Healthy Butterfly Snack

Spring has FINALLY made it to Massachusetts.  To celebrate nicer weather, I recently made butterfly snacks for the kids.  This is super easy to make.  Simply slice a banana in half, spread peanut butter (or any other nut butter) along the banana slices, add symmetrical raisins, grape halves in the middle, and carrot pieces for antennae.

There are so many great butterfly books.  Here is one we have enjoyed:

What is your favorite butterfly book?

Also, have you read The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco?  We haven't read it yet, but I have requested it from the library.  In this book for children ages six and up, the butterfly is a symbol of freedom during World War II.  When a French village is occupied by Nazi Germany, a young French girl finds a Jewish girl hiding in her basement and a special friendship develops.  This book is based on a true story. 

Leprechaun Sandwich

Our leprechaun sandwich is a sandwich (any filling is fine) cut out into a circle with a biscuit cutter (you can use a glass if you don't have a biscuit cutter).  The hair and beard are carrots, the eyes are raisins, and the nose is cheese.  The hat is green bell pepper with a strip of the pepper to make the brim and a piece of tortilla chip for the buckle.  The shamrock is cucumber slices.

The Luckiest Leprechaun is about an unexpected friendship between a leprechaun and a dog.  It's funny and unique, and we always enjoy books about friendship.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Hand Prints

K's hand print on the dishwasher.

As much as I grumble about constantly cleaning the stainless steel appliances because they are covered in hand prints, I know that one day they will be shiny and clean all the time and my heart will be a tiny bit sad that those little hands are no longer little, and no longer leaving behind little prints for me to wipe clean.

Good Bye Food Dye

If you look back through my posts, it is clear that I used food coloring on occasion and bought food with ingredients like red #40 or blue #1 here and there.  Admittedly, I have known for quite a while that artificial food dyes are junk and that I probably should avoid them.  Unfortunately, I figured it was just another ingredient that was okay in small amounts once in a while.  How much damage can a few drops of something do?  The more I examined ingredients, however, the more I realized how prevalent food dyes are in the grocery store.  AND, the more I read about food dyes, the more I realized that I have to put my foot down and stop buying this junk.  Would I consider feeding my children food with a few drops of petroleum added to them?  NO WAY!  Well, guess what, food dye is derived from petroleum.

This is what I removed from my cabinets in an effort to rid our kitchen of artificial food dyes.  I did keep liquid food coloring, a few boxes of Jello, and packets of Kool Aid but those will be used for art projects not for consumption!

This was hard for me.  I like to make fun food for the kids and for years these nasty things have helped, BUT I know that I can still make fun food without any of this and my kids will be much better off.

I do want to note that I have no intention of denying my kids treats at birthday parties or school functions.  I am trying to get it out of our house to minimize the amount they consume, but I will not stand over them and tell them they can't enjoy an OCCASIONAL treat on special occasions.  I will tell them why I don't like artificial food dyes and encourage them to make wise choices.


If you need a reason or two to cut it out of your diet, check out this post over at 100 Days of Real Food.

Toddler Times - 16 months Texture Collage

K LOVED this activity.  She was so content the entire time.  This is what we did:

I cut a large piece of clear Contact paper and taped it to the sliding glass door in our kitchen with the sticky side facing out.

We are currently focusing on the color orange, so I ripped up a bunch of little pieces of orange crepe paper streamers (tissue paper or even construction paper would work too) and gave them to her to stick on the Contact paper.

This was K's project, so I did not stick one single piece of crepe paper on the Contact paper.  When I gave her the first piece, I told her she could stick it on the door and that is what she did.  Then she kept coming back for more pieces.  I ripped a bunch of pieces and put them on the floor next to her and let her do her thing.  I also had some orange foam stickers, orange pom poms, and orange masking tape that I let her add to her collage.

This will stay up for a while and K can add to it or remove from it as often as she wants.

Monster Smoothies for Kids

Are you a fan of green smoothies?  We have been adding more and more of them to our weekly menu.  To entice my kids, I call them Monster Smoothies.

Appearance is everything to some kids.  This one looks like chocolate!  I have found that as long as the smoothie is icy cold with frozen ingredients, my kids will try it.  My girls will drink any smoothie I make, my boys - not so much.

I don't actually measure my ingredients, so this is an estimate.
To make this one, I used:
2 - 3 cups almond milk
2 frozen bananas (when they start to get too ripe, I put them in the freezer for smoothies)
2 cups of mixed frozen greens, this time it was spinach and kale (again, if I am not going to use greens before the use by date, I put them in the freezer)
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen blueberries

I play around with the ingredients and vary the amounts depending on what I have on hand.

