Picture Day #5 - Crafts, Recipes, and Walking Around

Hello everyone,

Many, if not all, of you know that this past week has been extremely hard. I want to acknowledge those who have been a support to not just me, but my grandparents during this time. I know probably all of those who read my blog are close family or friends and I am very grateful to those who have been caring. I will not name names lest I forget someone and feel badly about it. Thank you all for your support.

Today I want to give everyone kind of a brief outline of what's been going on and what will go on until I leave.

First, I'm posting a picture day because it gives a better representation as to what I've been doing and I've been doing exactly as the title states. Be prepared for some fun, delicious, and pretty pictures. (I even found some pictures I should have posted a while ago... I hope you like them.)

Next... well, what happens next? At the time of writing this blog post I have 45 days left until I fly back to the States. That's a month and a half. And here's the question I know everyone wants answered: What do you have planned? I have seven things on my list I definitely have to see before I leave, one thing I really hope I can see (the host family may be taking a trip there and bring me with them... where is a surprise), and one thing that I'm hit or miss on as to whether or not I want to see (the Bavarian Forest, not as exciting as the Black Forest which I hope to see).

Something else that's been bugging me is that the children have clearly expressed their desire to have me stay. This is extremely sad for me as I have never been with a family that has children for this long before (other than my own family). I have many more places in the world I want to see though, plus I do want to go home and take a break (not to mention see the three F's: friends, family, and fiance). Who knows what will happen in the future.

As far as food goes, I have two new recipes below, plus I have two recipes I plan on making: a special Holly potato salad and (believe it or not) a chickpeas recipe. This should take me pretty much into July where I'll probably only be able to make one more new recipe. We'll see how timing works out.

I think the Squishables are itching to do a blog post... they might get the floor next time...

Enjoy the pictures everyone!

I decided to decorate my door... with my colored pictures! I have two more I colored today... they'll go on the back of the door.

A project I did with the children was an "All About Me" montage. The children (except the boy who didn't want to for some reason) did hand and feet prints, cut out pictures they thought represented themselves, added stickers, etc, etc. This section is mine.

Okay for those of you who DO NOT know what this is, click here and then look at the picture below. Then, go to the store, pick up the two ingredients shown above, then perform the infamous "Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption." The little boy saw this on the computer and wanted to do it with me. So I did.

I do NOT in any way shape or form take credit for this picture! This picture is from Wikipedia and I give them full credit for this image. (I used the URL directly from the source.)

This is all that's left from the aftermath. As you might have noticed, this is not the same Coke I started with. That's because the original Coke I was using kind of went off too soon... anyway, this one was slightly better... except I got sprayed in the face...

We have also done paper airplanes. The little boy loved them especially. The littlest girl liked them too, but decided to make a giant one on the floor. She asked me to decorate. So...

... I started drawing what I have called my "Stick Figure Equations." The oldest and youngest enjoyed it so much they started drawing their own. I think they're pretty funny. I might even start putting them in my blog posts regularly!

The littlest girl is the biggest fan of my craft "projects" so I remembered this one from my early years. What you do is take a plane piece of white paper and draw on it with a white crayon. Then take a set of watercolor paints (not acrylic, not oil, not outdoor... watercolor!) and paint over your creation to reveal your hidden picture! (The little girl loved it!)

Okay, so I also really wanted to do little mini cardboard people. This is Mini Holly. Cut out a paper person and paste it onto a non-corrugated piece of cardboard. Color, use embroidery floss for the hair, and cut again to reveal your mini you!

 And now...

Holly's Apple-Honey Chicken Wraps!

This is the inside of the wrap.

 I can't take any credit at all for the sauce of the recipe. I got it here and I'm very grateful Food Network! I roasted the chicken in about the same way they did, except kept the sauce separate and pulled the meat from the bones. I layered lettuce, shredded carrot, steamed broccoli, some chopped onion, the chicken, and then either poured the sauce over it or used it to dip. Super healthy and delicious!

This is the full meal. Protein, veggies, little honey sauce... perfect combination!

 My most recent meal was made this evening and is below...

Veggie Mac and Cheese!

The original recipe is from iVillage. All I did was make a few substitutions and BAM! Perfect Holly dinner.

This was so amazing. I followed the directions perfectly but substituted cheddar cheese for a local tasty variety, the four mixed cups of veggies to one small head of both cauliflower and broccoli, and about 6 medium carrots, and lastly the breadcrumbs for crushed plain cornflakes... which made the whole meal in my opinion. Plus, this could very easily be made gluten free.

My dinner tonight... yummy!

I took this picture with my cell phone. It was the first time I had ever seen people in water bubbles! I want to try someday!

I know I've shown pictures of Olympia Park before, but I never really got to show the amazing glass architecture.

Today and tomorrow is Stadtgründigsfest which has a long history with the city. Click on the link to learn a tiny bit more!

Quite busy today. I was actually expecting a bit more, but it was still considerably busy.

Also at the festival I got to see an actual Irish band play! That was kind of cool.

Asamkirche or Asam Church. It was really beautiful inside but I forgot my camera and all I had was my cell phone. I may go back.

Sendlinger Tor or Sendlinger Gate. There are a few "tors" in the city (I think three) and they're all famous.

This is the local church. It was taken a little while ago and it was a beautiful day... I didn't want to waste it!

As I said before, there are a couple "tors" in the area and I found out that this famous one (shown previously in another blog post I believe) is called Siegestor...

... and here it is!

This is St. Kajetan church. I just happened by it and was rewarded with very pretty architecture, as pretty much everything else has in Munich!

This is my last picture. I found this butterfly while walking and I think it's the same kind of butterfly as the one I took and put in an earlier blog post. I don't know the name of the type of butterfly... I'll have to find out!