From The Land of Pleasant Living

Gingerbread House Cookies

2011-12-09T10:18:00.001-05:00

Continuing on our Gingerbread Mania theme, we made some gingerbread house cookies! I always make gingerbread men to hang on our Christmas tree, but this year I saw a cute idea to make some shaped like little houses! Perfect for my gingerbread house lovin' little boy! So, while the kids were at school, I got busy mixin', chillin', rollin', and bakin'!

Cookies waiting to be decorated!

When the kids got home from school, I invited them to decorate their own little tray of cookies. I always use royal icing to decorate my gingerbread cookies because it dries up nice and hard, not runny like powdered sugar icing! I like to use cinnamon red hots for the eyes and buttons on my gingerbread men because I love the taste combination! So yummy! The kids had the best time rockin' out to some Christmas carols and decorating (and eating!) their gingerbread men and houses!

The finished gingerbread men--ready to hang on the tree! Someone went a little crazy with the icing and red hots! Spicy!

These houses are adorable and yummy!

These gingerbread houses were super easy to make--just roll the gingerbread dough into a rectangle, and cut into squares. Cut a few squares in half to make the roofs!

Paper Bag Gingerbread House

2011-12-07T11:24:00.001-05:00

The Pea has been gingerbread crazy since we went to a gingerbread house decorating party over the weekend! He tried unsuccessfully to make another gingerbread house out of paper. So, I came up with a version that I found over at good old FamilyFun! Yay! I love them!

I took a paper bag (no idea where it came from, I just found it squirreled away in a closet somewhere. Clearly, I had this purpose in mind at some point! ) and stuffed it about half-way full of crumpled newspaper. That was probably the Pea's favorite part of this activity! Then I stapled the top shut and voila! Instant gingerbread house!

We used white address labels and color coding dots to decorate the house. (The Pea was really, really nice and let me decorate the back of the house! I needed to get my craft on and he is so accommodating !) Can I tell you how excited I was to discover that I could use my funky craft scissors to cut a large address label and make a scalloped edge to look like real gingerbread frosting?? And I love the way the Pea drew Santa and his sleigh with Rudolph on the roof! He's also got a lift-the-flap door on the side. You can see a gingerbread man under there! And he's written "Welcome" on another address sticker to hold it all together!

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

2011-11-18T08:05:00.001-05:00

At our house, we love, love, love Melissa & Doug toys! We love that they don't use batteries and encourage our kids to use their imagination when they play! I love that Melissa & Doug make toys for every age and that they are solid, quality toys that last forever! Some of the ones we own will definitely be heirloom toys! I am excited to be able to offer my readers a special coupon from Melissa & Doug, just in time for some holiday shopping!

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Don't delay, this is a limited time offer! Enjoy your shopping!

Not So Spooky Halloween Squishy Bag

2011-10-17T14:14:00.002-04:00

I jazzed up the old bloggity-blog with a new look from Blogger. Hope you like it!

Today I was at the Dollar Store and actually remembered to buy the hair gel I'd need to make a squishy bag for the Pea. We'd seen one in his old preschool classroom when we were there to teach Sunday School.

Making the bag is simple. Take your gallon sized Ziploc bag and squeeze the entire bottle of hair gel into the bag. Add a few drops of food coloring (I chose neon green for my not so spooky Halloween version!) and glitter if you want. Add a few foamy stickers and eyeballs. Squeeze out the air bubble and seal up your bag. Voila! Instant squishy bag! But wait! If you want to make your bag extra durable and long lasting, reinforce the sides with duct tape or packaging tape. Helps keep the hair gel inside the bag where it belongs!

I'm sure the squishy bag is going to be a big hit!

Applesauce Muffins

2011-09-06T13:51:00.002-04:00

Today is rainy and after no school yesterday, feels like a rainy Monday! Plus, it was a very fragile beginning to the day since the Pea decided that school is not so awesome after all. Sniff! So, I decided to make my lovies some yummy muffins for their after school snack. I used the basic recipe for applesauce muffins from FamilyFun, but I added some granola to the tops of a few muffins for a 'crunchy' topping.

I broke out the "You are Special Today" plate again because someone really needs it!

Plus, with my aha! revolution, I saved a few for breakfast tomorrow, but put the rest in the freezer to pull out later! No more rotten muffins! Yay! It's the little things...

Back to School Treats

2011-09-01T14:14:00.001-04:00

When I saw these adorable and yummy cupcakes over at Family Fun, I just knew that they would be perfect for the first day of school. The Princess and the Pea loved finding these on the counter after their first day! (The first, first day of school was cancelled due to power outages from Hurricane Irene!) The 'blackboard' is a chocolate covered graham cracker (made by elves!), the 'apple' is a Skittle with a squidge of green frosting and the 'chalk' is a white Good n' Plenty! So cute!

I even had a brilliant Aha! moment when I decided to freeze the leftover cupcakes to make fresh cupcakes next week! I know, right?

School Lunch Planner

2011-08-29T17:45:00.001-04:00

This year, with two kids in school, I'm planning on having the kids make their own lunches. In addition to lunch, each kid also needs a nut-free snack as well (one has the earliest lunch and the other has the latest lunch, go figure!). That's a lot of lunch packing!

After the first go at solo lunch making, I noticed that neither kid had chosen any fresh fruit or veg. Surprise! They did go totally nuts with all the pre-packaged items we stocked up on at the grocery store, though! So, I came up with a simple chart for them to use when making their lunch/snack.

To use the chart, they just need to pick one item from each column and they are done! I tried to limit the selections to food items that we normally have on hand. I found that I didn't have very many choices for dessert so I did add Jell-o and pudding which are actually not usually present in our house. However, we do usually have a ton of homemade baked goods that they could choose instead! I also didn't include drink choices because they just use water bottles.

The School Lunch Planner is here for you to download if you'd like!

Backwards Day

2011-06-24T10:31:00.000-04:00

Way back in February, when it was still cold and snowy, I was hoping for just one more school closure so that we could have a 'Backwards Day.' Alas, it never came--and thank goodness, because school lasted long enough! Nevermind, we just added 'Backwards Day' to our Summer To-Do List! The kids were so excited by this idea that we decided to do it to celebrate the first day of summer vacation. I didn't take any pictures, but here's the run-down of what we did. (Not surprisingly, it focuses mainly on food!)

First, we woke up, turned on a movie and ate ice-cream! I think this was the highlight of the day! The Princess scarfed hers, but the Pea sensibly, just stirred it around his dish and put it down on the table and watched it melt. I drank coffee. Then, we had steak, mushrooms and potatoes for dinner! I know! At 8:30 in the morning! Yum! We had grand intentions of staying in our pajamas all day, but we needed to run out and do some errands for another event I'll tell you about tomorrow! So, then we showered, ran our errands and had lunch out at a restaurant. After some more playing and reading and just mucking about around the house, we had donuts, cocoa puffs and sausage for breakfast. The Princess did say that at the end of the day she was going to put on her clothes and go to bed, but we just settled for regular pjs! It was a super fun day and I think we'll probably do it again sometime and add more 'backwards' stuff to our day!

Teacher Gift

2011-06-22T12:24:00.000-04:00

Today was (finally!) the last day of school in our district! The Princess and I made up about a dozen of these reusable drink cups for her teachers. (She had three main teachers this year, plus we made some up for the specials teachers, the G/T teacher, the guidance counselor and the bus driver, too! Next year, I'm gonna have to cheap out since the Pea will be at her school and together they will have about 20 different teachers! Sheesh!) I found the cups at Walgreens for three dollars and filled each one with Lipton Cold Brew Mixed Berries Iced Tea bags (Insanely Delicious, I might add!) and Dove Moments chocolates. Yum! I hope the teachers enjoy their summer!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go embarrass my daughter at the bus stop by bringing her a smiley face balloon!

Play-dohscapes

2011-06-21T08:31:00.000-04:00

While I was chatting on the phone to BFF, the kids were busy crafting away in the kitchen--unattended! I had been telling BFF that the kids seemed to be in an independent phase (?) in their crafts. Usually, they want to color or invent things on their own. The Pea will usually still want to do Mommy-directed crafts most of the time, but he does often get out art supplies and make something on his own. The Princess is definitely independent. She will usually listen to my directions and then ask to make something else that she wants to do. Anyway, here is what they came up with all on their own!

Aren't they great? I call them Play-dohscapes! I'll let you guess whose is whose! They've used little lumps of play-doh to stick the beach umbrellas in and decorated with drawings (it's hard to see, but on the Pea's beach scene, there's a shark swimming in the water!), stickers and Polly Pockets!