I blend the almond milk with the greens first to make sure that the greens are completely blended and there are no clumps!  Then I add the frozen fruit and blend, adding more milk as necessary.  I have found that blueberries are perfect for making the smoothies look more appealing to kids.

Why not read a fun monster book with your monster smoothie?

Everyone is familiar with this book, right?  With each turn of the page, a big green monster comes together, BUT keep reading because you get to make that Big Green Monster go away!  With four kids ranging in age from 15 down to 16 months, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book over and over again and look forward to introducing it to my youngest!

Rush Hour Junior

My middle two kids (8 and almost 7) have been in a revolving door of viruses the past few weeks.  One of the things that has kept them entertained is a game that is new to us, Rush Hour Junior.

See that yellow bag?  All of the pieces go in there for storage - LOVE it!

This is the perfect one player game for kids who like puzzles and mazes (my 8 year old).  The game comes with a traffic grid, plastic cars, and forty cards.  There are four levels of play, from beginner to expert, with cards providing puzzles for each level.  The player selects a card and then arranges the cars as shown on the card.  The object is always to move the ice cream truck out of traffic by moving the other cars out of the way.  If the player gets stuck, solutions are printed on the back of the cards.

They have had so much fun with this game that I had to recommend it here.  We have never played the original Rush Hour, have you?  What are some of your favorite games for kids?

Toddler Times - Teaching Colors

 I put together a bin of red items for K, 16 months, to explore.  This was easy to put together; I just found as many red items as I could to fill the bin.  Most of the items are age appropriate, but a few (pipe cleaners (aka chenille stems), crepe paper streamers, and dot markers) require supervision.  K has requested the bin at least once a day since I introduced it to her.

 Magneatos

 Stacking Pegs

 Dot Marker

 Plan Toys Water Block

Fun with Crepe Paper Streamers

Wintry Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I made these wintry pretzel treats as a special after school snack today.  I melted chocolate chips in the microwave and then spooned the chocolate over pretzel rods.  Then I added mini chocolate chips, nonpareils, snowflake sprinkles, or blue candy melt drizzle to each of the pretzels.

They remind me of one of our favorite winter books, Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara.

The main character is a young boy who is lonely because all of his friends are hibernating.  Just when he thinks that he hates winter, Jack Frost appears and they have a great time playing in the snow and ice.  Jack Frost warns the boy that he must never mention anything warm in his presence or Jack will have to leave.  I'll let you read the book to find out what happens!

A New Year, A New Direction

The title of this post has been on my mind all day long and every time I say it to myself, I can't help but think of my six year old's favorite boy band, One Direction.  This blog has been a "one direction" blog since I started writing here -- snacks based on stories (books to be exact) and that is it.

I'm just not so sure that I want to stay on the "one direction" track.  I like creating snacks to go with books, but I feel like there is SO MUCH MORE that I want to share here.  I miss blogging about fun products, crafts, ideas, and whatever is on my mind.  I miss sharing things that I love!  (For those of you who may not know, I used to blog publicly at Superheroes and Princesses, but I made that blog private a little over a year ago).

I considered starting a new blog, but honestly, I have been there, done that.  I'm not interested in starting all over again.  So, for now, my intention is to move forward in a new direction, or many new directions by posting more than just snacks and stories here.  I hope you will come along for the ride!

With that being said, I thought I would share some goals for the year.

It's not too late to write down goals for the year.  This printable can be found at Little Wonders' Days.

My two middle children and I completed these 2013 papers this week.  Here are some of our goals:

Me:  visit my sister, learn more about my camera, exercise, menu plan, more saving, and be able to run 3 miles by the end of the year (lame, I am so bad at running)

C (8):  wants to go to Germany (probably not happening this year bud) and be able to compete in Lego competitions by the end of the year

R (6):  wants to go to NY, learn about elephants and pandas, try skiing, and be able to do a backwards flip by the end of the year

Do you have any goals for the year?

Ornament Snack

I posted this last year, but this blog was so new then that I thought I would repost it for any new readers.

My six year old loves strawberry jelly and cream cheese, so I made this for her.  I cut the bread with a biscuit cutter and then cut a tiny square out of extra bread to make the top of the ornament.  Then I spread strawberry Polaner All Fruit over the top.  I put a little cream cheese into a sandwich bag and cut the corner off to pipe the designs on the ornament. 

This snack is great to share with just about any Christmas book.  Here are two that we enjoyed this week:

Christmas is Here! by Siobhan Ciminera.  This is a Strawberry Shortcake easy reader.  I love this book to go along with this snack because the book has directions to make a strawberry ornament (made with paper, not strawberries!).  

The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever by Steven Kroll.  Clayton the town mouse and Desmond the country mouse team up to bring the spirit of Christmas to Mouseville.  We have read a few books in this series by   Steven Kroll and we always enjoy them!

