Quick Picture: Fairy Garden

Jellybean saw a fairy garden at a local nursery last week and fell in love. So, here is the result of today's endeavor. A little fairy house is next on our project list.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Little Chef: Cupcake Sundaes

Back from a long hiatus on Little Chef posts. Jellybean has been begging to help me in the kitchen. I've been feeling badly because I let her help so little lately. When you have a nine month old that is attached to you it's hard to do the little planning that it takes to make our adventures in the kitchen run smoothly.
This little girl loves to bake, so we finally managed to find some time to get into the kitchen this past week. We made Cupcake Sundaes.  Just choose any cupcake mix or recipe for homemade, pour it into some flat-bottomed ice-cream cones and bake. We just followed the recipe baking temperature and time.

Such an easy thing to make and allowed both kids to get creative after the cupcakes had cooled. I mixed up some cream-cheese frosting (you could use any frosting) and then put a dollop of whipped cream on top. The kids chose from the sprinkles I had in the cupboard. Turns out I had collected quite a few varieties. Do sprinkles have a shelf-life?

They were so much fun to eat, too.

A couple of things: When filling the cones with batter, fill just the stems so that the cake has room to rise. Also, the cones did get a little soggy the second day. The kids didn't seem to mind.
Definitely a pretty good alternative to ice cream on a cold, winter day.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Sidewalk Chalk Paint!

It has been so hot this summer that we haven't spent as much time outside as I would have wished. Fortunately, we are starting to see some cooler days now which means that I need to find activities that will motivate the kids to play outside. I have one child that will spend all day outside and one child that I have to drag out there. A good friend of mine suggested that I try chalk paint. I had seen it several places, but hadn't yet tried it.

It's so easy to put together, I don't know why I didn't try it before. The recipe is just equal parts cornstarch and water. Then add whatever food coloring you like. We just pulled out random craft brushes. I wouldn't recommend the foam brushes, they get torn up too easily when painting on cement.

The color is really nice when going down. It mostly dries white. The kids had a great time splashing the colors around. Jellybean is into abstract color patterns.

Buddy is more into painting greek letters.

Teddy Bear was napping, so I decided to try some painting myself. Because I'm awesome.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Little Chef: Banana Poppy Seed Muffins

When Jellybeans says she wants to bake muffins, I just can't say no. A few weeks ago we found a particularly good recipe: Banana Poppyseed Muffins. Buddy helped this time around too (in his pajamas).
Because Buddy was helping, I decided to talk more about the recipe while we were mixing up the ingredients. He would read the ingredient needed in the recipe and then would help me find the right container. We also talked about why it is important to follow the recipe and about measurements.

Never were there two better helpers than these two kids. They mashed and poured and mixed and dumped. Then Jellybean got the liners ready and I filled them up and put the muffins in the oven.

This recipe made for two very happy children and even got the thumbs up from D. He's a tough judge and doesn't usually go for muffins. A big win on all counts.

Banana Poppyseed Muffins

yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1  1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (over ripe are fine as well)
2 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds

Method:

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in bananas and poppy seeds. 

Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. These also froze well.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Starting Where I Left Off: The Egg Hunt

Sorry for the blog silence of last week. I found myself bone-tired, uninspired and it suddenly dawned on me that I have a baby boy due in a few weeks and we have done almost nothing to prepare. So, instead of actually doing something to prepare, I chose to spend my "me" time sleeping.

Despite the fact that the house is now a complete mess and the fact that I'm still tired, it was a nice vacation. After a week off though, I've been thinking that I ought to start things up here again. So, I'll start where I left off with our Easter egg hunt.

Just a typical egg hunt:

He found the blue egg!

Counting her eggs.

Adding another egg to her basket. Buddy is pleased with the eggs he found.

Searching for the last elusive egg. I was a little bit tricky on a few of them.

This year I was inspired by a book that my son's preschool teacher read in class and then let us borrow because Buddy was so obsessed with it: The Great Easter Egg Hunt.

It is a fun book with a cute story and bright illustrations. The real fun is that it is a look and find book. Buddy loved searching for the letters hidden on each page. At the end, the letters end up spelling "Happy Easter."

