Summer Activities

Well, summer has most definitely begun for us. We've already had our big camping week (since we couldn't find another week available all summer.) The big spawn got to bring some buddies along, as sort of an 8th grade graduation celebration.

Now summer school has begun with babysitting classes and my big spawn attending driver's ed classes (gulp!)
We always try to have some sort of family project through the summer too. Kind of a "keep your mind working" class of sorts. It's really hard to think of great activities for teen/pre-teen boys to do that they'll enjoy during summer and learn something. Well, some years are far more productive than other years, but I have a good feeling about this year. We're having a cooking class/cookbook writing class. The boys are really taking the lead on this which I think is awesome! They've come up with a bunch of recipes that we enjoy as a family and that are requested frequently. Then they are making the recipes, testing them, measuring carefully, writing out the recipe, typing it up, photographing the finished product and when summer is over we'll publish it as a cookbook.

We did our first submission today. Magic 7 layer bars. I honestly don't know where this recipe originated, we've made it forever and I know tons of others who do too. I would venture to guess it was on the back of some packaging. Anyway, here's what they wrote so far. They will be adding family anecdotes and such to it too later

Magic 7 layer bars
4oz. of butter (that's a stick)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 oz. of chocolate chips
6 oz of butter scotch chips
1 1/3 cups coconut
1 can of sweet and condensed milk
1 cup chopped pecans (optional, but Mom says we should to give it an ounce of nutrition)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt butter in a 9X13" pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbles over butter, mix well, pat it in to the pan with fork. Do this really hard so you get a nice crust. Top crumble crust with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts. Then sprinkle coconut on top. Drizzle the sweet and condensed milk over the whole thing. Bake 25-30 min until browned a little on edges. Cool then cut into squares. Prep time: 5-10 min. Cook time 25-30 min.

I just copy and pasted what they typed. I'm not sure if I should leave in typos and spelling errors, or have them fix it. They're cute, but it is supposed to be teaching them something.