Monster cookies and swimming & singing with cows

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated white sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup M&M's plain chocolate candies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray, or line with parchment paper or a silpat mats.
2. In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter with the sugars and butter. Use an electric mixer to mix until well combined. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the oats and baking soda. Then stir in the chips and M&M's.
3. Drop the cookies by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. If you'd like your cookies to look pretty (like the photo), dot a few extra M&M's and chocolate chips on each mound of dough before baking.
4. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheets until cookies are set. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Tomorrow is our big trip to the KC Zoo. Admission is $2, train rides are $2 and hotdogs are $2. This afternoon we baked "monster cookies" to take with us. We will buy hotdogs for our lunch, but are taking our own cookies, fruit, chips, pudding/jellos, and bottles of water. Our water bottles we will refill and add drink mix. (By the way, wylers mix for water bottles are only $1 a box at walgreens, as compared to $2.50 at the grocery store. Often they have coupons out so that you can get them for free. There are 8 in the box.) Each of us will have a back pack with our nonperishable foods and the kids are taking their animal notebooks.

When we return from the zoo, we are planning on making homemade ice cream and we will have a "fishing tournament" in the back pond. Last year the tournament turned into the kids against JD and I.

If you missed an older post about our animal notebooks.....part of our homeschooling is animal notebooks. (This counts as part of our science.) Each girl has a binder that we add a animal to weekly. They file the animal in their books under the proper classification (books are broken down by mammal, insects, rodents). We will be taking pictures and gathering facts about animals we don't have, and adding info to animals we do have.

This evening the girls went swimming in the small front pond while JD cooked on the grill. For awhile the cows joined them, and the girls sang to the cows. Needless to say, the cows didn't stick around too long. After supper we had a snack of monster cookies (to make sure they were really good enough to take with us tomorrow...) and shattoo chocolate and strawberry milk. Yum Yum.