He expressed the hope that our Easter egg hunt would be like the one in the book. While, I had no plans to visit a chocolate factory during our egg hunt or any of the other fantastic things that occurred in the book, I did think it would be fun to hide letters in some of the eggs so Buddy could unscramble them and spell "Happy Easter." It turned out really well. Buddy was thrilled and Jellybean was happy to find that the eggs that she had thought were empty, actually had letters hiding in them.

Opening the eggs, secret message unscrambled, money, jellybeans, anything better?

Here's a little video of the moment he finished the secret message:

Happy Easter! from A Happy Song on Vimeo.

Perhaps I'll think up a new secret message next year and hide some more letters. It was a nice way to cut down on the candy.

Though, it seems that Jellybean was all about the candy. 

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Barefoot in Spring

Considering that the weather has decided to turn cold again, I thought I ought to document the one day of beautiful spring weather from last week.

Tutu dress, check. Barefoot, check. Sandbox action in the background, check.

Telling me a story.

Just two kids loving the beautiful weather.

Hopefully, we'll have more days like this one in the near future.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

A Trip Out

I decided to take the kids to Scheels this last week (I love stores with a ton of square footage). Here's a little of our experience.

The Cast:
Jellybean. Every time she sees me cleaning she asks if someone is coming over:

Why no, my daughter doesn't have a shadow, why do you ask?

Buddy. He's been delighting me daily with his new found love of potty humor.

He's not a fan of the camera lately, but he will give you a "bum kiss" if you ask for one. Ah, the joys of boys.

We rode this:

Turns out that there is absolutely no line on weekdays. Awesome.

And one last photo-op:

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Bag Monster = Awesome.

I ran across a blog post recently that sparked my interest. It was a post about a few indoor activities that the blogger had put together for her kids. One of the activity ideas was creating a "bag monster." Basically, a trash bag stuffed with grocery bags hung from the ceiling for the kids to kick. This idea is genius. I made our monster, which the kids call "Waga," a couple of weeks ago. The kids love it so much that I can't actually keep it attached to the ceiling, they always manage to kick it down in about 10 minutes. I don't hang it for them every day, but when I do, they go nuts. Evidence below:


BagMonster from A Happy Song on Vimeo
It is the perfect activity for getting out a lot of excess energy. Please disregard the background mess in the video. We hang the monster in our "formal dining room", which we like to use as a multi-purpose room: Play-room, craft room, photo shoot area, and weirdly, it's also where I blow dry my hair. Hair drying always ends up turning into a round of puff-ball air cannon play.

Waga the bag monster. I do excellent artwork.

Yesterday, after the kids had worn themselves out punching/running around the bag. They decided just to lay down and kick it. Seriously awesome exercise going on here.

BagMonster2 1 from A Happy Song on Vimeo.

Thanks so much to Play, Create, Explore for this great idea. There have been several times when letting the kids get their energy out on that bag has absolutely saved my sanity.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Lamenting the Last Few Days (With Random Pictures)

This winter has seemed interminable and has been wearing me down. I stated last Thursday that I thought D was on the mend from his illness last week. Fast forward to yesterday....yeah, now he's finally on the mend. And you know the way these things go, Buddy started coughing over the weekend and succumbed to a fever last night. I'm exhausted and still wondering if (or when) myself or Jellybean will be the next to fall.

Trying out the new rage: Make your own light table. It was kind of awesome.

The weekend was filled with disappointment for the kids due to illness and terrible weather. Jellybean was invited to her very first birthday party for Saturday, but with Buddy coughing, D sick and snow falling heavily outside, we had to cancel. She was crushed. I felt terrible that I couldn't get her to the party, but what really broke my heart was later that day, well after the party was over. The snow had finally stopped and she came asking if we could still go to the party. I had to explain to her that the party was over and see her disappointment all over again. Just another educational moment on what it feels like to be a mom.

Peanut butter egg experiment. Recipe courtesy of The Whimsical Princess. Better than Reese's? Nah, not really. They were okay, but I'll have to try another recipe next time. Good thing I pin almost every peanut butter cup recipe that I see.

Here's hoping that Buddy will get well quickly and that the rest of us will be well for the rest of this tiresome winter. More snow today (hooray).  Now, I need to shore up what energy I have and try to get these kids out of the house. Local library, here we come.

