Monthly Archives September 2011

Tuesday Tales – It’s Challah Time!

Tuesday Tales

Have you ever had challah? You may not have had it plain, but chances are that you may have been served challah french toast. Here’s a slice of challah that we had while on the road the other day.

Slice of challah

Each Friday at nursery school, JSL and his classmates celebrate Shabbat. We bring in money to donate to others, food for the food pantry, and they have a Shabbat table. Last week, JSL’s new class made a new tablecloth to place with each of their handprints and names for this year. In addition to this, a girl and boy are selected to be the Ima (mother) and Abba (father) to help do the Shabbat duties. On the first Friday, JSL was Abba and so thrilled to do this special task. This is what the table looked like last year:

Shabbat Table 2010-2011

Shabbat is special and thanks to this, we have a book that JSL received last year from Kar Ben Publishing.

It's Challah Time!

It’s Challah Time! uses photos of preschool aged children in a classroom setting. Together, the children (with adult supervision) are making challah for their Shabbat celebration. The easy to follow steps and large clear photos take you along the journey of making a delicious challah of your own. As a child, my favorite part of making challah was getting the chance to braid the dough before it was baked in the oven.

Making challah

The book also shows the kids participating in traditional Shabbat activities. They read stories together, sing with the Cantor, and set the Shabbat table to get ready for their weekly celebration. Then, they show the challah cover over their special bread, candles, and grape juice. When it is time to light the candles, all of the kids participate together and share the experience.

Challah with classmates

Celebrating Shabbat is important to keeping our Jewish traditions alive. It’s Challah Time! does a fantastic time of keeping this alive with kids and also shares a recipe at the end so you can make challah making memories at home with your children. I know this is a book that JSL and NHL will both enjoy and remember thanks to the fantastic preschool times they have had in their own classrooms and at home with our family.

Of course, since this is Tuesday Tales, I must ask the usual question. What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

It's Me

Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Kar-Ben Publishing in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own.

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Birthday Cake Making Dreams

This weekend, we went to visit my brother and his family. My niece, SG, turned four on Saturday, so it was time for a birthday celebration. When we arrived, her cake was sitting on the dining room table. Check this out and guess the theme:

The Cake Delivered

This gorgeous cake was made by a co-worker of my sister-in-law. Here is her business card in case you happen to live out in western NY.

Molly's Cakes

Not only are Molly’s Cakes delicious, her work is gorgeous. She also worked around a slight complication for my niece. SG is highly allergic to eggs. As you can probably guess, this can make baked goods complicated. We make cupcakes with no-egg substitute in them for birthdays to allow her to enjoy what everyone else is eating. Molly made SG’s top layer of the cake with no egg. It was a pumpkin cake. The bottom two layers had chocolate and vanilla with egg. Oh and the fondant was a new kind that she was testing. While I did not try any, others raved about it.

Did you guess the theme of the party? Here’s a little more decorations to help you out:

Party Decorations

Here is  a photo of the cake with the cute little toppers added right before  everyone enjoyed the cake:

Everyone sees the cake

The birthday girl seemed very happy with her layer. Check her out with her cloud cake layer.

Birthday Girl with her cake

Of course, seeing SG’s cake made me realize how much I would still love to take a Wilton Cake Decorating class. They are given at several of the local craft stores. One of these days, I may. I think I am ready to explore with fondant, but then again – I really love my piping fun with cupcakes.

It's Me

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100 Days of School Projects – Catch Me There

It may only be September, but before you know it your children may be coming home with a 100th Day of School project. Did you have to do one as a child? You probably didn’t since they have not been celebrating this day very long.

Of course, my oldest has experienced this for a few years now. When he was in kindergarten we made a cool Googly Eye banner. This was something we came up with while exploring a craft store for ideas. The next year we had to come up with a project idea while at Disney World. The result was this:

100 Days Photo Project

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: 100 Days of School Projects with Disney Memories is all about how we came up with this idea while on our trip. I share other ideas that we considered and ask people to let me know what other possibilities with Disney they can think of.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

What 100th Day of school projects have you done with your children? I would love to know and think it would be great to share with others. Please share in the comments below and if you have written posts about them, feel free to leave a link as well.

It's Me

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