Rock Scramble at Balanced Rock

When my husband broke his toe the first night camping in Big Bend National Park (a later story, I promise!) and we opted out of a single long day hike and picked multiple shorter ones instead, we really got to see our oldest son in action. One of the hikes we chose was out to Balanced Rock, what was it exactly? We had no idea! We didn't look much into this hike because we had 0 cell service in the park, but it was short enough for if we needed to turn around it wouldn't be a big deal. So we packed up our snacks and water, slathered on sunscreen, threw the 3 year old up on my back, and headed out into the desert...after a fun, bumpy 4 wheel drive ride out to the trail head of course.

The trail was windy, warm, and flat. We were glad we had brought along our hats! The outside temperature was only in the 70s, but being in the desert it felt much warmer. After walking on the sandy trail for a while, looking everywhere for wildlife, we finally passed a couple returning who told us our son was about to have the best time rock scrambling, and my first reaction was, say whattt?! Those type of trails are my favorite, but how would our son do? How much rock scramble did they actually mean? I mean, they didn't say boulder, so we should be ok, right?

Our son was already complaining about being tired (he wasn't, it wasn't THAT long of a trail and certainly wasn't tough...remember, I said FLAT!), but that's kind of his thing. It isn't a pleasant thing, but he complains on every hike when we first start out. As soon as we reached the incline though, I didn't hear another peep. My husband followed close behind, making sure he didn't misstep and fall. We told him he could use his feet AND his hands, it took a little convincing but he realized that his hands would help. My husband only helped him where he needed it, but he mostly climbed up and up by himself. A lot of his first hikes were on the Appalachian Trail so he knows to look for the white blazes, this hike he was looking for actual posts that had the direction of where to go, when terrain is rocky it can sometimes be tricky to see which way the trail goes. There were plenty of "watch where you're going!" and "think about your next step!" sayings going out, but he made it to the top, and the snack break was well deserved. He is confident in his hiking, or at least acts it, but always feels shows a sense of pride when we compliment him on a job well done.

Learning to slow down and think about your next move is important on these trails, especially being that it was windy. He slipped ONCE on the way back down, but remembered what we always say and leaned back so he'd land on his bottom...not his face. He didn't get hurt, laughed it off, and assured us he'd be more careful next time. With him getting older and growing out of the carrier stage, watching him "climb mountains" is something I'm trying to get used to, even if it's a little scary.

Homemade Crispy Apple Chips

Looking for an easy to make healthy snack that the whole family can get on board with? Craving that crunch that only a chip can fix? Want a good snack for the trails? Well, have you tried apple chips?

We recently found out that my kids and husband really like apple chips, but we never buy them because they're either not to be found or they are priced too high for a bag of dried apples. My husband put me up to the challenge of making some myself, and that's exactly what I did!

I followed a "recipe", but the amount of time that was stated was NOT enough to give these apples a nice crisp so I thought I'd share what worked for us. By the time they were done in the oven, they were so sweet and had that crunch that could curb any potato chip craving! You can adjust the amount of apples used based on your needs, but for this recipe I used 4.
*4 is enough for a family of 4 to snack for 1-2 days, next time I'll buy a bag of apples and make more.

What you'll need:
Apples (I used Granny Smith and Fuji)
Spiralizer (or a knife and patience)
Parchment paper
Baking pan

I didn't peel our apples, but you definitely could, I didn't want the extra step so I washed them really well instead.

Preheat oven to 200°. The key to a nice crisp is low and slow, and you don't want to overcrowd the pan. Luckily we have double ovens and had plenty of room.

If you're using a spiralizer, cut the bottom of the apples off to make them flat...this makes it easier to place correctly making sure you are cutting off of the core.

Place onto spiralizer (I used my Kitchen Aid attachment) and let it do it's job. Once cut, use a knife to cut the spiralized apple into slices and make sure all the seeds are out. Evenly place onto parchment paper on baking pan.

At this point you can sprinkle them with any seasoning of your choice...cinnamon, sugar, etc., but I left mine plain.

Pop them into a preheated oven and leave them alone. The recipe I used had me flip them after 1.5 hours and cook for an additional hour, but they were still soft!

I suggest cooking them for 4 hours, then flip, and cook for an additional 5-6 hours. I know. A looooong time, but so worth it. Resist opening the oven until you see in the last couple hours that they're getting crisp. I cooked them on Saturday and once I had my oven turned off I let them sit in it over night, then turned it on again in the morning. (This was because I followed a recipe that didn't work.) You can easily see the apples changing with the oven light on, so track the progress that way.

I promise they will be so crispy and you'll please your whole family! We put them in snack baggies for the next day and they stayed nice and crunchy.

Kind Heart - Kids Night In Box

Kind Heart - Kids Night In Review

*This post does contain affiliate links. I do make commission when any purchases are made using these links.

There were so many great aspects about the February Kids Night In box, Kind Heart, that made it the perfect follow up to Valentine's Day. From teaching kids what it means to love and be loved, to taking care of our Earth and their very own heart. Kids Night In Box even teamed up to raise money for the American Heart Association!

If you're heart is set on trying out a box this month, the order cutoff is March 13th to get the Mission Space box!

What's Included:

Night In Itinerary

Included book - Love from The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Plastic cup to decorate
Gelatine
Bird seed
Heart cookie cutter
Baked apple snack
2 Heart Hero wrist bands
American Heart Association Kids Heart Challenge
Magic Black Hearts with drawing tool
Jump rope

Kind Heart Themed Menu:

You can't go wrong with fruit or yogurt, at least with my kids who LOVE both. This month had a delicious yogurt bowl snack complete with kiwi, blueberries, honey, and any other fruits you may want to add. The kids could help make a blueberry honey sauce to pour over the yogurt bowls...how yummy does that sound?! This is a recipe to stick in your recipe box!

Activities:

The first activity was reading the included book and asking comprehension questions. The itinerary lists pre-reading questions and post reading questions, they also sort these by grade level making it simple to adapt to your child's age. Questions such as "how can you show love to people around you" were a great followup to this cute story from Eric Carle.

The art activity in this month's Kids Night In Box was decorating a "magic" heart to create an ornament to gift to someone you care about. My oldest decided to make his for our neighbor (a little girl who is close to him in age). Teaching my kids the importance of telling the people close to you that you love them or appreciate them is something I want them to always remember.

I think their favorite activity though was making the DIY bird feeder. This is where the gelatine and heart cookie cutter came in handy! The gelatine mixture held the bird seeds in place, and made it easy to press into the heart shape and attach a string. Once cooled and hardened, the heart can be popped out of the cutter and hung outside for birds to enjoy. Nature note: cardinals LOVE sunflower seeds, so the bird seed that came in the box was perfect! We hung it from a tree outside the window so we can't wait to see if any birds stop by for a snack!

Because this month's theme also talked about heart health, we had a lot of fun using the included jump rope. Our 5 year old wasn't too great at it, but we all got a ton of exercise with it. The itinerary does include a few games that can be played with the jump rope, including a math game, that can be done with 2 or 3 people. These can easily be adapted for age appropriateness. After we were done jump roping, the baked apple chips was the perfect snack for a pick me up. There was also a cup to decorate, but we did this activity separately.

I'd love for you to get involved and try out the March box, I think you and your kids will enjoy it and the space theme just sounds so cool! You have until the 13th to get yours in time, so click my affiliate link here: Mission Space.

*This post does contain affiliate links. I do make commission when any purchases are made using these links.