Fall Fun

It's officially FALL. If you love this season as much as I do you might want to...

VISIT
a local pumpkin patch. Daniel's Farm on Jungermann Road is where some of you went with us last year. Pumpkins galore, fall decorations, and animal petting zoo are some of the things you will find there. Hours are Monday through Saturday 9-6 and Sundays 10-5. Expect to pay admission. Of course if you want to keep it simple pumpkins are available at your favorite grocery store too!

MAKE
pressed leaves. Collect colorful leaves from your neighborhood. Try to get different types. Place the leaves you wish to press between two sheets of newspaper. Place heavy books on top of your leaves. Allow them to flatten and dry for at least 24hours. Consider laminating them.

LEARN
why the leaves change color, where Halloween first started, or anything else you wonder about by visiting your local library. Click here for a link to the St. Charles City County Library Home page where you can find branch locations, programs, an online catalog and more.

Bored with your lunches?

Cooking class participants bravely made and tasted some very simple sandwich variations. First, vegetable cream cheese spread with cucumber slices. Second, almond butter with almond slivers and dried cranberries sprinkled on top. Both were a hit and both ideas were taken from Parents.com. Staff commented that these would also make great snacks.

Click here to see the full article with even more ideas!

Lending Library

Did you know S.A.S. has a Lending Library?

Stop by STEPS and borrow a game or puzzle or two and bring it home to try.

Make sure we know what you have before you leave with it and then let us know how you liked it!

Ice Cream Recipe

Results varied for us from perfectly creamy good ice cream to soupy-cream that needed to hit the actual freezer. Give it a try and see what you get!

Supplies needed: 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup whipping cream (heavy cream), 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup ice cream salt, 2 cups ice, 1-quart ziplock bag, 1-gallon ziplock bag

Directions: Add the sugar, milk, whipping cream and vanilla to the quart size ziplock bag and seal the bag securely.

Put the ice and salt into the gallon size bag.

Place the sealed quart bag inside the gallon bag of ice and salt. Seal the gallon bag securely. Gently rock the gallon bag from side to side. Continue to rock the bag for 10 to 15 minutes until the contents of the quart bag have solidified into ice cream.

Pictured above are Susie D. and Janice F. tasting their ice cream after making it together with S.A.S. Recipe adapted from About.com.