Colored Salt Play

Now that the weather is hot, sometimes we are stuck inside. With the new baby demanding my attention, I've been trying to find more activities for the kids. We've really been enjoying this colored salt tray.

I just poured some salt into a ziplock and added a few drops of food coloring and mixed it in. I thought this light blue color was soothing. Then I set up a "play invitation" for Jellybean. She came down from her nap and discovered it.

I set out several brushes, a jar with some different rocks in it and the flash cards for copying letters. She mostly wanted to use her hands and bury the different items. The little bulldozer was a favorite, though.

Buddy came down from his nap and took a while to warm up to the idea of playing in the salt. I think he thought it would make his hands messy. When he realized that it wouldn't, he was all over it.

He really got a kick out of using the brushes to draw.

This was such a fantastic after-nap activity. They are both on the grumpy side when the first wake up. Working in the salt was calming and kept them both busy for a long time. Perfect for me.
I didn't get pictures, but yesterday, we used the salt tray to play paleontologist.  Buddy has a dinosaur bone model kit. I broke the bones apart and hid them in the salt, then he used his brush to find each bone. So fun.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Little Chef: Sopapillas

While, these aren't the genuine article when it comes to Sopapillas, this is a similar idea, great to do with a three year old, and very delicious. Not all kitchen adventures have to be complicated.

Thaw some frozen puff pastry (such as Pepperidge Farms). Cut into squares and bake according to package directions.

Get the cinnamon sugar and honey ready. Feel free to hug the honey bear.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar right out of the oven.

Drizzle with honey.  Even Buddy got in on the action.

Enjoy!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Little Chef: Strawberry Pie

I've been trying to make a recipe a week with Jellybean. She really enjoys being in the kitchen so I'm trying to continually give her opportunities. Shortly after the baby came home, she decided that she wanted to make a strawberry pie. As luck would have it, my mother had a pretty good recipe that I thought Jellybean could help a lot with. So we got to work.

We needed to make a graham cracker crust first. We could have gone store bought, but what three year old doesn't enjoy crushing up graham crackers?  I put some in a bag, handed the rolling pin to her and let her go to town.

I helped a little, but she did a pretty fine job of making graham cracker crumbs. It was also a good way of working on rolling with the pin.
Then we worked on stirring. I poured in the melted butter and sugar while she stirred.

Then I let her press the crumbs into the pie plate. I put the crust into the oven and then got distracted and didn't hear the timer go off (a very common problem lately). No real harm done, the crust was mighty tough though. I wouldn't recommend an over-baked crust unless you have a jack-hammer on hand.

While the crust cooled, I whipped up some Dream Whip and cream cheese and then I helped Jellybean cut up some strawberries. This was my first attempt at letting her use a knife. A butter knife was sufficient for cutting the strawberries and appropriate for her age. We talked a lot about knife safety and about keeping fingers away from the blade. Also, about the difference between this knife and Mommy's knives in the drawer that she isn't allowed to use.

Once the strawberries were all cut up, I filled the shell with the Dream Whip mixture and let her line the top with the strawberries. She was pretty proud of herself.

Last step, Danish Dessert. I couldn't find any in the store, so I settled for a Lighthouse Strawberry Glaze. It was essentially the same thing. I dolloped the glaze on the pie and Jellybean spread it around.

After a little decoration, the pie was complete.

This was a perfect recipe to put together with my Little Chef. She was able to help with almost every step. The pie was delicious (better the next day after the over-baked crust had softened a bit).  Such a fun, simple recipe, too.

Here's the recipe to try with your little chef:

Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:
1 Graham Cracker crust (store bought or homemade)
1 Box Dream Whip
1 1/4 Cup Sugar (and a little extra to sprinkle on strawberries)
1 Cup Cold Milk
2 tsp. Vanilla
Cream Cheese (softened)
Strawberries (halved)
Strawberry Danish Dessert or Pre-packaged Strawberry Glaze

Method:
Whip two envelopes Dream Whip with sugar, milk and vanilla. Then incorporate the softened cream cheese.  Pour mixture into cooled graham cracker crust.
Halve strawberries and sprinkle with sugar. Top pie with strawberries. Glaze top with cooled Danish Dessert or strawberry glaze. Add more whipped topping and strawberries if desired.

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

Box Fort

So, am I the only one that does a ridiculous amount of shopping online and then collects a ridiculous amount of cardboard boxes? After a couple of years of collecting, I realized that I should probably do something with all of those boxes. What to do...?

Let the kids build a fort of course.

 And this was only the small boxes out of my collection. My sister-in-law said I must be a glutton for punishment seeing as that many boxes in a small room strongly resembles a huge mess.

Good thing my little builders knew how to create some order out of the disorder.

I'm wondering why I didn't just get them more boxes for Christmas instead of toys.

