Silk Screening our LOGO

Today we met in the cafeteria and had a BIG SILK SCREENING DAY.  Almost everyone was there - so I hope to see LOTS of THRILLS & SKILLS wear come 4H Week - (BTW: that's the week of October 7th)!!!

Be sure to look at the UPCOMING dates to the right.  Keep in touch with your individual leaders - and keep more BLOG posts coming everyone!

Everyone got in the act - from the youngest to the olders (hmmm - whocould THAT be?)

 Green even looks good on chocolate brown!

 and... the logo looks good EN MASSE - nice job Emily.

 Here she is at work - that came out SO COOL! 
(note Barb's painty hand and squeegie in the picture!!!)

Maizie is learning QUICK!  Her sweatshirt with a DOUBLE LOGO is fantastic!  We can hardly wait to see it all around the town.

Antoinette got in the act too.   Nice job EVERYONE!

Seniors make PARMESAN CHICKEN

This was delicious served with alfredo egg noodles and green salad.  The recipe is at the bottom - after all the pictures!

Then we went downstairs to work on MARTHA WASHINGTON quilt squares.  THe plan is to make 12 of them into pillows and give 8 of them to vets on VETERANS DAY.  PATRIOTIC RIGHT?  Then the girls will also each have one to enter the fair.  This was challenging - we learned how to MASS PRODUCE triangles!  Here Donna and Kathleen are marking out the grid.

And then Kathleen is sewing up and down 1/4" each side of the diagonal lines..... 

and here Eliza is cutting on ALL the solid lines. 

Once ironed out - VOILA - lotsa triangles - some red, some blue, some little, some big!  Over 200 all together to have enough to make 12 pillows.  Ya know - that would be enough to make a whole quilt. Wonder if the girls wanna do a quilting bee!!!   Um - probably NOT!

After about an hour and a half of sewing - we came up to have cake and celebrate Ingrid and Donna's mutual birthday - a week early - but what better way than to share something yummy with friends! We'll finish the MWPillows another time.  It's nice to spread out work, and community service with food and cake!

RECIPE FOR:
Parmesan Chicken


INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
2/3 cups grated parmesan cheese (we used asiago -YUM)
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 broiler/fryer chicken (3 to 4 pounds), cut up
       (or boneless breasts - about 2 pounds)

DIRECTIONS
In a shallow bowl, combine flour, salt, paprika, and pepper. In another shallow bowl, beat eggs and milk. In a third bowl, combine Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Coat chicken with flour mixture, dip in egg mixture, and then roll chicken in crumb mixture.

Place in a well-greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1 in. baking pan. Bake at 400°F for 50-55 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. Yield: 4 servings

The Beginning of a Brand New 4H Year

At our whole group meeting we discussed our theme this year PATRIOTISM, we talked about field trips our whole group will take and we got our schedule for the 4H year.   We also had nominations for President, Vice President, SR., JR., and Elem. Secretaries, treasurer, and Sr, Jr., and Elem bloggers.  We are excited to add 2 new members to our group: Maisie and Maggie.  Welcome old and new members alike to our new 4H year!

Here we are at our 1st Whole Group meeting of the year.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to get EVERYONE in the picture.  Our group sure is big!

Then, we split into 3 groups: The Seniors, The Juniors and The Elementary Group.

In the elementary group, we did our first project - Chair Cushions!  We made them out of fleece.  We made them red, white and blue because our theme this year is Patriotism.
submitted by: Nessa



Here's Gabby and her mom:

Gabby was a speed demon with her seat cushion!

Here's Emily getting right to work!

Maggie and Maisie had fun at their first 4-H 'craft' night.

Nessa was a cutting and tying machine!

Look at Maggie and Mom -all smiles!

And our little hippie, Antoinette getting a little help from a friend.

Pre-Teen Fun Day & Cabin Fever Workshop

Saturday, Feb. 18 was a fun day for 4H kids & adults. Many members from our group participated in the activities that Teen Council provided during Pre-Teen Fun Day.

The kids got to make lots of recycled projects such as Recycled Paper, a drink coaster made from an old CD, a bird feeder made out of plastic containers and Dog Toys made from old T-shirts! Some of our Senior members were even involved in planning and teaching throughout the day. If you have any pictures from the day, please share them with Mrs. Corcoran and she'll put them up on the blog for all to enjoy. Thanks!


Here are a few of Nessa's finished projects... her T-shirt dog toy, her recycled paper dog, and her CD coaster. Nice work!

