10 Apples Up On Top

Little Bug loves the book 10 Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss. For a while it was a nightly bedtime read for us. I thought to go along with our Apple Week we would read it and do a similar activity that I used to do with my 1st graders. I thought just cutting out apples and putting them on the ground with her laying down would be the best option for us. Plus, I used apples that had Uppercase and Lowercase letters  on them so after taking the picture I cut apart the apple halves and she matched the Uppercase to the Lowercase. With my students they would draw themselves and then an assigned number of apples. Now that I think about it Little Bug does draw a pretty good circle so I suppose I could have done that too. I may just try it to see the end result. Later in the day she did a paper plate apple core. I outlined where the red should be (for the skin) and drew the seeds in the middle (I tried to make it look like the flower inside of an apple cross section). She just wanted to color all over with red but I told her that the red just goes on the top and bottom to represent the skin. She colored in the white part a little bit anyways. Oh well. Kids will be kids. 

Oh So Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

So even though we are doing Apple themed activities this week I wanted to do a few apple snacks. But Little Bug kept wanting to eat apples whole........which is fine.....she loves fruit. This morning after doing our apple snack we were out of apples so I decided to do something with pumpkin instead.

The other evening while browsing around on Pinterest for some fall desserts I came across a recipe for pumpkin muffins using only two ingredients (both of which I had in my pantry) so I decided to give them a try. OH MY GOODNESS they are yummy, and so moist, and best of all - so easy! And I just love easy!

Pumpkin Muffins (recipe found on Sweet Verbena)

So all you need is a yellow cake mix and a 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree. Yep. That's it. Put those two ingredients in a bowl and mix. I used my electric mixer to make sure it was nice and smooth. I also added some pumpkin pie spice because when I tasted the batter it didn't taste "pumpkiny" enough for me. I didn't measure - just sprinkled it in until I found the desired taste. Speaking of taste.................you can taste the batter with no worries about raw egg! You just bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes at 350. So not only are they super yummy but super quick! You better believe that  I had a muffin right out of the oven when it could be handled. 

After having a muffin (or two.......or three........) I decided I was even going to make a cream cheese frosting to put into the middle or on the top of the muffin. No recipe for the frosting. I just mixed some butter, cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and a bit of vanilla until it tasted the way I like it. 

I'm going to hold off on icing the muffins though just in case Chris doesn't want icing on his. I, of course, could eat that icing directly out of the mixing bowl. I may also try to freeze the icing for future use. We'll see what happens. 

Apple Week

This week Little Bug's theme at preschool is Apples. I'm hoping she gets to go to school tomorrow because she came down with a cold and slight fever Sunday night. I decided to do the same theme as she has in preschool for our weekly activities. Here are some of the apple activities we did today:

We started with some do a dot painting for the letter A

Then we move onto an apple snack sandwich - two slices of apple filled with peanut butter and chocolate chips

And then we read a few apple books. Throughout the day we'll do some more activities - we're taking a break for Little Bug to play.  I love watching her and her imagination when she is playing!

Ice Cube Painting

Little Bug loves painting in any way, shape, or form. I saw an idea to do painting using ice cubes on other several blogs and through Pinterest. I decided to give it a try. Basically you make ice cubes, add a few drops of food coloring, and toothpicks to hold the ice cubes and then as the ice cubes melt it's like painting with watercolors. It is food coloring so yes, if it gets on your hands it will stain for a little bit but comes out after a few washes! I always have Little Bug use my old softball t-shirt as her smock so that she doesn't get it all over it. It goes down her calves so basically she's all covered! 

I've made popcicles before too in ice cube trays and one day I came down to get out the paints and I saw a few were missing and I saw the toothpicks in our sink. I thought my husband  (who didn't know these were paints) ate them. Luckily he said they just fell out and broke. They wouldn't have tasted that good! 

When you are done painting for the day just re-freeze or discard the ice cubes. 

MIA

Ever since Little Bug started preschool last week I've been MIA. Actually it's been longer than a week but things have been very hectic around here. I've done muffin tin lunches on Monday's but just haven't had time to post them so I'm hoping to start that up again next week. I'm thinking that because she is in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays that I'll try to do special activities with her on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays we will be attending a playgroup for kids her age. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things especially since I love the Fall and there are so many fun and cute crafts, snacks, and other activities to do with kids!