Kindness and Giving

I wanted to post this here before December started, but that just didn't happen!  I think it can still be useful to my readers (maybe 12 days of kindness?) so here it is.

Every year, I make a red and green paper chain to count down the days to Christmas.  In past years, I wrote a special activity for us to complete on each link of the chain.  Our activities were often crafts, special outings, or baking goodies.  I wanted to do something different this year.  I read about the idea of giving back a little each day and doing random acts of kindness during the month of December and I knew this would be perfect for us.  Some of the activities I chose involve being kind or helpful to others, and some involve helping those less fortunate.  Overall, I hope my children just enjoy doing something nice for someone else each day.

This is what I wrote on each of the links:

1.  Put money in the Salvation Army Red Kettle
2.  Pick up litter (the path that we take to school each day is full of trash; I have wanted to do something about it since the day after Halloween when I noticed all of the candy wrappers thrown there)
3.  Help Mom cook dinner
4.  Donate toys to Toys for Tots
5.  Help Mom bake something
6.  Make treats for the birds and hang them in a tree
7.  Help someone at school (a teacher, classmate, or anyone who needs some help)
8.  Donate some gently used books to the Angel Tree Program (this organization puts books in the hands of children with incarcerated parents)
9.  Help Dad with something
10. Make a card and mail it to a relative
11. Read to your baby sister
12. Make ornaments for friends
13. Write a letter to the police or fire fighters (or both) and thank them for keeping our town safe
14. Write a letter to your teacher and tell her what you like about her class
15. Bake cookies for the neighbors
16. Call your grandparents
17. Clean up a mess without being asked
18. Write a note to each member of your family and tell him or her what you love about him or her
19. Do something nice for one of your siblings
20. Give someone a compliment
21. Smile at everyone you see
22. Spend some time petting and playing with Kelly
23. Go for a walk to see the lights in the neighborhood and wish everyone you see a Merry Christmas
24. Do something nice for someone
25. Merry Christmas!  Think about all of the nice things you have done this month.

I know there is another week of December that I have yet to account for, and I am still thinking about what we will do during that week.  I will update my list!

Crustless Mini Pumpkin Pies

I love pumpkin pie.  With the exception of my oldest son, everyone in the house loves pumpkin pie.  Until I discovered this recipe last year, I used to just make a regular pumpkin pie; I hate to mess with a good thing, but this is delicious and it has become one of our favorite fall desserts!

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup Original Bisquick mix

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup whole milk

1 T. melted butter

1-1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

1 t. vanilla

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Stir all ingredients together and pour into a greased muffin pan.

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate to store.

4.  I like to top mine with a little whipped cream and cinnamon!  YUM!

After eating this delicious treat, we read Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman.  In this story, a witch plants a pumpkin seed with the intention of baking a pie for Halloween.  When she is unable to move the pumpkin herself, passersby (a ghost, vampire, mummy, and bat) offer to help.  They work together, and in the end, share the pie.  There are some great lessons in this book - helping others, accepting help, teamwork, size doesn't always matter, sharing, etc., which make the book one of my favorites for Halloween.                                                 

*This recipe is from In Between Laundry.

Elmer the Elephant Pumpkin Pal and Snack

We are big fans of the book Elmer by David McKee, so when my six year old daughter was given an assignment to create a pumpkin pal based on the main character of a book, it was an easy choice for her.  Actually, she briefly considered Pinkalicious and The Cat in the Hat, but Elmer got her excited about the project.  I do want to mention that this was supposed to be a family project and we worked on it together, but it was mostly just gluing on tissue paper so it isn't very complicated.

Everything we used to create the pumpkin pal was already on hand.  We began by painting glue on the pumpkin in small patches and placing the tissue paper squares all over the sticky surface including the stem (trunk).  Then we coated the squares with a layer of Mod Podge.

We made the ears by drawing ear shapes on the back of a cereal box, cutting them out, and covering them with more tissue paper.  Then we folded part of the ear and used tacks to stick them into the pumpkin.  I tried glue, but it wasn't strong enough and I am out of sticks for the glue gun so the tacks had to do.  Finally, we glued on googly eyes.

I think the final product is great and it was so easy to create.

For a simple snack, I made a patchwork peanut butter and jelly.  I don't really think this needs explaining, but it is one slice of bread with peanut butter and one slice of bread with jelly cut into squares and arranged like patchwork.

Bat Pancakes - Halloween Breakfast or Snack

My eight year old used to be obsessed with bats.  One year, he chose the vampire bat as his animal to adopt at Christmas time!  So, even though he isn't as obsessed as he once was, I still like to make batty treats this time of year.