Rainbow Fruit Salad

2011-03-16T11:42:00.000-04:00

I saw this over at Sisters Stuff and made it when the Princess had a friend over to play! The girls literally ate it up! Especially the Princess's friend was tickled with this salad! I used all the fruits that the Princess can eat without any OAS problems: strawberries, oranges, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries and purple grapes. I used marshmallows for the clouds --surprise! They were the Princess's favorite! And bananas are in the little pot of gold! The girls picked out their favorites and when the Pea got home, he gobbled up the rest!

Yum-O!

Pi Day

2011-03-14T20:06:00.000-04:00

March 14th is Pi Day--3.14, get it? I first learned about Pi Day when I taught middle school, but I could never think of a way to incorporate it into my Spanish class. (Learning the Spanish word for circle seemed kind of lame.) Now I can celebrate it in earnest. The kids and I have celebrated Pi Day for the past two years. To see what we did last year, click here!

We had pizza pie for dinner!

Not quite a circle, but it was fun!

We went on a circle hunt like we did last year, but this time I gave the kids my iPod and let them do the hunt on their own!

The puppy's tennis ball!

Dad's tire!

The top of a solar walkway light!

We had pudding pie for dessert--no pictures because we ate it all!

I talked with the Princess about how no matter how big or small a circle is the circumference divided by the diameter would always give you the same number--3.14! She seemed really impressed and asked me if it were true for just about every circle in the kitchen! Yup! Yup! Yup! Then the Ruler said it should be 'self-evident.' Killjoy.

Cheesy Orzo

2011-03-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

We are big fans of orzo pasta here in our house. Every time I serve it, the kids think it's rice and I have to remind them it's actually pasta. Normally, I just cook it in some broth and add some parmesan cheese, but I found a fantastic recipe over at Weelicious for Orzo With Carrots and Broccoli. I didn't have quite enough orzo to make the full recipe, so I wound up using a combination of pastina and orzo. I think, technically, it might be baby food, but my kids devoured it and asked for more! Plus, I got to sneak some vegetables into the Princess's diet! This recipe was so good that she actually asked to have some in her thermos for lunch at school the next day. Now if that isn't the stamp of approval, I don't know what is!

Green Eggs and Ham

2011-03-02T07:07:00.000-05:00

Monday Meal Plan

2011-02-28T14:34:00.001-05:00

Monday: chicken korma in the crockpot ( thanks to steph at crockpot365)
Tuesday: chicken chili
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: spaghetti dinner at the princess's school
Friday: homemade Stromboli/pizza roll up Thimbu
Saturday: fish and fruited couscous

Winter White Snack Mix

2011-02-25T11:04:00.000-05:00

I should have fixed this snack for my kids on Tuesday when we had a snow day, but better late than never, right?

The Pea is having another friend over today (lucky boy! But, seriously, since I'm confined to the upstairs on peepee patrol with the puppy, it works out better for everyone if he can have a friend over to play with! And, the puppy can get to meet more children and we can practice training him!), so I thought I'd set this snack mix out with a little recipe card so the boys can fix their own snack! Fun!

I set out a few different white foods we had: marshmallows, white chocolate chips, Frosted Cheerios and popcorn. I was hoping we had some yogurt covered pretzels left, but, alas, someone ate them all!

I love using my little dish from Crate and Barrel for snacks like this! It makes clean up so easy! This guy also makes an appearance on Taco Night!

Here's the recipe card. I used a little "scoop icon" and words. I think I'll add some little pictures, too. The Pea's friend can already read, so it won't be a problem for him, but I want to give my little guy a feeling of success, too!

Invention Kit

2011-02-24T15:19:00.001-05:00

Today the Pea had a little friend over and it was time to break out the invention kit! I'd been saving lids, yogurt cups, bubble wrap, egg cartons, tomato cases and all sorts of goodies for about a month. For a more complete look at what you can put in an invention kit, look at Valerie's post!

The boys had a great time designing, glueing and sticking. Here's what they came up with:

This one is a robot! The Pea's friend used a tomato case for the body, some paint samples for the arms/wings, lids for the eyes and nose. Pudding cups are the feet. The hair and tongue are foam shapes and the mouth are the inserts of the puppy's poo bags!

The Pea made a ship! It's a drink holder with green bubble wrap for special landing gear. In the center is the much coveted pop-up lid from a bag of wipes I had. There is also an empty sprinkle container, lid to a Pam spray, a parmesan cheese lid, a bottle cap and a jam jar lid! Phew! He was in more of a stick it on mood I guess!

My problem is how to get the boys to glue these things themselves. I like the instant-ness of the hot glue gun, but obviously five year olds can't work a hot glue gun. Regular glue sticks and white glue just aren't sturdy enough. The Pea had a go with tape, but that didn't work so well. Any suggestions?

Faux Mulled Cider

2011-02-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

Today we had another five inches of snow resulting in yet another snow day! Yay! The kids had fun sledding, making snow angels, playing on the swingset and playing with their new puppy...in the snow!!! Too much fun!

For a twist on a hot beverage when they were done playing outside, I made them Valentine's Punch from my Mix and Fix Cookbook from circa 1979!

Here's the recipe--it's so easy, kids can do it themselves!

Heat 2 Cups Apple Juice, 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon Red Hots and 1 Teaspoon lemon juice over low heat until the Red Hots melt. Pour into mugs and enjoy!

This drink was so yummy and a nice change from hot chocolate. It tasted just like mulled cider without all the work or finding the supplies when it's not in season!

President's Day Activities

2011-02-21T08:20:00.000-05:00

President's Day is one of our favorite holidays! Not! The Pea was overly excited about the prospect of a holiday because he equates 'holiday' with 'gift'. Unfortunately, I had to burst his bubble and inform him that President's Day is not a gift-giving or gift-getting holiday. Now President's Day is about as exciting as Groundhog Day. Woo-hoo!

But! That did not stop me from sneaking in some educational activities.

First! We built Lincoln Log Cabins! Get it--Lincoln Log Cabins???? Har! I slay myself! Anyway, I did my best to fill their little heads with the mularkey that says Lincoln grew up in a log cabin and studied by firelight!

Then! We did some penny patterns!

I let the Pea make up his own pattern with these, since that seems to be the objective at preschool these days. He said, "Hmmmmm.....how am I going to do this?" I used Wait Time to see if he'd come up with an idea on his own and sure enough, he did! He chose shiny/old as his pattern. He's super good at constructing and AB pattern. But, I wanted to challenge him a bit so I made an ABBA pattern with heads and tails and asked him if he could continue the pattern. I had to guide him a bit to figure out the pattern. But this was good because we talked about who is on the penny and what is on the back and where is it! We talked about how the penny has two sides, heads and tails (or obverse and reverse for the numismatists out there!) Then we got distracted because the puppy escaped into the family room!

Next, we had a musical interlude!

He is using screwdrivers to play the drum because, shocking!, he couldn't find his drumsticks!

We watched a cool video that explains how money is made!

Finally, the Ruler made us silver dollar pancakes!

All in all, a fun President's Day! Who needs presents when you get all of this???

Chapter Books

2011-02-17T10:53:00.000-05:00

We've started a new bedtime tradition at our house--reading chapter books together! Every night before bed, the kids and I get together and snuggle up with one chapter from our current book. The kids get to take turns 'hosting' the read-aloud in their bedroom. Each time we select a new book, we change bedrooms.

So far, we've read The Chalkbox Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla and The Littles by John Peterson. We are currently reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. The first two were really short, quick books to read; Charlotte's Web is much longer and more complicated, but it's a great opportunity to introduce longer books to the Pea and talk about some advanced vocabulary words (actually, Charlotte does most of the explaining and that's pretty neat!) and to discuss some topics that are pretty 'deep' --that part is coming up soon! I like to read all the animals parts in funny voices; I just love the way the goose and the gander talk! They crack crack crack me up! Plus, I'm pretty sure Charlotte's Web is on the 'Banned Books List,' so that's got me wondering why. It was one of my all-time favorite books when I was little!

After we finished The Chalkbox Kid, the kids wanted to make their own chalk gardens, so I let them color all over some leftover boxes from Christmas. They loved it! We didn't do anything for The Littles, though. When we finish Charlotte's Web, we are going to watch the Dakota Fanning version of the movie. The kids have seen the cartoon version, but I think they will really enjoy seeing the new version, too!

Surprise Playdough

2011-02-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

I had some leftover snow-white play dough that no one was interested in, so I turned it into Surprise Playdough! I divided the dough into four equal-ish portions and added a few drops of my neon food coloring. Then I rolled the dough into a little ball, being careful not to distribute the color.

Next, I called the Pea over and said, "I made you surprise play dough! Mush it all up and you'll get a surprise!" Boy, he went to town! The first one was blue; that was very exciting!

This was a great activity for building up all those tiny finger muscles he's gonna need next year in Kindergarten! We also talked about what 'kneading' meant--fold and push; fold and push!

