Easter Egg Lunch

Boy, did my kids love this! Easy and fun (isn't that such a great combination?!?!)

You'll need: plastic easter eggs (I used large and small), an egg carton (optional), and lunch/snack items.

Fill and enjoy!!! There was giggling, suprised laughter, and a whole lot of happy faces at our house.

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Easy St. Patrick's Day (or any day!) snack or lunch:

Fruity Rainbows!

You'll need one type of fruit for each color of the rainbow, plus whipped cream for the puffy clouds!

I cut the fruit to make them lay flat easier. Sort into muffin tins and let the kids make their own! Fun and nutritious! (Well, minus the clouds). :)

Enjoy!

Under the Sea snack

Another Ocean idea! A cute snack that's fun to make, and even more fun to eat!

Jello Aquarium:

*You'll need blue jello and gummy fish candy.

*Make jello according to package. After 1-2 hours, as jello is just starting to solidify, add gummy fish/worms.

*Allow to finish hardening in refrigerator.

Yogurt Ocean:

*Nilla wafers (or any sandy colored cookie), white yogurt (vanilla, plain, etc) or blue yogurt, blue food coloring, gummy fish.

*Crush cookies (I used a rolling pin and a sandwich bag)

*Dump/spoon on bottom.

*Color yogurt blue if necessary.

*Spoon yogurt in cup.

*Add gummy fish.

Enjoy!

Fire Truck Cookies

October is National Fire Prevention month, so we decided to learn about fire safety, fire fighters, and all the extras that go along with it! For our yummy craft, we made fire engine cookies.Here's what you need:

• graham crackers
• red icing (or white icing and red food coloring. Gel works best for the red color, otherwise it ends up looking somewhat pink)
• mini oreos
• pretzel sticks
• gum drops or mini marshmallows
  

Step 1: Spread icing all over a graham cracker.


Step 2: Using 2 whole and 2 broken pretzels, make a ladder.
Step 3: Using oreos, add wheels
Step 4: Add marshmallow or gum drop for siren
Step 5: If you want, break up a graham cracker to make a window for the front of the truck.
Get creative...you can even use Pull-N-Peel Twizzlers for the hose. My daughter wanted a firefighter and all I had were some Teddy Grahams. He worked well...we just stuck a little icing on him and "glued" him in the window.

It was a little tricky for my 20 month old, but it was fun nonetheless. And yes, I had a very hard time getting the icing off her face, due to my overuse of red gel. FYI- a little goes a long way. Ooops.

Miniature Candy-ish Apples

I call them candy-ish since they aren't dipped in caramel or that red sticky stuff. But they are mini and they are FUN! Here's what you need:

• Apples (whatever kind you like)
• Melon baller/scoop
• Toothpicks
• Dipping choices (peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, chocolate, etc)
• Sprinkles

Here's what you do:

1. After washing your apples, scoop the apples with the melon baller and stick a toothpick in the tops, so you can see the skin.
2. While you are scooping, in small bowls, melt the chocolate, peanut butter, etc so it's at a good dipping consistency.
3. Pour sprinkles on a separate plate.
4. Holding the apples by the toothpick, let your kiddos dip the apples in the gooey yumminess and then in the sprinkles.
5. Eat!!!! The favorite here was peanut butter!
   As you can see, she did not enjoy this at all. If you try this, what did your munchkin(s) like for dipping the most? You could also crunch up cereal or nuts instead of sprinkles!

A New Way to Make S'Mores!!!

I found the cutest activity in Disney's Family Fun Magazine (April 2008)! It's so hot here today...and it's supposed to get worse as the week goes on. I've been waiting for a way-too-hot spell to try it, and this is the week!

S'mores are probably my favorite summer treat, with or without the campfire. I make them in the oven, you can grill 'em, but this new way is completely safe for the munchkins. Introducing....

SOLAR S'MORES!
Here's what you'll need:

• Pizza Box
• Pencil and ruler
• Craft Knife
• Aluminum Foil
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Black Construction Paper
• Clear plastic packing tape
• Clear plastic (like sheet protectors, laminating paper, etc)
• Graham Crackers, chocolate bars, marshmallows
• Stick or dowel

Next:

1. Adults: On the top of the pizza box, draw a square that is an inch smaller than the lid all the way around. Use the craft knife to cut through the cardboard along three sides, as shown, and then fold the cardboard up along the uncut line to form a flap.

