Skip to main content

Veterans Day 2014

I totally slacked on Memorial Day this year, but I really want the boys to know what regular people sacrifice so that they get the life they have and the freedoms they enjoy.  On Veterans Day I thought it would be nice to make some treats from some local veterans (and current military).  It also went right along with our FHE that week because we're learning about gratitude all month.  Jim and I both have veterans on both sides of our family, so we talked to the boys about family members that have served.  We also explained that people are serving right now!  And very recently our family friend and photographer joined the military family.  Her husband just left for basic training at the beginning of the month, so talking about our friend (Alicia) and her family made it more real and tangible to them.

First, we made a favorite family treat- these turtle-type candies.  They're so easy that the boys basically made them all by themselves and they're DELICIOUS!

All you need is pretzels, rolos, and pecan halves.  We counted our Rolos to figure out how many pretzels and pecans we needed- so I snuck in a little math too.  ;)  After Austin ate a couple Rolos, we counted out how many pretzels we needed and placed them on a cookie sheet.  I'm not a fan of unrolling the silly Rolos, but I'm really too cheap to just buy the roll of rolos, so I buy the bag.  However, the boys LOVED unwrapping the candy and placing them on the pretzels.  Win-win!



Austin placed the very last Rolo on the pretzel


Then we melted the Rolos in the oven for a few minutes, and smooshed them down with a pecan and placed them in the freezer to set.
While they were setting, Jackson wrote a note on the plates thanking them for their service and sacrifice.


Finished plates-


And finally, the boys counted out the treats to make sure each plate had plenty of treats!


After dinner and FHE we delivered the treats to great grandpa (who served in the Navy) and to Alicia's family.  Austin explained to grandma what service men and women do.  Verbatim:
"On mommy's computer there were veterans (I had showed him a picture of service men and women)...  And, and the veterans and army guys FIGHT the bad guys to SAVE THE WORLD!!"  He was so cute and animated, I wish I had recorded it.

So thank you "veterans and army guys" for all of your service and sacrifice so that my family and I can have the freedoms we enjoy.

"Freedom don't come free" -Toby Keith

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe a new birthday tradition...

I just have one brother and his birthday is 5 days before mine, so it's been pretty easy to keep up with him. Jim, however, has 3 brothers and a sister, and now 3 of his siblings are married, so the birthday's just keep adding up. My forgetful brain can NOT keep up. Anyway, I've been looking for a cute and thoughtful way to send birthday greetings to all the aunts and uncles since we've been married. Almost 4 years later I think I finally have an idea! My idea is to make a birthday sign every year and have the boys take a picture with the sign for whatever family member has a birthday. Then send the person the picture with birthday greetings. Then every year they will have a different picture with the boys as they grow and I won't feel guilty missing anyone's birthday without proper acknowledgement. I also thought that it would make a great photo album for us if we keep each person's birthday picture with the boys and watch their growth progression ...

Can I finally join the club??

I have issues with making anything with yeast.  It scares me.  I tried making rolls or bread in home-ec as a kid and it was a FLOP!  Since, I stay far away from baking goods with yeast, so of course, that includes homemade bread.  I LOVE homemade bread, but I've never made it.  I realize I'm not a real Mormon wife and mother because of this huge flaw, but I've managed to make it as a so-so wife and mom with this awful glitch in my character.  Then I came across an "easy" recipe for honey wheat bread (thanks for posting it on fb Liz Nuffer) and decided to conquer my fear of yeast. First things first, I had to buy yeast- there are 394 different kinds of yeast.  No one warned me how many different kinds there were!  My fear began to overcome me, but I gathered all my strength and picked the most interestingly plain kind I could find.  Hopefully it would do the trick! I followed the recipe, but it said to wait until the yeast "frothed". ...

It's time to play catch-up

I haven't updated the blog in awhile because life has been VERY busy. Lots of new things happening, but that's for another day, another blog. A week or so ago we had a special breakfast, we had dessert for breakfast, strawberry shortcake. Austin LOVED it, but he's not a picky eater. Jackson, however, was not impressed with this special treat. It was like pulling teeth just to get him to try it, then he responded with, "it's delicious!", but wouldn't take another bite. I even made fresh whipped cream which he usually loves, but he wasn't interested. Anyway here are the boys with their special breakfasts. I recently posted about the new chore chart that I made for Jackson and it is going SO well!! I thought he would flip out with the 15 minutes of game time, but he doesn't. He really likes moving the magnets around on the chart and cashing in chores for nickels every night. He even knows how to use the timer for his 15 minutes of game time. ...