Here's our finished playdough! Blue, green, purple and pink! We talked about how the purple and pink started out dark, but turned out lighter in the end. We talked about how red and white make pink and purple and white make lavender. But, blue was the best color, according to the Pea!

Monday Meal Plan

2011-02-14T16:20:00.001-05:00

Monday: Heart Shaped Pizza

Tuesday: Applesauce Chicken and Broccoli

Wednesday: Out

Thursday: Mahi Mahi and Rice

Friday: Steak, Mushrooms and Potatoes

Saturday: Red Beans and Rice

Valentine Sun Catcher

2011-02-13T16:50:00.000-05:00

We didn't really get around to making too many Valentine's decorations this year! I guess with all the excitement around getting a puppy, we just didn't have enough time! One good thing about hanging out in the kitchen all day and watching the puppy for signs of a forthcoming 'potty' is that you can get a lot of stuff done: laundry, ironing, rearranging cupboards, cleaning out the fridge, scrubbing trash cans....fun stuff! Oh, and making crafts! The Pea and I were able to steal a few minutes and made a suncatcher with some tissue paper and contact paper.

Here's what I did:

I drew a large heart on a piece of contact paper and peeled away the protective backing. Then I tucked the sticky sides under and stuck the edges to the kitchen counter. I figured that would prevent the Pea from sticking himself to the contact paper and resulting in disaster instead of craft! Then, I invited the Pea over to stick tissue paper squares all over the heart. When he was satisfied with his design, I put another piece of contact paper on top, smoothed it all out and cut out the heart shape. I used scotch tape to stick it to the patio door!

You could get fancy and punch a hole in it and loop piece of yarn through it to hang it properly, but I took the lazy way out. And since I spent about twenty minutes peeling all the pieces of double sided tape off the door leftover from our winter snowflakes, I was looking for an easier way to take down the heart later.

Chocolate Play Dough

2011-02-11T11:02:00.000-05:00

Christy at Superheroes and Princesses posted a recipe for chocolate playdough that looked like so much fun, so we made it too!

Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 Cups flour

1/2 Cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup salt

1/2 T cream of tartar

1 1/2 T cooking oil

1 Cup water

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Heat over low heat and stir until dough forms a ball. Remove from heat; turn out onto counter and knead until mixed thoroughly.

The recipe was a little bit difficult to work with--I really had to knead it at the end to get it to playdough consistency. Even then, it's a little bit stiffer than regular play dough. But, I figure that's good for developing all those fine motor control muscles! And it smells incredible! I was a little bit worried that the Pea would try to eat it, but I tasted it and it was incredibly salty! Blech!

I gave the Pea a rolling pin and a heart shaped cookie cutter to play bakery shop, and he played happily for a little while. But then, he said, "Mommy, this smells so good! I want to make real brownies!" So, we did!

Puppy Days

2011-02-10T07:19:00.000-05:00

It's me! I'm still here; I've just been a little busy lately! With this....

It's Caffrey*! Our new labradoodle puppy! He is eight weeks old and just the most adorable thing ever! He is just about the most laid-back dog ever. For the first few days, he didn't even make a sound! Except when we put him in his crate at night--but that doesn't even really count and it wasn't even really barking!

So, as you can imagine, Caffrey's been keeping me pretty busy with the walking, the peeing and the pooping. Man, that little guy is a poop machine! Luckily, the Ruler and I worked out a system. In fact, it's the same system we had when the kids were babies--they are his from 6 pm to 6 am! That means he gets to walk the dog in the dark and first thing in the morning. (Caffrey is a superdog and sleeps through the night!) But, it also means the Ruler gets the dog when he's at his snooziest! I swear, all that dog does is sleep from 6pm to 6am! I, on the other hand, feel like I'm doing all the heavy lifting with the daytime shift! In. Out. In. Out. Walk. In. Out. In. Wipe up Pee. Out. Scoop Poop. In. Out. In...Sheesh! It has cured me of my inability to sleep, though. I have slept GREAT! the past three days. Exhaustion. That's the ticket. So, get a dog if you are having trouble sleeping; I highly recommend it!

And, how have our dog crazy kids (The Princess has been on a daily campaign for getting a dog for about three years. Asking me, "So, why can't we get a dog?" every. single. day.) adapted to having the dog around?

I'd say they are doing just fine.

*Caffrey is named after Caffrey's Irish Ale, which matches our cat's name--Natty Boh, short for National Bohemian, a locally brewed 'beer'!

St. Brigid's Day

2011-02-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

Last year, I shared how we visited St. Brigid's Cathedral when we visited Ireland. Because we have our very own Brigid, we decided to celebrate St. Brigid's Day again this year! Fun Fact! Did you know that St. Brigid's Day marks the start of Celtic Spring? If only we had Spring-like temperatures here in Maryland!

St. Brigid, if you recall, in addition to being one of the patron saints of Ireland, is also patron saint of animals. Our Brigid also loves animals. This year we hung up some bird feeders so our little feathered friends could find a little extra food in all this snowy weather we've been having.

These birdfeeders were pretty simple to make. We mixed up some cheerios, sunflower seeds, bird food and shortening. Then we loaded it all up in a paper cup with a looped piece of yarn. We popped them in the freezer for a day or two. Then, we peeled off the cup and voila! A bird feeder for your feathered friends!

Here's our Brigid posing with some rocks she found! One of the bird feeders didn't quite hold together, so we just sat it on the up-turned birdbath!

I also made some Oaten Bread to try with our dinner. I'll be serving some colcannon--potatoes and cabbage--as well! And maybe even some meat for the meat eaters!

Monday Meal Plan

2011-02-01T08:27:00.000-05:00

So many things going on this week--besides the ice and snow! The first of February is St. Brigid's Day, and of course, we celebrate with our own little saint! Hopefully, this year I can make some oatcake, if not Colcannon as well! Read on to find out what other special meals we'll be eating this week! And, our newest family member will be joining us on Saturday! It's Caffrey, our new puppy! So things will be quite busy around here for a while!

Monday: Eat Out

Tuesday: St. Brigid's Day--Colcannon and Oatcake

Wednesday: Groundhog Day--Groundhog Meatballs

Thursday: Chinese New Year--Chinese Food

Friday: Pizza, maybe?

Saturday: Puppy Day--???

Sunday: Super Bowls of Chili!

Campover in Mom's Room

2011-01-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

One of our traditions while the Ruler is away on business is to have sleepovers in Mom's room. Now that the Pea is old enough to participate, we've planned a campover in Mom's room! We're going to set up our igloo tent, pack in the sleeping bags, pop a big bowl of popcorn and stay up late ('til 9:00pm at least!) watching movies! We're going to create some camping 'ambience' with the Naturesounds app on my iPod.

Although laying around and watching movies won't be too different from our daily routine around here lately, due to snow and illness, I'm still hoping that it will be a fun evening! And, best of all, I won't have to share my bed with a tiny bedhog!

Foods She Can Eat

2011-01-25T10:57:00.000-05:00

Since I've been feeling so down about the impact Oral Allergy Syndrome is having on our daily routine, I thought I'd post a list of the fruits and veg the Princess can eat in order to prove to myself that she can actually eat a lot of different things. So, here goes:

Berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
Citrus: oranges, clementines
Bananas
Dried Fruits (Humzingers have been a life saver!)
Canned Fruits: fruit cocktail, peaches, pears
Applesauce
Sweet Potatoes: fries, baked or mashed
Beans: green beans, black beans, kidney beans, cannelini beans
Potatoes: mashed, baked
Cooked Veg: carrots, corn, peas

That's a lot of food! But, there's one thing I can't get her to eat or even try--tomato! She absolutely hates any sort of pasta with sauce or lasagna. And that is a shame, because we are a pasta lovin' family!

Oatmeal Faces

2011-01-17T09:04:00.000-05:00

Breakfast is usually a difficult meal for the Pea and the Princess. So many breakfast cereals contain nuts and you can only eat Cheerios and Kix for so many days before you get bored of that. They are also not big egg fans, either. The Pea would eat pancakes every morning if I ~~were a nice mommy and had the energy to make them and clean up afterwards at 7am~~ let him. However, they love instant oatmeal! I like to make it with milk for a bit of a calcium kick.

This morning, I jazzed up the usual Raisins 'n Spice with a little fruity face! Another little sneaky way to get my Princess to eat a bit more fruit. She can eat raw citrus fruit, berries and bananas without having a reaction. I used bananas and blueberries for the eyes, a strawberry for the nose and some extra raisins for the mouth. The kids were totally amused by it and ate a fair bit!

Plus, they totally forgot about the Entenmann's donuts the Ruler left out on the counter!

Monday Meal Plan

2011-01-17T08:57:00.000-05:00

It seems I may be the only person on the planet to actually gain weight on the Yoplait yogurt diet. Oh well! On the plus side--In three and a half days, I will be in warm, sunny Florida! Can't wait!

