Everything's Coming up Apples

It's Fall!  Finally... Football, leaves, cool weather for running, and of course, apples.

We had a neighborhood block party a couple weekends ago and here are the delicious little bites I made.

Caramel Apple Slices

 Ingredients:
Granny Smith Apples
Lemon Juice
Caramels
chocolate chips
peanuts

Step one: Slice and core the apples and place them in water with lemon juice.

Step two: skewer the apples.  Because I was serving these at a large function I figured this would male it easier for people to grab one.  This probably isn't a necessary step, although it made dipping them in the warm caramel easier.

Step three: Melt the caramels according to the package.  This involves adding a little water.  dip each apple slice into the warm caramel.  I found it was easiest to roll the sides with the skin.  The caramel didn't really stick to the sliced sides.  Once you've dipped them in the caramel, you can dip into the toppings.  I had crushed peanuts, mini chocolate chips and purple sprinkles because Harper liked them. I left quite a few plain because those are my favorite.

Step five: refrigerate the apples for at least an hour before serving to help the caramel re-harden

Enjoy!  These were a huge hit and perfect for any fall gathering.

Good bye mouth breather

Harper has always been a mouth breather.  We figured it was a common baby thing, but around her second birthday I started to wonder if it was still normal.  I distinctly remember sitting to do puzzles, and Harper breathing out of her mouth like she had just run a marathon.  It was awful.  So we asked the pediatrician.  He had us try a round of allergy meds.  No change.  Then we went to an ENT.  He did a scope and saw that her adenoids were blocking 70% of her airway.  So he had us try a couple months of steroid spray to try and shrink them, which by the way I loved.  He didn't immediately reccommend surgery.  That's my kind of doctor.  Still there was no improvement.  So now we were down to surgery.  So we set up the appointment.

Wednesday came and her surgery was scheduled for 11:30.  She wasn't allowed to eat anything after 8pm.  Um, yeah...how do you tell a 3 year old who can pack away three pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and fruit for breakfast that she isn't allowed to eat anything.  The answer....cartoons.

Due to unforeseen circumstances her surgery was pushed back and she wasn't able to go back until 1.  Through the whole thing she was a complete trooper.  Even up to getting wheeled back to the OR and having to go in by herself.  The nurse said she was even laughing back there in the scary room all by herself.  Such a brave girl. 

The whole surgery lasted like 15 minutes.  We had to wait another 15 before we could see her in post-op.  She was still in good spirits, asking for popsicles.  The whole day she didn't shed a single tear.

Overall, I was really nervous, but she did amazing.  She has loved the two days she got to stay home with us afterwards, although if I didn't tell you, I bet you wouldn't even know she had had surgery.  This was her last night.

Hopefully you'll be able to breathe through your nose soon my little pumpkin head.

Things to Know

This year is the first year I have students for a second time.  I taught one section of the acclerated 7th grade math last year and I have all those students again for Algebra.  They are mixed together with students from another section taught by a different teacher.  I thought a great first day activity would be to have the students who had me once brainstorm things to know about me, so the students who hadn't had me knew a little about me.  Here are the lists they came up with.

It was really funny to see the things that resonated with them from last year.  They all remembered the one student who like to sleep all the time and who I would make stand up in class.  Apparently I made it clear I was not a fan of that, all though I don't know any teacher who is.  And all that unnecessary talking; I don't go for that.

I liked that they shared about the formative assessments since they are such a big part of what I do.  They also knew my football likes and that I have a daughter, so they liked me enough to remember personal things.  All in all this was a fun first activity.  The kids who didn't have me last year got to know a little about me, and I got to see a peek at what kids really remember about me!