There is a huge bright side to a box fort. Once the hours of enjoyment are over, all of those boxes can go directly to the recycle bin. Fantastic.

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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Jellybean's Magic Mirror

We've been doing some more "making" this last week. I had purchased an unpainted mirror from Hobby Lobby a while back. Jellybean discovered it and asked if we could paint it.
When a child looks at you with this sweet face:

It's kind of difficult to say no.
So, we got out some paint. She wanted orange (her favorite color), but I didn't have that on hand, so she settled for turquoise and gold.

I was a little afraid to let her do painting with acrylic paint on her own, but I let her anyway. I don't know what I was worried about. She did an awesome job. I did have to remind her not to paint her own hands a couple of times, but other than that, she proved to be an excellent little painter.

I helped with the taping and smoothed things out a little for her, but she did almost all of the painting by herself. She is so different from her older brother. (He has always disliked painting projects.) It's fun to have a budding crafter in the family.
While she played, I played too. I doodled on the mirror with some more of the gold paint.

I'm not an amazing artist, but Jellybean approved, so that's good enough for me.

She carried it around for the rest of the day to show it off. Her cousin dubbed it a "magic mirror". I think the name fits.
After this project, I've decided that I need to create more opportunities for Jellybean and I to craft together. She is so proud that she helped create something. I wonder what our next project will be...

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Another Little Announcement

We went in for my 20 week ultrasound yesterday. Before we went in, we asked Jellybean and Buddy if they thought they'd be getting a little brother or a little sister. Buddy was dead set on it being a baby brother and Jellybean was dead set on it being a baby sister. Those two kids are pretty opinionated. Jellybean even stated that she wouldn't share her toys if it turned out to be a boy. We've had a lot of conversations about that and it's good that we did.

We found out today that we're having a BOY!

Fortunately, Jellybean is the type of girl that will be able to hold her own between two brothers.

Jellybean got to come with us to the ultrasound while Buddy went to preschool.  She snacked on her goldfish and nodded sagely as the doctor pointed out different parts of the baby's anatomy. Then she repeated technical words as if she'd also earned her medical degree. We may have over estimated her medical knowledge, however. When D asked her where her brain is and she answered, "I don't have a brain."

I don't think I'll ever get over how amazing that ultrasound is. The doctor even zoomed in so we could see the baby's mouth making sucking movements. He looks perfect.

I can hardly believe that we're halfway there! When we walked out of the hospital, D commented, "Now, the hard part begins."  I was a little confused as I'm pretty sure I'm currently doing "the hard part".  Then he stated, "Now we have to figure out the name."

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Decorating the Little Tree

Last year I purchased a little faux tree for the kids to decorate. On Monday, I decided it was time to break out the Christmas decorations. The kids were so excited to get the little tree out and decorate it themselves. I let them do all of the decorating with the exception of a suggestion here or there on ornament placement. If I had left them completely to their own devices, all of the ornaments would be located on their eye level. Being that it is their tree, I think I might have a few control issues.

Knowing that I might like to take some pictures of the decorating, before I set up the tree, I decided to clean up our family room. Jellybean noticed my efforts and asked, "Mama, why you cleaning up? Is someone coming to visit us?" I'm guessing that the sight of me cleaning has not been a common one lately.

Yesterday, we got out the big tree and decided to decorate it as well. This is where I truly discovered my control issues. I snapped at the kids several times about touching the more fragile ornaments and pretty much ended up sucking all of the Christmas spirit out of the activity. There may have been tears involved...I think I have a problem. Fortunately, the tree is now decorated and both children are happy. I'm assuming that afternoon won't be added to their (most likely) growing list of childhood traumas.

So, how is the Christmas decorating going in your house?

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Barnyard Boo

My kids and I took a trip to Farm Country for the annual Barnyard Boo this last week. We thought opening day would be majorly crowded. It turned out that we were first in line.
Here's Buddy and Jellybean, don't they look excited?

We got the pony rides out of the way at the beginning. Look at my cowgirl and cowboy:

Jellybean is riding Chief and Buddy is riding Erica. They were good ponies. This was the first time in a saddle for both of my kids. They were a bit nervous about it.

We were at a barnyard, there were a lot of animals to look at, but there were also tons of games set up for the kids. So, the poor animals didn't get much love. Buddy and Jellybean enjoyed a game of croquet and an obstacle course instead.

They both had fantastic technique (we had to let all of the other kids play through while they figured things out).

The hurdles were a bit tricky, but look at that form.

My sister-in-law joined us with her two girls. Buddy's cousin, A, is his best friend.  We enjoyed some more games and a horse-drawn cart ride with them.

Then we decided it was time to put the kids in jail:

Only A was properly contrite.

It was a good time, one that Buddy has been waiting all year for. Looks like we'll be first in line next year as well.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