Plant Update

Bad News. We went away for Memorial Day weekend  and of course it was hot, humid, and very dry so our poor little plants didn't get the water they needed and I came back to then and they look like they died. I told you I am not good with growing plants. But the good news is I can plant more because I can just take some seeds of out some of my tomatoes and peppers and plant them because really that is exactly what came in the seed packet. Plus Little Bug thought it would be fun to put some sand from her sand box in the plants anyways so I am sure that didn't help. So we'll try again!

Muffin Tin Monday

 

Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Memorial Day! In honor of Memorial Day I thought I would try to do a "Stars and Stripes" lunch. I think it turned out well and Little Bug ate most of it. She's kind of been having little snacks off an on today such as pretzels and goldfish so I wasn't sure if she'd eat all of it or not. She did pretty well though!

Top Row: granola bars (stripes), a star shaped PB and Nutella sandwich, and marshmallows (stripes)

Bottom Row: Cheese and pepperoni, fruit, chicken and stars soup

 Of course she went for the marshmallows first and wanted seconds! 

Planting Vegetables and Herbs

Alexandra told me that she wanted to plant some flowers. Well I am not really a green thumb and plants usually die when I try to grow them but I thought we could grow some pepper and tomato plants as well as some herbs on our deck. We live in a townhouse with a shared yard so we can't really go digging up the area so a deck garden will have to work. We got the peppers and tomatoes planted but I have yet to try to plant the herbs. After only a week or so they began sprouting. So each day we make sure to water them and keep them in the sun. All was going well until Little Bug decided to take some sand from her sand box and put it in the pepper plant. I thought it would stop it from growing but it seems to still be growing. We'll see how they do. Eventually we will have to move them from the small pot to a bigger one. I just hope we really do get some peppers and tomatoes!

Here are the plants we decided to plant 

Adding the seeds

Getting the soil ready 

After adding water to the soil we had to fluff it up

Pressing the seeds  into the soil 

Watering the plant 

A Yummy Snack

The other day I made a delicious snack - Peanut Butter-Nutella-Oat Balls. I have made these balls before with oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and a dash of honey for sweetness. Well this time around I decided to add one of my favorite ingredients - Nutella. Since I added the Nutella I omitted the honey because this chocolate hazelnut goodness added enough sweetness. And the best part about this snack - it's super easy to make! No baking, not even microwaving, just mixing! My sister said it sounds like a no bake cookie (another one of my favorites). It is because it has the same flavors - only it's easier! Seriously drop the ingredients in the bowl and stir!

Did I mention I made these two days ago? Well they only lasted about 1.5 days in our house. We are all a fan!
You should make some too. I guarantee you will won't be able to keep them in the house long either!

The ingredients: Nutella, Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter, Oats. I forgot to add cooking spray. I sprayed it on my hands as I was shaping the balls - it made the mixture not stick as much. Of course you can add whatever you want - marshmallows, raisins, M&M's (which I've done before). 

Step 1: Put the ingredients in a bowl. I didn't even measure. I just eyeball it and add more oats as necessary if the mixture is too sticky. Or if it's too dry add more PB or Nutella. 

 Step 2: Stir the mixture, trying to to eat it all as you stir. Shape into balls. I could seriously just not shape them into balls and eat this out of the bowl with a spoon. I'm not gonna lie - I have. 

They can be stored at room temperature because there are no ingredients that could spoil but  I always like to put mine in the fridge to stay firm.

The Letter C

So last night as I was sitting in bed browsing through some blogs I was thinking of some things to do with Little Bug today. I found a cute caterpillar craft and from there a whole list of ideas (of course all gathered from other people) got put on my list. It's amazing what you can do in 1 hour of time with a 2.5 year old. Each of the activities took at the most 10 minutes and we just moved right along from one thing to the next. It kept her attention for an hour. Then I knew she was done. And that is fine - I got an hour of time with her - just me and her - while my Little Monkey slept. And I know she enjoys it because she gets SOOO excited when I say we are going to do a craft, make a snack, etc.

So the first step was to turn off the TV which she did. I knew that if I wanted her full attention the TV had to be off! I usually keep it on for background noise but it was nice to just have some quiet!