Here's Maeve's recycled paper star.


Maeve couldn't finish her bird feeder at the event... but here she is finishing it at home....


And.... the fun wasn't just for the kids! 4H adults (parents, volunteers and leaders) participated in the Cabin Fever Workshop. We crocheted an Apple Cozy - perfect for your lunchbox so that your apple arrives at lunch with no bruises and ready to enjoy.


Here are Mrs. Corcoran's finished apple cozies... all ready to be filled and packed into lunch boxes when school is back in session after vacation! Aren't they so cute? :o)

Trash to Treasure!

What an awesome meeting tonight! We got to make some really interesting Market Bags, Pencil Cases, Back Packs, Lunch Sacks, etc. - all from Recycled Feed Sacks! That's right The Thrills & Skills 4 H group were personally responsible for keeping at least a dozen Feed Sacks out of the Landfills! Nice work everyone!

The Morton's, Corcoran's and even Cindy from our local Brunswick Agway provided us with the feed sacks. Here are Hannah and Grace choosing which they will use to make their project.

Gabby and Mrs. Renna get to work on Gabby's bag.

Nessa and Mrs. Corcoran work on Nessa's lunch sack.And, in just under 2 hours just about everyone finished one project or another. Such variety, such style! Way to go Thrills & Skills-ers! Save those cool bags to bring to the fair!

Thanks, too, to Maeve, Nessa and Beibhinn's Grammy for supplying us with the zippers! They worked great!


Thanks, also to Bernadine Wiesen from the 4H office for coming to our "pre-meeting" this evening and talking with many of the families about the Pheasant Rearing Project we are looking to pursue this Spring!

Here we are watching a short video about the program. It was a great chance for the kids to learn first hand about the program and get many of their questions answered. The adults in attendance learned a lot, too! Thanks Mrs. Wiesen for taking your time to meet with us!

Survivor Bracelets

What do you do with about a billion yards of cording and some buckles? A 4H craft project, of course!

Mrs. Morton led this month's craft project and what a fun project it turned out to be - Survivor Bracelets! She shared with us that originally soldiers in the Vietnam War developed this project as a way of carrying some cord with them everywhere they went, just in case they needed it to... SURVIVE!

While we may not need to use our cord to 'survive in a hostile situation', we could use it to help make our lives a little easier.... say, for instance, your hiking boot lace breaks while you are out hiking? Or, "Oh, no! My backpack zipper broke! Now what?" - lucky for you, your Survivor Bracelet has 10 feet of super strong cord in it. All you have to do is unwind it, and tie it around your bag, re-lace your shoe, or use it in whatever way you can think of.... then, retie it and have it ready for the next emergency!

Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Corcoran prepared "starter bracelets" for everyone.
Everyone got right to work on their bracelets. (Nice nails, Maeve!)

Ummmm Gabby, how did you manage to do this sideways? Again, I can't seem to reformat these... any help would be appreciated!






Everyone seemed to catch on to the macrame style knotting we needed to complete the projects! In fact, I am almost certain that EVERYONE completed their bracelet (or collar as in Adam's case!!)

Remember to hold on to these bracelets as an item to enter in the Schaghticoke Fair in August! We hope to see lots of Blue Ribbons for the work you put into these!






Want to learn a bit more? Here's a website I found.
The definition of a "Survival Bracelet"

http://www.authorpalace.com/recretion-and-leisure/outdoors/camping/paracord-survival-bracelets-definition.html

Recycling Fun

We talked about all sorts of ways to recycle. Then Mrs. Morton gave out a huge bag of TRASH to sort. Hannah and her crew did a great job sorting items into categories of:
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Compost
TRASH
or......give to the chickens!

After this activity - we talked about our water supply - and how important it is to protect it. OTHERWISE - we might have really icky water coming out of our wells and taps. So - if this happens, how can we clean it up so we have water to drink? Miss "A" doesn't think it smells very good and there is NO WAY She is gonig to drink it - even if all the dirt and blue color comes out!

Grace doesn't think it smells very good either - - - - and Miss Maeve is ONLY folding up a toilet paper WRAPPER to put in the paper recycling bin!

Everyone is trying to get that icky potting soil out of their drinking water! Even Miss "B" gets in on the act.....

Maybe a coffee filter will help?

Either way - Miss "A" thinks recycling is a great idea!

So do her friends..... nice job everyone paying attention and making some great refrigerator magnets to help you remembere to RECYCLE!