Bobbing for Apples

Saturday is Calvin's birthday party! We have been planning for months for this party, reading party books, talking about who would come....etc. One of his favorite ideas for a party activity is bobbing for apples. Today I picked up some cute little mini apples for the activity and Calvin and I practiced. He went first. He stuck his whole face in the water and then came up and spit out a mouthful of water back into the bowl. I am his mother, and I wouldn't even want to go next. Imagine letting 8 kids all take turns doing that. Calvin never was able to get the apple out, but he did get a big kick out of trying. So, do you have any ideas about how to adjust this activity to make it more sanitary and more doable for 5 year olds? Or, should I just relax and let them enjoy trying? I think changing the water between each person would take too long and the kids would not be able to wait that long. We could try doing it out of an individual bowl.... I'm just not sure. I also thought about hanging them from the ceiling with a long string and letting the kids try and bite them without hands but I don't know if I can figure out how to do that.

Help!!! (Can you tell dave has not been home much lately? I am coming to the blog as my source of adult conversation!)

match update- answering your questions

USCD did match a scrambling student, but it's not really a match at that point. It is more like a regular job hunt where you apply and interview and then get offered a job or not. They matched another girl. So, here's how it looks in the program now - for the next year.
x
intern - 1 girl
2nd year - Dave, 1 girl
3rd - 2 girls, 1 boy
4th - 2 boys
5 - 1 girl
6 - 1 boy
7 - 1 boy

There are 5 girls in the program, out of 11 which makes almost 50% of the residents in the program female. It is unheard of in a field like neruosurgery but the chairman here loves to have so many women in the program.

I'll have dave write a post someday about how residency is and is not like Grey's anatomy. Dave does do some work in the OR, supervised of course. Mostly, interns do things like hold stuff, watch, and sew. On neursurgery dave did more becuase they are trying to teach him and want him to be prepared. In the UCSD neurosurgery program the 2nd year residents get A LOT of operating experience. They spend most of the day in the OR. Dave will start his second year in July. It is kind of a scary thing -- learning to be a dr. because the only way to learn is to do. Watching, especially for surgery, just isn't enough. There is a book called Complications by Atul Gawande where a new Dr. writes about the process of learning medicine in a residency program. It is an interesting read.

Calvin is an amazing sleeper...

during the day. If he had it his way he'd sleep 3-4 hours during the day and then go to bed at 7:30 and get up at 4ish. Well, I guess he does get it his way sometimes. But, usually I try not to let him nap, or at least make his nap as short as I can. This afternoon I was taking out the trash and passed Calvin on his way into my room. He looked very tired. When I came back I found him on the floor snoring away. He was only about two steps from my bed. I guess he was just too tired to make it the rest of the way.



This morning around 4:30ish he came to get in bed with me. I told him it would be fine as long as he was quiet. He wasn't really quiet. He is super chipper in the morning! So, I told him, "Calvin be quiet or you have to leave." And he said, "it isn't me, George (his little stuffed curious george monkey) is the one making noise." Very cute. Well, not so cute at 4:30 but cute now.

My spell check function hasn't been working lately so forgive my mistakes...I'm sure there are several in each post.

Pumpkin

When we moved into the house we inherited a pantry full of food. Most of it was thrown away becuase it had expired or it was quickly used up. We have a few cans of pumpkin left on the shelf that expire this year and I don't really know what to do with them. What do you make with canned pumpkin? If you have a favorite recipe, post it on your blog or send it my way somehow!

We tried these pumpkin muffins yesterday and they were pretty good. Calvin wouldn't let us put in the raisins but maybe we'll try them next time.

Pumpkin Muffins
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1/4 c. butter, melted
1 egg
1/2 c. raisins
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms of 12 medium muffin cups. Mix all ingredients just until flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon sugar over batter in each cup. Bake 18-20 minutes. Immediately remove from pan.
Makes 12 muffins

It's warmer in Columbus!!

This morning it is a chilly 31 degrees out. I checked the Columbus weather and it is 39! The high here will be a mostly sunny 60 whereas Columbus won't warm up much beyond where it is now.