Well anyways, the caterpillar craft got me thinking that we should do some things with the letter C. Like I've said before Little Bug can identify letters but I still want to do extra practice with them. I don't go in any particular order with the letter activities. Also as I've said before I just do random things. Hopefully I can become more organized. As a teacher I was very organized. As a stay at home mom - not so much. We just go with the flow around here with a lot of spontaneity.

Today we focused on the letter C and more specific - caterpillars. Some things we did today are:

* read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (on the computer). I have the book somewhere with all of my books from my classroom but didn't have time to find it!

* Made a caterpillar snack out of bananas, a grape, pretzels, and Nutella (you can never go wrong with Nutella!)

Little Bug spreading the Nutella on the bananas (she can't stand being sticky so I had to wipe her hands quite often!)

The finished product

Time to eat!

In the story you can see the life cycle of a butterfly. We looked up the life cycle online and then using a sticker story board I had Little Bug show the life cycle of a butterfly. Now the question is did she remember it? Well just about an hour and a half later I asked her about the life cycle. I started by telling her it starts out as an egg and then she was able to tell me the rest. She even told be about the chrysalis!

Then we made a caterpillar craft using pom-poms, a tongue depressor, wiggle eyes, and a straw. She did most of the craft herself but I did hot glue the wiggle eyes and antennae on so that they would stay put!

She also painted a caterpillar using cups. I got this idea from I Can Teach My Child.

Here is the final product. I had Little Bug do 9 circles to fit each letter of her name. She started out doing a pattern but then she messed up the X circle and did another red. At first out went the pattern but now as I look at it she actually continued the pattern (ABCA)

This was the activity we did as we read the story. I read a part and had her show it on the story mat.

This was the final product from the pom-pom craft. Cute right?

We talked about the letter C and the sound it makes. Then Little Bug wrote a C. It's sideways but hey it's a start. We haven't really worked on writing letters yet. I mean she isn't even 3 yet.

But she did find the Letter C in the poem. Using a dry erase marker she highlighted each C. I had this flip chart from teaching that has a song for each letter and the song rhymes. She liked the letter scavenger hunt!

Well it was a fun morning. We actually have the very hungry caterpillar game so we may play that but after we get some lunch. And to top the letter C day off we are making corn dogs!

Mixing Colors

Little Bug already knows her colors. She has for some time now. But now we are getting into mixing colors and figuring out what you get when two colors are mixed. She was watching an episode of Bubble Guppies where it talks about mixing colors and was really into it so I decided we could mix some and she could see firsthand how to do it.

She definitely knows that when you mix red and blue you get purple. Now I am teaching her (and trying to reinforce it so she remembers) that blue + yellow = green and red + yellow = orange. The other day we just used some water and food coloring to mix colors. After we were done she wanted to keep doing it!

red + yellow = orange

red + blue = purple

Muffin Tin Monday

Muffin Tin Mom

Yesterday I told Little Bug that "Tomorrow is Muffin Tin Monday" (which is now today). As soon as I said that she wanted to go start making a muffin tin. I said...no no...it's tomorrow...but I tell ya what -I'll make you a muffin cup snack tonight too. So I got out some muffin tin paper liners and let her pick out a few snacks to put in them. Now fast forward to today and the real Muffin Tin Monday. As usual as I was preparing her lunch Little Bug couldn't keep her hands off of it. She likes to watch me make it or help out but I always like to get a picture of it to post on the Muffin Tin Monday blog. Usually I have to make a little extra so that she can get her instant gratification before I am done preparing the lunch.

This week I did do a flower theme. I still need to prepare a little more and think about what I want to make more - I still am just putting together things that we have in our pantry or fridge. But I am still a newbie so I guess in time I will be able to put together a cute lunch like all of the amazing moms out there. But for now here is our muffin tin lunch for this week.

Top: strawberry flowers, banana tulips, and mini PB sandwiches

Bottom: Yogurt with sprinkles, Cheese tulips with pretzels, flower shaped puffs

all served in my flower muffin tin

She really liked the sandwiches and cheese

P is for Pirate

Little Bug has really been into the T.V. show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates". As I am typing this entry the theme song is going through my head! Her 3rd birthday is coming up in July and I thought it would be cute to have a little pirate party during her playgroup, which I happen to be hosting on her birthday. Ideas started rolling through my head and I turned to my computer to see what cute crafts and activities we could do. I have a list of things to do already such as letting the kids make their own treasure maps (I would provide the map and they could put on stickers), having pirate hats for them to wear, maybe even a gold doubloon candy scramble.