Monday: Steak and Potatoes

Tuesday: Vegetarian Tamale Pie

Wednesday: Out!

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: Disney World!

French Toast with Caramelized Apples

2011-01-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I took the Princess to the allergist for what I thought would be one of her last visits. She had already outgrown her peanut allergy, so I was hopeful that we would get the good news that she had outgrown her cashew allergy as well. Alas, it was not to be. Not only is she as allergic, if not more allergic, than she was before, she is also allergic to tree pollen, grasses and dust mites! The allergist confirmed that she does indeed Pollen Food Allergy or Oral Allergy Syndrome--the proteins in raw fruits like peaches, cherries and apples mimic the tree pollens she is allergic to and produces and uncomfortable burning and stinging in her mouth. Disappointing, but we are thankful that this is all we have to deal with.

Anyway, I've decided to be a little more aggressive in cooking some fruits for my little Princess so she can still eat healthy foods! Cooking breaks down the proteins and she is able to tolerate fruit prepared in this way. So, this morning, I made Annabel Karmel's French Toast with Caramelized Apples.

I prepared the French Toast in the usual manner but topped it with peeled, cored and sliced apples that I sauteed in butter and sugar (just a little!). The Princess really enjoyed it! A little more time consuming in the morning, but worth it!

Monday Meal Plan

2011-01-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

Starting this week off with one very sick little boy and expecting a snowstorm tomorrow makes for an interesting beginning!

Monday: Lasagna and Salad

Tuesday: Pork Chops and Cheesy Orzo

Wednesday: Baked Potato and Toppings Bar

Thursday: Pasta and Meat Sauce

Friday: Chili and Rice

Upcycled Stabiles

2011-01-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

This morning the kids and I made some stabiles from our Christmas cards! They turned out pretty cool! And this activity was perfect for sticking to my New Year's Resolution of using up the craft supplies I have on hand!

First we went through all the cards we received and cut out the images that we liked. This was great cutting practice for the Pea! Then, I laid out a variety of craft supplies: toothpicks, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, glue and tape. The Ruler scrounged up some styrofoam for us to use as the base for our stabiles. Then I invited the kids over to design their stabiles. They spent about 45 minutes happily sticking, gluing and taping until their stabiles were just right! The Princess enjoyed being able to use the hot glue gun all by herself!

Here is the Princess's finished stabile. She was inspired by this cool card that had a 'see-through' window on it!

Here is the Pea's finished product. He went for a more eclectic look, but I think it looks great!

These will be great little centerpieces to look at when the house is 'empty' of holiday decorations!

New Year's Crafts

2010-12-30T12:04:00.000-05:00

I've decided to challenge myself in the upcoming year and make crafts with things that I already have on hand--so getting an early start, here's what we've made so far to decorate for our New Year's Eve party--

A New Year's Eve 'Ball'--The Princess cut out the center of a paper plate and painted it gold with purple squiggles. Then she sprinkled on sequins!

A New Year's Countdown Clock--Another paper plate with foamie number stickers. The hands are made from craft foam and fastened with a brad clip. I like this one because it will double as a manipulative for teaching the Pea how to tell time!

Finally, a New Year's poster. This one is my favorite. We got the idea from Christy over at Superheroes and Princesses, but we adapted it for the crafty things we had on hand! The Princess wrote the new year number with craft glue and sprinkled sequins over top. Then she decorated the paper with metallic markers.

Here's what we did last year for New Year's Eve!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-12-20T08:50:00.000-05:00

Monday: Eating Out!

Tuesday: Leftovers!

Wednesday: Ravioli

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: Christmas Eve Fondue!

Saturday: Christmas Dinner--Roast, Potatoes, Green Beans, BLT Salad Bites and Creme Brulee and Christmas Cookies for dessert!

Christmas Activities from Around the Web

2010-12-16T09:43:00.000-05:00

I've seen so many brilliant activities and crafts from around the Web lately; I thought I'd post some links here for my overseas readers and other non-commenters! (You know who you are!)

These gorgeous Ice wreaths will look beautiful in the backyard and will make a good excuse for going outside and getting some exercies!
Valerie from Frugal Family Fun Blog shows how to make simple but beautiful Candy Cane Ornaments from Model Magic.
Over at No Time for Flaschcards, there's instructions for making cute and simple Hole Punch Snowflakes that your little ones can make by themselves!
I'm definitely going to be making some of these Snowman Buttons for my friends and neighbors!
These Birdseed Cakes that Amy from Let's Explore! are just adorable and easy.
Christy from Superheroes and Princesses shows how to make Snowman Soup, the perfect gift for the Pea and the Princess's little friends!

Have fun! I know we will!

Santa Lucia Doll

2010-12-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

As usual, I've decided to scrap/rearrange my plans for the Brownie meeting at the last minute! I decided to add a few 'non-Christmasy' things to my Kim's game and then when the girls do their mini-research project, they will discover that those items are actually Christmas-related items from other countries! Ta-da! I only wish my moments of epiphany would come closer to the original planning date, not the presenting date. But, I digress....

I made a super-cute and super-simple Santa Lucia doll from some pipe cleaners and beads. She is wearing an oh-so-fashionable dress made of coffee filters and belted with a red pipe cleaner! On her head, she has a green pipe cleaner wreath and silver candles! Tres chic!

Christmas Cookies

2010-12-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yum! Yum! Yum! Sugar Cookie Cutouts, Spritz, Gingerbread Men (and Women and Children) and Elephant Ears (Palmiers)! Not pictured are the Creme de Menthe Brownies and Raisin Bars.

Christmas Around the World

2010-12-14T10:13:00.004-05:00

On Thursday I'm leading my daughter's Brownie troop in a Christmas Around the World lesson. There is a ton of information out there about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries. I'm going to try and narrow our study to St. Nicholas Day (December 6th) , Santa Lucia Day (December 12th) and Three King's Day (January 6th). We are going to make Christmas Crackers (England), read The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola (Mexico, and Southwestern USA), play Kim's game with various Christmas objects (England, again), do a mini-research project on Christmas in a few different countries and if time allows, play Guess the Christmas Carol.

Making the cracker was simple! I collected a ton of toilet paper tubes for this craft. First cut a 10"X13" rectangle of Christmas wrapping paper. Place the toilet paper tube in the center of the paper and mark the edges. Also mark out about one inch from each end of the tube. Fold on the second marks. Fringe with scissors. Wrap up the tube and secure with double sided tape. Tie with curling ribbon where the fringes have made slits. The girls will fill their crackers with erasers, a mini candy cane and, of course, a silly joke!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-12-14T07:21:00.004-05:00

Monday: Flacco Tacos and Mexican Ray Rice (made to support our team!)
Tuesday: Pork Chops, Stuffing, Green Beans and Applesauce
Wednesday: Out!
Thursday: Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
Friday: Pizza

Easy Peasy Xmas Tree

2010-12-09T15:49:00.001-05:00

Here's another cute Christmas craft we stole from Valerie's site!

The Pea and I worked together to create our tree from green cardstock and color-coding stickers. (The tiny ones are from England! Thanks, BFF!) He did the big dots; I did the small ones. It was his idea to stick the small dots inside the big dots. I think it turned out great!
I predict the Princess will want to make her own when she returns from school!

Christmas Tree Mural

2010-12-07T15:05:00.001-05:00

When the Pea saw the tree on Valerie's front door, he demanded that we make one, too! Only ours had to be a gigantic Christmas tree!

I drew the outline of a Christmas tree on the brown paper that our poinsettias came wrapped in. Then I turned the Pea loose to decorate the tree! First we had to color it in green--that used up a lot of markers! Then he decorated with Transformer stickers, color coding labels and foamy stickers. By that time, the Princess had finished her homework and was ready to help decorate the tree. It was all going really well until I took a bathroom break and the kids decided to get out the glitter and sequins, oh my gosh, by themselves!

The kids really had fun doing this together and it was a great opportunity to practice our 'flexible thinking' skills!

We hung the tree on our back door so we can enjoy looking at it! And now that it is FREEZING here in Maryland, we can even add some paper snowflakes around our tree!

Sorry for the poor quality photo; I guess I need a greyer day to get a good shot!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-12-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

Monday: Eating out at Church

Tuesday: Lasagna (still leftover from the Ruler's Insane Lasagna--but it's been frozen!)

Wednesday: Pork Chops

Thursday: Ravioli

Friday: Pizza

Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-01T07:26:00.000-05:00

We made our gingerbread houses over Thanksgiving weekend. This year I bought a pre-assembled kit from Walmart, mainly because I was at that store and hadn't bought them from Michael's like I usually do. And I thought, "Oh, pre-assembled! That will save time!" Wrong!