1. Kids can help: Glue aluminum foil, shiny side out, to the bottom of the flap, keeping it as wrinkle free as you can.
2. Glue another piece of foil to the inside bottom of the box and then tape black paper on the top of the foil.
3. Tape clear plastic to the underside of the lid to seal the opening created by the flap. For the best results, the seal should be as airtight as possible.
4. Place your "oven" outdoors in direct sunlight with the flap opened toward the sum, For each s'more, center two graham crackers on the construction paper. Top one with chocolate and the other with a marshmallow. Close the box and then use a stick or dowel to prop the flap open at the angle that reflects the most sunlight into the box (check periodically to adjust the angle). Within an hour (or sooner if it's a really hot day), the chocolate squares and marshmallows should melt enough to assemble into s'mores.

If you try it, let me know how it goes. It's also a good excuse to order out pizza for dinner. :)

July 4th: Books, craft, and snack

We started learning about the flag by reading two books: The Starry, Stripy Blanket and The Star-Spangled Banner. We talked about how many stars and stripes are found on the flag, what the flag used to look like, and a little about the history of the flag.

Next, I gave my daughter a rectangular pieces of white paper, 7 red stripes, a glue bottle, and a smaller blue rectangle. I taught her how to use the glue bottle to put small dots of glue rather than squeezing hard to make large blobs. She did a great job! My 1 year old used a glue stick instead. After gluing down the stripes, she glued on the blue rectangle and a few silver stars. You could use white paint and a cotton swab, star stickers, or for my 1 year old, I just left it blank.

To finish it off, we made a somewhat healthy snack. I cut strawberries up into matchsticks, covered a graham cracker with cream cheese. As you can see, the blue is made of blueberries. If you don't have that, use what's around, like white icing, Twizzlers, jelly beans, sprinkles, Skittles.

Yum! Happy Fourth of July!! Have a great weekend!

Ladybug Strawberry

These cute girls in my neighborhood made some little books for my kids. One of them was a book about ladybugs, and included in it was some instructions on how t o make this strawberry ladybug treat!

SUPPLIES/INGREDIENTS

• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Mini chocolate chips
• Toothpicks
• String licorice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash strawberries and blueberries
2. Remove stem and leaves from strawberries
3. Push a toothpick into the top of the strawberry, leaving about half an inch sticking out.
4. Press a blueberry onto the toothpick. This is the head.
5. Push the pointed ends of the chocolate chips into the strawberry for spots.
6. Push six small pieces of licorice into the strawberry for legs.

Now you have some yummy treats to talk about insects!

Mmmm...Spinach!

As many of you may have guessed, one of my favorite things to do is cook with my daughters. I love it, and so do they!
Today we made lunch together. Both loved it, and spinach was part of the process! No scrunched up noses, picking leaves out, or refusals. Success!

(I wanted to take a picture, but I needed both hands to directing the slopping of pizza sauce and cheese.)

Twirly Whirly Pizzas (from Parents magazine)-- These pizzas end up looking like little cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients: pizza dough (homemade or refrigerated), pizza sauce (or marinara or leftover spaghetti sauce), fresh spinach leaves, mozzerella cheese (or whatever you have in the pantry).

Steps:

• Roll out the dough into a large rectangle on a floured surface. Hard to make a mistake, so you can let your munchkin help.
• Spread sauce over the dough.
• Top with cheese.
• Top with spinach.
• From the short side, roll into a tube shape.
• Cut into 8 pieces and put in a greased pie pan. Top with more cheese.
• Cook on 400 for 20-22 minutes.

If you want to see a picture of what it'll look like, click here.

This is a great way to get your kids involved in cooking and trying new foods. My daughter, apparently frightened by anything green these days, was eating raw spinach leaves as we cooked.

Nutter Butter Snow Man

My mother-in-law randomly gave us some Nutter Butter cookies. As I looked at them, I thought, "snowman!" So we took our best shot at creating a snowman out of our Nutter Butters. I think they kind of ended up looking more like ghosts than snowmen...but we had fun and the kids enjoyed eating them.

AGE RANGE
Old enough to be able to decorate the snowman. Kaitlyn is 2.5 and spread the frosting and decorated herself. If your child is too young for spreading frosting, you could spread for her and let her decorate.

SUPPLIES

• Nutter Butter cookies
• Chocolate chips or other candy for eyes and buttons (like raisins--thanks Kristy!)
• Pretzels, Tootsie rolls, or some other candy for the arms
• White frosting
• Knife for spreading frosting

ACTIVITY

1. Spread or have your child spread frosting on the Nutter Butter.
2. Decorate as desired.
3. Eat!