As I was browsing through ideas online here I found some things that I could make for Little Bug for free since I had all of the materials. I decided to make the hook, a treasure map, and a pirate hat. Now two days later we are still "playing pirates". We ended our pirate activities with a "P is for Pirate" picture to which Little Bug's response was "Mommy, I love doing crafts with you!" I do too Little Bug!

Little Bug trying to use her hook to eat her Muffin Tin Lunch

The hook is simply made out of a plastic cup (this cup is one of the cups we got at a restaurant which I kept) and aluminum foil. I cut a hole in the end, formed the hook, and stuck it through, leaving enough foil under the cup for Little Bug to grab on to

A pirate in princess Pj's! Little Bug sporting her pirate hat made out of newspaper. Super easy and better yet - free!

The treasure map I made for Little Bug - I used a small brown lunch bag, crumpled it up, and then torched the edges. I only paid $1.00 for a pirate sticker book at Michaels.

Muffin Tin Monday

About a week or two ago stumbled upon the blog Muffin Tin Mom. After reading this blog I thought this was such a creative and cute idea that I thought I would try it myself. This is my second week making a muffin tin lunch. I tried it for the first time last week and I was right - little bug just loved it. And she ate all of it which is a surprise because she usually wants a sandwich, takes a few bites, and then it sits on the table for the rest of the day. She is a grazer - she eats small portions frequently so Muffin Tin Monday seemed like a great idea. I am just getting started so I have not done any "themed" lunches. Maybe in the future I will though. I did, however, go out and get a new colorful muffin tin and some cute cookie cutters (I got two 4 piece cutter sets that are actually mini clay cutters for $.29 on clearance at Michaels - can't beat that) and some Wilton fondant cutters. Now all I need are some cute picks and I'll be all set!

In little bug's lunch:

Fig Newton flowers, strawberries, ham and cheese roll ups, pudding with crushed Oreos, grapes, vegetable sticks

What do you think Little Bug ate first??? Of course, pudding!

And vegetable sticks dipped in pudding....hey if she eat's it I don't mind!

Dinosaur Fossils

oday we made Dinosaur Fossils. This was one of the ideas from a blog called I Can Teach My Child We began by looking at pictures of fossils online and then talking about what fossils were. Then we made our own and afterwards we read a few dinosaur books. I'm hoping to do some more dinosaur activities this week and read some more of those books. I have a whole pile and I decided to do dinosaur activities this week because Alex just loves them!

The ingredients you need are coffee grounds, coffee, salt, and flour - this is NOT a cookie!

Here are also some of our dinosaur books and a few of Alex's dinosaurs

My helper poured the ingredients into the bowl

Getting ready to mix it all together

My master mixer goes to work

Pat the "dough"

Roll out little balls of dough and press the dinosaurs into the dough to make fossils

Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees

Some Things We've Been Doing

This is very random but here are a few things we did last week. Really I have been spontaneous and found activities, made sure I had the supplies, and then did them!

There are so many things to do with these little foam alphabet circle beads. In my classroom I used them for spelling workshop but at home we can use them for so many things! Here Alex is sorting them by color. She would also say the letters (letter recognition) and you could do patterns, spelling (too early for that yet), and sorting. I had plastic string that you can bead them together with. I put that aside because I thought that would be way too hard to do. Sure enough though Alex found a piece and said "Look Mommy , I put it on the string" Good fine motor practice!

Alex is my number one helper in the kitchen. I do all of the measuring but she is my dumper and stirrer and she always licks the spoon. Here she licks the spoon after mixing our homemade "granola bars" (this did not have raw egg in it so it was fine!)

One activity Alex loved was writing on our window. I have some window markers and was a little reluctant to bring them out. I knew they would be a hit but I wasn't sure if it would be too much of a hassle. The good news.......I finally cleaned my sliding door windows which have not been cleaned for about 6 months!

G is for Goldfish - very random but quick and easy (and that is what I am looking for with a newborn at home!)