Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Ellen Tebbits Moments

If you read my blog regularly, you know we're thoroughly obsessed with Beverly Cleary books lately.  A month or so ago we read Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary to Firecracker.  She liked it, and was especially interested that Ellen and her friend Austine get to make brownies ALL BY THEMSELVES when they go to Austine's house.

So when one of Firecracker's friends came over last week, they made brownies...all by themselves.


This was after a trial run with Firecracker making cupcakes on her own (from a box) a few days before.  Firecracker's reading skills are good enough that I thought we'd try it out.  She wanted to make cupcakes as a treat after she'd gotten a reading award at school, and I was cleaning up the kitchen, so I told her she could do it on her own.  Of course I didn't get all that much cleaning done because I kept stopping to sneak in some pictures.

She kept coming and asking me what to do next, and I kept telling her to go back and read the box. 
She almost forgot to put the cake mix in.
And of course one of the best parts about making them yourself if all the snitches.

And since the sibs were asleep, she also got the mixers to herself.

She's definitely getting bigger.

She did pretty well.

And I even let her brave putting them in...

...and taking them out of the oven.

And the taste-testers gave her raving reviews.

And she caught me taking pictures of her a few times...and pretended she was mad.  But mostly she was really pleased with herself for making the cupcakes with extremely little help.
(This is one of my favorite recent pictures of her.)

8 comments:

  1. If you were a fly on my wall, you would know that I am thoroughly obsessed with your blog right now :) I am looking forward to summertime so I can do all of these great reading/projects with my 6 year old. She's gonna wish you were her mom when I tell her where all of the ideas came from..hehehe hope you all have a great day!

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  2. Hooray for independence in the kitchen! I love it that her reward for reading was...reading (the recipe)! Fun photos.

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  3. So cute to let her try it on her own. I've never read Ellen Tebbits before. I think we'll have to try with my 7 yr old girl this summer and let her try baking something in the kitchen too. Great way to bring a book to life!

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  4. I bet my daughter would also love to make her own batch of cupcakes or brownies. Sounds like a good summer project. Not sure if I'm brave enough to let her put the food in the oven yet though! I loved looking at all your pictures.

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  5. How fun. I can't wait for my boys to be more grown up and independent but I'm trying to enjoy these moments too. Love that you were sneaking in and taking her pics. What a good bloggy mom!

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  6. Oh my goodness how exciting!! I loved all the Beverly Cleary books, I can't wait until the girls are into reading them too.

    Thank you for linking up to stART :)

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  7. She did an awesome job! I love Beverly Cleary books.

    Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.

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  8. Cooking with children...hits all of the domains....cognitive, social/emotional, physical, language, etc......what a sweet way to connect literature and social experiences with cooking. Checking out your blog:)!
    Beth

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