Later, I realized that the decorations were only red and green, so I had to buy extra candy. Actually, I let the kids pick out what they wanted, so that resulted in some unusual gingerbread houses (see below)! The other problem I had with this kit was that although the frosting was premixed, there wasn't enough of it and it didn't dry nice like the stuff that comes in the box from Michael's. Both kits are made by Wilton, but the one from Walmart is definitely cheap-o!

Anyway, here is the Princess's finished house!

Too cute, right? Check out that Christmas tree she made on the side there, complete with a yellow star on top. In the background, you can see the evil, cheap box you should avoid at all costs at Walmart! Get thee to Michael's and fire up that glue gun!

And here is the Pea's house! I LOVE the circus peanuts! He also let his mom decorate the front of the house, bless him, because she was all sad that she didn't get herself a house to decorate! He's so sweet!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-11-29T12:01:00.001-05:00

Sick of turkey? We are!

Monday: Steak and potatoes

Tuesday: Chicken and rice

Wednesday: Lasagna

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: Out

Speedy Home-made Ice Cream

2010-11-28T13:10:00.001-05:00

The Princess wasn't feeling too well today and had to miss Sunday School. That was a total bummer in her book because this week's rotation was cooking. I promised her we'd make something together when I got back from Church. She chose home-made ice cream!

Here's what you do:

Combine 1 Cup heavy whipping cream, 1/4 C sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in a small Ziploc bag. Squeeze out all the air as you seal the bag. In a large Ziploc bag, combine 4 Cups crushed ice and 3/4 Cup salt. Place sealed bag with cream mixture in the icey bag and seal. Place in another large Ziploc bag and seal. Shake and knead the bags for 5 to 7 minutes ...

...and voila! You have quick, speedy ice cream!

Here's the science behind this one (as explained by the Ruler, because I cocked this one up!):

The salt converts the ice into water. In order to do that so quickly, the ice has to suck up the heat from the cream mixture which then turns into ice cream. And why does it turn into delicious, creamy ice cream and not a chunk of ice? Because you are shaking the bag!

For more fun science experiments, head on over to Adventures in Mommydom!

Red Light Challenge

2010-11-24T13:39:00.001-05:00

Clearly, the Princess and I have been watching way too much Cash Cab lately. Today at a stoplight, I was looking through my junk 'drawer' in the van and I found some new makeup I'd bought but hadn't taken in the house yet. The Princess saw it and yelled, "Red Light Challenge! Put some on!" What the?

Anyway, that got me thinking about a new car game to play--

Red Light Challenge!

Here's how you play:

Whenever you come to a stoplight, call out, "Red Light Challenge!" Then, ask your kids to do one of the following challenges:

Count to 100 by 5's, 10's or 2's;
Say the alphabet backwards;
Count as high as you can before the light turns green;
Name as many states as you can that start with 'M';
List as many plants as you can;
Name the planets in the solar system;
Explain how to make Jell-O;
Name as many nursery rhymes as you can.

The possibilities are endless! Happy driving!

Homemade Pretzels

2010-11-21T14:19:00.000-05:00

The Ruler made homemade soft-shell pretzels as a treat for the kids! Well, he may have broken our stove in the process, but at least we had some way-yummy pretzels in the meantime!

Rolling out the dough is fun!

Pretzels shaped and ready to be boiled!

Salt pretzels after they came out of the oven. He made two kindsof pretzels--cinnamon sugar and salt. Yum-O!

Pretzels are so yummy fresh from the oven!

The Coolest Sink or Float Experiment Ever!

2010-11-17T15:18:00.000-05:00

When I saw this experiment over at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom, I just knew I had to try it with the Pea! It was a HUGE hit!

After we checked to see if cranberries float or sink, I told the Pea we were going to make some tin foil boats to see how many cranberries it would take to sink them.

First, the Pea made a small boat out of tin foil. After he sank that one with about 20 cranberries, he requested to do the experiment again and again!

The last boat he made held an entire 12 ounce package of cranberries! Amazing! This experiment was a bit sneaky, too, because not only were we building boats and getting wet, we were also practicing counting and one-to-one correspondence! Gotta love those sneaky activities!

The Pea also enjoyed using my little strainer to scoop up the cranberries!

And I used the 'leftover' cranberries to make some cranberry sauce to go with dinner! Yum-O!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-11-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

Gonna try doing some batch cooking this week, namely my FIL's incredibly awesome meat sauce, to stock up the freezer with some winter staples!

Monday: Leftover Insane Lasagna!

Tuesday: Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Wednesday: Pork Chops and Stuffing
Thursday: Steak, Sweet Potato Fries and Mushrooms

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Out

Water and Polymer Experiment

2010-11-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

We did the "Leak-Proof Bag" experiment from the Steve Spangler science site. The kids were totally amazed by this experiment and not just because they got to use the electric pencil sharpener!

Here's what you do:

Sharpen three or four pencils. Fill a plastic bag half-way with water. Seal the bag. Gently push the sharpened pencils through the bag and out the other side--don't push the pencil all the way out or you will have a mess! Be amazed with the leak-proof bag!

What happens is that the bag is made of long strands of polymers. The pencils slip between the strands and the bag "seals" around the pencils, preventing leakage!

I'm linking this post up to Science Sunday over at Adventures in Mommydom.

Yogurt Tarts

2010-11-13T15:46:00.000-05:00

The Princess was so proud that she made these tartlets all by herself!

Here's what you do:

Mix equal parts yogurt and whipped topping. Spoon into pie shells. (She used pre-made pie crust cut with a biscuit cutter and pressed into a mini-muffin pan.) Decorate with sprinkles, marshmallows, jellybeans or licorice?? Freeze for one hour or until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-11-08T16:00:00.002-05:00

I think if I've planned this just right, I won't have to go to the grocery store this week! Yay!

Sunday: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes

Monday: Steak and Potato Wedgies

Tuesday: Homemade Pizza

Wednesday: Leftover Turkey--Maybe Turkey Divan?

Thursday: Pumpkin, Sausage and Barley Soup

Friday: Sausage and Pasta

Saturday: Insane Lasagna

Balloons!

2010-11-07T13:07:00.003-05:00

We never get tired of playing with vinegar and baking soda around here! Today we blew up a balloon using this classic science experiment.

Here's what you do:

Put some vinegar in a bottle. Spoon some baking soda into a balloon--it helps to have a helper for this part. Then, put the balloon over the top of the bottle. When you are ready to start the reaction, tip the baking soda into the bottle and watch the cool chemical reaction!

Then, play with your balloon!

Check out more science ideas at Adventures in Mommydom.

Bagel Bar

2010-11-03T11:16:00.000-04:00

The Princess came up with a new idea for breakfast: The Bagel Bar!

I set it up like a buffet--choose your plate (Cars or Hello Kitty), choose your bagel (Blueberry or Everything), choose your filling (scrambled eggs, cheese, ham) and choose your spread (cream cheese, butter or jam).

(Ignore the giant containers of candy, popcorn and chips that look like they are included with breakfast. They weren't. Also, ignore the giant epi-pen sticking out of that small orange bucket, but you never can be too careful around here!)

Here is the Pea "frosting" cream cheese on one side of his bagel and jam on the other. Too Cute! I don't have any pictures of the Princess because she came down about an hour later and promptley declared, "I KNOW how to go through a buffet line, MOM!" sheesh.

Monday Meal Plan

2010-11-01T14:32:00.002-04:00

I am so done with pumpkins--bring on the turkeys!

Monday: Chicken Tikka

Tuesday: Pizza Out

Wednesday: Mini Meatball Soup

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Salmon and Rice

Saturday: Ravioli

Sunday: Turkey Breast (Can't wait for T-Day!)

Easy Halloween Costume

2010-10-30T12:07:00.000-04:00

We made this cute MP-Me player costume that we found in Family Fun Magazine.

It was so easy! Just a piece of pink foam board, with the corners rounded and a whole cut out for the display. The menu button is a piece of silver poster board. To hold the costume on, we taped wide grosgrain ribbon and attached it to the bottom with sticky-backed velcro.

The Princess is wearing her 'back-up' costume behind the MP-Me player. It's a witch costume she made with her English school uniform and some black boots. She has a witch hat as well.

Hot Dog Mummies

2010-10-26T10:31:00.000-04:00

Yum-O! The Princess helped me make these hot dog mummies for dinner!

We used Pillsbury breadstick dough, cut in half lengthwise, to wrap the hot dog. We needed two strips to cover each mummy. Don't forget to leave some space at the top to add the mummy's "face." Bake in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes. Then, add mustard eyes. We don't have hot dogs very often, but, man! Are they yummy or what? I did get Oscar Meyer nitrate free hot dogs to try to make the meal a bit more healthy! And, I served them with oven baked sweet potato fries, which the Princess scarfed down! So, be sure to try these before Halloween!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-10-24T15:47:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Pork BBQ Sandwiches

Monday: German Sausages

Tuesday: Macaroni and Cheese

Wednesday: **Eat Out**

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Parties!