We began with a snack of bat pancakes, a scoop of ice cream in a pumpkin silicone cup, a little whipped cream, and some bat and pumpkin sprinkles.  YUM!  I made the bats out of chocolate pancakes.  This is the recipe I used (SO good!!):

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Directions:
• 1.  In a small bowl, combine milk, egg and butter; whisk until blended.
• 2.  In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt; mix well.
• 3.  Add milk mixture; whisk just until dry ingredients are moistened.
• 4.  Heat griddle over medium heat until hot.
• 5.  For each pancake, pour scant 1/4 cup batter into griddle.
• 6.  Cook 1-2 minutes or until batter is set around edges.

7.  Carefully turn over pancake; cook 1-2 minutes or until pancakes are cooked through.

I cut the pancakes with a bat shaped cookie cutter.

After the snack, we played a game of bat roll and color addition.  This is perfect practice for my six year old.

Each child had a page with bats and a bat cave numbered from two to twelve.  They took turns rolling the dice and would color in the bat or cave with the corresponding number.  The first person to color in all of the numbered spots was the winner.  They had a lot of fun with this game!  You can find the printable bat page to play this game by clicking here.

We have a lot of favorite bat books, but here are a few that we seem to revisit:

• Stellaluna by Janell Canon - a baby fruit bat is separated from her mother and taken in by a family of birds; she must try to live like a bat, but luckily she eventually finds bats just like her
• Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies - a group of bats have fun at the ball field
• Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies - a group of bats enjoy a summer night at the beach
• Bats at the Library by Brian Lies - a group of bats are thrilled when the librarian forgets to close the window and they can enjoy some great books
• Bat's Big Game by Eugenia Nobati - a great lesson about sticking with your team whether you are winning or losing can be found in this book about a bat who wants to win.  This also introduces a little science - is a bat an animal or a bird? 
• Five Little Bats Flying in the Night by Steve Metzger - a rhyming book that counts down from five, featuring five little bats getting into mischief

Super Easy Spider Snack

It doesn't get easier than this.

Ingredients:

• one Reese's peanut butter cup (we used dark chocolate, but any variety will do)
• a tiny bit of melted chocolate (I melted a few chocolate chips)
• four pretzel sticks broken in half to make eight spider legs
• two candies for eyes

Directions:

• Place the peanut butter cup upside down on a plate
• Melt your chocolate 
• Dip each pretzel stick half into chocolate and stick them to the sides of the peanut butter cup to make legs
• Dip the candies in the melted chocolate and stick them on top for eyes

If you are looking for a fun book featuring spiders, check out Aaaarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks.

This book is hysterical.  A spider simply wants to become a family pet, but every time she tries to warm over the family, they scream and throw her outside.  This is a must read with fantastic illustrations and some very funny moments.  

Halloween Lunch - There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat

We love the different books based on There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  Currently, we are having fun with the Halloween version featuring an old lady who swallowed a bat.  While I was grocery shopping (convenient timing!), the idea of making a special lunch based on the book popped into my head.

In the book by Lucille Colandro, the old lady swallows a bat, an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, and a wizard.  Here is what I made:

• I used a bat cookie cutter to cut a bat out of bread and then spread Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread on the bat shaped bread.  The red eyes are icing.
• The owl is a piece of bread cut into an owl shape with peanut butter, white icing, chocolate chips, and a piece of candy corn on top.
• I do have a cat cookie cutter but decided to just serve cat whiskers (pretzels).
• The ghost was cut out of bread with a cookie cutter and the bread was topped with plain cream cheese and raisin features.
• The goblin is a spinach leaf with raisin eyes and a dried cherry mouth.
• I used my kitchen shears to cut a bone shape out of a marshmallow.
• For the wizard, I cut a star out of a piece of cheese and placed it on a pretzel stick to make a wand.

Halloween Cookies and Cream Muddy Buddies

I found a recipe for Cookies and Cream Muddy Buddies  at Chef in Training, and decided to use the Halloween Oreo cookies with orange filling to make them seasonal.  We also used Candiquick instead of almond bark.

First, we crushed twenty Oreo cookies.

Then, we measured six cups of Chex cereal into a large bowl.  We melted 12 ounces of Candiquick in the microwave and mixed it with the cereal until the cereal was coated.  Next, we added the Oreo cookie crumbs and mixed it all together.

Finally, we added 1/2 cup powdered sugar and stirred it into the snack mix.

One of our new favorite Halloween books is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson.

This is a fun book about friendship and helping others.  The witch is flying through the night on her broom and keeps dropping things; every time she drops something, she stops to pick it up and also picks up a new passenger.  All of those passengers work together in the end to help the witch.  We love everything by Julia Donaldson, and were very grateful to Natalie from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns for mentioning this book that is new to us!  I also recommend heading over to her site to find out what others are reading right now!