Fruit Loops

 A few weeks ago (yes, I'm just getting around to posting now) my four year old friend and I decided to graph the frequency of colors in a cup of fruit loops. I drew the lines on the graph and the outline of the fruit loops in the first column, but she did the rest of the work by herself! What could be better than an activity that is fun, educational, and YUMMY?

Me want cookie!

Sorry, sorry. It's been forever since I've posted something. What can I say. It was hard having a week and a half off from work! Anyway, now that Christmas is over, we move on to birthdays! My little guy turns two tomorrow. These are the cookie monster cupcakes I made for him.

M&M Tree

The other day my three year old "really really really really really really really" wanted some m&ms. I thought I'd at least make an activity out of it, so you know, when her parents ask what we did today, I wouldn't have to say "sat around and ate m&ms." She glued the m&ms to my crooked Christmas tree cut out with one hand, while jamming hand fulls of chocolaty goodness into her mouth with the other. My almost two year old guy was firmly against doing the craft, but was not against eating glue covered candy right off of his sister's tree!

Spider Donuts

These cute little spider donuts were made by sticking pretzel sticks in mini donuts for legs, and attaching m&m eyes with frosting. I stole this idea straight from pre-school and recreated it for a party at the elementary school.

Stars and Stripes Lunch

This is a fun lunch to make for a patriotic holiday or if you just feel like showing some American pride. The stars are little grilled cheese sandwiches. I cut the bread with cookie cutters before cooking the sandwiches. I also prefer shredded cheese just because it saves me from having to rip the cheese into neat little pieces to fit in the points of the stars. The stripes are obviously strawberries and bananas. I would have liked to use strawberries and blueberries but somebody has decided he doesn't like blueberries.

Bird Feeder

We made bird feeders just like Fancy Nancy in Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire! First we cut out pieces of bread with cookie cutters, then we poked holes with straws and inserted the string. Finally we spread peanut butter on both sides and sprinkled on the bird seed. When I say "we" I am referring to myself and my three year old friend. My one and a half year old ate his bird feeder before it ever saw the bird seed.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Around Christmas time I like to buy those gingerbread house kits. They sell them everywhere, and they are a lot easier than making a gingerbread house from scratch. I'll admit it, I suck at baking. If it doesn't come in a box or a can, I'm clueless. The last time I attempted to make bread it had a rock hard crust, and the inside tasted and felt something like a bath sponge. So anyway, these kits help me out a lot.

So last year, we went to the Discovery Center and saw posters for a gingerbread house contest. The kids were excited, so I told them we could figure it out. I am pretty artistic, so I thought maybe if their mom could just help me make the gingerbread, I could assemble and decorate the thing. So we went to the front counter to get more information, and I realized this might be a little harder than I thought. They were doing a TV and movie theme, and the next day was the last day to turn in contest entries. The one thing that did save my butt though, is that they were only to be judged on appearance. I could have made the thing with toilet water for all they cared. The receptionist even suggested graham crackers.

The kids were all hyped up on the free candy canes they got at the museum and had about a million ideas of what we could make. It came down to Spider Man, Sponge Bob, or Word World. We decided on Sponge Bob because he is square, therefore we figured, much easier to make out of gingerbread.

We went right to the grocery store and as we walked in, passed a display of boxed gingerbread kits. That's when it hit me. We could buy the kit, and use the pieces to create a Sponge Bob! With a little fancy knife work, some extra frosting, and some leftover Halloween candy, this is what we came up with. His pants are kit kats! Pretty cute, huh?

We didn't win the contest, but at least we did better than graham crackers, and we were very proud to stand next to our Sponge Bob!

St. Patrick's Day Lunch

Since I'm thinking about St. Paddy's Day, I'll share last year's special lunch I packed for school. I was lucky enough to find some plastic shamrock baggies at the dollar store which held a sandwich and Lucky Charms trail mix. Then there were cucumbers, celery sticks, and ranch dip mixed with green food coloring. Kiwi for a fruit, and a Rollo candy for desert. I wish I remembered exactly what went into the trail mix. I believe the recipe was right off the Lucky Charms website, but now I can't find it. You can put anything into trail mix though. Throw together some lucky charms, peanuts, raisins, and green M&Ms (you can buy them around St. Patrick's Day) and you'll be all set.

Pop

One day when we were practicing letter sounds, one of my kids said "p is for pop" which got me thinking about popcorn. So I cut out the word pop from construction paper and had the kids glue popcorn on it. Then we ate the rest of the popcorn which was really my motivation to do this craft.

Halloween is coming

With Halloween right around the corner, I thought I'd share an awesome Halloween snack/craft. These are hollowed out oranges filled with fruit cocktail. You just cut off the top of the orange (like you would a pumpkin) and carefully scoop out all of the insides. This took some time to get it all cleaned out, and was wasteful, but was really worth it to see the look on the kid's faces when they saw their snack. When it is hollowed out, you simply fill the orange with fruit cocktail and draw a pumpkin face with a sharpie. These are definitely not something you want to try to make for your child's whole class, but for just a few kids, these are really fun.

Mud and Bugs Cake

Everyone makes mud and bugs pudding, but to put a twist on the idea, we decided to make a mud and bugs cake. We just made a chocolate cake (from a box) and frosted it with chocolate icing. (from a can) Then we sprinkled crushed up oreos on top and stuck on the gummy worms. Mmmmm gross!

Octodog

I will never again serve a plain old hot dog. A couple years ago I saw a commercial for this fancy gadget that cuts your hotdog into an octopus. I decided that it was a waste of money and I could make an octodog myself. I was right. Just lay the hotdog down flat and cut it lenghwise about halfway up, turn it 90 degrees and repeat. Now you should have four little tentacles. Carefully cut each tentacle in half and you've made an octodog! I recommend cutting before cooking. If you cook it in boiling water, the tentacles will curl up and look really cool, but the microwave works fine too. The one in the picture was done in the microwave. I wish I had a better picture. I like to serve octodogs over a bed of blue mac and cheese. (Kraft with blue food coloring) Of course these are for the older kids. ALWAYS cut up your hotdogs into tiny pieces for toddlers.

Nuts about you

You are probably looking at this picture wondering what the heck it is. It's actually peanut card that is unfolded. I took a picture of it drying, but never took a picture of it folded later on. This was made for someone who really likes peanuts. I simply took a large piece of brown card stock and folded it in half and drew a peanut shape, leaving the rounded parts of one side hanging over the folded edge. Then I cut it out, folded it half and let the kids have at it. They wrote on the inside first and then came the fun part. They ate a bunch of shelled peanuts and saved the shells in a zip lock bag. Then they crushed up the shells in the bag and and painted the whole outside of the card with glue. They shook the shells on like glitter, and let it dry. (This a job that will be done outside next time) When it was all done it was actually pretty cute, and free since we already had the card stock, peanuts, and glue.

Inside we wrote something like "We know it gets pretty nutty around here, but we are nuts about you. We'll try hard not to drive you nuts this year!"

Apple Smiles

For some reason kids are always hungry, and you can only give them goldfish crackers so many times before they decide they're boring. Apple smiles are always a favorite, and are also great to send in for school snacks. These are so simple and tasty. Just spread peanut butter on apple slices and arrange mini marshmallows on them to look like teeth. Slap another apple slice on top and voila, apple smiles. If they aren't going to be eaten right away just dip the apple slices in a half lemon juice half water mixture to keep them from turning brown. Easy peasy, right?