Sunday: Trick-or-Treat Night!

Mad Magician's Brew

2010-10-23T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the Pea and I looked through our new book of science experiments to find something to do together. He requested something that "explodes!" Mad Magician's Brew was the best I could do! Basically, this is a spin on our volcano experiment, but he still loved it!

Here's how you do it: Fill some jars and bottles half way with vinegar. We found that the little water bottle was more "exciting" than the jelly jar. Add some food coloring and a generous squirt of liquid dish soap. We added glitter to one bottle and some confetti stars to the other for "interest." Place your jars on a tray because this gets messy! Finally, add a heaping teaspon of baking soda and watch what happens.

I liked this variation because of the foam it produces. Also, the colors were brilliant! The glitter looked good in the green, but our star confetti must have been heavy because we never saw it--or maybe the chemical reaction "ate" the confetti. Now that would be cool!

Quick Craft for Boys: Frankenstein

2010-10-22T14:04:00.000-04:00

The Pea had a new friend over to play yesterday and we made this cute (?) Frankenstein guy that I had seen over at No Time For Flashcards.

This was really easy for the boys to make! My favorite part on the Pea's finished Frankenstein is the fangs he added--one black and one red!

Witches' Brooms

2010-10-18T15:29:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of deception, I made these cute witches' brooms for the Princess's after-school snack. The recipe is in Family Fun Magazine. Basically, it's a piece of fringed fruit leather wrapped around a pretzel stick. I used some of these, which I was so excited to find at Target, but the Princess has declared verboten because "they're healthy" and "taste funny." I thought they tasted pretty darn yummy when I couldn't be bothered to make any more of these stinkin' witches' brooms and shoved the last piece in my mouth. Anyway, here's hoping that she likes them!

You can sort of see how they look like brooms, right?

Monday Meal Plan

2010-10-17T12:09:00.000-04:00

Monday: Hot Dog Mummies and Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Pumpkin, Barley and Sausage Soup

Wednesday: The Ruler is cooking

Thursday: Leftovers! or the Ruler can cook.

Friday: Pizza

Spidey-Cake

2010-10-16T12:34:00.000-04:00

Turned out pretty good!

Happy Birthday, Pea!

2010-10-15T09:55:00.002-04:00

Happy 5th Birthday, Little Man!

Pumpkin Pancakes

2010-10-14T13:08:00.001-04:00

It's been super busy around here this week, and to prepare myself for all of the upcoming events, I've decided to not sleep. What? Does that make any sense? But, I digress...

The Pea made Pumpkin Pancakes in his preschool class earlier this week. I decided to give it a whirl at home as well. But, I completely messed it up because, according to the Pea, you are not supposed to add actual pumpkin, you are supposed to add three drops of orange food coloring. Ooops! Silly me!

Anyway, these were insanely good! I got the recipe from here. I also gave the kiddos some pineapple slices and chocolate chips to 'decorate' their pancakes. (At school, they used maraschino cherries for the eyes, but we were out.) The Princess said that they tasted just like pumpkin pie. So delicious. I gorged myself!

The Pea has added bacon for hair!

The Princess's pancake has a lot of hair!

Incidentally, I thought I was totally rockin' it with these pancakes until I saw this guy on the Rachael Ray show this morning!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-10-11T13:39:00.000-04:00

A little late coming up with this one because it's the beginning of Insanity Season in our house! The Pea's birthday is at the end of this week and not only am I getting ready for that, but I also agreed to have a Halloween party, be the Cookie Mom for the Princess's Brownie troop and teach Sunday School from now until Christmas! What? Was? I? Thinking?

Monday: German Sausages and Spaetzle

Tuesday: Pork Roast

Wednesday: Breakfast for Dinner

Thursday:Leftovers

Friday: The Pea's Choice

Saturday: Ghoul-ash

Sunday: Pizza

Cooking School

2010-10-07T09:58:00.000-04:00

The Princess just started the most awesome after-school activity ever! It's called Cannelloni Kids Cooking School and it's offered through Parks and Rec at her school. (By the way, I spoke with the owner of the company, Nikki, on the phone about the Princess's allergies and how to handle the Epi-pen and she was just awesome!) For the next month, the Princess will be cooking different French foods.

She came home after the first class with leftovers for us! Vichyssoise and Croque Monsieur! Hello! (Or should I say, Bon Jour!) Can you get any better than that? Both were delicious! She was full of beans telling us all about the class and how they prepared everything! I was instructed to go out and buy the ingredients so she could make it for us!

Here she is in action!

Assembling the sandwiches!

You need a baguette (cut into as many sandwiches as you are going to make), honey mustard, honey ham, and swiss cheese.

Waiting for the sandwiches to cook!

She brushed the tops of the baguettes with an egg wash to crisp them up! This was the hardest part; she wanted to let them cook for 20 or 30 seconds on each side. I said, "How about 5 or 6 minutes on a side?"

Flipping the sandwiches took concentration!

Here we are enjoying our meal! Look at the Pea's sandwich hanging out of his mouth! He's saying, "Cheese!" He cracks me up!

This was a delicious, fun meal that any kid can make!

Sticky Paper Collage

2010-10-05T16:43:00.001-04:00

If you've been reading this blog lately, then you probably know that we have our kids on a crazy, insane reward system for good behavior. We are supposed to be doing some activities each week that promote "cognitive flexibility." It's a lot of work; especially because the whole school thing gets in the way of doing fun stuff! Anyway, here is the latest idea I had to practice our flexible thinking:

Contact Paper Collage!

I taped a large piece of contact paper to our easel and laid out a bunch of art supplies: pompoms, string, cotton batting, sequins, google eyes, pipecleaners, popsicle sticks, etc. Then I told the kids they had to work together to make a picture. If they could use their flexible thinking phrases, they'd earn a prize from the prize menu.

The Princess suggested that they make a picture of a spider on a web. The Pea agreed. She started by making the web. The Pea added two pompoms to be the spider.

Here is the Pea adding more web and some legs for the spider.

Here is the finished picture!

They both earned their prizes. They took turns nicely and the Princess didn't try to correct all of her brother's "mistakes!" Even though she did decide what they were going to make without negotiating with the Pea, she did choose a topic that he is interested in. Even more importantly, she didn't freak out when he moved part of the web she had made. The Pea chose some extra TV time and the Princess chose to stay up 10 minutes past bedtime, during which time she soundly beat me at Scrabble on the iPod by 100 points! What the?

Caramel Apple Wedges

2010-10-04T19:48:00.000-04:00

Last year we made caramel apples which looked really yummy, but were impossible to eat! We wound up cutting them into chunks, which gave me an idea....caramel apple wedgies!

Here's my chef hard at work!

Dip apple wedgies in caramel....

Roll in sprinkles of your choice....

Or colored sugar is good....

Lay on baking sheet and pop into the fridge to chill before eating!

N.B.--True to form, the Pea ate the apple with the caramel topping and the Princess licked the caramel off of hers and left the apple. She did declare these to be her favorite fruit, though!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-10-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Chili (First one of the season, yum!) and Homemade French Bread

Monday: Steak, mashed potatoes, corn

Tuesday: Chicken Tortellini Soup

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Pork Chops, Rice, Carrots

Friday: Pizza

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-29T12:40:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin Cake Picks

2010-09-28T10:33:00.000-04:00

I saw these cute little cake picks over at Valerie's blog and just knew I had to try them out with my gang!

The Princess drew some pumpkin faces on orange dot stickers and some apple faces on green ones. Then she sandwiched a toothpick in between and stuck them in slices of applesauce cake!

The Pea shows off the apple face side!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-09-27T15:28:00.000-04:00

This week promises to be a bit slower, but sickness seems to have set in on the house...

Monday: Pork Roast, Potatoes, Green Beans, Carrots and Applesauce

Tuesday: Cheesy Mac and Beef

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Chicken and Mushroom Fettuccine

Friday: Pizza

Floomp!

2010-09-24T08:41:00.000-04:00

We made Floomp after school this week. I gave the Pea an assortment of bowls, spoons and measuring cups, two cups of flour and some water and let him at it! He immediately wanted to mix the flour and water together in the biggest bowl. He asked for more water and flour twice! His final product was about the consistency of pancake batter. He enjoyed stirring the mixture, but wasn't really too sure what to do with it other than stir. I tried to just let him do his own thing and not direct too much. He did tentatively stick his finger in the batter and tasted it a couple of times. Interesting, because he is such a tactile guy, I thought he'd have both his hands in there right away!

We left the Floomp outside on the patio and went off to do other things. When the Princess got home, he was super eager to show off his creation to her! That's when the fun started. The Princess immediately took advantage of all the empty bowls and measuring cups and made muffins, burritos, cakes and more. She loved pouring the batter into the small bowls and then back into the big bowl!

