride to the Grand Floridian which is a beautiful resort that looks like a huge plantation house. The food was so good and the girls enjoyed meeting Cinderella, the handsome prince, the evil step-mother and one of the evil step-sisters. Afterwards, we went to the lobby and enjoyed listening to a maestro playing Disney songs on the piano. The girls couldn't contain themselves and had to break out in dance! For just a moment, time seemed to stand still and I just sat there taking it all in. The beautiful surroundings, the music playing and the girls dancing - probably my favorite time all week.

Disney Vacation - Day 5

Our 5th day of vacation was mostly spent at Magic Kingdom. The girls got to meet Daisy Duck, the Fairy Godmother and Ariel. They also had fun touring the houses where Mickey and Minney live. Late afternoon it started to pour down rain! The girls were actually excited about it because they got to use their rain jackets for the first time.

We then ate dinner at Boma which is located in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The food was delicious and afterwards we got to walk around their lodge and view african animals up close. A highlight of our night was meeting a lady that worked there named Peace. We enjoyed talking with her for a long time. She's from Uganda & we told her how we have an interest in Uganda because we sponsor a child there and our church just sent a team to Uganda to do mission work.

After meeting Peace, we hooked up with some friends from Oklahoma who were staying at the lodge. They gave us a tour of their grand hotel room - and I mean GRAND - then we went swimming. Another fun and busy day!

Disney Vacation - Day 4

Our 4th day of vacation, we went to Epcot. We enjoyed meeting Alice in Wonderland and Aladin - the girls loved his smile ;-) They discovered "pin trading" and their favorite ride was Soarin'. It's so cool how far advanced technology is to create a ride that makes you feel like you're actually soaring above California! It even had the smells of evergreens, oranges and the ocean! We ate a wonderful dinner at Teppan Edo which is located in Japan and had a great time traveling the world in a day!

Disney Vacation - Day 3

On the third day of our vacation, we went to Typhoon Lagoon. We loved "catching the waves" and soaking in the sun!






That night, we ate a super-fun dinner at Chef Mickey's which is located in the Contemporary Resort. The girls got to meet Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse.

A family pic along with Steve's parents
(a.k.a. "Nanny and Poppy")

Here's a picture of all the kids that were in our group!

 

Hollywood Studios was open late that night, so after dinner we finished our day there. We rode the dreaded Tower of Terror, which the girls disliked with great passion.

Disney Vacation - Day 2

The morning of the second day of our vacation, we went straight to Magic Kingdom - the girls couldn't believe their eyes! "A" had a fascination with little tiny Mickey heads that were scattered on the ground and collected them all week.

That afternoon, we went back to the hotel for a swim and brief nap.








Then we went back to Magic Kingdom and ate an Italian dinner at Tony's Town Square. We ended the night with a few rides and an awesome fireworks show!

Disney Vacation - Day 1

We just got back from a family vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Florida! We had a great time but it's good to be back home! I don't think I've ever walked so far, yet ate so much, in one week!

We went to Disney with a group of about 30 friends and family. We woke up early last Saturday morning and took a plane from Tulsa to St. Louis then on to Orlando. The girls were SOOOO excited! This was their first plane ride so they decided to write letters to the pilots and tell them about their trip to Disney. The pilots were so friendly and even let the girls see the cockpit before and after our flight. The flight there was very "entertaining". It was the birthday of one of the flight attendants & one of the passengers so they were playing it up big. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to them and turned on their overhead candles/lights. The flight attendant went on to sing numerous/too many songs including "If You're Happy and You Know It", etc. Let's just say we were happy to get off that plane ;-)

 

Once we were in Orlando, we took a bus to our hotel, the All Stars Music Resort. The room was a little small but for as little time as we spent there, it was great for us. The hotel itself was very well organized, clean and had great customer service. And of course, the girls LOVED the pool!

 

After we checked into our hotel, we went to Animal Kingdom and ate dinner at The Tusker House, a yummy African buffet of food.








Animal Kingdom closed early that night so we went back to the hotel after dinner to swim. The girls entered a dance contest then participated in a dance party. They had a blast doing dances like YMCA, the Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide. We ended our evening by watching "Enchanted" on their outdoor movie screen. What a fun first day!