Buddy's newest monster drawing. He named it Fop Gop, which he later changed to Fop Bgop.  Nothing makes that boy happier than a brand new notebook to fill with his writing and drawings.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Indoor Fun: Puff-Ball Air Cannon

While the weather is continuing to warm up some, we've still had days when it is too cold to go out or air quality is too poor.  So, we've had to get creative.  One our favorite indoor games is creating a puff-ball air cannon.  Grab some puff-balls, an old poster tube and a blow dryer.
Plug the blow dryer in and place it inside the bottom of the poster tube. Then load it up with puff-balls (not too many, or they'll get stuck).

Turn on the blow dryer (on the coldest setting) and wait for the fun.

Then do it over

and over again! Yeah, it's pretty fun.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Cereal Necklace

I've been busy getting ready for a very special conference this week. I'm attending Alt SLC for the first time and am pretty anxious about it. That means, not a whole lot of my brain power has been going towards meaningful activities with the kids. Fortunately, I was able to take a tip from a fellow blogger and keep Jellybean busy making a cereal necklace yesterday afternoon.  I love simple projects and luckily, Jellybean does too. (Thanks Home Learning Journey for the sweet idea. It's an oldie but a goodie.)

Orange yarn (her favorite color) and Fruit Rings (one of her favorite cereals). I wrapped the end of the yarn with some tape to make it a little easier for Jellybean to string the fruit rings. She ate a lot of fruit rings while she put this together. Then she refused to eat any of the cereal on the necklace. Once it's an accessory, it's no longer food.

You can see some of her sticker rewards on her shirt. Potty training is going awesome!

I'm really looking forward to Alt.  Tomorrow, I'm going to post about what I'll be wearing. I want people to recognize me after all.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

WW- Every Day at Nap Time

Instead of going to her own bed, she tries to steal her brother's.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Learning the Joy of Giving: Valentine's Mailboxes

Now that it is past the Christmas season, I've wanted to keep the momentum going on teaching the kids about giving. With Valentine's coming up, I remembered some Valentine's mailboxes that I saw in a blog post a couple of years ago. I don't remember exactly where I read about it, so I can't give proper credit, but the author picked up $1 mailboxes at Target for each of her kids and had them give valentines to each other using the boxes.
I thought this was such a sweet idea. Last Spring, I noticed some of those cute mailboxes in the Target dollar section and grabbed a couple. So glad that I did. I brought them out and showed them to the kids last week. I asked them if they would like to decorate them and make drawings/notes/valentines throughout the next little while to put in each other's mailboxes. Their reaction was awesome. They were so excited to get started.

On Saturday, we went out hunting for some decorations for the mailboxes. We settled on stickers. Buddy chose alphabet stickers (surprise!) and Jellybean chose hearts and butterflies. Before nap time, I let the kids decorate their boxes to their liking and then we set them on a table between their rooms.

During naps, I grabbed a couple of valentines and put one in each of their mailboxes with a starburst. They were so incredibly excited to get their first delivery.

I want to make it a fun experience for them to give and receive. Mostly, I want them to think about giving something small to each other, though D and I will likely put small things in there as time goes by. I'm planning to let them stay on the table throughout the next couple of months. Of course, if we really enjoy it, we may keep using the boxes throughout the year.

Jellybean made her first card for Buddy today while he was at preschool. She couldn't wait to tell him that she had left something in his mailbox. He loved getting something from her. I could tell that she was a little sad that she didn't get anything in her mailbox today. I'll have to get with Buddy tomorrow and see if we can fix that...

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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A Successful Holiday Weekend

Some things accomplished this long holiday weekend (with a few random pictures thrown in):

-Wore pajamas all day at least one day.
-Spent a lot of time hanging out with D and the kids.

-Got a morning nap almost every morning.
-Finally kicked my cold and also nursed two sick kids.
-Played tea party and doll house with Jellybean (countless times)
-Baked these breadsticks.

-Allowed the kids to help me make cookie dough. (New Years Ice Box Cookies! Will post recipe later.)
-Started potty training Jellybean (actually having some success!)
-Took some time to contemplate baby names (kind of painful).
-Sorted through and set aside a box of baby toys.

Snow is extremely fascinating.

-Visited Hobby Lobby (like that's a surprise).
-Started work on my first New Year's resolution (cleaning out the office).
-Successfully avoided putting away any of the Christmas decor.

At least I didn't just sit around eating holiday treats...

Have a Happy Day and a Fabulous New Year's Eve!

~MJ