The Princess even asked me if she could make her own goop the next day!

Sunshine Smoothies

2010-09-23T10:14:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned before that the Princess has Oral Allergy Syndrome which has led her to be quite reluctant to eat fruits and vegetables. Or, maybe she has inherited the Ruler's sweet tooth? Anyway, I've decided that the way to get her to eat more fruits and veggies is through deception. That's right. Mmmhmmm. Yesterday, we had an appointment after school and I needed to come up with a snack that would boost the Princess's mood and blood sugar levels. So, I came up with Sunshine Smoothies! Here's what you do:

Fill a blender with some orange juice (enough to cover the blades);
Pop in one or two frozen bananas (I freeze the ones that have gone slightly more than ripe and use them instead of ice in smoothies! Clever, huh? Actually, BFF told me about that!)
Add a small can of drained pineapple chunks;
Whiz until smooth and enjoy!

The Princess enjoyed her "treat" and she didn't even realize she was getting three servings of fruit! The Pea, of course, also liked the smoothie, but he eats anything fruity!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-09-21T13:59:00.000-04:00

Just another insanely crazy week in our house. Too many car appointments, doctors appointments, soccer games, Brownie meetings, tennis lessons, exercise classes, birthday parties, and Back-To-School Nights this week. So, we will try to squeeze some eating in around the busy-ness of life!

Monday: Steak, Cottage Baked Potatoes, Creamed Corn

Tuesday: Ravioli, Green Beans, Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Eat Out

Thursday: Chicken in the CrockPot

Friday: Pizza Fondue???

Long Weekend Away

2010-09-15T08:35:00.000-04:00

I can't BELIEVE I forgot my camera for this trip! Der! Oh well! It was kind of nice to travel unburdened by the camera and just "be" in the moment!

Anyway, we went to Williamsburg, Virginia for a four day weekend to celebrate the Ruler's sister's 50th birthday! We had a blast! Williamsburg is only about three hours from our house, so it was an easy journey. The first day, we went to Jamestown--the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. We saw an Indian village, an English fort and some cool ships. It was hot, though, and the kids were super whiny! They just wanted to get to the hotel and check it out!

That night, we had a group dinner at Christiana Campbell's Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. So much fun! We ate upstairs, by candlelight! No electricity! While we ate, different actors came around and entertained us. Our tweenaged nephew gave the first actress an especially loud welcome and she surprised him by having him come up in front of the group and play along with her! We learned how to tie our gigantic napkins around our necks and how the food would have been eaten in the 18th century. We also heard some traditional music and sang "Happy Birthday!" We enjoyed some delicious food and drink as well.

The next day it rained. But, we ventured over to Busch Gardens anyway. And we had the BEST time ever! The park was virtually empty! We rode on all the rides we wanted with no wait! The kids had a great time checking out the Sesame Street rides and the Pea had fun riding bigger rides with his 13 year old cousin. The kids walked the whole park and never complained once about being tired, bored, or, more importantly, wet! (It was actually just cloudy for most of the day, but around 4 o'clock, the heavens opened and we got soaked!)

That night, we ate pizza! Some of us may have had too much to drink which left them feeling a little "ill" the next day. Oh well, it was only in keeping with tradition for visiting Colonial Williamsburg! The Princess enjoyed seeing the farm and old timey houses. But, both kids were tired from all their walking the day before. So, we left in the early afternoon and went back to the hotel for swimming.

The next day, it was time to leave. But, we couldn't pass up the Yankee Candle Village or a quick visit to Yorktown (the site where the Americans defeated the British in the Revolutionary War.) Then it was back up the road to home!

Baking Fail

2010-09-09T15:21:00.000-04:00

Earlier this summer, I taught Sunday School and presented a science lesson based on yeast. My kids enjoyed it so much that I started thinking about making some Amish friendship bread. We finally got around to trying it out last week; it didn't go so well.

We found a recipe for the bread on the Internet. The Princess had fun stirring the starter every day and we added the ingredients at the right intervals. However, as the days went on, I started wondering if eating the final product would be safe or if I'd be poisioning my family and sharing stomach bugs with all my friends. I did some research and it seems to be safe enough, but the recipe is probably not from Amish origins. Curiosity prevailed and on the tenth day, we divided up our starters and added the rest of the ingredients to make the bread batter.

Here's one of the starters we made.

Here's the finished bread.

The Ruler and I each tasted a tiny piece. He said it didn't have any sourdough flavor and it was more like cake than bread. I thought it tasted disgusting. The kids flat-out refused to try the stuff! Good thinking. I decided to throw everything away. I recommend making a quick bread recipe if you want a cake/bread similar to Amish Friendship bread.

What's For Lunch?

2010-09-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

The Pea loves his fruit and veg, but he hates sandwiches! I've already talked with his preschool teacher about his hatrid of all bread products and told her it is my personal goal to get him eating a sandwich this year! So, I've purchased some new and interesting bread to entice him into packed lunches!

Today he's got a mini croissant with raspberry preserves, a Fruitables juice box (it's tiny, but it's got lots of pure fruit in it!), a cheese stick, cheddar bunnies, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers with ranch dip (it's in the tiny orange pot!). I also packed another juice box and an apple, but they wouldn't fit in the lunchbox! The boy can eat!

Quick Craft For Boys: Bug Land

2010-09-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

We put our deep storage box to use again (thanks, BFF!); this time we made BugLand!

We added sticks, rocks, pinecones, a leaf, a spider plant from the kitchen, a clay pot, a clay saucer with water, and of course, bugs!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-09-06T09:51:00.000-04:00

Monday: Mooch Night

Tuesday: Italian Chicken Salad

Wednesday: Spinach Fettuccine with Summer Squash and Cherry Tomatoes and Corn Frittata

Thursday: Chicken Strips

Friday: Pizza

Out Of This World Chalk Art

2010-09-03T08:11:00.000-04:00

The Pea and I were so inspired by Valerie's post, that we decided to create our own little universe. (Technically, it's the solar system, but it sounds better the other way!)

We used our Crayola 3D chalks, so the finished universe looked much cooler in person! We had fun coloring the Earth and Sun together. And the Pea liked asking me what colors the planets were.

Now, we just need the Ruler to resurface the driveway so we can have a better quality canvas. Please???!!!??

Easy Indoor Aquarium

2010-09-02T07:19:00.000-04:00

I love this picture because the toy shark looks like a teeny-tiny real shark! The Pea keeps asking to see the picture of him playing with the shark! Also love the diver tied to a string!

I have to admit that I totally ripped this idea off from BFF! (Thanks, BFF!) The genius behind this activity should definitely be filed under, SS,IB (So Stupid, It's Brilliant)! Use a deep storage box to be an indoor aquarium! Ta-Da! Annoying spills virtually eliminated!

The Pea had a ton of fun putting all the shells, marbles, rocks and sea creatures in and out of the water. Again, I completely misunderestimated how much the Pea would like this activity. I thought he'd be a little too "mature" for mucking about in a couple inches of water, but he loved it and has asked me to set it up for him several times.

The storage box also doubles as some other places which I will show you in the coming weeks. (Also ideas ripped off from BFF, but one or two of my own, too!)

Backpack Bling

2010-09-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

We made some Shrinky-Dinks to give our backpacks a little bling! I bought some plain Shrinky-Dink paper at Michael's and traced pictures from coloring books. The Pea colored his in all by himself! Then, before baking, I punched a hole at the top of each one.

I cut a length of chain and attached the Shrinky-Dink with a jump ring. Alas, the Pea's bling didn't fit on the tote bag his school insists on, so we stuck it on his lunchbox. It's also Spider-Man, so it all matches!

The Princess traced some ice creams from a box of Play-Doh. She went minimalist on her bling because she got carried away making gifts for everyone!

Back To School Cookie Cake

2010-08-31T08:00:00.003-04:00

I made this awesome cookie cake for the Princess to celebrate the First Day of School! I used this recipe but I added one teaspoon of baking powder and one teaspoon of baking soda. I baked it on a parchment lined pizza pan at 325F for about 20 minutes. After the cookie cooled, I decorated it with frosting. I used Wilton tip 21 for the stars and tip 4 for the writing. I "freehand frosted" the apple!

Even though this cookie cake was super yummy, next time I would just use the Nestle Tollhouse recipe and I would push the dough closer to the edge of the pan, so it didn't do that funky thing in the lower left hand corner.

The Princess was very happy to come home to this cookie cake and a balloon bouquet! She thinks I should become a cookie cake baker!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-08-30T11:27:00.000-04:00

This week is pretty busy with the first day of school and a crazy day of school, appointments and meetings on Wednesday! So, the CrockPot returns! Yay! The Princess requested Monday night's meal in honor of the first day of school!

Monday: Homemade Chicken Nuggets with Honey Mustard Sauce, Green Beans, French Bread and Ambrosia Salad!

Tuesday: Jerk Chicken, Rice and Black Beans

Wednesday: Crockpot Spaghetti

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

Saturday/Sunday: Eating Out/Friends' House/Birthday Party

My Birthday

2010-08-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

It was my birthday this weekend and the Pea and the Princess planned a surprise party for me! The Princess made and decorated this gorgeous carrot cake for me! They each had bought presents for me--candles and TicTacs, my favorites! I also got breakfast in bed this morning! I am truly a lucky momma!

Back To School Lunch

2010-08-27T13:46:00.000-04:00

Every year before my kids go back to school, I like to have a "practice lunch" at home.

I pack them up a lunch in their lunchboxes and we eat at the table. This allows me to see if they can open their lunchboxes, juiceboxes and packaging by themselves. I can also see if I've given them too much food or not enough.

The Pea is having a cheese sandwich shaped like a race car, some cheesy rice cakes, a mini cucumber, a prune, some mini Oreos, grapes, a string cheese and a juice box. It seems like a lot, but he only ate half the sandwich (he doesn't like bread). He only ate half the Oreos and the rice cakes were untouched. He gobbled the cucumber first, then the prune and the grapes. He guzzled the juice, but it's tiny! He also ate the cheese stick and I got him to eat a few bites of the sandwich with prompting!

The Princess is having the same things, with a few substitutions. Instead of the cucumber, she had a pineapple Humzinger ("imported" from the UK!). My kids are so different in their eating preferences. While the Pea went straight for the fruit and veg, the Princess ate her cookies first, then nibbled the sandwich, then the Humzinger and finally, some rice cakes. She ate about five grapes, under duress. She also guzzled her juice and said she'd need a bigger juice when school starts! (I plan on splurging on the Sigg kid-sized water bottle to eliminate some waste, but I haven't found them yet.)

Homework Study Station

2010-08-26T13:55:00.001-04:00

Last year homework time was a real struggle in our family. But, this year I've got a new plan!

First, I made a homework caddy for the Princess.

It's got crayons, markers, pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, a pencil sharpener, ruler, scissors, tape, sticky notes and flashcards! This way, she will have everything she needs at her fingertips and she won't have to get up and search for the items she needs or ask me to get them for her.

Next, we've moved the homework space to an area of the house that's a bit more private and quiet--the dining room. The great thing about the homework caddy is that it can easily be moved if we should decide to, say, eat, in the dining room! I think the Princess will really enjoy having her own "zone" for doing her homework--a place that's just for her and is ready to go when she is!

Finally, homework time will be before dinner, but after a snack and a chill out time. For chill out time, she can listen to music, read, lay down and rest or do some art. Or maybe just hang out with me and the Pea. Homework has to be completed before any tv time, computer time, or playdates with neighborhood friends.

Fingers crossed!

Numberbows

2010-08-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

I first saw this activity over at Amy's site about a year ago (and subsequently had to order Peggy Kaye's book, Games for Learning), but I just finally got around to trying it!

The Pea, the Princess and I played this game together. You will need a pair of dice, some markers or crayons and a chart that looks like the one above. You take turns rolling the dice and counting up the number of dots. Then, you color the corresponding number the color of your choice. If you roll the same number more than once, you don't get to color anything in--that's what happened to me and the Princess! The winner is the person with the most colored spaces after ten turns. (The Pea wanted to finish coloring his in after he won!) This was a fun way to practice counting, adding and number recognition. Not to mention turn-taking and being a good sport!

The Princess and I have played some other games from Peggy Kaye's book to brush up on math skills before school starts. We played Suits Up, Suits Down which is a game to practice mental math. And we played Addition War, which is like regular War, except each player draws two cards and the winner is the one with the higher sum! Hopefully, she will be ready to go when school starts on, gulp!, Monday!

Giant Bubbles

2010-08-24T08:09:00.000-04:00

We were inspired to try this activity from the amazing pictures we saw over at Valerie's blog and also at Fiona's site!

For the bubble solution, I mixed up about 1/2 cup of liquid dish detergent (I had lavender scented soap on hand which made this activity extra yummy smelling and relaxing!) and about one gallon warm water. We didn't have any dowels in the house, so I substitued straws for the "handles." I also raided the Ruler's workshop and found some washers to thread on the string to help form the bubble shape.

It's okay if you don't have all the materials on hand, because, obviously, the most important aspect of this activity is making sure your children dress in matching outfits!

I cannot tell you how much fun we all had making these giant bubbles! We played outside for about two hours making bubbles, watching them fly away and popping them. It was fun also to see how the activity evolved: from just the Pea and me, to all of us, to just the Princess and me, seeing how many bubbles you can make without redipping your blower (the Princess scored an all time PB (personal best) of eight!), and doubling up our "wands" to make smaller bubbles! We also spent a long time trying to form a bubble big enough for the Pea to fit inside!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-08-23T07:06:00.002-04:00

Everyone in my house is so excited because I just realized that we had gone the whole summer without eating Sloppy Joes! Now they will be disappointed because I've put it on the menu for this week. Shame....

Monday: Sloppy Joes, Baked Beans, and Corn on the Cob

Tuesday: Chicken with SunDried Tomatoes

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Tuna with Pasta and Asparagus

Friday: Pizza!

Pumpkins!

2010-08-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

OMG! What is taking over the swingset?

It's pumpkins!

Les Artistes Au Plein Air

2010-08-20T09:59:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I may be a Spanish teacher, but for some reason, I lean toward the French.....strange!

This week has been all about readjustment and change of scenery, so in that spirit, we took our art easel outside to do some painting.

Honestly, I thought I would spend more time setting up than they would spend painting. But I was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! They must have spent at least an hour outside painting. The Pea, was, as usual, prolific; while the Princess diligently worked on painting a detailed picture of the neighbors' house!

They looked so cute painting together that I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures! I loved how the Princess held the palette just like a real artist! Every few minutes she would step back from the easel and look thoughtfully at her masterpiece! The Pea enjoyed using as many colors as he could; cleaning the brushes and making a messy water bowl and watching his drippy paint brush drip down the paper. Good fun!

Here are the finished pieces:

The Pea made a picture of himself, a crocodile and a mouse! He has plans to cut these out and make a story with them!

The Princess's finished picture of our neighbors' house! I like how she mixed the colors to make the grey roof--we didn't even have black on the palette! I like the white line for the detail on the roof, the red bushes, the blue squiggle for the house number and the two trunked tree! All faithful details!

Mazes

2010-08-19T07:52:00.000-04:00

The Pea has really been enjoying mazes lately! Yesterday while I was working on the computer he made this maze for me!

Then he told me to "find my way from M to N!" How cute is that? I dutifully traced over his line with my green marker.

His maze inspired me to make some "mazes" for him!

In the "maze" on the left, he had to find his way from Start/0 to number 10, by going through all the numbers in order. He did that really well, so I decided to make another one that went by 10's from 10 to 100. He needed a little help with that one! In the second "maze" he had to match up the number with the correct number of dots. This quickie activity was a big hit!

Books We Love

2010-08-18T08:01:00.000-04:00

My husband's niece gave the Pea this book for Christmas about three years ago and it is still a big favorite! It tells the story of George who goes to visit his grandfather for the summer. Grandfather tells George stories about dragons and when George asks if dragons are real, Grandfather decides to take him on a dragon hunt! Grandfather is a bit hard of hearing and doesn't see too well, so he doesn't find a dragon, but he assures George that they will find one next time!

The pictures in this book are just gorgeous. There are hidden dragons on every page. The Pea loves that the dragons are "bumpy"; he loves to feel them when we read! Last night, in my never-ending quest to improve the Pea's number sense, we counted all the dragons we could find. We found 66! Not bad, but the book says there are 76! Oh well, next time we will hunt higher and lower and believe even harder!

Breakfast Picnic

2010-08-17T10:19:00.000-04:00

Today we were supposed to go to BJ's to stock up on Back To School stuff, but we all woke up feeling a little off-color. So, we decided to have a breakfast picnic instead! You may already know that I hate breakfast with a passion and that I really struggle to find nutritious foods that the kids will actually eat in the morning. But, apparently, if you serve them all the food you normally do, but put serve it on the floor, they will actually eat it! By the way, they are having oatmeal, bananas, raspberries, drinkable yogurts, and juice, which is way more than they would usually eat!

Monday Meal Plan

2010-08-16T18:02:00.000-04:00

I'm back from England and it's back to normal schedule already! Time flies too fast when you are having fun!

Monday: Stuffed Peppers

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie

Wednesday: Fish and Rice

Thursday: Vegetarian Bean Burritos

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Out!